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Friday, 3 February 2012
New story: After Massium: Enough for Three by Xyggurat
Iran
- Sanctions v. negotiations on Iran Salon
- Canceling the Mullahs' Credit Card: How to sever Iran's financial lifeline.
- Mossad chief holds secret U.S. meetings on Iran nuclear threat, Senate panel reveals
- Risk of 'Accidental' Gulf War on the Rise
- Destination Persian Gulf? US nuclear sub and destroyer enter Red Sea
Middle East
- Afghanistan: Leon Panetta signals end to US combat role
- Did Obama Just Declare Victory in Afghanistan?
- Afghanistan: Violating the prime directive again--"Violating the prime directive was, in fact, the entire mission: we wanted to fix Afghanistan. We were willing to spend a lot of money as long as it produced results. What we've learned is that development aid doesn't work this way."
- U.S. Drones Patrolling Its Skies Provoke Outrage in Iraq NYT
- Pakistan is helping Afghan Taliban, says Nato report
War on Terror
- ACLU Wants Obama To Release Targeted Killing Records--"The ACLU filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit... seeking not only the legal justification for America's targeted killing program, but the process by which US citizens suspected of terrorism are placed on its so-called 'kill list.'"
- US 'no-fly' list of suspected terrorists doubles in 12 months
- Gary Johnson calls for repeal of the Patriot Act
- CIA Claims Publication of Bin Laden Death Photos Would 'Trigger Violence'
- Congress Woman Outraged as she is Wiretapped...but voted for the Patriot Act
Military
- Pentagon budget will shrink next year for the first time since 1998
- Real Time Panel Embarrasses Dana Rohrabacher After He Claims Obama Wants 'To Gut The Military'
- Republican Senators: Slash jobs instead of defense spending
- U.S. Defense Department can't account for billions for Iraq, audit finds
- NATO allies grapple with shrinking defense budgets
- Working in the US for .23 cents/hour--"Mike Elk, labor journalist explains how major defense corporations are benefiting from prison labor and undercutting wages for millions in the country."
- Quietly, U.S. Moves to Block Lawsuits by Military Families--"Why is the Justice Department trying to make it more difficult for service members and their families to sue the government for medical malpractice?"
TSA
- The TSA's War on Innocent Travelers--"The threat of terrorism has radically diminished. So why is Obama trying to expand the TSA's reach?"
- 'I'm going to destroy America and dig up Marilyn Monroe': British pair arrested in U.S. on terror charges over Twitter jokes
- The TSA Left Suspected 'Pipe Bombs' Lying Around for Six Hours
- TSA agent at D/FW Airport suspected of stealing iPads
- TSA agent at JFK stole $5K from passenger
Thursday, 2 February 2012
New story: Mugged by Hector Himeros
Just How Many Days Does Bill Murray REALLY Spend Stuck Reliving Groundhog Day?
Big Food
- Occupy the Food System--"Ninety-three percent of soybeans and 80 percent of corn grown in the United States are under the control of just one company. Four companies control up to 90 percent of the global trade in grain. Today, three companies process more than 70 percent of beef in the U.S.; four companies dominate close to 60 percent of the pork and chicken markets."
- View: Farmers Making $100B Don’t Need Subsidies
- The speculative scrum driving up food prices--"Bankers, hedge funds and sovereign wealth funds are gambling on hunger by speculating on food supply. Global regulators should step in to stop them."
- Taxpayer Subsidies for Junk Food Wasting Billions--"Federal subsidies for commodity crops are also subsidizing junk food additives like high fructose corn syrup, enough to pay for 19 Twinkies per taxpayer every year, according to Apples to Twinkies, a new report by U.S. PIRG. Meanwhile, limited subsidies for fresh fruits and vegetables would buy less than a quarter of an apple per taxpayer."
- Sugar High: The Dark History and Nasty Methods Used to Feed Our Sweet Tooth--"Sugar is now 20 percent of the American diet, but it's not just our health that suffers from its pervasiveness."
