NO Spaceships Headed for Earth
Has the SETI Institute discovered three objects en route to our world? Alien spacecraft that will arrive in 2012?
If you believe a widespread story now being circulated on the internet, and published by the ironically named "Pravda", you might think so. But it's all nonsense - it's a rumor, a hoax, and a fabrication that uncritical web sites have reprinted without checking.
Society's Child
Tokyo Electric Power ordered to pay ¥1m to families forced from their homes due to nuclear crisis after quake and tsunami
Japan's government has ordered the operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to compensate tens of thousands of households forced to evacuate due to radiation leaks.
As many as 50,000 households within 30km (19 miles) of the plant will be eligible for provisional damages, which have been set at ¥1m (£7,300) per family and ¥750,000 for single-person households.
The bill will reach ¥50bn, the president of Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), Masataka Shimizu, told reporters. Additional compensation claims expected from farmers and fishermen who have had their livelihoods destroyed could see the total rise much higher.
Tens of thousands of people were forced to leave last month after the government evacuated areas within 20km of the facility, where engineers are still confronted with huge amounts of radioactive water and overheating reactors. Earlier this week the government said it would expand the no-go zone to five communities further from the plant where radiation levels could pose a long-term threat to health.
© Wally Santana/AP
Thousands of people with homes near Fukushima Daiichi have been forced into evacuation centres outside the expanded 30km exclusion zone around the nuclear plant.
Thousands of people with homes near Fukushima Daiichi have been forced into evacuation centres outside the expanded 30km exclusion zone around the nuclear plant.
As many as 50,000 households within 30km (19 miles) of the plant will be eligible for provisional damages, which have been set at ¥1m (£7,300) per family and ¥750,000 for single-person households.
The bill will reach ¥50bn, the president of Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), Masataka Shimizu, told reporters. Additional compensation claims expected from farmers and fishermen who have had their livelihoods destroyed could see the total rise much higher.
Tens of thousands of people were forced to leave last month after the government evacuated areas within 20km of the facility, where engineers are still confronted with huge amounts of radioactive water and overheating reactors. Earlier this week the government said it would expand the no-go zone to five communities further from the plant where radiation levels could pose a long-term threat to health.
High court rules way in which police kettled up to 5,000 demonstrators at G20 protests in April 2009 was illegal
Thousands of people found by the high court to have been illegally detained for hours by police at a central London protest may sue Scotland Yard for false imprisonment.
The high court has ruled that the Metropolitan police had broken the law in the way it kettled up to 5,000 demonstrators at the G20 protests in April 2009.
The judges heard police used the tactic of mass detention against protesters that they accepted were peaceful, with officers meting out punches to the face, slaps and shield strikes as they tried to move a demonstration against climate change.
Judges found that the force used by police was "unjustified", criticised "imprecise" instructions given by senior officers about releasing innocent people, and said the mass detentions for five hours were an unlawful deprivation of liberty under article 5 of the European convention on human rights.
© Martin Godwin for the Guardian
Thousands may sue the police over kettling at 2009's G20 protests. Here, police hold protesters outside the Bank of England.
Thousands may sue the police over kettling at 2009's G20 protests. Here, police hold protesters outside the Bank of England.
The high court has ruled that the Metropolitan police had broken the law in the way it kettled up to 5,000 demonstrators at the G20 protests in April 2009.
The judges heard police used the tactic of mass detention against protesters that they accepted were peaceful, with officers meting out punches to the face, slaps and shield strikes as they tried to move a demonstration against climate change.
Judges found that the force used by police was "unjustified", criticised "imprecise" instructions given by senior officers about releasing innocent people, and said the mass detentions for five hours were an unlawful deprivation of liberty under article 5 of the European convention on human rights.
The Japanese government is trying to calm fears about radiation levels and food safety in the region around the heavily damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power facility, even as it has raised the severity rating of the crisis to the highest possible level. "Radiation is continuing to leak out of the reactors, the situation is not stable at all," says Dr. Michio Kaku, professor of theoretical physics at the City University Of New York and the City College of New York, in an interview on Democracy Now! April 13. "The slightest disturbance could set off a full scale melt down at three nuclear power stations - far beyond what we saw at Chernobyl."
A feral hog
An expert on wildlife and human conflicts says there are more and more wild hogs in New York state.
Paul Curtis, a professor of natural resources at Cornell University, said some of these feral hogs weigh nearly 300 pounds.
"Breeding populations of wild boar are becoming established in New York state," he said. "These invasive, non-native hogs can cause tremendous damage to crops and native plant communities. There is also a risk of spreading diseases, such as pseudorabies, from feral hogs to domestic livestock. Feral swine produce rapidly, have large litters of six to eight piglets, and can produce multiple litters per year."
