Ned's Second Line Look at the News

CENSORED NEWS: Ethnic Studies March: In the Warrior Spirit

2012-01-11T09:39:00.000-05:00

CENSORED NEWS: Ethnic Studies March: In the Warrior Spirit: Riley, Choctaw, with Louise Benally, Navajo. . Ethnic Studies march and rally: In the spirit of survival and excellence! By Brenda Nor...

Britta Riley: A garden in my apartment

2011-12-29T08:39:00.000-05:00

Gingrich - a historian with history

2011-12-13T20:43:00.001-05:00

Of course someone found a photo of Gingrich with Arafat shaking hands. Gingrich always loved the limelight and has always belonged to the say/do anything to get noticed school of politics/celebrity. But now he is someone else and tomorrow he will be... whomever he needs to be to please his current audience...

Amplify’d from www.haaretz.com

After Gingrich declares Palestinians 'invented', picture emerges of U.S. Presidential hopeful with Yasser Arafat

A few days after U.S. Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich thrust himself into controversy by declaring that the Palestinians are an "invented" people who want to destroy Israel , a picture of him emerged embracing former Palestinian Yasser Arafat in 1993, when Gingrich was House minority whip.
Read more at www.haaretz.com

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Assassination by Drone - Legal? Not.

2011-11-25T17:32:00.001-05:00

When the US intentionally executes political leaders of organizations attacking or planning attacks against the US, its Armed Forces, or Diplomatic Corps using drones or snipers, are US laws and Executive Orders being violated? Read this Executive Order in place since 1981 and decide for yourself. Should it be changed or given better definition? I say yes - what say you?

Amplify’d from www.cia.gov

Executive Order 12333

December 4, 1981
(As Amended by Executive Orders 13284 (2003), 13355 (2004)
and 13470 (2008))

2.11 Prohibition on Assassination. No person employed by or acting on behalf of the United States Government shall engage in or conspire to engage in assassination.
Read more at www.cia.gov

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Big Ag - Superbugs and the meat we eat - connected

2011-11-22T11:58:00.001-05:00

Anyone who says we do not need more protection from over-zealous big agriculture companies who drug animals at will and then endanger us - is either being paid by big agriculture or just hiding from facts of more food sickening Americans.

Amplify’d from www.wired.com

More MRSA Found In U.S. Retail Meat (Turkey, Too)

There are two new studies out that confirm, once again, that drug-resistant staph or MRSA — normally thought of as a problem in hospitals and out in everyday life, in schoolkids, sports teams, jails and gyms — is showing up in animals and in the meat those animals become.
Read more at www.wired.com

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Running Out of Antibiotics: Europe Gets It

2011-11-20T14:07:00.000-05:00

Running Out of Antibiotics: Europe Gets It:

In the United States, it’s been “Get Smart About Antibiotics” Week this past week, an annual observance in which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and its medical and public health partners try to raise awareness of antibiotic resistance. The real action this week though was in Europe, where individual researchers and the EU’s version of a CDC — the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control — are speaking out about the problem with unusual candor.

Here’s the short version: In Europe, according to the ECDC, 25,000 people each year die as a result of multi-drug resistant infections, causing an additional cost to society of 1.5 billion Euros ($2.02 billion): 938 million Euros ($1.27 billion) in hospital and outpatient medical costs, and an additional 596.3 million Euros ($806 million) in lost productivity.

Dr. Marc Sprenger, director of the ECDC, said Friday:

This certainly is an underestimate of the true economic impact of antimicrobial resistance. In particular, the figures were based on data for just five multidrug-resistant bacteria.The estimate was also based on a conservative figure for the cost of a day in hospital… We think the real cost of treating a patient with a multidrug-resistant infection would be higher than this. My take home message is that antimicrobial resistance is one of the most serious public health challenges that we face.

Sprenger was talking at the release of a major Europe-wide report (press release here too) that found organisms that cause serious hospital infections are becoming substantially resistant to last-resort drugs. In some countries, 50 percent of Klebsiella isolates are resistant to carbapenems — that’s the almost-untreatable hospital superbug CRKP that has appeared in 37 US states so far — and so are 25-50 percent of Pseudomonas isolates, another deadly hospital-acquired organism.

Meanwhile, 13 countries just in the EU have found more than 100 cases of infection with bacteria carrying NDM-1, the gene and enzyme that renders organisms effectively untreatable by any antibiotic except for 1-2 old, imperfect drugs. And the ECDC warns that the various countries within the EU simply don’t have the surveillance or personnel to track that bug as it walks undetected across borders in the guts of unknowingly infected people and into hospitals.

Simultaneously, in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, a British researcher expressed her frustration that no one takes this seriously. In an online essay, Laura Piddock, who is president of the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, says:

When… patients are denied treatment with a new cancer drug because of its expense, there is public outrage despite the possibility of extending life by only a few weeks. Antibiotics are not perceived as essential to health or the practice of medicine, despite such agents saving lives so that individuals can live for many years after infection… Cancer drugs… sometimes only extend life for weeks or months, whereas antibiotics can extend life for years.

Possibly the most encouraging thing about the EU’s candor is how directly it confronts the tie between antibiotic resistance in human medicine and antibiotic use in agriculture. On Thursday, the European Commission announced a 5-year, 12-point plan to reduce resistance, and half of their proposed “concrete actions” address curbing antibiotic use in agriculture:

Improve awareness raising on the appropriate use of antimicrobials

Strengthen EU law on veterinary medicines and on medicated feed

Introduce recommendations for prudent use of antimicrobials in veterinary medicine

Strengthen infection prevention and control in hospitals, clinics, etc.

Introduce legal tools to tighten prevention and control of infections in animals in the new EU Animal Health Law

Promote unprecedented collaboration to bring new antimicrobials to patients

Promote efforts to analyse the need for new antibiotics in veterinary medicine

Develop and/or strengthen multilateral and bilateral commitments for the prevention and control of AMR

Strengthen surveillance systems on AMR and antimicrobial consumption in human medicines

Strengthen surveillance systems on AMR and antimicrobial consumption in animal medicines

Reinforce and co-ordinate research

Improve communication on AMR to the public.

And just in case those seem like theoretical, low-priority concerns, a new coalition rose up in Europe last week to emphasize how important ag antibiotic control really is to human health. Three groups — the Soil Association, Compassion in World Farming and Sustain: The Alliance for Better Food and Farming — published a report that painstakingly documents the connections between specific antibiotics used in farming and specific drug-resistant organisms showing up in humans in European countries.

The groups call for cutting antibiotic use on EU farms in half by 2015. Noting that agriculture has simply ignored calls for reduced use on the basis of human health and animal welfare, they smartly propose recasting it as a competitive issue: Lesser antibiotics as a sign of better quality.

The EU has done more than most other regions of the world to monitor farm animal welfare and outlaw some of the worst intensive farming practices (battery cages, sow stalls, veal crates). EU reforms have had an important impact in encouraging similar changes in practices worldwide, through either voluntary action by industry or through law.

The EU should now take the lead again with effective action to end the misuse of antibiotics in farming, and ensure the conditions are provided for the animals to maintain good health based on their own immune systems rather than through routine reliance on antibiotics.

This would be in the interests of Europe’s farmers, establishing their reputation globally for high-quality standards while meeting the demand of their customers, who seek higher standards of animal welfare, more transparency and better quality in their food production.

See Also:

Opposing industrial-scale pig farming — in Europe

EU Parliament Votes To Oppose Most Farm Antibiotic Use

Superbugs in Canadian chicken? Yes, and US too

Government Health Agency Agrees Mega-Farms Are A Health Risk …

Opposing industrial-scale pig farming — in Europe

Flickr/JeremyBrooks/CC

Trying to buy US Congress to be Pals with Big Business

2011-11-16T11:44:00.001-05:00

Everyone else beware of ads by US Chamber that claim they are on your side - they are not. They and their biggest US businesses are the ones who have moved all the jobs out of the US and paved the way for today's taking everyone in the 99% down several rungs so they can decide how you will live or not!

Amplify’d from www.latimes.com

Chamber of Commerce getting early start with attack ads

"The business community has been under unprecedented threat," Rob Engstrom, part of a two-man team running the chamber's political operation, said in explaining why the trade group will break its previous political spending record — $50 million — to try to elect a more business-friendly Congress.
Read more at www.latimes.com

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2011-11-04T09:01:00.001-04:00

All day - blog, pray, think, work for peace! http://amplify.com/u/a1gnm1

Do something for peace - Blog it Nov. 4th

2011-10-31T00:01:00.001-04:00

Wondering what you can do to help peace seep into everyone's mind? Now waiting here - just blog along with thousands of others in 120+ countries for Peace on Friday!

Amplify’d from mimiwrites.blogspot.com

November 4, 2011

Bloggers from all across the globe

will blog for peace.

We will speak with one voice.

One subject

One day

What is it? A small group of bloggers answered a challenge I tossed one angst-filled October day in 2006. I wanted to know what would happen if all bloggers everywhere signed their name across a globe and all posted the SAME POST on the SAME DAY. I created a graphic and made the first one. I asked them to write "Dona nobis pacem" which is Latin for "grant us peace" across the graphics image and post it on their blogs in November. Fifty-two people responded enthusiastically and soon it began to spread like a beautiful lyric across the internet.
Read more at mimiwrites.blogspot.com

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New Flu Study - a survey of old research

2011-10-28T14:02:00.001-04:00

You might give lots of credence to new research but "opinions based on surveying old research papers and "averaging" it and making implied judgments on research that was not done?

