Ante up
Democrats are readying a sharp rebuke of the Republican-led Judiciary Committee’s vote against demanding an investigation into discredited White House ‘reporter’ Jeff Gannon, and placing it in the context of what they see as a broad attempt by Republicans to stonewall investigations into improper activity, RAW STORY has learned.
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Their dissent, prepared by Democrats in the House, is an eight-page explanation of why they feel investigating Gannon’s credentialing was warranted, citing preferential treatment and issues of security
http://rawstory.com/exclusives/byrne/democrats_dissent_gannon_405.htm
[This would be something to keep in mind if we get a Nigeria pope.]
That corruption is a way of life in Nigeria is not contestable. That corruption has eaten not just deep but completely the national fabric is also not in doubt. That every Nigerian is viewed as a potential rogue by the outside world is also not in doubt. That Nigeria has made 'appreciable' improvement from being the second most corrupt nation in world to the third most corrupt, going by Transparency International (TI's) rating is also a common knowledge.
Although, I still believe that if there is any country that is more corrupt than Nigeria then that country is either situated in hell or somewhere very near it.
Is there any other country in the world where every facet of their country is corrupt; where both religious and political leaders are corrupt
http://allafrica.com/stories/200504050436.html
Words may not come easily to them but it appears the communication barrier between mankind and our nearest animal relatives may be narrower than we thought. Scientists have found that, when chimpanzees want to make a point, the message is loud and clear.
Chimps are mankind's closest relations in the animal kingdom, sharing 95 per cent of our DNA and many of our characteristics - including the ambition and aggression which leads to arguments and occasional violence. They may have some of our basic communication skills too.
After two years of research, psychologists from the University of St Andrews believe that subtle differences in vocalisations may have been developed to provide important clues for nearby allies. Led by a PhD student, Katie Slocombe, the research team found that chimpanzees scream differently depending on whether they are the aggressor or the victim and these calls are intended to tell nearby allies and relatives about the identity and social role of the group members involved in a fight.
http://www.rense.com/general63/apes.htm
[There are two bad things about this. One is the obvious opportunity for abuse. There was actually an episode of Star Trek the Next Generation where Georgi was tortured and brainwing something like this.
The other probs if you read to the end, Sony de anything that will do this. They were just awarded a patent based on an idea they hda that might at some point in the future actuallybe implemented.
What if way back when, someone had gotten on a patent on a method of representing spoken words visually through the use of standardized symbols? We’d all be paying royalties everytime we signed our own names.]
If you think video games are engrossing now, just wait: PlayStation maker Sony Corp (SNE.N). has been granted a patent for beaming sensory information directly into the brain.
The technique could one day be used to create videogames in which you can smell, taste, and touch, or to help people who are blind or deaf.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=581&e=1&u=/nm/20050406/tc_nm/tech_sony_brain_dc
[“it wasn’t planned”, “it isn’t political”. “Fat, rich, and spoiled Westerners”. This is the definition of propaganda.
What pray tell, do these thin, poor, and deprived Easterners hope to have happen in their future? Obviously they want to get up to the same level as the fat spoiled westerners they are currently disparaging.]
Around the world, a quiet revolution is taking place. It wasn't planned, it isn't political. But it is steadily marching, some might say leaping along, and-even if we wanted to-it can't be stopped. The revolution's name is offshoring, and while the concept is not new-manufacturing jobs have been moved to countries such as China and Mexico for years-what is different of late is the huge number of white-collar jobs that are being relocated abroad, and at a tempo and scale never witnessed before.
And it's just starting. Over the next decade, offshoring will knock millions of white-collar Americans and Europeans out of work, blowing a hole in the middle class from Los Angeles to London, from Boston to Berlin, from Toledo to Tokyo, from Austin to Amsterdam.
....
This is the next wave of globalization, and it is shifting work to dollar-a-day factory workers and dollar-an-hour white collar workers in Asia. Alarm bells should be ringing for Americans and, even louder for Europeans: Fat, rich and spoiled Westerners have for several generations been shielded from workplace competition with the world's most populous nations.
http://www.feer.com/articles1/2005/0503/free/p019.html
[This isn’t really a surprise. Cameras don’t do anything for safety. They are all about surveillance and control.
