Monday, February 28th, 2011
LESLIE KAUFMAN, - The New York Times
Stephan: Climate Deniers flogged this for all it was worth which, as it turns out, is nothing.
An inquiry by a federal watchdog agency found no evidence that scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration manipulated climate data to buttress the evidence in support of global warming, officials said on Thursday.
The inquiry, by the Commerce Department’s inspector general, focused on e-mail messages between climate scientists that were stolen and circulated on the Internet in late 2009 (NOAA is part of the Commerce Department). Some of the e-mails involved scientists from NOAA.
Climate change skeptics contended that the correspondence showed that scientists were manipulating or withholding information to advance the theory that the earth is warming as a result of human activity.
In a report dated Feb. 18 and circulated by the Obama administration on Thursday, the inspector general said, ‘We did not find any evidence that NOAA inappropriately manipulated data.
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Monday, February 28th, 2011
GUY ADAMS, - The Independent (U.K.)
Stephan:
They are small, yellow and designed to endure nothing more stressful than a quick journey around a bathtub. But after almost 20 years lost at sea, a flotilla of plastic ducks has been hailed for revolutionising mankind’s knowledge of ocean science.
The humble toys are part of a shipment of 29,000 packaged ducks, frogs, turtles and beavers made in China for a US firm called First Years Inc. They were in a crate that fell off the deck of a container ship during a journey across the Pacific from Hong Kong in January 1992.
Since that moment, they have bobbed tens of thousands of miles. Some washed up on the shores of Hawaii and Alaska; others have been stuck in Arctic ice. A few crossed the site near Newfoundland where the Titanic sank, and at least one is believed to have been found on a beach in Scotland.
Now the creatures, nicknamed the ‘Friendly Floatees’ by various broadcasters who have followed their progress over the years, have been immortalised in a book titled Moby-Duck. It not only chronicles their extraordinary odyssey, and what it has taught us about currents, but also lays bare a largely ignored threat to the marine environment: the vast […]
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Monday, February 28th, 2011
HAL WEITZMAN, - Financial Times (U.K.)
Stephan: The corporatocracy really has no shame. If this was written on plain paper with different sized letters pasted on to make up the message we would recognize it as the blackmail note it is.
The head of one of the US’s biggest industrial groups has launched a scathing attack on Barack Obama’s attempts to repair relations with companies, dubbing him ‘anti-business
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Monday, February 28th, 2011
STEPHEN C. WEBSTER, - The Raw Story
Stephan: I support this boycott, and urge all my readers to boycott Georgia-Pacific products, and ask their friends to do likewise.
The report lists these brand names: 'In the US... Vanity Fair, Quilted Northern, Angel Soft, Sparkle, Brawney, Mardi Gras and Dixie. For Europe, they were Demak'Up, Kitten Soft, Lotus / Lotus Soft, Tenderly, Nouvelle Soft, Okay Kitchen Towels, Colhogar, Delica, Inversoft and Tutto.'
The machinations of the Koch brothers are a brazen attempt by two men to influence the American government to get what they want. It is to our shame that they have been so successful in this; in the process illustrating how easy it is to accomplish.
Given the profits they will make from this effort, the cost of doing it is just a business expense. They don't even really try to hide it, indeed, I think that is part of the kick they get doing it. It reminds me of the Otori novel series of 14th century Japan or, perhaps, Venetian affairs a century later; I feel like we have slipped back five centuries. Can there be a better reason arguing that we should have public financing of campaigns; isn't it is absurd that this should be possible? We need to vote with our pocketbooks, and shame politicians like Governor Walker who are Koch toadies.
What I found particularly interesting in the fake-Koch call was that although the brothers had poured millions into Walker's campaign, either directly or indirectly, they didn't even feel they needed to meet him. Like having your butler hire a gardener. Governor Walker clearly was not only excited to get the call, he clearly had not real prior experience with David Koch, didn't even recognize his voice.
The decentralized protest group ‘Anonymous’ has a new target: no, it’s not a middle eastern dictator, a major bank or even a bit player in the military-industrial complex.
It’s none other than tea party financiers Charles and David Koch, who were being targeted, an open letter stated, for their attempts ‘to usurp American Democracy.’
‘Koch Industries, and oligarchs like them, have most recently started to manipulate the political agenda in Wisconsin,’ an announcement posted to anonnews.org1 declared.
‘Governor Walker’s union-busting budget plan contains a clause that went nearly un-noticed. This clause would allow the sale of publicly owned utility plants in Wisconsin to private parties (specifically, Koch Industries) at any price, no matter how low, without a public bidding process,’ they explained. ‘The Koch’s have helped to fuel the unrest in Wisconsin and the drive behind the bill to eliminate the collective bargaining power of unions in a bid to gain a monopoly over the state’s power supplies.
The group, which was responsible for taking MasterCard Worldwide offline2 for an entire day — along with numerous other organizations that plotted against secrets outlet WikiLeaks — said it would now be ‘actively seeking vulnerabilities’ in Koch industries.
‘In a world where corporate money has become the […]
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Monday, February 28th, 2011
Stephan:
Despite exam stress, a long stint in education is good for people’s blood pressure, according to researchers in the US.
High blood pressure, or hypertension, is linked to heart attacks, strokes and kidney failure.
The study, published in the journal BMC Public Health, shows the link is stronger in women than in men.
The British Heart Foundation said the findings supported the link between deprivation and heart disease risk.
Higher levels of education have been linked to lower levels of heart disease. The researchers suggest that blood pressure could be the reason why.
The study looked at 30 years of data from 3,890 people who were being followed as part of the Framingham Offspring Study.
People were divided into three groups, low education (12 years or less), middle education (13 to 16 years) and high education (17 years or more).
The average systolic blood pressure for the 30 year period was then calculated.
Women with low education had a blood pressure 3.26 mmHg higher than those with a high level of education. In men the difference was 2.26 mmHg.
Other factors, such as smoking, taking blood pressure medication and drinking, were taken into consideration and the effect on blood pressure remained, although at a much lower level.
Writing in the […]
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