Monday March 31, 2008

FBI Provided Flawed Data for Terrorism Watch List, Audit Says

Josh Meyer
The Los Angeles Times

A Justice Department study says inaccurate and outdated information resulted in innocent people being kept on the list while real threats were not added in a timely fashion.

Adding to the litany of complaints about one of the nation's primary counter-terrorism safety nets, a Justice Department audit has concluded that the FBI provided the government-wide terrorism watch list with incomplete, inaccurate and outdated information about suspects for almost three years.

As a result, many innocent people stayed on the terrorism watch list long after they were cleared of any wrongdoing, and real threats to national security were sometimes left off the list or not added in a timely manner, according to the audit, released Monday by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine.
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Monday March 31, 2008

Yahoo!'s move to Geneva raises fears about Britain's tax policy

Danny Fortson
Independent

Fears of an exodus of major companies from Britain intensified yesterday after the internet search giant Yahoo! confirmed its decision to move its headquarters from London to Geneva. The US company is understood to want to relocate to Switzerland, where business taxes are much lower than in the UK, to "increase financial performance".

Its decision comes only days after the Budget, in which the Chancellor, Alistair Darling, pushed through changes to the tax system which disappointed the business lobby.
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Monday March 31, 2008

Carlyle Group May Buy Major CIA Contractor: Booz Allen Hamilton

Tim Shorrock
CorpWatch

The Carlyle Group, one of the world's largest private equity funds, may soon acquire the $2 billion government contracting business of consulting giant Booz Allen Hamilton, one of the biggest suppliers of technology and personnel to the U.S. government's spy agencies. Carlyle manages more than $75 billion in assets and has bought and sold a long string of military contractors since the early 1990s. But in recent years it has significantly reduced its investments in that industry. If it goes ahead with the widely reported plan to buy Booz Allen, it will re-emerge as the owner of one of America's largest private intelligence armies.

Reports of a potential Carlyle acquisition of Booz Allen's government unit began circulating among U.S. military contractors in December 2007, after Booz Allen's senior partners and board members - a group of 300 vice presidents who own the privately-held firm - gathered at company headquarters in McLean, Virginia, for an extraordinary two-day meeting.
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Monday March 31, 2008

NSA's Domestic Spying Grows as Agency Sweeps Up Data

Siobhan Gorman
The Wall Street Journal

Five years ago, Congress killed an experimental Pentagon antiterrorism program meant to vacuum up electronic data about people in the U.S. to search for suspicious patterns. Opponents called it too broad an intrusion on Americans' privacy, even after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

But the data-sifting effort didn't disappear. The National Security Agency, once confined to foreign surveillance, has been building essentially the same system.

The central role the NSA has come to occupy in domestic intelligence gathering has never been publicly disclosed. But an inquiry reveals that its efforts have evolved to reach more broadly into data about people's communications, travel and finances in the U.S. than the domestic surveillance programs brought to light since the 2001 terrorist attacks.
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Monday March 31, 2008

A medical maestro: Can Mozart treat heart disease

Roger Dobson
Independent

Every treatment had been tried for the patient's severe epilepsy. Seven epileptic drugs, and brain surgery, had failed to have any effect on the seizures and fits he had suffered daily for much of his 46 years.

With no sign of any improvement, and with tests confirming a deterioration in learning skills and memory over a nine-year period, surgeons decided that he should be assessed for further brain surgery.

But, shortly before the patient was scheduled for tests, there was a remarkable improvement.
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Monday March 31, 2008

Exhaustive Review Finds No Link Between Saddam and al-Qaeda

Warren P. Strobel
McClatchy Newspapers

An exhaustive review of more than 600,000 Iraqi documents that were captured after the 2003 U.S. invasion has found no evidence that Saddam Hussein's regime had any operational links with Osama bin Laden's al Qaida terrorist network.

The Pentagon-sponsored study, scheduled for release later this week, did confirm that Saddam's regime provided some support to other terrorist groups, particularly in the Middle East, U.S. officials told McClatchy. However, his security services were directed primarily against Iraqi exiles, Shiite Muslims, Kurds and others he considered enemies of his regime.

