| 05.Feb.2009 https://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/natur/0,1518,druck-605514,00.html "Die tropischen Ökosysteme Südamerikas waren vor 60 Millionen Jahren überraschend anders", sagt Paläontologe Bloch. "Es war zwar auch Regenwald wie heute, aber es war noch heißer, und die kaltblütigen Reptilien waren wesentlich größer." 04.Feb.2009 Tote Zivilisten in Afghanistan: Karsai greift westliche Verbündete an (Politik) 20090204 https://rawstory.com/rawstory2.new/admin/story-templates/rss.html IBM invites laid-off U.S. employees to work in India Efficiently Producing Quantum Dots - kdawson "The Edmonton Journal is reporting on the University of Alberta's National Institute for Nanotechnology's recent invention of a new method to produce quantum dots — what are currently the world's smallest quantum dots, possibly allowing for startling increases in the efficiency of semiconductor-based equipment. 'Roughly speaking, we predict there could be a 1,000-time reduction in power consumption with electronic computers built in this new way,' said Robert Wolkow, a physicist at the University of Alberta and leader of the team behind the breakthrough. Read the article for a description of the wave-like phenomenon employed by Wolkow's team to accomplish a vastly lower power consumption during the transfer of electrons." https://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/8jN0ULeTWWY/article.pl Green news harvest: Credit crisis slams wind, solar The freeze in financing and tax-based incentives is hitting renewable energy project developers and manufacturers hard. The U.K., meanwhile, makes the case for biogas. https://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-10156436-54.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5 'Human Terrain' Contractor Guilty of Manslaughter - Noah Schachtman A member of the Army's controversial social science project pleads guilty to manslaughter in a plea agreement that will spare him life in prison. Don Ayala still faces the possibility of 15 years for a revenge killing in Afghanistan. https://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~3/sA1rDei22K4/human-terrain-c.html ATM Megaheists Reach Epidemic Levels - Kevin Poulsen How do you squeeze $9 million from a scant 100 cloned debit cards? By removing the withdrawal limits and sending a army of crooks to ATMs around the world. The FBI is investigating what may be the biggest ATM breach in history, which unfolded in just one day last November. https://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~3/atkKlFpdHIk/atm.html 'Baby boomers' hit by sex cancers - Babies born in the 1950s and 1960s are experiencing a surge in "sexually-transmitted" cancers, say researchers. https://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7867884.stm Fuel help 'not effective enough' Help for those struggling with energy bills must be better targeted to prevent more people slipping into fuel poverty, a report says. https://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7868663.stm 'Too many' mentally ill in jails Thousands of people with mental health problems are ending up in jail rather than getting treatment, a charity says. https://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7867398.stm Facebook clocks fifth birthday In five short years, Facebook has helped a global change in the way people keep in touch with one another. https://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7868403.stm Parents urged to 'teach' cookery Parents must take more responsibility for teaching their children how to cook, the School Secretary Ed Balls says. https://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7869746.stm PM's jobs pledge 'a huge mistake' Gordon Brown should apologise for pledging "British jobs for British workers" after wildcat strikes spread across the UK, say the Conservatives. https://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7870357.stm Hamleys investor seeks protection Icelandic group Baugur, which owns stakes in Hamleys and House of Fraser, applies for protection from its creditors. https://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7869342.stm Kyrgyzstan moves to shut US base Kyrgyzstan's government submits a decree to parliament for the closure of a key US air base in the Central Asian state. https://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7868586.stm Obama unveils executive pay cap US President Barack Obama announces a $500,000 limit on executive pay at US firms that needs government aid. https://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7870638.stm Salt running out as schools shut As hundreds of schools in Wales are expected to close for a fourth day, a county is told by road salt suppliers there is no more. https://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/7868643.stm World depression claim 'a slip' Gordon Brown's comment suggesting he thinks the world is in a depression was a slip of the tongue, his spokesman says. https://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7869748.stm 'Holocaust bishop' told to recant The Vatican orders a bishop to recant his views denying the Holocaust if he wants to serve in the Roman Catholic Church. https://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7869995.stm Ministers face torture pressure The UK government faces questions over whether it was complicit in the torture of a British resident held by the US. https://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7870049.stm Miner BHP sees profits fall 25% Mining giant BHP Billiton sees its half-year profits fall by a quarter, as worldwide demand for metals has declined. https://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7868732.stm Obama wants to avoid 'trade war' US President Barack Obama says he wants to avoid measures which would signal protectionism or spark a trade war. https://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7868799.stm Pulse rate clue to heart attacks Simply measuring a woman's resting heart rate can predict her likelihood of having a coronary, say US researchers. https://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7867304.stm Hamleys investor seeks protection The Icelandic group Baugur, which owns Hamleys and House of Fraser, applies for a credit moratorium. https://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7869342.stm Rapid Thinking Makes People Happy Lousy day? Don’t try to think happy thoughts--just think fast. A new study shows that accelerated thinking can improve your mood. In six experiments, researchers at Princeton and Harvard universities made research participants think quickly by having them generate as many problem-solving ideas (even bad ones) as possible in 10 minutes, read a series of ideas on a computer screen at a brisk pace or watch an I Love Lucy video clip on fast-forward. Other participants performed similar tasks at a relaxed speed. Results suggested that thinking fast made participants feel more elated, creative and, to a lesser degree, energetic and powerful. Activities that promote fast thinking, then, such as whipping through an easy crossword puzzle or brain-storming quickly about an idea, can boost energy and mood, says psychologist Emily Pronin, the study’s lead author. https://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=abf8c3368712ed47fc590d1e411574f2 Oldest Animal Fossil Ever Discovered - Brandon Keim Trace fossils of sponges more than 635 million years old have turned up in an oil field in Oman. They push back the earliest evidence of higher life by at least 50 million years and the discovery has implications for determining the earliest common ancestor of all animals. https://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~3/0dvDpsWzZhk/earliestanimal.html Trichoplax What we know for sure is that in Europe and America there has been resurgence in popularity of the treatment over the past 20 years. It is increasing in popularity because it works. The problem is the practice of ear candling is exposed to accusations of quackery because of the myths and outright fraud surrounding the treatment. Part of the problem is the references to a history for which there is no evidence. What we know for sure is that in Europe and America there has been resurgence in popularity of the treatment over the past 20 years. It is increasing in popularity because it works. The problem is the practice of ear candling is exposed to accusations of quackery because of the myths and outright fraud surrounding the treatment. Part of the problem is the references to a history for which there is no evidence. What we know for sure is that in Europe and America there has been resurgence in popularity of the treatment over the past 20 years. It is increasing in popularity because it works. The problem is the practice of ear candling is exposed to accusations of quackery because of the myths and outright fraud surrounding the treatment. Part of the problem is the references to a history for which there is no evidence. Die durchschnittliche Minimaltem- peratur in Europa im Winter ist in den Jahren von 00.000.1955-00.000.1998 um bis zu ein Grad Celsius angestiegen, die durchschnittliche Maximaltemperatur im Sommer um bis zu zwei Grad, Das zeigt eine Berechnung der Complutense Universidad in Madrid. https://www.scienzz.de/ticker/art10123.html Posted by at 10:37 PM University of Texas taxonomist David Hillis called placozoa "among the most interesting animals that almost no one has ever heard about," but was less enthusiastic about the conclusion, which he said "represents a fine distinction in how we reconstruct the ancestral animal." "If you look at cold-blooded animals and their distribution on the planet today, the large ones are in the tropics, where it's hottest, and they become smaller the farther away they are from the equator," he said. Based on the snake's size, the team was able to calculate that the mean annual temperature at equatorial South America 60 million years ago would have been about 91 degrees Fahrenheit, about 10 degrees warmer than today, Bloch said. The presence of outsized snakes and turtles shows that even 60 million years ago the foundations of the modern Amazonian tropical ecosystem were in place, he said. That little factoid may go some ways toward validating my pet theory that the younger Ignatius may have been secretly recruited into a profession other than journalism. If I were more paranoid, I could patch together a cute little theory based on the fact that Liberty attack occurred on the watch of the elder Ignatius. Permalink 04.Feb.2009 Soziale Netzwerke: MySpace identifiziert 90.000 Sex-Täter (Netzwelt Die Ankündigung Moskaus kommt überraschend: Nur einen Tag zuvor hatte Kirgisien angekündigt, dass der dem Afghanistan-Nachschub dienende US-Stützpunkt Manas in dem Land geschlossen werden soll. Mail-System mit Nachschlüssel? 00.000.2008 -im Herbst-Die Pläne für De-Mail waren ventiliert worden. Damals waren Bedenken aufgekommen, dass mit dem Innenministerium quasi der Bock zum Gärtner gemacht werde, wenn es darum gehe, die Integrität von E-Mail-Kommunikation zu sichern: Innenminister Wolfgang Schäuble hatte sich in den letzten Jahren vehement für das Recht des Staates, Bürger per Online-Trojaner auszuforschen, eingesetzt und gilt auch als großer Freund der Vorratsdatenspeicherung. Seinen Plänen waren durch das Bundesverfassungsgericht Grenzen gesetzt worden. Was davon übrig blieb, floss in das BKA-Gesetz und die einschränkenden Regeln für Online-Durchsuchungen ein. Im Zusammenhang mit der De-Mail hatten Datenschützer die Befürchtung geäußert, deren Registrierungs- und Anmeldeverfahren könne dazu missbraucht werden, Online-Trojaner einzuschleusen. Die Organisatoren des De-Mail-Systems hatten solche Bedenken als übertrieben von sich gewiesen. Kritik hatte es auch daran gegeben, dass mit Deutscher Telekom, Deutscher Post und T-Systems gleich mehrere ehemalige Staatsbetriebe an der Umsetzung beteiligt wurden, während große Konkurrenten der ehemaligen Monopolisten ausgeschlossen wurden. Einkaufen, Handel und Behördengänge im Internet seien mittlerweile alltäglich. Der Staat will Post-Wächter werden Er regelt die besonderen Sicherheitsanforderungen, die dazu führen sollen, dass die elektronische Post künftig auch bei vertraulichen oder amtlichen Dokumenten so sicher und zuverlässig wird wie Papierpost. "Per 'De-Mail' sollen in Deutschland ab 2010 Nachrichten und Dokumente rechtssicher, zuverlässig und geschützt vor Spam über das Internet versendet werden können", meldete das Innenministerium. "Mit diesem international vorbildlichen Projekt übernimmt Deutschland eine Vorreiterrolle in der elektronischen Geschäftswelt." Steve Jones glaubt, dass es soweit gar nicht kommen wird - weil der Mensch sich selbst ein Ende setzen wird. "In einer Million Jahren, ja schon in tausend wird der Mensch wieder Kohlenstoff sein", lautet seine Prognose. "Weil er dumm ist. Und auch Gentechnik wird ihm nicht helfen." "Und die Selektion war ausgelöst durch Umweltveränderungen." Es war die Zeit, in der Homo sapiens Afrika verließ und nach Europa und Asien vordrang. Neue Kontinente, neue Umweltbedingungen und damit neue, starke Selektionskräfte und genetische Drift wirkten auf ihn ein. Die Folge war, dass die Uhr der Evolution schneller tickte. The number two man at BND, Rainer Kesselring , son of the Luftwaffe general who bombed Belgrade (IN 290) in World War Two, oversaw the operation and arranged ... www.eroj.org/urbiorbi/Yugoslavia/kla.htm 00.000.1964-00.000.1998 KESSELRING RAINER. Germany 00.000.1978 Turkey. Intelligence (Paris) 1997-07- 14 (31); Intelligence (Paris) 1998-09-07 (25); Intelligence Newsletter ... www.namebase.org/xkel/Rainer-Kesselring.html Rewriting Germany's Nazi Past His son, RAINER KESSELRING , was trusted by democratic Germany to become the head of BND. (like there was no other able German suiatable for ... www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1406305/posts Bundesnachrichtendienst - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 7, Rainer Kesselring · 18.Jun.1996. 