Back in the days of Tiananmen Square, the CHinese government used its super-sophisticated for the time traffic camera system to get photos of the people they regarded as ringleaders of the pro-democracy movement, so they could get those photos out to the relevant people to get those leaders rounded up and put in jail.
You better beleive it could hapen here. Everytime I leave the house there is another camera on the road. You really think they’re all for “Safety”?]
LAST YEAR legislators in Virginia did something every member of the New Hampshire House should carefully consider today. They ended Virginiaís 10-year experiment with red-light cameras. They did it for two reasons: safety and civil rights.
ìCrash statistics from intersections in four Northern Virginia jurisdictions, with numbers from before and after the cameras were installed, showed that crashes at those intersections actually rose after the cameras were turned on,î The Washington Post reported last weekend. ìIn Fairfax County, the research council study found, rear-end crashes increased 50 to 71 percent at intersections with cameras.î
While the cameras did reduce side-impact crashes, they increased rear-end crashes, creating a net rise in accidents at intersections. Furthermore, Fairfax County found that simply keeping the yellow light on for another 1.5 seconds reduced side-impact crashes more sharply than red-light cameras did.
...
f a police officer pulls you over for running a red light, you are presumed innocent. But if a camera snaps a photo of your car running a red light, you will be presumed guilty. It is jaw-dropping that the Republican-led New Hampshire House of Representatives would even consider passing a bill (sponsored by a Concord Democrat) that would do this.
http://www.theunionleader.com/articles_showa.html?article=52932
[Watch for a sudden increase in people feeling threatened.]
The measure essentially extends a right Floridians already have in their home or car. Under present law, however, people attacked anywhere else are supposed to do what they can to avoid escalating the situation and can use deadly force only after they've tried to retreat.
"I'm sorry, people, but if I'm attacked I shouldn't have a duty to retreat," said the bill's sponsor, state Rep. Dennis Baxley. "That's a good way to get shot in the back."
Baxley said that if people have the clear right to defend themselves without having to worry about legal consequences, criminals will think twice.
Opponents feared the bill would make Florida resemble the wild West, but defenders say it is no different from what most other states allow in laws governing self-defense.
The bill says a person has "the right to stand his or her ground and meet force with force, including deadly force if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to do so, to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/04/05/deadly.force.ap/index.html
When literature or history teachers assign their readings, they generally ask students how they "relate" to the text. It's a well-intentioned consequence of instant gratification: Students must be kept interested at all times. It's also one of the most detrimental things teachers do to their students. Rather than let a text broaden the student's perspective, asking her to "relate" narrows the purpose of the text to whatever value the student gives it. Rather than let the text challenge the student's biases, the student uses the text to reinforce existing beliefs or worse -- to dismiss the book as incomprehensible, irrelevant or pointless when relating to it proves impossible.
As Diane Ravitch, the education historian and professor put it, "How utterly vapid to expect that adolescents want to see themselves in everything they read, as if they have no capacity to imagine worlds that extend beyond their own limited experience, as if they will be emotionally undone by learning about the world as it is. How tedious it is for young people to find that school is an exercise in narcissism rather than an opportunity to discover the mysteries of time, space, and human nature."
The method could be dismissed as a passing fad in schools desperate to hold on to students who'd rather be elsewhere. But it's also the norm in college humanities departments, where critical skills receive their last rites, and it's the way most news and information is packaged to mass audiences. If it isn't "news you can use," if it doesn't affect your life, it can't possibly be important. It's the way most Americans understand their world. What a small-minded world it is becoming.
http://www.news-journalonline.com/03ColEssays.htm
Transatlantic business relations risk being strained and billions of dollars of tourism revenue squandered unless the US delays tough new entry requirements to be introduced this year, a UK business leader has warned.
Sir Digby Jones, director-general of the Confederation of British Industry, said US demands for visitors to hold passports containing biometric information would cause “enormous problems” for UK business.