I got my shot and will continue doing so, until I see basic research based on current vaccine results - not a survey on other people's research.

Amplify’d from www.thelancet.com

Efficacy and effectiveness of influenza vaccines

Original Text
Prof Michael T Osterholm PhD a , Nicholas S Kelley PhD a, Prof Alfred Sommer MD b, Edward A Belongia MD c

We searched Medline for randomised controlled trials assessing a relative reduction in influenza risk of all circulating influenza viruses during individual seasons after vaccination (efficacy) and observational studies meeting inclusion criteria (effectiveness). Eligible articles were published between Jan 1, 1967, and Feb 15, 2011

We screened 5707 articles and identified 31 eligible studies
Read more at www.thelancet.com

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Land Theft from Mayans Continues - Shame

2011-10-27T07:51:00.001-04:00

The land must really be good if people have been stealing it and killing Mayans for it for more than 500 years. It took the Irish, nearly 500 years to regain their nation and culture from the English. You have to wonder how the thieves think they can steal and control a culture, even today. The theft in Guatemala continues but those who were born to the land for more than 12,000 years continue to struggle for their rights since the Spanish came. Could that be what the predictions of 2012 are about? That the Mayans begin to get their land back then?

Amplify’d from intercontinentalcry.org

I am told Tzalbal is the first village to find out that their land was nationalised, and the first to publicly denounce this and demand, unconditionally, that their land be given back. Nonetheless, the case of Tzalbal is illustrative of what the conflict in Guatemala was about. This conflict was about land.

The natives of Tzalbal appear to be the unwanted actors in a drama that always seems to repeat itself in Guatemala. A drama which has run for more than 500 years where invaders, whether spanish, military or "representative" democratic governments, steal the land of the indigenous peoples through laws and violence.

United, the Ixiles present shout, "We don´t want another master!", "Finish the law! Give us back our land!"

Patricio Rodriguez

We will get our land back, bit by bit, step by step" .

See more at intercontinentalcry.org

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The canaries of climate change - The Boston Globe

2011-10-18T07:23:00.000-04:00

The canaries of climate change - The Boston Globe

Posted using ShareThis

Buffy Sainte Marie - "I'm Going Home"

2011-10-18T07:22:00.000-04:00

Fracking drill technique sparks protest in Germany

2011-10-13T17:47:00.000-04:00

Fracking drill technique sparks protest in Germany: Hydraulic fracturing - or 'fracking' - is used to get natural gas from difficult places. It's going through a boom in the US, but opinion is split in Europe. Critics are concerned about environmental and health effects.

An Afghan woman says no to the darkness

2011-10-10T17:46:00.001-04:00

For too many Afghan women, their life is one of darkness - no light for laughter and opportunity. This poem says much and one wonders how strong she must to be to still claim her right to light!

Amplify’d from www.awwproject.org

Society Ritual

A dark life!

A lone girl!

Whose heart only feels pain.

When I think about my life, and the other girls’ lives

It is a huge load on my heart.

Our society does not allow us a chance to progress.

When I think of the future

Everywhere is dark.

This is life’s tradition, a ritual

Fighting against them is the only way

I will stand strongly against all darknesses.
Read more at www.awwproject.org

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Vaccine deniers as harmful as climate warming deniers?

2011-10-07T15:33:00.001-04:00

Vaccines - especially vaccines for polio, small pox, and measles - have saved countless lives since their introduction. Opting out of vaccines, in many case, threatens public health and increasingly - global health.

Are they 100% effective? Are they 100% safe? Nope. Most are in the 99% effective and safe range.

Can you look both ways before crossing a street in a car, on foot or a bike and still get hit? Yes but the chances are really, really small. So, would you advise people not to look or not to cross the street?

Amplify’d from afludiary.blogspot.com

WHO: Measles Outbreaks In The Americas, Europe & Africa

During the 1950s – before the introduction of the measles vaccine – in the United States alone the disease infected roughly 4 million, hospitalized nearly 50,000, and contributed to the deaths of several hundred every year.

Lower vaccine uptake, and increases in international travel, have increased opportunities for the measles virus to spread – even to areas that had previously all but eliminated it.
Read more at afludiary.blogspot.com

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Putin’s Diving Exploit Was a Setup, Aide Says

2011-10-05T14:41:00.000-04:00

Putin’s Diving Exploit Was a Setup, Aide Says: Video of the Russian Prime Minister Putin discovering ceramic jugs from the sixth century during a dive was a contrived, his press secretary said. - Wannabe Tsar Putin has to get a new press aide, I guess.

Both Soviet and Tsar in One

2011-10-03T07:18:00.000-04:00

Both Soviet and Tsar in One:

by Lilit Gevorgyan, St. Petersburg Times, Russia - Putin reinvented himself as the main advocate of state capitalism, resulting in part from a power struggle and drive to curtail oligarchic influence on the energy sector. He has since shown little interest in modernization or diversification of the economy, and has seen the emergence of a new circle of oligarchs. These oligarchs have close ties to the Kremlin without the inclination to challenge Putin.

(title unknown)

2011-10-01T23:08:00.000-04:00

ElazPlanet:

some woman in the bar down the street

mixed media on a wooden drawer

Divorce - Solution to Palestine-Israel "Relationship?"

2011-09-28T19:19:00.001-04:00

A humorous and pointed prod to get Israel to think outside the box and get to peace.

Amplify’d from blog.onevoicemovement.org

For Israel, divorce might be the best option

New York, September 28, 2011—Dozens of OneVoice Israel youth leaders demanded a “divorce” from Palestine, plastering posters on and around rabbinical courts across Israel on Monday, pushing Israelis to see the opportunity in the recent Palestinian UN bid.

Shirly Coifman, coordinator of the Ben Gurion chapter, posts forms around Beer Sheva.

Even areas around the Israeli settlement of Ariel were plastered with mock divorce forms.
Read more at blog.onevoicemovement.org

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Dollar$ Chase Killing Ocean/Sharks

2011-09-23T19:26:00.001-04:00

Our collective desire to have meat or fish everyday, is killing the Amazon, our oceans, and grasslands. The end is visible already - Cod and Blue Fin Tuna are just two about to go. Self-denial and hiding will not stop the death of this planet for your children and grandchildren! Change or die - as they say...

Amplify’d from www.seashepherd.org

Another Industrial Shark Fishing Vessel is Apprehended in Galapagos

The Reina del Cisne, together with two small boats, was equipped with longlines, a fishing method prohibited by Galapagos regulations. Upon inspection of the mothership, dozens of dead sharks were found in their holds. The navy ordered the vessel to San Cristobal Island for further inspection, where it has been detained pending the ongoing investigation. The 12 crewmembers have all been placed under arrest.
Read more at www.seashepherd.org

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New FDA Regulation to Save Lives from Sick Meats

2011-09-13T21:28:00.001-04:00

Some limits - read on - but this is good government from the word go and the reason that my distant relative Teddy Roosevelt began regulating the industries that were killing Americans.

Amplify’d from www.wired.com

Big News But: USDA Bans “Other” E. coli Strains

Maryn McKenna

today from the US Department of Agriculture: It has agreed that, starting in March 2012, six more strains of E. coli will be considered “adulterants,” putting them in the same regulatory category as the much-feared E. coli O157:H7.

Declaring an substance to be an adulterant means that it cannot legally be distributed in food, and that therefore food processors can legally be held to account for products that contain it.
Read more at www.wired.com

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Sikorsky Blackhawk parts surpass gold in value!

2011-09-09T18:26:00.001-04:00

What happens when DoD gets green light to spend, spend, spend? They spend way over what things really cost and contractors laugh all the way to bank. Ya think someone is padding retirement jobs after leaving DoD procurement jobs?

Amplify’d from pogoblog.typepad.com

More Spare Parts Horror Stories: This Time It's Sikorsky

The Department of Defense Inspector General (DoD IG) has struck again. After a hard hitting audit report earlier this year on overpriced helicopter spare parts supplied by Boeing, the DoD IG yesterday issued an executive summary on overpriced spare parts for Blackhawk helicopters from Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation. In sum, “Sikorsky charged the Army $11.8 million or 51.4 percent more ($34.7 million versus $22.9 million) than fair and reasonable prices for 28 parts.”
Read more at pogoblog.typepad.com

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The worst government corporations can buy?

2011-09-08T20:48:00.001-04:00

75% of the members of the "super" committee are holding fund raisers while trying to figure out how to fix the Federal budget and the American economy. Well, I'd say the fix is in - wouldn't you. What will it take to wake these folks up that the whole world is watching and are being sickened by what they see!?!

Get a grip and get outside of your money box!

Amplify’d from www.washingtonpost.com

The Influence Industry: Supercommittee members are lining up fundraisers

Just hours before the first organizational meeting of the budget-cutting “supercommittee,” Republican member Dave Camp was scheduled to hold a fundraiser for his congressional campaign.

Camp is among at least nine members of the 12-member supercommittee who have scheduled fundraisers this fall, putting them in a position to take money from industry donors at the same time they are helping to decide what to cut from government spending.

See more at www.washingtonpost.com

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A Teacher's Song Amidst Gunfire in Monterrey, Mexico

2011-09-07T07:45:00.001-04:00

When will they just be able to sing again because they are happy?!?

Amplify’d from www.rnw.nl

Map

Monterrey, Mexico

Monterrey, Mexico

A teacher's song

Published on : 7 September 2011 - 1:32pm | By The State We're In . (Photo: RNW)

Martha Rivera Alanis isn’t exactly the kind of person who’d seek fame on YouTube. She’s a dedicated kindergarten teacher in Monterrey, Mexico. Earlier this year, gunfire from drug gangs came dangerously close to her class full of five and six-year-olds.

