LGF Pages

5 Infuriating Things Nobody Tells You About College

MikeySDCA — Sun, 27 May 2012 10:32:30 PDT

Direct link to article... [littlegreenfootballs.com]

http://www.cracked.com/article_19849_5-infuriating-things-nobody-tells-you-about-college.html

The most underrated part of college is what you learn outside of the classroom. And no, we're not talking about the stuff your parents worry about ("Mom! I learned how to make a bong out of a dildo!"). We're talking about the bitter, cruel disappointment you feel when you find out how college actually works.
When it comes to lowering your expectations of the adult world, it doesn't get much better than finding out ...

China Is Culturally Superior to America - the Atlantic Wire

MikeySDCA — Sun, 27 May 2012 06:44:35 PDT

Direct link to article... [littlegreenfootballs.com]

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/global/2012/05/china-culturally-superior-america/52847/

In today's tour of state-sponsored propaganda: America has an inferiority complex with China, Syria overcomes its challenges and a propagandist reveals himself. We begin in China.
America's Inferiority Complex
Did you know America is privately envious of China's cultural superiority? If not, you're clearly not keeping up with The Global Times, one of China's state-run newspapers. This week, The Global Times is upset about an obscure State Department directive that's making it more difficult for Confucius Institues to operate in the United States. (Confucius Institutes are run by government-trained language instructors who teach foreigners Mandarin in some 380 locations throughout the U.S., but always avoid topics like the Dalai Lama or the Tiananmen Square Massacre ) Some of the griping about the directive is valid, especially concerning the renewal of visas for teachers at at the Confucius Centers. But in its typical ham-handed style, The Global Times makes a rather humorous but utterly serious extrapolation from the new policy in an editorial today titled "Why is Washington so scared of Confucius?":
The issue shows that the US' cultural confidence is not as strong as we thought. The promotion of Chinese language and culture by Confucius Institutes makes some Americans uneasy. Only culturally weak countries have such sensitivity.
Ah, you got us Global Times.

'I Was Looking Forward to a Quiet Old Age': Instead, Etta Shiber, Helped Smuggle Stranded Allied Soldiers To Freedom

researchok — Sun, 27 May 2012 01:13:45 PDT

Direct link to article... [littlegreenfootballs.com]

http://sigmundcarlandalfred.wordpress.com/2012/05/27/i-was-looking-forward-to-a-quiet-old-age-instead-etta-shiber-a-widow-and-former-manhattan-housewife-helped-smuggle-stranded-allied-soldiers-out-of-nazi-occupied-in-paris/

On December 22, 1940, a former Manhattan housewife named Etta Kahn Shiber found herself in Hotel Matignon, headquarters of the Gestapo in Paris, sitting across from a "mousy" man in civilian clothes who said his name was Dr. Hager. Shiber, a 62-year-old widow, planned to follow the advice that had replayed in her head for the past six months--deny everything--but something about the doctor's smile, smug and imperious, suggested that he didn't need a confession.
"Well, the comedy is over," he began. "We now have the last two members of the gang.... And I have just received word that Mme. Beaurepos was arrested in Bordeaux two hours ago. So there really wasn't any reason to allow you to wander around the streets any longer, was there?"
A clerk appeared to transcribe everything she said. Dr. Hager asked hundreds of questions over the next 15 hours. She answered each one obliquely, being careful to say nothing that could be used against her friends and accomplices, and was escorted to a cell at the Cherche-Midi prison.
As he turned to leave, Dr. Hager smiled and reminded her that the punishment for her crime carried a mandatory sentence of death.
Six months earlier, on June 13, 1940--the day the Nazis invaded Paris--Etta Shiber and her roommate, whom she would identify in her memoir, Paris Underground, as "Kitty Beaurepos," collected their dogs, jewelry, and a few changes of clothing and started out on Route Nationale No. 20, the broad that connected Paris with the south of France. The women had met in 1925, when Etta was on vacation with her husband, William Shiber, the wire chief of the New York American andNew York Evening Journal. They kept in touch, and when her husband died, in 1936, Kitty invited Etta to live with her in Paris. Kitty was English by birth and French by marriage but was separated from her husband, a wine merchant. Etta moved into her apartment in an exclusive neighborhood near the Arc de Triomphe.
Now the city streets were deserted and the highway was choked with thousands of refugees--in autos, on foot, in horse-drawn carts, on bicycles. After twenty-four hours Etta and Kitty were still idling on the outskirts of Paris, and they knew the Germans would soon be following.

