- Signs of the Times Archive for Wed, 21 Nov 2007 -



Sections on today's Signs Page:

SOTT Focus
Insiders and Reality

Henry See
Signs of the Times
2007-11-21 12:59:00

©Atlanta Journal Constitution


We have already established in the first articles in this series that the insiders are psychologically deviant. What do we mean?

A healthy world view is one that sees the world as it is. Only by seeing the world as objectively as possible can we come up with plans and strategies that fit the facts and that enable us to navigate successfully. If our understanding of reality is wrong, then success can only be subject to chance. Such a view is understood in the sciences. It is obvious that an hypothesis or an experiment that does not take into account the reality being tested will fail. Of course, even failures help us to learn about the world; we eliminate erroneous possibilities and theories. Our knowledge can thus advance, but only if we recognize the error of our ways.

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Best of the Web
France: 1.5 million strike against Sarkozy's policies

Antoine Lerougetel and Peter Schwarz
World Socialist Web Site
2007-11-21 12:26:00

©WSWS


Some 1.5 million out of a total of 5 million public service workers participated in a one-day strike called by the French unions on Tuesday to oppose President Nicolas Sarkozy's policies of job cuts and attacks on public services, and to demand higher wages to compensate for sharp rises in living costs.


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Princess Ferragamo at the Barricades

Mike Whitney
Information Clearing House
2007-11-15 20:35:00

It doesn't take a genius to figure out why the crooked Princess Ferragamo--Benazir Bhutto - has returned to Pakistan. Bhutto's been traipsing all over Washington trying to garner support from think-tank heavies and establishment powerbrokers to help her stage a political come-back in Islamabad. She even hired a high-powered public relations firm to polish her image so the media wouldn't focus too much attention on her past transgressions. Allegations of money laundering and corruption have haunted Bhutto ever since she was driven from office in 1996.

...Bhutto was asked directly about the so-called Miranshah agreement which Musharraf worked out so that he could withdrawal Pakistani troops from North Waziristan where his army was sustaining heavy losses. Musharraf had only won minor concessions from the tribal leaders who were supposed to limit their support for the Taliban. The treaty was a complete hoax designed to extricate Musharraf from an "unwinnable" war that was universally unpopular with Pakistanis. Unfortunately, the treaty turned out to be Musharraf's death sentence. When it became clear to Bush and his neocon colleagues that Musharraf would not carry out their war agenda; they began to sharpen their daggers and plan for his removal. That is why Bhutto was exhumed from her Dubai mausoleum long enough to play a part in this latest Bush comic operetta. This has nothing to do with "democracy promotion". It's just another grim chapter in the "color-coded revolution" digest. The whole performance is being staged courtesy of the US intelligence agencies and the compliant establishment media.


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U.S. News
When AWOL Is the Only Escape -- A Patriot's Story

Sarah Olson
AlterNet
2007-11-20 01:03:00

©n/a


James Circello sat on the edge of his bed staring at the floral pattern on a generic hotel comforter, contemplating what life would be like in prison. It was early August, and his parents had given him a one-way bus ticket to Lawton, Okla., and told him he was welcome home once he got his life together. U.S. Army Sergeant Circello had been AWOL since April, and with just a few dollars left in his wallet and a dying cell phone battery, he saw two options: turn himself in to military authorities at Ft. Sill, or get the next bus out of town and join hundreds of anti-war veterans convening in St. Louis, Mo.

James was a patriot, and after Sept. 11, joined the Army to defend his country. By 2002 James was in Italy, assigned to the 173rd Airborne Infantry Brigade. The 173rd deployed to Iraq between March 2003 and 2004. Facing redeployment last April, this time to Afghanistan, James asked himself if he could tolerate replicating the disaster he'd been part of in Iraq. When he answered no, a friend drove him to the airport, he flew to the United States and has been AWOL ever since.

Contemplating life in his Oklahoma hotel room, James realized he didn't go AWOL to avoid a second tour of duty. He wanted to help stop the war, and how better to do that than join with the hundreds of other veterans now opposing the Iraq war? So James grabbed his Army-issued green duffle bag and headed for the Greyhound station. He boarded a bus to take him south to the banks of the Mississippi River and joined an international community of veterans working to put an end to war.

