Friday News Bucket

24 Comments

1. 

   CabinGirl on August 18, 2006 at 9:13 am

   The Independent asked a group of Labour MPs what they though of John Prescott’s outburst (where he referred to Bush and his Iraq policy as crap):  Independent online

   They agreed.

2. 

   Alice on August 18, 2006 at 9:17 am

   Hi Cabin.  I’ve been waiting for you to show up, so I can post this story of three men who were lost at sea and presumed dead.  
   Their survival is an inspiration.

   • 

     CabinGirl on August 18, 2006 at 9:26 am

     That’s an amazing story.  Thanks!  

     From the article:

     Lost at sea since October, the three fishermen from a hamlet outside San Blas were given up for dead long ago.

     After weeks of looking for their son at fishing ports up and down the Pacific Coast of Mexico, the parents of Salvador “Chava” Ordoñez resigned themselves to the belief that he, his two companions and their 30-foot fishing boat had been swallowed up by the sea, family members said.

     On Tuesday, news of a miracle came from 5,000 miles away. After more than nine months adrift, Ordoñez and his companions had been found alive north of Baker Island in the central Pacific, the lonely stretch of ocean where aviator Amelia Earhart disappeared almost 70 years ago.

     Halfway to Australia from home, and still alive.

3. 

   CabinGirl on August 18, 2006 at 9:20 am

   at the Oscars: WashPo

   Movie stars appearing at the Academy Awards will no longer receive the lavish goody baskets they have come to expect — worth as much as $100,000 each and including freebies such as iPods, resort vacations, coupons for laser eye surgery, jewelry and high-priced lingerie — because of a crackdown by the federal tax collector.

   The Internal Revenue Service and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences yesterday announced they have reached a settlement on undisclosed taxes owed to the government on the “gifts” received at the Oscars in the last several years, through 2005…

   …Typically, if the IRS finds someone has failed to pay taxes but no fraud is involved, it assesses back taxes, interest and penalties for only the preceding three years. In this instance, if 200 people received $100,000 baskets in each of the three years through 2005, the taxable non-cash income would be $60 million.

   Neither IRS spokesmen nor Academy spokeswoman Leslie Unger would confirm or deny that number. Nor would they say whether, under the terms of the settlement, the IRS forgave back payment, interest and penalties. Nor would they say whether the Academy has paid a lump sum on behalf of past recipients.

   I’m betting the movie stars got a free pass on those taxes…how about you?

4. 

   Oui on August 18, 2006 at 9:40 am

   .

   Justice Minister Ramon to resign on Sunday, will face trial on indecent assault

   Justice Minister Haim Ramon announced on Friday to Attorney General Menachem Mazuz that he waives his parliamentary immunity and his right to a special hearing, and plans to resign from his post on Sunday.

   This announcement follows Mazuz’s decision to charge Ramon with indecent assault for allegedly having forcibly kissed an 18-year-old female soldier in a government office.

   Ramon asked Mazuz to ensure a speedy trial “for personal reasons, but also because of public interest.”

   Ramon said that he is certain that he would be successful in court, and that he would prove that a kiss of two, three seconds, based on the complainant’s version, cannot be considered an act with criminal intent.

   On Lebanon War

   Haim Ramon: … failure of world leaders to call for an immediate cease-fire at a summit in Rome gave Israel a green light to carry on with its campaign to crush Hezbollah.

   "But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."

   ▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY

   • 

     Nag on August 18, 2006 at 9:50 am

     Say what you want about Israel, but if this incident had happened in the US, the young soldier would have been chastised, demoted and transferred. The official would have been promoted and given a medal.

     • 

       Kamakhya on August 18, 2006 at 2:10 pm

       Or been encouraged to run for Govenor of California!  ;>)

5. 

   Nag on August 18, 2006 at 9:42 am

   Link

   Kurds flee homes as Iran shells Iraq’s northern frontier

   Turkey and Iran have dispatched tanks, artillery and thousands of troops to their frontiers with Iraq during the past few weeks in what appears to be a coordinated effort to disrupt the activities of Kurdish rebel bases.