Read more at www.rnw.nl

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2011-09-01T16:36:00.001-04:00

Making fun of and disrespecting President Obama benefits whom? So could it be that some well-known pseudo-progressive organizations talking about the President "caving" to this and that - not being tough enough - whatever are really front organizations for the Koch Brothers and the Tea Party? Think about it? The school yard bully shouting is designed to get them noticed, get donations and ad dollars.

So are they making enough money by just dissing the President and getting your donations and ad dollars from your web visits? Is someone taking money under the table from others who "profit" when people think less of the President? http://amplify.com/u/a1cak7

2011-09-01T16:27:00.001-04:00

COPD: Chronic bronchitis; Emphysema; Bronchitis - GOP Lobby claiming that gutting EPA clean air regulations will give country more jobs - The jobs will be for funeral directors, COPD clinics and Doctors and the cost? Your health, you parents health and your children's. Small price to pay for their false religion of We-can-do-anything-for-a-profit-and-pretend-no-one-ever-gets-hurt!

The Pro-Asthma and Lung Cancer Lobby is joining forces with them in near future, as soon as they can find a slick way to sell risking death their way will be worth the cost to your loved ones health. http://amplify.com/u/a1cajy

Standing by Vermont!

2011-08-31T18:03:00.001-04:00

Working together works - as community people, Vermont State Guard, Vermont government, and FEMA all pull together!

Amplify’d from climate-connections.org

Vermont: The Recovery from Hurricane Irene Begins

In all, over 200 roads across the state were closed due to wash outs from the heavy rains that pelted the state for nearly twenty-four hours on Sunday, August 28.

Before the sun was up on Tuesday morning, thirty FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) tractor-trailers had arrived at the National Guard’s Camp Johnson with water, ready to eat meals, blankets, cots and other supplies.

Waterbury was submerged under 10 feet or more of water when the Winooski River rose to record flood levels in minutes.
Read more at climate-connections.org

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Gunrunner/Fast and Furious: Bush/Cheney Fail?

2011-08-31T07:47:00.001-04:00

Seems that Project Gunrunner which turned into Fast and Furious all began as a Bush/Cheney sloppy attempt to control drug guns.

Amplify’d from bsnorrell.blogspot.com

Project Gunrunner explodes: Lies from Arizona

Brenda Norrell

Project Gunrunner, and then “Fast and Furious,” were supposedly ATF sting operations to track weapons used by drug cartels in Mexico. Thousands of weapons were purchased by "straw" buyers in the US, then allowed to "walk" across the border into Mexico, walk into the hands of drug cartels.

An e-mail from a Flagstaff police officer about Project Gunrunner is dated March 17, 2008

“ATF Southwest Border Strategy Project Gunrunner Weapons of Choice," with the date stated as revised in Feb. 2008.

Project Gunrunner began as a pilot project in Laredo, Texas, in 2005 and was expanded as a national initiative in 2006
Read more at bsnorrell.blogspot.com

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Are we killing ourselves - not so softly?

2011-08-26T13:47:00.001-04:00

You get sick in the 1930s, 1940s and early 1950s - go home, soup, sleep and get better; wash wound regularly, bandage daily, get better.

You get sick in 1950s to 2011 and increasingly you get antibiotics prescribed for being sick or hurt and you get well in about the same amount of time.

1950s til now - Industry starts putting/using antibiotic in and on everything: Drugs for animals, rinses for food, and on and on and on.

Oops! 2001 and on we discover some things getting seriously out of whack. Did we/have we overdosed on antibacterials with the best of intentions and perhaps set a course that will facilitate a worldwide pandemic worse than fabled black plague and 1918 flu?

¿How do we figure out what we have done and how we can straighten things out? Or is it too late?

Amplify’d from www.wired.com

Antibiotics: Killing Off Beneficial Bacteria… For Good?

Maryn McKenna

Martin Blaser of New York University’s Langone Medical Center argues that antibiotics’ impact on gut bacteria is permanent — and so serious in its long-term consequences that medicine should consider whether to restrict antibiotic prescribing to pregnant women and young children.

Early evidence

our friendly flora never fully recover

Overuse of antibiotics could be fuelling the dramatic increase in conditions such as obesity, type 1 diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease, allergies and asthma, which have more than doubled in many populations.
Read more at www.wired.com

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2011-08-24T12:02:00.001-04:00

Glenn Beck, Crossroads, People for the American Way, Van Jones, Jane Hamsher, and Russ Feingold have all figured out they have a common purpose and have formed a marketing group called WNU Inc. (Wingnuts United) to serve their common need - to make a living by getting gullible Americans to listen to them for advice and give them money through donations or advertising.

Think I will stick with supporting my party and candidates/representatives directly.

There are many more who fill up cyberspace and the airwaves with shouts of their truths you know who they are. You know who they are. There are also many groups that focus on specific issues and work hard on them, as opposed to some NGOs who are now just in the business of supporting their leader and staff. You also know that those NGOs that start supporting and advocating on everything are slipping into being just about themselves. EOR = end of rant - smile. http://amplify.com/u/a1bs0s

Who Gets Credit for Jobs? Those hiring

2011-08-22T16:50:00.001-04:00

A. Gov. Perry responsible for job growth in Texas? Former Governator and Gov. Brown responsible for jobs gains in California?

or

B. How about the companies that did the hiring because they needed more workers and their customers are happy with them or want their product/service!

If you chose A. you are ready to move into the state of self-denial of facts to satisfy what you want to be true.

If you chose B., welcome back to reality or congratulations on not being sucked in by folks who want to sell you futures and pasts that will and have never existed so they can pick you pocket while they are getting you to take eye off of reality? Grin.

Good for employers in California - you still got a ways to go but you are getting there!

Amplify’d from feeds.bizjournals.com via Google Reader

California posts six-figure job gains

In the last 12 months, California has added 189,600 jobs, according to On Numbers.

Since July 2010, California's job growth was second only to Texas, which added 269,500 jobs, according to seasonally adjusted figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. It also added jobs in 9 of those 12 months.
Read more at feeds.bizjournals.com

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Future Payoff Price for Dropping Charges

2011-08-22T16:13:00.001-04:00

Latest news is that the Prosecutors have recommended that the charges be dropped against the former head of the IMF. I suspect that we will find out in the future that DA Vance will profit greatly from his mishandling of the case. The message? Don't mess with powerful men, take any offered payoff, if offended or harmed - deal with it. Scum win this time or at least briefly. This type of behavior of attacking women who have been attacked has to end!

Amplify’d from feministing.com via Google Reader

Breaking: DSK case to likely be dismissed; Rally in NYC today

Regardless of Diallo’s past and any changed versions of stories she may have made about what she did after the alleged assault, it does not mean she wasn’t raped. The fact that there is DNA evidence, the fact new medical reports state Diallo’s injuries were those of sexual assault, and the fact that Strauss-Kahn is currently being accused of attempted rape by his daughter’s friend, is a hell of a lot of evidence that this should not end here.
Read more at feministing.com

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Old Scourge Battering Vietnam Death Toll - 81

2011-08-20T18:31:00.001-04:00

Hand, foot and mouth disease - many think in an old disease but it has spread over much of Vietnam and has infected many more thousands and caused even more deaths of late in China. A by-product of industrialized and globalized agriculture and too great a focus on profit over safety?

Amplify’d from www.thanhniennews.com

Hand, foot and mouth disease spreads to pandemic levels

The Ministry of Health is considering declaring hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) a pandemic, as more than 32,000 cases of the illness have killed 81 across the country so far this year.

“During any given day, we have 7,000 patients in hospital being examined at HCMC Children’s Hospital 1,” said Dr. Tang Chi Thuong, the hospital’s director. “Of those, around 2,000 must stay at the hospital for treatment.”
Read more at www.thanhniennews.com

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A Superbug may be ready to go global

2011-08-17T16:16:00.001-04:00

How so? If the bug (bacteria) talked about in the attached article, manages to figure out how to bypass the last remaining drug that can treat it - then an advance from hospital to hospital and country to country could be rather rapid because of air travel patterns. What does that mean - a number of people who might otherwise survive treatment for another life threatening disease will die from a bacterial infection they contract while in treatment.

The natural system is working its way to overcome our overuse of anti-bacterial drugs in food, water, and in industrialized mammal, avian, and marine agriculture.

Amplify’d from www.wired.com

Ringing the Warning Bell: Colistin-Resistant Klebsiella

Maryn McKenna

In all the latest bad news about bacteria becoming highly resistant — through carbapenem resistance, or the “Indian supergene” NDM-1 — there has been one hopeful thread: All of the organisms have remained susceptible to one very old, little-used drug called colistin.

That might be about to change. Which would be very, very bad news.

To recap: A resistance factor is spreading that leaves very serious infections treatable by only a single remaining drug, one which is acknowledged not to be perfect. The more a drug is used, the faster resistance against it develops. Especially for Gram-negative infections, there are no new drugs in the pipeline.
Read more at www.wired.com

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Kill their spirit, wolves, land, water til when?

2011-08-14T18:59:00.001-04:00

Why is it that we still honor and admire First Nations people while we continue to allow companies and governments to try and steal their land, appropriate their culture? I do not know the answer, I do know it is wrong. How to fix it? No sure but we should try a lot harder than we have.