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Polygamy leader Jeffs sentenced to prison

Tim Gaynor
Reuters
2007-11-21 00:11:00

St. George, Utah - U.S. polygamist leader Warren Jeffs, self-proclaimed prophet of a breakaway Mormon sect, was sentenced on Tuesday to 10 years to life in prison for forcing a 14-year-old to marry her first cousin.

©REUTERS/Douglas C. Pizac/Pool
Warren Jeffs looks toward the jury in his trial in St. George, Utah, September 25, 2007.




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Former press aide blames Bush in CIA leak case

JoAnne Allen
Reuters
2007-11-20 23:38:00

Former White House Press Secretary, Scott McClellan, says in an upcoming book that he was misled by President George W. Bush and other high officials into misinforming the press about a CIA leak case that fueled debate about the Iraq war.

©REUTERS/Jason Reed
Scott McClellan is pictured through a door window behind the scenes at an event on the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit at the Asociacion Borinquena de Florida Central in Orlando, Florida May 10, 2006.




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Concerns persist over Chinese anti-satellite test: US military


Agence France-Presse
2007-11-20 23:57:00

US concerns about China's military buildup have only been heightened by a Chinese anti-satellite test in January that has yet to be explained, the top US military leader said Tuesday.

Admiral Michael Mullen, the new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he raised the test with Chinese leaders when he visited the country in August, as have other senior US officials.

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Wounded Soldier: Military Wants Part Of Bonus Back

Marty Griffin
KDKA
2007-11-20 21:31:00

PITTSBURGH ― The U.S. Military is demanding that thousands of wounded service personnel give back signing bonuses because they are unable to serve out their commitments.



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UK & Euro-Asian News
Putin: Russia's nuclear forces ready for an adequate response to any aggressor

Guy Faulconbridge
Reuters
2007-11-21 12:41:00

President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday warned that Moscow would not remain indifferent to NATO's "muscle-flexing" and said Russia's nuclear forces would be ready for an adequate response to any aggressor.

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Report: NATO plans to seize control of Kosovo's north


Serbian Unity Congress
2007-11-21 12:40:00

NATO and the UN police in Kosovo are reportedly planning to tighten their control over northern Kosovo.

The move would come in case Kosovo declares its independence unliaterally after talks on its future end next month, Balkan Insight reported on its website.

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University authorities use police repression against striking French students

Kumaran Rahul and Pierre Mabut
World Socialist Web Site
2007-11-21 12:35:00

[T]he riot police, encouraged by some university presidents, were busy forcibly evicting students from facilities at the Sorbonne and Tolbiac in Paris, in Grenoble III, Nantes Lyon and Montpelier 3. In Rouen, six were arrested and face prosecution. At Rennes, 200 hundred students tried to occupy the railway station and were attacked by 16 vans of riot police. There were five arrests. Police intervened at the Rennes II University to evict occupiers after the president, Marc Gontard, said the students were "behaving like terrorists" and continuing the blockade "with baseball bats under their coats." He claimed the general assembly decision to blockade the university had been nullified by a "referendum."

An example of the type of "referendum" he was referring to is an electronic vote organised by the president of Paris 1 university, which comprises a bastion of the student strike movement, in order to discredit the decisions of mass meetings of students. The administration claims that 25 percent of the university's 30,000 students had voted and that 75.8 percent had found the blockades "unacceptable."


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No U-turn says Sarkozy, as pressure mounts from street

Hugh Schofield
AFP
2007-11-20 21:12:00

PARIS - French President Nicolas Sarkozy vowed to stand by his economic reforms Tuesday despite a strike that has shuttered much of the rail network and sent hundreds of thousands of protesters to the streets.


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Missing Madeleine McCann: Investigators Claim Friends Did It

Graham Brough And Martin Fricker
Mirror.co.uk
2007-11-20 19:52:00

Three friends may have been behind Madeleine McCann's kidnap, investigators claimed last night.