8, Rudolf Adam (b. 1948), 00.Jul.2001, 31.Mar.2004. 9, Werner Schowe (b. 1944), military affairs VP, 00.Dec.2003 ... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundesnachrichtendienst .. deutsche Zentrale in Tokyo und Hong Kong, RAINER KESSELRING sagt: “Eine seiner. ersten Aufgaben: Erstellung einer Datenbasis über die asiatischen Märkte. www.bth.se/fou/Forskinfo.nsf/all/b4f82423b3f5cb02c125707400512e9f/$file/solbergsoilen.pdf Bundesnachrichtendienst - Power-oldie Lexikon 7, Rainer Kesselring · 18. Juni 1996 · September 1998. 8, Rudolf Adam (* 1948), Juli 2001 · 31. März 2004. 9, Werner Schowe (* 1944), Vizepräsident mil. ... lexikon.power-oldie.com/Bundesnachrichtendienst Bundesnachrichtendienst 7, Rainer Kesselring · 18. Juni 1996. 8, Rudolf Adam (* 1948), 2001 · 2004. 9, Werner Schowe (* 1944), Vizepräsident mil. ... articles.gourt.com/de/Bundesnachrichtendienst 00.000.1996 BND Chief Geiger's deputy, Rainer Kesselring , the son of the Nazi Luftwaffe general responsible for the bombing of Belgrade ... alfatomega.com/20080226.html 04.Feb.2009 Homo sapiens: Wir revolutionieren unsere Evolution (Wissenschaft) Für Aufregung sorgte erst am vergangenen Wochenende der Streik von mehr als 3000 Arbeitern in elf britischen Ölraffinerien und Kraftwerken in ganz Großbritannien. Die Arbeiter protestieren dagegen, dass für den Bau einer Entschwefelungsanlage keine Briten eingestellt werden, sondern Italiener und Portugiesen, weil diese für weniger Geld zu arbeiten bereit sind. Premierminister Gordon Brown kritisierte den Streik am Sonntag. Er verstehe die Sorgen der Menschen, aber "spontane Arbeitskämpfe seien nicht das Richtige", sagte er der BBC. Der chinesische Ministerpräsident Wen Jiabao warnte vor einer neuen Protektionismuswelle. Bundeskanzlerin Merkel forderte Obama telefonisch auf, keine protektionistischen Signale zu setzen. Was die Protestierenden allerdings verschweigen: Auch sie selbst greifen im Angesicht der Krise längst auf staatliche Schutzprogramme zurück. 04.Feb.2009 Online-Ortungsdienst Latitude: Google weiß, wo du bist (Netzwelt) 04.Feb.2009 Papst-Machtwort: Vatikan fordert Holocaust-Leugner Williamson zum Widerruf auf (Panorama) 04.Feb.2009 Banken-Verstaatlichung: Schäuble sieht Verfassungsprobleme (Wirtschaft) 04.Feb.2009 Piusbrüder-Streit: Papst-Bruder greift Merkel an (Politik 21. Jahrhundert in Richtung "Post-Antibiotika-Ära" bewegen. Davor hatte Mitchell Cohen, Direktor an den US-Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, der größten Infektionsbehörde der Welt in Atlanta, schon vor 16 Jahren gewarnt. 00.000.2005 haben sich nach Angaben des Magazins "Technology Review" drei Millionen Europäer mit resistenten Keimen infiziert, 50.000 sollen daran gestorben sein. "Grobe Schätzungen haben ergeben, dass weltweit mehr Menschen an Infektionskrankheiten durch resistente Bakterien sterben als an Aids", sagt Uwe Frank, Klinischer Mikrobiologe am Institut für Umweltmedizin an der Universität Freiburg. 00.000.2007 -Die Immunschwächekrankheit forderte zwei Millionen Todesopfer. Dies ist nach Meinung der Wissenschaftler ein Beleg dafür, dass vom eigentlichen DNA-Code unabhängige Erbinformationen existieren, die im Gegensatz zur DNA im Laufe des Lebens durch die Umwelt beeinflusst werden können. Das widerspricht der klassischen Genetik. Mäuse mit einem genetisch bedingten Gedächtnisdefekt erben nicht nur den DNA-Fehler, sondern auch, was die Eltern gelernt haben. Mit dieser Beobachtung ist US-Forschern ein spektakulärer Nachweis der sogenannten epigenetischen Vererbung gelungen: Nicht nur die von Geburt an feststehende DNA-Sequenz wird vererbt, sondern auch Eigenschaften, die im Lauf des Lebens durch Umwelteinflüsse entstehen. Der Effekt zeigte sich sowohl im Verhalten der Tiere als auch in physiologischen Untersuchungen ihrer Gehirnzellen, schreiben die Forscher um Junko Arai von der Tufts University in Boston im Fachmagazin "Journal of Neuroscience" (Bd. 29, S. 1496). 04.Feb.2009 Epigenetik: Mütter können Erfahrungen vererben (Wissenschaft) Peking - China will die Atomkraft deutlich ausbauen. Bis zum Jahr 2020 sollen 70 Gigawatt Strom mit Hilfe von Kernreaktoren produziert werden - genug, um 70 Städte von der Größe San Franciscos zu versorgen. Dies berichten staatliche chinesische Medien unter Berufung auf die Nationale Energiebehörde. Bislang war ein Ausbau auf 40 Gigawatt Atomstrom bis 2020 geplant. Zur Erinnerung für alle, die sich nicht regelmäßig mit so großen Zahlen beschäftigen müssen: Ein Flop/s ist eine Fließkommaberechnung pro Sekunde, eine übliche Einheit zur Einschätzung der Rechenleistung von Computern. Ein Petaflop/s allerdings sind eine Billiarde, mithin 1000 Billionen, solcher Berechnungen, eine Zahl mit 15 Nullen. Die Nachrichtenagentur Reuters rechnet vor, dass dies der Leistungsfähigkeit von zwei Millionen handelsüblichen Notebooks entspricht. Dass eine solch enorme Kapazität nicht für Gehaltsabrechnungen genutzt wird, dürfte klar sein. Und so ist denn auch nicht irgendeine Versicherung oder Bank, sondern das Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory IBMs Auftraggeber für den Bau von Sequoia. Ein korrodierendes Nukleararsenal Eine neue Studie von US-amerikanischen Forschern um Robert Lanza im Journal " Cloning and Stem Cells" stellt den Nutzen von Chimären nun in Frage. Lanza und seine Kollegen hatten untersucht, ob die tierischen Eizellen das menschliche Erbgut tatsächlich wie gewünscht reaktivierten, so dass die begehrten Alleskönner-Stammzellen entstehen. Das Ergebnis war ernüchternd: "Anstatt die richtigen Gene anzuschalten, stellte sich heraus, dass die tierischen Eizellen sie ausschalteten", sagte Lanza. Er wird neben Verteidigungsminister Robert Gates und Verkehrsminister Ray LaHood der dritte Vertreter der Oppositionspartei in der neuen US-Regierung sein. An der raschen Bestätigung Greggs durch den US-Senat besteht kein Zweifel. Er werde die Verantwortung übernehmen und sicherstellen, dass so etwas nicht mehr passiere, sagte Obama. "Ich möchte an das amerikanische Volk nicht die Botschaft aussenden, dass es zweierlei Standards gibt - einen für mächtige Menschen und einen für normale Leute, die jeden Tag arbeiten und ihre Steuern bezahlen", sagte Obama dem US-Sender NBC. 04.Feb.2009 Stromlücke: China plant massenweise neue Atomkraftwerke (Wirtschaft) 04.Feb.2009 Supercomputer: IBM baut den Über-Rechner (Netzwelt) 04.Feb.2009 Stammzellforschung: Neue Studie nährt Zweifel an Mensch-Tier-Embryonen (Wissenschaft) The Palestinian Authority has recognized the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court in a move aimed at allowing an investigation of possible war crimes during the recent Gaza conflict, the court said. Google Privacy Counsel Facing Criminal Charges - kdawson ProfJonathan writes "According to a story in the IAPP's Privacy Advisor, Google's Paris-based global privacy counsel, Peter Fleischer, is facing criminal charges in Italy for defamation based upon a user's posting of a video to Google Video. Mr. Fleischer was on his way to the University of Milan for a speaking engagement when he was met by Italian law enforcement officials. As with the 00.000.1997 case of Compuserve's Felix Somm and the 00.000.2006 arrest in Texas of BetOnSportsUK's CEO during a layover on a trip to Costa Rica, this case once again highlights the risks faced by executives and employees of online companies whose activities may be legal and protected in their own countries, but illegal elsewhere in the world. Troubling, and worth watching." https://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/ybDGTbgSGPw/article.pl US Becomes Top Wind Producer; Solar Next - kdawson SpuriousLogic sends along a SciAm piece that begins, "The United States overtook Germany as the biggest producer of wind power last year, new figures showed, and will likely take the lead in solar power this year, analysts said on Monday. Even before an expected 'Obama bounce' from a new President who has vowed to boost clean energy, US wind power capacity surged 50 % last year to 25 gigwatts — enough to power more than five million homes." https://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/cbBL_qpEyk0/article.pl IBM Building 20 Petaflop Computer For the US Gov't - timothy eldavojohn writes "When it's built, 'Sequoia' will outshine every super computer on the top 500 list today. The specs on this 96 rack beast are a bit hard to comprehend as it consists of 1.6 million processors and some 1.6TB of memory. That's 1.6 million processors — not cores. Its purpose? Primarily to keep track of nuclear waste & simulate explosions of nuclear munitions, but also for research into astronomy, energy, the human genome, and climate change. Hopefully the government uses this magnificent tool wisely when it gets it 00.000.2012." https://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/dyggIYupANI/article.pl Jack Thompson Attacks DoD, ESA, GTA With Utah Bill - Soulskill eldavojohn writes "Delusional disbarred Miami attorney Jack Thompson claims to have a bill in the state of Utah that targets retailers and entire industries with the Truth in Advertising Law. The best part of his rant: 'Our military appropriately uses violent video games a) to suppress the inhibition to kill of new recruits, and b) to teach killing scenarios. Games have the same effect on civilian teens.' While GamePolitics couldn't find the bill on Utah's state site, they did receive a response from him claiming 'I have a sponsor and a bill, and [the video game] industry is in trouble.' For 00.000.2009 bills, there seems to be merely a bill enhancing the Truth in Advertising Law but does not contain any of Thompson's verbiage. Good 'ole Jack — always good for some laughs, but really he needs to give it up one of these days." https://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/jKPUZ7JY6FA/article.pl Rising Ocean Acidity Could Disorient Fish - Brandon Keim The continued increase in ocean acidity predicted to accompany the rise of atmospheric carbon dioxide may rob fish of their ability to smell, a sense that many species use to navigate. https://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~3/Er1-q-65eO8/rising-ocean-ac.html As Farhad Manjoo notes in True Enough: Learning to Live in a Post-Fact Society, if we argue about what a fact means, we're having a debate. If we argue about what the facts are, it's agnotological Armageddon, where reality dies screaming. Can we fight off these attempts to foster ignorance? Despite his fears about the Internet's combative culture, Proctor is optimistic. During last year's election, campaign-trail lies were quickly exposed via YouTube and transcripts. The Web makes secrets harder to keep. We need to fashion information tools that are designed to combat agnotological rot. Like Wikipedia: It encourages users to build real knowledge through consensus, and the result manages to (mostly) satisfy even people who hate each other's guts. Because the most important thing these days might just be knowing what we know. Clive Thompson on How More Info Leads to Less Knowledge https://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~3/y6pGl-qV6qg/st_thompson 03.Feb.1958 Silent Spring Seeks Its Voice - Randy Alfred 1958: Science writer Rachel Carson writes to The New Yorker editor E.B. White suggesting that he write an article about the danger of pesticides. White demurs, but suggests that Carson write the article. It's the genesis of Carson's pioneering book, Silent Spring. White wasn't throwing a Hail Mary pass to an unknown receiver on this play. Carson was already a successful scientist and author. She'd earned a master's degree in zoology from Johns Hopkins and worked for the Fish and Wildlife Service as an aquatic biologist and editor. She'd already written for The New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly and other publications, and authored a best-selling book. Carson wrote a letter to Reader's Digest in 1945 proposing an article on the destructive effects of spraying the pesticide DDT. The magazine wasn't interested. https://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~3/FcDDafZos2Q/dayintech_0203 Cyber warfare Nato defends itself against onslaught of hackers https://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7851292.stm Thousands 'have taken fake drugs' More than 30,000 packs of fake life saving drugs are unaccounted for, the BBC has learned. https://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7865246.stm Water - another global 'crisis'? As the world's population increases, temperatures rise and societies develop, will water become the new "credit crunch"? https://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7865603.stm Report shows wasted Iraq spending Waste and corruption in US attempts to reconstruct Iraq is revealed in a special inspector's report https://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7865840.stm Saudis issue overseas wanted list Saudi Arabia issues a list of 83 wanted militants living overseas, calling on them to return to their home country. https://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7866286.stm 03.Feb.2009 Steinmeiers Antrittsbesuch: Clinton preist deutschen Afghanistan-Einsatz (Politik) MARVIN HAASS , San Antonio contractor; co-owner of Peoples Savings in Llano, Texas; ... JERRY HOLLEY, Waco contractor; co-owner with Marvin Haass of Peoples ... www.the-boondocks.org/forum/index.php?t=msg&th=20669&start=0& Devine High School, Devine, Texas (TX) Lawrence Haass, 1962 - 1966. Marsha Haass, 1972 - 1976. Marvin Haass , 1958 - 1962. Marvin Haass , 1981 - 1994. Marvin Haass , 1990 - 1994 ... www.classmates.com/directory/school/Devine%20High%20School_2.jsp?org=2477 MORRIS and DOUG JAFFE, father-and-son businessmen from San Antonio, Morris is an associate of Marvin Haass and Carlos Marcello, the New Orleans Mafia boss. osdir.com/ml/culture.discuss.cia-drugs/2005-11/msg00008.html While you were distracted, Congress the Senate and: msg#00048 01.Nov.2005 ... MARVIN HAASS , San Antonio contractor; co-owner of Peoples Savings in Llano, Texas; associate of Morris Jaffe. osdir.com/ml/culture.discuss.cia-drugs/2005-11/msg00048.html Europe's cannibalism, on the other hand, was "distinctly asocial," Conklin writes, adding that human body parts were treated as merchandise: bought and sold for a profit. 