The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction.
— Rachel Carson, “Silent Spring”
The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction.
— Rachel Carson, “Silent Spring”
Scientists have found a way to reverse muscular dystrophy (MD) in mice, offering hope of a cure for humans with muscle-wasting diseases. The animals in the Nature Genetics study had myotonic dystrophy – the most common form of MD in adults. The therapy targets a particular kind of toxic molecule to “silence” its presence in the diseased muscle. The University of Virginia team showed the treatment fully restored heart and skeletal muscle function in mice.
Iowa State researchers are converting manure and corn stalks into a bio-oil that can be burned as fuel. The energy content of dry manure is 12 to 18 gigajoules per ton. One gigajoule of electricity will keep a 60-watt bulb continuously burning for six months. If half the animal manure in the country were processed into bio-oil, that would produce the equivalent of 45 million tons of oil.
…Maybe they can get some funding from DOD for their research: The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, DARPA, has released a solicitation calling for the exploration of energy alternatives and fuel efficiency efforts in a bid to reduce the military’s reliance on traditional fuel for aircraft. DARPA is looking for processes that will efficiently produce alternative non-petroleum based military jet fuel from agriculture or aquaculture crops. Green fuels: not just for hippies anymore.
I knew it was only going to be a matter of time before this idea started to get serious consideration: Injecting sulfur into the atmosphere to slow down global warming is worthy of serious consideration, according to Nobel laureate Paul Crutzen from the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Germany and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California at San Diego. This would increase the reflectivity of earth’s atmosphere, as occurs with major volcanic eruptions. Crutzen uses the Mount Pinatubo eruption in 1991 as a model for his idea. The volcanic eruption injected sulfur into the stratosphere. The enhanced reflection of solar radiation to space by the particles cooled the earth’s surface by an average of 0.5C in the year following the eruption. In Crutzen’s experiment, artificially enhancing earth’s reflective powers would be achieved by carrying sulfur into the stratosphere on balloons, using artillery guns to release it. In contrast to the slowly developing effects of global warming associated with man-made carbon dioxide emissions, the climatic response of the albedo enhancement method could theoretically start taking effect within six months. The reflective particles could remain in the stratosphere for up to two years. He says this should only be used as an emergency measure. But funny thing, if we’ve learned anything in the last several years, it’s that emergency measures have a way of becoming “the new normal…”
Or maybe we’ll get lucky and there will be a natural volcanic eruption: Thousands of villagers have fled homes lying in the path of red-hot lava flows oozing from Indonesia’s Mount Karangetang as the volcano has been put on top alert, officials said Friday. The top alert status means that scientists believe an eruption of the volcano, one of the archipelago nation’s most active, could be imminent.
No thanks; I’m not quite that thirsty yet: Residents of a drought-stricken Australian town have rejected a plan to drink water recycled from sewage, striking a blow to conservationists who want the scheme to be rolled out across the country. Toowoomba in the state of Queensland has faced water restrictions for a decade and is one of hundreds of small towns suffering from a shortage of rainfall.
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QANA, Lebanon (AP) July 31 — Israeli planes hit targets in southern Lebanon and Hezbollah guerrillas blasted an Israeli tank near Taibeh with an anti-tank missile and injured three Israeli soldiers, breaking a brief respite in 20 days of fighting.
AP Television footage showed two Israeli tanks side by side in southern Lebanon, with flames suddenly covering one of them. Soldiers soon emerged from one tank and did not appear to be badly hurt.
Before the fighting resumed, pickup trucks and cars loaded with people streamed north as thousands of civilians trapped in south Lebanon’s war zone for three weeks took advantage of the brief lull to escape.
In a second airstrike around the port city of Tyre, Israel accidentally killed a Lebanese soldier when it hit a car that it believed was carrying a senior Hezbollah official, the Israeli army said. Lebanese security officials said the soldier was killed by a rocket strike from a pilotless drone aircraft.
The Israeli army justified the action, saying the leader believed to have been in the car was a threat to Israel. Instead, the car was carrying a Lebanese army officer and soldiers.
Peretz: IDF will ‘expand and strengthen’ attacks on Hezbollah
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
Link
U.S. citizens suspected of terror ties might be detained indefinitely and barred from access to civilian courts under legislation proposed by the Bush administration, say legal experts reviewing an early version of the bill.
A 32-page draft measure is intended to authorize the Pentagon’s tribunal system, established shortly after the 2001 terrorist attacks to detain and prosecute detainees captured in the war on terror. The tribunal system was thrown out last month by the Supreme Court.