- Argentina accuses world's largest grain traders of huge tax evasion
- US judge allows Colombians to sue Chiquita
Monsanto
- Monsanto & Cancer Milk: Fox News Kills Story and Fires Reporters
- US to Start 'Trade Wars' with Nations Opposed to Monsanto, GMO Crops
- USDA Forces Whole Foods To Accept Monsanto
- A First: USDA Allows Monsanto to Approve its Own Crops
- Monsanto lobbyist uses power as FDA food czar to target Amish
- Dow and Monsanto Team Up On the Mother of All Herbicide Marketing Plans
- Monsanto's GMO Corn Linked To Organ Failure, Study Reveals
- Leaked documents reveal US diplomats actually work for Monsanto
- OWS Stands With Farmers, Says Enough! to Monsanto
- United States of Monsanto
Lawsuits
- Monsanto Accused In Suit Tied To Agent Orange
- Farmers Issue Lawsuit Against Monsanto for Widespread Genetic Manipulation
- Organic farmers take on Monsanto in Manhattan courtroom
- Trailer: David Versus Monsanto--Percy Schmieiser "lost his fight at the Supreme Court of Canada. But Schmeiser said he later successfully settled out of court on a related matter, receiving payment from the corporation." Schmeiser's ordeal is also featured in the upcoming documentary "SEEDS".
- Monsanto To Face Biopiracy Charges In India
Franken-Food
- USDA Quietly Approves New GMO Corn, While Touting Safety of Agent Orange Ingredient
- The Very Real Danger of Genetically Modified Foods
- Blast from the past: 'Terminator' seed sowing discord
Bad for your Health
- Food Industry Prepares for a Tough Report on Dioxins From the EPA
- Scientists say sugar is as toxic as alcohol – and there should be a drinking age for soda
- GOP pushes back on effort to limit kids' food ads--"House Republicans are siding with food companies resisting the Obama administration's efforts to pressure them to stop advertising junk food for children."
Wednesday, 1 February 2012
New story: Dad's Substitute by Peterbilt
Climate Change
- Carbon emissions 'will defer Ice Age'
- What Happened to all the Snow? --Some places are getting record highs, while others (almost) record lows.
- 55 major European airports join carbon emissions program, industry group says
- Lying With Charts, Global Warming Edition
- Urgent action needed to prevent England's rivers drying up
- Boreal ducks threatened by climate change--"Ducks doomed by earlier snow melts brought on by global warming...."
- Blast from the Past: The secret evidence of global warming Bush tried to hide
Ecology
- Tiger skins and bones seized in Thai customs swoop
- Exotic animal trade grows in Asia--"Rare animals have become status symbols. They are trophies for people to demonstrate their wealth and the collateral damage of Asia's economic rise."
- Rebel hero who has 'betrayed' the last of Aceh's orang-utans--"Governor has dismayed supporters by allowing the destruction of a Sumatran forest where the apes live."
- Poaching for meat poses new extinction risk to Thai elephants--"Thailand's revered national symbol is being poached not just for its tusks, but now for its meat."
- S.African rangers kill poachers in Kruger park
- Pythons Are Wiping Out Mammals in the Everglades
- Extinct Galapagos tortoise may just be hiding
Oceans
- Australia Tells Japan Whalers to Stay Out of it Waters - Again
- Carbon dioxide is "driving fish crazy"
- Scientists: Dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico Dying 'At an Alarming Rate'
Environment
- According To Fox News If You Love The Planet You Hate People
- Obama holds strong to protect Grand Canyon from uranium mining
- EPA, job killer or people saver?
