“The barbarous custom of having men beaten who are suspected of having important secrets to reveal must be abolished. It has always been recognized that this way of interrogating men, by putting them to torture, produces nothing worthwhile.”
— Napoleon Bonaparte
Ref: Napoleon to Berthier 11 Nov 1798, Corres., V, no. 3606 p. 128 quoted in – Napoleon on the Art of War
Research now suggests that Martian dust devils and storms produce oxidants that would render the planet’s surface uninhabitable for life as it exists on Earth. However, this does not rule out subsurface life now or in the past.
Scientists have developed bricks and building aggregate that can be manufactured entirely from waste fly ash and save on construction costs. The product is 28 percent lighter and 24 percent stronger than comparable clay bricks, resulting in lighter structures, shallower foundations, cheaper transportation, and less usage of cement and steel reinforcement.
A town in southwest China is wrestling with a serious pollution problem after a thermometer factory contaminated its vegetable fields and rivers with mercury, local media said Monday.
Oil wells in the US typically abandoned as no longer economically productive still retain 40% of the oil present but unpumped. Ways to more economically access that remaining 40% of the oil are being developed, potentially reducing dependence on foreign oil. (The story does not touch on global warming, of course…)
New ocean sediment studies confirm that the occurrence of a burst of freshwater from melting glacial lakes in North America changed ocean circulation patterns 8,200 years ago, triggering a period of global cooling.
Britain and California agreed on Monday to work together to reduce greenhouse gases linked to global warming. As part of the agreement, Britain and the state will investigate whether they can cooperate on an emissions trading scheme, said a spokesman for British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who launched the agreement in California on Monday. No representatives from the Bush administration attended, of course. Maybe they were at the briefing: Officials tracking the approach of the peak hurricane season told President Bush on Monday that data linking a series of devastating storms to global warming was inconclusive.
For the last 25 years, the federal government has tracked a steady upswing in beach strandings and mass die-offs of whales, dolphins and other ocean mammals on US coasts. The surge in mortality has coincided with what Florida wildlife pathologist Greg Bossart calls a “pandemic” of algae and bacteria. Although some of the deaths defy easy explanation, telltale biotoxins have turned up in urine, blood, brains and other tissue. The causes are a combination of nutrient pollution and global warming.
On July 28, the House Homeland Security Committee, by voice vote, approved chemical plant security legislation (H.R. 5695) that would require some chemical plants to use safer chemicals and processes and allow states to enact stricter security requirements unless they would “frustrate” the federal law. A Senate committee bill (S. 2145) approved in June contains no explicit provision requiring chemical facilities to adopt so-called inherently safer technologies (IST). It does, however, track the House bill’s language on the issue of federal preemption. S. 2145’s lack of language on the use of safer chemicals or processes and the fast-approaching end to the 109th Congress make problematic the enactment of a chemical plant security law this year.
Smells like trouble: Research shows a dramatic rise in synthetic fragrance concentrations in Great Lakes sediments. Such environmental exposures may be a concern if these persistent contaminants turn out to have biological effects, experts say. Synthetic fragrances persist in the environment, accumulate in animals, and have an affinity for fat–all traits of persistent organic pollutants. These properties, combined with the sheer volume used, worry researchers, who have begun to track the environmental fate and biological impacts of synthetic fragrances.
Asymmetric cyberwarfare: Two NASA websites were the latest sites hacked by those protesting the war in the Middle East. The complete list of sites, as of Friday, is here.
Guess every time Karl speaks, the usual suspects on both sides respond. Pav-rovian that. Felix Gillette wrote it up for CJR Daily:
From this we learn 1) Guckert lives; and 2) he reads the BooMan Tribune.
Link
Several prominent Iraqi clerics and officials today delivered their stiffest rebuke yet of Israeli airstrikes, condemning civilian casualties in Lebanon as shootings, bombings, and mass kidnappings continued to plague Iraq.
Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi, a Shiite, described the Irsaeli bombing that killed dozens of civilians in Qana, Lebanon, this weekend as a “massacre.” Echoing earlier statements made by Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, he said Iraqis of all sects were unified against the carnage and eager for a cease-fire.
“These horrible massacres carried out by the Israeli aggression, like what happened at Qana, incite in us a spirit of solidarity,” Mr. Abdul Mahdi said in a speech at a memorial for Ayatollah Muhammad Bakr al-Hakim, a revered cleric who was killed three years ago. “It’s time for this nation to stand up and stop this aggression.”
[snip]
And the anti-American cleric Moktada al-Sadr said at a separate press conference today that he was “ready to go to Lebanon to defend it if this would stop the war.”
“We, the unified Iraqi people, will stand with the Lebanese people to end the ominous trio of the United States, Israel and Britain, which is terrorizing Iraq, Lebanon, Afghanistan and other occupied nations,” he said. “We do not want U.S. enterprises in the Middle East.”