The new study of the Iraqi regime's archives found no documents indicating a "direct operational link" between Hussein's Iraq and al Qaida before the invasion, according to a U.S. official familiar with the report.
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Monday March 31, 2008

First mobile Trojan downloader discovered

PC World India

F-Secure Security Laboratory has spotted a new Window Mobile Trojan called InfoJack, also known as Trojan WinCE/InfoJack.

This is a new kind of worm for mobile devices. According to F-Secure, there have long been malicious downloaders on PCs, but this is the first to be discovered for mobile devices.

InfoJack is a trojan affecting Windows Mobile devices that leaks information from the device to a home server when the device connects to the Internet. As a part of its activity, InfoJack alters the security settings on the device. This causes all software installations to complete without any warning of possible safety precautions.
Trojan:WinCE/InfoJack is a multiple part malware.
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Monday March 31, 2008

Go Green, Save the Indigenous

Tarjei Kidd Olsen
Inter Press Service

African indigenous peoples are important custodians of their natural environments with valuable local knowledge and skills, but are struggling to survive, according to a report.

"Indigenous peoples are communities that, even though they may be considered backward by urban people, in fact often have very sophisticated knowledge about biodiversity, forest management, and dry areas management," Nigel Crawhall told IPS on Thursday at the launch of his report for the NGO Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) in Oslo.

Crawhall is secretariat director for the Indigenous Peoples of Africa Co-ordinating Committee (IPACC), a network of 150 African indigenous groups. In his report, 'Indigenous Peoples in Africa', he argues that threatened indigenous peoples will be easier to protect if their value as stewards of nature is appreciated by policy makers.
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Monday March 31, 2008

The truth about Tibet

Lindsey Hilsum
NewStatesman

The last thing China wanted, in the year it is to host the Olympic Games, was the world watching its army brutally suppressing protesters.

Things are not going as planned. The emblematic images of China in 2008 were supposed to be the magnificent "Bird's Nest" sports stadium, and millions of proud Chinese applauding their country's success in hosting the Olympic Games. Instead, the world is seeing gangs of angry Tibetan rioters attacking their Han Chinese neighbours, and Buddhist monks demonstrating against Chinese rule.
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Monday March 31, 2008

Snitching is less than golden for piracy informers

Drew Cullen
The Register

We're in the money. Not really

The SIIA (Software & Information Industry Association) calls it "whistleblowing." And we call it "disgruntled peons ratting on their bosses." But whatever label you use, dobbing on your own company for cutting corners on software licenses can be a lucrative sport.

But not for seven American grasses paid up by the SIIA in March. Their "rewards" amounted to a measly $22,500 - between them, with pay-outs ranging from $500 to $10,000.
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Monday March 31, 2008

Chief scientist revolts over biofuel legislation

New Scientist

Could biofuels do more damage to the climate than the fossil fuels they replace? That's the fear casting doubt on the wisdom of a law that from next month will require a certain proportion of vehicle fuel to come from biological sources.

On Monday, Bob Watson, chief scientist at the UK's Department of Environment Food and Rural Affairs, called into question the idea of switching to biofuels. This follows the publication of studies showing that more carbon is emitted in producing some biofuels than is saved by burning them in place of fossil fuels. Former UK chief scientist David King also denounced biofuels that displace food crops and tropical rainforests.
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Monday March 31, 2008

Russian intelligence sees U.S. military buildup on Iran border

RIA Novosti

Russian military intelligence services are reporting a flurry of activity by U.S. Armed Forces near Iran’s borders, a high-ranking security source said Tuesday.

“The latest military intelligence data point to heightened U.S. military preparations for both an air and ground operation against Iran,” the official said, adding that the Pentagon has probably not yet made a final decision as to when an attack will be launched.

He said the Pentagon is looking for a way to deliver a strike against Iran “that would enable the Americans to bring the country to its knees at minimal cost.”
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Monday March 31, 2008

Archaeologists begin historic Stonehenge dig

Nic Fleming
Telegraph

Archaeologists began a historic dig on Monday which they hope will unlock the ancient secrets of Stonehenge once and for all.

The researchers started digging a trench to examine the first stones erected at the site – the first excavation at the monument to be given the go-ahead for 44 years.