Amplify’d from buffy-sainte-marie.blogspot.com

My Country Tis of Thy People You're Dying: Video-Lyrics

Now that the pride of the sires receives charity.

Now that we're harmless and safe behind laws.

Now that my life's to be known as your heritage.

Now that even the graves have been robbed.

Now that our own chosen way is your novelty.

Hands on our hearts

We salute you your victory:

Choke on your blue white and scarlet hypocrisy.

Pitying your blindness; How you never see -

that the eagles of war whose wings lent you glory,

Were never no more than buzzards & crows:

Pushed some wrens from their nest;

Stole their eggs; changed their story.

The mockingbird sings it;

It's all that she knows.

"Oh what can I do?", say a powerless few.

With a lump in your throat and a tear in your eye:

Can't you see how their poverty's profiting you?

My country 'tis of thy people you're dying.

See more at buffy-sainte-marie.blogspot.com

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Good Practice+Too Many Drugs=Planet/People Killers

2011-08-12T23:20:00.001-04:00

In short - integrated agriculture supports self-sustaining use of all organic materials. Industrialize the process to maximize profit/yield by adding massive amounts anti-bacterial drugs to the process and you grow drug resistant bacteria and superbugs that - well read on how good intentions and bad science in service to profit could end up killing us. Chinese shrimp on the barbie or at Red Lobster - those shrimp are grown are grown in ponds fertilized by untreated chicken manure - bird flu anyone?

Amplify’d from www.wired.com

Drug Resistance in Food — Coming from Aquaculture?

Maryn McKenna

Salmonella Kentucky ST198, it is much more drug-resistant than the US Heidelberg outbreak, and it has been spreading since 2002 from Egypt and north Africa through Europe, and has now been identified in the United States. Its primary vector appears to be chicken meat.

The authors are especially concerned about farms that practice what’s called “integrated aquaculture,” in which chicken litter and manure are used to fertilize ponds in which fish are grown, and waste from the ponds is harvested and used as poultry feed.
Read more at www.wired.com

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USPS Managers - Disloyal/Unethical?

2011-08-11T17:36:00.001-04:00

The term "going Postal" came from violence committed by people who had been managed by folks who thought "whack a postal employee" was a great game.

Management signed contracts they now want to ignore/tear up. Management managed the USPS into a hole. Postal workers - letter carriers did not manage the business into the hole it is in.

1. Fire all the managers and put a committee of postal workers in charge of the system, or

2. Managers actually work with employees on how to save money and create more business.

My gut favors choice #1. My head says give #2 a try. Past experience tells me that the workers could actually save the system but managers are too stuck on being "bosses" rather than leaders who want their organization to succeed.

Be strong union and speak out for uncommon good sense!

Amplify’d from www.washingtonpost.com

USPS proposes cutting 120,000 jobs, pulling out of health-care plan

In an attempt to stem its financial hemorrhaging, the U.S. Postal Service is seeking to reduce its workforce by 20 percent, including through layoffs now prohibited by union contracts. USPS also wants to withdraw its employees from the health and retirement plans that cover federal staffers and create its own benefit programs for postal employees.
Read more at www.washingtonpost.com

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Thoughtless Thursday - Bank of America

2011-08-11T16:01:00.002-04:00

Bank of America is convinced it does not have to follow laws that require it to be a good neighbor and to just be accountable for its actions or inaction. And it does not believe that it needs to honor 1st Amendment, freedom of speech, laws against false imprisonment and... It gets the thoughtless and no heart award for this thursday!

Amplify’d from chicagoist.com

Woman Lists Bank of America's Vacant Property Violations; Bank of America Has Woman Arrested

Bank of America had a customer arrested yesterday after she tried to deliver complaints of code violations at properties the bank owns.
Read more at chicagoist.com

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If you do not blog for peace; who will?

2011-08-07T18:03:00.001-04:00

When good people say nothing, evil triumphs - speak up!

Amplify’d from www.youtube.com

BlogBlast4Peace 2011

For more information or to join this cause please visit founder and creator of Blog Blast For Peace, Mimi Lenox @ mimilenox.com

Read more at www.youtube.com

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2011-08-06T17:51:00.001-04:00

1. This is not a game - playing with our lives to gain an "edge" for your belief or political party has to stop.

2. Standard and Poor's has made so many bad calls over the past few years, that it is difficult to take seriously and I don't think people should take them seriously any longer - S&P you are downgraded for good!

3. Media and "pundits" - you are as much to blame as those attempting to gain a political edge. You are just spinning your own coverage to gain attention and gain your own edge. You time is nearly up as well.

4. We - the public - can all see that you are playing a "naked" game and while at times amusing - it has to end.

We need each other and need to work together - now! http://amplify.com/u/a1abxr

1946 Cold Case in Mojave

2011-08-05T17:42:00.001-04:00

Murdered woman finally identified - never, never, never give up when seeking justice, mercy, or peace!

Amplify’d from laist.com

Woman Murdered in 1946 Identified

It's never too late to solve a murder mystery, and in the case of a woman who was killed 65 years ago and whose remains were left in a California desert, investigators have finally found answers.
Read more at laist.com

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Salmonella - Deadly but illegal? Not so much

2011-08-05T13:04:00.001-04:00

Is it against the law to ship out 35 MILLION pounds of ground turkey that can sicken thousands and kill some? Is someone considering classifying the company as a 2nd or 3rd degree terrorist? Raise you hand if you are willing to pay taxes to protect your children and yourselves from being killed or sickened for profit! Nothing you can do? Pay attention to state and federal safety laws and inspections - tell your legislators you want that first level of safety enforced!

Ask Representative Boehner how much turkey he is buying?

Amplify’d from www.wired.com

Resistant Salmonella: Deadly Yet Somehow Not Illegal

Maryn McKenna

confirmation, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, that the Salmonella samples recovered from patients are resistant to several antibiotics — ampicillin, tetracycline and streptomycin — that are commonly used not only in human medicine, but in agriculture as well. (The strain still responds to Cipro, a fluoroquinolone; ceftriaxone, a cephalosporin; and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, a drug combination best known under the name Bactrim.)

But the biggest revelation may have been that, in strict legal terms, there may have been no wrongdoing in the distribution via turkey of the drug-resistant strain that has killed one person and sickened 78 — because Salmonella, the organism in question, is not classified by the federal government as something that is illegal to distribute.
Read more at www.wired.com

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Superbugs 2: Humans 0 Bottom of the 7th

2011-08-03T23:05:00.002-04:00

Meaning that if fighting the spread of superbugs was a game like baseball, we are in big danger of losing soon, if we do not change our ways!

Amplify’d from www.wired.com

Highly Resistant Salmonella: Poultry, Antibiotics, Borders, Risk

Maryn McKenna

If you’re a strain of Salmonella, it’s a very good week. If you’re a human, not so much.

There are two stories occurring simultaneously that underline the rising danger of drug-resistant organisms in the food supply, and the porousness of networks for detecting the dangerous bugs in time.

Salmonella Heidelberg

“resistant to many commonly prescribed antibiotics,” according to the CDC

traveling on ground turkey

Salmonella Kentucky

has become resistant to fluoroquinolones such as Cipro, the drug usually used to treat Salmonella infections.
Read more at www.wired.com

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Loyalty, Keeping Word; Still Golden?

2011-07-28T23:43:00.001-04:00

Throw everyone under the bus - cause I make enough money and I will not have to suffer. I am really tired of pundits and politicians who think it is just fine for them to screw everyone else because they do not have to live with the result of their advice or opinion. Samuelson - do unto others as you would do to yourself!

Amplify’d from www.washingtonpost.com

Why are we in this debt fix? It’s the elderly, stupid.

It’s the elderly, stupid.

By now, it’s obvious that we need to rewrite the social contract that, over the past half-century, has transformed the federal government’s main task into transferring income from workers to retirees. In 1960, national defense was the government’s main job; it constituted 52 percent of federal outlays. In 2011 — even with two wars — it is 20 percent and falling. Meanwhile, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and other retiree programs constitute roughly half of non-interest federal spending.
Read more at www.washingtonpost.com

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2011-07-26T15:40:00.001-04:00

Threat from self-delusion:

The monster of Norway, the Unabomber, the Oklahoma City Bomber, and the pilots of 9-11 airplanes all suffered from two extreme self-delusions:

a. That their actions would cause what they believed would be "positive global" effects,

b. That they were fulfilling a calling, a destiny for greatness, and would be admired/remembered for their actions.

Threat from rationality:

a. Our collective self-delusion that the world is or can be 100% rational - that the actions of madmen can be rationally explained and thus be somehow prevented in future.

b. No single person can carry out such madness, therefore there must be some secret group behind the horrendous act(s). http://amplify.com/u/a19n41

Can you hear me now? An Afghan poet's plea...

2011-07-13T22:34:00.001-04:00

God help us make the right choices - we are already there for almost 10 years and still no peace for us or them.

Amplify’d from www.awwproject.org

I have come a very long way

Give me a smile?

I am tired of crying

I miss happy times

I miss my mother’s hug

Talk to me … for just a second?

I am new in your land

Hold my hand

Show me the way

I have lots to learn

I have lots to teach my people

Let’s help each other

Bring peace and smiles on faces

I have come a long way

To start my new life

Please talk to me …

Talk to Me

See more at www.awwproject.org

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An Afgahn Poet's Do Fly Zone!

2011-07-11T17:03:00.001-04:00

She wants the real good life! More power to her!

Amplify’d from www.awwproject.org

Desire

I want to fly where birds sing their nicest songs,

where I can hear waterfowl, where it is green all the time,

where flowers smile and butterflies speak.