   Scores of Kurds have fled their homes in the northern frontier region after four days of shelling by the Iranian army. Local officials said Turkey had also fired a number of shells into Iraqi territory.
   [snip]

   Frustrated by the reluctance of the US and the government in Baghdad to crack down on the PKK bases inside Iraq, Turkish generals have hinted they are considering a large-scale military operation across the border.They are said to be sharing intelligence about Kurdish rebel movements with their Iranian counterparts.

   How far will Bush allow this to go? Can he even find Turkey or Iran on a map? Iran is shelling northern Iraq. Are the neocons going to spring this on the country all of a sudden and use it as some sort of reason to attack? How bad does it have to get before the corporate media starts to pay attention?

6. 

   idredit on August 18, 2006 at 9:50 am

   Fancy that chocolate lovers “sore ankles from being trapped waist deep in a tank of chocolate”

    

   • 

     Family Man on August 18, 2006 at 9:53 am

     Do you know where your chocolate has been? :~)

   • 

     Nag on August 18, 2006 at 10:06 am

     “…the worker was taken to a hospital for treatment of minor injuries.”

     Can you imagine the workman’s comp paperwork? Sweet.

7. 

   rba on August 18, 2006 at 9:52 am

   Via CommonDreams/Agence France Presse:

   Top Chinese Diplomat Tells US to ‘Shut up’ on Arms Spending
   by H. Josef Hebert

   China’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, throwing diplomatic language to the wind, has told the United States in no uncertain terms to “shut up and keep quiet” on the subject of Beijing’s growing military spending.

   Hmm…. how does he really feel?

   • 

     CabinGirl on August 18, 2006 at 10:00 am

     I saw that and thought “more evidence of how our stature in the world has suffered under Bush.”  How depressing.

8. 

   ask on August 18, 2006 at 10:59 am

   Fears of more violence in Mexico as protesters refuse to concede election

   Political tensions continued to mount in Mexico as supporters of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the leftist candidate who came a tantalisingly close second in the 2 July presidential election, maintained their blockade of the main avenues of the capital, Mexico City, into a third week.

   Mr Lopez Obrador shows no sign of giving up his post-election contention that the result was skewed by fraud and conspiracy.

   On Monday, the protests, which have paralysed much of central Mexico City, erupted in violence when protesters attempted to blockade the Congress building. As many as 30 demonstrators, including several members of Mr Lopez Obrador’s PRD Party, were hurt in clashes with police.

   (more)

9. 

   Knoxville Progressive on August 18, 2006 at 11:35 am

   I go out of town for a few days and look what this place looks like when I get back:

   International experts on Thursday promised Lebanon immediate help in cleaning up a massive Mediterranean oil spill caused by Israeli bombing of a power plant, but said the scale of the environmental threat remained unknown.

   An increasing lack of oxygen at the bottom of the Baltic Sea is causing animal and plant life to die, with parts of the Gulf of Finland seabed resembling a desert, a European study published on Thursday showed.  The dead zone is caused by a combination of increasing pollution levels in the Baltic and natural factors (weather, and a small outlet resulting in slow water exchange with the rest of the ocean).

   At least 18 million people have been affected by China’s worst drought in 50 years, according to the state news agency Xinhua.

   And the first mass exodus of people fleeing the disastrous effects of climate change is not happening in low-lying Pacific islands but in the world’s richest country, said the Earth Policy Institute.  Institute president Lester Brown said that about a quarter of a million people who fled the devastating impact of Hurricane Katrina a year ago must now be classed as “refugees,” as they are not expected to return to the Gulf Coast.

   A new statistical study of climate teases apart the effects of the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (an ongoing series of long-term changes in the sea surface temperature of the North Atlantic Ocean which had also been blamed for stronger hurricanes of late) and climate change, and finds that over the last 50 years, warmer air temperatures caused warmer sea temperatures, which resulted in stronger hurricanes.