Samples recovered from the pit will provide material that could allow the team to date the start of work on the landmark to within 10 years.
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Monday March 31, 2008

Zimbabwe opposition fears vote-rigging

Chris McGreal
Guardian

Zimbabwe's election commission today began releasing a trickle of results from Saturday's presidential and parliamentary elections as the opposition voiced fears that the count was being manipulated in favour of the president, Robert Mugabe.

The first results were for 38 seats in the lower house of parliament, won in equal numbers by the ruling Zanu-PF party and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.

Among those who lost their seats was the justice minister, Patrick Chinamasa, one of Mugabe's close allies, whom the opposition has accused of abusing the law to persecute Zanu-PF's opponents.
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Monday March 31, 2008

"Earth Hour" goes global

Jeremy Lovell and Eric Auchard
Reuters

The Sydney Opera House to San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge went dark as people switched off lights in their homes and skylines dimmed around the world on Saturday to show concern with global warming.

Up to 30 million people were expected to have turned off their lights for 60 minutes by the time "Earth Hour" -- which started in Suva in Fiji and Christchurch in New Zealand -- completed its cycle westward.

More than 380 towns and cities and 3,500 businesses in 35 countries signed up for the campaign that is in its second year after it began in 2007 in Sydney, Australia's largest city.
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Monday March 31, 2008

Linux unbroken in hacking contest

Robert McMillan
IDG News Service

Linux was the runaway winner in the battle of the operating systems held at the CanSecWest conference.

Conference organisers ended a three-way hacking challenge on Friday with Linux running on a Sony Vaio remaining unbreached. Earlier in the day a Fujitsu running Vista was cracked by Shane Macauley, co-winner of last year's contest - the Apple MacBook had been broken into the on the previous day.

Macaulay needed a few hacking tricks courtesy of VMware researcher Alexander Sotirov to make his bug work. That's because Macaulay hadn't been expecting to attack the Service Pack 1 version of Vista, which comes with additional security measures. He also got a little help from co-worker Derek Callaway.
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Monday March 31, 2008

Drugs giant attacked over dangers of anti-depressant drug

PA

Health regulators have criticised drugs firm Glaxosmithkline (GSK) for withholding information over the risk of suicide relating to one of its anti-depressant drugs.

The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said today it remained concerned that GSK failed to raise the alarm earlier over the side-effects of Seroxat.

Government prosecutors have ruled that there is no realistic prospect of getting a conviction over the issue.

But new legislation ensuring drugs companies pass on results of clinical trials promptly is to be introduced, public health minister Dawn Primarolo told Parliament.
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Monday March 31, 2008

Death for hire - suicide machine lets you push final button

Roger Boyes
TimesOnLine

One press of a button and you can end your life with a swift injection of potassium chloride. That is the boast of Roger Kusch, once one of Germany's most promising conservative politicians and now the improbable promoter of a mercy-killing machine.

If the “Perfusor”, designed to sidestep strict laws banning assisted suicide, goes into production then Germany rather than Switzerland could soon become the destination of choice for those seeking to kill themselves.
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Monday March 31, 2008

German watchdog eyes $600 bln global bank losses: report

Reuters

The financial market crisis could cause losses of up to $600 billion at banks and other financial institutions worldwide, a German magazine reported on Saturday, citing an internal report by German financial watchdog BaFin.

The $600 billion figure represents a worst-case scenario for losses linked to the financial turmoil sparked by the meltdown in the U.S. subprime mortgage market, Der Spiegel magazine said in a story released in advance of publication on Monday.
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Monday March 31, 2008

Watchdog's threat to 42-day terror law

Alan Travis
The Guardian

The government's own human rights watchdog threatened last night to launch a legal challenge to Labour's plan to introduce a law that would let police detain terror suspects without charge for 42 days.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission says the key part of the counter-terrorism bill goes against human rights law and may breach the Race Relations Act.

As the home secretary, Jacqui Smith, renewed her appeal to Labour backbenchers to support the measure - amid growing international criticism - the EHRC prepared to brief MPs before the bill's second reading in the Commons tomorrow. The commission makes clear it will mount a legal challenge if the 42-day limit wins parliamentary backing.
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Monday March 31, 2008

Phone-reliant Britons in the grip of 'nomo-phobia'

Katharine Barney
Independent

Being out of mobile-phone contact is as stressful as moving house or breaking up with a partner for nearly one in five phone users, according to a survey which suggests many Britons are in the grip of "nomo-phobia".