00.000.1492 -when Pope Innocent VIII was on his deathbed, his doctors bled three boys and had the pope drink their blood. The boys died, and so did the pope. Was all of this cannibalism? Sugg even attributes religious significance to human flesh. For some Protestants, he writes, it served as a sort of substitute for the Eucharist, or the tasting of the body of Christ in Holy Communion. Some monks even cooked "a marmalade of sorts" from the blood of the dead. "It was about the intrinsic vitality of the human organism," says the historian. The assumption was that all organisms have a predetermined life span. If a body died in an unnatural way, the remainder of that person's life could be harvested, as it were -- hence the preference for the executed. In TomaHawk's early days, Di Ricco was involved with Tom Casey, founder of Audre ... www.madcowprod.com/12192005.html 25.Feb.1942 02:25 The Night They Came -Aton the morning of- thousands of residents didn't wake to the morning glare, but to the wail of sirens, warning that an attack on Southern California was in progress. posted by Prof. Hex 00.000.1864 -on Election Day- The Confederate agents would set a series of fires. By sunset, the Confederate flag would fly over City Hall. posted by Prof. Hex Den Angaben der Wissenschaftler zufolge nahmen die Weltmeere in den vergangenen 200 Jahren mindestens 30 % des vom Menschen verursachten Kohlendioxids auf. Der pH-Wert sinke dadurch etwa hundertmal schneller als in den vergangenen 650.000 Jahren - die Ozeane werden immer saurer. Es sei fraglich, ob die genetische Anpassung mariner Lebewesen mit dieser rasanten Entwicklung Schritt halten könne. Wenn die Versauerung ungebremst weitergehe, bedrohe das die Stabilität zahlreicher Populationen von Meereslebewesen, was schwere Folgen für die marine Artenvielfalt haben könne. Kürzlich hatten Timothy Wootton und seine Mitarbeiter von der University of Chicago untersucht, wie sich die zunehmende Versauerung auf die Artenvielfalt der Meere auswirkt. Demnach nahmen mit sinkenden pH-Werten die Häufigkeit und die Durchschnittsgröße bestimmter Miesmuscheln (Mytilus californianus, Mytilus trossulus) und des Rankenfußkrebses (Pollicipes polymerus) ab. Doch einige Fische wirken der Versauerung entgegen: Wie Forscher zu Beginn des Jahres in der Fachzeitschrift "Science" berichteten, produzieren Fische jedes Jahr 110 Millionen Tonnen Kalziumkarbonat und machen die Meere damit alkalischer. 00.Jun.2008 -im-Williamson hielt vor 14-jährigen Firmlingen in München eine Rede, für die ein islamischer Geistlicher wohl sofort unter Observation der bayerischen Staatsschützer gekommen wäre. Er prophezeite dem angehenden Pius-Nachwuchs: "Das Leben, so wie wir es heute kennen", gehe "dem Ende" entgegen. Viele hätten aber noch nicht verstanden, worum es bei den Traditionalisten gehe. Holocaust-Leugner Williamson hat weltweit - auch außerhalb von Predigten - seine antisemitische Gesinnung seit 20 Jahren immer wieder offengelegt. Genug Zeit für den Vatikan, sich davon zu distanzieren. Da das Außenministerium die ähnliche Attacke auf US-Präsident Bush im Dezember noch humorvoll kommentiert hatte, verteidigte Sprecherin Jiang Yu sowohl die jetzige Empörung als auch die damalige Reaktion im Fall von Bush als "angemessen". Zu dem Schuhwurf auf den US-Präsidenten hatte der damalige Sprecher vor ausländischen Journalisten gesagt: "Ich sollte nicht nur auf jene achten, die ihre Hand heben, sondern auch auf solche, die ihre Schnürsenkel aufschnüren." Den Satz wertete Chinas Staatsagentur Xinhua später als Beweis für den besonderen Humor des Leiters der Informationsabteilung des Außenministeriums. In Italien sind die Internetprovider - im Gegensatz zum Beispiel zu den USA - verantwortlich für Online-Inhalte Dritter. Google ficht das an. Ein Firmensprecher: "Wir sind nicht einverstanden damit, dass man ein Werkzeug dafür verantwortlich machen will, wie es verwendet wird." Hamburg - Es sind Worte, die einem den Atem stocken lassen - und inzwischen auch die deutsche Justiz beschäftigen. Da sitzt der britische Bischof Richard Williamson im respektablen Gewand seines Standes, einer schwarzen Soutane, hält kurz inne und formuliert das Unfassbare: Er glaube nicht, dass Millionen Juden in Gaskammern ermordet worden seien. Daschle ist kein Lobbyist im eigentlichen Sinne. Doch hat er in den vergangenen zwei Jahren mehr als 5,2 Millionen Dollar mit Beratung von Krankenversicherungen und Krankenhäusern sowie mit Tätigkeiten in der Energie- und Kommunikationswirtschaft verdient. 03.Feb.2009 US-Regierungsbildung: Obamas designierter Gesundheitsminister verzichtet auf das Amt (Politik) 03.Feb.2009 Mehdorn in der Krise: Bahn gibt Überprüfung aller Beschäftigten zu (Wirtschaft) 03.Feb.2009 Regierungsbildung in den USA: Obamas Haushaltswächterin gibt auf (Politik) 03.Feb.2009 Weltraum-Ambitionen: Iraner schicken Satelliten-Winzling ins All (Wissenschaft) 03.Feb.2009 Ferne Welten: Bisher kleinster Exoplanet entdeckt (Wissenschaft) 03.Feb.2009 Fund in New Mexico: Kakao war schon vor tausend Jahren populär (Wissenschaft) 03.Feb.2009 Angriff auf Ministerpräsident: China empört über Schuhwurf auf Wen (Politik) 03.Feb.2009 Katholische Hardliner: Wie die Piusbrüder gegen Juden, Muslime und Schwule hetzen (Panorama) 03.Feb.2009 Jahresbilanz: Motorola macht mehr als vier Milliarden Verlust (Wirtschaft) 03.Feb.2009 Holocaust-Debatte: Merkel fordert Papst zur Klarstellung auf (Politik) 03.Feb.2009 Mehdorn-Brief im Wortlaut: "Niemand ist bespitzelt worden" (Wirtschaft) A bruised reed sliall he not break, and the smoking flax he shall not quench. ... www.archive.org/stream/developmentofrel00phil/developmentofrel00phil_djvu.txt Der Ritus des Begräbnisses habe dazu gedient, den Toten zum aktiven Darsteller eines ewig währenden Theaterstücks zu machen, in dem sowohl die Toten als auch die Lebenden Rollen übernahmen: "Die Toten wurden ein Teil der Dichtung." 00.000.1904 wurde auf einem Bauernhof nahe der norwegischen Stadt Tønsberg das sogenannte Oseberg-Schiff gefunden, das eine Vorstellung von der vollen Pracht eines Wikingerbegräbnisses ermöglicht. Für seine Theorie hat Price Tausende von Wikingergräbern untersucht und zeitgenössische Berichte über ihre Begräbnisfeierlichkeiten studiert. "Bei ihnen galt dieses häufige Waschen als Eitelkeit – und war damit in den Augen der christlichen Angelsachsen eine Sünde", sagt Elizabeth Rowe, Dozentin für mittelalterliche skandinavische Geschichte, zu SPIEGEL ONLINE Unter diesen Umständen können sich Wellen kreuzen und überlagern - beste Voraussetzungen für die Entstehung von Freak Waves. In dieser sogenannten Kreuzsee haben sich schon zahlreiche Schiffsunglücke ereignet, wie Tamura und seine Kollegen bemerken. 00.Nov.2006 wurde eine Forschungsplattform bei Borkum von einem 20 bis 25 Meter hohen Kaventsmann getroffen. Auch der 00.000.2002 -im Herbst- Untergang des Tankers "Prestige" wurde auf Monsterwellen zurückgeführt. Das - und ein Strukturwandel in den Entscheidungswegen, "und zwar von Grund auf." Lehmann fordert Konsequenzen Jarass: Viele Umweltgesetze bestehen zwar auf dem Papier. Ob sie eingehalten werden, kann aber nur unzureichend überprüft werden. Man stelle sich ein innerstädtisches Parkverbot vor, das von keiner Politesse überprüft wird. Jarass: Die schiere Vielfalt. Es gibt rund zehntausend Gesetze und Verordnungen, hier den Durchblick zu wahren, fällt schwer. Auch der Vollzug ist mangelhaft. 03.Feb.2009 Ausspäh-Skandal: Mehdorn gibt Überwachungs-Exzesse zu (Wirtschaft) 03.Feb.2009 Datenabgleich: Auch die Telekom kontrollierte Mitarbeiter (Wirtschaft) 03.Feb.2009 Afghanistan-Einsatz: Zahl deutscher Soldaten mit Trauma steigt dramatisch (Politik) 03.Feb.2009 Streit über Holocaust-Leugner: Kardinal Lehmann nennt Papst-Entscheidung "Katastrophe" (Panorama) 03.Feb.2009 Konjunkturpaket: EU und Kanada warnen Obama vor Protektionismus-Klausel (Wirtschaft) I've been up all night and thus haven't the energy to write a "real" post at the moment. So this is going to be a "What he said" post -- the "he," in this instance, being Lambert of Corrente, who suggests making the banks into regulated public utilities. Why shouldn't paying your mortgage, or your auto loan, or your student loan, be exactly like paying your light bill? None of those businesses should be hard, and none of them demand "complex," "innovative," "financial instruments," and they certainly don't require testesterone-driven Merry Banksters sucking enormous bonuses off the company tit. So cut the parasites out of the business and get back to basics. Think about it. The banks create money. They do this when they make loans. Why is the creation of money considered essentially different from the delivery of gas to your stove? One more advantage: Regulated public utilities tend not to fail, unless the privatizers get in and screw them up, and when they do, they're small enough to. The reference, of course, goes to the way Enron screwed California. Permalink The leading contributor from the insurance industry -as ... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Dodd The Senate confirmed Eric H. Holder Jr. as the nation's first African American attorney general by a vote of 75 to 21 yesterday, opening a new chapter for a Justice Department that had suffered under allegations of improper political ... Randy Savage writes "With venture capital on hold and advertising revenue down, the WSJ discusses where online business models might go. 'Over the past decade, we have built a country-sized economy online where the default price is zero — nothing, nada, zip. Digital goods — from music and video to Wikipedia — can be produced and distributed at virtually no marginal cost, and so, by the laws of economics, price has gone the same way, to $0.00. For the Google Generation, the Internet is the land of the free. '" https://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/ELcOrhNQEUk/article.pl New Paper Offers Aditional Reasoning for Fermi's Paradox - ScuttleMonkey KentuckyFC writes "If the universe is teeming with advanced civilizations capable of communicating over interstellar distances, then surely we ought to have seen them by now. That's the gist of a paradoxical line of reasoning put forward by the physicist Enrico Fermi in 00.000.1950 . The so-called Fermi Paradox has haunted SETI researchers ever since. Not least because if the number of intelligent civilizations capable of communication in our galaxy is greater than 1, then we should eventually hear from them. Now one astrophysicist says this thinking fails to take into account the limit to how far a signal from ET can travel before it becomes too faint to hear. Factor that in and everything changes. Assuming the average communicating civilization has a lifetime of 1,000 years, ten times longer than Earth has been broadcasting, and has a signal horizon of 1,000 light-years, you need a minimum of over 300 communicating civilizations in the Milky Way to ensure that you'll see one of them. Any less than that and the chances are that they'll live out their days entirely ignorant of each other's existence. Paradox solved, right?" https://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/7kDHpbpXgTw/article.pl Have we become too dependent on Google? Google may now be too important to let fail, but government involvement doesn't seem like the right way to tackle the problem. https://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10154371-16.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5 Data-Breach Costs Rising, Study Finds - ScuttleMonkey BobB-nw that a recent study of 43 companies that suffered from data breaches last year showed the total cost of dealing with the breach to have risen to $6.6 million per incident. The cost is about $202 per record compromised for first timers, while the repeat offenders seem to have their mojo down and only suffer about $192 per record. 00.000.2008 -for-With 88% of all data loss cases being traced back to insider negligence it's a wonder that a little upfront money isn't being directed at prevention, guess as soon as they idiot-proof it someone will build a better idiot. https://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/-2ZUq5KnzkM/article.pl NATO Wants Sim Afghanistan to Test War Plans - Nathan Hodge NATO commanders in Afghanistan want a virtual version of the country, to test out battle plans and forecast future unrest. Critics say "they are smoking something they shouldn't be." https://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~3/t68GQWZ6ZQA/nato-wants-sim.html Obama predicts more bank failures US President Barack Obama warns more US banks are likely to fold, as the extent of their losses becomes clear. https://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7865165.stm Report shows wasted Iraq spending Waste and corruption in US attempts to reconstruct Iraq is revealed in a special inspector's report https://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7865840.stm ThinkProgress has previously documented — and debunked – the right-wing fondness for indefinite detention. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Fox News’ Charles Krauthammer and Fred Barnes have all argued in favor of indefinite detention https://thinkprogress.org/2009/02/02/vitter-indefinite-detention/ Rising Ocean Acidity Could Disorient Fish - Brandon Keim The continued increase in ocean acidity predicted to accompany the rise of atmospheric carbon dioxide may rob fish of their ability to smell, a sense that many species use to navigate. https://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~3/Er1-q-65eO8/rising-ocean-ac.html $40 billion increase in proposed Pentagon budget spun as ‘defense cuts’ by right wing. - Ryan Powers The Obama administration is reportedly capping the Pentagon’s 00.000.2010 budget for non-war spending at $527 billion, a level previously recommended by Bush administration officials. Despite the fact that this will represent an 8 % increase over 00.000.2009 funding levels, conservative commentators are painting the cap as a budget cut. CQ’s Josh Rogin reports: Some Pentagon officials and congressional conservatives are already trying to portray the OMB number as a cut by comparing it to a $584 billion draft fiscal 2010 budget request compiled last fall by the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The $527 billion figure is “what the Bush people thought was the right number last February and that’s the number we’re going with,” said the OMB official, who declined to be identified. “The Joint Chiefs did that to lay down a marker for the incoming administration that was unrealistic. It’s more of a wish list than anything else.” Defense budget experts have said the draft by the Joint Chiefs, which was never publicly released, was designed to pressure the Obama administration to drastically increase defense spending or be forced to defend a reluctance to do so. Chris Bowers notes, “While it is disappointing that the Obama administration is not looking to cut the defense budget during its first year in office, generally speaking this does not seem like a year when spending of any sort is being cut.” https://thinkprogress.org/2009/02/02/pentagon-budget-increase/ Posted by at 1:51 AM wenn nicht sofortige Sicherheitsmaßnahmen ergriffen werden", warnte der Chef des Zivilschutzes, Guido Bertolaso, am Montag Ökonomen, Bankern, Lobbyisten und internationalen Spitzenbeamten vorstellen, auch als ein nicht enden wollendes Telefongespräch der Kanzlerin mit Gordon Brown, Nicolas Sarkozy, Barack Obama und, und, und. Alles vorhandene Wissen wird gesammelt, doch die Resultate sind mager. Der Staat verbrennt das Geld der Bürger, um Fehler der Banken auszugleichen "If we had hundreds of gritters on stand-by for a day like this, a day which happens once in every 18 years, we'd have to divert resources from somewhere else," he said. The Federation of Small Businesses estimates almost 6.5m people - a fifth of Britain's workforce - took the day off work as a result of the weather on Monday. It also believes that three days of disruption caused by snowfalls will cost the economy about £3.5bn. South-east England has been hit by the heaviest snow in 18 years, causing trains and buses to be cancelled, and airports and schools to be closed. Veteran counterinsurgents have long been skeptical of how accurate these models can really be. "Wait a minute, you can’t tell me who’s going to a win a football game. And now you’re going to replicate free will?" retired Lt. Col. John Nagl, who helped write the Army's manual on defusing insurgencies, told Danger Room in 2007. "They are smoking something they shouldn't be," retired Lt. Gen. Paul Van Riper quipped to Science magazine. "Only those who don’t know how the real world works will be suckers for this stuff.” Still, coders and researchers at Lockheed Martin, Carnegie Mellon University, SAIC, BAE Systems, and Purdue University have all lined up, to make similar sim societies. 02.Feb.2009 Neuschnee und Blizzards: Westeuropa versinkt im Chaos (Panorama) Empört zeigt sich auch Bodo Ramelow, Religionsbeauftragter der Linkspartei: "Während Williamson behauptet, es hätte in den Konzentrationslagern keine Gaskammern gegeben, entscheidet Papst Benedikt nur wenige Tage vor dem Holocaustgedenktag, die Exkommunikation zurück zu ziehen. Dieser Vorfall reiht sich ein in weitere Entscheidungen Benedikts, die zeigen, dass Dialog und Verständigung nicht seine Sache sind", so Ramelow. "Benedikt sollte dringend deutlich und glaubwürdig erklären, dass die Position von Williamson untragbar und nicht tolerabel ist. Im Sinne der Verständigung muss es hier eine eindeutige Botschaft geben." Immerhin: Dass der Hypothekenfinanzierer nicht untergehen darf, davon ist die überwiegende Mehrheit überzeugt. Zu weit würden die Ausläufer des Bebens reichen, die ein Zusammenbruch auslösen würde. Schließlich zählt die HRE über ihre Tochter Depfa zu den größten Emittenten von Pfandbriefen, die als eine der sichersten Anlageformen überhaupt gelten, weil konkreter Immobilienbesitz als Sicherheit für die Rückzahlung dient. Würde jedoch die ausgebende Bank zusammenbrechen, wären die Pfandbriefe vom einen auf den anderen Tag wertlos. Millionen von Anlegern würden ihr Investment verlieren - die Wirkung einer HRE-Pleite wäre verheerend. Die Behörden forderten die Demonstranten auf, ihre Traktoren am Hafen von Piräus stehen zu lassen. Die mehr als 600 kretischen Landwirte hatten sich mit ihren Landmaschinen am Sonntagabend mit drei Fähren auf den Weg zum griechischen Festland gemacht. Und ebenfalls kein Wunder, dass dieses Oberhaupt der katholischen Kirche im Namen der Kirche gegen Homosexualität und gegen Empfängnisverhütung wettert. Mögen im Zeitalter von Aids auch Millionen Menschen zugrundegehen. 00.000.1968 erlebte der damalige Theologieprofessor an der Uni Tübingen, wie seine Studenten ihn in der Vorlesung ausbuhten und das Revolutionsmotto anstimmten "Verflucht sei Jesus". 00.000.2008 blieb er im Vergleich zum Vorjahr konstant. 00.000.2007 schrumpfte er gegenüber 2006 sogar um 0,4 %. 00.Sep.2008 sogar von 1,6 Punkten auf 2,2 Punkte im 00.000.Jan.2009 leicht angestiegen. Das Konsumbarometer "zeigte sich zuletzt stabil". Ursache für die nach wie vor ungebrochene Konsumneigung der Deutschen seien die in den vergangenen Monaten deutlich gesunkenen Kosten für Energie und Kraftstoffe, hieß es zur Begründung. Daneben hätten die hohen Lohnabschlüsse im vergangenen Jahr und die gute Entwicklung auf dem Arbeitsmarkt die Kaufkraft der Verbraucher gestärkt. Doch auch wenn im Krisenjahr 00.00.000.2009 der Konsum der Deutschen im Vergleich zum Vorjahr voraussichtlich um ein halbes % wachse, könne er "den Export als Konjunkturmotor nicht vollständig ersetzen", teilte die GfK mit. 02.Feb.2009 Wirtschaftskrise: Autozulieferer Edscha meldet Insolvenz an (Wirtschaft) 02.Feb.2009 Protest in Cambridge: Schuh-Wurf auf Chinas Premierminister (Politik) 02.Feb.2009 Gesetzesinitiative: Nokia will E-Mails seiner Belegschaft ausspähen (Wirtschaft) 02.Feb.2009 Obamas Wunschminister: Daschle entschuldigt sich für Steuersünden (Politik) 02.Feb.2009 Bauernproteste in Griechenland: Mit Tomaten und Kartoffeln gegen die Polizei (Politik) 02.Feb.2009 Teure Conti-Übernahme: Schaeffler-Betriebsräte bitten Bund um Hilfe (Wirtschaft) Der Nürnberger Prozeß/Indizes/Personen-Index/F - Zeno.org Wirtschaftspolitischer Pressedienst : XIII, 93. • Zentrale Planung, Mitwirkung: V , 503; XI, 79; XIII, 146 f, 233, 240; XVI, 623; XVIII, 268 f; XXII, 628 ... Zwischen Demokratie und Diktatur: Der Wandel Des Politischen ... - Google Buchsuche-Ergebnisseite von Gerhard Schulz - 1992 - Political Science - 1102 Seiten Full text of "Hitler A Study In Tyranny" For a time he ran the Wirtschaftspolitischer Pressedienst , an economic Press and Information Service controlled by Dr Wagener, the head of the Nazi Party's ... www.archive.org/stream/hitlerastudyinty002762mbp/hitlerastudyinty002762mbp_djvu.txt The Mazal Library Press Service for Political Economy [ Wirtschaftspolitischer Pressedienst ] Berlin W 35, am Karlsbad 19 Dear Mr. Funk: * Baron Kurt von Schroeder, ... www.mazal.org/archive/nmt/06/NMT06-T0233.htm III Rzesza Byl redaktorem narodowosocjalistycznego pisma " Wirtschaftspolitischer Pressedienst ". Doradca ekonomiczny Hitlera. Przewodniczacy rady gospodarczej NSDAP. ... www.vaterland.pl/walther_funk.html Zurück | Vorwärts >> F Faber du Faur, General: VI, 161 Fabricius ... F. Faber du Faur, General: VI, 161. Fabricius, Gesandter, Botschafter: VII, 339. • Anforderung als Zeuge: VIII, 228 ... www.docusec.de/text/1961.htm Verbotene Zeitschriften - Post Scriptum Info-Board || Archiv ferner ihrer Gliederungen, (SS., SD., SA., HJ., BDM., NSDSTB., NSD., NSF., NSKK. , NSFK.), ihrer angeschlossenen Verbände (DAF., KdF., NSV. www.nexusboard.net/archiv/index_b6365_f59030_t296489.htm Jan.1931 -Über den am gegründeten- „ Wirtschaftspolitischer Pressedienst “ der NSDAP, den 60 Industrielle bezogen(41) flossen nach Aussage von Walther Funk in ... The report says instead of transporting wood chips by lorry to be burned in CHP plants it would be more efficient to gasify the wood chips and then transport the gas. Renewable gas is slightly less powerful than gas from fossil fuel but the report says consumers could be compensated through lower bills. "As we look forward to 2050," the report says, " it is important to recognise that delivering 80% emissions reductions is going to require a very sizeable contribution from heat which only renewable gas is able to deliver without significant inconvenience to consumers and other residents of the UK." The report says there are no insurmountable technical or safety barriers to delivering the gas, as the technology is already used in many other countries. The key to delivery is government policy, including: A commercial incentive for producers to inject "green" gas into the grid rather than generating electricity A strategy to ensure each waste stream goes to the most appropriate technology to maximise energy recovery and recycling A change in the rules about the amount of oxygen allowed in gas pipes Continued support for research and development of renewable gas. Gas from waste could heat almost half the homes in the UK, according to a new report from National Grid. It says obtaining more gas from waste will help cut carbon emissions, improve energy security and compensate for the shortage of landfill sites. Renewable gas from landfill sites and sewage works provide 1% of the UK's gas at present. Today's report says an extra £10 billion investment could increase that to between 5 and 18%. The cost would be similar to that of other forms of renewable energy. Just look at the data from the Global Footprint Network group. They estimate that we'll remain in overshoot unless we also address population. For humanity, this portends a potential cataclysm exceeding anything in our history. It's no far fetched possibility. Increasingly, environmental scientists insist we have overshot the Earth's carrying capacity. We can learn from past abuses, reducing the likelihood of fresh problems arising in the future. Yes, there have been past abuses in the name of "population control". They agree the need to address population has become desperate. But 18 of the world's tax havens are Crown Dependencies like Jersey, Guernsey, the Isle of Man or British protectorates like the Caymans, a fag-end of the British Empire in the Caribbean. One man has targeted tax haven abuse in the Caymans - and his name is Barack Obama. So change for the world's tax havens seems on the way - whether the leaders of the micro-states like it or not. US citizen Peter Lowy, son of Australian billionaire shopping mall developer Frank Lowy, who developed the Westfield Centre in London's Shepherd's Bush, pleaded the Fifth Amendment when he was asked about the off-shore foundation LGTT set up when part of the Lowy American business empire was being wound up. The Lowys say "net proceeds" were donated for charitable purposes in Israel and they have supplied bank statements and receipts to the Australian Tax Office to verify this. They also say "none of the Lowys received any personal benefit" from the off-shore structure in Liechtenstein - and no tax was avoided or evaded in Australia or the US. Her Majesty's government is broke - a record £44bn in the red - and yet one estimate is that the taxman loses £18.5bn a year thanks to tax haven abuse. Mr Vaessen told the BBC News website: "Our experts in the field spoke to villagers who said they'd seen this type of caterpillar before. They said they'd put leaves under trees and burned them to suffocate the caterpillar with smoke. "But the villagers said they've never seen it in such large numbers before, they're really flabbergasted." The Highways Agency said there have been too many minor accidents on the roads "to put a number on". David Brown of Transport for London said the situation was "exceptional". He added: "We haven't had a circumstance like this for over two decades. We were prepared in the sense that all our cold weather plans on the underground were put into place. "But I think that actually the volume of the snow falling during the middle of the night was very difficult for us." Blizzard conditions Bad weather has also forced the closure of the Old Bailey courts in London and crown courts in Southwark, Blackfriars and Lewes. SCHRIFTSTELLER COELHO ZUR WIRTSCHAFTSKRISE Nach der Rehabilitierung des Bischofs und Holocaust-Leugners Richard Williamson gerät der Papst immer stärker unter Druck. https://www.spiegel.de/panorama/0,1518,druck-604871,00.html Peking mahnt das Militär auf der Web-Seite der Regierung explizit zu Gehorsam. Loyalität sei in Zeiten sozialer Unruhen äußerst wichtig, hieß es. https://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/0,1518,druck-604869,00.html Deutscher Immobilienmarkt profitiert von der Wirtschaftskrise Im Vergleich zum Vorjahr kräftig nach oben geklettert sind auch Zürich und London: Der Schweizer Finanzplatz schaffte es von Platz 17 im vergangenen Jahr auf Rang vier. London liegt nun direkt dahinter auf Platz fünf (2008: Platz 15). Schweich trier "So günstig wie hier bekommen wir es nirgends", sagt eine Rentnerin, die mit ihrem Mann bei C&M am Hamburger Jungfernstieg Haare schneiden war. Die "poppige" Musik sei etwas störend, "aber für den Preis geht das schon". nicht erlaubt https://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/0,1518,druck-602932,00.html Dass es nun wegen der Wirtschaftskrise mit seiner Branche weiter bergab geht, glaubt Friseur-Verbandschef Röhr nicht. Er sieht es mit kölscher Gelassenheit: "Der Wirtschaftsaufschwung ging an uns vorbei. Dann wird der Abschwung auch irgendwie an uns vorbeigehen." Ausnahmezustand https://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/0,1518,druck-604914,00.html Es geht um Summen, die sich der menschlichen Vorstellungskraft mittlerweile weitgehend entziehen. Die Berliner Regierung hält keinen der beiden angelsächsischen Lösungswege für tauglich. Das britische Modell gilt als zu aufwendig, das amerikanische als ungerecht. Schon spotten Mitglieder der Großen Koalition, dass Bankenrettung jetzt offenbar nach der Logik des Kalten Krieges abläuft: "Man muss mit der Atombombe drohen, damit man sie niemals einsetzen muss." 00.000.2004 zu sprechen, ist eben trotzdem übertrieben. Jetzt bibbert die halbe Nation, weil suggeriert wird, es sei nahezu zwangsläufig, dass es in der Bundestagswahlnacht kracht. Dabei gibt es andere, aus Terroristensicht sinnvollere Anlässe als Urnengänge in Deutschland. Etwa die jährlich (beziehungsweise alle 14 Monate) anstehenden Mandatsverlängerungen im Bundestag für den Afghanistan-Einsatz. Ganz abgesehen davon, dass in den Videos, wenn man genau hinhört, eher von Anschlägen auf deutsche Soldaten die Rede ist. Eine vernünftige Analyse hätte das berücksichtigt. In jedem Fall hätte sie sich nicht auf eine Pseudo-Parallele beschränkt. Aber für Sicherheit verantwortliche Behördenleiter haben eben die Tendenz, lieber vor allem einmal zuviel zu warnen, damit es hinterher nicht heißt, sie hätten nicht jedes Szenario vorgedacht. In Deutschland hingegen ist die einzige deutsche Partei, die geschlossen gegen das Afghanistan-Mandat der Bundeswehr steht, die Linke. So verblendet sind aber nicht einmal al-Qaida & Co., dass sie einen herbeigebombten Wahlsieg von Oskar Lafontaine erwarten. 