Something that I want to FORGET about my president: "Out of the rubbles of Trent Lott's house -- he's lost his entire house -- there's going to be a fantastic house. And I'm looking forward to sitting on the porch."
That's what he said on September 2, 2005!!!
Did Trent Lott rebuild his house?

Left I on the News: "'Preventive Psychiatry E-Newsletter charged Monday that the reason Veterans Affairs Secretary Anthony Principi stepped down earlier this month was the growing scandal surrounding the use of uranium munitions in the Iraq War.

'Writing in Preventive Psychiatry E-Newsletter No. 169, Arthur N. Bernklau, executive director of Veterans for Constitutional Law in New York, stated, 'The real reason for Mr. Principi's departure was really never given, however a special report published by eminent scientist Leuren Moret naming depleted uranium as the definitive cause of the 'Gulf War Syndrome' has fed a growing scandal about the continued use of uranium munitions by the US Military.'

'Bernklau continued, 'This malady (from uranium munitions), that thousands of our military have suffered and died from, has finally been identified as the cause of this sickness, eliminating the guessing. The terrible truth is now being revealed.'

'He added, 'Out of the 580,400 soldiers who served in GW1 (the first Gulf War), of them, 11,000 are now dead! By the year 2000, there were 325,000 on Permanent Medical Disability. This astounding number of 'Disabled Vets' means that a decade later, 56% of those soldiers who served have some form of permanent medical problems!' The disability rate for the wars of the last century was 5 percent; it was higher, 10 percent, in Viet Nam.

'The VA Secretary (Principi) was aware of this fact as far back as 2000,' wrote Bernklau. 'He, and the Bush administration have been hiding these facts, but now, thanks to Moret's report, (it) ... is far too big to hide or to cover up!''"

Brazil's coffee industry has brewed up a plan to serve up to 1 million schoolchildren a free breakfast -- complete with a cup of java.

Brazil's Coffee Industry Association (Abic) is seeking the support of 50 roasters to launch a pilot "Adopt-a-School" program to feed breakfast to 1 million Brazilian school children aged 6 to 18.

Under the plan, a coffee roaster would adopt a school of at least 500 children and provide them with a free breakfast of coffee, milk and bread. The annual cost of the program for each school is estimated at 33,500 reais ($15,000).

"Kids have soft drinks at school. ... Why not coffee instead to make them alert and attentive?" Professor Darcy Lima, project scientific adviser, told the association's annual conference in northeast Brazil.
"It's normal here. The project looks like a good idea."

There is a news that it has been found a document in Iran by IAEA that one European diplamat described as a "cookbook" for the the enriched uranium core of a nuclear weapon. The document has been seen by Reuters and it is "on the casting and machining of enriched, natural and depleted uranium into hemispherical forms".
But a U.S. nuclear expert, David Albright of the Institute for Science and International security, said it was far from a step-by-step guide to producing a bomb core.

CNN.com - 'Can I quit now?' FEMA chief wrote as Katrina raged - Nov 3, 2005: "Rep. Charlie Melancon, whose district south of New Orleans was devastated by the hurricane, posted a sampling of e-mails written by Federal Emergency Management chief Michael Brown on his Web site on Wednesday.
The Democratic lawmaker cited several e-mails that he said show Brown's failures. In one, as employees looked for direction and support on the ravaged Gulf Coast, Brown offered to 'tweak' the federal response.
Two days after Katrina hit, Marty Bahamonde, one of the only FEMA employees in New Orleans, wrote to Brown that 'the situation is past critical' and listed problems including many people near death and food and water running out at the Superdome.
Brown's entire response was: 'Thanks for the update. Anything specific I need to do or tweak?'"

Lister CS Clone Listeroid slow speed diesel engines and generators: "LISTEROID GENERATORS
Some listeroid engines are being manufactured to run at higher rpms to produce increased horsepower. I believe this takes away from major advantages of the engine. These include longevity, slower burn cycle, and the more pleasant sound of a slow speed listeroid diesel.
The listeroid single cylinder engine weighs around 700 lbs and produces 6 HP at 650 rpm and 8 HP at 850 rpm. The listeroid twin cylinder engine weighs around 1300lbs and produces 12 HP at 650 rpm and 16 HP at 850 rpm.
"

Alito's idea that women are not disadvantaged when they can not take maternity leave seems absurd, both intellectually and factually.

Angry Bear: "In 2000, Alito authored an opinion in which he ruled that the FMLA was an instance of unconstitutional congressional overreach. In particular, he said that the FMLA was unconstitutional because there was no evidence for the notion that women are disadvantaged in the workplace when they are not allowed to take family leave. Furthermore, he argued, the requirement that everyone be guaranteed 12 weeks of unpaid family leave was a disproportionately strong remedy"

THE BRAD BLOG: "OH MY OHIO: Noe Indicted on 3 Counts in Bush/Cheney '04 Money-Laundering Scheme!": "A federal grand jury has indicted Tom Noe, the former Maumee coin dealer suspected of laundering money into President Bush�s reelection campaign, Mr. Noe�s attorney told The Blade today.

Gregory A. White, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, will hold a news conference in Toledo to announce �a major public corruption indictment.�

The U.S. Attorney�s office announced in April that it was investigating Mr. Noe for possible violations of federal campaign finance laws. Sources have told The Blade that authorities believe Mr. Noe gave money to several people who then contributed to the Bush-Cheney campaign."

Cheney Plan Exempts CIA From Bill Barring Abuse of Detainees: "The Bush administration has proposed exempting employees of the Central Intelligence Agency from a legislative measure endorsed earlier this month by 90 members of the Senate that would bar cruel and degrading treatment of any prisoners in U.S. custody."

Katrina vanden Heuvel: Fitzgerald Must Broaden Investigation : "'The CIA leak issue is only the tip of the iceberg,' Congressman Jerry Nadler told me when I ran into him on the street near our offices on Friday afternoon. He was quick to tell me of a call -- led by Congressman Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) and Nadler, along with 39 of their House colleagues -- for Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation to be expanded to examine whether the White House -- President, Vice-President, and members of the WH's Iraq War Group -- conspired to deliberately deceive Congress into authorizing the war.And, as Nadler reminded me, lying to Congress is a crime under several federal statutes.

This is the first call by members of Congress for an expansion of Fitzgerald's probe, amid mounting evidence that there was a well-orchestrated effort by what former State Department aide Larry Wilkerson dubbed last week, "the Cheney-Rumsfeld axis" to hijack US foreign policy and knowingly mislead the Congress in order to get its support for an unlawful war.

"We are no longer just talking about a Republican culture of corruption and cronyism," Nadler says. "We now have reason to believe that high crimes may have been committed at the highest level, wrongdoing that may have led us to war and imperiled our national security."

Zuppa Inglese: "it actually mean english soup but zuppa inglese was born in napoli.

The king ferdinando di borbone recived lady hamilton's unexpected visit (she had a relatinship with the duke of wellington).

there wasn't the time to prepare an elaborate dessert so the king gave the orther to prepare 'something sweet'.

so in the kitchen the invented this extemporary mixture served in a bowl like a soup.

so when the king saw the waiter bring this bowl with a strange soup in it said 'date la zuppa all'inglese' (give the soup to the English) meaning lady hamilton.