Private detectives fear Robert Murat, girlfriend Michaela Walczuch and her estranged husband Luis Antonio were part of an organised ring that snatched the four-year-old. Pool cleaner Antonio worked at the resort where Maddy vanished and had full access to the complex.


©PA
Luis Antonio


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Propaganda Alert! Blair unveils projects to aid Palestinian economy

Alastair Macdonald, Elizabeth Piper
Reuters
2007-11-19 18:33:00

Middle East envoy Tony Blair gave details on Monday of four international projects aimed at bolstering the Palestinian economy as part of efforts to end the conflict with Israel.

Flanked by the Palestinian prime minister and Israeli defense minister, the former British leader said the projects, including one funded by the World Bank to improve sewerage in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, were integral to peace efforts.


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France will not wage war on Iran


Press TV
2007-11-19 18:27:00

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner says his country will not be involved in any military strike against the Islamic Republic.

©Unknown
France's Foreign Minister, Bernard Kouchner



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Around the World
Chavez says Bush belongs in asylum for WW3 comment


Reuters
2007-11-21 15:47:00

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Tuesday that U.S. President George W. Bush belonged in a mental asylum for referring to the possibility of World War Three if Tehran developed nuclear weapons.

The remark is the latest in a long line of insults the outspoken left-wing leader has leveled at Bush, whom he has also called "the devil," a genocidal assassin and a donkey.

On October 17, Bush warned that a nuclear-armed Iran could lead to World War Three as he tried to shore up international opposition to Tehran amid Russian skepticism over whether Iran was really seeking nuclear weapons, as the West believes and Tehran denies.

"Bush spoke of the possibility of this Third World War and the use of the atom bomb," Chavez told a news conference in Paris, where he met his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy.

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Australia: Tourists' Holiday Snap Reveals Dead Body


Telegraph UK
2007-11-21 14:50:00

It looks like a still from an action film, but an extraordinary picture of a diver lying prone on the seabed is at the heart of an Australian inquest.

The grainy image was intended as a holiday snap of a tourist diving on Australia's spectacular Great Barrier Reef. But it inadvertently showed, in the background, the motionless body of 26-year-old American honeymooner Tina Watson, who was married just 10 days before and whose death is being investigated by police as potentially suspicious.

©Telegraph
The motionless body of Tina Watson lies on the seabed in this extraordinary holiday snap


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Pak nukes already under US control: Report

Chidanand Rajghatta
TNN
2007-11-21 12:38:00

Pakistan's nuclear weapons are already under American control even as analysts are working themselves into a lather on the subject, a well-regarded intelligence journal has said.

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Afghan Slayings by US Backed Paramilitary Forces Stir Grief, Fury And Suspicion

Pamela Constable
Washington Post
2007-11-21 12:37:00

Mohammed Asadullah, a high school teacher in this quiet northern town, was lining up his students to greet a group of visiting legislators from the capital when the bomb went off, hurling bodies into the air and sending up a cloud of thick, dark smoke. What happened next, he and other survivors recounted, was worse.

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Afghanistan 'falling into Taliban hands'

Richard Norton-Taylor
The Guardian
2007-11-21 12:33:00

The Taliban has a permanent presence in 54% of Afghanistan and the country is in serious danger of falling into the group's hands, according to a report by an independent thinktank with long experience in the area.

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Thousands flee NW Pakistan fighting, 19 dead

Junaid Khan
Reuters
2007-11-20 02:59:00

Thousands of people have fled a valley in northwest Pakistan as security forces step up an offensive against pro-Taliban militants, witnesses and officials said on Tuesday, as fighting killed at least 19 people.


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Workers at U.S. bases in Japan strike over pay


Reuters
2007-11-21 00:36:00

Thousands of support workers at U.S. military bases in Japan went on a half-day strike on Wednesday over a Japanese government plan to cut their pay.

Japan plays host to about 50,000 U.S. military personnel, a role which includes providing local employees for duties ranging from cleaning and office work to medical services on the bases.

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Bangladesh cyclone relief operation in full gear

Anis Ahmed
Reuters
2007-11-21 00:28:00

A week after a killer cyclone killed nearly 3,500 people on the Bangladesh coast, relief workers said on Wednesday they had been able to get food, medicine and other provisions to almost all those affected.