00.000.2004 -Im Spanien des Jahres- war die größte Oppositionspartei gegen das Irak-Engagement und hatte auch vor dem Anschlag schon gute Siegchancen. 00.000.2003 -al-Qaida in einem Strategiepapier von- Spanien als sinnvolles nächstes Ziel identifizierte.) (Das war im Übrigen genau der Grund, warum Heinz Fromm, der Chef des Bundesamtes für Verfassungsschutz, wird mit der Aussage zitiert, das Terrornetzwerk al-Qaida ziele wohl auf die Bundestagswahl und wolle womöglich den Abzug der Bundeswehr aus Afghanistan erzwingen. Und der Chef des Bundeskriminalamtes, Jörg Ziercke, sagte dem "Focus": "Ein paar Monate vor der Bundestagswahl stellen wir deutliche Parallelen zur Situation in Spanien fest. im Jahr 00.000.2004 Der Madrider Terroranschlag sollte die bevorstehende Wahl beeinflussen und zum Abzug spanischer Soldaten aus dem Irak führen. Das Ergebnis ist bekannt: Spanien hat sich zurückgezogen." 00.000.2004 . Doch der Vergleich mit den Anschlägen von Madrid ist irreführend. Die Koordinaten der Fundstelle verraten die professionellen Wracksucher nicht. Aus Angst vor Konkurrenz nennen sie den Fundort nur geheimnisvoll "Site 25C". Auf einem Areal von 61 mal 22 Metern sollen dort 41 Bronzekanonen liegen, darunter acht tonnenschwere 42-Pfünder. Moderne Fischernetze, die über den Meeresgrund geschleift wurden, haben die meisten Kanonen so verschoben, dass sie parallel zum Schiffskiel liegen. Inmitten von Müsli-Schachteln, Glasflaschen, einer Videokassette und anderem Zivilisationsmüll fanden die Forscher noch andere Überbleibsel aus dem 18. Jahrhundert: einen Kochkessel aus Kupfer, zwei Anker und das zehn Meter lange Ruder des Schiffs. Die Forscher in Tromsø lassen sich von solchen Aussichten nicht abschrecken. Sie reizt vor allem die Komplexität ihrer Aufgabe: "Es ist wie die Suche nach der Nadel im Heuhaufen, ohne dass man die Nadel kennt", beschreibt es Robert Johansen. In den Gewässern zwischen dem norwegischen Festland und Spitzbergen mischt sich der warme Golfstrom mit kalten Wassermassen der Arktis und schafft so einen reich bevölkerten Lebensraum. 02.Feb.2009 Volkscomputer: Indien plant Acht-Euro-Laptop (Netzwelt) 02.Feb.2009 Interplanetare Kommunikation: Die lange Suche nach E.T. (Wissenschaft) 02.Feb.2009 Ausländer in der Schweiz: Zürcher hadern mit deutschen Zuwanderern (Politik) 02.Feb.2009 Rassismus: Junge Italiener zünden Inder an (Politik) Ein solches Szenario droht, nachdem sich das Institut mit dem Ankauf lang laufender Staatskredite verzockt hatte. 00.000.2003 -Seit-sind die Umsätze im Friseurhandwerk rückläufig Doch die Krise hat auch ihr Gutes: Weniger Investitionen bedeuten weniger Nachfrage. In der Folge sinken in vielen Städten die Preise für Häuser, Wohnungen und Gewerbeflächen. Bei akzeptablen Renditen sind die Risiken hierzulande deutlich niedriger als in den Boomregionen früherer Jahre", erklärt Helmut Trappmann, Leiter des PwC-Bereiches Real Estate. Seine Forderungen nach einer Öffnung der Partei für alle gesellschaftlichen Schichten, nach einem Verzicht auf marxistische Dogmatik und antiquierte Symbolik, mit denen er über ein Jahrzehnt dem traditionsreichen Apparat zugesetzt hatte, waren nun weitgehend umgesetzt. 00.000.1957 -Nach der Bundestagswahl- bei der die Union die absolute Mehrheit errang, besann sich die Sozialdemokratie auf ihre personellen Ressourcen, um in Zukunft neue Wählerschichten zu erreichen. Carlo Schmid, einer der beliebtesten Politiker der Republik, avancierte so kurzzeitig zum Hoffnungsträger der Arbeiterpartei. Die SPD bediente sich seiner als Galionsfigur, schickte ihn landauf, landab zu Diskussionsrunden, Parteiabenden, Gedenkveranstaltungen, Vorträgen. Am Wochenende hatte die Ernennung des ultrakonservativen Geistlichen Gerhard Maria Wagner zum Weihbischof von Linz die Debatte um die Entscheidungen des Papstes verschärft. Laut österreichischen Zeitungsberichten stand Wagner nicht auf der Vorschlagliste des Linzer Bistums. Der 54-Jährige hatte mit seinen Äußerungen immer wieder für Aufregung gesorgt. Die Mitarbeiter des Papstes hätten den Fall Williamson nicht genau genug geprüft. Es zeigt zum Beispiel, wie man am besten unbeliebte Entscheidungen trifft: am besten am Anfang. Die Menschen vergessen sie dann irgendwann. 02.Feb.2009 Enteignungen: Stille Macht in Frankfurts Bankentürmen (Wirtschaft) 02.Feb.2009 Fachkräftemangel: Handwerk wirbt um junge Ausländer (Wirtschaft) 02.Feb.2009 Rehabilitierung Williamsons: Hamburger Erzbischof geht auf Distanz zum Vatikan (Panorama) One could say in the entire world. The US, with 2.2 milllion prisoners, has the largest, more populous than China, and densest, more concentrated than the Russian Federation, penal system in the world. While rioting is not normally good behavior, that is how Nelson Mandela was freed and how blacks won the right to vote in South Africa. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and our own Declaration of Independence recognizes that there comes a time when the tyranny is more criminal than the criminals. After eight years of being tyrannized by Texas justice , the scared citizens of America demand justice for Texas. The prison population needs to be dramatically reduced towards the legal limit of 250 prisoners per 100,000. The way to achieve this safely is for correections officers to be certified in probation and parole, by state examination, and transferred with the least dangerous prisoners to halfway houses. For this reason a Chapter has been drafted at www.title24uscode.org/halfway.htm with test questions and community service assignment at www.title24uscode.org/cortest.doc 02.Feb.2009 Prison Riot in Pecos, TX KDBC 02.Feb.2009 Inmates at Texas prison riot for second time in two months The Senate overwhelmingly approved legislation yesterday to provide health insurance to 11 million low-income children, a bill that would for the first time spend federal money to cover children and pregnant women who are legal ... 02.Feb.2009 Health Buzz: Senate Approves SCHIP and Other Health News U.S. News & World Report 02.Feb.2009 Expansion Of SCHIP Passes, Millions Of Kids Get Health Insurance dBTechno Half of British adults do not believe in evolution, with at least 22% preferring the theories of creationism or intelligent design to explain how the world came about, according to a survey. 02.Feb.2009 Evolution war still rages 200 years after Darwin's birth The Miami Herald 02.Feb.2009 Scientists use Darwin theory to develop new technologies Houston Chronicle 00.Jan.2009 South Korea’s exports tumbled by a record 32.8 % , foreshadowing a deepening slump in Asia’s export-driven economies. 02.Feb.2009 South Korean exports shrink at record pace in January International Herald Tribune For the first time since 2007, Treasury investors are betting that inflation will accelerate. Fed Monetizes Debt, Investors Buy Gold Gold Seek 02.Feb.2009 French strikes: Violence erupts as thousands gather to protest on 'Black Thursday': Hundreds of thousands of protesters marched through French cities, with violence erupting in some places, as part of a day of national strikes demanding pay rises and better protection for jobs. 02.Feb.2009 Strikes spread across Britain as oil refinery protest escalates: Unofficial strikes break out in support of protest over use of foreign workers to carry out building project in Lincolnshire 02.Feb.2009 Economic woes fuel Russian protests: Russian police forcefully broke up many of the anti-government protests on Saturday, arresting dozens of demonstrators. 02.Feb.2009 Governments across Europe tremble as angry people take to the streets: Greek farmers block the road into Bulgaria in protest at low prices for their produce. New ?gures from the biggest bank in the Baltic show that the three post-Soviet states there face the biggest recessions in Europe 02.Feb.2009 Lenders abruptly cut lines of credit: As much as $2 trillion in consumer credit - nearly half of what is available - could be rescinded, according to an estimate by a prominent banking analyst. 02.Feb.2009 Homelessness surges as funding falters: Providers to the poor try to stretch meager resources to meet growing need 02.Feb.2009 The US Unemployment Rate: Jobless rate is a full l0 % higher than the government is reporting. 02.Feb.2009 California is told to furlough employees: A judge orders officials to implement Schwarzenegger's plan to force 238,000 employees to take two days off without pay each month. The state is expected to shut down some services on those days. 02.Feb.2009 46 Of 50 States Could File Bankruptcy 00.000.2009-2010: There is a high chance a majority of the States within the United States of America could file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy. There are currently 46 states with high budget deficits, Arizona being one of them. 02.Feb.2009 Three More Banks Failed On Friday: The FDIC is often appointed as receiver for failed banks. This page contains useful information for the customers and vendors of these banks. 02.Feb.2009 Germany welcomes Russian deferral of Baltic missile plans: 'I believe that the course will be set this year for disarmament policies over the next 10 years.' , 02.Feb.2009 DEA quits Bolivia on Morales' order: The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has removed all its agents from Bolivia, complying with orders by President Evo Morales, officials said. 02.Feb.2009 Hugo Chavez Urges Obama To Hand Over Cuban Exile: Extradition of former CIA operative Luis Posada Carriles, accused of plotting the 1976 bombing of a Cuban jet that killed 73 people, could improve bilateral ties that have for years been frayed by a war of words between the Bush administration and Venezuela. 02.Feb.2009 Fidel Castro demands Obama return Guantanamo base: Fidel Castro demanded on Thursday that President Barack Obama return the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo to Cuba without conditions, and he accused the new U.S. leader of supporting "Israeli genocide" against Palestinians. 02.Feb.2009 CAIR's "Hamas Ties" Prompt FBI Cut Off: The FBI has cut off communications with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in the wake of damning court evidence that ties the group's founders to a Hamas-support network in America, the Investigative Project on Terrorism has learned. 02.Feb.2009 US Mulls DoD Aid to Mexico in Drug War: The number of homicides in the Juarez area has surged past 130 already this month, according to an El Paso Times tally, an increase over the 37 homicides recorded by Chihuahua state investigators in January 2008. Last year, 1,609 homicides occurred. 02.Feb.2009 U.S. Looks for Blackwater Replacement in Iraq: As Iraq moved to force Blackwater Worldwide out of the country, the State Department asked two other American companies how quickly they could take over the company’s contract to provide personal security for American diplomats in Baghdad, several American officials said Thursday. 02.Feb.2009 Blackwater Mercs Likely to Stay in Iraq, Despite Gov't Ban: Iraq's government says it won't give Blackwater a license to operate in the country. So does that mean the firm's cadre of tattooed gunslingers will be gone from Iraq, forever? Not exactly. 02.Feb.2009 Nato split over order to strike Afghanistan drug smugglers: A directive ordering Nato commanders to begin directly targeting drug smugglers and heroin factories in Afghanistan is being resisted by senior officers in the country. 02.Feb.2009 US-funded program to arm Afghan groups begins: A U.S.-funded program to train and arm community members in Afghanistan's most dangerous regions as a way to defend against the Taliban has begun, the country's interior minister said Saturday. 02.Feb.2009 Israel says Spain says it will amend war crimes law: Israel said on Friday the Spanish government had said it would work to amend a law under which a Madrid court is to consider trying seven Israelis over the killing of Palestinians. 