- Report: Wastewater preferable to wasting water
- The Devastating Costs of the Amazon Gold Rush
Pollution
- Mexico City holds its breath as leaders look for solutions to rubbish crisis
- Seven detained over China river cadmium spill
- Accumulating 'microplastic' threat to marine environment and food chain
- Dallas Meat Packing plant investigated after drone images reveal pollution
- Food crops damaged by pollution crossing continents
BP
- Halliburton, others appeal oil spill safety citations
- BP email hushed up oil spill rate estimate as Gulf rig was sinking
- Report: White House Pressured Scientists to Underestimate BP Spill Size
- BP must cover some Transocean liabilities for oil spill
- Ruling favors Halliburton indemnity claim in Gulf oil spill
Oil Spill
- Oil is more toxic than previously thought, study finds
- Deepwater Horizon's missed lessons--"Not two years after the Deepwater Horizon debacle, the U.S. is proceeding with plans to expand oil drilling instead of pushing alternatives."
- BP Oil Disaster a Distant Memory for Oil Companies Eyeing the Gulf Again
- West Africa Oil Boom Overlooks Tattered Environmental Safety Net
- Chevron to face charges over Brazil spill
Tuesday, 31 January 2012
New story: Two Muscular Guests in the Garçonnière by R Christoopher Cooper
Eurozone Crisis
- Eurozone crisis: How the figures stack up
- The great EU conjuring trick--"The original players behind the single currency claim astonishing sleights of hand have brought the euro to its knees."
- A Bluffing Game: European Politicians in Denial as Greece Unravels
- S&P says Greek default is essentially a given--Getting ever closer to bankruptcy.
- Krugman: The Austerity Debacle NYT
- IMF's Christine Lagarde warns of '1930s moment'
- George Soros says 'debt crisis could destroy European political union'
- Zombie banks are dragging Ireland into the ground
- UK debt passes £1 trillion but there is still good news
- France pitches 'Robin Hood' tax
Royal Bank of Scotland
- Bailed-out RBS spends millions on Washington lobbyists--"Bailed-out bank has spent over £2.5m of British taxpayers' money to influence politicians reforming US financial law."
- Anger at further RBS bonus payouts--The uproar got RBS chief executive Stephen Hester to decline the bonus.
- Blocking RBS bonus 'would cause chaos', Iain Duncan Smith warns
- Former RBS boss Fred Goodwin stripped of knighthood
Hostile Takeover
- Auction 2012: How The Bank Lobby Owns Washington
- The Quiet Coup--"The crash has laid bare many unpleasant truths about the United States. One of the most alarming, says a former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, is that the finance industry has effectively captured our government—a state of affairs that more typically describes emerging markets, and is at the center of many emerging-market crises."
- Moyers & Company Show 103: How power and influence helped big banks rewrite the rules of our economy.
- Missing Funds at MF Global May Have 'Vaporized'--"Nearly three months after MF Global Holdings Ltd. collapsed, officials hunting for an estimated $1.2 billion in missing customer money increasingly believe that much of it might never be recovered, according to people familiar with the investigation."
- Bank of America Settlements Impede Fraud Probe, Arizona Says
- Freddie Mac Betting Against Struggling Homeowners
- Homeowner wins back her house after fighting foreclosure--"Karen Mena managed to get a foreclosure on her San Bernardino home rescinded. But she continues to negotiate with Bank of America over loan terms and could still lose the house."
- Banks imposing more fees, taking away free checking accounts
- Banks Taketh, but Don't Giveth NYT
Banks Transfer
- The Numbers Are In: "[A] staggering 5.6 million big bank customers have switched banks in the last 90 days"
- Personal Finance: Bank Transfer Day saw 600,000 switch
- If you don't like the way big banks are run, move your money
Monday, 30 January 2012
New story: Transforming You To Your Wishes by Titan
Do-Nothing Congress
- House Republicans Fear They Really Are a Do-Nothing Congress
- Obama blames a "deeply ideological" Congress for lack of action--"President Obama says it's not his relationship with Congress that's to blame for the lack of congressional action on his agenda -- but a 'deeply ideological' Congress that 'sees a political advantage in not getting stuff done.'"
- Congress logs most futile legislative year on record
- Polls: Job approval for Congress sinks to new low--How low can they go?
