Friday 17 June 2011

Blogosphere and social media present startling evidence

Don't blame anarchists and thugs for the riot

The jerks were the nice boys and girls next door

17 June 2011 VANCOUVER, BC — While police and politicians continue to lay the blame for this week’s Stanley Cup riot in Vancouver on professional anarchists and hardened thugs with deep-seated criminal tendencies, the blogosphere and social networks such as Facebook have been revealing a much more uncomfortable truth.

The price of being a genius

In China they're jumping off rooftops

In America they're organizing a union

14 June 2011 LOS ANGELES U.S.A. — What is genius worth? If you're the management of Apple, then the answer is simple: $14 an hour (about R90). That's how much the computer giant pays hardworking staff at their American retail outlets, who are officially known as “geniuses” and who can often be found at an in-store facility known as “the genius bar”.

Health Watch

An apple a day could make you sick from pesticides

Onions, corn, watermelon included in the 'Clean 15'

CTV.ca

14 June 2011 WEST LAFAYETTE Indiana — The old saying that an apple a day keeps the doctor away may need an asterisk, in the wake of a new report that says some of the most popular produce contains the highest levels of pesticides.

Russian general explains Qaddafi's success

Says West doesn't see snake pit with victory

'There were no Libyans among the people who gave TV interviews as rebels. Believe me from experience.'

15 June 2011 MOSCOW — The situation in Libya has been a central topic for the world media for several months. What is happening in this country? Why is Gaddafi still in power? How did he manage to win the confidence of his people? Alexander Rogovoy, a Russian Major-General, senior military adviser to Libya in the mid 2000's, Associate Professor of General Staff of the Military Academy, shared his vision of the situation in Libya in an interview with Pravda.ru.

"For work you had to communicate with the family of Colonel Gaddafi. Can you tell us about your impression of him?"

"I communicated more with one of the sons of al-Gaddafi. He was an ordinary, normal, fairly intelligent young man who was studying in Russia at the Frunze Academy and the Academy of General Staff. He was very serious about issues he studied. In daily life he was sociable, polite to the elderly, as, probably, required by the rules of the Islamic world.

As for the colonel, the thing that struck me here in Libya was that the country lived its life: portraits of Gaddafi could be hanging, or could be lying on the ground. People could walk on them, but no one was punished for that."

'Humanitarian' Cruise Missile

strikes 10,000-student university in Tripoli

Injuries, extensive damage, but no deaths

14 June 2011 TRIPOLI Libya — Since coming to Tripoli to see first hand the consequences of the NATO military operations, it has become clear to me that despite the ongoing silence of the international press on the ground here in Libya, there is clear evidence that civilian targets have been hit and Libyan civilians injured and killed.



This Tuesday morning I was taken from my hotel across the city through its bustling traffic to the Al Fateh University.

On 9 June, Dean Ali Mansur was outside in the parking lot.  The sky was blue like Carolina blue. The clouds were white — no chemtrails in sight. Puffy and white.  Dean Mansur was visibly upset.  It seems that some of the young men at Al Fateh University, Campus B were fighting over girls. He explained to me that Libyans are hot blooded. With a gleam in his eye, he whispered to me that girls are important to young men.  



"News is what (certain) people want to keep hidden. Everything else is just publicity." -- PBS journalist Bill Moyers.   Your support makes it possible for True North to clear the fog of "publicity" and keep you informed on what's really happening in the world today. Please send your donation to:   Carl Dow, True North, Station E, P.O. Box 4814, Ottawa ON Canada K1S 5H9.   Or use our new Paypal system! Just click the secure link below — and if you're paying by credit card, you don't need a PayPal account to make a donation!

 

From the Desk of Dennis Carr, Sustainability Editor

Coming to a Shore Near You: Acidified Water

From Baja to BC, it's shown up near the ocean's surface sooner than we thought.

Editor's note: The Tyee is pleased to bring you the second in an occasional series of articles, 'Northwest Ocean Acidification: The Other Cost of Carbon Pollution', produced by the Sightline Institute.

 

By Jennifer Langston

TheTyee.ca

 

16 June 2011 — Five years ago, many scientists probably thought they'd never see large pools of corrosive water near the ocean's surface in their lifetimes. Basic chemistry told them that as the oceans absorbed more carbon dioxide pollution from cars and smokestacks and industrial processes, seawater would become more acidic. Eventually, the oceans could become corrosive enough to kill vulnerable forms of sea life like corals and shellfish and plankton.

 

But scientists believed the effects of this chemical process — called ocean acidification — would be confined to deep offshore ocean waters for some time. Models projected it would take decades before corrosive waters reached the shallow continental shelf off the Pacific Coast, where an abundance of sea life lives.