02.Feb.2009 The Torah Position on the Current Conflict in Gaza: The Zionist ideology is antithetical to the Torah. Zionism was deviously designed to replace the Torah and its holy, God-given commandments with nationalistic, power-driven ideals that are devoid of holiness, godliness, or spirituality. 02.Feb.2009 Mullen: Using force against Iran still an option: American military force against Iran remains an option, though it would be a "last resort," US Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in response to a question from The Jerusalem Post Tuesday. 02.Feb.2009 Change? Wwhat change? US pours cold water over hopes of Iran deal: Officials moved to cool fevered expectations - and assuage lingering European concerns - about plans to thaw a 30 year freeze in US relations. 02.Feb.2009 Netanyahu says Iran will not get nukes: Likud's Benjamin Netanyahu said if elected prime minister his first mission will be to block the Iranian nuclear threat. 02.Feb.2009 Ahmadinejad: Erdogan humiliated Israel: He hailed the Turkish premier and said that Erdogan's act reflected the will of the Turkish nation and that of all nations in the region and he has the support of the public. 02.Feb.2009 ‘Hamas would recognise Israel within 1967 borders’ : Hamas would recognise Israel if it withdraws to its pre-1967 borders, a French Jewish writer said this week after meeting the exiled leader of the Palestinian Islamist movement, Khaled Meshaal. 02.Feb.2009 Hamas Official Blames Rockets On Collaborators: The rockets being fired from Gaza into Israel is the work of Israeli collaborators, says Ahmed Yusuf, political adviser to Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. He says Hamas was willing to agree to a new cease-fire with Israel, but Israel hadn't lived up to its end of the bargain. 02.Feb.2009 George Bush’s Gift To The World The End of American Imperialism -By- David Michael Green 02.Feb.2009 Bush Officials Authorized Torture of US Citizen, Lawyers Say -By John Byrne- 00.000.2007 Attorneys for US citizen Jose Padilla - who was convicted of material support for terrorist activities - say that high-level Bush Administration officials knew their client was being tortured during the time he was held an enemy combatant in a South Carolina brig. Continue 02.Feb.2009 From Prison to Award for Iraq War Whistleblower -By- Ray McGovern On 26.Jan.2009 in Copenhagen, I had the privilege to present to former Danish intelligence officer, Frank Grevil, the annual Sam Adams Award for Integrity in Intelligence.Continue 02.Feb.2009 California Pension Funds Close To Bankruptcy -By- Kevin Martinez 00.000.1942 the Nazis implemented the ‘Final Solution’, the extermination of all ‘non-Aryan’ peoples that included not only the Jews but also the Roma and the Serbs. So the term Holocaust is not copyright © the Jewish ‘race’ in spite of their appropriation of the Upper case. Continue 02.Feb.2009 Gaza Invasion: Powered By The U.S. -By- Robert Bryce Die Geschichte handelt von einem Hedge Fonds, dessen Mitarbeiter sich die Klärschlamm-Hypotheken angesehen haben, und sofort gesehen haben, dass das demnächst kollabieren muss. Ursprünglich haben sie sich nämlich gar nicht die Hypotheken selbst angesehen, sondern die Firmen, die die Hypotheken unters Volk gebracht haben. Und als sie sahen, dass die unmöglich zurück gezahlt werden würden, haben sie sich entschieden, die Aktien der Herausgeber leerzuverkaufen. Das war leider teuer, denn dafür leiht man sich ja die Aktie einmal, und verkauft sie dann. Und das Leihen war bei diesen Aktien vergleichsweise teuer. Später kam dann die Möglichkeit, dass man dann nicht die Aktien selbst leerverkaufen konnte, sondern darauf basierende Bonds. Das ist billiger, also haben sie das gemacht. Und die ganze Zeit haben sie sich gefragt, wieso sie die Großbanken Leerverkäufe machen lassen. Und eines Tages sitzt der eine Typ dann mit einem Fondsmanager beim Abendessen, der nur Bonds mit rottigen CDOs "verwaltet", und lacht ihn aus, weil er solchen Klärschlamm am Bein hat, und will gerade sein Mitleid ausdrücken, weil lange hat der ja nicht mehr zu leben, da sagt ihm dieser Fondsmanager folgendes (und das muss ich mal in Gänze zitieren, weil es so ein grandioser Aha-Moment ist): That’s when Eisman finally got it. Here he’d been making these side bets with Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank on the fate of the BBB tranche without fully understanding why those firms were so eager to make the bets. Now he saw. There weren’t enough Americans with shitty credit taking out loans to satisfy investors’ appetite for the end product. The firms used Eisman’s bet to synthesize more of them. Here, then, was the difference between fantasy finance and fantasy football: When a fantasy player drafts Peyton Manning, he doesn’t create a second Peyton Manning to inflate the league’s stats. But when Eisman bought a credit-default swap, he enabled Deutsche Bank to create another bond identical in every respect but one to the original. The only difference was that there was no actual homebuyer or borrower. The only assets backing the bonds were the side bets Eisman and others made with firms like Goldman Sachs. Eisman, in effect, was paying to Goldman the interest on a subprime mortgage. In fact, there was no mortgage at all. “They weren’t satisfied getting lots of unqualified borrowers to borrow money to buy a house they couldn’t afford,” Eisman says. “They were creating them out of whole cloth. One hundred times over! That’s why the losses are so much greater than the loans. But that’s when I realized they needed us to keep the machine running. I was like, This is allowed?” Dieser Typ hat nicht nur Balls of Steel, der hat auch Nerven wie Monofilamentfasern. "Dass die ersten Verhandlungen über eine Auffanglösung für den angeschlagenen Immobilienfinanzierer und das Ablaufen dieser Stillhaltefrist zeitlich zusammenfielen, ist bloße zeitliche Koinzidenz." Bei der Abstimmung im Repräsentantenhaus in der vergangenen Woche hatte kein einziger republikanischer Abgeordneter für das Paket gestimmt, obwohl Obama bis zuletzt um die Unterstützung der Republikaner für sein 819-Milliarden-Dollar-Konjunkturpaket geworben hatte. Als nächsten Schritt kündigte er einen Plan zur Regulierung der Finanzdienstleister an, sobald das Konjunkturpaket in dieser Woche vom Senat verabschiedet sei. 04.Okt.1744 Die "HMS Victory" sank während eines Sturms im Ärmelkanal. An Bord waren mindestens 900 Menschen, niemand überlebte das Unglück. Das Segelschiff befand sich auf dem Rückweg von der portugiesischen Hauptstadt Lissabon nach England und hatte vermutlich fünf Tonnen portugiesischer Goldmünzen für Kaufleute geladen. 01.Feb.2009 Nahost: Abbas fordert Respekt von Hamas (Politik) Was wir erleben ist eine Revolution in der Geldpolitik. AFP US-Notenbank Fed: "Eine Revolution in der Geldpolitik" SPIEGEL ONLINE: Wird sie funktionieren? Ich sehe nur einen Ausweg: Die Regierung muss die Anteilseigner der Banken enteignen und die Bilanzen dann reparieren … Man muss die Dinosaurier sterben lassen, wenn ihre Zeit gekommen ist - und die Welt neuen Lebensformen überlassen. https://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/0,1518,druck-604682,00.html Ferguson: Viele der Banken des westlichen Finanzsystems sind im Prinzip Zombies, lebende Tote. Sie sind praktisch pleite. https://www.videospider.tv/Videos/Detail/1230658966.aspx https://www.videospider.tv/ https://raodesign.com/raodesign.htm Wirtschaftselite in Davos: Gipfel der Hilflosigkeit https://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,604838,00.html Darwins bedeutendste Idee war der Gedanke, dass die unterschiedlichen Merkmale verwandter Arten vor allem durch Anpassung und Auslese zustande kommen. Bei den Finkenschnäbeln können wir diesen Vorgang nun unmittelbar beobachten: Durch natürliche Selektion werden die Gene und ihre Expression so geformt, dass der Organismus sich an die Umstände anpasst. https://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/mensch/0,1518,druck-604020,00.html Nehmen wir blaue Augen. Darwin hatte sie, wie viele andere Europäer auch. 00.000.2008 -Zu Beginn des Jahres- gaben Hans Eiberg und seine Kollegen von der Universität Kopenhagen bekannt, sie hätten die genetische Mutation gefunden, die alle Menschen mit blauen Augen gemein haben. Auf dem langen Arm des Chromosoms Nummer 15 ist ein einziger Buchstabe ausgetauscht: Statt einem A steht dort ein G. Die Folge ist eine verminderte Expression eines Gens namens OCA2, das an der Herstellung des dunklen Augenpigments beteiligt ist. Eiberg verglich die DNA von Dänen, Türken und Jordaniern und konnte berechnen, dass es vor 6000 bis 10.000 Jahren zu dieser Mutation gekommen sein muss. Und zwar bei einem einzelnen Menschen, der irgendwo in der Nähe des Schwarzen Meeres lebte. Darwin verdankte seine blauen Augen also vermutlich einem einzigen "falschen" Buchstaben in der DNA eines Bauernkindes aus der mittleren Jungsteinzeit. https://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,druck-604838,00.html Und Ex-Präsident Bill Clinton gesteht gar unumwunden ein, die USA hätten bei der Kreditblase den Anfang gemacht. Weil sie nach dem Platzen der Dot-Com-Blase "keine Strategie" gehabt hätten, die damaligen Turbulenzen zu überstehen. "Also wurde der Häusermarkt aufgebläht, um Wachstum zu erzeugen." Davos Google-Party Und eine Angst scheint die Anwesenden besonders umzutreiben: die Sorge vor sozialen Unruhen infolge der Krise. "Wir dürfen keine Zeit verlieren", sagt eine Frau und betont jedes einzelne Wort. Es sei jetzt nicht mehr die Zeit der Worte. "Es ist die Zeit der Umsetzung." Finnish Court Accepts E-Voting Result With 2% Lost - kdawson Nailor "The Helsinki Administrative court accepted the municipal voting result in an election in which 2% of votes cast were not counted at all. We discussed this situation at the time. The court noted that the e-voting machinery has a feature, that should be considered as an issue. However, it also noted that 'a little over two % failure rate can not be considered as such as a proof that the voting official would have acted erroneously.' Does this mean 98% of votes is enough to figure out how the other 2% voted? Electronic Frontier Finland has a press release about the court decision (Google translation; Finnish original)." https://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/DlqKOsESIYY/article.pl IBM Hides the Bodies, Eyes US Government Billions - kdawson theodp "As his company was striving to hide the bodies of its laid-off North American workers, IBM CEO Sam Palmisano stood beside President Barack Obama and waxed patriotic: 'We need to reignite growth in our country,' Palmisano said. 'We need to undertake projects that actually will create jobs.' While Sam positions IBM to get a slice of the $825 billion stimulus pie, Big Blue is quietly cutting thousands of jobs and refusing to release the numbers or locations, arguing that SEC disclosure rules don't apply since the US job cuts are immaterial in its big global picture. The layoffs included hundreds in East Fishkill, coming early in the year after NY taxpayers paid IBM $45 million not to cut additional jobs in East Fishkill 00.000.2008. Some are questioning whether IBM incentives are worth the cost." https://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/CeHlCFuBr90/article.pl US Dept. of Defense Creates Its Own Sourceforge - Soulskill mjasay "The US Department of Defense, which has been flirting with open source for years as a way to improve software quality and cut costs, has finally burst the dam on Defense-related open-source adoption with Forge.mil, an open-source code repository based on Sourceforge. Though it currently only holds three projects and is limited to DoD personnel for security reasons, all code is publicly viewable and will almost certainly lead to other agencies participating on the site or creating their own. Open source has clearly come a long way. Years ago studies declared open source a security risk. Now, one of the most security-conscious organizations on the planet is looking to open source to provide better security than proprietary alternatives." https://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/oQa2YyzDW0o/article.pl Report: Justice Department sends hoax e-mail to test workers DOJ phishing e-mail that entices federal employees to provide sensitive financial information turns out to be a test of their security awareness. https://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10153795-83.