The UK is one of several countries expected to miss an October 26 deadline to start issuing the high-tech passports, which include a digital photo embedded with a chip.
Only six European countries Belgium, Germany, Austria, Finland, Sweden and Luxembourg are expected to meet the deadline. People with passports issued after the deadline without biometric features will need a visa to enter the US.
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/1c7afad8-a614-11d9-b67b-00000e2511c8.html
[This is a hedge for Tony Blair. In the Spain case, Aznar’s defeat was blamed on the train bombings, even though all the polls showed he was going to lose anyway, and even though upwards of 100% of the population opposed his decision to send troops to invade Iraq.
The nonsense claim that stupid and spineless Spanish voters were stampeded into voting Aznar out of office based on the bombing of a couple of trains was just a face saving cover to keep Aznar from being relegated tot he political trash heap.
If things look like they aren’t going Blair’s way by election day I would not be surprised to see something put together to maintain his politicla credibility ven after he is thrown out of office.
That way he can ooze back in via some kind of EU political hack job or some such thing.]
IRISH terrorists may be planning a new offensive on mainland Britain as the General Election nears, according to a leaked government security warning.
Senior civil servants have been alerted to the possibility of strikes by dissident republican groups such as the Real IRA, which was responsible for the Omagh bomb outrage in 1998 which killed 29 people.
http://news.scotsman.com/politics.cfm?id=363392005
The results revealed these butterflies had two distinct types of flight pattern: fast, straight movement and slower, non-linear movement.
During straight flight, the butterflies zipped along at about 2.9 m/s. During the slower type of flight, the insects foraged for nectar from flowers and flew in loops, with a speed averaging 1.6 m/s.
Flying in loops seems to perform an orientation function, helping the insects identify flowers or hibernation spots.
The butterflies were able to identify and avoid unsuitable habitats such as dense trees from up to 200m away. They seem able to identify suitable foraging habitats from about 100m away.
http://www.rense.com/general63/butterflies.htm
[I would call this unexpectedly successful.
It’s funny how people in other countries are always calling us racists and biots and whatever, and yet if you go to their own countries racism and bigotry are literally a thousand times more prevalent. Like if you go tot he Middle East most countries won’t even et you bring a Bible into the country, even for your own persona use. And yet people from those same countries will come here and moan and complain if we fall all over each other to make accomodations for them.]
The number of Mexican migrants trying to sneak into the United States through the Arizona border has dropped by half since hundreds of American civilians began guarding the area earlier this week, say Mexican officials assigned to protect their citizens.
But that doesn't mean the migrants have given up. Most remain determined to enter the United States and say they will simply find other places to cross.
....
But in Mexico and Central America, the volunteers are seen as ``hunters of illegals'' or racists.
``They have a right to patrol their border, but I only want to cross to find work,'' said Vidal Sanchez, a 26-year-old farmer who was walking through Sonora's scrub-covered desert Tuesday.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4918147,00.html
Often red-faced with emotion and proclaiming his innocence to the end, white supremacist Matthew Hale cited the “Star-Spangled Banner,” cried, yelled and pounded his fist in a two-hour courtroom speech this morning, desperately urging a judge not to send him away to “die in a hole.”
But his words failed to sway U.S. District Judge James Moody, who imposed a 40-year sentence — the maximum possible — for soliciting someone to murder U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow, a retaliatory move that Moody said “strikes at the very core of our system of government.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/hale06.html
[Walmart is the premier practioner of what I refer to as the “privatization of profit/socialization of cost” approach to doing business.]
Maryland lawmakers yesterday approved legislation that would effectively require Wal-Mart to boost spending on health care, a direct legislative thrust against a corporate giant that is already on the defensive on many fronts nationwide.