-----PASTRY CREAMS-----
1 qt Milk
1 1/2 c Sugar
12 Egg yolks
2/3 c Unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tbsp Grated orange zest
2 tsp Vanilla extract
4 oz Bittersweet chocolate
1/2 tsp Cinnamon


BRING THE MILK and half the sugar to a boil in a large saucepan.
Whisk the egg yolks in mixing bowl and beat in the remaining sugar.
Sift in the flour and beat it in. Beat 1/3 of the boiling milk into the egg mixture. Return the remaining milk to a boil and beat in the egg mixture, continuing to beat until the pastry cream thickens and comes to a boil.
Cook, beating about 1 minute. Remove the cream from the heat and pour half into each of 2 bowls. Stir the orange zest and vanilla extract into one and the chocolate and cinnamon into the other. Press plastic wrap against the surface of each and refrigerate until cold.

"

Knight Ridder Reporter Files Harrowing Account After Stint With Iraqi Military: "In a remarkable report published widely Thursday, Tom Lasseter, longtime Knight Ridder correspondent in its Baghdad bureau, reveals what he learned as possibly the first American journalist to embed with an all-Iraqi military operation in the war -- and it isn't pretty.

Lasseter writes that 'a week spent eating, sleeping and going on patrol with a crack unit of the Iraqi army' (the 4,500-member 1st Brigade of the 6th Iraqi Division) suggests that the Bush exit strategy of turning over military control to the Iraqis 'is in serious trouble. Instead of rising above the ethnic tension that's tearing their nation apart, the mostly Shiite troops are preparing for, if not already fighting, a civil war against the minority Sunni population.'

Indeed, the soldiers he traveled with are 'seeking revenge against the Sunnis who oppressed them during Saddam Hussein's rule.'"

Knight Ridder Reporter Files Harrowing Account After Stint With Iraqi Military: "In a remarkable report published widely Thursday, Tom Lasseter, longtime Knight Ridder correspondent in its Baghdad bureau, reveals what he learned as possibly the first American journalist to embed with an all-Iraqi military operation in the war -- and it isn't pretty.

Lasseter writes that 'a week spent eating, sleeping and going on patrol with a crack unit of the Iraqi army' (the 4,500-member 1st Brigade of the 6th Iraqi Division) suggests that the Bush exit strategy of turning over military control to the Iraqis 'is in serious trouble. Instead of rising above the ethnic tension that's tearing their nation apart, the mostly Shiite troops are preparing for, if not already fighting, a civil war against the minority Sunni population.'

Indeed, the soldiers he traveled with are 'seeking revenge against the Sunnis who oppressed them during Saddam Hussein's rule.'"

Bush: Miers' Religion Cited in Court Nod - Yahoo! News
Can you believe it?
President Bush said Wednesday that Harriet Miers' religious beliefs figured into her nomination to the Supreme Court as a top-ranking Democrat warned against any "wink and a nod" campaign for confirmation.
"People are interested to know why I picked Harriet Miers," Bush told reporters at the White House. "Part of Harriet Miers' life is her religion."

Reader: "Nearly 870,000 people in Michigan have asthma -- about 9 percent of the state's population. That's a 15 percent increase from the late 1980s, according to 2003 figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the latest data available. Michigan ranks fourth in the nation in the prevalence of asthma. Nearly half the cases are in Wayne, Oakland, Macomb and Livingston counties: about 290,000 adults and 100,000 children"

NathanNewman.org: "One of Miers only qualifications for her nomination is that she was the head of a major corporate law firm, Locke, Liddle & Sappe.
Where under her leadership, the firm had to pay a $22 million settlement for aiding a client in defrauding investors"

Bush Names Harriet Miers to Supreme Court
Miers came with Bush to the White House in 2001 as staff secretary, the person who screens all the documents that cross the president's desk. She was promoted to deputy chief of staff before Bush named her counsel after his reelection in November. She succeeded Alberto R. Gonzales, another longtime Bush confidant, who was elevated to attorney general.

50 new ways to leave your lover
There is a proven way you can catch a cheating lover by keeping your partner’s dirty mails or – even better - chat logs, at least in the state of Belgium.

Erotic talk with a virtual partner in chatrooms on the web can constitute proof of "grossly insulting behaviour" and can be used as evidence in a divorce case, Belgium's top judges have ruled.

Michael Brown is testifying in front of the sham GOP congressional committee looking to whitewash the Bush administration's handling of Hurricane Katrina.

Brown admitted making mistakes, but his admission was limited to the public relations efforts:

But I do believe there are a couple specific mistakes that I made that I want to put on the table right now. First, I failed initially to set up a series of regular briefings to the media about what FEMA was doing throughout the gulf coast region. Instead, I became tied to the news shows, going on the news shows early in the morning and late at night and that was just a mistake. We should have been feed that information to the press instead of -- and in the manner and in the time a we wanted to instead of letting the press drive us.

It's nice to know that Michael Brown thought the biggest problem with FEMA's response was going on news shows instead of holding press conferences. Something tells me the people of the Gulf Coast who lost their homes thought FEMA should have other priorities.

Ted writes "A former engineering major has written an interesting article explaining why he thinks many smart students are not studying engineering anymore." Many business leaders have commented on the lack of engineers and several companies have even started initiatives to help bolster our diminishing ranks. Will these measures be enough, or does the system require much more drastic measures?
Confessions of an Engineering Washout

In FEMA's haste to play catch-up and provide housing in New Orleans, it contracted with Carnival Cruise Lines for three ships for six months, and did the deal overnight, as reported in today's Washington Post.

The problem with the deal with Carnival was a $236M no-bid contract that effectively paid Carnival twice the per person cost of a cruise, with full crew and entertainment, and the ships never leave port. Yet, the ships are only half occupied, so Carnival reaps even greater profits. Do the math: that's four times the cost of a cruise. Without a full crew, the profit is even greater.

Makes me wonder if anybody at Carnival was a big Republican supporter, or were they just incredibly lucky?

Here are just some of the most egregious cuts:

• $225 billion cut from Medicaid, the last-resort health insurance program for the very poor.
• $200 billion cut from Medicare, the health care safety net for the elderly and the disabled.
• $25 billion cut from the Centers for Disease Control
• $6.7 billion cut from school lunches for poor children
• $7.5 billion cut from programs to fight global AIDS
• $5.5 billion to eliminate all funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting
• $3.6 billion cut to eliminate the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities
• $8.5 billion cut to eliminate all subsidized loans to graduate students.
• $2.5 billion cut from Amtrak
• $2.5 billion to eliminate the Hydrogen Fuel Initiative
• $417 million cut to eliminate the Minority Business Development Agency
• $4.8 billion cut to eliminate all funding for the Safe and Drug-Free schools program

Safer Internet Programme HOME: "The Safer Internet plus programme aims to promote safer use of the Internet and new online technologies, particularly for children, and to fight against illegal content and content unwanted by the end-user, as part of a coherent approach by the European Union. "

National Enquirer: "A Washington source said: 'The sad fact is that he has been sneaking drinks for weeks now. Laura may have only just caught him but the word is his drinking has been going on for a while in the capital. He's been in a pressure cooker for months.

'The war in Iraq, the loss of American lives, has deeply affected him. He takes every soldier's life personally. It has left him emotionally drained.