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5 Federal Regulations Will Kill Handmade Toy Sales - Bruce Stewart Makers of handmade, "artisan" toys are worried that new federal regulations will put them out of business. The regulations require expensive testing for lead and dyes in all toys intended for children 12 and under. Federal Regulations Will Kill Handmade Toy Sales - Bruce Stewart Makers of handmade, "artisan" toys are worried that new federal regulations will put them out of business. The regulations require expensive testing for lead and dyes in all toys intended for children 12 and under. https://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~3/1oX2QW2J_wM/help-save-handm.html Colorado Man Faces 10 Years for E-Mail Obama Threat - David Kravets A 20-year-old Colorado man says he's in "serious shit." He was arrested and indicted on allegations of sending the FBI e-mails stating that he would assassinate President Barack Obama. https://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~3/4hVqb7cDAnY/colorado-man-fa.html This question is starting to get debated by robot designers and toymakers. With advanced robotics becoming cheaper and more commonplace, the challenge isn't how we learn to accept robots—but whether we should care when they're mistreated. And if we start caring about robot ethics, might we then go one insane step further and grant them rights? Do Humanlike Machines Deserve Human Rights? https://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~3/y9JJ3_K0Bt8/st_essay In Recession Year, Exxon Shatters US Profit Record - Associated Press 00.000.2008 -for-Exxon Mobil reports a profit of $45.2 billion, breaking its own record for a U.S. company, even as its fourth-quarter earnings fell 33 % from a year ago. 00.000.2007 -set in-The previous record for annual profit was $40.6 billion, which the world's largest publicly traded oil company. https://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~3/XZ-fnKAJMXU/EARNS_EXXON_MOBIL Never before in history has there been a significantly large population of educated, skilled, experienced, 'young' talent with a semi-disposable income willing and eager to do professional work for little or no pay and even some that will spend their own funds. You have to provide a minimum infrastructure for them to come, and help offset some of the costs they just couldn’t bear. You have to rally them around an idea, spin a coherent vision and place them and their contributions squarely in focus. They won’t accept a mission that doesn’t make sense or isn’t technically or socially viable - and they’re more than competent to develop rational opinions that will need to be vetted and addressed. They will walk away from half-baked plans so you better be ready with supporting data for your claims; but once they buy into the vision they will autonomously meet mission with focus and intensity. It costs much less in dollars than you think. https://blog.wired.com/defense/2009/01/stability-opera.html https://www.navytimes.com/news/2009/01/military_qrm_gates_013009w/ THERE IS A LOT MORE IN THE WORKS BEYOND WHAT YOU ARE DESCRIBING HERE NATHAN/NOAH. THE ALIGNMENT OF FORCES IS CLOSE TO A RECKONING OF GOD! ONCE IT IS ADHERED TO AND FOLLOWED THROUGH ON THERE WILL BE MORE INTERDICTIONS AS WELL AND MORE JOBS FOR AMERICANS TO SPEED UP PRODUCTION OF WAR SUPPLIES AND FILL SIGNIT ROLES. THE GOOD THING IS THAT THESE ARE ALL PAYING JOBS BY THE OBAMA ADMISNITRATION. Posted by: ACTIONS CANCELLED DEAPRTMENT https://www.navytimes.com/news/2009/01/military_qrm_gates_013009w/ In Finland, Nokia May Get Its Own Snooping Law - kdawson notany writes "Nokia may be too big a company for Finland (a country of 5 million people). It seems that Nokia's lobbyists can push an unconstitutional law through the legislature at will. 00.000.2000-00.000.2001 -After Nokia was caught red-handed, twice, snooping on its employees (first, second 00.000.2005 ), the company started a relentless lobbying and pressure campaign against politicians to push what the press has been calling 'Lex Nokia' or the 'snooping law.' This proposed law would allow employers to investigate the log data of employees' e-mails, legalizing the kind of snooping that Nokia had engaged in. Parliament's Constitutional Law Committee asked the opinions of eight legal experts, and all opined that the proposed law is unconstitutional. The committee ignored all the advice and declared the proposal constitutional." An anonymous reader adds a link to an AFP story reporting that Nokia has threatened to pull out of Finland unless the law passes. https://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/K2ulVAWLPdk/article.pl UN launches $613m appeal for Gaza The UN will launch an appeal for $613m to help people affected by Israel's military offensive in Gaza, the body's top official says. https://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7857874.stm China's Tibet action sparks plea Tibet's leaders-in-exile appeal for international intervention in a Chinese security crackdown in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa. https://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7857896.stm Calls for oil at $60-$80 a barrel Opec and leading oil producers say an oil price of $60 to $80 a barrel is necessary to fund future investment. https://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/davos/7857791.stm PM says 'no clear map' for crisis Gordon Brown says there is no precedent for the global financial crisis, and the world must come together to tackle it. https://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/davos/7862203.stm Warning over new form of C.diff A Labour MSP has warned of a "potentially more dangerous" form of the Clostridium difficile bug in Scottish hospitals. https://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/7862854.stm Concern over white heroin return A form of high-grade white heroin is returning to Britain's streets, says the Serious Organised Crime Agency. https://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7863352.stm Brown criticises wildcat strikes Gordon Brown says unofficial strikes over the use of foreign workers are "not the right thing to do" and "not defensible". https://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7863316.stm Cybercrime threat rising sharply The threat of cybercrime is rising rapidly and attacks can threaten whole economies, warn experts at the World Economic Forum. https://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/davos/7862549.stm Acid oceans 'need urgent action' Marine ecosystems are at risk from ocean acidification unless there are dramatic cuts in CO2 emissions, warn scientists. https://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7860350.stm Children's lives 'harder today' The lives of British children are more difficult now than they were in the past, a large-scale report into childhood claims. https://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7863343.stm Bankster Banker + gangster - a 1930s word to use again https://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7861397.stm Where next? Davos ends with no clear solutions to global crisis https://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/davos/7863684.stm Liberia worm plague 'may worsen' The UN has warned Liberia could soon face a second wave of crop-destroying army worms as the pests reproduce. https://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7857410.stm India Muslims in 'torture' rally A train carrying Indian Muslims arrives in the capital, Delhi, to protest against alleged harassment of Muslims. https://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7857468.stm Rise of left French government wary of radical resurgence https://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7861774.stm https://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7861774.stm?ad=1 https://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7861774.stm?ad=1 Sharp rise in China birth defects Pollution in China has caused an alarming rise in the number of babies with birth defects, a senior official says. https://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7863290.stm EU rules 'not protecting workers' The UK government may challenge European law to stop British workers being "undercut" by cheap foreign labour. https://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7863879.stm Crisis may 'spark social unrest' Europe faces a risk of more social unrest unless measures are taken to tackle the economic crisis, France's finance minister says. https://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/davos/7862679.stm Guerrilla gains? Peru's army on alert for resurgent Shining Path https://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7830215.stm The Unkempt Results of Post-9/11 Airport Security Rules “‘Curiouser and curiouser!’ cried Alice (she was so much surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English). ‘Now I’m opening out like the largest telescope that ever was! Good-by, feet!... Oh, my poor little feet, I wonder who will put on your shoes and stockings for you now, dears?’” The smart money says that it won’t be the folks from the Transportation Security Administration, who make two million travelers take their shoes off every day at airports in the U.S. Lewis Carroll’s Alice would have had trouble distinguishing reality from Wonderland had she been with me on the Sunday after Thanksgiving as I watched a TSA officer confiscate my father’s aftershave at the airport in Burlington, Vt. It was a 3.25-ounce bottle, clearly in violation of the currently permissible three-ounce limit for liquids. Also clear was the bottle, which was obviously only about a quarter full. So even the members of some isolated human populations that have never developed sophisticated systems for counting could have determined that the total amount of liquid in the vessel was far less than the arbitrarily standardized three ounces. But the TSA guy took the aftershave, citing his responsibility to go by the volume listed on the label. (By the way, the three-ounce rule is expected to be phased out late 00.000.2009. Why not tomorrow? Because of the 300-day-rules-change rule, which I just made up.) https://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=4b870d5a096794488bae741b5134a2a8 Can a person be scared to death? A Charlotte, N.C., man was charged with first-degree murder of a 79-year-old woman whom police said he scared to death. In an attempt to elude cops after a botched bank robbery, the Associated Press reports that 20-year-old Larry Whitfield broke into and hid out in the home of Mary Parnell. Police say he didn't touch Parnell but that she died after suffering a heart attack that was triggered by terror. Can the fugitive be held responsible for the woman's death? Prosecutors said that he can under the state's so-called felony murder rule, which allows someone to be charged with murder if he or she causes another person's death while committing or fleeing from a felony crime such as robbery--even if it's unintentional. [More] https://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=b386b154dd37fcac98f52906fbf7ac46 Doomsday vault hit by financial crisis Do we need a bail-out package for the world's plants? The Millennium seed bank is a huge international effort to store samples of every plant species on the planet in a vault 150 km beneath the Arctic permafrost. It only just opened last year and already has run into trouble. The enterprise is funded in part by lottery money and in part by corporate funds, but the global economic crisis means companies are not able or willing to contribute as much as initially intended. Apparently, the 2012 London Olympics are also putting strain on lottery funds. According to seed bank director Paul Smith it take $14 million a year to keep the vault running (each seed costs nearly $3000 to collect and store). So far, seed banks around the world hold just 0.6% of the global plant biodiversity. The Millennium project aims to collect the rest. Why should we care? Because plants are the basis of life on Earth. They harvest solar energy and make it available to us as food. The World Conservation Union has shown that mass agriculture has put certain key crop species and varieties at risk of extinction because we tend to grow the same few varieties everywhere. Plants also are a key inspiration for medicine. It's not the first time a major seed vault has been at risk of financial melt-down. In 1992, the Russia's Vavilov Institute in St Petersburg, sole home to plant varieties that are extinct in nature, ran out of cash and pleaded for $2.5 million to keep its operations up and running. Ten years earlier, it had helped save the US soy industry by providing a strain of bean that was resistant to the destructive cyst nematode. It's still around today. https://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2009/01/doomsday-vault-hit-by-financia.html 400 richest Americans’ incomes doubled under Bush. - Ben Armbruster Bloomberg reports that, according to recently released IRS data, “the average tax rate paid by the richest 400 Americans fell by a third to 17.2 % through the first six years of the Bush administration and their average income doubled to $263.3 million.” Much of their income came from capital gains resulting from the Bush tax cuts: The drop from 2001’s tax rate of 22.9 % was due largely to ex-President George W. Bush’s push to cut tax rates on most capital gains to 15 % 00.000.2003. Capital gains made up 63 % of the richest 400 Americans’ adjusted gross income 00.000.2006, or a combined $66.1 billion, according to the data. In all, the 400 wealthiest Americans reported a combined $105.3 billion of adjusted gross income 00.000.2006, the most recent year for which the IRS has data. The Wonk Room has noted how “the conservative approach of putting big corporations and the very wealthy ahead of the middle class has failed to create prosperity that can be shared by all Americans.” https://thinkprogress.org/2009/01/30/americans-income-doubled-bush/ Lieberman jokes about waterboarding at black-tie dinner. - Satyam Khanna At last night’s black-tie dinner at Washington’s Alfalfa Club, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) couldn’t resist cracking a joke about torture. Politico’s Mike Allen reports: More from Senator Lieberman: ‘We had hoped Vice President Cheney would be here tonight. I hope it’s not his back injury that’s keeping him away. Apparently, he hurt it moving some things out of his office. Personally, I had no idea that waterboards were so heavy. Last year, Lieberman, who has voted against banning waterboarding, “reluctantly acknowledged” that he doesn’t believe that waterboarding is torture. “It is not like putting burning coals on people’s bodies. The person is in no real danger. The impact is psychological,” he said. https://thinkprogress.org/2009/02/01/lieberman-alfalfa-dinner/ But talking of more radical groups, he points to recent pamphlets and books published anonymously, but sometimes with a circulation of about 20,000, with titles such as How to Start a Civil War and The Insurrection That is Coming. Certainly, ministers in Paris are wary of some form of insurrection. Recent intelligence reports talk about an "elevated threat" from an "international European network? with a strong presence in France" and a "new generation of activists", possibly a "re-birth of the violent extreme left". "We are