©REUTERS/Rafiqur Rahman
Survivors of Cyclone Sidr rush to collect biscuits distributed by an army soldier in Sarankhola, 420 km (261 miles) from the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka, November 20, 2007.


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More Blood Diamonds? Israel signs Liberia diamond deal


BBC
2007-11-20 21:58:00

The Israeli Diamond Institute (IDI) has signed an agreement with Liberia which will see its experts help search for diamonds in the West African nation.

The deal is the first made since the UN lifted a six-year-old moratorium on the mining, sale and export of diamonds it imposed during Liberia's civil war.


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Southeast Asian Pact Exposes Rifts

Wayne Arnold
The New York Times
2007-11-20 18:14:00

Singapore - Southeast Asian leaders signed a charter here today that was drafted as a watershed document to bind the region together in a European-style economic community, but the pact has instead exposed the sharp divisions over one of its members, Myanmar, and other issues among the signatories.

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Big Brother

No new articles.


Axis of Evil
Flashback: Is Israel harvesting organs of Palestinian youths?

Hector Carreon
La Voz de Aztlan
2002-01-10 18:04:00

Los Angeles, Alta California - 1-10-2002 - (ACN) On August 13, 1996, La Voz de Aztlan reported on horrifying rumors that a network of "Baby Organ Snatchers" was operating in various cities along the U.S./Mexico border. The report, "THE CORRUPTIVE INFLUENCE OF THE DOLLAR: The Shameful Trade in Mexican Baby Organs!" led our publication to investigate similar abuses that are taking place around the world including the harvesting of transplantable organs and tissues from inmates at both China and U.S. prisons.

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Middle East Madness
Posthumous book claims Ford knew of CIA coverup in Kennedy assassination

David Edwards and Nick Juliano
Raw Story
2007-11-21 13:27:00

Did the CIA orchestrate a cover-up in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy?

According to the publisher of a new book, who appeared on Fox News Wednesday morning, the last living words of former President Gerald Ford fingered the CIA in the orchestration a cover-up of Kennedy's assassination.

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Diplomatic Pleasantries Have Been Discarded : Lebanon is Hanging by a Thread

KARIM MAKDISI
Counterpunch
2007-11-17 07:27:00

Lebanon is hanging by a thread.

The UN Secretary General (SG) Ban Ki-moon has just left the country warning that Lebanon stands at "the brink of an abyss," and yet the UN itself remains an ambivalent actor in the post 9/11 Middle East setting, torn between its traditional commitments under the UN Charter (including the non-interference in the domestic disputes of a Member State) and the radical imperatives of a US administration.

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The Middle East has had a secretive nuclear power in its midst for years

George Monbiot
The Guardian
2007-11-20 06:08:00

When will the US and the UK tell the truth about Israeli weapons? Iran isn't starting an atomic arms race, it's joining one.

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Iran agrees new talks with US on Iraq


Agence France-Presse
2007-11-20 02:15:00

Iran said on Tuesday it has agreed to a new round of talks with the United States on improving security in Iraq, despite mounting tensions between the two arch foes over Iran's nuclear drive.

The announcement came after the United States said Iran has stemmed the flow of weapons and militants across the border amid a decrease in violence in its western neighbour.

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Gaza: the Final Solution in Slow Motion

Agustín Velloso Santisteban, translated by Ernesto Páramo
Tlaxcala
2007-11-16 01:48:00

On Sunday, 11th November, 2007.

About four o'clock in the morning the pharmacist Salim Madani is in Sufa, the only border post to the Gaza Strip that the government of Israel opens every now and then. They have been waiting for 14 day for a truck loaded with medicines for distribution in the Strip, still stuck on the Israeli side. They have been waiting for permission from the Israeli government so that they may move the load onto another truck so the medicines can move into Khan Yunis on the Palestinian side.

For many months ill Palestinians have been dying needlessly because many other trucks have not been authorized to transport medicines or even any other basic products - to the prison into which Gaza has been transformed. The martyr children Mohammad Turk, Mohammad Helow and Shaban Lulu, are only three of the hundreds of Palestinians that have died in the last so many months as a result of the Israeli and international blockade.