John Paul Stevens: Should Hate Speech Be Outlawed?

researchok — Sun, 27 May 2012 01:10:06 PDT

Direct link to article... [littlegreenfootballs.com]

http://sigmundcarlandalfred.wordpress.com/2012/05/27/should-hate-speech-be-outlawed/

In The Harm in Hate Speech, Jeremy Waldron discusses a loosely defined category of expression that he addressed in a review of Anthony Lewis's bookFreedom for the Thought That We Hate in The New York Review in 2008, and in the Oliver Wendell Holmes Lectures at Harvard University in 2009. Although his references to Justice Holmes in this book are not exactly flattering--Waldron writes that "at one time or another [Holmes] took both sides on most free speech issues," and that Holmes's judgment "that criticizing the military was comparable to shouting 'Fire!' in a crowded theater" is "preposterous"--in her introduction of Waldron at the Holmes Lectures, Harvard Law School Dean Martha Minow praised Waldron as "one of the two or three greatest legal philosophers of our time." That high praise also applies to one of Waldron's former teachers, Ronald Dworkin, who has criticized Waldron's writing about hate speech.
While references to learned debates among such scholars suggest that the average reader might have difficulty understanding the arguments in Waldron's book, such is not the case. The book is eminently readable and peppered with anecdotes and examples. For one, the instance of hateful speech that some readers may interpret as the proximate cause of Waldron's decision to write the book was this e-mail addressed to him by a reader: "YOU ARE A TOTALITARIAN -------."
I suspect that the author of that e-mail may be a person who believes that our Supreme Court has been too willing to seek guidance in the work of foreign judges and foreign lawmakers. Waldron is certainly not such a person. His book provides arguments supporting hate speech prohibitions, to which other countries traditionally have been more amenable than has our own. Yet Waldron apparently does not expect his work to lead to any major changes in United States law. He writes that his purpose is not to persuade readers "of the wisdom and legitimacy of hate speech laws," or "to make a case for the constitutional acceptability of these laws in the United States."

The Miracle Next Door: Poland Emerges as a Central European Powerhouse

researchok — Sun, 27 May 2012 01:08:14 PDT

Direct link to article... [littlegreenfootballs.com]

http://sigmundcarlandalfred.wordpress.com/2012/05/27/the-miracle-next-door-poland-emerges-as-a-central-european-powerhouse/

Germans used to think of Poland as a country full of car thieves and post-communist drabness. On the eve of hosting the European Football Championship, however, the country has become the most astonishing success story in Eastern Europe. Relations between Berlin and Warsaw have never been better.
There are cities that are as uninteresting as the stone they are made of, rigid and heavy, done up as stylishly as if they had been completely untarnished by the vagaries of history. And then there are the other kinds, the raw, rough, unfinished and exciting cities of the world.
Warsaw is one of those cities, a place that seems to crackle and groan in all of its unfinished glory. No one would dream of calling the Polish capital a beautiful place. But how much it breathes history, how many critical, comforting and tragic things it says about the course of time to those who not only contemplate but also scrutinize its building blocks is evident in many of its structures. It is especially evident in the new football stadium in the Saska Kepa quarter on the east bank of the Vistula River, the place that will transfix billions of people on June 8, the day of the opening match of the European football championships.
Warsaw, 68 years earlier, less than a stone's throw away. Resistance fighters with the Polish Home Army are crawling through cellars, sewer tunnels and secret underground passages, rallying against the savage German occupiers. They strike out, armed with the courage of despair, and they manage to capture important parts of the city. They are counting on Stalin's help, after hearing on Radio Moscow that the Soviets have promised to support them militarily. But instead the Soviet dictator orders his troops to sit tight and do nothing, in the exact spot where this year's football championship is to take place. Stalin has no interest in self-confident Poles who liberate their capitals under their own steam. The Nazis massacre 180,000 Poles, and large parts of the city are reduced to rubble. The Russians eventually do liberate the Poles, their "sister people," but not until January 1945 -- on their own terms.

