Thursday News Bucket

14 Comments

1. 

   CabinGirl on May 17, 2007 at 7:32 am

   found in the antarctic: UK Independent

   An astonishing array of wildlife has been unexpectedly found in one of the world’s most hostile environments – the pitch-black, freezing extreme depths of the Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica.

   More than 700 creatures new to science, ranging from crustaceans and molluscs to carnivorous sponges and free-swimming worms, have been discovered on a series of expeditions exploring the deep waters of the Weddell Sea.

   No fewer than 585 new species of crustacean were brought to light during three sampling expeditions set up as part of the Andeep (Antarctic benthic deep-sea biodiversity) project, carried out by an international team including British scientists who were based on the German polar research ship Polarstern between 2002 and 2005.

   The results, reported this week in the journal Nature, throw new light on a largely unstudied place and challenge previous preconceptions that life in the Southern Ocean’s extreme depths was unlikely to be particularly plentiful.

2. 

   CabinGirl on May 17, 2007 at 7:46 am

   we can all feel good about: CQ

   Democrats plan to let a federal abstinence-education program die quietly next month, demonstrating that pursuit of their legislative agenda can sometimes be passive.

   The authorization for Title V abstinence-education grants expires at the end of June, and those on both sides of the sex-education debate agree that the $50 million-a-year mandatory-spending program — which draws an additional $37.5 million match from the states — stands little chance of winning an extension from a Democratic-controlled Congress.

   Democrats generally favor a broader approach to sex education, but the issue is a tricky one politically. So Democrats are not calling attention to the impending demise of the abstinence-only approach, which was established under the 1996 welfare overhaul (PL 104-193) and is now operating under a six-month extension (PL 109-432) — or to the possibility that a $110 million discretionary-spending abstinence program funded through the Department of Health and Human Services may be zeroed out for fiscal 2008.

   • 

     olivia on May 17, 2007 at 9:39 am

     in contrast to this article I just read this morning in the National Post (ahem), Teen pregnancy rates lowest yet, study finds:

     The rate of teen pregnancies in Canada has hit an all-time low and has fallen more dramatically than in the United States and England over the past three decades, according to new research.

     The findings suggest young women are better informed and have greater access to contraception than ever before, said Alex McKay, author of the study published yesterday in the Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality — though it does not mean teens are less sexually active or routinely engaging in safer sex.

     “The current generation of teenage women in Canada is more knowledgeable about sexual and reproductive health than any previous generation. And that’s a progressive phenomenon,” Mr. McKay said in an interview.

     […]

     Also noted in the article is that there is a corresponding decrease in rate of abortions:

     […]

     “Sometimes people assume that a drop in the teen pregnancy rate has to do with fluctuations in the amount of young women having abortions, but that’s a misconception,” Mr. Mc- Kay said.

     “What we’re really seeing is that fewer young women are becoming pregnant in the first place.”

     […]

     On the other side, STDs are up.

     • 

       CabinGirl on May 17, 2007 at 10:17 am

       Very interesting.  Especially since STD rates are up while pregnancy rates are down.

3. 

   ask on May 17, 2007 at 7:58 am

   Russia accused of unleashing cyberwar to disable Estonia

   · Parliament, ministries, banks, media targeted
   · Nato experts sent in to strengthen defences

   A three-week wave of massive cyber-attacks on the small Baltic country of Estonia, the first known incidence of such an assault on a state, is causing alarm across the western alliance, with Nato urgently examining the offensive and its implications.

   While Russia and Estonia are embroiled in their worst dispute since the collapse of the Soviet Union, a row that erupted at the end of last month over the Estonians’ removal of the Bronze Soldier Soviet war memorial in central Tallinn, the country has been subjected to a barrage of cyber warfare, disabling the websites of government ministries, political parties, newspapers, banks, and companies.

   • 

     CabinGirl on May 17, 2007 at 8:05 am

     That is just bizarrre, isn’t it?  And how does a country retaliate against a cyber attack?

     • 

       ask on May 17, 2007 at 8:08 am

       I found the story quite disturbing.

4. 

   ask on May 17, 2007 at 8:07 am

   Update on Wolfowitz.

   Wolfowitz negotiates resignation terms

   …
   The committee is expected to endorse the report – effectively calling for Mr Wolfowitz’s resignation – and censure Mr Wolfowitz for circumventing bank procedures. The ad hoc group concluded he had violated ethical rules and the terms of his own contract.