Anxiety over running out of battery or credit, losing one's handset and not having network coverage affects 53 per cent of the UK's 45 million mobile-phone users, according to the study by YouGov.
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Monday March 31, 2008

Anger 'endemic in British society'

PA

"Problem anger" is ignored in the UK yet is endemic in society, according to a report published today.

Despite widespread concern about family breakdown and mental health problems, not enough is being done to intervene at an early stage, it said.

The study was produced by the Mental Health Foundation (MHF), which defines problem anger as that which is "held on" to for too long or which produces inappropriate aggression.

An accompanying survey of 1,974 people found 64 per cent believe people are getting angrier in general.
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Monday March 31, 2008

“Everybody in the World Except US Citizens Should Be Allowed to Vote and Elect the American Government”–Leading Intellectual Slavoj Žižek

Amy Goodman
Democracy Now!

Slavoj Žižek, the renowned philosopher, psychoanalyst and cultural theorist, joins us in our firehouse studio for a wide-ranging discussion. Žižek has been called “the Elvis of cultural theory” and is widely considered to be one of Europe’s leading intellectuals. He has written more than fifty books and speaks to sold-out audiences around the world. [includes rush transcript]
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Monday March 31, 2008

Iraq: teachers told to rewrite history

Richard Garner
Independent

MoD accused of sending propaganda to schools.

Britain's biggest teachers' union has accused the Ministry of Defence of breaking the law over a lesson plan drawn up to teach pupils about the Iraq war. The National Union of Teachers claims it breaches the 1996 Education Act, which aims to ensure all political issues are treated in a balanced way.

Teachers will threaten to boycott military involvement in schools at the union's annual conference next weekend, claiming the lesson plan is a "propaganda" exercise and makes no mention of any civilian casualties as a result of the war.
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Sunday March 30, 2008

Outrageous Anti-Pot Lies: Media Uses Disgraceful Cancer Scare Tactics

Paul Armentano
AlterNet

Headlines suggested a study proved pot is a greater cancer risk than tobacco -- but the media didn't even wait for the report to be released.

On Tuesday, January 29 -- three days prior to the publication of a forthcoming study assessing marijuana use and cancer -- Reuters News Wire published a story under the headline: "Cannabis Bigger Cancer Risk Than Cigarettes." Mainstream media outlets across the globe immediately followed suit. "Smoking One Joint is Equivalent to 20 Cigarettes, Study Says," Fox News declared, while Australia's ABC broadcast network pronounced, "Experts Warn of Cannabis Cancer 'Epidemic.'"

If those headlines weren't attention-grabbing enough, one only had to scan the stories' inflammatory copy -- much of which was lifted directly from press statements provided by the study's lead author in advance of its publication.
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Sunday March 30, 2008

The Water Cure

Paul Kramer
The New Yorker

Many Americans were puzzled by the news, in 1902, that United States soldiers were torturing Filipinos with water. The United States, throughout its emergence as a world power, had spoken the language of liberation, rescue, and freedom. This was the language that, when coupled with expanding military and commercial ambitions, had helped launch two very different wars. The first had been in 1898, against Spain, whose remaining empire was crumbling in the face of popular revolts in two of its colonies, Cuba and the Philippines. The brief campaign was pitched to the American public in terms of freedom and national honor (the U.S.S. Maine had blown up mysteriously in Havana Harbor), rather than of sugar and naval bases, and resulted in a formally independent Cuba.

The Americans were not done liberating. Rising trade in East Asia suggested to imperialists that the Philippines, Spain's largest colony, might serve as an effective "stepping stone" to China's markets. U.S. naval plans included provisions for an attack on the Spanish Navy in the event of war, and led to a decisive victory against the Spanish fleet at Manila Bay in May, 1898. Shortly afterward, Commodore George Dewey returned the exiled Filipino revolutionary Emilio Aguinaldo to the islands. Aguinaldo defeated Spanish forces on land, declared the Philippines independent in June, and organized a government led by the Philippine elite.
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Sunday March 30, 2008

Michael Pollan: Don't Eat Anything That Doesn't Rot

Amy Goodman
Democracy Now!

