Climate change produced by human burning of fossil fuels is a dire challenge to life as we know it on earth, and it will likely raise sea level 3-4 feet in this century, wiping out Miami and New Orleans and displacing large numbers of people in Indian Bengal, Egypt and Bangladesh. Moreover, Human beings may […]
Archives for September 2013
Brazilian President Snubs Obama: How US Cyber Espionage will Destroy the Internet
The USG Open Source Center reports on Brazilian press reaction to President Dilma Roussef’s decision to cancel her state visit to Washington DC this fall, after revelations by Edward Snowden that the US National Security Agency not only intensively spied on all Brazilians online and engaged in industrial espionage but that special efforts were made […]
Solar Car of the Future: Sunswift Solar Two-Seater looks like an ordinary Coupe
Giles Parkinson writes that this year Sunswift is making a revolutionary and exciting entry in the annual University of New South Wales solar car competition: This year, they are entering a new class: a two doored vehicle dubbed eVe that looks more like a car than a spaceship, with a sleek carbon-fibre body and sleek […]
How the National Security State creates its own Whistleblowers, with a Letter to the Next One (Engelhardt)
Tom Engelhardt writes at Tomdispatch.com Dear Whistleblower, I don’t know who you are or what you do or how old you may be. I just know that you exist somewhere in our future as surely as does tomorrow or next year. You may be young and computer-savvy or a career federal employee well along in […]
UN Report Conclusive Sarin used on wide Scale, Points to Syrian Regime
When reports of a chemical weapons attack in Rif Dimashq near Damascus on August 21 first surfaced, some observers questioned whether these were really chemical weapons. Others questioned whether the force that deployed them, if that was what they were, was the Syrian army. T The UN-commissioned Sellstrom report on the August 21 chemical weapons […]
44 yearly Murders by Firearms in Britain [220 equiv.] vs. 8,583 in US; US Navy now Menaced
Aaron Alexis carried out the mass murder of 13 people at the Navy Yard with an AR-15 assault rifle and a shotgun. AR-15 Bushmasters are semi-automatic weapons that can fire many rounds per minute and can be bought at retail stores such as Walmart or at gun shows in southern states from private individuals without […]
Thousand-Year Flood in Colorado: Climate Change & Extreme Weather
Commondreams.org writes The number of people missing or "unaccounted for" amid what experts are calling a thousand-year flood event in Colorado, is now more than 1200, according to state newspapers and officials. The number of officials deaths related to the flooding is now at six people. Coming on the heals of forest fires and drought […]
The Hubris of the Syria Interventionists
The hawks who are deeply disappointed that diplomacy has likely forestalled a US military intervention in Syria in the foreseeable future often attempt to tug at our heart strings by pointing to the over 100,000 dead and the millions of displaced, implying that the US has a responsibility to intervene to stop the carnage on […]
Summers withdraws from Fed consideration; Won’t be Rewarded for Beggaring Us All
Economist Larry Summers withdrew his name from consideration for chairman of the Federal Reserve last night, even though he had been increasingly considered the favorite for the job in the White House (not so much in the Senate). It is a great mystery why Barack Obama even considered rewarding Summers for his role in increasing […]