The result is he's taking drinks here and there, likely in private, to cope. 'And now with the worst domestic crisis in his administration over Katrina, you pray his drinking doesn't go out of control.'

Another source said: 'I'm only surprised to hear that he hadn't taken a shot sooner. Before Katrina, he was at his wit's end. I've known him for years. He's been a good ol' Texas boy forever. George had a drinking problem for years that most professionals would say needed therapy. He doesn't believe in it [therapy], he never got it. He drank his way through his youth, through college and well into his thirties. Everyone's drinking around him.'

Another source said: 'A family member told me they fear George is 'falling apart.' The First Lady has been assigned the job of gatekeeper.' Bush's history of drinking dates back to his youth. Speaking of his time as a young man in the National Guard, he has said: 'One thing I remember, and I'm most proud of, is my drinking and partying. Those were the days my friends. Those were the good old days!'"

Seeing the Forest: Bush Drunk Again?: "Family sources have told how the 59-year-old president was caught by First Lady Laura downing a shot of booze at their family ranch in Crawford, Texas, when he learned of the hurricane disaster.
His worried wife yelled at him: 'Stop, George.'"

Study Finds Racial Imbalance on Death Row - Yahoo! News: "More condemned men and women are on California's death row for killing whites than for murdering people of any other race, despite there being more black and Hispanic murder victims, according to a new study"

Cindy Sheehan was arrested moments ago in Union Square, Manhattan for allegedly speaking in the square without the proper permit.

This tells me that she can make a difference. They are no longer ignoring her. They are no longer laughing at her. They are fighting her. And, if you believe in the old saying, she is on the verge of winning.

We are quickly losing our civil rights and we have lost our sense of outrage at the direction our nation is moving, which means that it will continue in this direction, and will accelerate, until terrible things are happening everywhere and no one cares.

Barbara Bush: Things Working Out 'Very Well' for Poor Evacuees from New Orleans

In a segment at the top of the show on the surge of
evacuees to the Texas city, Barbara Bush said: "Almost
everyone I’ve talked to says we're going to move to
Houston."

Then she added: "What I’m hearing which is sort of
scary is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is
so overwhelmed by the hospitality.

"And so many of the people in the arena here, you
know, were underprivileged anyway, so this--this (she
chuckles slightly) is working very well for them."

Who is Mike Brown? BostonHerald.com - Business News: Brown pushed from last job: Horse group: FEMA chief had to be `asked to resign': "Before joining the Bush administration in 2001, Brown spent 11 years as the commissioner of judges and stewards for the International Arabian Horse Association, a breeders' and horse-show organization based in Colorado.

``We do disciplinary actions, certification of (show trial) judges. We hold classes to train people to become judges and stewards. And we keep records,'' explained a spokeswoman for the IAHA commissioner's office. ``This was his full-time job . . . for 11 years,'' she added.

Brown was forced out of the position after a spate of lawsuits over alleged supervision failures.

``He was asked to resign,'' Bill Pennington, president of the IAHA at the time, confirmed last night.

Soon after, Brown was invited to join the administration by his old Oklahoma college roommate Joseph Allbaugh, the previous head of FEMA until he quit in 2003 to work for the president's re-election campaign."

American Red Cross: "Hurricane Katrina: Why is the Red Cross not in New Orleans?

Acess to New Orleans is controlled by the National Guard and local authorities and while we are in constant contact with them, we simply cannot enter New Orleans against their orders.
The state Homeland Security Department had requested--and continues to request--that the American Red Cross not come back into New Orleans following the hurricane. Our presence would keep people from evacuating and encourage others to come into the city.
The Red Cross has been meeting the needs of thousands of New Orleans residents in some 90 shelters throughout the state of Louisiana and elsewhere since before landfall. All told, the Red Cross is today operating 149 shelters for almost 93,000 residents.
The Red Cross shares the nation�s anguish over the worsening situation inside the city. We will continue to work under the direction of the military, state and local authorities and to focus all our efforts on our lifesaving mission of feeding and sheltering.
The Red Cross does not conduct search and rescue operations. We are an organization of civilian volunteers and cannot get relief aid into any location until the local authorities say it is safe and provide us with security and access.
The original plan was to evacuate all the residents of New Orleans to safe places outside the city. With the hurricane bearing down, the city government decided to open a shelter of last resort in the Superdome downtown. We applaud this decision and believe it saved a significant number of lives.
As the remaining people are evacuated from New Orleans, the most appropriate role for the Red Cross is to provide a safe place for people to stay and to see that their emergency needs are met. We are fully staffed and equipped to handle these individuals once they are evacuated. "

While the 9/11 “My Pet Goat” episode was certainly illuminating, it’s not certain what might have worked out better that day had the president dropped the book and taken action. But his failure to grab the reins in the hurricane catastrophe for three days this week probably doomed hundreds, or more, to death.

This is not mere incompetence, but dereliction of duty. The press should call it by its proper name.

Bush stayed on vacation. On Monday he went to Arizona to cut a birthday cake with John McCain and play politics on Medicare. On Tuesday -- as the flood waters were rising and the death toll mounted -- Bush played politics again, heading out to California to make a speech offering another excuse for staying the course in Iraq (oil!) and jamming on a guitar. He knew he had to end his vacation early (sigh) but couldn't bring himself to head straight to Washington DC. So Bush went BACK to Crawford for one more cozy night of rest before finally heading back to Washington DC on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Condi Rice is in the midst of a THREE DAY vacation that began AFTER the hurricane struck New Orleans. She's gone to a Broadway show, played tennis with Monica Seles and reportedly bought really expensive Ferragamo shoes.

And DICK CHENEY HAS BEEN HANGING OUT IN JACKSON, WYOMING ALL THIS TIME!!!!

Every damn reporter in this country better insist on asking again and again and again exactly what Cheney and Rice have been doing these last few days and why the HELL THEY WEREN'T BACK IN WASHINGTON DC DEALING WITH THE WORST DISASTER IN OUR NATION'S HISTORY.

This guy is nuts!
Pat Robertson: sharply criticized the decision to withdraw from Gaza, saying that, 'God says 'I am going to judge the nations who have parted my land.' He said 'I am going to bring judgment against them.'

Katrina’s affect on Gulf oil production and fuel refining has caused a ruckus in the oil market.

Health News Article | Reuters.com: "Have a headache? No aspirin or ibuprofen handy? Try some olive oil -- actually, freshly pressed extra-virgin olive oil would be best, according to a group of chemists, who've discovered that it contains a compound that mimics the pain-relieving action of ibuprofen.
The compound, called oleocanthal, blocks the same pain pathway as ibuprofen, a member of the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, Paul A. S. Breslin from the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia and colleagues report in the journal Nature this week.
According to Breslin and colleagues, oleocanthal in newly pressed extra-virgin olive oil and ibuprofen (in solution) both produce a strong stinging sensation in the throat, an indicator of a 'shared pharmacological activity, with oleocanthal acting as a natural anti-inflammatory compound that has a potency and profile strikingly similar to that of ibuprofen.'
In tests conducted on different premium olive oils, the chemists found a strong positive link between levels of oleocanthal and its intensity as a throat irritant. Similar results were achieved in tests of a synthetic version of oleocanthal they created, confirming that this compound is in fact the active ingredient in olive oil.
According to the chemists, oleocanthal, like ibuprofen, inhibits so-called COX enzymes in a dose-dependent fashion -- the higher the dose the greater the inhibition.
By their calculations, a 50-gram daily dose of olive oil is equal to about 10 percent of the ibuprofen dose recommended for pain relief in an adult. "

The president told us that we needed to fight in Iraq to save lives here at home, and yet -- after moving billions of domestic dollars to the Persian Gulf -- there are bodies floating through the streets of Louisiana. What does George W. Bush have to say for himself now?