 

Until a group of oceanographers started hunting for it.

 

"What we found, of course, was that it was everywhere we looked," said Richard Feely, an oceanographer at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratoryin Seattle, Washington, who was one of the first to recognize the trouble ahead. — 1.178 words.

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Slow down and smell the roses (literally!)

Alberte Villeneuve-Sinclair is the author of The Neglected Garden and two French novels. Visit her website to learn more www.albertevilleneuve.ca.

I gave some thought to the things that please me and give me a natural high last weekend and realized it was time to slow down and smell the roses.

 

Spirit Quest

Humanity's basic empathy

must be fanned by love to keep it glowing

By The Rev. Dr. Hanns F. Skoutajan

True North Perspective

20 May 2011 — They say it’s going to be a hot one. Indeed, we have already experienced the mercury rising above 30 degrees centigrade, and it’s only the beginning of the season. However, we have been reminded, that there have been other torrid times when we were less protected from the weather.

When I was a teenager, and that’s some time ago, I worked during the summer in a large machine shop. Dozens of lathes, milling machines, grinders. generated heat as they worked steel into shape. The plant had no air conditioning and opening windows simply exchanged indoor heat with outdoor heat. — 839 words.

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From the Desk of Darren Jerome

David House pleads The Fifth

WikiLeaks Grand Jury witness says

he declined to answer queries on Manning

By Michael Riley

Bloomberg News

 

15 June 2011 WASHINGTON DC — David House, a computer expert and acquaintance of the U.S. Army private accused of leaking classified information to the website WikiLeaks, said he declined to answer most questions in front of a federal grand jury investigating a possible conspiracy in the case.

 

In comments today following his appearance before the panel in Alexandria, Virginia, House said he provided only his name and address, invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self- incrimination. — 536 words.

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Europe braces for serious crop losses and power shortages

Record dry spring could drive up wheat prices, and lack of water may force nuclear reactors to shut down

By Jeremy Lovell

Scientific American

13 June 2011, LONDON — One of the driest spring seasons on record in northern Europe has sucked soils dry and sharply reduced river levels to the point that governments are starting to fear crop losses and France, in particular, is bracing for blackouts as its river-cooled nuclear power plants may be forced to shut down.

French Agriculture Minister Bruno Le Maire warned this week that the warmest and driest spring in half a century could slash wheat yields and might even push up world prices despite the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization's predicting a bumper global crop due to greater plantings. — 979 words.

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Always worth repeating

'Give us the tools and we'll finish the job'

— Winston Churchill

Let's say that news throughout human time has been free. Take that time when Ugh Wayne went over to the cave of Mugh Payne with news that the chief of his group had broken a leg while chasing his laughing wife around the fire. That news was given freely and received as such with much knowing smiles and smirks to say nothing of grunts of approval or disapproval. — 688 words.

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Everybody loves a sunset Especially on the west shore of Newfoundland

In 2001 I went to a wedding at Corner Brook, Newfoundland, about the halfway point on the province's west coast. I fell in love with the place and heard my first genuine Newfie joke: People from away say we Newfies speak too fast. But the problem is, they think too slow. Randy and Janis Ray are two more from away who have become addicted to Newfoundland. Their smiles tell all. Randy took this sunset shot from the shore of Rocky Harbour, a community of 1,000, 85 kilometres north of Corner Brook. Rocky Harbour is an old fishing and lumbering village that is now also a thriving tourist centre. Randy says the photo was taken Monday, June 13. The sun sets on the western edge of The Gulf of St. Lawrence. It takes an hour to say goodnight. And is amazing. — Carl Dow, Editor and Publisher, True North Perspective.

You can count on the True North Team Publishers are cutting back and that includes in-house editors Outside editors of the True North Team are rescuing writers from oblivion We handle fiction and memoirs and full-length books Manuscript editing to ghost writing Everything to put the best face on your work to publishers and the reading public For a free consultation please don't hesitate to contact carl.dow@truenorthperspective.com or Carl Dow at 613-233-6225 Always looking forward

It's business as usual from an unusual place

Venezuela’s President Chávez conducts

affairs of state from a hospital bed in Cuba

By Rachael Boothroyd

Venezuelanalysis.com

 

13 June 2011 CORO Cuba — Following an operation last Friday for a pelvic abscess, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez is now reported to be recovering well in a Cuban hospital.

 

During the final leg of his short tour of Latin America, the Venezuelan leader took ill in Cuba and had to undergo immediate surgery in Havana.— 513 words.

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China-Venezuela trade, cultural, political relations

grow — 900% over 1999 in diversified trade alone

Avn-Correo del Orinoco International

17 June 2011 — Trade between China and Venezuela has increased by 50 times in the last decade, which has transformed the Asian country into the second largest trade partner of Venezuela, a fact evidenced by the consolidation of bilateral relations.