I want to fly where I can write poems and sing songs,

where dancing is not forbidden.
Read more at www.awwproject.org

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2011-07-11T14:30:00.001-04:00

I have Posterous checked to automatically get my Amplify posts but nothing has posted since March 21, 2011 - anyone had similar experience or explanation? Thanks. http://amplify.com/u/a17j47

Gonorrhea (Clap) SuperBug on Loose - Use Condoms!

2011-07-11T11:30:00.001-04:00

What an awful Monday story but true. Gonorrhea once conquered is no on the hunt for victims with a vengence. Gonorrhea is a bacterial sexually transmitted infection and if left untreated can lead to pelvic inflammatory disease, ectopic pregnancy and infertility in women.

It can cause epididymitis, a painful condition of the ducts attached to the testicles that may lead to infertility.

If it spreads to the blood or joints the condition can be life threatening.

Or overuse of drugs in food and people has fueled drug resistance like wildfire.

Amplify’d from www.dailymail.co.uk

Gonorrhea is now a superbug: Antibiotic-resistant strain could turn STD into global public health threat, experts warn

A 'superbug' strain of gonorrhea that is resistant to all recommended antibiotics has been discovered.

Scientists warn it could transform a once easily treatable sexually-transmitted disease into a global public health threat.
Read more at www.dailymail.co.uk

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Oops! Industrializing organics is bad too !

2011-07-07T22:49:00.001-04:00

E. coli in Germany outbreak has "cooled" down but who knows where "infected" sprouts seeds were shipped to. Industrialization of the seed market sent bad seeds all over Europe and who knows where else where folks are cashing in on interests in "organic" food.

Amplify’d from www.wired.com

E. coli: A Risk for 3 More Years From Who Knows Where

Maryn McKenna

European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) reveals that, despite the epidemic curve’s trending down, the outbreak can’t be considered over. The ultimate source — the contaminated seeds from which salad sprouts were grown — has been so widely distributed that no one really knows where they have gone or for how long they might remain for sale. One prediction, based on the probable package labeling, is that they could remain on shelves for 3 more years.
Read more at www.wired.com

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Fox News Owner Murdock Employees Hacking

2011-07-07T22:39:00.001-04:00

Rupert Murdock is closing News of the World in England over anger with his employees hacking dead soldier's cell phones, as well as other people - including a girl who was murdered - all in name of getting "news." He owns Fox News, Wall Street Journal and London Times - are they, or have they been hacking your phones, 9/11 first responders and victims cell phones, soldiers in Afghanistan? How far will Fox News owner go for profits and his interests over yours?

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/a1715a

How dumb can politics get? Outlaw energy efficient lightbulbs?

2011-07-07T15:49:00.001-04:00

Joe Barton and 14 other US Representatives think phasing out old light bulbs and supporting newer energy efficient bulbs somehow threatens you freedom! Next of their list?

1. Bring back cars and trucks that have now pollution devices so we can be free to cover the land with killer smogs!

2. Stop cleaning and filtering water - so people will be free to have cholera and typhoid again.

3. Stop requiring vaccinations for polio, measles, etc, so people are free to endanger their children and the rest of us.

Amplify’d from www.govtrack.us

To repeal certain amendments to the Energy Policy and Conservation Act with respect to lighting energy efficiency, and for other purposes.

Rep. Joe Barton [R-TX6]show cosponsors (15)
Read more at www.govtrack.us

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Family Farm; Gone! Family Fisherman: Going down quick!

2011-07-02T19:10:00.001-04:00

They will pretend to be fishermen of past fame but they are just giant corporations ready to trade your future and the planet for a quick dollar while deluding themselves that they will be exempt from the harm they cause.

In the end, they will be waving dollars, yuan and euros trying to buy a future after they have - oops - killed it!

Amplify’d from www.foodandwaterwatch.org

Fish, Inc.

The Privatization of U.S. Fisheries Through Catch Share Programs

Smaller-scale traditional fishermen are pushed out of the fishery while larger companies, which often use fishing practices that stress ocean ecosystems, take over.
Read more at www.foodandwaterwatch.org

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First bird flu, now chickens source of superbug effecting humans?

2011-06-28T17:47:00.001-04:00

Chicken farmers used to be able to buy methamfetamine (speed) in 55 gallon drums to mix with chicken feed for egg layers. I wondered how much speed and other drugs got into us. Now, we are beginning to find out.

The key in safety seems to be not industrializing poultry and egg farming, as well as other meat production. When thousands of animals are housed together drugs are needed to keep them healthy but the long term result may kill us all - chickens and people.

Amplify’d from www.wired.com

Is Drug Resistance in Humans Coming From Chickens?

There is enough similarity between drug-resistance genes in E. coli carried by chickens and E. coli infecting humans that the chickens may be the source of it.

We conclude that the high rate of ESBL contamination of retail chicken meat in the Netherlands, which involves many of the same ESBL genes present in colonized and infected humans, is a plausible source of the recent increase of ESBL genes in the Netherlands. The similarity of E. coli strains and predominant drug resistance genes in meat and humans provides circumstantial evidence for an animal reservoir for a substantial part of ESBL genes found in humans.
Read more at www.wired.com

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Hello? Anyone listening? Sitting out 2010 elections?

2011-06-27T21:34:00.001-04:00

Pointless discussions like this abound when people do not want to think about the huge mistake too many many people made by not turning up to vote in city, county, state, and congressional elections late fall.

If same number of people who supported President Obama had turned out to vote last November, we would be talking about the new national plan to address climate change!

Amplify’d from takingnote.tcf.org

Was it a Political Mistake to Pursue Health Care Reform?

There’s a meme going around that health reform was a central strategic error of the early Obama presidency. On this view, it was a mistake to spend so long waging trench warfare to pass the Affordable Care Act.
Read more at takingnote.tcf.org

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War keeps taking and taking and taking... we need to care for those who serve.

2011-06-27T18:21:00.001-04:00

Before there was PTSD, there was just combat fatigue; men and women were just supposed to forget about it or suck it up.

Many men and women who served in all our wars suffered during their time in combat and many silently for years after their service in WW One and WW Two, Korea, Vietnam, and then Desert Shield. Finally they put a real name and some real treatment together for what had ruined all too many lives years after the combat was forgotten.

Don't forget, don't let them down. Think even longer and harder before sending them in harm's way - please.

Amplify’d from servicewomen.org

Is PTSD contagious?

While I always felt his PTSD was “justified” in a way, his wife’s behavior after he returned home always seemed bizarre to me.

When talking with her, she’d drone on and on about having “secondary PTSD;” she developed the same symptoms as her husband.

But, I now know that I was wrong

So, maybe it doesn’t have an official name, but spouses of those suffering with PTSD have to deal with a lot. The depression and anxiety can easily be transferred to the “caregiver” and can cause them to suffer through it as well.
Read more at servicewomen.org

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Say What? Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan Meeting to Discuss Afghan War?

2011-06-25T23:07:00.002-04:00

Personally, I think the idea of US having bases in Afghanistan from now into eternity is a really bad idea but tell me again who are our allies supposed to be? Maybe this should be another wake up call to what countries think they have long term interest in not letting Afghanistan control its own future?

Amplify’d from tribune.com.pk

Trilateral dialogue: Tehran talks to focus on US bases in Afghanistan

ISLAMABAD:
The United States’ decision to set up six permanent military bases in Afghanistan will be the focus of talks when the presidents of Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan meet in Tehran on June 25, an official told The Express Tribune on Friday.

Read more at tribune.com.pk

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Five days community service for sexually assaulting hotel maid?

2011-06-25T22:26:00.001-04:00

The real slime-balls here are the prosecutors who "defend" their going along with 5-days community service by implying that assault not-so-bad and "victim" is tainted by wanting compensation.

Amplify’d from gothamist.com

Egyptian Banker Pleads Guilty To Sexually Assaulting Hotel Maid, Sentenced To 5 Days Community Service

The Egyptian banking executive who was arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting a maid at the Pierre Hotel decided to plead guilty. Mahmoud Abdel Salam Omar entered the plea yesterday and was sentenced to five days community service. His lawyer said he completed the community service already (soup kitchen work)

Prosecutors said

Service of a $5 million lawsuit speaks to her motivation from the beginning - loudly and clearly."
Read more at gothamist.com

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German Interior Minister: Next Anti-Terrorist Meeting with Christians?

2011-06-25T22:03:00.001-04:00

Only Muslims have terrorists in their community? Neo-Nazi, and anarchist wannabe terrorists are not the responsibility of Christian community? Could it be that government is still trying to stay in power by appealing to German racists?

Amplify’d from www.dw-world.de

German interior minister urges Muslims to combat militancy

"We want to stand up to the radicalization and misuse of religion together," he said. "All citizens of this country, no matter what our political tendency or religion, must take on the fight against radicalism and terror."

See more at www.dw-world.de

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Pro-Global Warming Concern or Pro-Gore Promo?

2011-06-23T13:14:00.001-04:00

How does picking at the President advance doing something about global warming? Would any of the GOP alternatives do anything different or better? So what is this about? A promo for Al Gore? "I feel ignored and I used to be important and wanna be a big guy again?"

"I am the most progressive and my organization is better than your organization?"

So, Al, when is the last time you and the President talked or played golf?

Amplify’d from www.bizjournals.com

Gore grills Obama on global warming

Gore argues that Obama has made little progress

Gore also knocks the media, which he accuses of being too distracted by personalities like Donald Trump and Charlie Sheen.
Read more at www.bizjournals.com

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He was ill; he is in rehab; he is famous = No responsibility?