While millions of Americans have lost their homes or lives in the devastation wrought by hurricane Katrina, Bush not only goes about business as usual, he plays the guitar.

President Bush plays a guitar presented to him by Country Singer Mark Wills, right, backstage following his visit to Naval Base Coronado, Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2005. Bush visited the base to deliver remarks on V-J Commemoration Day. (AP Photo/ABC News, Martha Raddatz)




the only image of President Bush I can think of that's
more egregiously wrong is this one:








Besides, Bush has finally decided that he might need to pay a little attention to the WORST NATURAL DISASTER IN AMERICAN HISTORY and head back to Washington. The mainstream media, however, just doesn't seem to get it -- seeming to care more that Bush is going to miss those extra two days of vacation!

Amen Cindy...: "'I know that the Camp Casey movement is going to end the war in Iraq,' Sheehan said, adding that no other families should have to suffer the loss of a relative. She led the crowd in chanting 'Not one more!'"

Obedience is the test of Faith

Who is Cindy Sheehan: "Before the war in Iraq, Cindy Sheehan was no rebel. The mother of four was a youth minister at St. Mary's Catholic Church, in quiet, conservative Vacaville.
But when Sheehan's son Casey, 24, was killed in Iraq on April 4, 2004, her world lurched out of orbit. In the sleepless days and nights that followed, Sheehan tapped into the anti-war movement on the Internet, looking for answers.
'Sometimes I get up in the mornings and I turn on my computer,'' she told me when I met her in February at a peace vigil in Benicia, 'and my husband comes home at 5, and I'm still there in my pajamas.''
Back then, it would have been impossible to imagine that the quiet mother from Vacaville would be challenging President Bush in a quixotic vigil outside his ranch in Crawford, Texas. She wants the commander in chief to explain the 'noble cause' for which her son died. "

GooOS, the Google Operating System (kottke.org): "Google isn't worried about Yahoo! or Microsoft's search efforts...although the media's focus on that is probably to their advantage. Their real target is Windows. Who needs Windows when anyone can have free unlimited access to the world's fastest computer running the smartest operating system? Mobile devices don't need big, bloated OSes...they'll be perfect platforms for accessing the GooOS. Using Gnome and Linux as a starting point, Google should design an OS for desktop computers that's modified to use the GooOS and sell it right alongside Windows ($200) at CompUSA for $10/apiece (available free online of course). Google Office (Goffice?) will be built in, with all your data stored locally, backed up remotely, and available to whomever it needs to be (SubEthaEdit-style collaboration on Word/Excel/PowerPoint-esque documents is only the beginning). Email, shopping, games, music, news, personal publishing, etc.; all the stuff that people use their computers for, it's all there."

EPFL NEWS :: Service Presse et Information: "A team of researchers from the Ecole
Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) has successfully demonstrated, for
the first time, that it is possible to control the speed of light both
slowing it down and speeding it up in an optical fiber, using off-the-shelf
instrumentation in normal environmental conditions. Their results, to be
published in the August 22 issue of Applied Physics Letters, could have
implications that range from optical computing to the fiber-optic telecommunications
industry. "

We should all need one.
"Bill Moyer, 73, wears a 'Bullshit Protector' flap over his ear while President George W. Bush, on screen at rear, addresses the Veterans of Foreign Wars at their 106th convention Monday, Aug. 22, 2005, in Salt Lake City. Moyer served during WWII, Korea and Vietnam. (AP Photo/Douglas C. Pizac)"

SLAPP... Have you never heard of such an acrhonimus?
We'd better know what it means because our freedom of thinking is at odd.
SLAPP stands for Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation.
So it means that if I say that my last 7 cats died because I live next to nuclear plant I can be sued by the big company and surelly enough (I don't have money) I will pay.
Some examples
here or keep reading: "In Las Vegas, a local doctor was sued for his allegation that a city hospital violated the state's cost-containment law.
In Baltimore, members of a community group faced a $252 million lawsuit after circulating a letter questioning the property-buying practices of a local housing developer.
In West Virginia, an environmental activist was sued for $200,000 for criticizing a coal-mining company for activities that were poisoning a local river.
In Pennsylvania, a farmer was sued after testifying to his township supervisors that a low-flying helicopter owned by a local landfill operator caused a stampede that killed several of his cows.
In Washington state, a homeowner found that she couldn't get a mortgage because her real-estate company had failed to pay taxes owed on her house. She uncovered hundreds of similar cases, and the company was forced to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in back taxes. In retaliation, it sued the woman for slander and dragged her through six years of legal harassment before a jury found her innocent.
In Missouri, a high-school English teacher was sued for $1 million after complaining to a weekly newspaper that an incinerator burning hospital waste was a health hazard."

The situation of drafting the Costitution for Iraq looks pretty shacky.
A friend sent me a draft of the Costitution.

I found this new web site that is very cool.
You can share your videos with others and I found even a video of the bridge that collaspe under vibrations.
You can find the website here
and the video of the bridge here

Rome, August 14, 2005 – The scandal exploded only during the 2003
summer when the US daily Worcester Telegram & Gazette obtained a copy
of a document that for 40 years had been kept as "strictly
confidential" in the secret archives of the Holy See that
describes
the story of a lawyer from Boston, Carmen Durso, who filed a complain
with the Prosecutor Michel J. Sullivan containing a copy of the 1962
Instruction "Crimen Sollicitationis" and asking to verify if,
within
the federal jurisdiction, would have been possible to prosecute the
Vatican hierarchies that he claimed were guilty of deliberately
covering from the US authorities the sexual abuses committed by
members of the clergy.

At the same time, another letter signed by Daniel Shea, a lawyer and
former seminarist who discovered the 1962 document and gave a copy of
it to the Boston daily and to Mr. Durso, reached the desk of the
Prosecutor. The document, said Shea in the letter, is quoted as still
applicable in a note of the epistle "De Delictis Gravioribus" of 18
May 2001 that the then Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine
of the Faith, Joseph Ratzinger, delivered to the bishops and other
ordained and members of the ecclesiastic hierarchy.

This episode was brought to the attention of the international public
opinion by the US Television CBSand the Vatican hierarchies replied
by stating that the norms contained in the 1962 document could not be
anymore considered as binding after the entry into force of the 1983
reform of the Codice di Diritto Canonico, despite the fact that the
Ratzinger letter did not support this; in fact, the current Pope
Benedict XVI in such letter not only recalled the instruction
"Crimen
Sollicitationis", but concerning the "crimes under the
jurisdiction
of Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith" states that
"In the
Tribunals set up upon the ordained or the members of the Catholic
hierarchies only priests can validly carry out the function of judge,
justice promoter, notary and counsel for the defence" and it
restates
that "the trials of this kind are the subject of papal
secret".

