Lefty Blogs
williampfaff ++ ++
Russian News ++
seaton-newslinks. USA expat in Europe ++
bilegrip Asu spleen ++
us-rockstroh a rant, not a blog ++
aboutmyplanet eco ++
sfgate ++
crookedtimber ++
onthecommons ++
sjlendman ++
....
abutamam freeiraq ++
airamericaradio +
amygdalagf +
angryarab ++
annezook +
antiwar ++
norwegianity
terrorism-news
blogspot
ourtomorrow
politickybitch
welcome-to-pottersville
aviraqi
billmon ++ whiskeyB
consortiumnews ++
dahrjamailiraq
dailywarnews ++
drforbush +
english +
fallujahinpictures
freespeechradio
halcyondays ++
healingiraq
hereticalideas ++
icasualties
maru
om
boxspinning boxes

jamaicaobserver newspaper
jameswolcott +
lefarkins +
liberalgirlnextdoor ++
lonehighlander Libya, not lefty
mahablog +++ solid
maruthecrankpot +
indymedia melbourne
messopotamian +7Apr06
monkey ++
motherjones ++
fisk
nocapital +
norightturn +NZ
peakoil ++
pilger +
politicalhumor +
raedinthemiddle
rafahtoday Feb05?
rense w= wacko conspiracies
rigorousintuition x
hegemon ++
ruckus ++
rudepundit ++
satiricalpolitical +
scaramoucheblog ++
secretsinbaghdad ++15Ap06
Energring
aliveinbaghdad ++
riverbendblog ++
sideshow +++
signs-of-the-times +++
slashdot ++techy
talkleft ++
thinkprogress ++
thismodernworld +++
uncapitalist ++
velorution ++ bicycles
org ++Brazil peasants
warandpiece +
warfare.ru +russia military
greenpeace
allhatnocattle
alternet ++
americanpolitics
antiwar
gbruno ++YT
axisoflogic ++
blackcommentator
bobharris +
bradblog +
buckfush +funnies
buggery +
buzzflash ++
changeforamerica
countercurrents
counterpunch +++
crisispapers
crooksandliars ++?
csmonitor
dahrjamailiraqhref="http://www.dailykos.com/
davidcorn
democracynow
democracyuprising
dissidentvoice
earthfirstjournal
earthstation5
empirenotes
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fromthewilderness
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granta
grist ??
gristmagazine
guerrillanews
gulf
hizbollah
huffingtonpost ++
informationclearinghouse
infoshop +
inthesetimes x
iranmania x
ivaw
jihadunspun
juancole ++
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lrb ++ Iraqi?
mahablog
lewrockwell ++
marklynas climate change
mnftiu get your war on comics
motherjones
nilemedia
nybooks
occupationwatch
oriononline
palestine
prisonplanet
rall ++ Ted Rall cartonist
ratical
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rense
robert
rollingstone
scoop
selvesandothers ++
smirkingchimp
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socialistworker
spiked
tblog
theiraqiroulette
theleftcoaster +
thepoorman +
tnr ++ magazine
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traprockpeace ++
truthout +
boondocks ++
crowning3
. . . helix
Base
rain radar
Weather
worldtribunal +
worldwatch ++ $ required
zaman + Turkish news
youcantmakeitup + ?
youngfox ????????????
bareknucklepolitics videos?
popdrain videos??
discovery videos??
cs videos??
aegisIraq video??
mariyaguchi video??
iwilltryit video..
baghdadtreasure
ahram cairo newspaper
felbers
thepartyline
jfaughnan 28/04/2006 10:25AM
shrillblog +
thinkprogress +
marchforjustice + pictures
messopotamian + Iraqi not so radical, but scared (also see IraqTheModel which was a USA front, but is now also scared)
scaramoucheblog +
counterpunch
.............
blogads liberal blogs by CPM $ per view
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republicoft + black gay parent??
dailykos ++
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atrios ++
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washingtonmonthly ++
mydd +
politics1 +
bartcop ++
politicalwire +
sisterstalk black lesbian?
culturekitchen ++
alternet
wonkette +++
billstclair +
freefreedomtoldhere ++ pipe bomb

......
almuajaha defunct
whynot defunct
winstonsmith defunct
samadams dormant
mquinn02 defunct
iraqblogcount ++14Apr06 suspended
iraqicomments most recent: jan2005
iraqidoctor most recent: Aug2005
georgemustgo + moved?
vialls ++Dormant (joe is dead)
warblogging Defunct
hammeroftruth quiescant?
mediastorm quiescant? +
bushwhackedusa defunct
hamasonline defunct
4Jul06

