Editor: a person employed by a newspaper, whose business it is to separate the wheat from the chaff, and to see that the chaff is printed.
Elbert Hubbard
A German group representing Roma interests said on Tuesday it had filed a suit to try to stop British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen showing his latest film in Germany.
“We are accusing him of defamation and inciting violence against Sinti and Roma (gypsies),” Marko Knudsen, head of the European Center of Antiziganism Research, told Reuters. Antiziganism refers to hostility to gypsies.
The group said it had filed a complaint to prosecutors over the film, “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan,” saying it treated violence and discrimination against Roma peoples as acceptable behavior.
State prosecutors in Hamburg will investigate the allegations before deciding whether to take action.
The bellwether state of Ohio appears to have become hostile terrain for Republicans this year, with voters there overwhelmingly saying Democrats are more likely to help create jobs and concluding by a wide margin that Republicans in the state are more prone to political corruption than are Democrats, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.
Ohio is home this year to closely watched races for governor, the United States Senate and a growing roster of competitive House seats, and the state has become one of the most contested battlegrounds of 2006 and one in which voters at this point are strongly favoring Democrats on many issues.
The Democratic candidates for governor and Senate hold commanding, double-digit leads over their Republican opponents in the poll and respondents said they intended to vote for the Democratic candidate for the House of Representatives in their district by a 50 to 32 percent margin.
The economy is strong and Rickye Lennon’s excavation business is thriving. Yet his son may soon go to war, government scandals are in the news, and Lennon, a Republican deep in the heart of Bush country, doesn’t think his party should remain in charge of Congress.
“I think we need a wake-up call,” said Lennon, 50, of Dripping Springs. “They need to be paying attention to the issues the people are concerned about and I think we need to become more moderate in our views.”
Three weeks to the midterm elections, GOP discontent is seeping into the home state of
President Bush, where every statewide elected official is a Republican…
And the smell of GOP desperation in North Carolina reached stunning new levels during a recent debate: AP/Yahoo
Vernon Robinson, who has run a series of brash advertisements about the two-term Democratic congressman, charged that (Democrat Brad) Miller wants to import homosexuals to the United States and supported scientific studies that would pay teenage girls to watch pornography.
“Those are San Francisco values, not North Carolina values,” said Robinson, repeating a common theme of his campaign.
A bemused Miller countered by blasting Robinson for a campaign mailer that implicitly suggested the congressman was gay and criticized Miller for being “childless.” Miller’s wife had a hysterectomy more than two decades ago.
“It’s clear that Vernon Robinson is obsessed with sex,” Miller said after the 40-minute debate…
Speaking from the heart, not from the brain, this legendary Commander-in-Chief takes us on a journey through his momentous life. The great man we hear here displays his mother’s steely resolve and vindictive temper, his father’s keen mastery of language, and his own unique gift of deciding.
Multiple causes wiped out dinosaurs? There’s growing evidence that the dinosaurs and most their contemporaries were not wiped out by the famed Chicxulub meteor impact, according to a paleontologist who says multiple meteor impacts, massive volcanism in India, and climate changes culminated in the end of the Cretaceous Period.
Ivory Coast toxic waste cleanup continues: More than 4,500 metric tons of substances contaminated by more than 500 metric tons of toxic sludge dumped in Abidjan in August have been collected since a clean-up began in mid-September, an Ivorian official said Tuesday.
Iceland said yesterday it would resume commercial whaling, making it only the second country to do so after Norway, in a decision that is expected to spark protests from around the world. Iceland’s fisheries ministry said it had authorized whalers to hunt 30 minke whales and nine fin whales — on the endangered species list — in the period from September 1, 2006 until August 31, 2007. “I don’t think they’ll start the hunt today … they can start tomorrow (Wednesday) if they like,” Bjoern Brynjolfsson, an assistant to Fisheries Minister Einar Kristinn Gudfinnson, told AFP. “The meat will be exported,” he added. The World Conservation Union (IUCN) said on Tuesday that Iceland’s decision to resume commercial whaling was disturbing and warned that more countries could renege on the international moratorium on whale hunting.
“George Bush and Dick Cheney drove me to blog!” A new study says up to 1 in 8 Americans could be “internet addicts” – and not just users of porn or gambling sites, or eBay. They compare the compulsive drive to check email, make blog entries or visit websites to substance abuse – an irresistible urge to perform a temporarily pleasurable act. Nearly 14% of respondents said they found it difficult to stay away from the internet for several days and 12% admitted that they often remain online longer than expected. More than 8% of those surveyed said they hid internet use from family, friends and employers, and the same percentage confessed to going online to flee from real-world problems. Approximately 6% also said their personal relationships had suffered as a result of excessive internet usage.
