Monday News Bucket

8 Comments

1. 

   CabinGirl on September 11, 2006 at 7:29 am

   Hillary to run for president: In These Times

   At the time Hillary prepared her “questionnaire,” close to 2,300 U.S. troops and more than 100,000 Iraqi civilians had died, and polls showed that most Americans were worried about the war and its ill effects, including rising prices at the gas pump. But somehow, Hillary and her handlers thought that ignoring the war was the strategically smart thing to do. And they were right.

   It turns out that Hillary has done a tremendous job–of getting New York Democrats to assume that because right-wing Republicans hate her she must oppose the war. Most New York Democratic voters also don’t realize that she co-sponsored an amendment to ban flag-burning, is against marriage equality for gays and lesbians, supports the death penalty, votes consistently for Star Wars appropriations and has served on the board of Wal-Mart for six years. Yet, she is consistently touted as the “liberal Democrat from New York.”

   She’s more of the same.  Pretend to be one thing, and do another.

2. 

   CabinGirl on September 11, 2006 at 7:37 am

   This sounds so cool: NYT

   The Algonquins, Iroquois and others who lived there traversed the region in canoes and on foot, and the paths they used to carry their boats between major water systems — from the Hudson River to Lake Champlain, say, or over the so-called Indian Carry from the Raquette River to the Saranac Lakes — were worn more than a foot deep in places by centuries of traffic. It was all a part of the Great Longhouse, as the Iroquois of upstate New York called it. It was home.

   Toward the end of the 20th century, after a half millennium of change left not much of either the forest or its network of watery trails intact, three recreational paddlers — Mike Krepner, Ron Canter and Randy Mardres — came up with a seemingly audacious idea. Calling their project Native Trails, they set out to recreate what they could of those ancient routes, charting for modern travelers a new contiguous water trail from the top of Maine to the bottom of New York’s Adirondack Park.

   This past June, after a decade and a half of exploration, infusions of cash and new partnerships, the officially designated 740-mile Northern Forest Canoe Trail was finally dedicated.

   • 

     Kidspeak on September 11, 2006 at 3:44 pm

     I want to get my canoe down from where it’s been stored in our garage for several dry years, and go on this voyage right now!

3. 

   Knoxville Progressive on September 11, 2006 at 8:49 am

   Species come, species go…

   New research suggests that rather than the standard straight line from chimps to early humans to us with Neandertals off on a side graph, it’s equally valid, perhaps more valid based on what the fossils tell us, that the straight line should be from the common ancestor to the Neandertals, with Modern Humans a branch off from the main line.

   Australian researchers are investigating Koi herpesvirus as a means of controlling the introduced fish.  The virus, which first emerged in Israel in 1998, caused mass mortalities in carp in the US, the UK, Israel, the Netherlands, Japan and Indonesia. So far the virus does not appear to have reached Australia.

   The return of the otter to many British waterways is helping to reverse the decline of another species – the water vole – a study suggests.  Otters have been taking on the water voles’ enemy – American mink – which thrived after escaping from fur farms.

   A group of tannins found primarily in cranberries and cranberry juice show promise as alternatives to antibiotics due to their ability to transform E. coli bacteria in ways that render them unable to initiate an infection.

   California is at it again:  A bill that would set up the nation’s first statewide program to measure exposure to toxic chemicals by testing thousands of volunteers has overcome industry opposition and reached the desk of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.  [If the feds won’t do it, someone has to step up to the plate…]

   Climate Change Roundup:

   New research is raising concerns that global warming may be triggering a self-perpetuating climate time bomb trapped in once-frozen permafrost.  As the Earth warms, greenhouse gases once stuck in the long-frozen soil are bubbling into the atmosphere in much larger amounts than previously anticipated, according to a study in Thursday’s journal Nature.  Methane trapped in a special type of permafrost is bubbling up at a rate five times faster than originally measured, the journal said.  Scientists worry about a global warming vicious cycle that had not been part of their already gloomy climate forecasts…  

   The rise in average temperatures is making all the difference in the world to the English wine making industry, which is expected to expand by 50 per cent over the next year…  

   Destructive insects in unprecedented numbers are finding Alaska forests to be a congenial home and climate change could be the welcome mat…

   The European Union could bury 30 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases by 2050 to help slow global warming, more than five times the bloc’s current annual emissions, results of a study due out next week show…  

   Environmentalists and alternative-energy advocates say the US Department of Defense is stymieing the development of wind-energy projects after failing to meet a second deadline regarding the impact of wind farms on military radar.

4. 

   boran2 on September 11, 2006 at 10:20 am

   Link

   Court Blocks Drilling in Alaskan Wetlands

   ANCHORAGE, Alaska, September 8, 2006 (ENS) – The Bush administration’s plan to open more than 1.7 million acres of Alaska wetlands to oil drilling hit a roadblock Thursday when a federal judge issued a preliminary decision temporarily blocking the leasing proposal. The judge criticized the federal government for failing to properly analyze the environmental impacts of drilling near Alaska’s Teshekpuk Lake, which is considered one of the most important wildlife habitat areas in the Arctic.

5. 

   James Benjamin on September 11, 2006 at 3:09 pm

   Some news I found over at American Samzdat:

   A Windmill for Your Backyard?

   Bacteria provide horsepower for tiny motor.

   Semantic memory pinpointed in the brain.

   Electrolysis may one day provide “green iron”.

   Porn Up, Rape Down.

   The Brilliance of Labor.

   Enjoy!

   • 

     librarylil on September 11, 2006 at 3:43 pm

     Very interesting discussion about labor unions in the comments under the last article, The Brilliance of Labor.

6. 

   James Benjamin on September 11, 2006 at 4:10 pm

   The following links (with the exception of the last one) are via Lenin’s Tomb. The John Pilger video is an oldie but a goodie, and provides some necessary background.

   “It’s completely barking mad” – top soldier quits over Afghanistan campaign.
   “America’s warrior nation” by Gore Vidal.
   John Pilger – “Breaking the Silence”.
   Tortured screams in Abu Ghraib
   9/11 was good for capital.
   Remembering 11/9.
   “The New York City Council’s education committee approved a curriculum on Israel initiated by the public relations department of the Israeli Consulate in New York.”
   US-UK illegal mercenary operations in Africa.
   Slavoj Zizek: a failure of cognitive mapping.
   62,006 – the number killed in the ‘war on terror’