- NBC/WSJ poll: Majority would vote out every member of Congress
- Congress Doesn't Want to Give Up Its Insider Trading Privileges
- Republicans derail US ambassador to El Salvador
Keystone XL
- Obama rejects Keystone pipeline from Canada to Texas
- Demand That John Boehner Be Expelled Or Resign For Keystone XL Scandal--"Boehner's official acts on behalf of Canada's tar sands industry are scandalous because he owns stock in the aforementioned seven companies, and he is using his financial gain as impetus to hold 160 million Americans’ tax cuts hostage in return for immediate approval of the Keystone pipeline."
- Lobbying Disclosures Reveal Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels Used State Dollars To Lobby For Keystone XL Pipeline--And Rep. Waxman wants to 'subpoena the Koch Brothers!'
- Republicans attempt to strip Obama of authority to reject oil pipeline plans.
- GOP tries new strategy to get Canada pipeline--By piggybacking it on a bill.
Lobbying
- Elizabeth Warren: 'Washington Now Works for Those Who Can Hire an Army of Lobbyists'
- Obama Campaign Refunding Money Donated by Federal Lobbyists
- Political Contributions from Financial Sector Increased 700% Since 1990
Debt and Taxes
- What If We Paid Off The Debt? The Secret Government Report
- Higher Taxes Help the Richest, Too NYT
- Billionaire Bill Gates Calls For Increasing Taxes On The Rich: 'That's Just Justice'
- Wealthy Bloomberg Subscribers Call for Higher Taxes
- Norquist: Republicans Will Impeach Obama If He Doesn't Extend Bush Tax Cuts
- Obama's and Bush's effects on the deficit in one graph
- Comparing Obama and Reagan’s economic records
Bailout and Bonuses
- Treasury Department approves huge paydays for execs at firms who received TARP bailout money--"Government approved pay packages worth $5M or more for 49 executives."
- Report: Taxpayers still owed $133B from bailout
- Barclays chief: Large bankers' bonuses 'rewards for success'
Sunday, 29 January 2012
New story: Tim's Adventure 22 by Wordshop
Google Goes Evil?
- Google announces privacy changes across products; users can't opt out--And these changes, which will come into effect on March 1, won't affect Apps for business, government.
- Google+ pseudonym policy lets Google reject names that aren't "established"--And they're into censorsing profiles
- Use Google? Time to Get Real About Protecting Your Digital Self
- Evil, Greed, And Antitrust Aren't Google’s Real Problems, Relevancy Is
- Dirty little secrets: The trouble with Google's social search
Privacy
- Europe proposes a "right to be forgotten"--You can look into how to permanently delete your Facebook account.
- Facebook's Timeline is a tweak too far
- Department of Justice Misdirection on Cloud Computing and Privacy
- The World's Worst Privacy Policy
- O2 shares your mobile phone number with every website you visit--O2 has now fixed this and claims that now it only shares customers' numbers with 'trusted partners'
- Tweets still must flow--"Starting today, we give ourselves the ability to reactively withhold content from users in a specific country — while keeping it available in the rest of the world. We have also built in a way to communicate transparently to users when content is withheld, and why."
- Twitter Ignored Request To Keep Subpoena Under Wraps
- Man sued for keeping company Twitter followers
Search
- Why We Desperately Need a New (and Better) Google
- Google Employs Users to Help Spot, Block Spam Sites Sites
- Google to content farms: It's war
- Google's War on Nonsense NYT
- The Dirty Little Secrets of Search
Talk
- The Art of Conversation Salon
- If Everyone's Talking, Who Will Listen?
- "We are becoming a nation of narrow thinkers, thanks to the Internet, newspapers, and schools."
- Online blowhards are killing democracy Salon
- How the Internets will transform us all into Nazis--Claims a guy who wants to keep the masses uninformed.
- Listening to the Dot-Commenters
- Matt Gemmell: Comments Commentary
- Data suggests people using pseudonyms leave better comments
Groupthink
- Sharing Information Corrupts Wisdom of Crowds
- Slashdot Founder Questions Crowd’s Wisdom
- Fark creator says wisdom of crowds is overrated
- When the "Wisdom of Crowds" turns on itself: IMDB Edition
- Digital Maoism: The Hazards of the New Online Collectivism--What constitutes "truth" in Wikipedia?
