Friday News Bucket

24 Comments

1. 

   ask on September 21, 2007 at 8:35 am

   Arctic seabed ‘belongs to Russia’

   A Russian expedition has proved that a ridge of mountains below the Arctic Ocean is part of Russia’s continental shelf, government officials have said.

   The Natural Resources Ministry said tests on soil samples showed Russia was linked to the Lomonosov Ridge.

   Moscow has mounted several expeditions recently – and risked tensions with rivals in August by planting a flag in the seabed below the North Pole.

   […]

   Russia’s claim to a vast swathe of territory in the Arctic has sparked an increasingly tense rivalry with other countries who believe they have a claim.

   After Russia planted its flag in the seabed, Canada vowed to increase its icebreaker fleet and build two new military facilities in the Arctic.

   Denmark recently sent a team of scientists to the Arctic ice pack to seek evidence that the Lomonosov Ridge was attached to the Danish territory of Greenland.

   And a US Coast Guard icebreaker also set off late last month for a research expedition – although scientists said the trip had been planned well before the Russian move.

   • 

     dada on September 21, 2007 at 9:35 am

     look for a lot more competition for sovereign rights as the ice sheet melts.

     researchers are forecasting a continuing rapid decline after another record breaking summer, predicting an ice free arctic by 2040:

     Scientists monitoring the Arctic say the sea ice appears to be growing again after undergoing a record retreat.

     The US National Snow and Ice Data Center said the minimum extent of 4.13 million sq km (1.59 million sq miles) was reached on 16 September.

     The figure shatters all previous satellite surveys, including the previous record low of 5.32 million sq km measured in 2005.

     […]

     The researchers at NSIDC judge the ice extent on a five-day mean. The minimum for 2007 eclipses the minimum set on 20-21 September 2005 by an area roughly the size of Texas and California combined, or nearly five UKs.

     […]

     … “We’re on strong spiral of decline; some would say a death spiral. I wouldn’t go that far but we’re certainly on a fast track. We know there is natural variability but the magnitude of change is too great to be caused by natural variability alone.”…

     In December 2006, a study by US researchers forecast that the Arctic could be ice-free in summers by 2040.

     BBC

     lTMF’sA

     

     • 

       hens teeth on September 21, 2007 at 10:37 am

       And then there’s the loss of territory when sea levels rise. It’s going to be eventful.

       I still think that we should try calling global warming a security threat. The ocean is invading and stealing our land. Only problem is that we can’t use any flashy “firework displays” to stop it.

       • 

         ask on September 21, 2007 at 12:29 pm

         The loss of the Arctic Ice Cap will not result in rising ocean levels since the ice cap floats in the ocean (the Greenland and Antarctic Ice Caps are very different, obviously – being mainly on solid land).

         But the melting will have another, quite unpredictable effect; change in salinity and temperature will cause changes in ocean currents with global consequences.

       • 

         idredit on September 21, 2007 at 3:36 pm

         Related to global warming.

         Now here’s a guy who dismissed climate change: Prime Minister John Howard of Australia is seeing the sunlight and feeling the heat.

         Drought puts Australia’s food bowl at risk: PM

         “SYDNEY (AFP) — Australia’s once-in-a-century drought has tightened its grip on the country’s major food growing zone and could kill off the region’s orchards and vineyards, Prime Minister John Howard said Friday.

         In his weekly radio address, Howard said that the continued lack of rain meant permanent plantings, such as fruit trees and grape vines, were dying.

         “We are dealing with a genuine crisis,” he said of the extreme water shortage in the Murray-Darling Basin.

         “Irrigation allocations are still at either zero or extremely low levels, inflows into storages are at record lows and there is significantly less water stored today compared to the same time last year.

         “Horticultural and other water dependent industries are, needless to say, the hardest hit of all; and there is now, tragically, a high risk that permanent plantings could be lost.”…

         more

2. 

   CabinGirl on September 21, 2007 at 9:17 am

   not allowed to open by court order: Chicago Trib

   A federal judge Thursday turned down Planned Parenthood’s request for an emergency court order that would allow it to open a new health clinic in Aurora that would provide abortions among other health-care services for women.

   “We don’t know when we will be able to open,” Steve Trombley, president of Planned Parenthood/Chicago Area, said after the hearing before U.S. District Judge Charles Norgle in Chicago.

   Abortion opponents battling the clinic celebrated the judge’s decision. Eric Scheidler, spokesman for the Pro-Life Action League, called the judge’s decision “a victory for life and a victory for choice.”

   No Schiedler, it’s a victory for jerks like you who want to deny poor and low income women access to annual exams, pap smears, cancer screenings, and birth control, while claiming moral superiority for doing so.

   • 

     Alice on September 21, 2007 at 10:35 am

     All medical procedures that should never have been segregated.  Imagine if men had to go to Planned Parenthood for their Viagra.