14 July 2006

Lebanon, Cuba, Electro-swat, Qinghai-Tibet Rail,DU

I refuse to link to Robert Fisk's latest article, instead of outrage at the ZE bombing of civilians, he blathers on about Syria. I recall in '03 as GulfWarII began, RF used to rile the hawks by getting technical details of weapons incorrect. I counted myself as a fan, but now I would urge caution, even try a bit of Fisking, he seems to be humming a Zionist tune.
where are the real ANGRY ARABS, like Hatem Bazian, Joseph Massad, Rashid Khalidi, Jess Ghannam, Shahid Alam, just to mention a few courageous and outspoken Arabs?
- a criticism of angryarab

info
video interview with Mordechai Vanunu

almanar
Thrashing about the blogs:
palestinianpundit . .electronicintifada . .electronicintifada . . wearewideawake . . stevegilliard . . consortiumnews . . hammeroftruth . . tnr

Report made public last Monday by the U.S. State Department concerning Cuba...Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba..a budget of $80 million during the next two years to ensure a transition, rather than a succession of leadership, in Cuba. The Report also contains a classified attachment that contains a secret plan for regime change in Cuba.
..It mentions Venezuela at least nine different times..
This "Castro-led axis," ..they are finding some resonance with populist governments and disenfranchised populations in the region."
..One of the more troublesome of the Commission's recommendations is the threat to apply Title III of the 1996 Cuban Liberty and Solidarity Act, known as "Helms Burton", to Venezuela.
Title III ..permits lawsuits in U.S. courts brought by individual citizens against businesses that operate on property the Cuban government nationalized after the 1959 revolution...
.. the White House is now prepared to apply, for the first time, Title III to individual countries that are "engaged in a process of support for regime succession (with Cuba)." ..
..President Chávez.. "Rather than thinking of a transition plan for Cuba, he added, "the United States ought to elaborate a transition plan for themselves because this is the century that will see the end of the U.S. empire."


"There is no power so convinced of its own benevolence as the United States. The culture is delusional in its commitment to this mythology, which is why today one can find on the other side of the world peasant farmers with no formal education who understand better the nature of U.S. power than many faculty members at elite U.S. universities."
-- Robert Jensen, a professor of journalism at UT Austin, in a recently delivered speech at the Brisbane (Australia) Social Forum titled "The Threats to Sustainable Democracy"

DU
uruknet
Using the same calculation method that the U.K. Atomic Energy Authority employed in their 1990 projection of potential DU consequences in Iraq, the estimated 250 tons of DU from the 2,000 recent air strikes carried out in Afghanistan from March to May 2006 could result in as many as 2,500,000 cancers within the next ten years. The bomb dropped near Capt. Goddard produced 250 pounds of DU that could cause as many as 1,250 cases of cancer in that village within the next ten years. But, the bombing in the initial 2001 invasion could cause as many as 9,000,000 additional cancers within ten years.

counterpunch
... As Robert Jensen warned the Brisbane Social Forum, "The world is at risk."

dailywarnews
But perhaps the most revealing moment in Suskind's book ["The One% Doctrine," which "paints a portrait of an administration drunk on lawless power"] is a brief vignette that captures the quintessence of Bush's callous disregard for the American people -- and the regime's strange, preternatural calm in the face of imminent attack. In August 2001, while Bush dawdled on his Texas dude ranch, the entire national security system was, in Tenet's words, "blinking red" in expectation of a major terrorist strike. On Aug. 6, a CIA official brought the infamous "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S." memo to Crawford and read it out personally to the president. In response, he got nothing but a snide dismissal: "All right, you've covered your ass now."

That was it. Bush had nothing else to say about this stark threat of impending slaughter. He had no questions, no advice, no commands -- just smirking contempt. Even if we give Bush every benefit of the doubt, even if we put the most charitable construction possible on his behavior, the very best you could say of his reaction is that it represents a blood-curdling degree of depraved indifference and criminal negligence worthy of Nero.

Beyond this "best-case" scenario, you tumble into an abyss of ever-darker implications, a deep murk that may never be dispelled. But what we know, what is plain as day, is bad enough: Tyranny has come -- aggressive, remorseless, murderous, mad.


huffingtonpost
I ran into Colin Powell and asked him if we are ever going to get out of Iraq. "We are," he told me, "but we're not going to leave behind anything we like because we are in the middle of a civil war." Powell and Jack Murtha both talking about civil war in Iraq -- shouldn't that be headline news?

techwebsound Jefferson Airplane redux

cognitivedaily
kanji plays pac-man

swat
eurocosm
coolest
- These Bug Swatters are the coolest thing, they may change the way we experience space. 'Outside' may become less threatening, now that biting insects can be despatched with a langourous wave of the arm. We no longer need to cower indoors from the insects. Children love these bats, watch them prowl the undergrowth, rousing resting mossies, and experience their joy at the satisfying zzzst! and blue flash.