   Here are some stories to get your mind off that stuff:

   The faintest stars ever seen in an ancient star cluster have been imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope.  The observations provide the most accurate measurement ever made of the mass boundary between lightweight stars and “failed” stars called brown dwarfs – the dividing line is at about 80 times the mass of Jupiter, in line with theoretical predictions.

   New Scientist reports (subscription required) that the mystery surrounding the Pioneer anomaly has deepened. The unexplained changes in acceleration seen in NASA’s Pioneer 10 and 11 probes in the 1980s and `90s could be related to similarly odd shifts in the speed of other space probes, possibly pointing towards new physics.  When NASA’s Galileo and NEAR spacecraft and ESA’s Rosetta flew past Earth, they showed bigger than expected boosts in speed. The largest anomaly was recorded for NEAR, whose velocity changed 13 millimetres per second more than it should have. This excess is much larger than the expected errors in measurement.  Researchers say that while it is possible that an overlooked effect from ordinary physics might account for the anomalies, something more exotic could also be involved.  For example, the spacecraft trajectories could be influenced by the presence of dark matter in the solar system. Or maybe the laws of gravity need reworking. Others say errors in measurement may still explain the anomalies.

   Every spring brings violent eruptions to the south polar ice cap of Mars, according to researchers interpreting new observations by NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter.  Jets of carbon dioxide gas erupting from the ice cap as it warms in the spring carry dark sand and dust high aloft. The dark material falls back to the surface, creating dark patches on the icecap that have long puzzled scientists. Deducing the eruptions of carbon dioxide gas from under the warming ice cap solves the riddle of the spots. It also reveals that this part of Mars is much more dynamically active than had been expected for any part of the planet.

   Scientists have discovered a gene that has undergone accelerated evolutionary change in humans and is active during a critical stage in brain development. Although researchers have yet to determine the precise function of the gene, the evidence suggests that it may play a role in the development of the cerebral cortex and may help explain the dramatic expansion of this part of the brain during human evolution.

10. 

    Knoxville Progressive on August 18, 2006 at 11:38 am

    I’m posting this story separately as I expect some animal lovers may have issues with it:

    Dolphins may have big brains but a South African-based scientist says lab rats and even goldfish can outwit them. Paul Manger of Johannesburg’s University of the Witwatersrand says the super-sized brains of dolphins, whales and porpoises are a function of being warm-blooded in a cold-water environment and not a sign of intelligence.

    “… When you look at the structure of the dolphin brain you see it is not built for complex information processing,” he told Reuters.  Brains, he says, are made of neurons and glia. The latter create the environment for the neurons to work properly and producing heat is one of glia’s functions.  “Dolphins have a superabundance of glia and very few neurons … The dolphin’s brain is not made for information processing it is designed to counter the thermal challenges of being a mammal in water,” Manger said.

    He said observed behavior supports his iconoclastic take on dolphins as dimwits.

    “You put an animal in a box, even a lab rat or gerbil, and the first thing it wants to do is climb out of it. If you don’t put a lid on top of the bowl a goldfish it will eventually jump out to enlarge the environment it is living in,” he said.  “But a dolphin will never do that … If they were really intelligent they would just jump over the [tuna] net because it doesn’t come out of the water,” he said.

    Remember, animal lovers, I’m just the reporter.  I’m even married to a veterinarian!

    😉

    • 

      ask on August 18, 2006 at 11:49 am

      I saw that story as well.
      There are a number of fun responses to this article in the Globe and Mail (it has 68 comments at the moment).

      • 

        Knoxville Progressive on August 18, 2006 at 2:33 pm

        Wow – 78 comments when I was there; lots of angst, lots of snark, lots of disbelief by folks that seem to be liberal (or at least environmentally-friendly) but  only one person, commenter #48, homed in on the key point:

        Brad Reddekopp from Hazelton, Canada writes: If there really are too few neurons in the dolphin brain for them to be as smart as they are reputed to be, then, regardless of how much one might prefer to believe in Flipper, they obviously lack the capacity for that kind of intelligence.