"We're looking for responsible businesses to ante up . . . and provide adequate health care," said Sen. Thomas M. Middleton (D-Charles), the Finance Committee chairman, as the Senate approved the measure with a majority wide enough to survive an anticipated veto. A similar bill has cleared the House of Delegates, and legislators expect to reconcile their differences easily.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28219-2005Apr5.html?referrer=emailarticle
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Their dissent, prepared by Democrats in the House, is an eight-page explanation of why they feel investigating Gannon’s credentialing was warranted, citing preferential treatment and issues of security
http://rawstory.com/exclusives/byrne/democrats_dissent_gannon_405.htm
[This would be something to keep in mind if we get a Nigeria pope.]
That corruption is a way of life in Nigeria is not contestable. That corruption has eaten not just deep but completely the national fabric is also not in doubt. That every Nigerian is viewed as a potential rogue by the outside world is also not in doubt. That Nigeria has made 'appreciable' improvement from being the second most corrupt nation in world to the third most corrupt, going by Transparency International (TI's) rating is also a common knowledge.
Although, I still believe that if there is any country that is more corrupt than Nigeria then that country is either situated in hell or somewhere very near it.
Is there any other country in the world where every facet of their country is corrupt; where both religious and political leaders are corrupt
http://allafrica.com/stories/200504050436.html
Words may not come easily to them but it appears the communication barrier between mankind and our nearest animal relatives may be narrower than we thought. Scientists have found that, when chimpanzees want to make a point, the message is loud and clear.
Chimps are mankind's closest relations in the animal kingdom, sharing 95 per cent of our DNA and many of our characteristics - including the ambition and aggression which leads to arguments and occasional violence. They may have some of our basic communication skills too.
After two years of research, psychologists from the University of St Andrews believe that subtle differences in vocalisations may have been developed to provide important clues for nearby allies. Led by a PhD student, Katie Slocombe, the research team found that chimpanzees scream differently depending on whether they are the aggressor or the victim and these calls are intended to tell nearby allies and relatives about the identity and social role of the group members involved in a fight.
http://www.rense.com/general63/apes.htm
[There are two bad things about this. One is the obvious opportunity for abuse. There was actually an episode of Star Trek the Next Generation where Georgi was tortured and brainwing something like this.
The other probs if you read to the end, Sony de anything that will do this. They were just awarded a patent based on an idea they hda that might at some point in the future actuallybe implemented.
What if way back when, someone had gotten on a patent on a method of representing spoken words visually through the use of standardized symbols? We’d all be paying royalties everytime we signed our own names.]
If you think video games are engrossing now, just wait: PlayStation maker Sony Corp (SNE.N). has been granted a patent for beaming sensory information directly into the brain.
The technique could one day be used to create videogames in which you can smell, taste, and touch, or to help people who are blind or deaf.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=581&e=1&u=/nm/20050406/tc_nm/tech_sony_brain_dc
[“it wasn’t planned”, “it isn’t political”. “Fat, rich, and spoiled Westerners”. This is the definition of propaganda.
What pray tell, do these thin, poor, and deprived Easterners hope to have happen in their future? Obviously they want to get up to the same level as the fat spoiled westerners they are currently disparaging.]
Around the world, a quiet revolution is taking place. It wasn't planned, it isn't political. But it is steadily marching, some might say leaping along, and-even if we wanted to-it can't be stopped. The revolution's name is offshoring, and while the concept is not new-manufacturing jobs have been moved to countries such as China and Mexico for years-what is different of late is the huge number of white-collar jobs that are being relocated abroad, and at a tempo and scale never witnessed before.
And it's just starting. Over the next decade, offshoring will knock millions of white-collar Americans and Europeans out of work, blowing a hole in the middle class from Los Angeles to London, from Boston to Berlin, from Toledo to Tokyo, from Austin to Amsterdam.
....
This is the next wave of globalization, and it is shifting work to dollar-a-day factory workers and dollar-an-hour white collar workers in Asia. Alarm bells should be ringing for Americans and, even louder for Europeans: Fat, rich and spoiled Westerners have for several generations been shielded from workplace competition with the world's most populous nations.
http://www.feer.com/articles1/2005/0503/free/p019.html
[This isn’t really a surprise. Cameras don’t do anything for safety. They are all about surveillance and control.