2011-06-22T22:22:00.001-04:00

I am sorry that this guy was addicted to drugs and drink but does that excuse whatever he does, as long as he says: I am sorry and goes into rehab. Would anyone care much, if he were a day laborer accused of the same behavior? The bankers and heads of Wall street firms who ruined much of the world's economies... how many of them are in jail?

Mostly, I am just tired of rich and/or famous racists and sex criminals getting by with fewer penalties that poor and unknown racists and sex criminals. End of rant.

Amplify’d from www.guardian.co.uk

Did you launch a racist, antisemitic rant? I can't remember, Galliano tells French court

The British designer John Galliano told a Paris court he remembered nothing of an alleged antisemitic, racist rant in a bar because of his triple addiction to alcohol, valium and sleeping pills.

He went into rehab at the end of February after he was arrested by police following the alleged bar altercation. He said his reasons for rehab were various: "I started having panic attacks, I couldn't go to work unless I had taken some valium."
Read more at www.guardian.co.uk

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Feeding the Fear - Keeps You and "them" Down!

2011-06-22T18:38:00.001-04:00

Why do wannabe and hanging-on politicians feed fear and hate of people defined as "different?" To keep people from figuring out they are getting taken for a ride by the fear-frenzy profiteers. You don't notice that hundreds and hundreds of thousands of jobs have been moved to China to boost the income of a few thousand of America's richest, if you are convinced that it's Mexicans, or Hispanics, or illegals taking your jobs?

Before we bailed out GM last year, they built 19 plants in China over the previous 5-10 years. Never noticed that Mexicans were not the ones who took your factory jobs away? That is exactly what the fear mongering is designed to do - keep you from paying attention to what is really hurting your present and future.

Amplify’d from bsnorrell.blogspot.com

Roberto Rodriguez: John McCain's wildfire accusations

The Arizona senator accuses Mexican immigrants of starting wildfires, but he is fanning the flames himself – of prejudice

Last year, McCain claimed that "illegal aliens" were intentionally causing accidents on freeways.

Per the FBI, we know that the border region is safer than it was a decade ago, and that many of the safest US cities are along the US-Mexico border. But when it comes to fueling xenophobia in this country, facts never get in the way.
Read more at bsnorrell.blogspot.com

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Ned's Shared Items - FYI

2011-06-16T22:37:00.001-04:00

http://www.google.com/reader/shared/15351457303448151229

Just in case anyone is curious. I share tons of stuff everyday but do not post most of it here at Amplify because it just takes too long. I use the sharing option of Google's Reader. So, if you want to see all the wonderful things I read with a few comments here and there - take a look and bookmark if you wish

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/a15em3

When Targeted Assassinations Go Bad - way too often - why?

2011-06-15T16:36:00.001-04:00

Bad intelligence, killing the wrong person - oops! Why to snipers, drones and bombs often hit the wrong target?

Because someone is just getting even, trying to make money, or settling some sort of "score" that has nothing to do with wining any war.

You'd think in a day of 24/7 news coverage and cell phone news stations that folks would figure out that to "win" the long war - oops killings can hurt you as much or more than ones that might be justified in some way.

Learn it now - will ya!?

Amplify’d from circlingthelionsden.blogspot.com

Critique of targeted killings in Afghanistan

Zabet Amanullah, killed in error by US forces

Kate Clark of the Afghanistan Analysts Network has written an excellent analysis of the alleged killing by Coalition forces of the Taliban deputy shadow governor of Takhar in September 2010. She claims, with plenty of evidence, that the person killed - along with nine other people - was in fact Zabet Amanullah, a former Taliban fighter who had laid down his weapons in 2001.
Read more at circlingthelionsden.blogspot.com

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Good work for earth - 600 Dutch give fine start!

2011-06-15T12:25:00.001-04:00

Good friend helped pull off a grand planning and doing project to get many on board to saving the planet! Take a look and pass along, if you agree.

Amplify’d from www.economytransformers.com

Tick tick tick... time is ticking!

The Economy Transformers unite a diverse group of people who are anxious to contribute to the economic and societal transition needed for a future that serves and dignifies all life on our planet.

Community for (re)building an economy and society that serves people and nature

See more at www.economytransformers.com

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/a158hu

Can we end the war and the pain - PLEASE!

2011-06-13T18:25:00.001-04:00

She says all that needs to be said in her poem.

Amplify’d from www.awwproject.org

Sack of Winds

When God created me

he put a world in my heart

+++a world of grief

+++a country of blank deserts

+++a sky full of clouds

with a dead Sun

and crazy winds

He put all my desires

in a sack of winds

+++told me go

+++and find it

It is years and years

I run after the wind

+++to find my desires

+++my smiled lips

+++my sentenced hopes

I run after the winds

in the blank deserts

find nothing

but dead wishes

and

dead wishes

By Norwan
Read more at www.awwproject.org

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/a151gp

2011-06-04T22:43:00.001-04:00

Maybe this sounds dumb but... The Taliban are Afghans - right? So where do they go, if they lose or they decide for peace? Do they just go home and don't fight anymore? If you were a Taliban fighter or supporter, what would you do? http://amplify.com/u/a14k3b

Superbug in your dairy? Thank Industrialized farming...

2011-06-03T23:11:00.001-04:00

The wise opossum philosopher, Pogo, says - "We have me the enemy and he is us!" Keep cattle, poultry "healthy" under overpopulated and crowded conditions - easy hit them with anti-bacterial drugs in excessive amounts - yeah. Huh, you mean that we got drug resistant bacteria that eats people up as a result? Oops!

Amplify’d from www.wired.com

More MRSA, in milk: A new strain in cows and humans

Researchers in England and Denmark have announced they have found a never-before recorded variant of MRSA in cow’s milk in England that has already caused human infections in England, Scotland and Denmark, and researchers in Ireland have simultaneously announced that they have found the same strain in hospitalized patients there as well.
Read more at www.wired.com

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Florida Drug Testing

2011-06-02T06:30:00.001-04:00

Drug tests in Florida proposed by Governor Scott for all state legislators, state employees, public and charter school students and employees, businesses doing business with the State of Florida, businesses getting tax breaks fro Florida, any senior citizens receiving any sort of aid, discounts or assistance. The Governor has exempted himself. Actually he has already ordered random testing of all state employees. Rumor has it that he owns shares in drug testing firms. $42 a test.

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/a14c6z

An Afghan Poet's View of Osama bin Laden's Coming and Going

2011-05-25T17:42:00.001-04:00

Evil has gone, embrace the light - she says - she has a point. Will you hold on to fear of the dark or welcome the return of light and work to make it stay?

Amplify’d from www.awwproject.org

A Monster’s Tale

It was a timeless autumn, the day the sky darkened.

Soon, the people learned a monster had come to occupy the land!

Children forgot to smile.

But violence cannot stay forever:

The monster left the land and died. Clouds scattered. The people could see the sun shining again.

Sky becomes blue, land gets green.

By Farida
Read more at www.awwproject.org

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Dead Gulf Dolphin - No rug? Dump it Behind Bush!

2011-05-18T21:11:00.001-04:00

Eyes not on BP oil spill any longer - no reporting so it must be OK - all gone - poof like magic! Or pick up dead and dump them where they cannot be seen cause who is looking anyway? Good thing Laurel is. Wonder how many she has not seen?

Amplify’d from switchboard.nrdc.org

A Stroll on a Gulf Beach Yields a Dolphin Disposal

Laurel Lockamy has seen her share of dead sea life washing up on the beaches of Mississippi.

Off in the distance she saw

another dead dolphin

A tag was stuck in its mouth with the date: May 13, 2011. That was two days earlier.

The next day

Laurel watched in amazement as the front loader turned and dumped its load behind some beach vegetation. Poof it was gone!

See more at switchboard.nrdc.org

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Getting Real About bin Laden Hiding in Plain Sight

2011-05-16T18:03:00.001-04:00

How could they not have known? always "sounds" good after the crime but what's the real record about various authorities "knowing" where the criminal is or was, or even who it is.

Consider these criminals and who should have known what?

Theodore John "Ted" Kaczynski, the Unabomber a mail bombing spree that spanned nearly 20 years!

The Green River Killer - Gary Leon Ridgway murdered numerous women in Washington during the 1980s and 1990s.

David Parker Ray - the "toy box" killer tortured and killed his victims in New Mexico; 1950s-1999.

The Zodiac Killer was a serial killer who operated in Northern California in the late 1960s and early 1970's. The San Francisco Police Department marked the case "inactive", yet re-opened the case at some point prior to March 2007. No one caught.

Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer murdered 17 men and boys between 1978 and 1991.

Serial murderers and serial-murdering terrorists, often, it seems hide in plain sight, since no one expects a serial killer to live next door or to look like everyone else.

But reporters and politicians will continue saying some one should have known - someone should have been able to find them or - even better - should have known that they were going to do something horrible.

Osama bin Laden was found, is dead, and can kill no more.

Beating ourselves and allies up over how long it took to stop him does little good, as far as I can see.

Amplify’d from www.washingtonpost.com

Did Pakistan know bin Laden was ‘hiding in plain sight’?

David Ignatius

Opinion Writer

The “Where’s Waldo?” aspect of the hunt for bin Laden — who turns out to have been living since 2005 just a few hours’ drive north of Islamabad — has worsened the mistrust between America and Pakistan. Pakistani anger over the unilateral U.S. attack is indicated by the fact that someone just “outed” the CIA station chief in Islamabad for the second time in a year.
Read more at www.washingtonpost.com

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Bedbugs, Superbugs, Oh My! For Real!

