- Signs of the Times Archive for Thu, 01 Mar 2007 -



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Best of the Web
A Review of Chalmers Johnson's Nemesis

Stephen Lendman
sjlendman.blogspot.com
2007-03-01 07:42:00


©N/A
"Nemesis" - by Chalmers Johnson


It's now our choice. We can continue the same way as imperial Rome and lose our democracy or chose the British model keeping it at the expense of sacrificing empire. Johnson ends his book citing Japanese scholar and journalist Hotsumi Ozaki as a role model example. Ozaki understood his country's occupation of China would fail and lead to the kind of blowback caused by the Chinese Communist revolution. He tried warning his government, but was hanged as a traitor for his efforts late in WW II. Johnson hopes he won't meet a similar fate but is as certain as Ozaki "that my country is launched on a dangerous path that it must abandon or else face the consequences." We should hope we never see them, but wishing alone won't make it so.

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Time Stamp Confirms BBC Reported WTC 7 Collapse 26 Minutes In Advance

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
2007-03-01 07:01:00

©BBC News24
Debunkers' claims about blue screens, inconclusive time frame of Jane Standley footage eviscerated


If there was any remaining doubt that the BBC reported the collapse of Building 7 over 20 minutes before it fell then it has now evaporated with the discovery of footage from the BBC's News 24 channel that shows the time stamp at 21:54 (4:54PM EST) when news of the Salomon Brothers Building is first broadcast, a full 26 minutes in advance of its collapse.

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Who Ordered the Assassination of Dr. David Kelly?

by Michel Chossudovsky
Global Research
2007-03-01 06:34:00

©Global Research
Michel Chossudovsky


The British media has become embroiled in yet another set of distortions regarding the death of British government weapons inspector Dr. David Kelly in July 2003. Kelly died in mysterious circumstances in the woods near his home in Oxfordshire.

Kelly was Britain's foremost expert on biological weapons, with direct access to WMD intelligence on Iraq. In the months leading up to his death, he had become increasingly skeptical regarding Iraq's alleged WMDs. "It was Dr Kelly who exposed claims by President George Bush, Tony Blair and Colin Powell that mobile biological warfare units had been found in Iraq as false." (Independent, 25 July 2003)

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U.S. News
Missouri kidnapper indicted on federal child porn charges


CNN
2007-03-01 16:20:00

Former pizzeria manager Michael Devlin has been indicted in federal court on child pornography charges related to the kidnapping of a Missouri boy, a federal prosecutor said Thursday.

U.S. Attorney Catherine L. Hanaway announced the charges -- four counts of child pornography and two counts of transporting a minor across state lines to engage in illegal sexual activity.

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Commander of Walter Reed Army hospital fired after poor conditions exposed


CNN
2007-03-01 16:16:00

WASHINGTON -- The top general at Walter Reed Army Medical Center was fired Thursday, the military announced, following revelations of poor conditions in the building where troops who were wounded in Afghanistan and Iraq are treated.

Maj. Gen. George Weightman's firing was the first major military staff change after reports surfaced last month about substandard conditions in a building that is part of the facility.

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50% of online pedophile porn traced to the US


BBC
2007-03-01 13:48:00

More than 50% of online images of child abuse reported to an internet watchdog can be traced to the US, a report says.

Investigations by the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) found nearly 2,500 US sites containing illegal images.

The IWF study also said that some sites that contain the illegal content remain accessible for up to five years despite being reported to relevant authorities.

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Democrats may cut Bush military budget

By ANDREW TAYLOR
Associated Press
2007-03-01 13:32:00

WASHINGTON - Democrats are considering cutting President Bush's budget $142 billion request for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan next year by $20 billion, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad said Thursday.

The war funding cut would affect the budget year beginning Oct. 1 and is separate from the ongoing debate over Bush's $100 billion request for immediate supplemental funding for Iraq and Afghanistan.