Political Arts

researchok — Sun, 27 May 2012 01:06:08 PDT

Direct link to article... [littlegreenfootballs.com]

http://sigmundcarlandalfred.wordpress.com/2012/05/27/political-arts/

Philosophy, Religion, Politics

researchok — Sun, 27 May 2012 01:05:39 PDT

Direct link to article... [littlegreenfootballs.com]

http://sigmundcarlandalfred.wordpress.com/2012/05/27/philosophy-religion-politics/

Exclusive Dispatch: Assad Blamed for Massacre of the Innocents

researchok — Sun, 27 May 2012 01:04:13 PDT

Direct link to article... [littlegreenfootballs.com]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/exclusive-dispatch-assad-blamed-for-massacre-of-the-innocents-7791507.html

In a massacre of unprecedented savagery that brings Syria close to civil war, some 32 children and 60 adults have been slaughtered in villages in the Houla area of central Syria. Anti-government militants blame pro-regime gunmen for carrying out the butchery in which children and their parents were hacked and shot to death.
The figure for the number of children and adults killed was confirmed in an interview with The Independent on Sunday by General Robert Mood, the head of the team of 300 UN observers which is seeking to reduce the level of violence. "My patrols went into the village," he said. "I can verify that they counted 32 children under 10 killed. In addition, there were more than 60 adults dead."
General Mood would not explain how the villagers died, but horrific pictures posted on YouTube appear to show that they were shot or knifed to death, some having their throats cut. The small bodies of the children were covered in sheets as they were taken by survivors screaming in grief and disbelief from the houses where they had been murdered.
The massacre is the worst single incident in Syria's 14-month crisis because it involved the deliberate murder of children as well as adults. Militants say the perpetrators were pro-regime gunmen, known as the shabiya, who had captured Houla. If true, the shabiya may have been members of the Alawite sect, which is supportive of the government. Alawites inhabit a string of villages south of Houla, which is 25km north-west of Homs. The Syrian leadership is largely drawn from the Alawite sect.

Are the Police Tracking Your Calls?

researchok — Sun, 27 May 2012 01:04:03 PDT

Direct link to article... [littlegreenfootballs.com]

http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/22/opinion/crump-cellphone-privacy/index.html?hpt=us_mid

Do you know how long your cell phone company keeps records of whom you text, who calls you or what places you have traveled? Do you know how often cell phone companies turn over this information to the police and whether they first ask the police to get a warrant based on probable cause?
No, you don't. Not unless you work for a cell phone company or a law enforcement agency with a specialty in electronic surveillance. You aren't alone: Congress and the courts have no idea either.
The little we do know is worrisome. The companies are not legally required to turn over your information simply because a police officer is curious about you. Yet wireless carriers sell this information to police all the time.
As far as the cell phone companies are concerned, the less Americans know about it the better.
Whom you text and call and where you go (tracked by your cell phone as long as it's on) can reveal a great deal about you. Your calling patterns can show which friends matter to you the most, and your travel patterns can reveal what political and religious meetings you attend and what doctors you visit. Over time, this data accumulates into a dossier portraying details of your life so intimate that you may not have thought of them yourself. In comparison with companies such as Facebook and Google, which collect, store and use our information in one way or another, cell phone companies are less transparent.