The leading advisory body on north Atlantic fisheries says cod stocks are still too low to allow any fishing and urge a commercial fishing ban. The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) says stocks of cod, sand eel and anchovy remain below sustainable limits. ICES has made the same recommendation on cod for the last four years, but EU ministers have gone against it.
A solar powered weed eater!!! If it can tell the difference between a weed and a tomato plant I’m placing my order. Now if they could make one to clean stalls I’d be home free.
I’ve long wondered about the single event scenario for the extinction of dinosaurs. Now if we could just figure out what would cause the extinction of neocons maybe we’d ALL be home free.
“It is not clear whether the injuries come from a new weapon. The Israeli military declined to detail the weapons in its arsenal, but denied reports that the injuries came from a Dense Inert Metal Explosive (Dime), a new experimental weapon that causes a powerful blast but in a localised area. The Dime, while causing severe injuries to its target, is intended to limit what the defence industry calls “collateral damage.”
There have been similiar reports of the US using experimental weapons in Iraq. This report is horrifying. Patients with mysterious wounds, dying for no apparent medical reason after being stabilized. Bodies melted and fragmented. What kind of monsters perform experiments with weaponry on other human beings? Answer: Israeli and American monsters. The truth is truely sickening, isn’t it?
it appears this ‘DIME’ bomb article in the Guardian picks up on the report of Italian journalists – same team that exposed US forces in Iraq using phosphorus. The ‘DIME’ bomb report was first published in the Israel paper, Ha’aretz is said to have confirmed tests by Italian labs. Al’jazera quotes from Ha’aretz.
Appalling torture. Where are the Judaeo-Christian voices, as Bush signs and set the example making torture legal?
There were other reports on the US using experimental weapons in Iraq. Perhaps I saw it on DemocracyNow!a few months ago. I remember them talking about a weapon mounted on certain tanks. There were also reports of bodies burned, melted and dismembered. It sounded like some sort of laser to me at the time, but I never keep links for longer than a few days, so who knows where I saw it? If I get a chance later, maybe I’ll search. This stuff sickens the soul.
Rendell’s tougher emissions rule gets a vote of confidence
A state board yesterday approved proposed power-plant mercury emission limits that are tougher than the federal standard despite intense opposition from power companies and business groups.
The Environmental Quality Board, which is dominated by appointees of Democratic Gov. Rendell, voted 17-3 to send the proposal to a state regulatory review committee, the last step before it can be submitted to the federal government for approval.
“If substance is the judge, we should be well on our way over the finish line,” Kathleen McGinty, Rendell’s top environmental adviser, said after the vote.
Rendell’s proposal would make Pennsylvania, the nation’s fourth-largest coal producing state, the first major coal producer among states with tougher-than-federal mercury rules. Pennsylvania also has the second-highest mercury emissions.
Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman To Write Weekly Newspaper Column
King Features Set to Launch
“Amy Goodman: Breaking the Sound Barrier”
Tues., Oct. 24
Investigative journalist Amy Goodman, host of the extraordinarily popular award-winning news program Democracy Now!, will bring her frank analysis of politics, the media and current affairs to print in a new nationally syndicated column for newspapers. King Features Syndicate will distribute “Amy Goodman: Breaking the Sound Barrier” weekly beginning Tues., Oct. 24, 2006.
Writing in her introductory column about the distinction her commentary might bring to an already crowded field of opinion writers, Goodman says, “My goal as a journalist is to break the sound barrier. To cut through the static and bring forth voices that are not usually heard. I am not talking about a fringe minority, or the `Silent Majority,’ but a silenced majority, increasingly restless, of people who are looking for alternative sources of information in a complex world.
“My column will include voices so often excluded, people whose views the media mostly ignore, issues they distort and even ridicule,”
Sun Microsystems Data Center in a Shipping Container. Apparently, the result of Sun and Google’s JV, from about a year ago, super computing capability, off-the-shelf.
Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ: SUNW -News ) is about to make good on an idea that Google (NASDAQ: GOOG -News ) has been working on for more than a year: building a self-contained data center inside a standard 20-foot shipping container that can be moved by rail, sea, or truck. It’s an extremely cool idea, and is covered today by John Markoff in the New York Times and by The Wall Street Journal (sub. req. ).
This is the ultimate computing commoditization play.
.
.
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We have to give kudos to Sun’s CEO, Jonathan Schwartz, and his team for their vision and thinking in bringing this product to market. With data centers running from $250 million to a billion dollars to build, Sun’s Blackbox changes the economics of that market by starting around $500,000. That’s like IBM selling $5,000 PCs that could do the work of $500,000 DEC mainframes — and I predict it will be just as disruptive .
