With Katie Couric just weeks away from saying whether she will stay at NBC’s “Today” show or bolt for a rival network, NBC is making plans aimed at keeping the highly profitable program on track if she does leave.
Ms. Couric’s departure from “Today,” which she has co-hosted for 15 years, could topple a line of dominoes that would be difficult to reset. First, there is the decision on her successor: If internal up-and-comers are passed over in favor of an outsider, they will probably leave, creating new problems for the network.
Have I mentioned that I think she’s one of the most irritating women on tv?
Me too, which is why I don’t watch the Today Show. I just can’t picture her as a serious evening news anchor. She’s far too perky. Are they going to have a peekaboo desk for her so viewers can see her legs and high heels?
Iraqi police have accused American troops of executing 11 people, including a 75-year-old woman and a 6-month-old infant, in the aftermath of a raid last Wednesday on a house about 60 miles north of Baghdad.
The villagers were killed after American troops herded them into a single room of the house, according to a police document obtained by Knight Ridder Newspapers. The soldiers also burned three vehicles, killed the villagers’ animals and blew up the house, the document said.
Chavez is one of Bush’s fiercest critics and has repeatedly accused the U.S. government of seeking to oust him from the presidency of Venezuela, the world’s No. 5 oil exporter and a supplier of around 15 percent of U.S. crude imports.
“You are a donkey, Mr. Bush,” said Chavez, speaking in English on his weekly Sunday broadcast.
“You’re an alcoholic Mr. Danger, or rather, you’re a drunkard,” Chavez said, referring to Bush by a nickname he frequently uses to describe the U.S. president. link
So, now we know that Ductape Fatwa is really Hugo Chavez. Who knew?
An exasperated father has discovered to his cost that cyberspace is not the ideal arena for family feuds. Two weeks ago Steve Williams became so fed up with his daughter’s messy bedroom that he built a website featuring pictures of his slothful offspring’s lair in an attempt to shame her into action.
An, um, interesting approach…how did it work, you ask?
But the public humiliation proved a short-lived victory. While it did spur his daughter, Claire, into tidying up her room, it also whet her appetite for revenge. With the help of her father’s friends, the 20-year-old business student has now set up a rival website that displays photos of him in a variety of compromising situations.
“All my friends feel sorry for Claire so they’re ganging up on me,” said Mr Williams, of Whitehaven, Cumbria. “They’ve managed to dig out photos of me drunk and dancing round with a handbag at a party, and also put pictures of my garage on to show it’s not just Claire who’s untidy.
The most depressingly predictable, and predictably depressing, story of the day has the headline, “On Anniversary, Bush and Cheney See Iraq Success.” Why bother with a link? But the NYT quotes Cheney as saying,
It’s not just about Iraq, it’s not about just today’s situation in Iraq. It’s about where we’re going to be 10 years from now in the Middle East and whether or not there’s going to be hope and the development of the governments that are responsive to the will of the people, that are not a threat to anyone, that are not safe havens for terror or manufacturers of weapons of mass destruction.
Just replace “Middle East” in the quote above with “United States,” and you can see why Mr. Cheney feels the war in Iraq is such a success.
The Canadian firm Tech Cominco Limited, one of the world’s largest zinc mining companies, is planning to recycle old televisions and stereos, an official told AFP Friday. The company won approval from environmental authorities in Canada to try large-scale recycling of 3,000 metric tons of discarded electronics at its Trail smelter in British Columbia.
One concern voiced about the proposal to inject carbon dioxide into depleted oil fields under the sea has been the risk of leakage of the carbon dioxide from the rock layers where it was injected. A new discovery indicates this problem may be less of an issue than thought, in the right circumstances. Scientists have discovered that under the proper conditions of temperature and pressure, seawater and carbon dioxide can combine into ice-like compounds in which the water molecules form cavities that act as cages, trapping the carbon dioxide molecules. Such carbon-dioxide hydrates would act to seal any leaks, providing an extra level of protection against leakage.