Over the last two years the US judiciary has continued the
investigations and since January 2005, a prosecution against Joseph
Ratzinger is taking place at the District Court of Harris County
(Texas).

Mr. Daniel Shea, the lawyer who brought this case before the District
Court of Harris County, will join the demonstration entitled "For
sexual freedom and freedom of conscience, against the causes of the
deviations and sufferings, starting with those of the phedofile
priests and the phedofobic organizations" convened by the
association
anticlericale.net on Tuesday 16 August at 8 p.m. in S. Peter Square,
the exact time of the opening of the World Youth Day in Cologne,
Germany.

AWEA News Release >> Energy Bill Extends Wind Power Incentive through 2007: "Up to 2,500 megawatts of wind energy capacity are scheduled to come on line in the U.S. this year, bringing new power to the equivalent of 700,000 homes and injecting over $3 billion of investment into the power generation sector. With the timely extension of the PTC, the American Wind Energy Association anticipates that strong growth momentum will continue in 2006 and 2007. "

Entropy Production: The Feebate: "The best way I know of to encourage more efficient automobile buying habits is called a feebate. A feebate is a zero-sum tax-slash-rebate on motor vehicle fuel economy. Car buyers with fuel economy above the mean get a cash rebate, while gas guzzlers must pay an additional tax. The government simply acts as the creditor in the exchange -- it gains no net tax revenue. E.g. it is a very socialist concept. The nature of the feebate helps offset the higher capital investment of a hybrid vehicle. Increased mileage is, of course, a built-in reduction in operating costs."

A U.S. Navy photographer with lightning-fast reflexes captured this image of a fighter plane blasting through a "sonic boom cloud" as the jet broke the sound barrier. Petty Officer 3rd Class Jonathan Chandler shot the picture as the F/A-18F Super Hornet blew past the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Kitty Hawk in the Philippine Sea on July 27.

Finding warez using Google | The days start here: "Finding pirated software is surprisingly easy with Google. Yes, we have astalavista to find the serial numbers and key generators, but it might take you a little more time to find the original setup files, and software that do not use serial numbers to validate the license."

The Poor Man Cafe
“You are not what you think you are, but you are what you think.” The statement is not merely an ancient proverb, but it is also a Bible truth. The Bible states that as a man thinks in his heart, so is he (Proverbs 23:7).

How-to: Share your keyboard and mouse in realtime with Synergy - Engadget - www.engadget.com: "Synergy is an open source and free software project that allows one to share a keyboard and mouse across multiple monitors on separate computers and even between different operating systems. You may be a prime candidate for Synergy's superbum synergy if you code multi-platform software, use more than one computer at home such as a laptop and a tower, or if your computers have different functions (media server, net machine, etc.). Personally we do all of the above and were in dire need of a swift way to dispose of our old keyboards and mice to make way for all sorts of fun new usb gadgetry."

Housing Prices High for Low Income Workers
For example, the median household income for a nurse rose 10 percent between 2003 and 2005, to about $36,000. For a firefighter, wages were flat, remaining at about $37,000 a year.

Those salaries don't come close to the $71,000 annual income needed to qualify to purchase a $225,000 home. The number is based on a down payment of 10 percent.

The real reason American high-schoolers have such dismal test scores.

If you believe in test scores—and education policymakers seem to believe in little else these days—American high-school students are a pathetic bunch. Witness the results of National Assessment of Educational Progress (or NAEP)—the "nation's report card"—which were released last month. While younger students broke records in both math and reading, 17-year olds' scores as a whole showed no improvement from the early 1970s.

Ricotta
Homemade Ricotta
1 gallon whole milk
1 quart buttermilk

Select a sieve or colander with a wide surface area so the curds will cool quickly. Rinse a large piece of cheesecloth or muslin with cold water, then fold it so that it is 6 or more layers, and arrange it in the sieve, or colander placed in the sink.

Pour the milk and buttermilk into a large nonreactive saucepan. Place over high heat and heat, stirring the mixture frequently with a rubber spatula and making sure to scrape the whole pan bottom to prevent scorching. Once the mixture is warm, stop stirring, As the milk heats, curds wili begin to rise and clump on the surface. As the curds begin to form, gently scrape the bottom of the pan with the spatula to release any stuck curds.

When the mixture reaches 175 to 180F, the curds and whey wili separate. The whey looks like cloudy water underneath a mass of thick white curds on the surface. Immediately remove the pan from the heat. Working from the side of the pan, gently ladle the whey into the prepared sieve. Go slowly so as not to break up the curds. Finally, ladle the curds into the sieve. Lift the sides of the cloth to help the liquid drain. Don't press on the curds. When the draining slows, gather the edges of the cloth, tie into a bag, and hang from the faucet. Drain until the dripping stops, about 15 minutes. Untie the bag and pack the ricotta into airtight containers. Refrigerate and use within 1 week. Makes about 4 cups.

From Michael Chiarello's Casual Cooking (Chronicle Books, 2002)

eigelb.at - Paul Schmidinger - Screendesign and Webprogramming

This is a wonderful website for very high level web art.

Philadelphia Inquirer | 08/07/2005 | Priest: Silence ordered on abuse: "When the Rev. James Gigliotti told church officials in the early 1980s that a Northeast Philadelphia priest was molesting boys, he remembers receiving a stern warning.
'This comes from the highest authority: You're to keep your mouth shut,' Gigliotti said an assistant chancellor told him.
The Philadelphia Archdiocese quickly removed the accused priest, the Rev. James J. Brzyski, from his parish in the Fox Chase section.
But the archdiocese did not tell parishioners the reason. Nor did it report Brzyski to police.
With his conduct a secret, Brzyski remained a welcome guest in parishioners' homes. A former altar boy said this meant Brzyski kept abusing him - for years.
'I was raped by the time I was 13,' said John Delaney, a father of two who works as a roofer. 'I don't have any religious beliefs anymore because of what he did to me. I have no faith in anything anymore.'
Brzyski's run of alleged attacks took place in the late 1970s and early '80s. Ten men have said he assaulted them as boys during his six years of active service as a priest. That would make him one of the worst known offenders in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.
Three of his accusers have told The Inquirer that Brzyski plied them with candy, ice cream or alcohol before assaulting them - in rectories, in their homes, in his car, in a house at the Jersey Shore. Two say he molested them in the sacristy, the room near the altar where priests don their vestments.
Even so, the church did not identify him publicly as an abuser until this year, in a brief notice published June 23. It said only that Brzyski and six other priests had been defrocked for 'misconduct involving minors.'
After Brzyski left the church, he worked as a computer technician in Philadelphia. He lived for a time in East Falls, where he incorporated a talent and modeling agency, as well as a children's birthday party business, out of his home, public records show. It's unclear how much business, if any, his companies did.

He once told a neighbor that children loved it when he wore a Barney costume.

By 2002, Brzyski had moved to Virginia. That year, a 17-year-old filed a criminal complaint accusing him of attempted sexual battery, a misdemeanor. The teenager said he had dozed off from drinking at a cookout at Brzyski's house and awoke to discover Brzyski groping him in his underpants.

Brzyski filed a countercharge, accusing the teenager of kicking him and trespassing.

In court, both charges were withdrawn. Court papers don't explain why, and Brzyski's Virginia lawyer, Steven Shames, has declined to comment.
Why did no one call the police about Brzyski 20 years ago?