Shifa'a hospital staff in Gaza City pointed out September 5, 2006 that the three boys had died because of renal complications that could not be treated as they had run out of the necessary medicines. The Emergency General Director of the Ministry of Health warned at the time of the imminent danger of death faced by more than six hundred children suffering from renal deficiencies. Since then, actually since Israel occupied Palestine for the first time, it has been very plain that Palestinian children, old people, women and men face the very present danger of losing their land, their houses, their way of life and even life itself, for no other reason other than they are not Jews.

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The Loan Gunmen
Foreclosures in Massachusetts triple to 6,258 this year

Kimberly Blanton
Boston Globe
2007-11-21 16:40:00

Lenders have seized 6,258 homes in foreclosure so far this year in Massachusetts, triple the number lost by delinquent homeowners over the same period in 2006, according to data released yesterday.


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U.S. Economy: Leading Index Fell More Than Forecast

Courtney Schlisserman and Joe Richter
Bloomberg
2007-11-21 16:25:00

The U.S. economy may continue to slow into 2008, according to a measure of its performance over the next three to six months.

The Conference Board's index of leading economic indicators fell 0.5 percent in October after a 0.1 percent increase that was smaller than previously estimated, the New York-based group said today. A separate report showed consumer confidence weakened this month.


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Treasuries Rally as Stocks Drop; Ten-Year Yield Falls Below 4%

Daniel Kruger and Lydia Thew
Bloomberg
2007-11-21 16:22:00

Treasuries rallied, sending 10-year note yields below 4 percent for the first time since 2005, as a decline in global stocks spurred demand for the safety of government debt.


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U.S. Stocks Fall to Three-Month Lows

Eric Martin
Bloomberg
2007-11-21 16:19:00

U.S. stocks fell to three-month lows, led by financial companies and energy producers, on growing concern that losses from mortgage defaults will spread through the economy.


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US recession fears grow as bank losses mount

Barry Grey
World Socialist Web Site
2007-11-21 12:39:00

The crisis in US housing and credit markets is taking a growing toll on major banks and financial institutions in the US and around the world, and increasingly affecting other sectors of the economy. Mounting bank losses and tightening credit are deepening the housing slump and impacting retail sales, hi tech business and corporate profits as a whole.

US officials are now acknowledging that there will be no early resolution of the financial crisis and are revising downward their economic forecasts for 2008. While they avoid the word "recession," there is growing concern, if not panic, on Wall Street that a potentially deep and protracted downturn may be looming.


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Personal financial data on 25 million Brits goes missing


CNN
2007-11-21 12:27:00

Britain's prime minister apologized Wednesday for the government's loss of two computer discs containing the personal data of 25 million people, saying there was no excuse and promising a review of data procedures.

©AP
Paul Gray resigned as Revenue and Customs chairman over the error.



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Oil prices rise above $99 a barrel

Pablo Gorondi
Associated Press
2007-11-21 08:06:00

Crude oil prices rose above a record $99 per barrel Wednesday as worries about inadequate winter supplies in the Northern Hemisphere and news of refinery problems stoked bullish sentiment.

The declining U.S. dollar and speculation that the U.S. Federal Reserve will again cut interest rates also boosted prices. Some investors put their money into oil contracts, betting that gains in their price will offset dollar weakness.

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Fed cool on long-term growth forecast

Krishna Guha
Financial Times
2007-11-21 00:46:00

The Federal Reserve on Tuesday revealed it no longer believed the US economy can grow much more than 2.5 per cent a year without causing rising inflation, a lower rate than many investors thought was sustainable.

The downbeat assessment of long-term growth potential growth helps explain why the US central bank appears reluctant to cut interest rates too aggressively in the face of low growth.

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UK: One million homeowners face up to 60 per cent jump in mortgage rates

Sean Poulter
Daily Mail
2007-11-20 00:14:00

More than a million homeowners face a jump in mortgage payments of up to 60 per cent when their cheap fixed-rate deals end. Analysts fear the impact will result in a surge in repossessions.