 

During the inauguration of the Third Industrial Expo China-Venezuela 2011 in Caracas this Thursday, Venezuela’s Planning and Finance Minister, Jorge Giordani, said that ties between the two countries have been strengthened on the basis of equality, cooperation and fraternity, which has made the expansion of multiple agreements in commercial and productive industries possible. — 248 words.

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Why the Pentagon Papers of 40 years ago matter now

'While we go on waging unwinnable wars on false premises, the Pentagon papers tell us we must not wait 40 years for the truth'

By Daniel Ellsberg

Reader Supported News

13 June 2011 — The declassification and online release Monday of the full original version of the Pentagon Papers — the 7,000-page top secret Pentagon study of US decision-making in Vietnam 1945-67 — comes 40 years after I gave it to 19 newspapers and to Senator Mike Gravel (minus volumes on negotiations, which I had given only to the Senate foreign relations committee).

Gravel entered what I had given him in the congressional record and later published nearly all of it with Beacon Press. Together with the newspaper coverage and a government printing office (GPO) edition that was heavily redacted but overlapped the Senator Gravel edition, most of the material has been available to the public and scholars since 1971. (The negotiation volumes were declassified some years ago; the Senate, if not the Pentagon, should have released them no later than the end of the war in 1975.)

In other words, today's declassification of the whole study comes 36 to 40 years overdue. Yet, unfortunately, it happens to be peculiarly timely that this study gets attention and goes online just now. That's because we're mired again in wars — especially in Afghanistan — remarkably similar to the 30-year conflict in Vietnam, and we don't have comparable documentation and insider analysis to enlighten us on how we got here and where it's likely to go.

What we need released this month are the Pentagon Papers of Iraq and Afghanistan (and Pakistan, Yemen and Libya). We're not likely to get them; they probably don't yet exist, at least in the useful form of the earlier ones. But the original studies on Vietnam are a surprisingly not-bad substitute, definitely worth learning from. — 1,553 words.

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Democrats-Republicans file joint lawsuit against

President Obama, saying Libya war violates the law

The Cleveland Plain Dealer

15 June 2011 WASHINGTON, DC — U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich and nine colleagues sued the Obama administration today over the president's decision to provide air and intelligence support to NATO's mission in Libya.

 

The bipartisan group of lawmakers, including Texas Republican Ron Paul and Michigan Democrat John Conyers, wants an injunction to prevent the United States from going to war without consent from Congress.

 

That includes a prohibition that would keep President Barack Obama from joining military missions led by NATO or the United Nations unless authorized by Congress. — 575 words.

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Unpublished Diary of Che Guevara launched in Havana

Only this one ain't about motorcycles — it's all about revolution

By Madeleine Sautié Rodrguez

Granma

15 June 2010 — The Diario de un combatiente, Sierra Maestra-Santa Clara (1956-1958)written by Commander Ernesto Che Guevara, was launched Tuesday at the Press International Center as part of the celebration for the 83rd anniversary of his birthday.

The book is a war diary accounting the last two years of the armed struggle before the triumph of the Revolution. — 250 words.

14 June 2011 — Scientists say the Sun, which roils with flares and electromagnetic energy every 11 years or so could go into virtual hibernation after the current cycle of high activity, reducing temperatures on Earth.

 

As the current sunspot cycle, Cycle 24, begins to ramp up toward maximum, scientists from the National Solar Observatory (NSO) and the Air Force Research Laboratory independently found that the Sun's interior, visible surface, and corona indicate that the next 11-year solar sunspot cycle, Cycle 25, will be greatly reduced or may not happen at all.

 

The groups said a "missing jet stream, fading spots, and slower activity near the poles say that our Sun is heading for a rest period even as it is acting up for the first time in years." — 732 words.

You're a dirty whore-monger, Chester Brown

The Book End

Before Uncle Tom's Cabin slavery was generally accepted

The woman who started the American Civil War: 1861-1865

13 June 2011 — When Harriet Beecher Stowe published Uncle Tom's Cabin in 1852, the American slave trade was a thriving institution. The courts condoned it and, as Southerners were quick to claim, so did the Constitution and the Bible. Twelve American presidents had been slave owners, and the abolitionist movement was fragmented and marginal.

But Stowe, a seminal figure in American liberalism, had a knack for making radical concepts palatable to the general public, and her novel became one of the first genuine pop culture phenomena in American history. Within 10 years of its publication, the United States devolved into civil war. And as historian David S. Reynolds argues in "Mightier Than the Sword," a new book that explores Stowe's life and the global impact of her work, it was Uncle Tom's Cabin that catalyzed  the conflict. — 1,382 words.