A devastating tropical cyclone has ripped through north-eastern Australia, injuring people and destroying homes with gusts of up to 180 miles per hour. And another cyclone – the Southern hemisphere’s hurricane equivalent – is on its way. The first cyclone, named Larry, reached maximum (Category 5) intensity at about the time of landfall. The second cyclone, called Wati, is currently about 1250 miles east of Queensland. This cyclone is intensifying, and the Bureau of Meteorology expects it to hit Australia in a few days. Larry’s maximum wind speeds were similar to those of Hurricane Katrina. But communities affected by Larry were not below sea level, so they were not at the same risk of devastating flooding. It will take a few days to fully assess the property damage caused by Larry, but it could turn out to be the most destructive cyclone ever to hit Queensland, says the Cyclone Warning Centre in Brisbane. Five Category 5 cyclones have been recorded in the past.
Boulders blasted away from the Earth’s surface after a major impact could have traveled all the way to the outer solar system, new calculations reveal. The work suggests that terrestrial microbes on the rocks could in theory have landed on Saturn’s giant moon, Titan. But whether they could have survived once there remains unclear.
Waking up from the Kool-Aid, part 1: For more than a decade, the idea that private companies would be able to bring water to the world’s poor has been a mantra of development policies promoted by international lending agencies and certain governments. It has not happened. In the past decade, according to a private water suppliers trade group, private companies have managed to extend water service to just 10 million people, less than 1 percent of those who need it. Some 1.1 billion people still lack access to clean water, the UN says. And at the fourth World Water Forum, a six-day conference in Mexico City of industry, governments and nongovernmental organizations, there is little talk of privatization. 🙂
Waking up from the Kool-Aid, Part 2: W may want to build moon colonies as a stepping stone to mars, but there are little details that might make this harder than it at first appears: like “moonquakes.” Shallow moonquakes, originating 20 or 30 kilometers below the surface, were doozies. Between 1972 and 1977, the Apollo seismic network saw twenty-eight of them; a few registered up to 5.5 on the Richter scale. A magnitude 5 quake on Earth is energetic enough to move heavy furniture and crack plaster (or a moon colony’s airtight seal…). Furthermore, shallow moonquakes lasted a remarkably long time. Once they got going, all continued more than 10 minutes, as the moon is more rigid than the earth, ringing like a tuning fork.
Waking up from the Kool-Aid, part 3: Anybody catch 60 Minutes last night? They slammed the Bush Administration for silencing NASA experts on climate change and having political hacks formerly in the oil industry edit technical documents. They repeatedly showed the actual documents with the handwritten edits. Dr. Hansen repeatedly used the word “Danger” though he has been directed not to, and said we have 10 years to address climate change, or the changes will be irreversible. Miss it? Check it out here. Yes, we’ve all known this at the pond for a long time. But it was a thing of beauty and hope to see it all spelled out in the MSM for Joe Sixpack to see. ((((60 Minutes)))). And if you didn’t see Mole333’s diary on it, go check that out.
Waking up from the Kool-Aid, Part 4: In a big win for environmentalists on Friday, a federal appeals court struck down a Bush administration rule that would have made it easier for coal-burning power plants to make equipment changes without installing controls to fight the pollution that would result. The court shot down an Environmental Protection Agency rule that said power plant owners would only have to install modern pollution fighting controls if equipment changes cost more than 20 percent of the replacement cost of the plant. Environmental groups and several states sued, arguing the rule would gut the new source review enforcement provisions of the Clean Air Act and allow the oldest, dirtiest coal-fired power plants to expand output without cutting polluting emissions. The court agreed, saying the agency rule was “contrary to the plain language” of the Clean Air Act.
60 minutes has actually done a few stories relating to the BushCo silencing of scientists over the past few weeks, haven’t they? Was last night a follow-up story? (I missed it.)
Iraq is now in ‘a terrible civil war’, admits Allawi — “One of Iraq’s most pro-western figures and an ex-prime minister yesterday became the first of its leaders to express what most of his compatriots fear: the country is in the grip of a “terrible” civil war. (…)” (Doesn’t exactly jive w/ Bush/Cheney version.)