2011-05-11T15:39:00.001-04:00

Bedbugs just want blood and will move into any neighborhood to get it. Be careful!

Amplify’d from www.wired.com

Drug-resistant bacteria in bedbugs

Maryn McKenna

Researchers in Vancouver, BC have found bedbugs there carrying drug-resistant staph, MRSA, and vancomycin-resistant enterococci, VRE.

Bugs that came from two of the men were carrying VRE

Bedbugs from the third man were carrying the classic community-associated strain of MRSA

Is it significant?

And therefore, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go check my hotel mattress. Just in case.
Read more at www.wired.com

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One Afghan Lament on Sorrow

2011-05-09T21:32:00.001-04:00

You wish you could take someone's sorrow away but in sharing it, perhaps you help the healing process. Catch a sweet dream!

Amplify’d from www.awwproject.org

How Can I Hide My Sorrow?

I am an Afghan girl,

tears in my eyes, pen in hand,

writhing from my heart.

That heart, full of sorrow,|

Pain, grief, sores.

How can I hide my sorrow?

No one understands me

or feels my sadness.

No one smooths ointment on my wounds.

How can I hide the sorrow

that fills me,

when my heart is

Exploding

+++Exploding

++++++Exploding

By Farahnaz
Read more at www.awwproject.org

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Sen. Brown: Job over health?

2011-05-04T20:19:00.001-04:00

Senator Brown says he is for keeping children safe and says he if for jobs. So he votes against EPA updating clean air standards. So if people are too ill to work in factories spewing air pollution that makes them too ill to got to work - hmmm.

If worker cannot go to work 10 days a year because she has to take her children to the doctor because of ill effect of pollution... Hmmm. Ya think that Brown has thought his position through?

Amplify’d from switchboard.nrdc.org

Scott Brown Plays the Victim

ads and a website blasting one Republican and one Democratic Senator each for voting to block the EPA from updating clean air safeguards

Scott Brown

“As a father, I would never do anything to put my two daughters or anyone else's children in harms [sic] way.” And that one of his most “solemn responsibilities” is to “protect children.”

According to the nurses’ report, over 130,000 Massachusetts kids have asthma and over 13,000 emergency room visits are needed yearly to treat kids struggling to breathe.
Read more at switchboard.nrdc.org

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2011-05-04T15:36:00.001-04:00

Lots of "talk" about what Pakistan "should/had to" have known - through rear-view mirror. Could be true but... Didn't Unabomber hide in plain sight for a number of years? Years gone by - shouldn't have authorities known for years where John Dillinger was, or Jesse James, or any number of horrible people it took years to find? Years ago, the Mafia "accountant and pay master for Washington, DC was on the same floor in an office building also used by the FBI for training. Hiding in plain sight doesn't mean conspiracy "had" to exist. http://amplify.com/u/a11eup

Video: World’s Biggest Gathering of Whal

2011-05-02T15:56:00.001-04:00

Video: World’s Biggest Gathering of Whale Sharks | Wired Science | Wired.com

Whale Sharks Galore! Cool!

- Sent using Google Toolbar

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Sec. Clinton on bin Ladin's Demise

2011-05-02T12:41:00.001-04:00

Amplify’d from www.state.gov

Remarks on the Killing of Usama bin Ladin

Hillary Rodham Clinton

All over the world we will press forward, bolstering our partnerships, strengthening our networks, investing in a positive vision of peace and progress, and relentlessly pursuing the murderers who target innocent people. The fight continues, and we will never waver. Now I know there are some who doubted this day would ever come, who questioned our resolve and our reach. But let us remind ourselves, this is America. We rise to the challenge, we persevere, and we get the job done.
Read more at www.state.gov

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EU Anti-Roma Violence Flares Anew

2011-04-27T15:46:00.001-04:00

You'd think that right wingers would find new victims for focusing their fear based violence but Roma, Jews, Muslims and Gays still have to watch their backs because no one else will - or so it seems. Before we humans destroy the planet, you think we will ever stop looking for someone to blame all our fears and self-hate on?

Amplify’d from www.spiegel.de

Right-Wing Militants on Patrol

A New Wave of Anti-Roma Violence in Hungary

The Hungarian village of Gyöngyöspata has once again become home to violence between right-wing radicals and its Roma populace. Dozens of extremists marched into the town on Wednesday, one day after provoking brawls with the Roma who live there. It is the continuation of a trend.
Read more at www.spiegel.de

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Genetic Modification Meltdown in nuts!

2011-04-26T18:31:00.001-04:00

Forget that pistachios are not native to Australia. The lesson is - you plant genetically uniform (aka GMO or monopoly Monsanto seeds) plants, you risk huge, massive, really big crop failure. 50% down and half of those inedible - those are big numbers.

What would the result be if 50-75% of the world's alfalfa, wheat, rice, or oat crop failed in one season? Can you imagine at least 1 billion dying of hunger and another billion or so from war, revolution, and genocide?

OK, OK. I know. You want to go back to watching your reruns of Seinfeld.

Amplify’d from www.wired.com

Australia Pistachio Disaster Hints at Agricultural Breakdown

The culprit was anthracnose, a fungal disease best known for infecting mangoes. It raced through the industry, resulting in a harvest some 50 percent smaller than expected — and half of that was inedible.

“The wide cultivation of genetically uniform plant populations fosters rapid evolution among the pathogens,” said Scot Nelson, a plant pathologist at the University of Hawaii. “Because of this greed, new pathogens or newly reported host-pathogen combinations arise almost daily around the world.”
Read more at www.wired.com

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S&P Expert? At what? Covering their...?

2011-04-26T16:08:00.001-04:00

September 8, 2008 S&P said they were thinking about dropping Lehman Brother's from A1 rating to A. Lehman Brothers filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on September 15, 2008. So we should trust their judgment, as much as we trust all the other high fliers of Wall Street? How many people are still out of work from the burst housing bubble that they rode as well as any did? How much money have they returned to anyone for mistakes made? Weren't they co-conspirators to the biggest fraud in last 50 years?

Amplify’d from www.latimes.com

Thank you, Standard & Poor's

Michael Kinsley

Standard & Poor's may know nothing that I couldn't find out, but it certainly knows more than I've bothered to find out. (And how about you?) And how its experts assess all this publicly available information is surely worth knowing, isn't it?
Read more at www.latimes.com

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In my "state" "birthers" are aliens

2011-04-25T13:24:00.001-04:00

In my state of mind, the birthers now led by wanna-be-still-famous Trump seem to be from some alien place where logic is absent and denial has replaced reality - all perfect for a new Donald show! But read this article if you need further proof.

Amplify’d from www.guardian.co.uk

The birthers' constitutional illiteracy

For the birthers, the translation of "natural born citizen'" is simply "those born inside the United States". To them, anyone born outside the United States is ineligible for the presidency. They are wrong.

The Naturalisation Act of 1790 provided that "the children of citizens of the United States that may be born beyond Sea, or out of the limits of the United States, shall be considered as natural born Citizens."
Read more at www.guardian.co.uk

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Nuclear waste: Keep out – for 100,000 ye

2011-04-24T19:19:00.001-04:00

Nuclear waste: Keep out – for 100,000 years | Art and design | The Guardian

So... what kind of sign would you put up to warn people not to enter? "For Sale by Owner who thought nuclear power was safe - reduced price!"

- Sent using Google Toolbar

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TB - Still World Threat!

2011-04-21T23:37:00.001-04:00

Lancet Study: TB Screening

The World Health Organization estimates that roughly 2 billion people – nearly 1 in 3 – are infected with the TB bacilli, and of those, 1 in 10 will develop active TB during his or her lifetime.

- Sent using Google Toolbar

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Equal pay, respect, promotion - now!

2011-04-20T22:51:00.001-04:00

Always the same - she works hard for the money but get the respect, pay, honor and ... that she deserves? Not yet - why not?

Amplify’d from www.youtube.com

See more at www.youtube.com

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Statists Posing as Conservatives?

2011-04-20T08:00:00.001-04:00

According to a new law in Michigan, the Governor and the State Treasurer can declare any unit of local government in financial emergency, take it over and then disband it. Local voters, democracy, forget it! Government at whim of Governor and State Treasurer. Benton Harbor, Michigan: "A state-appointed emergency financial manager has suspended the decision-making powers of Benton Harbor officials in a move that's likely the first act of its kind under a new state law." http://www.thetimesherald.com/article/20110416/NEWS05/110416011/Emergency-chief-takes-action-against-Benton-Harbor

Amplify’d from michiganmessenger.com

First suit filed over Emergency Manager law

The city’s two pension funds sued Gov. Rick Snyder and state Treasurer Andy Dillon in federal court today to block part of a new emergency manager statute.
Read more at michiganmessenger.com

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Big Macs, Deforestation, and Slavery?

2011-04-15T18:24:00.001-04:00

In Brazil the Big Mac attack and the Crave bring on deforestation and slave labor - are you loving it - getting outside the bun - and oops killing the planet and the Amazon?

Amplify’d from www.greenpeace.org

Deforestation and slave labour still linked to Brazilian cattle industry

14 slaughterhouses in the Brazilian state of Acre. These slaughterhouses are being sued by the public prosecutor for buying cattle from farms who have been fined by the Brazilian Environmental Police for illegal deforestation, and from farmers who are accused of using slave labour. One of the slaughterhouses being sued is JBS – the largest exporter of meat products in the world.
Read more at www.greenpeace.org

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25% chance your meat will make you sick!