Qinghai-Tibet Rail, Oxygen required:
In the past five years, 100,000 workers laid about 700 miles of track over some of the harshest geography on the planet.... the new portion runs with elevations between 13 - 16,000 feet..
.. half of the new track crosses permafrost , which can become unstable if it thaws... oxygen, mixed with some outside air, is pumped throughout the train.. 23% O2 .. like they’re at only 10,000 feet... Woozy travelers can plug the hose of their “individual diffuser” into an outlet anywhere on the train..


hotelchelseablog yes that Hotel Chelsea
theatlanticClinton witnessed

13 July 2006

Hezbollah, IED

hez_flag
What is it about Hezbollah, they have to go one better than Hamas?
Three Israeli soldiers died in the raid, while four more were killed when their tank ran over a landmine. The eighth soldier died while assisting in recovering the tank, the Israeli army said.
Nasrallah said Hezbollah had repelled an Israeli force that tried to enter Lebanon to find the captured soldiers.
..Footage on Hezbollah's Al-Manar television showed a smouldering Israeli jeep. It also showed smoke rising from an Israeli border post.
Hezbollah supporters set off fire crackers and distributed sweets in the streets of Beirut..

crisismesh . . fotw

caterp
umkahlil
Amnesty International Reports on the status of Palestinian Women:
"Scores of women have been forced to give birth at checkpoints by the roadside and several have lost their babies because Israeli soldiers denied them passage," it said.
It cited the case of Rula Ashtiya who was refused passage on 26 August 2003, by Israeli soldiers at the Bait Furik checkpoint on the way to hospital in Nablus to give birth.
"I was lying on the ground in the dust and I crawled behind a concrete block by the checkpoint to have some privacy and gave birth there, in the dust, like an animal," she said.
"I held the baby in my arms and she moved a little but after a few minutes she died in my arms."


ied

12 July 2006

Maliki, Crick, Mouse, Barrett

Maliki :
I don’t see the country falling into a civil war despite the regrettable activities of certain people who ignore that Iraq is united..We have the capacity, if necessary, to impose order and suppress those who rebel against the state.
- you and whose army,?

'Francis Crick, Discoverer of the Genetic Code' By Matt Ridley.
..He seldom read newspapers, because working in intelligence had convinced him that most stories never reached the press. He experimented with marijuana and LSD,
... A glance at Rosalind Franklin’s X-ray photos of DNA told him what she had not grasped, that the two parallel chains of the DNA double helix must run in opposite directions.
.. In 1953 Crick and Watson, in sessions at the Eagle pub in Cambridge, set out to select some finite number of amino acids that DNA might reasonably code for.
Ridley observes: “They came up with 20. That they got the list exactly right, despite being amateur biochemists, is a minor miracle.”


I set a trap for my mouse.
1) first put the trap in her path so she gets used to it
next night:

2) put some aluminum foil with some blue-veined cheese on the trap (she dragged the foil away)

3) make a little cup of Al-Foil on the 'tongue' of the trap, baited with sardines (she carefully slid the foil of th trap without springing it) -the cup shape is designed to prevent the rodentary careful sideways scraping of the bait, she must put her weight on the cup .. sudden death. nb the world has failed to beat a path to my door, merely more mice.

4) ensure the Al-Foil is wedged firmly onto the trap (she sprung the trap, nearly escaped, the wire got her right on her skull)

Then of course I got quite sad & depressed, who else gave me company in the night?, even if it was only the sound of her scraping away at ghee-soaked wine cask cardboard? (I use them as disposable soaks for pappadums).

However the very next night another mouse was out & about. (I sleep on the floor of the living\kitchen area because I use the pokey bedroom merely to store clothes).