The answer is complicated.

"We were just so disturbed to find out that this creature was out there among young boys, and we kind of felt guilty," said the mother of one Brzyski accuser. "We should have gone to the police back then, and it would have stopped. Being good Catholics, we didn't do that."

Gigliotti said, "I think we'd all go back and say we should bring the police in right away."

When love has entirely cast out fear, and fear has been transformed into love, then the unity brought us by our saviour will be fully realized, for all men will be united with one another through their union with the one supreme Good. They will possess the perfection ascribed to the dove, according to our interpretation of the text: One alone is my dove, my perfect one. She is the only child of her mother, her chosen one.

Our Lord’s words in the gospel bring out the meaning of this text more clearly. After having conferred all power on his disciples by his blessing, he obtained many other gifts for them by his prayer to the Father. Among these was included the greatest gift of all, which was that they were no longer to be divided in their judgement of what was right and good, for they were all to be united to the one supreme Good. As the Apostle says, they were to be bound together with the bonds of peace in the unity that comes from the Holy Spirit. They were to be made one body and one spirit by the one hope to which they were all called. We shall do better, however, to quote the sacred words of the gospel itself. I pray, the Lord says, that they all may be one; that as you, Father, are in me and I am in you, so they also may be one in us.

Now the bond that creates this unity is glory. That the Holy Spirit is called glory no one can deny if he thinks carefully about the Lord’s words: The glory you gave to me, I have given to them. In fact, he gave this glory to his disciples when he said to them: Receive the Holy Spirit. Although he had always possessed it, even before the world existed, he himself received this glory when he put on human nature. Then, when his human nature had been glorified by the Spirit, the glory of the Spirit was passed on to all his kin, beginning with his disciples. This is why he said: The glory you gave to me, I have given to them, so that they may be one as we are one. With me in them and you in me, I want them to be perfectly one.

Whoever has grown from infancy to manhood and attained to spiritual maturity possesses the mastery over his passions and the purity that makes it possible for him to receive the glory of the Spirit. He is that perfect dove upon whom the eyes of the bridegroom rest when he says: One alone is my dove, my perfect one.

St Gregory of Nyssa

Pontifications: "The question for each orthodox Catholic is whether to take up the Magisterium's challenge or be content with the fundamental option of the rich young man, who is more comfortable with a religion based on rules than on self-donation."

John Paul II's Theology of the Body: "GENERAL AUDIENCES: JOHN PAUL II'S THEOLOGY OF THE BODY
Pope John Paul II"

Really to study in order to understand JPII.

Scary tatics of McCartism flavor!
EFF: Breaking News: "Today the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued a release announcing its new rule expanding the reach of the Communications Assistance to Law Enforcement Act (CALEA). The ruling is a reinterpretation of the scope of CALEA and will force Internet broadband providers and certain voice-over-IP (VoIP) providers to build backdoors into their networks that make it easier for law enforcement to wiretap them. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has argued against this expansion of CALEA in several rounds of comments to the FCC on its proposed rule."

Sunbeltblog: Massive identity theft ring: "In some recent research into a spyware exploit, our research team has discovered a massive identity theft ring.
We also found the keylogger transcript files that are being uploaded to the servers.
This is real spyware stuff�chat sessions, user names, passwords, bank information, etc. We have confirmed that this data is valid. Highly personal information, including even one fellow who has a penchant for pedophilia -- all logged in detail and returned a webserver.
Note that there is a LOT of bank information in here, including one company bank account with over US$350,000 and another small company in California with over $11,000 readily accessible. This list goes on and on and on. Of course, there's also eBay accounts and much more.
We have notified the FBI, but of course no response (too busy doing other more important things). We have notified a few of the parties involved.
If anyone has any other ideas, send �em to us. Right now, we�re sitting upon literally thousands of pages of stolen identities that are being used right now.
Alex Eckelberry"

Corriere della Sera - Agr - Ultima Ora: " Un'azione disciplinare e' stata sollecitata dal ministro della Giustizia, Roberto Castelli, al Procuratore generale della Cassazione nei confronti del giudice per le indagini preliminare di Milano Clementina Forleo. Il provvedimento riguarda l'episodio, avvenuto nel centro di Milano qualche settimana fa, che ha visto protagonista il magistrato, intervenuto nel corso dell'arresto di un immigrato. Secondo gli agenti di polizia il giudice sarebbe intervenuto in modo veemente protestando per le modalita' dell'arresto. La Forleo invece, che ha preso - tra l'altro - i provvedimenti nel caso Antonveneta, ha sostenuto di essersi offerta come eventuale testimone nel caso all'immigrato fosse stato contestato il reato di resistenza a pubblico ufficiale, inesistente secondo il magistrato"

IGN - Cronaca - Castelli promuove azione disciplinare contro gip Forleo: "A quanto apprende l'ADNKRONOS, il ministro della Giustizia Roberto Castelli ha promosso l'azione disciplinare nei confronti del gip milanese Clementina Forleo in riferimento allo 'scontro' di cui e' stata protagonista il magistrato con alcuni agenti di una volante che stavano fermando un egiziano.

I fatti oggetto dell'azione disciplinare si riferiscono all'8 luglio scorso quando, in una via del centro di Milano, il gip Forleo era intervenuto per contestare le modalita' con le quali gli agenti avevano fermato un extracomunitario che tentava di sottrarsi al controllo dopo che era stato sorpreso senza il biglietto per i mezzi pubblici. Gia' al centro di infuocate polemiche dopo l'assoluzione dal reato di terrorismo internazionale di alcuni cittadini islamici, il gip, oggi giudice dell'inchiesta sulla scalata Antonveneta, 'litig� con gli uomini della volante che avevano effettuato il fermo.

L'intervento del giudice, che aveva chiesto che gli fossero prese le generalita' per poter testimoniare a favore dell'extracomunitario, era stato considerato di ''gravita' inaudita'' dal sindacato di polizia Uilps, che aveva indetto una conferenza stampa. In merito alle critiche, il gip Forleo si era cosi' difesa: ''Non ho fatto altro che il mio dovere di cittadina. Non ho intralciato l'operato della polizia, perche' sono intervenuta quando questa persona era gia' stata ammanettata e caricata in macchina. E poi lo rifarei non una ma cento volte''. "

No excuse for 'Iraq fatigue' in the news: "Just a month ago, the administration took pains to tell us that any 'timetable' for disengagement from the war in Iraq was the worst possible idea, that it would 'encourage the insurgents' to just 'wait us out.' Those words came from the president himself.
The result was poll numbers that fell to the lowest point in Mr. Bush's presidency. Members of Congress, who - unlike President Bush - will be facing the electorate in 2006 and beyond, began looking over their shoulders and reviving talk about an 'exit strategy.'So over the last 10 days, we started to hear something new. Administration spokespeople began to hint there might be a pullout after all. And a timetable, too. The estimates, including one by the top soldier in Iraq, General Casey, have been remarkably consistent: down by more than 50 percent, to 60,000 troops, by this time next year, then 40,000 by the fall."

