The USG Open Source Center translates an interview by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov from Russian, treating Syria and Palestine. Russian Foreign Minister Discusses Syria, Palestinian Question in Interview to Lebanese TV Transcript of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s interview to Lebanese Television: “Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s Interview to Lebanese TV Channel Al-Mayadin, Moscow, […]
Storms and Extreme Weather: The Impact of Climate Change (Videos)
Any particular storm is weather, not climate. That is, it is a discrete event, whereas climate is a decades-long pattern of such events. But the pattern is worrisome. A hotter atmosphere, which we are producing by dumping 5 billion metric tons of pollution from burning coal, gas and petroleum right into our earth’s atmosphere, produces […]
Pakistan, Islam and Democracy
Pakistan, a country 97 percent Muslim, has just made its first successful transition from one elected, civilian government to another since its founding in 1947. The country has had long bouts of military rule, and a history of coups against elected prime ministers, as well as, in the 1990s, a series of presidential decrees dismissing […]
Renewable Energy in Marrakech: Solar Water Pumps & More (Video)
Morocco has enormous solar and wind energy potential and plans to get 40% of its electricity from green energy sources by 2020, only 7 years from now. This documentary explores the potential of clean energy in a country with loads of wind and sunshine, estimating that it could produce 2000 times as much energy as […]
Tunisia and Libya take on Ansar al-Sharia Militants
Clashes broke out on Sunday in a western suburb of Tunis and in the city of Kairouan at the Mosque of the Martyrs between Tunisian police and militants of the proscribed Ansar al-Sharia cell. Although the movement makes exaggerated claims for its adherents, I shouldn’t imagine they amount to more than a couple thousand core […]
Massive Meteoroid Impact on Moon shines like Small Star (NASA Video)
That boulder-sized meteoroid that hit the moon on the 17th, causing a star-bright conflagration? NASA reports that it likely was part of a whole pack of meteoroids, a smaller set of which hit the earth’s atmosphere around the same time. Meteoroids are space rocks up to 10 yards / meter wide. From 10 meters wide […]
Climate Change Denial is Costing us Trillions, Threatening Farming, Fishing, Animals (Video)
Michael Mann: Climate change is already costing us $1 trillion a year. Aljazeera asks Professor Mann why there is still confusion among Americans about the perils of climate change, at a time when the scientific consensus is virtually complete. Some recent links on the impact: Much of Australia’s farmland could turn to desert or be […]
The Lotto Symbolizes the False Promises of Barracuda Capitalism, and it Won’t make you Happy to Win
Late capitalism in the United States is a process whereby more and more of the national income is going every month to a smaller number of people at the top, while the average wage of the average worker has been virtually static in real terms since 1970. All the extra money the US has made […]
“I will Survive” the Muslim Brotherhood: Leftist Egyptian Youth Music Video
Not an endorsement, but this cover by secular leftists of Gloria Gaynor’s 1978 “I will Survive,” with satirical Arabic lyrics (translated in subtitles) about the rule of the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafis in Egypt since the fall of dictator Hosni Mubarak gives a window into the grievances and disappointments of the youth who made the […]