© Laurel Lockamy
Dolphin carcass left on sand, Pass Christian, MS
Dolphin carcass left on sand, Pass Christian, MS
So Laurel decided to take matters into her own hands and posted a note and a few photos of the dolphin onto the local WLOX-TV website: Dead Dolphin on Pass Christian Beach.
this is the dead dolphin that is still out there 5 days after the marine institute for mammals came and spray painted and tagged it in orange..it stinks..it is rotting and it is so wrong that this beautiful creature is rotting on the beach after 5 days..go look its still out there on the beach in Pass Christian where people are still swimming in this bad water..Someone Please Help This Dolphin!!
© Richard A. Lipski/The Washington Post
Arianna Huffington arrives for the Gridiron Dinner at the Renaissance Hotel in Washington D.C. on March 12, 2011.
Arianna Huffington arrives for the Gridiron Dinner at the Renaissance Hotel in Washington D.C. on March 12, 2011.
Jonathan Tasini is the lead plaintiff in the suit against the news site, which AOL bought for $315 million in February. His suit, which he filed in a New York court Tuesday, seeks $105 million in damages in behalf of bloggers and other Huffington Post writers who submitted work for which they weren't paid.
Since its founding by liberal activist and author Arianna Huffington in 2005, Huffington Post has grown into one of the most successful and heavily visited news and information sites on the Internet. But its practice of soliciting commentaries and other articles, some from celebrity authors such as Alec Baldwin, without paying for them has irritated some writers.
Tasini, in an interview, said HuffPost was engaging in breach of contract with its contributors because of an "implied promise" of compensation. "Some people were given some promises about future payments," he said, declining to provide specifics.
It seems like wherever you turn there is bad news for the U.S. economy. Unemployment is rampant, the cost of gasoline is going up, the cost of food is going up and American families are getting poorer. Millions of jobs continue to leave the country and everyone is wondering why it seems like the "American Dream" is dying. American consumers are absolutely swamped with staggering levels of credit card debt, student loan debt and mortgage debt and each year the consumer debt crisis only seems to get worse. For millions of American families the money problems never seem to end. Meanwhile, our politicians are doing next to nothing to fix our horrific national debt problem. So yes, there are a whole lot of reasons to be absolutely disgusted with the U.S. economy. We are living in the greatest debt bubble in the history of the world, and anyone with half a brain can see that we are heading for complete and total disaster.
A lot of Americans do not like to read about economics, but what has been going on over the last few years has been nothing short of extraordinary. The Federal Reserve has basically tripled the adjusted monetary base. We have now been conditioned to accept that trillion dollar deficits are "normal". The U.S. dollar is being systematically destroyed right in front of our eyes and most Americans don't even seem alarmed about it.
A lot of Americans do not like to read about economics, but what has been going on over the last few years has been nothing short of extraordinary. The Federal Reserve has basically tripled the adjusted monetary base. We have now been conditioned to accept that trillion dollar deficits are "normal". The U.S. dollar is being systematically destroyed right in front of our eyes and most Americans don't even seem alarmed about it.
© AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File
FILE - In this Sept. 12, 2010 file photo, a plane takes off from Denver International Airport just before sunrise. An Oregon man is in a Colorado jail after police say he sexually assaulted a woman in a deserted concourse at the airport Tuesday night, April 12, 2011.
FILE - In this Sept. 12, 2010 file photo, a plane takes off from Denver International Airport just before sunrise. An Oregon man is in a Colorado jail after police say he sexually assaulted a woman in a deserted concourse at the airport Tuesday night, April 12, 2011.
Denver - The rape of a woman at Denver International Airport has left family members raising questions about the late-night attack and officials defending security at the Rocky Mountain hub, which serves millions of travelers each year.
Police spokesman Sonny Jackson said Wednesday that violent crime is rare at the airport, and that he knows of one other alleged sexual assault there, which he said involved an airport worker attacking another employee in an area not accessible to the public.
Several thousand demonstrators participated in the "Rally for Respect" at Yonge-Dundas Square in downtown Toronto on Saturday.
CTV Toronto's Zuraidah Alman reports that the rally was organized by various labour and community groups, who say that Mayor Rob Ford has cut away at the city's public services.
The groups said that key concerns include the sale of Toronto Public Housing units, taking away the TTC's right to strike and privatizing garbage collection, which is something Ford has mused about in the past.
The people who showed up to the rally -- including transit operators, auto workers, caregivers and garbage collectors -- say they didn't vote for any of these actions.
Sid Ryan, from the Ontario Federation of Labour, said his organization expects to be consulted on such major public policy issues.
"We expect (Ford) to operate as a democratic mayor, not as some sort of a dictator," said Ryan.