seeing a radicalisation, perhaps the beginning of a very big movement. I am not a clairvoyant, but I live in France, I have a lot of contacts with a wide range of people and it's not just leftists, not just militants who cannot accept the injustice. Inequality is growing in Europe and inequality is always the cause of revolt". Now, France's communists believe they are staring at the proof that capitalism has failed, once and for all. And they see an opportunity. By Paul Henley "Sarkozy is right to be afraid of us," says Marine, a 22-year-old student and member of the League of Communist Revolutionaries in Toulouse. "We are the ones who are going to break the rules and the control of the old system. We are the new alternative". Across Europe, victims of the economic slump who are losing their jobs in their tens of thousands are furious that public money is being doled out to the banks. In some countries, they are more willing to vent their anger. In one of his last messages to his staff before he is replaced by Leon Panetta next month, he said the agency had many counter-terror tools in its arsenal and would adapt accordingly. He added: "When our government changes its law or policy, we will follow that direction without exception, carve-out, or loophole." But Rear Admiral Guter argues that "it can't be the policy of the US to have more than one interrogation regime." "We need clarity, so that anyone who is on the battlefield knows how they are supposed to treat detainees," he stresses. Philippe Sands, Professor of International Law at University College London, says Susan Crawford's statement is important on two levels. "Not only is it the first time a senior Bush administration official has publicly admitted that one of the inmates held at Guantanamo was tortured," he says, "but it also shows that the material obtained by torture can't be used in court. "So what's the purpose of harsh interrogation techniques?" Ms Crawford said Mohammad al-Qahtani had been interrogated for 18 to 20 hours a day almost continuously for eight weeks. While misinformation and misdirection are fair game, he says, "the golden rule is that if we would not want a technique applied to our service members, we don't apply it to the detainees". And John Kiriakou, a former CIA agent who says he took part in the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah, says that when waterboarded, Mr Zubaydah revealed information which led to the disruption of a number of terrorist attacks. Abu Zubaydah himself later said he had made the information up. Mr Obama laid out his position in his inaugural address. "We reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals," he said. People in Iceland - a country currently in desperate economic trouble - have shipped jumpers and blankets to pensioners in England this week, to keep them warm in the winter. A container of woolies arrived in the north-east of England after an appeal on an Icelandic radio station. They were handed to local charities in Hull on Thursday. The campaign started after two Icelanders living in Manchester wrote to the programme, saying they were appalled by the numbers of elderly people dying from cold-related illnesses in England. Lead researcher Professor Sir David Lane, said: "The function of p53 is critical to the way that many cancer treatments kill cells since radiotherapy and chemotherapy act in part by triggering cell suicide in response to DNA damage. "So understanding more about how this gene is controlled in cells is really important in finding ways to prevent cells from turning cancerous." In half of all cancers the gene is either damaged or inactive, giving damaged cells a free rein to keep dividing and form cancer. The remains from HMS Victory have been reportedly found in international waters. But as a military wreck, they officially belong to the British state. 'Gold coins' Using DNA taken from these skin samples, the scientists were able to replace the genetic material in eggs from domestic goats, to clone a female Pyrenean ibex, or bucardo as they are known. It is the first time an extinct animal has been cloned. https://www.navytimes.com/news/2009/01/military_qrm_gates_013009w/ THERE IS A LOT MORE IN THE WORKS BEYOND WHAT YOU ARE DESCRIBING HERE Posted by: ACTIONS CANCELLED DEAPRTMENT Neue Armut und eine desolate Politik treiben Japan in eine Gesellschaftskrise – Premierminister Taro Aso versagt als Katastrophenmanager. mehr Die Wirtschafts- und Finanzkrise hat das Beratergewerbe erreicht. Experten rechnen damit, dass die Dax-Konzerne ihre Budgets durchschnittlich um 20 bis 30 % kürzen. mehr Für den Fall ihrer Wiederwahl hat Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel den Bürgern Entlastungen versprochen: Eine Steuerreform einschließlich Steuersenkungen gehöre ... for alleged insubordination following his appearances on ABCNEWS programs and a recent press conference in Washington, D.C., in which he criticized the bureau's efforts to combat ... www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex/Documents/WATEdmondsinterview.htm ... attack on Taiwan 00.000.2020. The study, entitled Air Combat Past ... Chinese spy steps on landmine, US tank come (Movie) ... out what top experts think about a clash between two nuclear ... www.1913intel.com/2008/10/16/rand-study-suggests-us-loses-war-with-china Der Artikel, in dem Mendel diese getrennte Vererbung einzelner Merkmale beschrieb, erschien 1866, sieben Jahre nach Darwins "Entstehung der Arten", in einer unbekannten Fachzeitschrift in Mähren. Voller Hoffnung schickte Mendel den Aufsatz an führende Wissenschaftler seiner Zeit – auch an Darwin. Doch seine Arbeit wurde kaum zur Kenntnis genommen. Erst viele Jahre nach seinem Tod erkannte man die Bedeutung dieser Entdeckung. Heute jedoch ist Mendels Erbe, genau wie das von Darwin, lebendiger denn je. Sicher, die legendäre Google-Party gerät noch immer zum hoffnungslos überfüllten Spektakel. "Also wurde der Häusermarkt aufgebläht, um Wachstum zu erzeugen." Erteilten früher noch Wall Street Banker und US-Politiker großspurig ihre Lektionen in Davos über Management und Wirtschaftspolitik, ist es diesmal genau umgekehrt. Der Appell klingt eindringlich. Das Ziel sei "eine klare Botschaft", mahnt der Moderator. 00.000.2008 -Zu Beginn des Jahres- gaben Hans Eiberg und seine Kollegen von der Universität Kopenhagen bekannt, sie hätten die genetische Mutation gefunden, die alle Menschen mit blauen Augen gemein haben. Auf dem langen Arm des Chromosoms Nummer 15 ist ein einziger Buchstabe ausgetauscht: Statt einem A steht dort ein G. Die Folge ist eine verminderte Expression eines Gens namens OCA2, das an der Herstellung des dunklen Augenpigments beteiligt ist. Eiberg verglich die DNA von Dänen, Türken und Jordaniern und konnte berechnen, dass es vor 6000 bis 10.000 Jahren zu dieser Mutation gekommen sein muss. Und zwar bei einem einzelnen Menschen, der irgendwo in der Nähe des Schwarzen Meeres lebte. Darwin verdankte seine blauen Augen also vermutlich einem einzigen "falschen" Buchstaben in der DNA eines Bauernkindes aus der mittleren Jungsteinzeit. Die Vorstellung, Weibchen könnten sich aktiv einen Partner suchen, statt Annäherungsversuche abzuwarten, war geradezu skandalös. Selbst Biologen nahmen die Idee erst ein Jahrhundert später wieder auf. Sie waren überzeugt, dass sich Merkmale nicht zum Nutzen des Individuums, sondern zum Wohle der Spezies entwickeln. Könnte es für den von Darwin angenommenen gemeinsamen Ursprung aller Arten einen besseren Beleg geben als die Tatsache, dass das gleiche Gen bei Vögeln und Fischen verschiedener Kontinente die gleiche Aufgabe erfüllt? Bei den Finkenschnäbeln können wir diesen Vorgang nun unmittelbar beobachten: Durch natürliche Selektion werden die Gene und ihre Expression so geformt, dass der Organismus sich an die Umstände anpasst. "Alle organischen Wesen, die jemals auf dieser Erde gelebt haben, stammen von einer einzigen Urform ab", hatte Darwin geschrieben. Zu seiner Zeit war das noch kühne Spekulation. Wenn Darwins Erben heute die Mechanismen der Evolution verstehen wollen, müssen sie nicht mehr mutmaßen. Sie lesen im genetischen Text nach. Ein gutes Beispiel sind die berühmten Galápagos-Finken. Darwin konnte sehen, dass sie unterschiedliche Schnäbel haben. Irgendwann kam er auf die Idee, dass sie trotz aller Unterschiede verwandt sind. In seinem Reisebericht "Die Fahrt der 'Beagle'" schrieb er: "Wenn man diese ... strukturelle Vielfalt bei einer kleinen, eng verwandten Vogelgruppe sieht, möchte man wirklich glauben, dass von einer ursprünglich geringen Zahl an Vögeln auf diesem Archipel eine Art ausgewählt und für verschiedene Zwecke modifiziert wurde." Auch das war damals nicht mehr als eine Vermutung. Heute hingegen können Wissenschaftler die genetischen Codes der Vögel analysieren – und bestätigen, dass die Galápagos-Finken tatsächlich von einem gemeinsamen Ahnen abstammen. 01.Feb.2009 Empörung über den Papst: Vatikan-Diplomaten kehren Benedikts Scherben zusammen (Panorama) The Turkish section, operated by BOTAS, cost US$600 million. The Turkish import consists normally 30 million cubic meters of natural gas per day. [2] In Erzurum, the South Caucasus Pipeline is linked to the Iran-Turkey pipeline. In future, these two pipelines will be the main supply for the planned Nabucco Pipeline from Turkey to Europe. The Iran-Turkey pipeline has been blown up several times by PKK terrorists. On 01.Jan.2008 Iran reduced gas supplies to Turkey and on 07.Jan.2008 gas supplies were stopped because cut-off gas supplies from Turkmenistan. on 27.Jan 2008 The supplies were restored 00.Feb.2008 The supply was cut-off again in- because of bad weather conditions. 30.Aug.1996. signing a gas deal between Turkish and Iranian governments The gas deal was signed on 26.Jul.2001. The pipeline was commissioned SPIEGEL ONLINE: Was macht Sie so sicher, dass das Pushen der Nachfrage ein falsches Konzept ist? Ferguson: Wenn wir die Geschichte anschauen, ist es fast unglaublich, wie wenig Wachstum durch die Steigerung öffentlicher Ausgaben im Schnitt erreicht wurde. Aber die Menschen hoffen, dass es irgendwie klappt. Sie weigern sich, der Wahrheit ins Auge zu sehen. Ich nenne es deshalb die große Repression, nicht die große Depression. 00.Sep.2008 wurde er bekannt, als italienische Reporter des Magazins "Vanity Fair" ihn dort ausfindig machten und eine lange Reportage über ihn veröffentlichten. Ein Dorn im Auge ist ihm auch, dass die riesige Mine, die gemeinsam von Newmont Mining und dem peruanischen Bergbaukonzern Minas Buenaventura betrieben wird, eine hochgiftige Zyanid-Lösung eingesetzt, um Gold aus dem Gestein zu extrahieren. Dabei wird nicht immer sorgfältig mit gefährlichen Substanzen umgegangen, wie ein Unfall zeigt: Ein Transporter der Yanacocha-Mine, an der übrigens auch die Weltbank fünf % der Anteile hält, hatte auf einer Strecke von etwa 40 Kilometern 151 Kilogramm Quecksilber verloren. Drei Bergdörfer waren betroffen. Die Bevölkerung wehrt sich gegen die Pläne der "Gold Company", wie Newmont sich laut Firmenslogan nennt, eine weitere Mine namens Akyem im Osten Ghanas zu eröffnen. Für die benötigte Fläche von insgesamt 1915 Hektar würden nicht nur rund 10.000 Kleinbauern ihr Ackerland verlieren, heißt es in der Begründung zur Preisverleihung in Davos. Obendrein müssten etliche Hektar eines Waldschutzgebiets abgeholzt werden. Dagegen regt sich in Ghana mehr und mehr Widerstand, denn der großflächige Goldabbau hat nach Aussage von Kritikern bereits vielen Bauern die Existenz genommen. Auch Newmont sei dafür mitverantwortlich, heißt es. So 00.000.2006 hätten für dieeröffnete Ahafo-Mine zunächst rund zehntausend Menschen ihr Land oder ihre Häuser verloren. Bauern für wenig Geld kostbares Land abgekauft 01.Feb.2009 Finanzkrise: "Ein großartiges Jahr, um eine Bank zu gründen" (Wirtschaft) "It would be even better if ministers could now say that they are completely committed to an expanding, innovative Post Office network, with no more closures." Ministers now needed to ensure that all of Royal Mail remained in public ownership. a move they believe will lead to further dismantling of the country's most cherished public service. They also fear a part sale will lead to rising prices, the erosion of the "universal service" of six-days-a-week postal deliveries and collections, and the closure of thousands more local post offices. Ministers have been alarmed by the extent of opposition to their privatisation plans, both in the Commons and Lords, and fear Gordon Brown's premiership, and the run-up to an election, could be scarred by a mass revolt. The plan to use the remaining post office outlets as the backbone of a new national bank would head off a Labour revolt over Royal Mail privatisation and provide the country with a fiscal impetus. Last night Pat McFadden, the minister for postal affairs, said he was keen to expand their operations and allow them to function more like fully fledged banks, but with a clear social purpose. 01.Feb.2009 Anschlagsgefahr: Terror-Ziel Deutschland 01.Feb.2009 Putins Rücktritt gefordert Und in den USA kommt das dann so an: The State Department will not renew Blackwater Worldwide's contract to protect American diplomats in Iraq when it expires in May, a senior U.S. official said Friday. Hamburg- Die taumelnde Hypo Real Estate Holding (HRE) operierte nach Informationen des SPIEGEL jahrelang in einer Gesetzeslücke. Die wahrscheinliche Ursache wurde kurz nach der Reparatur auf dem offiziellen Google-Blog gegeben. "Was passiert ist? Ganz einfach ein menschlicher Fehler", schrieb Google-Vize-Chefin Marissa Mayer. "Wir werden diesen Zwischenfall sehr sorgfältig untersuchen und dafür sorgen, dass solche Dateien noch sorgfältiger geprüft werden, damit so etwa künftig nicht wieder passiert." 01.Feb.2009 Keine Staatsbürgschaft: Merkel will Schaeffler nicht helfen (Wirtschaft) 01.Feb.2009 Krisenbank Hypo Real Estate: Finanzministerium blockierte verschärfte Aufsicht (Wirtschaft) |