Is Environmentalism Anti-Science?

researchok — Sun, 27 May 2012 01:03:55 PDT

Direct link to article... [littlegreenfootballs.com]

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/2012/05/24/is-environmentalism-anti-science/

Greens are often mocked as self-righteous, hybrid-driving, politically correct foodies these days (see this episode of South Park and this scene from Portlandia.) But it wasn't that long ago--when Earth First and Earth Liberation were in the headlines--that greens were perceived as militant activists. They camped out in trees to stop clear-cutting and intercepted whaling ships and oil and gas rigs on the high seas.
In recent years, a new forceful brand of green activism has come back into vogue. One action (carried out with Monkey Wrenching flair) became a touchstone for the nascent climate movement. In 2011, climate activists engaged in a multi-day civil disobedience event that has since turned a proposed oil pipeline into a rallying cause for American environmental groups.
This, combined with grassroots opposition to gas fracking, has energized the sagging global green movement. But though activist greens have frequently claimed to stand behind science, their recent actions, especially in regard to genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, say otherwise.

Source Found for Missing Water in Sea-Level Rise: Human use of water contributes markedly to rising tides

researchok — Sun, 27 May 2012 01:03:44 PDT

Direct link to article... [littlegreenfootballs.com]

http://www.nature.com/news/source-found-for-missing-water-in-sea-level-rise-1.10676

Climate change, with its associated melting ice caps and shrinking glaciers, is the usual suspect when it comes to explaining rising sea levels. But a recent study now shows that human water use has a major impact on sea-level change that has been overlooked.
During the latter half of the twentieth century, global sea level rose by about 1.8 millimetres per year, according to data from tide gauges. The combined contribution from heating of the oceans, which makes the water expand, along with melting of ice caps and glaciers, is estimated to be 1.1 millimetres per year, which leaves some 0.7 millimetres per year unaccounted for. This gap has been considered an important missing piece of the puzzle in estimates for past and current sea-level changes and for projections of future rises.
It now seems that the effects of human water use on land could fill that gap. A team of researchers reports in Nature Geoscience that land-based water storage could account for 0.77 millimetres per year, or 42%, of the observed sea-level rise between 1961 and 2003. Of that amount, the extraction of groundwater for irrigation and home and industrial use, with subsequent run-off to rivers and eventually to the oceans, represents the bulk of the contribution.

The Ultimate Counterfeiter Isn't a Crook--He's an Artist

researchok — Sun, 27 May 2012 01:03:31 PDT

Direct link to article... [littlegreenfootballs.com]

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/05/ff_counterfeiter/

On a bright May afternoon in 2007, a German artist and printmaker named Hans-Jürgen Kuhl took a seat at an outdoor café directly opposite the colossal facade of the Cologne Cathedral. He ordered an espresso and a slice of plum cake, lit a Lucky Strike, and watched for the buyer. She was due any minute. Kuhl, a lanky 65-year-old, had to remind himself that he was in no rush. He'd sold plenty of artwork over the years, but this batch was altogether different. He needed to be patient.
Tourists milled about the platz in front of the cathedral, Germany's most visited landmark, craning their necks to snap pictures of the impossibly intricate spires jutting toward the heavens. Kuhl knew those spires well. He had grown up in Cologne and painted the majestic cathedral countless times.
On the other side of a low brick wall surrounding the café, Kuhl finally spotted her. Tall, blond, and trim, Susann Falkenthal looked about 30. As was the case during their previous meetings, she wore practical shoes, an unremarkable blouse and pair of pants, and little makeup. Kuhl thought her plain look was something of a contradiction for a businesswoman who drove a black BMW convertible, but no matter.
When they first met a few months earlier, Falkenthal said she was an events manager from Vilnius, Lithuania, and gave Kuhl a card printed with a Vilnius address as well as an address from the German city of Essen. Her German was flawless.