©n/a


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The Living Planet
UK: Jellyfish invasion destroys salmon farm


BBC
2007-11-21 20:57:00

©PA
The jellyfish invasion was spread over 10 miles in the Irish Sea


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President orders evacuation as storm heads for Philippines


Agence France-Presse
2007-11-21 15:42:00

Tropical storm Mitag bore down on the eastern Philippines on Wednesday, flooding large areas of the region and forcing the government to order large-scale evacuations, days after another killed 10 people in the country's south.

Mitag was gaining strength with winds of up to 85 kilometres (53 miles) an hour and was on course to hit the Bicol peninsula southeast of Manila on Friday, weather forecasters said.

It was tracked 1,020 kilometres northeast of Legaspi, Bicol's largest city, at 11:00am (0300 GMT), and forecast to reach typhoon strength of at least 120 kilometres an hour when its eye passes close to the island of Catanduanes, to Legaspi's northeast.

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Are Aliens Among Us?

Paul Davies
Scientific American
2007-11-21 12:44:00

In pursuit of evidence that life arose on Earth more than once, scientists are searching for microbes that are radically different from all known organisms

©Kenn Brown Mondolithic Studios
ALIEN MICROBES may be hiding in plain sight. Although they might look like ordinary bacteria, their biochemistry could involve exotic amino acids or different elemental building blocks.




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Ancient Chinese town on front lines of desertification battle


Agence France-Presse
2007-11-21 01:16:00

Towering sand dunes loom over the ancient Chinese city of Dunhuang like giant waves about to break, and they are already lapping at Ma Wangzhen's onion farm.

She points a rough finger at a line of dead trees, half-buried in sand, planted years ago as part of her 20-year losing battle to halt the once-distant dunes which now threaten to spill into her onion crop.

"It moves very fast, much faster than anything I can do to stop it," said Ma, 60.

Ma is on the front lines of a national struggle against a relentless foe: desertification.

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Autumn rain down 90 percent in China rice belt

Nick Macfie
Reuters
2007-11-19 00:05:00

©n/a


Large areas of south China are suffering from serious drought, with water levels on two major rivers in rice-growing provinces dropping to historic lows, state media said on Tuesday.

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Health & Wellness
Asthma link to post-traumatic stress disorder, says study

Stephanie Berger
Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health
2007-11-19 08:20:00

For the first time, a study by researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, is linking asthma with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among adults. The study of male twins who were veterans of the Vietnam era suggests that the association between asthma and PTSD is not primarily explained by common genetic influences.

The study included 3,065 male twin pairs, who had lived together in childhood, and who had both served on active military duty during the Vietnam War. According to the findings, among all twins, those who suffered from the most PTSD symptoms were 2.3 times as likely to have asthma compared with those who suffered from the least PTSD symptoms.

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Even minute levels of lead cause brain damage in children

Susan Lang
Cornell Chronicle Online
2007-11-20 00:36:00

Even very small amounts of lead in children's blood -- amounts well below the current federal standard -- are associated with reduced IQ scores, finds a new, six-year Cornell study.

The study examined the effect of lead exposure on cognitive function in children whose blood-lead levels (BLLs) were below the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) standard of 10 micrograms per deciliter (mcg/dl) -- about 100 parts per billion. The researchers compared children whose BLLs were between 0 and 5 mcg/dl with children in the 5-10 mcg/dl range.

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Flashback: They poison you, later to target you: Research Links Lead Exposure with Criminal Activity

Shankar Vedantam
Washington Post
2007-07-08 05:23:00

Rudy Giuliani never misses an opportunity to remind people about his track record in fighting crime as mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001.

"I began with the city that was the crime capital of America," Giuliani, now a candidate for president, recently told Fox's Chris Wallace. "When I left, it was the safest large city in America. I reduced homicides by 67 percent. I reduced overall crime by 57 percent."

Although crime did fall dramatically in New York during Giuliani's tenure, a broad range of scientific research has emerged in recent years to show that the mayor deserves only a fraction of the credit that he claims. The most compelling information has come from an economist in Fairfax who has argued in a series of little-noticed papers that the "New York miracle" was caused by local and federal efforts decades earlier to reduce lead poisoning.