The North Dakota Democrat said he likely will use Congressional Budget Office estimates - instead of the administration's February budget request - as the basis for estimating Iraq and Afghanistan war costs.

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San Diego diocese files Chapter 11 - 140 civil lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by priests

By ALLISON HOFFMAN
Associated Press
2007-03-01 13:28:00

SAN DIEGO - The Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego filed for bankruptcy protection late Tuesday to put off going to trial in more than 140 civil lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by priests.

The petition was lodged with the federal bankruptcy court in San Diego at 11:55 p.m., just hours before the first trial was scheduled to go forward in a San Diego courtroom. A Chapter 11 filing automatically halts court proceedings.

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US 200-year porn sentence stands

By James Westhead
BBC News, Washington
2007-03-01 12:12:00

The US Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal by a high school teacher from Arizona sentenced to 200 years in jail for possessing child pornography.

Morton Berger had claimed the sentence was so disproportionate to his crime it breached the constitution.

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UK & Euro-Asian News
BBC Media Management Policy: Overview


BBC
2007-03-01 10:00:00

The BBC has rather strict policies for archiving broadcast material. The following is extracted from the BBC website and covers the very issues that have come up regarding the BBC's claim to have lost the archival footage from September 11, 2001.

Clearly, if policy was not followed, someone is responsible. This, we think, is newsworthy.


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Army conscript accused of posting Greek war plans on Internet


Associated Press
2007-03-01 09:51:00

23-year-old army conscript has been arrested in northern Greece on suspicion of posting secret mobilization documents on the Internet, police and military authorities said Thursday.


The man was arrested in the northwestern town of Arta on Wednesday and was placed in military custody, after police raided his home and seized two computers, discs and other data storage equipment.


The suspect, not named in accordance with Greek privacy laws, is accused of uploading the classified documents onto a file-sharing site.


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Belgian Mother stabs five children to death


Agence France Presse
2007-03-01 07:14:00

©AFP
A body is placed inside a hearse at the scene of a family home in Nivelle, Belgium, where a woman stabbed her five children to death before trying to commit suicide.


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Around the World
Friends stunned by spy charges in the case of Egyptian-Canadian accused of being Israeli spy

Michelle Shephard, Isabel Teotonio
Toronto Star
2007-03-01 12:21:00

Before leaving his Toronto home for the last time two months ago, Mohamed Essam Ghoneim el-Attar excitedly told friends of his holiday plans in the Middle East and promised to bring back souvenirs.

The 31-year-old Egyptian-Canadian first planned to visit family in Egypt and then go to Ankara, Turkey, where he once lived and still owns a home. And maybe, he said, he would spend New Year's Eve in Tel Aviv.

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Boy found in Uzbekistan after eight years of animal existence


RIA Novosti
2007-03-01 10:17:00

A teenager has been found in Uzbekistan's mountainous region eight years after he was reported missing in 1998, local prosecutors said Thursday.


"The boy acts like a wild animal. He is afraid of everything, cannot speak and only makes snarling sounds," prosecutors said, adding that he was found by road construction workers.


Experts identified the boy after studying photographs dating back to 1998. His parents recognized the boy, singling him out from among several other teenagers in a lineup.


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CIA records reveal plot against Japan in 1950s


Associated Press/NBC
2007-03-01 09:41:00

Declassified documents reveal that Japanese ultranationalists with ties to U.S. military intelligence plotted to overthrow the Japanese government and assassinate the prime minister in 1952.


The scheme - which was abandoned - was concocted by militarists and suspected war criminals who had worked for U.S. occupation authorities after World War II, according to CIA records reviewed by The Associated Press. The plotters wanted a right-wing government that would rearm Japan.


The CIA files, declassified in 2005 and publicized by the U.S. National Archives in January, detail a plot to oust the pro-U.S. prime minister, Shigeru Yoshida, and install a more hawkish government led by Ichiro Hatoyama.


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Former Canadian defense minister sez:UFO science key to halting climate change


Agence France Presse
2007-03-01 06:58:00

OTTAWA - A former Canadian defense minister is demanding governments worldwide disclose and use secret alien technologies obtained in alleged UFO crashes to stem climate change, a local paper said Wednesday.

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Big Brother
Cybercops drowning in data

By Joris Evers
CNET News.com
2007-03-01 13:27:00

ARLINGTON, Va.--Cyberinvestigators are nearly drowning in the massive amounts of digital data seized from criminal suspects, a government official said Wednesday.

As digital evidence increases in importance, authorities seize anything that can hold data. This includes computers, CDs, USB keys, MP3 players, cell phones and game consoles, Jim Christy, a director of the U.S. Department of Defense Cyber Crime Center, said in a presentation at the Black Hat DC Briefings & Training event here.

"This is everything that you got and gave for Christmas," Christy said. In one case, investigators found child pornography on a modified Xbox, he said. "The challenge is that with digital proliferation, the data volume is tremendous these days."

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Axis of Evil
Israel is guilty of occupation, apartheid and colonialism, top UN lawyer reports


Al-Jazeera
2007-03-01 15:39:00

Bethlehem - Ma'an - The UN's Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, John Dugard, has issued a harshly critical report on Israel's human rights record in regards to its treatment of the Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territories of East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

"The international community, speaking through the United Nations, has identified three regimes as inimical to human rights - colonialism, apartheid and foreign occupation," Dugard says. In his 24-page report, which will be presented to the United Nations General Assembly for debate on 15 March 2006, the South African lawyer accuses Israel of occupation, apartheid and colonialism.

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Zionist Tail Wags American Dog

by Gwynne Dyer
CommonDreams
2007-03-01 14:06:00

In a U.S. election campaign that is more about foreign policy than any presidential race in decades, one issue is completely off-limits: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

George W. Bush and John Kerry both back Israel 100 per cent, and neither man will offer a single word of criticism about Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's "disengagement" plan, even though it means abandoning the notion of a peace settlement.

Once again, the Israeli tail is wagging the American dog.

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Zionist Occupiers of Palestine Seek American Taxpayer Money to Kill More Palestinians and to Compensate Them for Losses While Attacking Lebanon


Agence France Presse
2007-03-01 14:04:00

JERUSALEM - An Israeli delegation has left for the United States to negotiate a new aid deal from the Jewish state's main ally and donor, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's spokeswoman said Monday.

"A delegation headed by Bank of Israel chief Stanley Fischer left Tel Aviv overnight for Washington to negotiate a new deal to fix the amount of annual military aid from the United States for Israel for the next decade," Miri Eisin told AFP.

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War on Terror Scheduled to End just before 2008 Elections?

By Al Kamen
Washington Post
2007-03-01 14:01:00

The Democrats and other cut-and-runners are in disarray over their next move on Iraq. And they keep jabbering that the administration has no plan for the war other than the same old, same old.

Nonsense. The Pentagon, in a series of recent memos, is making the fight against terrorism synonymous with Iraq (although it has been pretty much confirmed that Saddam Hussein wasn't involved in the Sept. 11 attacks) and has issued a clear call for getting the job done by the end of next year.

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Outsource the Cabinet? Israel's leadership seems to have blinded itself lately with all sorts of bizarre and criminal behavior.

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
NY Times
2007-03-01 13:58:00

Yes, it's true, a picture is worth a thousand words - but some are worth a whole dictionary. I came across one the other day on BBC.com. The story was headlined "Israeli Minister in Vision Gaffe."

Next to it is a picture showing Israel's defense minister, Amir Peretz, inspecting troops on the Golan Heights alongside Israel's military chief of staff, Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi. Both men are peering into the distance through binoculars, but with one big difference: Mr. Peretz was watching the maneuvers through binoculars with the lens caps still on. ...

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U.S. Threatens EU Over CIA Flight Probe

By JAN SLIVA
Associated Press
2007-03-01 13:53:00

BRUSSELS, Belgium - A senior U.S. administration official on Wednesday warned that ongoing inquiries into secret CIA activities in the European Union may undermine intelligence cooperation between the United States and European nations.

The European Parliament accused Britain, Poland, Italy and other nations in mid-February of colluding with the CIA to transport terror suspects to clandestine prisons in third countries.

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Middle East Madness
Iraq's Superbombs: Home Made?

by Noah Shachtman
Wired Blog Network
2007-03-01 13:17:00

Where are Iraq's superbombs coming from, really? The Pentagon is claiming -- again -- the the Iranian government supplied the deadly "explosively formed penetrators" (EFPs). But the more you study these devices -- which use an explosive charge to a convert disc-shaped metal 'lens' into a high-velocity slug capable of smashing through thick armor at an extended range - - the more likely they seem to be home-made in Iraq.

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Iraq Replaces Vietnam as Metaphor for Tragedy

By Andrew Lam
New America Media
2007-03-01 09:47:00

Many comparisons have been made about the Iraq and Vietnam wars. But what Iraq may have finally done is not so much remind us of Vietnam as ultimately usurp it from our national psyche.

With the ghosts of Vietnam still haunting the United States, the nation is doomed to repeat its misadventures abroad, in Iraq and beyond, until a profound reckoning with its bellicose heart of darkness occurs.

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Woman Colonel Urges Troops to Refuse Orders if US Attacks Iran


Ms. Magazine
2007-03-01 05:59:00

Adding to the chorus of women leaders demanding that President Bush retreat from the possibility of war against Iran, retired Army Reserves Colonel and former high-ranking diplomat Mary Wright asked military personnel to refuse potentially imminent orders to attack Iran.

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Military chiefs Say: Vietnam-style collapse coming in 6 months

Simon Tisdall
Guardian Unlimited
2007-03-01 04:48:00

An elite team of officers advising US commander General David Petraeus in Baghdad has concluded the US has six months to win the war in Iraq - or face a Vietnam-style collapse in political and public support that could force the military into a hasty retreat.

The officers - combat veterans who are leading experts in counter-insurgency - are charged with implementing the "new way forward" strategy announced by president George Bush on January 10. The plan includes a controversial "surge" of 21,500 additional American troops to establish security in the Iraqi capital and Anbar province.

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The Loan Gunmen
CompUSA closing over half of its stores

by Eric Bangeman
arstechnica.com
2007-03-01 08:11:00

CompUSA today announced plans to close 126 stores in the United States, leaving the computer retailer with 103 stores spread across 39 states and Puerto Rico. The process began last week with the closing of four stores and the rest will be shuttered in between 60 and 90 days.

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Asian stocks wobble as aftershocks continue

by Shingo Ito
AFP
2007-03-01 07:37:00

TOKYO - Asian investors sweated Thursday as the aftershocks from the recent global stock market rout reverberated around the region, pushing Tokyo and Shanghai back into negative territory.

Markets waited nervously to see if selling pressure would ease -- as many analysts predict -- or whether the recent signs of stabilisation in many markets are merely the eye of the storm before a further selloff.

Analysts have been quick to point out that the Asian economies remain in good shape, but after the sharp falls of recent days nerves were still frayed.

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U.S. Economy: Home Sales Tumble, Growth Revised Lower

By Courtney Schlisserman and Joe Richter
Bloomberg
2007-03-01 06:02:00

New-home sales in the U.S. tumbled last month by the most in 13 years and fourth-quarter economic growth was less than previously estimated, dousing speculation that the worst of the slowdown is over.

January new-home purchases fell 16.6 percent, the most since 1994, the Commerce Department said today in Washington. The department in a separate report said gross domestic product, the sum of all goods and services produced, grew at an annual rate of 2.2 percent, compared with the 3.5 percent reported on Jan. 31, and the 2 percent the previous quarter.

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IRS goes after eBay, wants info on seller earnings


arstechnica
2007-03-01 05:36:00

The IRS wants its money. That's why it has helpfully assembled a list of the most common excuses people use (PDF) for not paying their taxes. In case you weren't aware of it, a claim that "the 16th Amendment is invalid because it contradicts the original Constitution, was not properly ratified, and lacks an enabling clause" won't fly with the government. In the same spirit, the government has recently been leaning on eBay to make sure that sellers are not dodging their own tax responsibilities, but eBay wants no part of the government's plan.

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The Living Planet
Canberra struck by 'supercell'


The Border Mail
2007-03-01 17:44:00

Canberra was last night bracing for a second major storm as it cleaned up from Tuesday night's damaging "supercell" storm, which dropped up to 1m of hail and caused chaos in the centre of the capital.

Hailstones as large as golf balls and winds over 50kmh lashed the city for less than 30 minutes on Tuesday night but left trees defoliated and turned nature strips into mud baths.

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At least 9 killed as tornadoes rake Alabama


MSNBC
2007-03-01 17:26:00

A tornado struck an Alabama high school, Thursday killing at least eight people, believed to be students and teachers, a state official said. The storm that struck Enterprise was one of several tornadoes that ripped a swath of destruction across at least three states, including Kansas and Missouri.

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Storm! Dozens of Twisters threaten to disrupt rush hour for millions in SouthEast


CNN
2007-03-01 16:10:00

WEST PLAINS, Missouri -- Storms that dumped heavy rains and tornadoes across the heartland Thursday, killing at least one person, made their afternoon trek through the Southeast and were expected to strike the region's largest metro area at rush hour, officials said.

In much of Georgia, the weather service issued a "particularly dangerous situation" watch until 9 p.m. ET as meteorologists were expecting a band of harsh storms to slam into Atlanta during its usually messy rush hour.

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Mars Melt Hints at Solar, Not Human, Cause for Warming, Scientist Says

Kate Ravilious
National Geographic News
2007-03-01 14:43:00

Simultaneous warming on Earth and Mars suggests that our planet's recent climate changes have a natural - and not a human-induced - cause, according to one scientist's controversial theory.

Earth is currently experiencing rapid warming, which the vast majority of climate scientists says is due to humans pumping huge amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

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Misleading: Tokyo had 1st winter without snow on record


Kyodo
2007-03-01 06:04:00

Tokyo experienced the first winter without snowfall on record since 1876, the Japan Meteorological Agency said Thursday.

The agency's observatory point in Otemachi, central Tokyo, did not record any snowfall from December to February, the period defined as winter in Japan.

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Rainier, third most dangerous U.S. volcano, USGS says

By Warren Cornwall
Seattle Times
2007-03-01 04:35:00

Mount Rainier looks constant and unchanging, an impassive landmark on the horizon. But the mountain hasn't always been so quiet.

About the time Christopher Columbus was arriving in America, a torrent of mud rolled down Rainier's western flank, burying the spot where Orting stands today. Five hundred years before that, an eruption sent a mud flow down the White River Valley to what is now Auburn.

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Health & Wellness
Dengue outbreak in Karachi worries health authorities

By Afnan Khan
Pakistan Daily Times
2007-03-01 14:30:00

©unk
Dengue Fever is transmitted by mosquitoes


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Nearly 400 die of dengue fever in Indonesia


Xinhua
2007-03-01 14:28:00

The number of death toll of seasonal dengue fever since January this year in Indonesia has climbed to 380 out of 27,000 infected people, Health Ministry said on Tuesday.

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New, More Virulent Form of Dengue sparks Paraguay emergency - Can Cause Death Within Hours


BBC
2007-03-01 14:16:00

Paraguay has declared a 60-day state of emergency to deal with an outbreak of dengue fever which has killed at least 10 people in the past two months.

Officials say 14,654 people have been diagnosed with dengue.

But doctors say the figure is 10 times higher, and are worried about a new more virulent variant of the disease.

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10 things your hospital won't tell you

Reshma Kapadia
MSN/SmartMoney
2007-03-01 09:33:00

"Oops, wrong kidney."

In recent years, errors in treatment have become a serious problem for hospitals, ranging from operations on wrong body parts to medication mix-ups.


At least 1.5 million patients are harmed every year from being given the wrong drugs, according to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. That's an average of one person per U.S. hospital per day.


One reason these mistakes persist: Only 10% of hospitals are fully computerized and have a central database to track allergies and diagnoses, says Robert Wachter, the chief of medical service at UC San Francisco Medical Center.


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CDC doctor opposes law for HPV vaccine - HPV is not a contagious disease like measles

By Gregory Lopes
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
2007-03-01 06:25:00

The chairman of the federal panel that recommended the new cervical-cancer vaccine for pre-teen girls says lawmakers should not make the inoculation mandatory, as the District and more than 20 states, including Virginia, are considering.

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Flashback: Tamiflu, Vistide and the Pentagon Agenda

F. William Engdahl
Geo-politics-Geo-economics
2005-11-05 05:52:00

On November 1, President George W. Bush went to the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland to hold a high profile press conference, to announce a 381-page plan, officially called the Pandemic Influenza Strategic Plan.

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Science & Technology
Link Found Between Genetics And IQ


UPI
2007-03-01 13:46:00

U.S. psychiatric geneticists say they have confirmed an association between genetics and intelligence.

Washington University School of Medicine researchers in St. Louis gathered the most extensive evidence to date showing a gene that activates signaling pathways in the brain influences one kind of intelligence.

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French researcher says Vista's user interface suffers from more 'friction' than Microsoft XP

Gregg Keizer
Computerworld
2007-03-01 11:29:00

Vista's user interface suffers from more "friction" than its predecessor XP, a French analyst said Monday, and is actually a step back for Microsoft Corp. in its pursuit of Apple Inc.'s Mac OS X.

In a reprise of research published last year, French analyst Andreas Pfeiffer oversaw testing of what he calls "User Interface Friction," the fluidity and/or reactivity of an operating system to commands. He likens UIF to the reaction -- fast or not -- when stepping on a car's accelerator.

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Windows Vista: I'm Breaking up with You

Chris Pirillo
pirillo.com
2007-03-01 11:19:00

No, seriously. When I have the time, I'm "upgrading" from Windows Vista to Windows XP. My keyboard is completely ambiguous.

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Physics legends II

Robert P Crease
PhysicsWeb
2007-03-01 09:59:00

In my column in November 2006 (see Physics Legends), I discussed stories from the history of science that we repeat even when we suspect that they are wrong. I then asked for your favourites and for ideas why such legends persist. Dozens of readers replied, mentioning legends involving oversimplifications or falsifications of science, of history or of the world. Some of you even protested that stories that I had claimed were true are in fact false, and vice versa.


The apple, the sink and the pendulum


Robert Matthews - a science writer and visiting reader in science at Aston University in the UK - found me too credulous regarding Newton's apple. Yes, he granted, historians have traced the tale back to Newton himself, but that does not make it true. Why, he asked sensibly, was Newton - a notoriously secretive and paranoid person - suddenly so chatty about how he got an idea, unless to cement priority over his rival Hooke?


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Flashback: Physics Legends

Robert P Crease
PhysicsWeb
2006-11-01 09:57:00

Richard Feynman starts his book QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter with a remarkable confession. He tells a brief story about the origins of his subject - quantum electrodynamics - and then says that the "physicist's history of physics" that he has just related is probably wrong. "What I am telling you", Feynman says, "is a sort of conventionalized myth-story that the physicists tell to their students and those students tell to their students, and is not necessarily related to the actual historical development, which I do not really know!"


Like Feynman, many teachers and textbooks are unashamed to retell "damn good stories": colourful versions of people and events that are oversimplified and often inaccurate. All of the scholarly fields are afflicted. Ivan Morris, a British-born scholar who taught Japanese studies at Harvard University, once expressed an intention to write a book about myths embraced by his academic colleagues, tentatively entitled The Bull Must Die. Unfortunately, Morris died before he could finish the work and the bull continues to flow unchecked.


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Budget crunch delays NASA's moon ship

Kasie Hunt
Associated Press
2007-03-01 09:26:00

NASA will delay the first manned flight of the new spacecraft designed to take humans back to the moon because of budget constraints, the agency's boss said Wednesday.


The craft, called the Orion, won't fly until early 2015, four to six months later than planned, NASA administrator Michael Griffin told lawmakers.


"We simply do not have the money available" to fly in 2014 as originally planned, he said.


The delay is the result of a $545 million difference between President Bush's request for the agency this year and the money Congress included in a spending bill Bush signed this month. Lawmakers gave the space agency the same amount of money it received in 2006.


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Our Haunted Planet
Chile's UFO "Chupacabras" strike again

Yanni Peary
The Santiago Times
2007-03-01 10:07:00

Elusive Beast Alleged Culprit In Deaths Of 19 Ducks And 12 Geese


In the sleepy town of San Juan, located within the area of San Antonio (Region V), gruesome and savage murders have occurred. The mythical "chupacabra" (literally, "sucking goat") is blamed by locals as the killer of the farm animals.


The mysterious attacks are similar to those in Placilla and Huallipén, where hens and rabbits fell victim to the bizarre slaughter and predation, which left the farm animals dead and sucked completely dry of blood. However, some are cautious about blaming this supernatural being.


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Don't Panic! Lighten Up!
Girl's hiccups stop, mysteriously, after 5 weeks


CNN
2007-03-01 16:13:00

ST. PETERSBURG, Florida -- She sipped pickle juice, held her breath, breathed into a bag, even went to a neurologist, but for more than five weeks nothing would stop a 15-year-old girl's rapid hiccups -- until they finally just stopped on their own.

After trying countless remedies and attracting national media attention, Jennifer Mee said her hiccups suddenly stopped around 5 p.m. Wednesday. No one is certain why.

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Man tries to cash $50K check from God


Associated Press
2007-03-01 09:48:00

Kevin Russell found out it's not easy trying to cash a check from God. The 21-year-old man was arrested Monday after he tried to cash a check for $50,000 at the Chase Bank in Hobart that was signed "King Savior, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Servant," Hobart police Detective Jeff White said.


Russell was charged with one count attempted check fraud and one count intimidation, both felonies, and one count resisting law enforcement, a misdemeanor. He could face prison time.


Police were called to the bank after Russell tried to cash the check, which was written on an invalid Bank One check with no imprint, White said. Russell had several other checks with him that were signed the same way but made out in different dollar amounts, including one for $100,000.


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9-11 Mystery Pentagon Plane Found in Bermuda Triangle

by Edward O'Neill
The Spoof
2007-03-01 09:42:00

©The Spoof
The mystery is solved! The plane that hit the Pentagon emerged from the mists of the Bermuda Triangle and returned thence...


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The Peacemongers: Can these Nobel laureates help stop a war?

by Linda Burstyn
Ms. Magazine
2007-03-01 08:19:00

There is perhaps nothing more stereotypically masculine than war.

It's not that there haven't been women inclined to make war, but this need to hit, to thrust, to dominate, to claim supremacy is downright boyish. And there has perhaps been no U.S. presidential administration more unrelentingly macho than this one.

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Italian Granny finds live WW II Grenade in sack of French Potatoes


The Age
2007-03-01 07:19:00

Naples - A 74-year-old Italian grandmother who bought a sack of potatoes at the her local market found a live grenade among the spuds.

"I found a bomb in the potatoes," Olga Mauriello said.

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