So evidently its a mouse collective
Mouse Empathy: "psychologist Jeffrey Mogil of McGill University in Montreal and colleagues, found the effect at work only in mice that were familiar to each other from being housed together.
Among these mice, the group found, those who could see one another in pain were more sensitive to pain than those tested alone. The rodents didn’t need to be related for the effect to appear" (as to who did the testing, thats one reason I'm not a scientist)

My new mouse is gaining in confidence, making more noise at night.
We are already at step 1) (above) I am betting that mice dont learn from others mistakes, despite Mogils research. My lazyness in not scrubbing the kitchen each day, means my mice come out, and means they must die.


nyu mp3 Mari Kimura makes a violin string vibrate in a totally new way. In physics we call this a driven and damped non-linear system


artman Question the official conspiracy theory, get fired?
Barrett continued, “Conservatism is supposed to be about conserving what is good. It's about conserving the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the First Amendment, individual freedom and responsibility, family values, and so on. True conservatives hate big government, hate huge military budgets and standing armies, hate thought police running around prying into our private affairs and telling us what to believe. They're against foreign interventions, and especially aggressive wars and ‘nation building’ through mass murder. They want to preserve the values of our Founding Fathers against the onslaught of the so-called neo-conservatives. They see that 9/11 was a convenient excuse to put big government on steroids and take a blowtorch to the Constitution.”

..Having anthrax show up at the offices of the two Congressmen who were blocking the pre-9/11-written Patriot Act was one heck of a coincidence... I went from ‘this is interesting, but how will we ever know’ to ‘wow! there's a strong case for complicity’ after hearing that David Griffin was writing The New Pearl Harbor .. I would say focus on Building 7 to start with. Show people the collapse. Show them Silverstein making his inadvertent confession. Show them that the 9/11 Commission Report doesn't even mention any of this -- not even a footnote! If that doesn't get them scratching their heads, I don't know what will.

haddock
"Billions of Blue Blistering Barnacles"
___________________________________________________________
have you heard about the new Italian wine?
It goes, “Mama Mia, I am so injured. Penalty, penalty.”


venezuelanalysis
One sign that economic diversification is gaining force was the success last year of Argentine President Néstor Kirchner's take-it-or-leave-it offer of 30 cents on every dollar owed on its $100 billion external debt, to be paid in long-term, low-interest bonds. In the past, financial markets would have severely punished such insolence, but with Asian investment pouring in and the economy rebounding at a steady clip, a majority of lenders had no choice but to make the deal. For its part, the IMF, fearing either a complete default or a successful agreement made without its imprimatur, was forced grudgingly to sanction the bid. It was, according to Knight Ridder Business News, the "biggest sovereign debt restructuring in history, with international creditors accepting unprecedented losses."



Nukuoro
Nukuoro,.. 6 km in diameter. .. It has no airstrip, and a passenger boat calls irregularly only once a month. The tiny population [900] speaks its own unique language.
___________________________________________________________
piper
The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
...`It's gone!' sighed the Rat, sinking back in his seat again. `So beautiful and strange and new. Since it was to end so soon, I almost wish I had never heard it. For it has roused a longing in me that is pain, and nothing seems worth while but just to hear that sound once more and go on listening to it for ever. No! There it is again!' he cried, alert once more. Entranced, he was silent for a long space, spellbound.

`Now it passes on and I begin to lose it,' he said presently. `O Mole! the beauty of it! The merry bubble and joy, the thin, clear, happy call of the distant piping! Such music I never dreamed of, and the call in it is stronger even than the music is sweet! Row on, Mole, row! For the music and the call must be for us.'

The Mole, greatly wondering, obeyed. `I hear nothing myself,' he said, `but the wind playing in the reeds and rushes and osiers.'


10 July 2006

Jihad , Ruppert, SCO, Athabasca

This am on AM an AFP reporter (name sounded like "Sham"?) said the killings in West Baghdad were a new phase. The Western, Sunni suburn "Jihad" had not previously been a trouble spot. But on Sunday fake checkpoints and home invasions lasting several hours led to 40+ killings. So much for the "despite an ongoing security plan" as yahoonews calls it. see bbc

mikeruppert
fromthewilderness
Urgent Message From Mike Ruppert
Between the hours of 7:30 P.M. Sunday, June 25 and 7:30 A.M., Monday, June 26, the FTW offices were burglarized. Four interior doors were smashed with a sledgehammer. All seven FTW computers were transported to a central location in the building. Their covers were removed and they were also smashed with a sledgehammer. No other significant property was taken..
.. I do not believe that this incident was the work of the U.S. government. I do believe that this is the work of an organized meth ring that I prevented from infiltrating my business. As Dmitri Orlov has noted in Post-Soviet Lessons for a Post-American Century, when societies collapse, organized crime becomes much more assertive. As beautiful as Southern Oregon is and as happy as I am to be here, the challenges that will be facing all of us as Peak Oil hits are making themselves known.