Hiroshima After Sixty Years: The Debate Continues: " President Trumans friend and Chief of Staff, five star Admiral William D. Leahy was deeply angered: The use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender. . . In being the first to use it, we . . . adopted an ethical standard common to the barbarians of the Dark Ages. "

World Turning Its Back on Brand America: "Right now the US government is not a credible messenger,' said Mr Reinhard, chairman of DDB Worldwide, the advertising group. 'We must work to build bridges of understanding and co-operation and respect through business-to-business activities"

Corn Dog - The ethanol subsidy is worse than you can imagine.:

"Making ethanol, they claim, will help America achieve the elusive goal of 'energy security' while helping farmers, reducing oil imports, and stimulating the American economy. But the ethanol boosters are ignoring some unpleasant facts: Ethanol won't significantly reduce our oil imports; adding more ethanol to our gas tanks adds further complexity to our motor-fuel supply chain, which will lead to further price hikes at the pump; and, most important (and most astonishing), it may take more energy to produce a gallon of ethanol than it actually contains. "

TalkLeft: Fitzgerald, Cooper, Sauber, Rove , Luskin and Ginsberg:

"Sauber says that Fitzgerald isn't disclosing his hand, either in conversation or in body language.
LT: From all that you've heard and all of the people you have spoken to, what do you think Fitzgerald is aiming for?
RS: I spent a lot of time on the phone [with Fitzgerald] and in person. He was so careful not to give away anything -- even with body language -- any indication of what he was looking at or where he was going. It was quite astonishing how uncommunicative he was. So the short answer is, I don't know.
But the only clue is that he submitted some fairly extensive material under seal. Every judge who has commented on that [has said] how impressive the showing is and how important this case is to national security. All I can surmise is that he has a substantial amount of evidence to continue a fairly robust investigation. And it does involve classified material."

In 1994, then-Archbishop of Portland William Levada offered a simple answer for why the archdiocese shouldn't have been ordered to pay the costs of raising a child fathered by a church worker at a Portland, Ore., parish.

In her relationship with Arturo Uribe, then a seminarian and now a Whittier priest, Stephanie Collopy had engaged "in unprotected intercourse … when [she] should have known that could result in pregnancy," the church maintained in its answer to the lawsuit.
Faithful Furious Over Tactic: "Collopy's suit against the Archdiocese of Portland was dropped in 1994 when the Denver Province of the Redemptorists, a religious order that ordained Uribe that same year, agreed to pay $215 a month in child support if Collopy stopped the legal action and signed a confidentiality agreement.

Last week, after having earlier battled Collopy in court when she asked for additional child support, the Redemptorists announced that they would provide more support to her son. "

Donald Rumsfeld (who had served in various positions in the Nixon and Ford administrations, including as President Ford's defense secretary, and at this time headed the multinational pharmaceutical company G.D. Searle & Co.) was dispatched to the Middle East as a presidential envoy. His December 1983 tour of regional capitals included Baghdad, where he was to establish "direct contact between an envoy of President Reagan and President Saddam Hussein," while emphasizing "his close relationship" with the president . Rumsfeld met with Saddam, and the two discussed regional issues of mutual interest, shared enmity toward Iran and Syria, and the U.S.'s efforts to find alternative routes to transport Iraq's oil; its facilities in the Persian Gulf had been shut down by Iran, and Iran's ally, Syria, had cut off a pipeline that transported Iraqi oil through its territory. Rumsfeld made no reference to chemical weapons, according to detailed notes on the meeting .

Aljazeera.Net - US journalist shot dead in Iraq
US journalist shot dead in Iraq

Steven Vincent had been staying in the southern city of Basra
An American freelance journalist and author has been found shot dead in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, the US embassy said.
Police on Wednesday said Steven Vincent was shot several times after he and his Iraqi translator were abducted at gunpoint hours earlier.
'I can confirm to you that officials in Basra have recovered the body of journalist Steven Vincent,' said embassy spokesman Pete Mitchell.
'The US embassy is working with British military and local Iraqi officials in Basra to determine who is responsible for the death of this journalist. Our condolences go out to the family.'
The embassy did not give the cause of death.
However, Iraqi police in Basra said Vincent was abducted along with his female translator at gunpoint on Tuesday evening. The translator, Nour Weidi, was seriously wounded.
Vincent and the translator were taken by five men in a police car as they left a currency exchange shop, police Lieutenant Colonel Karim al-Zaidi said.
Vincent's body was found on the side of the highway south of Basra later. He had been shot in the head and multiple times on his body, al-Zaidi said.
The author published a book on life in post-Saddam Iraq

Isn't this a NEWS? Now Novak seems to me revealing that Tenent was ultimately the source?
By the way, special prosecutors Fitzgerald have questioned former CIA director George J. Tenet and deputy director John E. McLaughlin, former CIA spokesman Bill Harlow, State Department officials, and even a stranger who approached columnist Robert D. Novak on the street.

In doing so, special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald has asked not only about how CIA operative Valerie Plame's name was leaked but also how the administration went about shifting responsibility from the White House to the CIA for having included 16 words in the 2003 State of the Union address about Iraqi efforts to acquire uranium from Africa, an assertion that was later disputed.

Now here there is what Novak says... a confession?

Ex-CIA official's remark is wrong: "I have previously said that I never would have written those sentences if Harlow, then-CIA Director George Tenet or anybody else from the agency had told me that Valerie Plame Wilson's disclosure would endanger herself or anybody. "

HOW CONSERVATISM LEAVES US VULNERABLE TO NUCLEAR TERRORISM: "Democracy has become George W. Bush's reflexive answer to terrorism."

Moore Calls Mich. Film Fest a Big Success - Yahoo! News: "It may not rival Sundance or Cannes, but Michael Moore says the film festival he conceived with other movie lovers in this Lake Michigan town was a bigger hit than expected and has a bright future.

'By all accounts it was an overwhelming success,' Moore said Monday. 'It was a movie junkie's paradise.'
The festival ran from Wednesday night through Sunday, concluding with 'Casablanca' under the stars by the Grand Traverse Bay waterfront. It featured 31 films, most of which sold out, and panel discussions with Hollywood insiders.
About 20,000 tickets were sold for the indoor showings. Moore estimated total festival attendance when the outdoor movies and panels were added at 50,000."

Exclusive: Secret Memo—Send to Be Tortured - Newsweek Periscope - MSNBC.com

In a memo forwarded to a senior FBI lawyer on Nov. 27, 2002, a supervisory special agent from the bureau's behavioral analysis unit offered a legal analysis of interrogation techniques that had been approved by Pentagon officials for use against a high-value Qaeda detainee. After objecting to techniques such as exploiting "phobias" like "the fear of dogs" or dripping water "to induce the misperception of drowning," the agent discussed a plan to send the detainee to Jordan, Egypt or an unspecified third country for interrogation. "In as much as the intent of this category is to utilize, outside the U.S., interrogation techniques which would violate [U.S. law] if committed in the U.S., it is a per se violation of the U.S. Torture Statute," the agent wrote. "Discussing any plan which includes this category could be seen as a con-spiracy to violate [the Torture Statute]" and "would inculpate" everyone involved.

Journalists Former CIA Officer Alleges Info On Iraq Abandoning Nuclear Plans Was Ignored

In a federal lawsuit against the Central Intelligence Agency, a former officer alleges that the agency ignored information in 2001 from a "significant" informant who told the CIA that Iraq had abandoned a major element of its nuclear weapons program.