Concerns Grow Over Spent Fuel at Fukushima Daiichi Plant

researchok — Sun, 27 May 2012 01:03:18 PDT

Direct link to article... [littlegreenfootballs.com]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/27/world/asia/concerns-grow-about-spent-fuel-rods-at-damaged-nuclear-plant-in-japan.html?hp

What passes for normal at the Fukushima Daiichi plant today would have caused shudders among even the most sanguine of experts before an earthquake and tsunami set off the world's second most serious nuclear crisis after Chernobyl.
Fourteen months after the accident, a pool brimming with used fuel rods and filled with vast quantities of radioactive cesium still sits on the top floor of a heavily damaged reactor building, covered only with plastic.
The public's fears about the pool have grown in recent months as some scientists have warned that it has the most potential for setting off a new catastrophe, now that the three nuclear reactors that suffered meltdowns are in a more stable state, and as frequent quakes continue to rattle the region.
The worries picked up new traction in recent days after the operator of the plant, Tokyo Electric Power Company, or Tepco, said it had found a slight bulge in one of the walls of the reactor building, stoking fears over the building's safety.
To try to quell such worries, the government sent the environment and nuclear minister to the plant on Saturday, where he climbed a makeshift staircase in protective garb to look at the structure supporting the pool, which he said appeared sound. The minister, Goshi Hosono, added that although the government accepted Tepco's assurances that reinforcement work had shored up the building, it had ordered the company to conduct further studies because of the bulge.
Some outside experts have also worked to allay fears, saying that the fuel in the pool is now so old that it cannot generate enough heat to start the kind of accident that would allow radioactive material to escape.

With Personal Data in Hand, Thieves File Early and Often

researchok — Sun, 27 May 2012 01:03:09 PDT

Direct link to article... [littlegreenfootballs.com]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/27/us/id-thieves-loot-tax-checks-filing-early-and-often.html?hp

Besieged by identity theft, Florida now faces a fast-spreading form of fraud so simple and lucrative that some violent criminals have traded their guns for laptops. And the target is the United States Treasury.
With nothing more than ledgers of stolen identity information -- Social Security numbers and their corresponding names and birth dates -- criminals have electronically filed thousands of false tax returns with made-up incomes and withholding information and have received hundreds of millions of dollars in wrongful refunds, law enforcement officials say.
The criminals, some of them former drug dealers, outwit the Internal Revenue Service by filing a return before the legitimate taxpayer files. Then the criminals receive the refund, sometimes by check but more often though a convenient but hard-to-trace prepaid debit card.
The government-approved cards, intended to help people who have no bank accounts, are widely available in many places, including tax preparation companies. Some of them are mailed, and the swindlers often provide addresses for vacant houses, even buying mailboxes for them, and then collect the refunds there.
Postal workers have been harassed, robbed and, in one case, murdered as they have made their rounds with mail trucks full of debit cards and master keys to mailboxes.
The fraud, which has spread around the country, is costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars annually, federal and state officials say. The I.R.S. sometimes, in effect, pays two refunds instead of one: first to the criminal who gets a claim approved, and then a second to the legitimate taxpayer, who might have to wait as long as a year while the agency verifies the second claim.

Rogue Insurgent Group Enters Afghan Fray

researchok — Sun, 27 May 2012 01:02:57 PDT

Direct link to article... [littlegreenfootballs.com]

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/NE25Df02.html

As the Afghan government struggles to reach a negotiated peace settlement with insurgents while international troops prepare to withdraw in 2014, a previously marginal militant group has answered the call for talks with a resounding "no".
Until recently, little was heard of the Mullah Dadullah Front, an extremist militant group that operates mainly out of southern Afghanistan. But that has changed, with the group claiming responsibility for the assassination of a key negotiator for the High Peace Council, the government's main avenue for peace talks, and for sending death threats to Kabul lawmakers.
The front takes the name of a former radical Taliban commander who was killed in a United States-led attack in Helmand province in 2007. Afghan intelligence officials have described the group as a Taliban faction.
Despite having vowed to target members of the High Peace Council, the Taliban was quick to distance itself from the recent assassination and has publicly stated that it is not affiliated with the Mullah Dadullah Front.
Mohammad Yasin Zia, deputy chief of the National Directorate of Security (NDS), the Afghan intelligence body, says that although details about the group are sketchy, its recent actions show the group's clear opposition to peace talks and to an extended American military presence in the country.