In Secret Unit’s ‘Black Room,’ a Grim Portrait of U.S. Abuse — “Placards posted by soldiers at the detention area advised, “NO BLOOD, NO FOUL.” The slogan, as one Defense Department official explained, reflected an adage adopted by Task Force 6-26: “If you don’t make them bleed, they can’t prosecute for it.” According to Pentagon specialists who worked with the unit, prisoners at Camp Nama often disappeared into a detention black hole, barred from access to lawyers or relatives, and confined for weeks without charges. “The reality is, there were no rules there,” another Pentagon official said.”
Canada wins another round in softwood battle with U.S. — “The NAFTA decision found that Canadian softwood exports are not subsidized, the government said. That means the U.S. never had the right to impose the $5.2 billion in duties it has collected on Canadian lumber imports, a spokesperson said. (…) “This is the second NAFTA panel comprised of a majority of Americans to have unanimously ruled that there is no merit to the U.S. allegations, first regarding injury, and now regarding subsidy.” (…)”
Travel between Canada and other countries — “Canadians took more than 1.3 million overnight trips to the United States in January, the highest level in over 12 years. In the same month, same-day car travel to the United States hit the two-million mark for the first time since August 2001. (Unless otherwise specified, monthly data are seasonally adjusted whereas exchange rates are not). (…) On the incoming side, overnight travel from the United States to Canada rose 2.0% from December to an estimated 1.2 million trips. Among overnight travel modes of transportation, car travel posted the largest increase. Overnight plane travel was up slightly. Same-day car travel to Canada from the United States rose 0.8% in January, with Americans taking nearly 1.3 million trips. This was the second consecutive monthly increase after four straight months of declines. (…)”
Canadians worth $137,300 each: Statistics Canada — “Canada’s national net worth reached $4.5 trillion by the end of 2005, or roughly $137,300 per person, Statistics Canada said Friday. The country’s net worth grew by 1.4 per cent, or $60.4 billion, over the last three months of 2005, up sharply from 0.7 per cent in the third quarter, when growth was constrained by an increase in net foreign debt. (…)”
Afghanistan won’t be ‘Canada’s Iraq’: O’Connor — “Defence Minister Gordon O’Connor is adamant that there will be no vote on Canada’s role in Afghanistan, even if that vote were to strengthen the Conservatives’ mandate to continue that mission. (…)” (This is my MP btw. Gah.)
GM adds $2 billion US to 2005 loss — “General Motors Corp. has increased its previously reported 2005 loss by $2 billion US, raising the total to $10.6 billion US. (…)” (I thought GMAC was a profitable component, apparently I was wrong.)
Uneven breasts linked to cancer — “A University of Liverpool team compared mammograms of 252 women who went on to develop breast cancer with a similar number from women who stayed healthy. The study in the journal Breast Cancer Research found the relative odds of getting cancer went up 50% for each 100ml increase in breast asymmetry. (…)”
And finally, this last set is a heads up for all the academe-folk; seems to be a lot of stuff coming out about fradulant data, etc.:
Agencies blow the whistle on faked research, ethical lapses — “More than a dozen scientists and doctors, several of them recipients of sizable federal grants, have been faking research, destroying data, plagiarizing or conducting experiments on people without necessary ethics approvals, the country’s lead research agencies report. (…)”
March 20 (Bloomberg) — Dubai, which agreed this month to sell its interest in U.S. ports, said its $1.2 billion takeover of a U.K. company with U.S. plants that make military equipment is delayed while the authorities investigate security concerns.
Dubai International Capital LLC, which is owned by the government of the Persian Gulf emirate, and Doncasters Group Ltd. agreed to delay the transaction by as many as two months from March 31 while government agencies review the purchase, Sameer Al Ansari, Dubai International’s chief executive, said in an interview today.
Senator Trent Lott who’s out promoting his book,“Herding Cats” said he’s considering a run for Senate Majority leader. Just wonderin’ if the title is an intended jab at a certain someone, Frist.
Frist, who is dogged by questions about stock transactions involving the family company, plans to step down next year as majority leader to make a run for the presidency. It’s a run that Lott doesn’t think much of.
“I don’t think he has a shot at that,” Lott said.[..]
via Huffpost
Now with friends or colleaques being this blunt, who needs enemies?
PLDN – arrests at the federal building now
author: PLDN (Portland Legal Defense Network)
We have just received a report that the 19 protesters who have occupied Wyden’s office are being arrested.