In the lawsuit, the anonymous CIA officer says that the informant told him that Iraq's uranium enrichment program had ended years earlier and that centrifuge components from the scuttled program were available for examination and even purchase.

Four signs she's high maintenance


Most men have been there. Many won’t admit they’ve been there: involved with a high-maintenance date or girlfriend. You can run from a high-maintenance woman and you can hide, but your best chance of going unharmed is to avoid her all together.

Consumers who purchase cars, light trucks, pick-ups and SUVs that run on diesel will be able to take advantage of a tax credit worth between $400 and $2,400 a vehicle now offered for hybrid vehicles, according to the Diesel Technology Forum. The greater the fuel efficiency savings of the vehicle the larger the credit.

Senators voted 74 to 26 to enact a measure that touches on virtually every aspect of American energy production and consumption, from new nuclear power plants to energy efficient appliances. The bill provides $14.5 billion in tax breaks, encourages much greater use of renewable fuels and takes steps to make the power grid more reliable.

"This bill represents a compromise," said Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., expressing the view of a number of Democrats who had pushed for greater conservation and efficiency provisions in the bill but seemed satisfied with the final deal crafted by House and Senate negotiators.
Cantwell said the bill is "not a complete answer to all of our energy needs ... but it is an important first step."

A crucial win for the electric utilities is the repeal of the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935, which would ease industry merger rules put in place to protect consumers from monopolistic utilities.
"This change should assist in the approval process of the Duke-Cinergy merger," according to a research note from RBC Capital Markets, referring to the proposed merger of Duke Energy Corp. (DUK: news, chart, profile) and Cinergy Corp. (CIN: news, chart, profile) announced in May.
New facilities that generate electricity from renewable energy sources such as wind power that are started up by the close 2007 would receive a 10-year production tax credit at a cost of $2.75 billion.
Firms that invest in wind power sites such as FPL Corp. (FPL: news, chart, profile) , Berkshire Hathaway's (BRKA: news, chart, profile) Iowa-based MidAmerican, and Scottish Power's (SPI: news, chart, profile) PPM Energy, would benefit from this provisions, according to Christine Tezak, an electricity analyst with Stanford Washington Research Group.
Coal-burning power plants built after 1975 and outfitted with pollution control devices since then would be able to depreciate costs over seven years. Some of the nation's largest utilities may be eligible for the credit including AES Corp. (AES: news, chart, profile) , American Electric Power Co. (AEP: news, chart, profile) , Entergy Corp. (ETR: news, chart, profile) , Progress Energy Inc. (PGN: news, chart, profile) , Southern Co. (SO: news, chart, profile) , Reliant Energy Inc. (RRI: news, chart, profile) , TXU Energy (TXU: news, chart, profile) , and Xcel Energy (XEL: news, chart, profile) , according to Tezak.
Power companies that undertake new high-voltage transmission projects would also be eligible for 15-year depreciation rather than the standard 20-years, at a cost of $1.2 billion to Treasury.

Senza parole:
Ma come si fa a resistere per non ridere.
Il buon Bobo e' sempre il piu' grande.
Vai Bobo.

Incentivi per chi scommette sul "solare"
Un decreto delle Attività produttive concede un bonus sul surplus prodotto e venduto alla rete elettrica

IL SOLE 24 ORE

Il “solare” apre le porte a famiglie, condomini e imprese.
Via, dunque, agli incentivi per chi scommette sul fotovoltaico. È in arrivo sulla Gazzetta Ufficiale un decreto del ministero delle Attività produttive, di concerto con l’Ambiente, per l’incentivazione dell’energia elettrica di origine solare prodotta con impianti fotovoltaici. Si tratta, in pratica, di incentivi in conto energia, che arriveranno con l’energia prodotta in surplus, venduta alla rete elettrica a tariffe incentivate, pari a tre volte la tariffa media delle forniture di energia elettrica. La tariffa è differenziata in base alla potenza dell’impianto, che dovrà, dunque, essere in esercizio e sottoposto a manutenzione.«Un decreto complesso – sottolinea Claudio Scajola, ministro delle Attività produttive – che arriva in ritardo, ma è molto significativo in un Paese che ha bisogno di energia». Una produzione di energia a bassissimo impatto ambientale, può aiutare a risolvere una questione, quella dell'energia, che secondo Altero Matteoli, ministro dell'Ambiente, «é il problema diquesto inizio secolo».In passato gli incentivi venivano dati in forma di finanziamento per gli impianti, come i 10mila tetti fotovoltaici che hanno visto coinvolte per lo più amministrazioni locali. Gli incentivi Per un impianto da 20 kilowatt di una famiglia o di un piccolo condominio il decreto prevede che i consumatori continuino a d avere la possibilità, per esempio di notte, di acquistare energia dalla rete, ma anche di vendere quella prodotta in eccesso. Tutto viene registrato su un contatore e a fine anno si effettua il conguaglio: l’energia acquistata dalla rete costa 15 centesimi al kilowatt, tasse comprese, su quella venduta alla rete c’è un incentivo di 45 centesimi al kilowatt, più il prezzo pagato dalla rete. Il problema è rappresentato dal costo base dell’impianto fotovoltaico, che per un kW, che copre circa 10mila metri quadrati, ha un costo di circa 7mila euro e produce in media 1.100 kWh l’anno.L’Autorità per l’energia elettrica e il gas è chiamata a determinare le modalità per la copertura degli incentivi tramite un prelievo sulle tariffe elettriche (circa 0,014 centesimi di euro per ogni kWh) e a individuare l’organismo erogatore dell’incentivo (Cassa conguaglio per il settore elettrico), con le relative modalità tecniche.Saranno previsti quattro bandi l’anno: per i piccoli basterà una semplice domanda con il progetto preliminare, per i grandi è prevista una gara per innescare un processo di competitività tecnologica. Il beneficio riguarda l’installazione di 100 MW di impianti fotovoltaici, di cui il 60% per impianti piccoli e medi, la restante parte per quelli grandi, che hanno una potenza massima installabile di 1 MW. Una volta concesso l’incentivo il soggetto è tenuto ad avviare i lavori di realizzazione dell’impianto fotovoltaico entro 6 mesi dalla comunicazione (12 per gli impianti oltre 50 kW) e concluderli entro 12 mesi (24 oltre 50 kW). Altri 6 mesi sono, poi, a disposizione per la messa a punto e il collaudo dell’impianto.

The Society offer 5 IQ tests that measure different aspects of intelligence. Each of their tests can be taken online. The persons scoring 126may become member of the society!International High IQ Society | Free IQ Tests

Telegraph News Shuttle commander surprised by debris problem

Colonel Eileen Collins, the commander of the space shuttle Discovery, has said she was surprised and disappointed that the debris problem that brought down Columbia in 2003 had re-emerged.

Col Collins, 48, said: "What I'd like to say is this is something that has to be fixed. I don't think we should fly again unless we do something to prevent this from happening again."

Tor: An anonymous Internet communication system

Tor: An anonymous Internet communication system

Tor is a toolset for a wide range of organizations and people that want to improve their safety and security on the Internet. Using Tor can help you anonymize web browsing and publishing, instant messaging, IRC, SSH, and other applications that use the TCP protocol. Tor also provides a platform on which software developers can build new applications with built-in anonymity, safety, and privacy features.