Saturday, 28 January 2012
New story: Leather Lovers 3 by Iainlthr
Oil Emargo
- EU Iran sanctions: Ministers adopt Iran oil imports ban--Around 95% of the world's tankers won't be transporting the oil.
- Sanctions take toll on ordinary Iranians
- Strait of Hormuz Will Stay Open, U.S. NATO Ambassador Says--And Britain, US and France sent warships there.
- Iran oil ban will up oil prices by 30%: IMF
- Tehran Pushes to Ditch the US Dollar--Wasn't this what Gadaffi wanted to do before?
- Revenge for EU Sanctions: Iran Set to Turn Off Oil Supply to Europe
- We've hit "peak oil"; now comes permanent price volatility
Iran
- How the media is legitimising war with Iran as if Iraq never happened
- US has arrested Iranian scientist--"The United States has arrested and charged an Iranian semiconductor scientist with violating U.S. export laws by buying high-tech U.S. lab equipment, a development likely to further worsen Iranian-U.S. tensions."
- 'Israel will indeed strike Iran in 2012'
- Israel Senses Bluffing in Iran's Threats of Retaliation NYT
- History of U.S. Intervention in Iran - 1953 Until Present
Israel
- Publisher Regrets Suggesting That Israel Assassinate Obama
- The "anti-Semitism" smear campaign against CAP and Media Matters rolls on Salon
- An interview with Norman Finkelstein: Israel 'has lost a lot of ground'
- UN tells Israel to halt demolition of Palestinian homes
- Secret EU report launches scathing attack on Israel
War on Terror
- US marine in Haditha case 'should serve no time'--"A US marine who admitted charges linked to the killing of 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians in 2005 should face no time in detention, a judge has recommended."
- Rules of American justice: a tale of three cases Salon
- Former CIA officer charged in leaks--What about those who were engaged in torture?
- Railroad Association Says Hack Memo Was Inaccurate--Was the DHS crying wolf?
- We Are Not The Dead: soldiers' faces before, during and after serving in Afghanistan
Police State and Surveillance
- Creeping authoritarianism on Capitol Hill Salon
- Judge: Americans can be forced to decrypt their laptops
- CIA Tracks Public Information For The Private Eye
- WikiLeaks Supporters Lose Court Bid to Protect Twitter Records
- FBI releases plans to monitor social networks
- Hawaii may keep track of all Web sites visited
- Supreme Court Court Rejects Willy-Nilly GPS Tracking
TSA
- TSA turns away Sen. Rand Paul at airport checkpoint--His father, Sen. Ron Paul, says that the "police state in this countrry is growing out of control."
- Opting Out of Naked Scans at the Airport: A Protest Movement--"[T]he status quo demeans a free people; and unless a critical mass of Americans gum up the works, TSA is sure to transgress against us more in time.
- TSA agents steal $40,000 from passenger luggage; sentenced to only five months in prison--" Any normal person found guilty of stealing $40,000 from, say, a bank or an employer, would likely be sentenced toat leastfive years of prison. But when you work for the US Transportation Security Administration (TSA), you can expect to be given special legal treatment and sent on your way."
- Woman Claims Husband's Ashes Went Missing After TSA Made Her Move Them To Checked Baggage
- Random Acts of TSA Kindness, and Other (Mainly) Good Airport News
- More Friendly TSA Tales -- Plus, Is It Possible Ever to Change?
- It's fun to stay as the TSA
Feds
- FBI agent admits deleting emails amid terror probe--"An FBI agent testified Thursday that she deleted potentially sensitive emails covering several months when she was helping spearhead an investigation of a terror suspect."
- ICE mistakenly deports a 14-year-old U.S. citizen to Colombia: The Colombian govt is now refusing to release her from a detention center
- Another one in the net: Thou shalt not watch whales eating