Consumers are getting duped by the food industry, paying the price with their health.

Acclaimed author and journalist Michael Pollan argues that what most Americans are consuming today is not food but "edible foodlike substances." His previous book, The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, was named one of 2006's ten best books by the New York Times and the Washington Post. His latest book is called In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto.
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Sunday March 30, 2008

The Lost Children

Margaret Talbot
The New Yorker

What do tougher detention policies mean for illegal immigrant families?

In the summer of 1995, an Iranian man named Majid Yourdkhani allowed a friend to photocopy pages from "The Satanic Verses," the Salman Rushdie novel, at the small print shop that he owned in Tehran. Government agents arrested the friend and came looking for Majid, who secretly crossed the border to Turkey and then flew to Canada. In his haste, Majid was forced to leave behind his wife, Masomeh; for months afterward, Iranian government agents phoned her and said things like "If you aren't divorcing him, then you are supporting him, and we will therefore arrest you and torture you." That October, Masomeh also escaped from Iran and joined Majid in Toronto, where they lived for ten years. Majid worked in a pizza place, Masomeh in a coffee shop. She dressed and acted the way she liked - she is blond and pretty and partial to bright clothes and makeup, which she could never wear in public in Iran - and for a long time the Yourdkhanis felt they were safe from politics and the past.

Their son, Kevin, was born in Toronto, in 1997, a Canadian citizen. He grew into a happy, affectionate kid, tall and sturdy with a shock of dark hair. He liked math and social studies, developed asthma but dealt with it, and shared with his mom a taste for goofy comedies, such as the "Mr. Bean" movies. In December, 2005, however, the Yourdkhanis learned that the Canadian government had denied their application for political asylum, and Majid, Masomeh, and Kevin were deported to Iran.
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Sunday March 30, 2008

Energy-efficient windows block mobiles

Matt Hamblen
Computerworld

A leading US bank has discovered that energy-efficient windows in its newer buildings are blocking mobile phone signals.

Bank of America now faces paying premium access charges to wireless carriers to enhance indoor mobile phone signals, according to its senior vice president for strategic planning and technical architecture, Eileen Bridges. She was speaking at Mobile & Wireless Enterprise 2008.

With more than 15 buildings in Charlotte, North Carolina, where the bank has its headquarters, the three buildings designated as "green" are the ones where the signal problem has been detected, Bridges said.
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Sunday March 30, 2008

The Bad Science That Created the Cholesterol Con

Maggie Mahar
Health Beat

The war against cholesterol has become a profitable cottage industry. But the science behind it has more than a few gaps. (Part two in a series)

The widespread belief that "bad Cholesterol" ( LDL cholesterol) is a major factor driving heart disease -- and that cholesterol-lowering drugs like Lipitor and Crestor can protect us against fatal heart attacks -- is turning out to be a theory filled with holes.

These drugs, which are called "statins," are the most widely-prescribed pills in the history of human medicine. In 2007 world-wide sales totaled $33 billion. They are particularly popular in the U.S., where 18 million Americans take them.
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Sunday March 30, 2008

US Officials Defend Drug Spraying in Colombia

Thomas D. Williams
T r u t h o u t

"The consequences of the fumigation are catastrophic. They do it (spraying from planes) in a hurry. They don't care that they also fumigate corn plantations, prairies, lakes, fish, animals," said a middle-aged, lightly bearded Colombian man wearing a blue baseball hat, designed with a green marijuana leaf. He spoke to an interviewer for the filmmaker of the 2001 documentary film, "Coco Mama - The War on Drugs," produced by Jan Thielen.

The viewpoints are literally the powerful corporate north country versus the vulnerable, impoverished agricultural south country. It's US politicians and a huge herbicide corporation ignoring the painful cries and complaints of human and animal sickness and environmental as well as massive crop and food destruction from Colombian and Ecuadorian indigenous peoples.