The protesters have been in there since noon and have requested the presence of Legal Observers. The authorities have not allowed the Legal Observers to enter the building despite negotiation attempts between the organizers of the action and the authorities. Many people have called Wyden’s office to demand that Legal Observers be allowed to witness the event. Wyden’s staff has been “snippy” with callers and in at least one instance have told callers that the protesters do not wish for Legal Observers to witness their action. THIS IS NOT TRUE. And now these protesters are being arrested with no witnesses or Legal Observers present. If you observe the arrestees being taken from the federal building, please call the Portland Legal Defense Network with information. 503-234-4518
to Katie Couric? WSJ online
Have I mentioned that I think she’s one of the most irritating women on tv?
women on T.V. does that finally make it a fact.
Me too, which is why I don’t watch the Today Show. I just can’t picture her as a serious evening news anchor. She’s far too perky. Are they going to have a peekaboo desk for her so viewers can see her legs and high heels?
she starts to wear her glasses all the time if she takes the news anchor job?
They’re killing more civilians: Knight Ridder
Why does this sound so familiar?
So, now we know that Ductape Fatwa is really Hugo Chavez. Who knew?
So Ductape, can you get us some cheap gasoline?
Parents, take note: Guardian
An, um, interesting approach…how did it work, you ask?
Some friends you’ve got there, dad…
Everybody sees your ass!
The most depressingly predictable, and predictably depressing, story of the day has the headline, “On Anniversary, Bush and Cheney See Iraq Success.” Why bother with a link? But the NYT quotes Cheney as saying,
Just replace “Middle East” in the quote above with “United States,” and you can see why Mr. Cheney feels the war in Iraq is such a success.
whiny kids from your early school years? Chances are they grew up to be conservatives.
so I guess it will always suck with these assholes around!
Which makes it absolutely hilarious that Atrios was already calling them Whiney Ass Titty Babies. He was right, lol.
The Canadian firm Tech Cominco Limited, one of the world’s largest zinc mining companies, is planning to recycle old televisions and stereos, an official told AFP Friday. The company won approval from environmental authorities in Canada to try large-scale recycling of 3,000 metric tons of discarded electronics at its Trail smelter in British Columbia.
One concern voiced about the proposal to inject carbon dioxide into depleted oil fields under the sea has been the risk of leakage of the carbon dioxide from the rock layers where it was injected. A new discovery indicates this problem may be less of an issue than thought, in the right circumstances. Scientists have discovered that under the proper conditions of temperature and pressure, seawater and carbon dioxide can combine into ice-like compounds in which the water molecules form cavities that act as cages, trapping the carbon dioxide molecules. Such carbon-dioxide hydrates would act to seal any leaks, providing an extra level of protection against leakage.
A devastating tropical cyclone has ripped through north-eastern Australia, injuring people and destroying homes with gusts of up to 180 miles per hour. And another cyclone – the Southern hemisphere’s hurricane equivalent – is on its way. The first cyclone, named Larry, reached maximum (Category 5) intensity at about the time of landfall. The second cyclone, called Wati, is currently about 1250 miles east of Queensland. This cyclone is intensifying, and the Bureau of Meteorology expects it to hit Australia in a few days. Larry’s maximum wind speeds were similar to those of Hurricane Katrina. But communities affected by Larry were not below sea level, so they were not at the same risk of devastating flooding. It will take a few days to fully assess the property damage caused by Larry, but it could turn out to be the most destructive cyclone ever to hit Queensland, says the Cyclone Warning Centre in Brisbane. Five Category 5 cyclones have been recorded in the past.
Boulders blasted away from the Earth’s surface after a major impact could have traveled all the way to the outer solar system, new calculations reveal. The work suggests that terrestrial microbes on the rocks could in theory have landed on Saturn’s giant moon, Titan. But whether they could have survived once there remains unclear.
A “fat virus” could help explain the worldwide obesity epidemic. The virus is Ad-36, a human adenovirus that usually causes colds, eye infections and diarrhea. In a number of species, including humans, the virus has been linked to obesity.