   • 

     chocolate ink on September 21, 2007 at 5:34 pm

     ‘A victory for life and a victory for choice’…once again making the up is down argument. All the lives of poor women and children who are living and breathing right now don’t count but something not yet even conceived is given precedence over real people.

     Given that bushco has been in office almost 8 years I’m surprised there are any Planned Parenthood Clinics still open although I know funding has been cut almost in half under him. Just like making the cost of buying birth control pills so expense for PPH that I believe some clinics now can not afford to supply them.  I really don’t understand the logic of these bastards…they want women to have baby after baby apparently yet once the baby is born as we have all pointed out then nothing is done to help mother and child and more and more spiral into poverty..what’s the end goal here exactly? A permanent class of slave labor or what?

     • 

       CabinGirl on September 21, 2007 at 6:27 pm

       Cannon fodder, maybe?

       That’s the GOP:  pro-life before birth and after brain death…in between, not so much.

3. 

   anarchronarchist on September 21, 2007 at 10:03 am

   Here’s what the creation of the Next World Order looks like thru the lense of the NYT.

   Carlyle Group back in the News

4. 

   CabinGirl on September 21, 2007 at 10:32 am

   of how this “credit crunch” is unwinding: MSNBC

   Like an ex-mobster turning state’s witness, Das has turned his back on his old pals in the derivatives biz to warn anyone who will listen — mostly banks and hedge funds that pay him consulting fees — that the jig is up.

   Rather than joining the crowd that blames the mess on American slobs who took on more mortgage debt than they could afford and have endangered the world by stiffing lenders, he points a finger at three parties: regulators who stood by as U.S. banks developed ingenious but dangerous ways of shifting trillions of dollars of credit risk off their balance sheets and into the hands of unsophisticated foreign investors; hedge and pension fund managers who gorged on high-yield debt instruments they didn’t understand; and financial engineers who built towers of “securitized” debt with math models that were fundamentally flawed.
   “Defaulting middle-class U.S. homeowners are blamed, but they are merely a pawn in the game,” he says. “Those loans were invented so that hedge funds would have high-yield debt to buy.”

   There’s more:

   According to Das’ figures, up to 53% of the $2.2 trillion commercial paper in the U.S. market is now asset-backed, with about 50% of that in mortgages.

   When you add it all up, according to Das’ research, a single dollar of “real” capital supports $20 to $30 of loans. This spiral of borrowing on an increasingly thin base of real assets, writ large and in nearly infinite variety, ultimately created a world in which derivatives outstanding earlier this year stood at $485 trillion — or eight times total global gross domestic product of $60 trillion.

   Without a central governmental authority keeping tabs on these cross-border flows and ensuring a standard of record-keeping and quality, investors increasingly didn’t know what they were buying or what any given security was really worth.

   Go read the whole thing.  

5. 

   on September 21, 2007 at 11:18 am

   I heard it yesterday on his radio show/propaganda broadcast.
   He was made a reference to some Arab sounding name and gave the man a title.
   “He’s AlQeada’s “Chief Information Officer”.

   “Chief Information Officer”?

   Wow, how these Arabs must have embraced western culture and the structures commonly attributed to the corporate world.  I had no idea they were so much like us.

   BBC’s “The Power of Nightmares” Part I, II and III.
   That was apparently produced before the BBC got bought out by “our” interests.

   • 

     idredit on September 21, 2007 at 1:48 pm

     The BBC has joined the disinformation band waggon..

     I’m waiting for next airing of video from Qaedy’s Chairman of The Board  – Osama bin Forgotten, Is he still alive? for a guy on kidney dialysis, the last video(s) he sure appeared in the pink of good health, dyed beard and all. Lost a little height did he?

     and of the other positions:  co-CEO; –  CFO; – COO; –

     Not to overlook the Administrative Assistant, formerly known in linguistics of past eras as the Girl Friday who makes the sweet tea.

     • 

       on September 21, 2007 at 7:34 pm

       Salute, I rest easier knowing others see the world the way I do.

6. 

   cruz del sur on September 21, 2007 at 11:22 am

   The Chilean justices agreed to extradite Fujimori on seven of 13 charges submitted by Peru

7. 

   CabinGirl on September 21, 2007 at 11:36 am

   The Quiverful folks go mainstream, mainstream media profile, that is.

8. 

   Man Eegee on September 21, 2007 at 12:01 pm

   More nooses…

   ALEXANDRIA, Louisiana (CNN) — Authorities in Alexandria, Louisiana, arrested two people after nooses were seen hanging from the back of a red pickup Thursday night, the city’s mayor told CNN.

   A photograph taken by I-Reporter Casanova Love shows a noose hanging from a red pickup.

   Alexandria is less than an hour away from Jena, Louisiana, and was a staging area Thursday for protesters who went to the smaller town to demonstrate against the treatment of six black teens known as the “Jena 6” in racially charged incidents. – linkage

   • 

     Kamakhya on September 21, 2007 at 12:50 pm

     Casanova Love?  What a name.