Monsanto Company, the US herbicide manufacturer, says it sells over $1 billion annually in tested, harmless and effective garden and farm weed killers. Monsanto officials say scientific tests show Roundup is not a threat to humans, animals or the environment. One such study, completed in December 1999, appears in Science Direct. Another study says any possible pollutant impacts are minimal and not acutely harmful.
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Sunday March 30, 2008

The Gaza Bombshell

David Rose
Vanity Fair

After failing to anticipate Hamas's victory over Fatah in the 2006 Palestinian election, the White House cooked up yet another scandalously covert and self-defeating Middle East debacle: part Iran-contra, part Bay of Pigs. With confidential documents, corroborated by outraged former and current US officials, David Rose reveals how President Bush, Condoleezza Rice, and Deputy National-Security Adviser Elliott Abrams backed an armed force under Fatah strongman Muhammad Dahlan, touching off a bloody civil war in Gaza and leaving Hamas stronger than ever.

"A Dirty War"

The Al Deira Hotel, in Gaza City, is a haven of calm in a land beset by poverty, fear, and violence. In the middle of December 2007, I sit in the hotel's airy restaurant, its windows open to the Mediterranean, and listen to a slight, bearded man named Mazen Asad abu Dan describe the suffering he endured 11 months before at the hands of his fellow Palestinians. Abu Dan, 28, is a member of Hamas, the Iranian-backed Islamist organization that has been designated a terrorist group by the United States, but I have a good reason for taking him at his word: I've seen the video.
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Sunday March 30, 2008

PBS on Iraq: A Compilation of Deceit

Morgan Strong
Consortium News

There have been five agonizing years of this war in Iraq. Five terrible years of bewilderment and rage.

Commemorating that anniversary, Frontline, the PBS investigative series, allotted four-and-one-half hours over two nights to an in-depth analysis of the war in Iraq and how it came about.

What the broadcast revealed was nothing new. Others have engaged the subject as thoroughly as did Frontline. What we did see in this broadcast, however, was a compilation of the deceit, pettiness, treachery, arrogance, ignorance and stunning callousness by those who took us into this vile war.

The key figures who promoted the war were Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Lewis Libby. Those names were not new, but a new motive for the war was revealed: the recognition of Israel by a new democratic Iraq.
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Sunday March 30, 2008

Apple is loser in three-way hacking contest

Robert McMillan
IDG News Service

An Apple Mac was the first victim in a hacker shoot-out to determine which operating system is the most secure.

A former US National Security Agency employee has trousered $10,000 for breaking into a MacBook Air at CanSecWest security conference's PWN 2 OWN hacking contest. The MacBook was lined up against Linux and Vista PCs - which have so far remained uncracked.

It took Charles Miller just two minutes to break into the Apple. Show organisers had offered the MacBook, a Sony Vaio and Fujitsu U810 as prizes, saying that they could be won by anybody at the show who could find a way to hack into each of them and read the contents of a file on the system, using a previously undisclosed "0day" attack.
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Sunday March 30, 2008

Outrage and Controversy at NY Museum Art Show Depicting Police Brutality

Dread Scott
AlterNet

Artist Dread Scott argues that the controversy over his art installation only proves his point about "America's abuses of power."

"Taxpayer dollars certainly should not fund any art that promotes hate, and that's certainly what [Dread Scott's, Blue Wall of Violence] does." Patrick Lynch, president, NYC Patrolmen's Benevolent Association

My exhibition Dread Scott: Welcome to America opened on February 28 at MoCADA (the Museum of Contemporary African Disporan Art) in Brooklyn, NY. It is a survey of my art spanning almost two decades. The show was instantly vilified in the NY Daily News and the police union called for the city and state to defund the museum because of one of the works.

Specifically, they denounced "The Blue Wall of Violence." In its Feb. 29 article bearing the headline "Finest: Dis Art is the Worst!" the News wrote: "A cop-bashing art exhibit at a taxpayer-funded museum in Brooklyn portrays the city's Finest as trigger-happy racists who have put bull's-eyes on the backs of black New Yorkers."
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Artwork on display

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Sunday March 30, 2008

A New, Genetic Model for Schizophrenia

Nikhil Swaminathan
Scientific American

A new study points to rare gene duplications and deletions that are believed to play a significant role in the psychological disorder.