[snip]
According to the draft, the military would be allowed to detain all “enemy combatants” until hostilities cease. The bill defines enemy combatants as anyone “engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners who has committed an act that violates the law of war and this statute.”
Legal experts said Friday that such language is dangerously broad and could authorize the military to detain indefinitely U.S. citizens who had only tenuous ties to terror networks like al Qaeda.
[snip]
Scott L. Silliman, a retired Air Force Judge Advocate, said the broad definition of enemy combatants is alarming because a U.S. citizen loosely suspected of terror ties would lose access to a civilian court — and all the rights that come with it. Administration officials have said they want to establish a secret court to try enemy combatants that factor in realities of the battlefield and would protect classified information.
The administration’s proposal, as considered at one point during discussions, would toss out several legal rights common in civilian and military courts, including barring hearsay evidence, guaranteeing “speedy trials” and granting a defendant access to evidence. The proposal also would allow defendants to be barred from their own trial and likely allow the submission of coerced testimony.
The way the Democrats have been caving lately, the idea that Bush could have carte blanche on this is truely frightening.
George W Bush: turning the clock back not just to 1776, but to 1215, or farther. Hail, Caesar!
Link
Just a few weeks ago, the Supreme Court finished its first term since the arrival of Chief Justice Roberts and Associate Justice Alito. Sadly, the votes and opinions of our new Justices demonstrate that President Bush finally deserves his “Mission Accomplished” banner. He has succeeded in his effort to push the Court further to the right, and away from the mainstream.
But the administration did not succeed because of the power of its ideas. Instead, it succeeded by successfully hiding its nominees’ ideas from the Senate, which is the only check on a President’s power to stack the courts.
[snip]
Now that they are sitting Justices, Roberts and Alito are justifying every concern we expressed when they were nominated. The men who promised to be neutral umpires look more and more like loyal members of the President’s team. They have voted more than any other two members of the Court, and those votes expanded the power of the executive branch and weakened every potential check on that power, including Congress, the Judiciary, the states and the Bill of Rights. In doing so, they showed us that the confirmation process is badly broken. Before the Judiciary Committee, Roberts had acknowledged the importance of the Voting Rights Act. But Chief Justice Roberts called it “sordid.” Before the Judiciary Committee, Alito ran away from his writing that the elected branches are “supreme” over the judiciary. But Justice Alito was among the minority of the Supreme Court that would have given the Bush Administration a blank check to construct a new system of military commissions without judicial or legislative oversight. As I wrote in the Washington Post today, the new term provides a wide range of examples where the testimony of Roberts and Alito simply does not match their decisions on the Court.
Tell it like it is, Teddy… Roberts, Alito and their Dear Leader Bush are right wing extremist liars. Unfortunately, we’re stuck with them on the court for a long time to come. I wonder if lying to the Senate is reason enough to impeach a Supreme Court Justice?
Unfortunately, not unless oral sex is involved.
and still going…
I’ll just let Woody tell the tale:
Peace
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Just lost much respect I had for Kos’ holy Dean ::
≈ Cross-posted from Londonbear’s diary —
Israel’s “Talking Points” for Bloggers ≈
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
I recall seeing that a few days ago. In fact Dean became last Thursday’s “Wanker of the Day” over at me humble blog. The term “anti-semite” is used way too loosely.
Activists in New Haven, CT were confronted with a bat-wielding Marine as they expressed their support for war resisters in conjunction with nationwide actions in support of Lt. Ehren Watada in late June. – AP
I guess that’s the same Marine who will spit on you while telling you “I fought for your rights!!!” while he attacks your right to speak.
If only these bat-wielding marines realized that not everyone who’s antiwar is a pacifist (Malcom X is more my flavor), they’d think again.
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RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (The Scotsman) July 31 — Brazil’s air force and navy will transport more than 100 penguins to Antarctica next month after the flightless birds were stranded on Rio de Janeiro beaches.
Penguins arrive from the Antarctic Circle on ice floes that melt in the vicinity of Brazil’s shore and the birds wash up on Rio beaches every winter. Typically many of the birds are sent to local zoos.
A plane carrying equipment for an Antarctic naval base will take the penguins to Brazil’s southernmost region next month, an air force spokesman said on Monday. They will continue their journey on a naval ship, which will release them into the ocean in their Antarctic habitat.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY