Newly discovered planet 'habitable'

Astronomers have discovered the first planet outside the solar system with the potential to support life.
The planet orbits a red dwarf star called Gliese 581, 20 light years from Earth, in the middle of the star's habitable zone, meaning that temperatures on its surface are just right for life to develop.
US-based scientists found the planet using precise measurements from the Keck telescope in Hawaii, which has been scrutinising Gliese 581 for more than a decade.
The new planet, called Gliese 581g, is one of several known to be orbiting the star, but is the first to be discovered in the so-called Goldilocks Zone, where the distance from the star means that temperatures are neither too hot or too cold for life to exist.


Newly discovered planet 'habitable' - Americas - Al Jazeera English

Don't Forget the Motor City

An interesting entry on Talking Heads member David Byrne's blog, with photos of the Motor City. And link to a documentary which is a real eye opener.

Anyway, this gives me a week in Detroit, with some free time to look around. A lot has been and continues to be written about Detroit, a handy living symbol of America’s industrial decline and of the human and urban effects of the recent crash. It’s also a symbol of various attempts to revitalize a town on the ropes, including building urban farms; renovating communities; starting arts programs, and creating incentives to bring some much-needed life back.

David Byrne's Journal: 09.23.10: Don't Forget the Motor City

The former guerrilla set to be the world's most powerful woman

The world's most powerful woman will start coming into her own next weekend. Stocky and forceful at 63, this former leader of the resistance to a Western-backed military dictatorship (which tortured her) is preparing to take her place as President of Brazil.

The former guerrilla set to be the world's most powerful woman | Brasil |Axisoflogic.com

F.B.I. Searches Antiwar Activists’ Homes - NYTimes.com

Here's a scary little wake-up.

F.B.I. agents executed search warrants Friday in Minneapolis and Chicago in connection to an investigation of support of terror organizations.
The searches in Minneapolis took place early in the morning at the homes of people who have helped organize demonstrations against the war in Iraq and protests held two years ago during the Republican National Convention in St. Paul.

F.B.I. Searches Antiwar Activists’ Homes - NYTimes.com

Bring Back a National Energy Plan - David Suzuki

As one of the only developed nations without a coordinated energy strategy, Canada is making an important economic and moral mistake.

The National Energy Program was implemented by the federal Liberal government in 1980 partly in response to skyrocketing oil prices. When the Conservatives came to power in 1984, they dismantled the divisive plan. Although the program did accomplish some of its goals, reducing foreign ownership of the oil industry as well as our dependence on oil, its most lasting legacy was to entrench a great divide between the oil-rich west and the federal government.

Bring Back a National Energy Plan - David Suzuki — THE MARK

Climate change enlightenment was fun while it lasted. But now it's dead

George Monbiot

The closer it comes, the worse it looks. The best outcome anyone now expects from December's climate summit in Mexico is that some delegates might stay awake during the meetings. When talks fail once, as they did in Copenhagen, governments lose interest. They don't want to be associated with failure, they don't want to pour time and energy into a broken process. Nine years after the world trade negotiations moved to Mexico after failing in Qatar, they remain in diplomatic limbo. Nothing in the preparations for the climate talks suggests any other outcome.

Climate change enlightenment was fun while it lasted. But now it's dead | George Monbiot | Comment is free | The Guardian

Canada, Israel & Palestine

By Yves Engler

ZNet

Monday, Sep 20, 2010

Current peace negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian officials are unlikely to end, let alone reverse, Palestinian dispossession. The power imbalance between the sides is simply too great. While Canada could be part of the solution, so far it has been part of the problem.

Canada, Israel & Palestine | Palestine |Axisoflogic.com

Federal Court allows Abousfian Abdelrazik to sue foreign affairs minister | rabble.ca

In a decision that must have added a certain edge to the next Cabinet meeting after it was announced, the Federal Court of Canada on Aug. 30 gave the green light to a $3-million lawsuit brought by Abousfian Abdelrazik against Lawrence Cannon, minister of foreign affairs. Abdelrazik is suing Cannon for misfeasance in public office, intentional infliction of mental suffering and breaches of his charter rights to mobility and to life, liberty and security of the person.

Federal Court allows Abousfian Abdelrazik to sue foreign affairs minister | rabble.ca

Rick Mercer 'the lie sack'

Accidental Deliberations

There's been plenty of talk about how a single blogpost has changed the course of Sweden's ongoing election. But it's worth pointing out exactly what the problem is that's earned so much public sympathy, and how it fits into what the right wants to do to healthcare in Canada:

A young Swedish woman named Emilie wrote a blog post about her mother losing her health insurance. In Sweden, there's a national health plan that covers your living expenses if you lose your job due to failing health. While Emilie's mom has been certified unable to work by her doctors, the government functionaries running the national plan didn't believe her, and just cut off her benefits. Emilie wrote that she and her mother are now considering selling their home, as it's the only way they can be eligible for any more government benefits.

Accidental Deliberations

Global NATO Raises Alarms From Arctic To Brazil

Rick Rozoff
The current century’s only and history’s largest military bloc will hold the latest of what have become annual summits in Lisbon, Portugal this November 19 and 20. Heads of state, defense chiefs and chiefs of general staff from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s 28 full members will be in attendance, as will be leaders from an unannounced number of the military alliance’s forty some odd partner states.
Global NATO Raises Alarms From Arctic To Brazil « Stop NATO

Bombshell from London

By Eric S. Margolis

September 14, 2010 "Toronto Sun" -- THE London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), is the world’s leading think tank for military affairs. It represents the top echelon of defence experts, retired officers and senior military men, spanning the globe from the United States and Britain to China, Russia and India.

I’ve been an IISS member for over 20 years. IISS’s reports are always authoritative but usually cautious and diplomatic, sometimes dull. However, two weeks ago the IISS issued an explosive report on Afghanistan that is shaking Washington and its Nato allies.

The report, presided over by the former deputy director of Britain’s foreign intelligence agency, MI-6, says the threat from al-Qaeda and Taliban has been "exaggerated" by the western powers. The US-led mission in Afghanistan has "ballooned" out of all proportion from its original aim of disrupting and defeating al-Qaeda. The US-led war in Afghanistan, says IISS, using uncharacteristically blunt language, is "a long-drawn-out disaster".

Just recently, CIA chief Leon Panetta admitted there were no more than 50 members of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. Yet US President Barack Obama has tripled the number of US soldiers there to 120,000 to fight Al Qaeda.

Bombshell from London: Information Clearing House: ICH

Bombshell from London

By Eric S. Margolis

September 14, 2010 "Toronto Sun" -- THE London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), is the world’s leading think tank for military affairs. It represents the top echelon of defence experts, retired officers and senior military men, spanning the globe from the United States and Britain to China, Russia and India.

I’ve been an IISS member for over 20 years. IISS’s reports are always authoritative but usually cautious and diplomatic, sometimes dull. However, two weeks ago the IISS issued an explosive report on Afghanistan that is shaking Washington and its Nato allies.

The report, presided over by the former deputy director of Britain’s foreign intelligence agency, MI-6, says the threat from al-Qaeda and Taliban has been "exaggerated" by the western powers. The US-led mission in Afghanistan has "ballooned" out of all proportion from its original aim of disrupting and defeating al-Qaeda. The US-led war in Afghanistan, says IISS, using uncharacteristically blunt language, is "a long-drawn-out disaster".

Just recently, CIA chief Leon Panetta admitted there were no more than 50 members of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. Yet US President Barack Obama has tripled the number of US soldiers there to 120,000 to fight Al Qaeda.

Bombshell from London: Information Clearing House: ICH

Ottawa’s media rules muzzling federal scientists, say observers

More Images »

Dr. Andrew Weaver with the Climate Change 2007 report in Victoria, BC on Friday, October 12, 2007.

Photograph by: Ray Smith, Victoria Times Colonist

The Harper government has tightened the muzzle on federal scientists, going so far as to control when and what they can say about floods at the end of the last ice age.

Natural Resources Canada scientists were told this spring they need “pre-approval” from Minister Christian Paradis’ office to speak with national and international journalists. Their “media lines” also need ministerial approval, say documents obtained by Postmedia News through access-to-information legislation.

The documents say the “new” rules went into force in March and reveal how they apply to not only to contentious issues including the oilsands, but benign subjects such as floods that occurred 13,000 years ago.

Ottawa’s media rules muzzling federal scientists, say observers

Le Carre on 'the Russification of Britain

Ex MI5 / MI6 man John Le Carre talks to Radio4's Today program about his new book. He then goes on to talk about how the Muslim boogeyman is being used to erode democracy much more than the IRA ever was.

Le Carre on 'the Russification of Britain

Ex MI5 / MI6 man John Le Carre talks to Radio4's Today program about his new book. He then goes on to talk about how the Muslim boogeyman is being used to erode democracy much more than the IRA ever was.

Oldest Marijuana Stash Found

Dec. 3, 2008 -- Nearly two pounds of still-green plant material found in a 2,700-year-old grave in the Gobi Desert has just been identified as the world's oldest marijuana stash, according to a paper in the latest issue of the Journal of Experimental Botany.
A barrage of tests proves the marijuana possessed potent psychoactive properties and casts doubt on the theory that the ancients only grew the plant for hemp in order to make clothing, rope and other objects.
They apparently were getting high too.
Oldest Marijuana Stash Found: Discovery News

Obama Has Signalled His Coming Complete Surrender To Zionism And Its Lobby

Alanhart.net

He did it with seven words. “Ultimately the U.S. cannot impose a solution.”

He was speaking at the White House the day before the start of the new round of direct talks between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, after he had met with them and Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak and Jordan’s King Abdullah II. (In my last post I anticipated Obama saying at the point of his complete surrender that “America can’t want peace more than the parties.” He also said that – ahead of schedule!)

Today there is a growing number of seriously well informed people of all faiths and none (including me) who believe there will only be peace if it is imposed.

Obama Has Signalled His Coming Complete Surrender To Zionism And Its Lobby

DJ Green Lantern (Feat. Eminem) - Bush Knocked Down The Towe