        You can’t run Windows on a Commodore 64.

        Guess we shouldn’t kid ourselves that “our side” is so “reality-based” after all…

11. 

    ask on August 18, 2006 at 12:09 pm

    California on Brink of Global Warming Breakthrough

    SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California is forging ahead with the most aggressive U.S. program to reduce global warming — a plan that pits Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger against fellow Republican George Bush.

    Both the governor and his state’s Democratic-led legislature want to make California — the world’s eighth largest economy — a model to follow with caps in greenhouse gas emissions that the U.S. president rejects.

    State politicians still are hammering out differences over the proposed Global Warming Solutions Act. If passed, it is likely to play a role in November’s vote for governor and in national politics for years to come.

    • 

      Knoxville Progressive on August 18, 2006 at 2:14 pm

      I loved this part of the story:

      The Democrats say their bill gives the governor’s 2020 target “teeth” with an enforceable cap on emissions and mandatory reporting for top polluters like energy companies.

      If Schwarzenegger vetoes the bill because he wants a more business-friendly version, then the Democrats can use it against him in his reelection bid.

      “Given that he has staked a large part of his reelection plea on his environmental record, I don’t think he is in a position to veto this bill,” said Bill Magavern of the Sierra Club in Sacramento.

      Looks like we have Arnold where we want him…

      • 

        CabinGirl on August 18, 2006 at 2:25 pm

        Tee-hee…watch the little weasel squirm…

12. 

    Oui on August 18, 2006 at 12:34 pm

    .

    Karzai ‘Angered’ By Reported Deaths From Friendly Fire

    KABUL (Reuters/AFP/AP) Aug. 18 — Afghan President Hamid Karzai says he is “shocked and angered” by an air strike by U.S.-led forces that Afghan officials say killed at least 10 border policemen.

    The incident occurred in Paktika Province, near the Pakistan border, on August 17.

    In a statement, Karzai says he has repeatedly asked coalition forces to take maximum caution while carrying out operations, and said such incidents must not be repeated.

    Peshawar-based Afghan Islamic Press meanwhile quotes Paktika’s governor, Mohammad Akram Khpelwak, as saying that 12 border policemen were killed and two others wounded in the midday incident.

    
    A crane is used to remove a U.S. military vehicle damaged by insurgents near Kandahar (epa)

    The U.S. military said it was investigating the reports. But in a statement, it said it believed the air strike hit two vehicles occupied by insurgents involved in an earlier attack on U.S. and Afghan troops.

    Can’t we count these 10-12 bodies as insurgency kills?

    "But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."

    ▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY

13. 

    Oui on August 18, 2006 at 2:08 pm

    .

    German Police Release Bomb Suspect Images, Set Reward

    The German Criminal Police Office on Friday released images taken from a surveillance camera of the two suspects in the attempted bombing of two trains. Police believe the plot was an attempted terror attack.

    The German investigators working on the case surrounding the two suitcase bombs found on trains in Koblenz and Dortmund at the end of July released images obtained from surveillance cameras of two suspects in the suspected terror plot.

    
    German police are searching for these two men - reward €50,000.

    The authorities announced that there would be a reward of 50,000 ($64,195) euros for any information which would lead to the capture of the two young men in the grainy photos, who were both described as being from “southern countries.”

    The Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) revealed that the evidence had led to one suspect being identified, but so far they have no details of his background and activities. They warn that the man could still be at large.

    "But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."

    ▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY

14. 

    idredit on August 18, 2006 at 3:39 pm

    [on Iran]

    “I hope this administration thinks through this very carefully.

    “Who’s going to do the dying?”

    [H/T: Thinkprogress]

    Yes, Indeedy.