“the ominous trio of the United States, Israel and Britain…”
The new Ominous Trio of Evil?
Yup. Ole’ Howie Dean had better brush up on his rightous indignation schtick, because Iraq’s Shias are not going to back Israel. Period.
Link
Women might soon be able to get the morning-after pill without a doctor’s prescription — a hotly debated plan that seemed to be stuck in bureaucratic limbo until Monday.
After months of silence on the matter, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration told Barr Pharmaceuticals that it wanted to meet within seven days to talk about how to allow women 18 and older to walk into pharmacies and buy the emergency contraceptive Plan B over-the-counter. Minors would still need a prescription, despite independent advisers to the FDA in 2003 overwhelmingly endorsing over-the-counter sales for all ages.
The FDA’s apparent willingness to widen access to the medication was met Monday with equal parts praise and skepticism by contraceptive advocates. They questioned the timing of the announcement, which came as President Bush’s pick to lead the FDA, Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach, was headed into Senate confirmation hearings. Some senators have vowed to block his nomination until the FDA makes a decision on the morning-after pill once and for all.
So the administration seems to be backing down on this so their new nominee can sail through confirmation hearings. Let’s hope they have to actually set policy on plan B before they can get what they want.
Juan Cole has the Sistani Fatwa up in its entirety. It seems as if Sistani has made a not so veiled threat to the US for refusing to support a cease fire:
In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate
Among a series of its continuous attacks on dear Lebanon committed by the forces of the Israeli enemy, today came a new massacre in the wounded town of Qana, in which dozens of innocents perished, a scene of the utmost ugliness and horror.
Words are insufficient to condemn this dastardly crime that appears to have been committed by perons devoid of all human values and principles. Even the women and children in shelters were not safe from them.
The scale of the tragedy that has befallen Lebanon is a result of the continuous Israeli attacks, which have reached the point where patience can no longer bear more. It is not possible to stand with folded hands before them. The international community must take the intitiative to impose an immediate ceasefire and to halt this horrific tragedy.
The Muslim world and all peace-loving people will not excuse the parties that put obstacles in the way of this. There will be severe consequences in the entire region.
30 July 2006
Here’s Juan Cole’s discussion of Sistani’s Fatwa from yesterday.
Sistani could call massive anti-US and anti-Israel demonstrations. Given Iraq’s profound political instability, this development could be extremely dangerous. US troops in Baghdad and elsewhere are planning offensives against Shiite paramilitary groups, so tensions are likely to rise in the Shiite areas anyway. But big demonstrations could easily boil over into actual attacks on US and British troops. Both depend heavily on fuel that is transported through the Shiite south. Were the Shiites actively to turn on the US for its wholehearted support of continued Israeli air raids, the US military could be cut off from fuel and supplies. The British only have around 8,000 troops in Iraq, and they would be in profound danger if Iraq’s Shiites became militantly anti-occupation.
giyus has this so-called megaphone software that is supposed to alert its users to stuff on the internets that is critical of Israel. Just a heads up in case any of your blogs suddenly get some new commenters.
Props to DTF.
.
≈ Cross-posted from Londonbear’s diary —
Israel’s “Talking Points” for Bloggers ≈
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
(They were two of the four mentioned in my diary from last week)
Dahr Jamail Reports:
QANA – Red Cross workers and residents of Qana, where Israeli bombing killed at least 60 civilians, have told IPS that no Hezbollah rockets were launched from the city before the Israeli air strike.
The Israeli military has said it bombed the building in which several people had taken shelter, more than half of them children, because the Army had faced rocket fire from Qana. The Israeli military has said that Hezbollah was therefore responsible for the deaths.
“There were no Hezbollah rockets fired from here,” 32-year-old Ali Abdel told IPS. “Anyone in this village will tell you this, because it is the truth.”
[snip]
Qana had been a shelter because no rockets were being fired from there, survivors said. “When Hezbollah fires their rockets, everyone runs away because they know an Israeli bombardment will come soon,” Abdel said. “That is why everyone stayed in the shelter and nearby homes, because we all thought we’d be all right since there were no Hezbollah fighters in Qana.”
Lebanese Red Cross workers in the nearby coastal city of Tyre told IPS that there was no basis for Israeli claims that Hezbollah had launched rockets from Qana.
“We found no evidence of Hezbollah fighters in Qana,” Kassem Shaulan, a 28-year-old medic and training manager for the Red Cross in Tyre told IPS at their headquarters. “When we rescue people or recover bodies from villages, we usually see rocket launchers or Hezbollah fighters if they are there, but in Qana I can say that the village was 100 percent clear of either of those.”