   Mr Wolfowitz’s lawyer, Robert Bennett, suggested Mr Wolfowitz was happy to force the board into a showdown. Canada, which had previously backed the US, dramatically switched camps on Tuesday when the US urged a softer treatment of Mr Wolfowitz’s failings. Japan, another former supporter, also distanced itself from Mr Wolfowitz. When US representatives realised that opposition was growing, the White House prepared to do a u-turn.”Mr Wolfowitz will not resign under this ethical cloud and he will rather put this matter to a full vote,” he said.
   …
   But Mr Wolfowitz’s stipulation that he be cleared of accusations of breaking bank rules before resigning may backfire, with European governments hardening their stance against him in the light of his aggressive response.
   …
   Canada, which had previously backed the US, dramatically switched camps on Tuesday when the US urged a softer treatment of Mr Wolfowitz’s failings. Japan, another former supporter, also distanced itself from Mr Wolfowitz. When US representatives realised that opposition was growing, the White House prepared to do a u-turn.

   What a disgrace he is!

   • 

     CabinGirl on May 17, 2007 at 9:22 am

     I love it…””I’ll resign if you retract your resign for wanting my resignation”…these guys are such arrogant criminals.

     They all belong in their own little Gitmo.

5. 

   ask on May 17, 2007 at 8:21 am

   This is not news, it happens every year.

   May 17th

   The former Norwegian president of parliament Jo Benkow noted that the day has increasingly become a celebration of Norway’s growing ethnic diversity.

   Several factors have probably contributed to the inclusive nature of the celebration:

       * The central position of the children’s parade, including all lower level school children, and therefore also their parents in the celebration.
       * The celebration is focused around local schools and their children’s parade.
       * The children’s parade reaches outwards, trying to cover as many roads as possible in the local community.
       * The low focus on elected government during the celebration. In the capital, for example, the children’s parade passes the left side of the parliament building, and the president of parliament is allowed to wave to the passing parade from a small balcony,[2] but the main focus of the parade is the Royal Castle and the Royal Family. In must also be noted that the office of president of parliament is mainly ceremonial and administrative, often awarded in the later part of a political career. The prime minister and the rest of the ruling government on the other hand have no official duties during the celebrations.
       * The virtual lack of any military-centred celebration.

   One can add, that the day should be regarded as an expression of thankfulness, on behalf of the old values freedom, equality and brotherhood, the ideological basis for the constitution, and also on behalf of the circumstances that led up to the constitution. The aspect of “thanksgiving” in the national celebrations of Norway, are easily forgotten in the long span of years from 1814.

   • 

     hens teeth on May 17, 2007 at 11:01 am

     What a great celebration.

6. 

   olivia on May 17, 2007 at 9:18 am

   London (AFP) — Straight-talking former US ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton accused a top BBC presenter of being leftwing and “a superior Brit” in a colourful on-air spat Thursday.

   The controversial ex-diplomat, who left the UN post in January, made the comments after fiercely defending the United States’ role in Iraq and saying that force should be used against Iran if necessary.

   […]

7. 

   idredit on May 17, 2007 at 12:02 pm

   Defiant Watch

   Paul Wolfowitz:   He’s done. His physical raid of the boardroom sealed his fate.  The damage is too deep, is irreparable.

   Alberto Gonzales: He’ll quit.–AP

   “The Justice Department, according to veteran Sen. Arlen Specter (news, bio, voting record), can’t properly protect the nation from terrorism or oversee
   President Bush’s no-warrant eavesdropping program with Gonzales at the helm.”

8. 

   dada on May 17, 2007 at 12:06 pm

   will he, or won’t he? Gore’s new book looks at the current state of america from another viewpoint.

   looks like he’s been reading marshall mcluhan…the medium is the message

   Gore says logic, reason on the decline

   Nick Juliano, May 17, 2007   

   In his forthcoming book, The Assault on Reason, former Vice President Al Gore says the country’s headlong rush into war demonstrates the extent to which “logical debate” is under assault in the way America governs itself, according to an excerpt published by Time magazine.

   […]

   Gore’s re-emergence has fueled calls for him to enter the 2008 presidential race. Although the vice president has said he doesn’t intend to run, his not-quite-certain denials have left open hope among Gore faithfuls that he could enter the race at the last minute. In a New York Times Magazine interview to be published Sunday, Gore left open the possibility he could change his mind.

   “Having spent 30 years as part of the political dialogue, I don’t know why a 600-day campaign is taken as a given,” Gore told James Traub of the Times, “and why people who aren’t in it 600 days out for the convenience of whatever brokers want to close the door and narrow the field and say, ‘This is it, now let’s place your bets’ — If they want to do that, fine. I don’t have to play that game.”

   In his book, Gore blames the decline in newspaper readership and the rise of television…has led to a populace that is not only less informed, but less able to adequately participate in a national conversation.

   […]

   …In it, he lays out the extent to which public opinion can be manipulated through television advertisements and the damaging potential as Americans elect their leaders based more on style than substance. He said political targeting efforts that play on individualized appeals aimed at highly specific demographics has “magnified the power of propagandistic electronic messaging” that threaten open and fact-based discourse.

   […]

   linkage

   lTMF’sA