Shoreline Spotted on Saturn's Moon TitanThe idea of a large sea on Saturn's moon Titan was all but ruled out after the Cassini mission found no evidence early in its mission.
But a new image shows what scientists think is a shoreline with bays and channels feeding liquid into a possible sea.
Scientists have long speculated that Titan might contain liquid methane or other hydrocarbons. The chemistry resembles prebiotic Earth, but Titan lacks liquid water. Nonetheless, earlier this month another group of re... (more)
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Wake Up: By Cindy Sheehan So we have come to cash this check - a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. -- Martin Luther King Jr., August 28, 1963, "I Have a Dream" speech
What Bush's Katrina shows once again is that my son died for nothing. If you listen to Bush - and ... (more)
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UK may increase Iraq deployment Britain said overnight it would, if necessary, increase the number of troops in Iraq as fears that the country is sliding towards civil war increase.
Britain, the main ally of the United States in Iraq, has about 8500 soldiers deployed there and has frequently said its soldiers would stay until the Iraqi government asked them to leave.
"We don't need them (more troops) at the moment, if that's necessary, of course we would do that," British Defence Minister John Re... (more)
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Britain rules out war over Teheran's nuclear planBritain ruled out military action to halt Iran's nuclear programme yesterday on the eve of a diplomatic battle by the West to take Teheran to the United Nations Security Council for possible political and economic sanctions.
As hostile rhetoric between the West and Iran intensified, Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, sought to allay fears that the dispute would ultimately lead to war.
He said that an intransigent speech at the UN a day earlier by the Iranian preside... (more)
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IRAQ: New York Times Reporter SlainBaghdad, 19 Sept. (AKI) - The body of an Iraqi journalist working for the US daily New York Times was found abandoned in a street near the southern city of Basra on Monday. Four gunmen, apparently wearing police uniforms, abducted the reporter, Fakher Al-Tamini, from his home on Sunday night. The group told his wife they were taking Al-Tamini away as part of a "routine investigation."
Al-Tamimi, 38, began working for the New York Times in Iraq in 2003 and was also employed as a re... (more)
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Military Recruiters Are Professional LiarsA friend recently asked me what I would tell a young man thinking about enlisting in the military. (He had in mind his son.) I would tell him this, which I wish someone had told me:
Kid, you are being suckered. You are being used. You need to think carefully before signing that enlistment contract.
First, notice that the men who want to send you to die were draft-dodgers. President Bush was of military age during Vietnam, but he sat out the war in the Air National G... (more)
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Crude Oil, Gasoline Rise as Storm Heads for the Gulf of MexicoSept. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil and gasoline rose, as natural gas surged to an all-time high, on forecasts that Tropical Storm Rita will strengthen into a hurricane and disrupt production in the Gulf of Mexico.
Rita, which gained strength over the Bahamas as it headed toward southern Florida, may become a hurricane within a day and approach the Texas coast by Sept. 24. Hurricane Katrina last month caused the shutdown of eight oil refineries and forced at least 10 others to slow ... (more)
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O'Reilly wished that hurricane had flooded U.N. building, added that he 'wouldn't have rescued them'On his September 14 radio show, Fox News host Bill O'Reilly publicly wished that Hurricane Katrina had flooded the United Nations building in New York. O'Reilly then added: "And I wouldn't have rescued them."
From the September 14 broadcast of Westwood One's The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly:
O'REILLY: Bush to address the U.N., says we must be steadfast in battling terrorism. I'm sure all the U.N. people fell asleep. They don't really care about anything over ... (more)
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Poll Shows Americans Want Troops Brought Home; Top Dems Ignore the Publicby David Sirota
A new Wall Street Journal/NBC poll tells us what we already know: a strong majority of Americans favor bringing troops home from Iraq. Specifically, 55% support a withdrawal, while just 36% back Bush's position that current troop levels should be maintained.
This latest poll is consistent with other polls that show Americans oppose the war, want an exit strategy, believe the conflict is damaging U.S. national security, and think the war is hurting t... (more)
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Bush Katrina Ratings Fall After SpeechThirty-five percent (35%) of Americans now say that President Bush has done a good or excellent job responding to Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. That's down from 39% before his speech from New Orleans.
The latest Rasmussen Reports survey shows that 41% give the President poor marks for handling the crisis, that's up 37% before the speech.
Fifty percent (50%) of Americans favor the main proposal from that speech--a federal commitment of $200 billion to help reb... (more)
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Camera spies in million cars to trap toll cheatsCARS will spy on each other to catch drivers trying to evade road tolls under a scheme being proposed to enforce nationwide congestion charging. More than a million vehicles would be fitted with cameras to photograph the numberplates of those who failed to pay.
The Government is planning a “pay-as-you-drive” system under which fuel duty and road tax could be replaced by tolls for each mile travelled.
The rates would vary according to the level of congest... (more)
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New book promotes sex with childrenPh.D. 'expert' claims pederasty good for 'nurturing,' 'mentoring' young boys
A new book published by Haworth Press features multiple Ph.D. "experts" claiming that sex with children "can benefit" boys and even serve a "mentoring function."