©The Washington Post
Fairfax economist Rick Nevin has spent more than a decade researching and writing about the relationship between early childhood lead exposure and criminal behavior later in life


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Cannabis compound 'halts cancer'


BBC News
2007-11-20 22:18:00

A compound found in cannabis may stop breast cancer spreading throughout the body, US scientists believe.

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Science & Technology
Flashback: The Myth Of The Teen Brain

Robert Epstein
Scientific American Mind
2007-08-21 15:36:00

We blame teen turmoil on immature brains. But did the brains cause the turmoil, or did the turmoil shape the brains?

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Flashback: Are we living in a computer simulation?

JOHN TIERNEY
New York Times
2007-08-15 12:35:00

Until I talked to Nick Bostrom, a philosopher at Oxford University, it never occurred to me that our universe might be somebody else's hobby. I hadn't imagined that the omniscient, omnipotent creator of the heavens and earth could be an advanced version of a guy who spends his weekends building model railroads or overseeing video-game worlds like the Sims.

But now it seems quite possible. In fact, if you accept a pretty reasonable assumption of Dr. Bostrom's, it is almost a mathematical certainty that we are living in someone else's computer simulation.

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Flashback: Meteor theory's impact: Cosmic blows could occur more frequently

By Sandra Blakeslee
The New York Times
2006-11-14 12:00:00

Most astronomers doubt that any large comets or asteroids have crashed into the Earth in the past 10,000 years. But the self-described "band of misfits" that make up the two-year-old Holocene Impact Working Group say astronomers simply have not known how or where to look for evidence.

Scientists in the working group say the evidence for such impacts during the past 10,000 years, known as the Holocene epoch, is strong enough to overturn current estimates of how often the Earth suffers a violent impact on the order of a 10-megaton explosion. Instead of once in 500,000 to 1 million years, as astronomers now calculate, catastrophic impacts could happen every few thousand years.

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Did a Comet Cause the Great Flood?

Scott Carney
Discover Magazine
2007-11-15 07:44:00

The serpent's tails coil together menacingly. A horn juts sharply from its head. The creature looks as if it might be swimming through a sea of stars. Or is it making its way up a sheer basalt cliff? For Bruce Masse, an environmental archaeologist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, there is no confusion as he looks at this ancient petroglyph, scratched into a rock by a Native American shaman. "You can't tell me that isn't a comet," he says.

©Discover
The Fenambosy chevrons at the tip of Madagascar. Image courtesy of Dallas Abbott




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Honda Debuts All-New FCX Clarity Advanced Fuel Cell Vehicle


Space Mart
2007-11-21 01:41:00

©Unknown
The FCX Clarity utilizes Honda's V Flow stack in combination with a new compact and efficient lithium ion battery pack and a single hydrogen storage tank to power the vehicle's electric drive motor.


Honda has unveiled the FCX Clarity fuel cell vehicle at the Los Angeles Auto Show, announcing plans to begin limited retail marketing of the vehicle in summer 2008. The FCX Clarity is a next-generation, zero-emissions, hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicle based on the entirely-new Honda V Flow fuel cell platform, and powered by the highly compact, efficient and powerful Honda V Flow fuel cell stack.

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300 Miles Per Gallon! Aptera Motors Unveils Ultra Efficient All-Electric and Plug-In Hybrid


Space Mart
2007-11-21 01:28:00

©Unknown
The Aptera Typ-1 is loaded with safety features. They include a front crumple zone, a front end that re-directs crash energy in a frontal impact, steel and composite side and rollover protection as well as driver and passenger side airbags.


Carlsbad, California - Electric Vehicles for Under $30K! Today, Aptera officially unveiled two vehicles that could change the future of automotive design. Aptera's Typ-1 is a radically different vehicle designed to marry advanced aerodynamics with light-weight composite technology creating an incredibly powerful, yet extremely safe vehicle that is a joy to drive -- even for the most performance-minded individuals.