Back in the days of Tiananmen Square, the CHinese government used its super-sophisticated for the time traffic camera system to get photos of the people they regarded as ringleaders of the pro-democracy movement, so they could get those photos out to the relevant people to get those leaders rounded up and put in jail.
You better beleive it could hapen here. Everytime I leave the house there is another camera on the road. You really think they’re all for “Safety”?]
LAST YEAR legislators in Virginia did something every member of the New Hampshire House should carefully consider today. They ended Virginiaís 10-year experiment with red-light cameras. They did it for two reasons: safety and civil rights.
ìCrash statistics from intersections in four Northern Virginia jurisdictions, with numbers from before and after the cameras were installed, showed that crashes at those intersections actually rose after the cameras were turned on,î The Washington Post reported last weekend. ìIn Fairfax County, the research council study found, rear-end crashes increased 50 to 71 percent at intersections with cameras.î
While the cameras did reduce side-impact crashes, they increased rear-end crashes, creating a net rise in accidents at intersections. Furthermore, Fairfax County found that simply keeping the yellow light on for another 1.5 seconds reduced side-impact crashes more sharply than red-light cameras did.
...
f a police officer pulls you over for running a red light, you are presumed innocent. But if a camera snaps a photo of your car running a red light, you will be presumed guilty. It is jaw-dropping that the Republican-led New Hampshire House of Representatives would even consider passing a bill (sponsored by a Concord Democrat) that would do this.
http://www.theunionleader.com/articles_showa.html?article=52932
[Watch for a sudden increase in people feeling threatened.]
The measure essentially extends a right Floridians already have in their home or car. Under present law, however, people attacked anywhere else are supposed to do what they can to avoid escalating the situation and can use deadly force only after they've tried to retreat.
"I'm sorry, people, but if I'm attacked I shouldn't have a duty to retreat," said the bill's sponsor, state Rep. Dennis Baxley. "That's a good way to get shot in the back."
Baxley said that if people have the clear right to defend themselves without having to worry about legal consequences, criminals will think twice.
Opponents feared the bill would make Florida resemble the wild West, but defenders say it is no different from what most other states allow in laws governing self-defense.
The bill says a person has "the right to stand his or her ground and meet force with force, including deadly force if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to do so, to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/04/05/deadly.force.ap/index.html
When literature or history teachers assign their readings, they generally ask students how they "relate" to the text. It's a well-intentioned consequence of instant gratification: Students must be kept interested at all times. It's also one of the most detrimental things teachers do to their students. Rather than let a text broaden the student's perspective, asking her to "relate" narrows the purpose of the text to whatever value the student gives it. Rather than let the text challenge the student's biases, the student uses the text to reinforce existing beliefs or worse -- to dismiss the book as incomprehensible, irrelevant or pointless when relating to it proves impossible.
As Diane Ravitch, the education historian and professor put it, "How utterly vapid to expect that adolescents want to see themselves in everything they read, as if they have no capacity to imagine worlds that extend beyond their own limited experience, as if they will be emotionally undone by learning about the world as it is. How tedious it is for young people to find that school is an exercise in narcissism rather than an opportunity to discover the mysteries of time, space, and human nature."
The method could be dismissed as a passing fad in schools desperate to hold on to students who'd rather be elsewhere. But it's also the norm in college humanities departments, where critical skills receive their last rites, and it's the way most news and information is packaged to mass audiences. If it isn't "news you can use," if it doesn't affect your life, it can't possibly be important. It's the way most Americans understand their world. What a small-minded world it is becoming.
http://www.news-journalonline.com/03ColEssays.htm
Transatlantic business relations risk being strained and billions of dollars of tourism revenue squandered unless the US delays tough new entry requirements to be introduced this year, a UK business leader has warned.
Sir Digby Jones, director-general of the Confederation of British Industry, said US demands for visitors to hold passports containing biometric information would cause “enormous problems” for UK business.
The UK is one of several countries expected to miss an October 26 deadline to start issuing the high-tech passports, which include a digital photo embedded with a chip.