Waking up from the Kool-Aid, part 1: For more than a decade, the idea that private companies would be able to bring water to the world’s poor has been a mantra of development policies promoted by international lending agencies and certain governments. It has not happened. In the past decade, according to a private water suppliers trade group, private companies have managed to extend water service to just 10 million people, less than 1 percent of those who need it. Some 1.1 billion people still lack access to clean water, the UN says. And at the fourth World Water Forum, a six-day conference in Mexico City of industry, governments and nongovernmental organizations, there is little talk of privatization. 🙂
Waking up from the Kool-Aid, Part 2: W may want to build moon colonies as a stepping stone to mars, but there are little details that might make this harder than it at first appears: like “moonquakes.” Shallow moonquakes, originating 20 or 30 kilometers below the surface, were doozies. Between 1972 and 1977, the Apollo seismic network saw twenty-eight of them; a few registered up to 5.5 on the Richter scale. A magnitude 5 quake on Earth is energetic enough to move heavy furniture and crack plaster (or a moon colony’s airtight seal…). Furthermore, shallow moonquakes lasted a remarkably long time. Once they got going, all continued more than 10 minutes, as the moon is more rigid than the earth, ringing like a tuning fork.
Waking up from the Kool-Aid, part 3: Anybody catch 60 Minutes last night? They slammed the Bush Administration for silencing NASA experts on climate change and having political hacks formerly in the oil industry edit technical documents. They repeatedly showed the actual documents with the handwritten edits. Dr. Hansen repeatedly used the word “Danger” though he has been directed not to, and said we have 10 years to address climate change, or the changes will be irreversible. Miss it? Check it out here. Yes, we’ve all known this at the pond for a long time. But it was a thing of beauty and hope to see it all spelled out in the MSM for Joe Sixpack to see. ((((60 Minutes)))). And if you didn’t see Mole333’s diary on it, go check that out.
Waking up from the Kool-Aid, Part 4: In a big win for environmentalists on Friday, a federal appeals court struck down a Bush administration rule that would have made it easier for coal-burning power plants to make equipment changes without installing controls to fight the pollution that would result. The court shot down an Environmental Protection Agency rule that said power plant owners would only have to install modern pollution fighting controls if equipment changes cost more than 20 percent of the replacement cost of the plant. Environmental groups and several states sued, arguing the rule would gut the new source review enforcement provisions of the Clean Air Act and allow the oldest, dirtiest coal-fired power plants to expand output without cutting polluting emissions. The court agreed, saying the agency rule was “contrary to the plain language” of the Clean Air Act.
60 minutes has actually done a few stories relating to the BushCo silencing of scientists over the past few weeks, haven’t they? Was last night a follow-up story? (I missed it.)
I think the point of this story was at least as much to yell at the sheeple “Hey, global warming is going from ‘Yellow Alert’ to ‘Red Alert.'”
Iraq is now in ‘a terrible civil war’, admits Allawi — “One of Iraq’s most pro-western figures and an ex-prime minister yesterday became the first of its leaders to express what most of his compatriots fear: the country is in the grip of a “terrible” civil war. (…)” (Doesn’t exactly jive w/ Bush/Cheney version.)
In Secret Unit’s ‘Black Room,’ a Grim Portrait of U.S. Abuse — “Placards posted by soldiers at the detention area advised, “NO BLOOD, NO FOUL.” The slogan, as one Defense Department official explained, reflected an adage adopted by Task Force 6-26: “If you don’t make them bleed, they can’t prosecute for it.” According to Pentagon specialists who worked with the unit, prisoners at Camp Nama often disappeared into a detention black hole, barred from access to lawyers or relatives, and confined for weeks without charges. “The reality is, there were no rules there,” another Pentagon official said.”