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Astronomers Say Moons Like Ours Are Uncommon


Moon Daily
2007-11-21 01:02:00

©NASA/JPL-Caltech
This artist's animation shows bodies as big as mountain ranges smashing together. Such collisions form the basis of the planet-building process. An even bigger collision between Earth and a body the size of Mars is thought to have created our moon.


(For animation, click here.)

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Bug-eating pitcher plants reveal slimy secrets


Reuters
2007-11-21 00:41:00

The carnivorous pitcher plants that feed on insects in the Asian tropics may not snap shut like Venus flytraps, but they are smarter than they look.

Rather than being passive pitfall traps, the tube-like pitchers of Nepenthes plants actually contain a clever slimy fluid -- similar to mucus -- that produces powerful filaments to snare prey, French researchers said on Wednesday.

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Stem Cell Breakthrough Defuses Debate

Malcolm Ritter
Associated Press
2007-11-20 23:03:00

NEW YORK - Scientists have created the equivalent of embryonic stem cells from ordinary skin cells, a breakthrough that could someday produce new treatments for disease without the explosive moral questions of embyro cloning.


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Scientists Find Fossil of Enormous Bug

Thomas Wagner
Associated Press
2007-11-20 22:17:00

LONDON - This was a bug you couldn't swat and definitely couldn't step on. British scientists have stumbled across a fossilized claw, part of an ancient sea scorpion, that is of such large proportion it would make the entire creature the biggest bug ever. How big? Bigger than you, and at 8 feet long as big as some Smart cars.
©AP Photo/University of Bristol, HO
This is a computer generated image issued by the University of Bristol in England released on Tuesday Nov. 20, 2007 showing a size comparison between a human an ancient sea scorpion. A fossil found in Germany indicates the ancient sea scorpion was once 2.5 metres (8 feet) long, making it the biggest bug ever known to have existed.




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Our Haunted Planet
Sussex: Dog walker spots UFO


Bexhill Observer
2007-11-20 09:03:00

Has anyone seen a mystery light hovering over Cross in Hand?
Local resident Lynnda Rose contacted the Express to describe the strange sighting.

She said: 'I was out with my dog and noticed a light above the field moving in a circular motion.

'I can only describe it as looking like an oval, thick mist which was quite bright.'

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North Carolina: Teens Report Spotting UFO

Tom Embrey
ThePilot.com
2007-11-21 08:56:00

Jacob Cole and Ben Sizer sat on the porch of Cole's home near Lake Auman, grilling hamburgers when they noticed a "bright, big, green glow" in the sky.

"It was fizzling, falling like it was on fire," Cole said of the object that appeared in the sky around 6:15 p.m.

As it fell, Cole said the object split, with the smaller orb falling at a faster rate.

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Don't Panic! Lighten Up!
Yes, but which is the better actor?

Watertiger
Dependable Renegade
2007-11-21 12:03:00

U.S. presidential candidate or mutant lizard?

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The real face of Rudy Guiliani

Watertiger
Dependable Renegade
2007-11-21 11:55:00

By daylight and by the light of a full moon...

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Dog owners go barking mad for fancy dress

Paul Majendie
Reuters
2007-11-21 00:54:00

Darth Labrador. Dogzilla. Elvis the hound dog. No outfit is too outrageous for man's best friend.


©REUTERS/Angels Fancy Dress/Handout
A dog wears a witch costume in this undated photograph released in London November 20, 2007.



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Stowaway piglet survives toilet roll ordeal


Reuters
2007-11-21 00:46:00

London - A piglet nicknamed Andrex is recovering after being found in the back of a truck full of toilet paper at a supermarket.

©Reuters/Tesco/RSPCA
An injured piglet found among a delivery at Tesco in Ilkeston, Derbyshire and nicknamed "Andrex" is shown in this handout photo, November 20, 2007.


The animal, thought to be two or three weeks old, was discovered in a delivery at a Tesco store in Ilkeston, Derbyshire.

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Rolling in cash

Kevin Sites
People of the Web
2007-11-20 00:47:00

All Linda Katz had to do was step outside of her house to make thousands on the Internet. Now the Midwestern entrepreneur is building a business selling a piece of the old west online: tumbleweeds.

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