Only six European countries Belgium, Germany, Austria, Finland, Sweden and Luxembourg are expected to meet the deadline. People with passports issued after the deadline without biometric features will need a visa to enter the US.
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/1c7afad8-a614-11d9-b67b-00000e2511c8.html
[This is a hedge for Tony Blair. In the Spain case, Aznar’s defeat was blamed on the train bombings, even though all the polls showed he was going to lose anyway, and even though upwards of 100% of the population opposed his decision to send troops to invade Iraq.
The nonsense claim that stupid and spineless Spanish voters were stampeded into voting Aznar out of office based on the bombing of a couple of trains was just a face saving cover to keep Aznar from being relegated tot he political trash heap.
If things look like they aren’t going Blair’s way by election day I would not be surprised to see something put together to maintain his politicla credibility ven after he is thrown out of office.
That way he can ooze back in via some kind of EU political hack job or some such thing.]
IRISH terrorists may be planning a new offensive on mainland Britain as the General Election nears, according to a leaked government security warning.
Senior civil servants have been alerted to the possibility of strikes by dissident republican groups such as the Real IRA, which was responsible for the Omagh bomb outrage in 1998 which killed 29 people.
http://news.scotsman.com/politics.cfm?id=363392005
The results revealed these butterflies had two distinct types of flight pattern: fast, straight movement and slower, non-linear movement.
During straight flight, the butterflies zipped along at about 2.9 m/s. During the slower type of flight, the insects foraged for nectar from flowers and flew in loops, with a speed averaging 1.6 m/s.
Flying in loops seems to perform an orientation function, helping the insects identify flowers or hibernation spots.
The butterflies were able to identify and avoid unsuitable habitats such as dense trees from up to 200m away. They seem able to identify suitable foraging habitats from about 100m away.
http://www.rense.com/general63/butterflies.htm
[I would call this unexpectedly successful.
It’s funny how people in other countries are always calling us racists and biots and whatever, and yet if you go to their own countries racism and bigotry are literally a thousand times more prevalent. Like if you go tot he Middle East most countries won’t even et you bring a Bible into the country, even for your own persona use. And yet people from those same countries will come here and moan and complain if we fall all over each other to make accomodations for them.]
The number of Mexican migrants trying to sneak into the United States through the Arizona border has dropped by half since hundreds of American civilians began guarding the area earlier this week, say Mexican officials assigned to protect their citizens.
But that doesn't mean the migrants have given up. Most remain determined to enter the United States and say they will simply find other places to cross.
....
But in Mexico and Central America, the volunteers are seen as ``hunters of illegals'' or racists.
``They have a right to patrol their border, but I only want to cross to find work,'' said Vidal Sanchez, a 26-year-old farmer who was walking through Sonora's scrub-covered desert Tuesday.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4918147,00.html
Often red-faced with emotion and proclaiming his innocence to the end, white supremacist Matthew Hale cited the “Star-Spangled Banner,” cried, yelled and pounded his fist in a two-hour courtroom speech this morning, desperately urging a judge not to send him away to “die in a hole.”
But his words failed to sway U.S. District Judge James Moody, who imposed a 40-year sentence — the maximum possible — for soliciting someone to murder U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow, a retaliatory move that Moody said “strikes at the very core of our system of government.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/hale06.html
[Walmart is the premier practioner of what I refer to as the “privatization of profit/socialization of cost” approach to doing business.]
Maryland lawmakers yesterday approved legislation that would effectively require Wal-Mart to boost spending on health care, a direct legislative thrust against a corporate giant that is already on the defensive on many fronts nationwide.
"We're looking for responsible businesses to ante up . . . and provide adequate health care," said Sen. Thomas M. Middleton (D-Charles), the Finance Committee chairman, as the Senate approved the measure with a majority wide enough to survive an anticipated veto. A similar bill has cleared the House of Delegates, and legislators expect to reconcile their differences easily.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28219-2005Apr5.html?referrer=emailarticle
posted by abu nakba at 4/06/2005 08:47:00 PM
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