A new study indicates that the genetic culprits behind schizophrenia may be much less common than previously believed. Researchers report this week in Science that a rare but devastating change in one of several different genes may dramatically increase the risk of developing the debilitating brain disorder affecting 1 percent of the world's population and marked by psychotic behavior, hallucinations and delusions.

Until now, most scientists believed that it was likely that a cluster of relatively common genetic mutations was to blame.
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Sunday March 30, 2008

Moon's south pole revealed in 'dramatic' new 3D map

David Shiga
New Scientist

Earth-based radar observations have produced a detailed 3D map of the Moon's south polar region, revealing a dramatic and rugged landscape. The map will help NASA assess the site's potential for setting up a base.

NASA plans to return humans to the Moon by 2020 and wants to eventually set up a permanent base there. The Moon's poles are considered particularly good locations for a base.

That's because frozen water may be present in frigid, permanently shadowed craters at the poles, providing a crucial resource for astronauts. At the same time, some terrain at the poles may be permanently illuminated, providing prime spots to set up solar power stations.
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Sunday March 30, 2008

Calling B.S. on the Idea of 'Marijuana Addiction'

Paul Armentano
AlterNet

It's laughable that the Feds are pushing the concept of pot addiction when science shows that withdrawal symptoms from caffeine are far worse.

The U.S. government believes that America is going to pot -- literally.

Earlier this month, the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse announced plans to spend $4 million to establish the nation's first-ever "Center on Cannabis Addiction," which will be based in La Jolla, Calif. The goal of the center, according to NIDA's press release, is to "develop novel approaches to the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of marijuana addiction."

Not familiar with the notion of "marijuana addiction"? You're not alone. In fact, aside from the handful of researchers who have discovered that there are gobs of federal grant money to be had hunting for the government's latest pot boogeyman, there's little consensus that such a syndrome is clinically relevant -- if it even exists at all.
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Sunday March 30, 2008

Somalia's Government Teeters on Collapse

Jeffrey Gettleman
The New York Times

Mogadishu, Somalia - The trouble started when government soldiers went to the market and, at gunpoint, began to help themselves to sacks of grain last week.

Islamist insurgents poured into the streets to defend the merchants. The government troops took heavy casualties and retreated all the way back to the presidential palace, supposedly the most secure place in the city. It, too, came under fire.

Mohamed Abdirizak, a top government official, crouched on a balcony at the palace, with bullets whizzing over his head. He had just given up a comfortable life as a development consultant in Springfield, Va. His wife thought he was crazy. Sweat beaded on his forehead.
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Sunday March 30, 2008

Merkel Says She Will Not Attend Opening of Beijing Olympics

Ian Traynor and Jonathan Watts
The Guardian

The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, yesterday became the first world leader to decide not to attend the Olympics in Beijing.

As pressure built for concerted western protests to China over the crackdown in Tibet, EU leaders prepared to discuss the crisis for the first time today, amid a rift over whether to boycott the Olympics.

The disclosure that Germany is to stay away from the games' opening ceremonies in August could encourage President Nicolas Sarkozy of France to join in a gesture of defiance and complicate Gordon Brown's determination to attend the Olympics.
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Sunday March 30, 2008

Right-wing Christian group pays for Commons researchers

Jane Merrick and Brian Brady
Independent

An evangelical Christian charity leading opposition to new laws on embryo research is funding interns in MPs' offices, an investigation by The Independent on Sunday has discovered.

Christian Action, Research and Education (Care) faces inquiries into its lobbying activities by the Charity Commission and the House of Commons standards watchdog after accessing Parliament at the highest levels.
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Sunday March 30, 2008

Train your brain: Can jogging make you smarter?

Simon Usborne
Independent

Exercise won't just get you fit – it can also make you more intelligent.

We don't need to be told that exercise is good for us. We know that it combats cholesterol, we know boosts our hearts and we know it stops the pounds from piling on. But, beyond the obvious physical benefits of a good cycle, run or swim, a growing body of evidence suggests that getting breathless can also build the brain.

Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain, which is published later this year, shows how even regular brisk walks can boost memory, alleviate stress, enhance intelligence and allay aggression.
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