Assuming Sun delivers on its promise to sell and lease these systems in the second half of 2007, this could easily be one of the most transformational computing products of the decade for business . It changes data centers from a build-it-yourself business to one where they are available off the shelf and on demand. And, like the standardized shipping containers in which they are built, most people will never give them a second thought.
Maher Arar will accept an international human rights award Wednesday, but won’t travel to Washington for the honour over fears he’ll be detained again.
Academy Award-winning actress and activist Vanessa Redgrave will present the Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award to Arar, who will appear at the ceremony via video link.
All seven entered their pleas in closed courtrooms and their names were withheld. However, defense attorneys said one of them was the director of a funeral home that took parts from the body of late “Masterpiece Theatre” host Alistair Cooke.
(…)
Michael Mastromarino, a former oral surgeon, and three other men are accused of secretly removed [sic] skin, bone and other transplantable parts from hundreds of bodies without the permission of families.
(…)
Mastromarino, owner of Biomedical Tissue Services of Fort Lee, N.J., allegedly made millions of dollars by selling the stolen tissue to biomedical companies that supply material for procedures including dental implants and hip replacements, prosecutors said.
the desire to censor the Borat movie: AOL/Reuters
Here’s a link to the movie trailer for people who haven’t seen it…
in the winds of Ohio: NYT
in Texas too: AP/Yahoo
And the smell of GOP desperation in North Carolina reached stunning new levels during a recent debate: AP/Yahoo
Got any you want to add here? 🙂
Very informative comment above..
Book release (comic relief):
Destined for Destiny
I thought that was our good news post for the day. 🙂
Multiple causes wiped out dinosaurs? There’s growing evidence that the dinosaurs and most their contemporaries were not wiped out by the famed Chicxulub meteor impact, according to a paleontologist who says multiple meteor impacts, massive volcanism in India, and climate changes culminated in the end of the Cretaceous Period.
Ivory Coast toxic waste cleanup continues: More than 4,500 metric tons of substances contaminated by more than 500 metric tons of toxic sludge dumped in Abidjan in August have been collected since a clean-up began in mid-September, an Ivorian official said Tuesday.
Iceland said yesterday it would resume commercial whaling, making it only the second country to do so after Norway, in a decision that is expected to spark protests from around the world. Iceland’s fisheries ministry said it had authorized whalers to hunt 30 minke whales and nine fin whales — on the endangered species list — in the period from September 1, 2006 until August 31, 2007. “I don’t think they’ll start the hunt today … they can start tomorrow (Wednesday) if they like,” Bjoern Brynjolfsson, an assistant to Fisheries Minister Einar Kristinn Gudfinnson, told AFP. “The meat will be exported,” he added. The World Conservation Union (IUCN) said on Tuesday that Iceland’s decision to resume commercial whaling was disturbing and warned that more countries could renege on the international moratorium on whale hunting.
“George Bush and Dick Cheney drove me to blog!” A new study says up to 1 in 8 Americans could be “internet addicts” – and not just users of porn or gambling sites, or eBay. They compare the compulsive drive to check email, make blog entries or visit websites to substance abuse – an irresistible urge to perform a temporarily pleasurable act. Nearly 14% of respondents said they found it difficult to stay away from the internet for several days and 12% admitted that they often remain online longer than expected. More than 8% of those surveyed said they hid internet use from family, friends and employers, and the same percentage confessed to going online to flee from real-world problems. Approximately 6% also said their personal relationships had suffered as a result of excessive internet usage.
A solar-powered robot with 20/20 vision, on a search-and-destroy quest for weeds, will soon be moving up and down the crop rows at the experimental fields at the University of Illinois. The robot has the potential to control weeds while significantly reducing herbicide use. And speaking of solar, Google Inc. plans a solar-powered electricity system at its Silicon Valley headquarters that will rank as the largest US solar-powered corporate office complex, the company said Wednesday.
The leading advisory body on north Atlantic fisheries says cod stocks are still too low to allow any fishing and urge a commercial fishing ban. The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) says stocks of cod, sand eel and anchovy remain below sustainable limits. ICES has made the same recommendation on cod for the last four years, but EU ministers have gone against it.
When it comes to climate change, farms and forests could be diamonds in the rough, according to two new reports. These two sectors are in the unique position of being both sources and sinks of climate-affecting gases (such as CO2, methane, and nitrous oxide). With changes, the farming and forest industries combined could offset up to one-fifth of current U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions, researchers say.
“How clean is clean?” Dueling research projects paint different pictures as to whether residual contamination from the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska are a problem. And $92 million is on the line.
