Apparently a litle less than before, since they’ve decided to chuck creationism out of public school science class: Reuters
The Kansas Board of Education on Tuesday threw out science standards deemed hostile to evolution, undoing the work of Christian conservatives in the ongoing battle over what to teach U.S. public school students about the origins of life.
The board in the central U.S. state voted 6-4 to replace them with teaching standards that mirror the mainstream in science education and eliminate criticisms of evolutionary theory.
While members of the U.S. House of Representatives take turns weighing in on President Bush’s planned troop surge in Iraq, the focus in Iraq is not on the arrival of more U.S. troops, but the departure of one of the country’s most powerful men, Moqtada al Sadr and members of his army.
According to senior military officials, al Sadr left Baghdad two to three weeks ago and fled to Tehran, Iran, where he has family.
Al Sadr commands the Mahdi army, one of the most formidable insurgent militias in Iraq, and his move coincides with the announced U.S. troop surge in Baghdad.
Do you think he really went to Iran? Or is it just an excuse to claim that attacking Iran is covered under the Iraq War resolution, so that Bushie doesn’t have to get prmission from Congress? It is ABC we’re talking about here…
‘A crisis at heart of our society’ – children’s commissioner
The UK is the worst place in the entire developed world for a child to grow up. According to the UN, Britain has the unhappiest, poorest, unhealthiest and most neglected children of the world’s 21 richest nations. A report shows the UK languishing at the bottom of 40 different indicators for child welfare.
The news will come as a big blow to the Government, which has made halving child poverty by 2010 one of its key goals. The Unicef report, which the children’s charity releases later today, says the UK lags behind in terms of relative poverty and deprivation.
● The UK and United States are in the bottom third of the rankings for five of the six categories covered. The six categories are material well-being, family and peer relationships, health and safety, behaviour and risks, and children’s own sense of well-being (educational and subjective).
● No country features in the top third of the rankings for all six dimensions of child well-being, although the Netherlands and Sweden come close to achieving this.
“The European parliament has approved a damning report on secret CIA flights which condemns member states that turned a blind eye to the operations.
The report defines extraordinary renditions as instances where “an individual suspected of involvement in terrorism is illegally abducted, arrested and/or transferred into the custody of US officials and/or transported to another country for interrogation which, in the majority of cases involves incommunicado detention and torture”.
A mysterious illness is devastating honeybee populations across the US from California to Florida, claiming up to 80% of colonies in some areas. The losses of honeybees could disrupt the pollination of food crops, researchers warn. At a loss for an explanation, researchers have referred to the honeybee decline as “colony collapse disorder”. Beekeepers are finding once-healthy colonies abandoned just a few days later, says Jerry Bromenshank, at the University of Montana at Missoula and Bee Alert Technology, a company monitoring the problem: “In most cases the only one left is the queen, along with a few young bees.” The absence of dead bees makes it difficult to know what ails them and where they have gone. Furthermore, experts cannot track the spread of the mysterious illness. “The problem is that it strikes out of the blue,” says Bromenshank. Researchers say colony collapse disorder might be a re-emergence of a similarly mysterious illness that struck US honeybees in the 1960s. Experts never pinpointed the cause behind that previous bee crisis, according to Bromenshank.
One of anthropology’s most enduring mysteries – the origins of the ancient Etruscan civilization – may finally have been solved, with a study of cattle DNA. This culturally distinct and technologically advanced civilization inhabited central Italy from about the 8th century BC, until it was assimilated into Roman culture around the end of the 4th century BC. The origins of the Etruscans, with their own non-Indo-European language, have been debated by archaeologists, geneticists and linguists for centuries. Writing in the 5th century BC, the Ancient Greek historian Herodotus claimed that the Etruscans had arrived in Italy from Lydia, now called Anatolia in modern-day Turkey. Archaeologists believe they arrived in Italy from Turkey by sea.