Canada wins another round in softwood battle with U.S. — “The NAFTA decision found that Canadian softwood exports are not subsidized, the government said. That means the U.S. never had the right to impose the $5.2 billion in duties it has collected on Canadian lumber imports, a spokesperson said. (…) “This is the second NAFTA panel comprised of a majority of Americans to have unanimously ruled that there is no merit to the U.S. allegations, first regarding injury, and now regarding subsidy.” (…)”
Travel between Canada and other countries — “Canadians took more than 1.3 million overnight trips to the United States in January, the highest level in over 12 years. In the same month, same-day car travel to the United States hit the two-million mark for the first time since August 2001. (Unless otherwise specified, monthly data are seasonally adjusted whereas exchange rates are not). (…) On the incoming side, overnight travel from the United States to Canada rose 2.0% from December to an estimated 1.2 million trips. Among overnight travel modes of transportation, car travel posted the largest increase. Overnight plane travel was up slightly. Same-day car travel to Canada from the United States rose 0.8% in January, with Americans taking nearly 1.3 million trips. This was the second consecutive monthly increase after four straight months of declines. (…)”
Canadians worth $137,300 each: Statistics Canada — “Canada’s national net worth reached $4.5 trillion by the end of 2005, or roughly $137,300 per person, Statistics Canada said Friday. The country’s net worth grew by 1.4 per cent, or $60.4 billion, over the last three months of 2005, up sharply from 0.7 per cent in the third quarter, when growth was constrained by an increase in net foreign debt. (…)”
Afghanistan won’t be ‘Canada’s Iraq’: O’Connor — “Defence Minister Gordon O’Connor is adamant that there will be no vote on Canada’s role in Afghanistan, even if that vote were to strengthen the Conservatives’ mandate to continue that mission. (…)” (This is my MP btw. Gah.)
GM adds $2 billion US to 2005 loss — “General Motors Corp. has increased its previously reported 2005 loss by $2 billion US, raising the total to $10.6 billion US. (…)” (I thought GMAC was a profitable component, apparently I was wrong.)
Uneven breasts linked to cancer — “A University of Liverpool team compared mammograms of 252 women who went on to develop breast cancer with a similar number from women who stayed healthy. The study in the journal Breast Cancer Research found the relative odds of getting cancer went up 50% for each 100ml increase in breast asymmetry. (…)”
And finally, this last set is a heads up for all the academe-folk; seems to be a lot of stuff coming out about fradulant data, etc.:
Are journals doing enough to prevent fraudulent publication? (The CMAJ is going through its own set of substantial problems: The Collapse of the Canadian Medical Association Journal.)
Agencies blow the whistle on faked research, ethical lapses — “More than a dozen scientists and doctors, several of them recipients of sizable federal grants, have been faking research, destroying data, plagiarizing or conducting experiments on people without necessary ethics approvals, the country’s lead research agencies report. (…)”
Reproducibility Should Be Minimum Standard for Epidemiologic Research — They’re suggesting submission of data sets for independent analysis!
Dubai’s $1.2 Bln Bid for U.S. Weapons Maker Delayed
March 20 (Bloomberg) — Dubai, which agreed this month to sell its interest in U.S. ports, said its $1.2 billion takeover of a U.K. company with U.S. plants that make military equipment is delayed while the authorities investigate security concerns.
Dubai International Capital LLC, which is owned by the government of the Persian Gulf emirate, and Doncasters Group Ltd. agreed to delay the transaction by as many as two months from March 31 while government agencies review the purchase, Sameer Al Ansari, Dubai International’s chief executive, said in an interview today.
Senator Trent Lott who’s out promoting his book,“Herding Cats” said he’s considering a run for Senate Majority leader. Just wonderin’ if the title is an intended jab at a certain someone, Frist.
Looks like the feud is on.
Now with friends or colleaques being this blunt, who needs enemies?
PLDN – arrests at the federal building now
author: PLDN (Portland Legal Defense Network)
We have just received a report that the 19 protesters who have occupied Wyden’s office are being arrested.
The protesters have been in there since noon and have requested the presence of Legal Observers. The authorities have not allowed the Legal Observers to enter the building despite negotiation attempts between the organizers of the action and the authorities. Many people have called Wyden’s office to demand that Legal Observers be allowed to witness the event. Wyden’s staff has been “snippy” with callers and in at least one instance have told callers that the protesters do not wish for Legal Observers to witness their action. THIS IS NOT TRUE. And now these protesters are being arrested with no witnesses or Legal Observers present. If you observe the arrestees being taken from the federal building, please call the Portland Legal Defense Network with information. 503-234-4518