A solar powered weed eater!!! If it can tell the difference between a weed and a tomato plant I’m placing my order. Now if they could make one to clean stalls I’d be home free.
I’ve long wondered about the single event scenario for the extinction of dinosaurs. Now if we could just figure out what would cause the extinction of neocons maybe we’d ALL be home free.
How does new record highs on the Dow play for you? Nada.
We are squeezed flat broke.
Oh how we forget. Do unto to others what was done unto you
It has a name, savagery.
Gaza doctors say patients suffering mystery injuries after Israeli attacks-Guardian, UK
The French warns Israel, “we’ll have to shoot your war planes down if Lebanon overflights continue. Peace is breaking out.
From the link on Israeli weaponry:
“It is not clear whether the injuries come from a new weapon. The Israeli military declined to detail the weapons in its arsenal, but denied reports that the injuries came from a Dense Inert Metal Explosive (Dime), a new experimental weapon that causes a powerful blast but in a localised area. The Dime, while causing severe injuries to its target, is intended to limit what the defence industry calls “collateral damage.”
There have been similiar reports of the US using experimental weapons in Iraq. This report is horrifying. Patients with mysterious wounds, dying for no apparent medical reason after being stabilized. Bodies melted and fragmented. What kind of monsters perform experiments with weaponry on other human beings? Answer: Israeli and American monsters. The truth is truely sickening, isn’t it?
it appears this ‘DIME’ bomb article in the Guardian picks up on the report of Italian journalists – same team that exposed US forces in Iraq using phosphorus. The ‘DIME’ bomb report was first published in the Israel paper, Ha’aretz is said to have confirmed tests by Italian labs. Al’jazera quotes from Ha’aretz.
Appalling torture. Where are the Judaeo-Christian voices, as Bush signs and set the example making torture legal?
There were other reports on the US using experimental weapons in Iraq. Perhaps I saw it on DemocracyNow!a few months ago. I remember them talking about a weapon mounted on certain tanks. There were also reports of bodies burned, melted and dismembered. It sounded like some sort of laser to me at the time, but I never keep links for longer than a few days, so who knows where I saw it? If I get a chance later, maybe I’ll search. This stuff sickens the soul.
Link
A state board yesterday approved proposed power-plant mercury emission limits that are tougher than the federal standard despite intense opposition from power companies and business groups.
The Environmental Quality Board, which is dominated by appointees of Democratic Gov. Rendell, voted 17-3 to send the proposal to a state regulatory review committee, the last step before it can be submitted to the federal government for approval.
“If substance is the judge, we should be well on our way over the finish line,” Kathleen McGinty, Rendell’s top environmental adviser, said after the vote.
Rendell’s proposal would make Pennsylvania, the nation’s fourth-largest coal producing state, the first major coal producer among states with tougher-than-federal mercury rules. Pennsylvania also has the second-highest mercury emissions.
I hope this becomes a trend.
Link
King Features Set to Launch
“Amy Goodman: Breaking the Sound Barrier”
Tues., Oct. 24
Investigative journalist Amy Goodman, host of the extraordinarily popular award-winning news program Democracy Now!, will bring her frank analysis of politics, the media and current affairs to print in a new nationally syndicated column for newspapers. King Features Syndicate will distribute “Amy Goodman: Breaking the Sound Barrier” weekly beginning Tues., Oct. 24, 2006.
Writing in her introductory column about the distinction her commentary might bring to an already crowded field of opinion writers, Goodman says, “My goal as a journalist is to break the sound barrier. To cut through the static and bring forth voices that are not usually heard. I am not talking about a fringe minority, or the `Silent Majority,’ but a silenced majority, increasingly restless, of people who are looking for alternative sources of information in a complex world.
“My column will include voices so often excluded, people whose views the media mostly ignore, issues they distort and even ridicule,”
she said.
This is absolutely wonderful news to an Amy Goodman (and DemocracyNow!) fan like me.
Sun Microsystems Data Center in a Shipping Container. Apparently, the result of Sun and Google’s JV, from about a year ago, super computing capability, off-the-shelf.
From Yahoo Financial News, with links to NYT and WSJ articles.
Also, more at Sun’s “Project Black Box”.
Verrrrrry interestink, as Arte Johnson. AKA: Wolfgang, used to say.
Booman and company wins bar quiz, is a shocking tie breaker round. Sources report that Booman has already drunk his winnings.
CBC News
CTV News
Do any of the defendants have humpbacks and snarl in between verbs? How ghoulish!
Did you see the photo attached to the article? They inserted PVC tubing to replace the bones!!