Archaeological remains and ancient texts point to an unexpected location for the ancient Temple in Jerusalem. The location identified by Prof. Joseph Patrich of the Hebrew University Institute of Archaeology places the Temple and its corresponding courtyards, chambers and gates in a more southeasterly and diagonal frame of reference than have earlier scholars. In spotting the Temple in this way, Patrich concludes that the rock, over which the Dome of the Rock mosque was built in the 7th century C.E. is outside the confines of the Temple. The rock is considered by Moslems to be the spot from which Muhammad ascended to heaven and for Jews the place at which the binding of Isaac took place. Patrich stressed that his research concerning the location of the Temple is strictly academic in nature, and that political connotations should not be attributed to it. [Although it would provide a good excuse to stop fighting for a change…]
The honeybees kill-off: my layman’s musings are that this may be due to a build-up of the more powerful combo pesticides being used…such as pre-emergent treatments and plant growth regulators in landscape management… to save labor time on pruning, hedge clipping.. or for that perfectly formed shrub and carpet lawns Or it could be the GM crops.
This is serious for apple orchards and other food crops…and plant life cycles
For those who missed the Firedoglake roundup of the defense laid out for Scooter Libby yesterday and Fitz’s cross-examination of witnesses and, the jurors’ question of same witnesses, this is choice:
“Things got a bit more brutal for Team Libby with juror questioning when one juror wanted to know how Scooter, being as horribly memory-challenged as he appears to be, could do a job that was so sensitive and important. The jury sounds, based on their questions, like they’re getting a bit cynical…”
Does anyone reading this do any knitting or sewing? I’m not good with fabric, needles and threads. But I’m seeing an orange jumpsuit, Tall sized, will be ordered soon for delivery to the Prettyman Court house, DC.
Wow, looks like Judge Walton, presiding at the Libby trial, is not a happy camper. As you know Libby’s team decided not to put Libby on the stand or have Cheney testify.
Libby’s defense team appears to have misled the Judge!
The change in who would testify prompted U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton to reverse course, too. He told defense attorneys that if Libby didn’t testify he would not allow some classified information to be presented to the jury as Libby’s defense team had planned.
“My absolute understanding was that Mr. Libby was going to testify,” Walton said, recalling why he had agreed months ago to allow some classified information into evidence. “My ruling was based on the fact that he was going to testify.”
Walton’s decision blocked Libby’s plans to call three CIA briefers Wednesday to testify about the classified national security issues Libby faced in mid-2003, when CIA operative Valerie Plame was named in the media.
Libby wanted that testimony to bolster his claim that he never lied to investigators but rather forgot details about Plame’s exposure because he was consumed by his workload as Cheney’s top aide.
Can you say you need not be a high priced Attorney to know not to piss off the Judge? Perhaps they know there’s a pardon from President Cheney in the pocket. The uproar would equate to shades of the Saturday night massacre.
Apparently a litle less than before, since they’ve decided to chuck creationism out of public school science class: Reuters
Too bad it wasn’t a unanimous vote.
to attack Iran ABC News
Do you think he really went to Iran? Or is it just an excuse to claim that attacking Iran is covered under the Iraq War resolution, so that Bushie doesn’t have to get prmission from Congress? It is ABC we’re talking about here…
.
The UK is the worst place in the entire developed world for a child to grow up. According to the UN, Britain has the unhappiest, poorest, unhealthiest and most neglected children of the world’s 21 richest nations. A report shows the UK languishing at the bottom of 40 different indicators for child welfare.
The news will come as a big blow to the Government, which has made halving child poverty by 2010 one of its key goals. The Unicef report, which the children’s charity releases later today, says the UK lags behind in terms of relative poverty and deprivation.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.".
● No country features in the top third of the rankings for all six dimensions of child well-being, although the Netherlands and Sweden come close to achieving this.
UNICEF – Child poverty in perspective:
an overview of child well-being in rich countries
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."MEPs Approve Damning CIA report on ‘secret CIA flights.’
Several US legislators are meeting with their counterparts from the EU, China, Japan and India to seek a breakthrough in the international climate deadlock. The meeting, organized by British-run parliamentarians’ group Globe, is strongly supported by the UK Prime Minister Tony Blair [who hopes it will result in a more positive legacy than he has at present]. On Thursday, it will publish recommendations for a new world deal on climate change at the G8 summit in Germany this summer.