Peak Oil:
lifeaftertheoilcrash
fromthewilderness
communitysolution
energybulletin

blogspot
maps & cartography

nature
5 top science blogs
includes:
scientificactivist
nature 50 science blogs

bradshawfoundation
Human journey, (minus the Pacific voyages)


washingtonpost
thermaldepolymerization
museletter
museletter
At the meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization on June 15, Iran will be inducted as a full SCO member

atimes
China, Russia welcome Iran into the fold


The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which maintained it had no plans for expansion, is now changing course. Mongolia, Iran, India and Pakistan, which previously had observer status, will become full members. SCO's decision to welcome Iran into its fold constitutes a political statement. Conceivably, SCO would now proceed to adopt a common position on the Iran nuclear issue at its summit meeting June 15.
[No 15June06 statement on Iran yet seen]
frontpagemag


guinness the rhythm of life

millerandlevine flagellum evolving
Behe boohoo


aaa cosmicvariance
improved measurements of the CMB anisotropies indicated that the universe was spatially flat, in perfect accord with the combined supernova and matter-density measurements. If you were to plot the inferred density of both matter and cosmological constant, the constraints from the three different techniques — supernovae, matter dynamics (clusters or large-scale structure) and the CMB — the allowed regions overlapped in perfect harmony.
_____________________________________


Leon Trotsky "They are haunted by the spectre of revolution, and they give it a man’s name."

What is it about the Airbus A310, an extremely safe plane, with a few very odd crashes:
March 1994: 75 killed when A310 crashed in Siberia
Lost control and crashed after the captain had allowed at least one child to play with the controls
....
12 November 2001 an Airbus A310,(Flight 587 ) American Airlines, crashed just after take-off from New York's JFK..
..after a pilot maneuvered so roughly that the jet lost its tail [!].. No passengers have died on a [USA registered?]jet flight since then.
....
March 6, 2005, pilots aboard a Canadian airline flight from Cuba to Quebec heard a loud bang followed by vibrations that lasted several seconds. The Air Transat Airbus A310 carrying 271 people was able to return to Cuba, but it had lost its rudder, a moveable panel at the tail that keeps a jet stable.

July2006: Russian A310 slides off runway, burns.. children blamed for blocking the exits...


On the topic of crashes: NIST Computer simulation showing the impact of a Boeing 767 aircraft engine into an exterior wall panel and two core columns of a WTC tower.
wtc7 complains that NIST didnt simulate the faster-than-freefall collapse of WTCI II VII...

org
metropipe (?)

A scientific expedition disembarks from its plane at the final outpost of civilization in the deepest Amazon rain forest. They immediately notice the ceaseless thrumming of native drums. As they venture further into the bush, the drums never stop, day or night, for weeks.

The lead scientist asks one of the natives about this, and the native's only reply is "Drums good. Drums never stop. Very BAD if drums stop."

The drumming continues, night and day, until one night, six weeks into the trip, when the jungle is suddenly silent. Immediately the natives run screaming from their huts, covering their ears. The scientists grab one boy and demand "What is it? The drums have stopped!"

The terror-stricken youth replies "Yes! Drums stop! VERY BAD!"

The scientists ask "Why? Why? What will happen?"

Wild-eyed, the boy responds,

" . . . BASS SOLO!!!" -

ruckus .. Canada feeding US oil addiction:
..this proposed development will spread across 2200 miles of pristine arctic land untouched yet in North America, to deliver 37 trillion cubic feet within 2 natural gas pipelines to fuel the Athabasca Tar Sands Oil Development in Northern Alberta. For most people, there is no knowledge out there that the tar sands development is and will be the dirtiest and most destructive oil development known and it will contribute devastatingly to more global climate change and impact the face of the Arctic.

Southpark the scientomogy episode

Bait Lahya
Bait Lahya
________________________________________________________________
pfizer Chantix (varenicline tartrate)
4 trials .. 2,000 cigarette smokers. ..21 cigarettes per day for 25 years...
..patients receiving a 12-week course of Chantix (1 mg twice daily) 4x likelihood of quitting than .. placebo and 2x buproprion (150 mg twice daily)
After 1 year, 1 in 5 ..remained smoke-free.

Shallow Ancestors
physorg 5,000 to 7,000 years ago.. every person who was alive at that time is either an ancestor to all 6 billion people living today, or their line died out and they have no remaining descendants.

pacificdomes Bucky domes survive

This new imaging method shows that the interior structure of atomic displacements within single nanocrystals can be obtained by direct inversion of the diffraction pattern. We hope one day this will be applied to determine the structure of single protein molecules placed in the femtosecond beam of a free-electron laser.
...
Synchrotron X-ray radiation, produced by electron accelerators at central facilities, can now be produced in extremely narrow coherent beams. When these X-rays illuminate a crystal of nanometre dimensions a diffraction pattern emerges that is highly resolved. This provides a powerful new tool for structural analysis,