"Same-Sex Desire and Love in Greco-Roman Antiquity and in the Classical Tradition of the West" features "scholarly" treatises by a raft of mostly-PhD academics, all praising earlier civilizations – particularly Greece and Rom... (more)
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Police Fortify Numbers for War ProtestsBy Del Quentin Wilber
D.C. police have canceled days off and are planning to deploy several hundred officers during an antiwar demonstration next weekend that will include a march near the White House, but officials said they expect no trouble.
Saturday's rally, part of a weekend of protests and counter-protests, will be the first demonstration allowed to surround the White House in more than a decade. It is the first major rally to occur since a D.C. law that requi... (more)
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FBI joins drills on nuke terrorMilitary, U.S. law enforcement step up weapons-of-mass-destruction exercises
WASHINGTON – On the heels of numerous reports suggesting al-Qaida has already infiltrated the U.S. with nuclear weapons and operatives, the FBI has joined the Pentagon in simulation exercises dealing with the threat of nuclear terror.
The FBI conducted a drill in North Carolina last month in which the Joint Terrorism Task Force, based in Fayetteville and Charlotte, dealt with a scenar... (more)
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Do blacks believe levee was blown?Washington Post columnist 'stunned' by 'reasonable' people suggesting plot
Was the levee break that precipitated the flooding of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina the result of some government conspiracy against blacks?
A Washington Post columnist says he's amazed by the large number who believe such a notion.
"I was stunned in New Orleans at how many black New Orleanians would tell me with real conviction that somehow the levee breaks had been engi... (more)
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Threatened with eviction at gunpoint, the Big Easy holdouts are now hailed as heroesJust days since they were being urged, sometimes at gunpoint, to leave their homes, the hardy band of residents who sat tight in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina are now being encouraged to stay put and help to restart the city.
In a remarkable U-turn, the authorities - who had previously reviled, goaded and even threatened force against the few hundred remaining "holdouts" - are hailing them as examples of the indomitable spirit needed to rebuild the "Big Easy".
... (more)
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Boat Owners Subjected to 'Nazi Style' Armed Searches by Homeland SecurityBy VIRGINIA HENNESSEY
Two of the Moss Landing Harbor residents who were the subjects of random boat searches during Labor Day Weekend say their experiences were closer to armed invasions than the friendly "safety inspections" characterized by U.S. Coast Guard officials.
Both residents said search crews entered the harbor in inflatable boats with machine guns mounted on their bows. Then, carrying M-16 rifles, they approached residents and boarded and searched their b... (more)
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Former Officer Behind 1999 Apartment Bombings Probe in Custody AgainFormer FSB officer, Mikhail Trepashkin, was taken in custody Sunday after a Russian court overturned his early release. Trepashkin had won support of human rights activist for his efforts to investigate alleged government complicity in the country’s 1999 apartment bombings that claimed over 200 lives.
Former FSB officer, Mikhail Trepashkin, was taken in custody Sunday after a Russian court overturned his early release, his wife informed the Interfax news agency.
... (more)
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Alarm as prescriptions of Ritalin to children reach a record highThe number of children being prescribed drugs for so-called behavioural disorders has soared to a record high, causing alarm that children are being unnecessarily "drugged into submission".
Prescriptions of Methylphenidate - most commonly sold as Ritalin - rose to 359,100 last year, a rise of 344,400 since 1995. Figures from the Prescriptions Pricing Authority reveal that there has been a 180-fold increase in prescriptions since 1991 when only 2,000 were issued in England.
... (more)
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Will Big Brother ride in your car?This week’s edition of The Economist (subscription required) describes a number of technology initiatives around the world that aim to have your car tell your government what you’re doing.
In the United Arab Emirates, IBM has a $125 million government contract to design and develop a real-time telematics service for the UAE’s accident-plagued motorists that, among other things, uses GPS to monitor a car’s speed and compare it to the posted speed limit, send... (more)
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Video camera system gives State Patrol eyes in the sky They're helpful, mute little eyes in the sky, and soon there will be more of them.
The Minnesota Department of Transportation continues to install video cameras throughout Duluth and parts of the North Shore. New high-resolution cameras also have sprung up along the Interstate 35 corridor to the Twin Cities and soon will appear on the Blatnik and Bong bridges.
A State Patrol dispatcher monitors the cameras from MnDOT's Duluth district headquarters off Mesaba Avenue... (more)
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UWGB students answer chancellor’s stamp act: T-shirt protest staged after art is pulled from school exhibitA decision to pull a piece of art from a University of Wisconsin-Green Bay exhibit has spurred activism on the part of students and discussion about First Amendment issues across the campus and in the community.
The art in question is a sheet of mock postage stamps by artist Al Brandtner showing President Bush with a gun pointed at his head, captioned “Patriot Act.”
Some say it advocates assassination. Others say it’s free expression.
... (more)
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Increased Number of Hunger Strikers at GuantánamoWashington, September 17 (RHC)-- The number of hunger strikers at the U.S. Naval Base in Guantánamo has increased, as 11 more detainees have now joined the protest action. The strike began over one month ago and currently involves 131 detainees, according to Major Jeff Weir, a spokesman of the prison camp.
Twenty-one protesters were hospitalized at the prison's clinic due to their deteriorated health and, according to the spokesman, 20 of them are being administered saline ... (more)
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