Debunking the Myth of Intuition

researchok — Sun, 27 May 2012 01:02:46 PDT

Direct link to article... [littlegreenfootballs.com]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/interview-with-daniel-kahneman-on-the-pitfalls-of-intuition-and-memory-a-834407.html

Can doctors and investment advisers be trusted? And do we live more for experiences or memories? In a SPIEGEL interview, Nobel Prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman discusses the innate weakness of human thought, deceptive memories and the misleading power of intuition.
SPIEGEL: Professor Kahneman, you've spent your entire professional life studying the snares in which human thought can become entrapped. For example, in your book, you describe how easy it is to increase a person's willingness to contribute money to the coffee fund.
Kahneman: You just have to make sure that the right picture is hanging above the cash box. If a pair of eyes is looking back at them from the wall, people will contribute twice as much as they do when the picture shows flowers. People who feel observed behave more morally.
SPIEGEL: And this also works if we don't even pay attention to the photo on the wall?
Kahneman: All the more if you don't notice it. The phenomenon is called "priming": We aren't aware that we have perceived a certain stimulus, but it can be proved that we still respond to it.
SPIEGEL: People in advertising will like that.
Kahneman: Of course, that's where priming is in widespread use. An attractive woman in an ad automatically directs your attention to the name of the product. When you encounter it in the shop later on, it will already seem familiar to you.

Leaving It All Behind When Modern Cities Become Ghost Towns

researchok — Sun, 27 May 2012 01:02:36 PDT

Direct link to article... [littlegreenfootballs.com]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/berlin-exhibition-explores-modern-ghost-towns-a-835282.html

Urban researchers in Berlin are exploring an eerie phenomenon -- the modern ghost town. From a deserted Cypriot holiday resort to a brand new Chinese city devoid of inhabitants, they are asking why people abandon their communities and exploring the stories that make these empty places so compelling.
The Japanese island of Hashima was once among the most densely populated areas in the world. But with the decline of the coal industry, the island was deserted in the 1970s. Now history enthusiasts like to explore it in hopes of discovering remnants of the mining town it once was. The desolate ruins of the settlement also inspire filmmakers to replicate the haunting setting in their movies.
Hashima is just one example of a number of modern "ghost towns" around the world that has drawn the attention of urban researchers, who opened an exhibition on the topic on Thursday in the German capital of Berlin.
Neft Dashlari is another. An artificial settlement off the coast of Azerbaijan, it was constructed by the Soviets after World War II, when the state was facing a major oil shortage. Having found a large oil deposit 42 kilometers off the Azeri coast, officials decided to build a town to accommodate the rig workers, erecting motorways and housing on top of huge steel posts. But now, as reserves near depletion, the settlement is beginning to resemble a deserted scene from a science fiction film.

What's Going on With Ice Cream?

researchok — Sun, 27 May 2012 01:02:25 PDT

Direct link to article... [littlegreenfootballs.com]

http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/ideas/2012/05/whats-going-on-with-ice-cream/

This weekend Men in Black 3 opens just about anywhere there's a screen, but I'll bet you didn't know that not one, not two, but three ice cream treats have been chosen to mark the occasion.
Since the beginning of the month, in fact, Baskin-Robbins has, in recognition of this cinema event, been serving up something called "Pink Surprise Cake," supposedly inspired by a scene in the movie, along with two sundaes, "Lunar Lander" and "Agent 31." Both are built on scoops of "lunar cheesecake" ice cream-a flavor last sold when NASA first landed men on the moon. Since that's not happening again any time soon, they must have figured it's okay to bring it back for a movie about aliens coming to Earth.
Then, just the other day, came word that Carl's Jr., a fast food chain in the western U.S., has started selling something called a Brrrger. It looks like a burger, with a thick brown slab between what appear to be buns, and ketchup and mustard seemingly running down the side, next to overhanging lettuce. But it's actually a less-than-savory-looking ice cream sandwich, a chunk of chocolate ice cream between two cookies and dressed up with icing to create the effect of dripping condiments.
And I have to ask: What is going on with ice cream? Has it been reduced to a simple marketing prop or worse, a burger wannabe? How, after so many billion delectable licks, has it come to this?
But there's hope. Some impressively innovative and, in some cases, truly bizarre things are happening to our cold and creamy chum.