Collisions between comets may be kicking up the copious amounts of dust observed around a dead star. This has surprised astronomers, because when the star died and expelled its outer layers, the dust in this system should have been blown away. A favored explanation is that the dust is being freshly churned up by comets smashing into each other in the outer fringes of the white dwarf’s system. Cool photo here.
A mysterious illness is devastating honeybee populations across the US from California to Florida, claiming up to 80% of colonies in some areas. The losses of honeybees could disrupt the pollination of food crops, researchers warn. At a loss for an explanation, researchers have referred to the honeybee decline as “colony collapse disorder”. Beekeepers are finding once-healthy colonies abandoned just a few days later, says Jerry Bromenshank, at the University of Montana at Missoula and Bee Alert Technology, a company monitoring the problem: “In most cases the only one left is the queen, along with a few young bees.” The absence of dead bees makes it difficult to know what ails them and where they have gone. Furthermore, experts cannot track the spread of the mysterious illness. “The problem is that it strikes out of the blue,” says Bromenshank. Researchers say colony collapse disorder might be a re-emergence of a similarly mysterious illness that struck US honeybees in the 1960s. Experts never pinpointed the cause behind that previous bee crisis, according to Bromenshank.
One of anthropology’s most enduring mysteries – the origins of the ancient Etruscan civilization – may finally have been solved, with a study of cattle DNA. This culturally distinct and technologically advanced civilization inhabited central Italy from about the 8th century BC, until it was assimilated into Roman culture around the end of the 4th century BC. The origins of the Etruscans, with their own non-Indo-European language, have been debated by archaeologists, geneticists and linguists for centuries. Writing in the 5th century BC, the Ancient Greek historian Herodotus claimed that the Etruscans had arrived in Italy from Lydia, now called Anatolia in modern-day Turkey. Archaeologists believe they arrived in Italy from Turkey by sea.
Archaeological remains and ancient texts point to an unexpected location for the ancient Temple in Jerusalem. The location identified by Prof. Joseph Patrich of the Hebrew University Institute of Archaeology places the Temple and its corresponding courtyards, chambers and gates in a more southeasterly and diagonal frame of reference than have earlier scholars. In spotting the Temple in this way, Patrich concludes that the rock, over which the Dome of the Rock mosque was built in the 7th century C.E. is outside the confines of the Temple. The rock is considered by Moslems to be the spot from which Muhammad ascended to heaven and for Jews the place at which the binding of Isaac took place. Patrich stressed that his research concerning the location of the Temple is strictly academic in nature, and that political connotations should not be attributed to it. [Although it would provide a good excuse to stop fighting for a change…]
The honeybees kill-off: my layman’s musings are that this may be due to a build-up of the more powerful combo pesticides being used…such as pre-emergent treatments and plant growth regulators in landscape management… to save labor time on pruning, hedge clipping.. or for that perfectly formed shrub and carpet lawns Or it could be the GM crops.
This is serious for apple orchards and other food crops…and plant life cycles
No doubt that some misconstrue the story about the temple as a swipe against Judaism/Israel. (And I say this as a Jew.)
An Absolute must read:
For those who missed the Firedoglake roundup of the defense laid out for Scooter Libby yesterday and Fitz’s cross-examination of witnesses and, the jurors’ question of same witnesses, this is choice:
Does anyone reading this do any knitting or sewing? I’m not good with fabric, needles and threads. But I’m seeing an orange jumpsuit, Tall sized, will be ordered soon for delivery to the Prettyman Court house, DC.
How pretty?
(Couldn’t help myself…my bad)
Wow, looks like Judge Walton, presiding at the Libby trial, is not a happy camper. As you know Libby’s team decided not to put Libby on the stand or have Cheney testify.
Libby’s defense team appears to have misled the Judge!
Here is Judge Walton’s reaction as reported by Wapo (H/T: Huffpost)
Can you say you need not be a high priced Attorney to know not to piss off the Judge? Perhaps they know there’s a pardon from President Cheney in the pocket. The uproar would equate to shades of the Saturday night massacre.