     I posted this in the open thread, but I think it’s important enough to post here too.  There is a poll currently on http://www.sfgate.com which is asking if the demonstration for the Jena 6 was justified.  Last I checked most people thought the 6 deserved the charges they got.  Uggh.  I would say freep this poll, but we’re not freepers.  :>)

   • 

     chocolate ink on September 21, 2007 at 6:04 pm

     As hideous as this is maybe finally the general public will start having a dialog about the continuing racial prejudice that never went away-no matter what some people seemed to think-and we can start to have an awakening of the civil rights movement so that the country as a whole will have to confront themselves-and work again toward equal justice and fairness for all.

9. 

   dada on September 21, 2007 at 12:06 pm

   The cementery at Ft. Riley, the home of the 1st. infantry, is full. So the obvious solution for Kansass two ratpub sens. Brownback and Roberts is to send an urgent request for ”full funding” for a new one.

   A Kansas military cemetery has run out of space after the burial of another casualty of the Iraq war, officials said on Thursday.

   “We are full,” said Alison Kohler, spokeswoman for the Fort Riley U.S. Army post, home of the 1st Infantry Division.

   […]

   Since the 2003 beginning of the war in Iraq, Fort Riley has lost 133 soldiers and airmen, though not all are buried in the Fort Riley cemetery. Sgt Joel Murray, who died September 4 in Iraq, took the last available plot, said Kohler.

   Fort Riley can bury bodies on top of other bodies if family members want to share a plot, said Kohler.

   link

   Wouldn’t want to bring them home alive instead, just need to make more room for the boxes.

   lTMF’sA

   

10. 

    Man Eegee on September 21, 2007 at 12:29 pm

    Today is the International Day of Peace.  If only Congress would do something meaningful to celebrate it.

11. 

    idredit on September 21, 2007 at 1:28 pm

    Instead of a Taser.

    via Laura Rozen at Mojo

    Yes, French FM Houchner does  ‘A Class Act with Anti-War Protesters’

    [His] speech started with a nod to past tensions in Franco-US relations (remember Freedom Fries?) and was moving onto the Middle East, when a group of women seated towards the front of the huge ballroom started moving to the stage unfurling their pink anti-war banner, and one woman seemed to try to grab Kouchner. The secret service agent could be heard telling Kouchner, ‘Sir, we have to take you out,” as several other security officers grabbed the women as they began chanting, “No war with Iran, no war with Iran.” The audience, the Secret Service, and CSIS president John Hamre, sitting at the raised podium, were all momentarily stunned.

    But Kouchner recovered his composure first, and he asked at first it seemed merely perhaps politely, and later fully insisted to his host Hamre, that they let the activists back in. “They are right. These ladies are right. I don’t want war with Iran. Please let them back in.” And to my surprise at least, after a couple minutes, the side doors of the large ballroom opened, and the women were escorted back to their seats by suited Secret Service types with the earpieces, not looking fully convinced of the wisdom of the move.

    Kouchner directed his remarks at several points to the Code Pink activists during his almost one hour of remarks (video available from C-Span). He said he did not want war with Iran, that he…

    more

    • 

      CabinGirl on September 21, 2007 at 5:03 pm

      Interesting.  The security guard even went back to get the bag of the woman who was disruptive later on.

      A far cry from the shock therapy or broken legs that protestors receive here.

12. 

    on September 21, 2007 at 8:20 pm

    Friday September 21 ends with a high and a low.
    The high is that the rumored “Bin Laden trades, those infamous put options on Wall Street did not cause another 911 resulting in economic armageddon.  We made it and another “deadline” has come and gone.

    The bad news comes from Logan Airport(again) and has the right wingers once again full on plugging for a more complete police state.  

    It seems a student from MIT came to Logan Airport wearing what appeared to be a bomb complete with a “circuit board and holding, reports say, either silly putty or clay, resembling plastic explosives.

    The woman was taken into custody by state police.  A local ring wing station quoted the police as saying “She is lucky she complied with our directions, otherwise she would be in the morgue”.  And of course the right wing radio applauded the incident and even called for more “action”.  And hence another entire afternoon was filled with Jay Sevrin talking to callers saying the cops should have filled her full of lead.

    Watch for the MSM “coverage” of this event.  Let’s see how far they take it, how often it’s covered, repeated by a dutiful “press”.  Pounding it into the minds of ORielly.com simpletons.  No doubt it will be a weekend talk extravaganza.
    Terra
    Terra
    Terra

    No, I’m not against law enforcement, just the terra, terra meme media and their military contractor parent companies make of it.  It should not be our sole cause for existence nor should it be the very soul of what used to be a great country.

    Oh and all Apocalyptic horse rides are on hold, I flipped the pony cart and messed up my ribs.  The pony is fine, he just headed for the barn.