2011-04-15T15:49:00.001-04:00

One in four samples bought in supermarkets contained meat with bacteria resistant to at least three drugs against staph infections. If you gotta eat meat - eat organic or cook it until it resembles cardboard...

Amplify’d from www.wired.com

Multi-Drug Resistant Staph in 1 in 4 Meat Samples

A team of researchers from Arizona bought meat and poultry in five cities across the United States

52 percent of those staph isolates were resistant to at least three antibiotics that are commonly used in both veterinary and human medicine.

That is: Roughly one in four packages of meat and poultry from across the United States contained multidrug resistant staph.
Read more at www.wired.com

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Mimi - Unplugged 'bout birthers - oh my!

2011-04-15T07:30:00.001-04:00

Funny as always; good for Friday on a week that has fried more than one of us!

Amplify’d from mimiwrites.blogspot.com

Mimi In A Minute #28 ~ Snooki Birthers and other Mysteries

I have a few things to say. This is Mimi unplugged.
Hide your children.

To Elizabeth Taylor:

Thank you for your glamorous and giving ways.

To all the Birthers out there:

I want to see the Ten Commandments written on the original stone tablets too. In triplicate signed by God.
Fat chance on both counts.

If Donald Trump had Sarah Palin's hair, I would vote for him. That is my deep political opinion on the matter.
Read more at mimiwrites.blogspot.com

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BP, DC - Can You Hear Me Now?

2011-04-14T22:39:00.001-04:00

Shouldn't have to walk 1,200 miles to get someone to not take their eye off the Gulf and what BP has done to it but in a world of short attention spans and lying oil companies - that is exactly what this woman had to do!

Amplify’d from switchboard.nrdc.org

A Year after the Gulf Oil Disaster, a Mom Walks to DC to Fight for Health

On a picture perfect spring day, Cherri Foytlin and an entourage of friends and associates from the Gulf marched across the Memorial Bridge into Washington, completing a 1200 mile journey to raise awareness about the health impacts of the BP oil disaster.

See more at switchboard.nrdc.org

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How was your DC fieldtrip?

2011-04-12T15:38:00.001-04:00

Nice gift to these students. President Obama drops in and stays to talk!

Amplify’d from www.whitehouse.gov

Surprise! It's the President

When eighth graders from Longmont, Colorado's Altona Middle School left for the East Coast, they knew they'd be coming to see the White House and some of D.C.'s famous monuments. Little did they know they'd also get the chance to not just see, but meet, President Barack Obama himself.

one of the students had written President Obama as he was negotiating a budget with Congressional leadership, telling him how much her son and his classmates were looking forward to visiting Washington. The President mentioned that letter in his remarks after reaching an agreement late Friday night, and decided to say hello while they were in town.

The mother of one of the students had written President Obama as he was negotiating a budget with Congressional leadership, telling him how much her son and his classmates were looking forward to visiting Washington. The President mentioned that letter in his remarks after reaching an agreement late Friday night, and decided to say hello while they were in town.
Read more at www.whitehouse.gov

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Unemployed, forgotten - still standing

2011-04-12T15:13:00.001-04:00

Too common an experience due to HR folks and others who just do not have a clue what the marketplace is really like. I can attest to the truth of the reactions she got, since I got the same ones. Eighteen years as a professional business editor and writer and three books published were worthless, once you had not been hired doing exactly the same thing within 6 months.

Amplify’d from thestory.org

Unemployed? Don't Apply.

Kelly Wiedemer lost her job in the financial sector at the start of the recession almost three years ago. She says the problem now is that she has been out of work for so long, many employers won’t even give her resume a second look. Kelly says the one thing that has changed is that she’s become a lot more politically involved - she’s started writing and she’s determined to speak up on behalf of people who are being ignored because they’ve been out of work. Music: Flint, Sufjan Stevens
Read more at thestory.org

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Evolution of Reading in one picture

2011-04-11T08:25:00.001-04:00

Nothing more to be said: Youngest is reading her Smart Phone, 30-something is reading a magazine, and senior is reading Financial Times?

Amplify’d from london-underground.blogspot.com

Regular readers will know I'm always keen to see what people are reading on the London Underground, as it's usually a good indicator of trends in popular fiction, non fiction and now reading devices. Last week the trio opposite me looked very much like an advertisement for how people read
Read more at london-underground.blogspot.com

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Ultimate hubris: Cloning nature

2011-04-10T19:04:00.001-04:00

Leaves me almost speechless. Redwoods and their forest are almost magical - quite inspiring. How did they become so strong and lost lasting? Did they clone each other in a lab and plant millions of just-like-me trees? Silly question? Why did the "scientist" in this story ask it of himself? Because, like many science mechanics, he thinks/believes/self-deludes that he and his cohorts are above nature and can manufacture nature.

Natural selection is as much about natural diversity and errors, as it is about survival and adaptation. Until we understand that, we will not leave forests to themselves and just cordon them off from our interference.

Amplify’d from www.nytimes.com

From Ancient Giants, Finding New Life to Help the Planet

It is just those sprouts that lie at the heart of a plan hatched by a group of tree enthusiasts to clone — and then mass-produce — a collection of colossal redwoods, some of which date to before the birth of Jesus and can soar nearly 40 stories, the tallest living things on earth.

“We want to get the biggest, best genetic representations of the species,” said David Milarch, the co-founder of the Archangel Ancient Tree Archive. “And make millions and millions and millions of them.”
Read more at www.nytimes.com

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Pesticides? What is on my food?

2011-04-07T19:27:00.001-04:00

http://www.whatsonmyfood.org/

Database and widget for figuring out what pesticides are on your food. Don't wanna know? Then don't look - but now you know where it is if you change your mind - grin

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To Rep. Paul Ryan Lying's Second Nature

2011-04-06T21:46:00.001-04:00

Do these guys who lie for a living think no one will ever check on what they have said. Do they think that even their supporters will just accept the lies as a way of doing business? Makes you wonder what else he is lying about.

Amplify’d from www.healthbeatblog.com

Alice Rivlin Does Not Support Ryan’s Plan to Bury Medicare

Yesterday, on “CNBC’s Morning Joe,” Paul Ryan claimed Alice Rivlin, Clinton’s OMB director, as an ally: “Alice Rivlin and I designed these Medicare and Medicaid reforms”

Rivlin revealed

“We talked fairly recently and I said, ‘You know, I can’t support the version that you have in the budget,”
Read more at www.healthbeatblog.com

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Fear + Hate = A Death Too Ugly

2011-04-04T13:59:00.001-04:00

What can one say, when an activist for peace is killed? We will go on till peace covers the land with flowers instead of blood.

Amplify’d from www.guardian.co.uk

Israeli peace activist Juliano Mer Khamis shot dead in Jenin

Witnesses say actor – who ran a drama project in a Palestinian refugee camp – was shot five times by masked men

Kadura Musa, governor of Jenin, said: "He was a Palestinian citizen of Israeli origin. An actor and an artist but most of all a true human being. We don't know why this happened, but all the people of the camp condemn the death of this son of ours whose mother also did so much for the people of Jenin."
Alaa Eddin Saadi lives next to the theatre, and said that Mer Khamis was shot while in a car also carrying his one-year old son and his nanny, who was wounded in the hand. "I don't think he was killed because he was Jewish. Some people were angry with the liberal values he was promoting at the theatre, but to me he was a very nice guy who worked hard for the people here."
Read more at www.guardian.co.uk

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Contrail Cloud Clout Concerns...

2011-03-30T15:59:00.001-04:00

Contrails do at times seem to crowd out real clouds but are they a problem? Well - YES. Read on.

Amplify’d from www.wired.com

Contrails Worse for Climate Change Than Airplane Emissions

A study in the brand-new journal Nature Climate Change reinforces that by suggesting that the clouds currently being generated by air travel have a larger impact on the climate than the cumulative emissions of all aircraft ever flown.

Over central Europe, values peaked at about 10 percent, in part because the output of the North Atlantic corridor drifted in that direction.
Read more at www.wired.com

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BP Aftermath in Gulf - Death

2011-03-29T07:50:00.001-04:00

What you see wash up on the beach has to represent only a fraction of marine life being exterminated by the aftermath of bile released by BP into the Gulf of Mexico. If you look at a map of the drilling platforms in the Gulf, you have to ask - what have they been thinking. And you might get to - What have I been thinking? - about the price earth pays for me driving instead of walking a half mile to buy a soda and a bag of chips to save yourself "time and effort."

Amplify’d from switchboard.nrdc.org

Sea Turtle Deaths Anger Mississippi Residents

Even 13 dead turtles is an unusually high number in March. In the past three years, NMFS reports no turtles were stranded in Mississippi until the beginning of April. The only other Gulf state to report a rise in on-shore turtle deaths this year is Texas with 48, more than twice the number counted in 2009--the year before the BP oil blowout. That year, the total number of on-shore turtle deaths in the Gulf shot up to 248, nearly five times the number from the previous year.

All five turtle species found in the gulf are endangered or threatened, including the Kemp Ridleys and the Loggerheads often seen near shore.

“I’m really mad. I’m finding dead turtles, birds, giant fish and other animals all over the beach. No one comes by to clean them up right away and people come down here and let their kids play next to them. And the water looks like chicken broth.”

So far this year, at least 134 dolphins have been found stranded along the Gulf coast, about four times the average number.
Read more at switchboard.nrdc.org

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