Some Imported Shrimp on Grocery Store Shelves Are Contaminated With Antibiotics

researchok — Sun, 27 May 2012 01:02:13 PDT

Direct link to article... [littlegreenfootballs.com]

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2012/05/23/some-imported-shrimp-on-grocery-store-shelves-are-contaminated-with-antibiotics/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+80beats+%2880beats%29

Most of us assume that by the time food arrives at the grocery store, it's been checked for any chemicals that might harm us. That's not necessarily the case: food manufacturers and federal employees test for some known culprits in some foods, but the search isn't exhaustive, especially when it comes to imported items. Recently, scientists working with ABC News checked to see whether imported farmed shrimp bought from grocery stores had any potentially dangerous antibiotic residue, left over from the antibiotic-filled ponds in which they are raised. It turns out, a few of them did.
Out of 30 samples taken from grocery stores around the US, 3 turned up positive on tests for antibiotics that are banned from food for health reasons. Two of the samples, one imported from Thailand and one from India, had levels of carcinogenic antibiotic nitrofuranzone that were nearly 30 times higher than the amount allowed by the FDA. The other antibiotics the team discovered were enroflaxin, part of a class of compounds that can cause severe reactions in people and promote the growth of drug-resistant bacteria, and chloramphenicol, an antibiotic that is also a suspected carcinogen.

Late Afternoon Light-Kalanchoe

Rightwingconspirator — Sat, 26 May 2012 17:32:36 PDT

Direct link to article... [littlegreenfootballs.com]

Full Size Coelancho
http://studio11photography.blogspot.com/2012/05/late-afternoon-light.html

200K Size

Colin Powell Endorsed Same-Sex Marriage Once It Was Safe, More Evidence He's Hardly a Great Leader.

MikeySDCA — Sat, 26 May 2012 17:29:06 PDT

Direct link to article... [littlegreenfootballs.com]

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2012/05/colin_powell_endorsed_same_sex_marriage_once_it_was_safe_more_evidence_he_s_hardly_a_great_leader_.html

Colin Powell has often been cited as among the most-admired leaders in America. Hence it's been news this week that he followed President Obama in endorsing same-sex marriage. But is Powell really a leader, much less one worthy of admiration? It's worth a glance back at his record in this election year as the nation discusses the attributes it seeks in a leader and contemplates what moral leadership really looks like.
Speaking on CNN Wednesday, Powell said he has "no problem" with same-sex marriage. Before he could utter another sentence on that subject, though, he defensively and dishonestly shirked responsibility for his critical role in enshrining a ban on openly gay military service into law. "It was the Congress that imposed 'don't ask, don't tell,' he said in response to Wolf Blitzer's questioning. Powell admitted it was his "recommendation" but passing the buck to Congress may be the dodge of the century. As the first African-American chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a hero of the first Iraq war, and the highest-ranking officer in the country, Powell commanded immense moral authority on this issue. Indeed his was doubtlessly the single most important voice in the painful debate, and the voice most pointed to by the Congress he's now trying to blame.

Attachment Birthers

researchok — Sat, 26 May 2012 17:19:55 PDT

Direct link to article... [littlegreenfootballs.com]

http://sigmundcarlandalfred.wordpress.com/2012/05/26/attachment-birthers/

Portland Actor Isaac Lamb Proposes To Amy Frankel

researchok — Sat, 26 May 2012 16:58:50 PDT

Direct link to article... [littlegreenfootballs.com]

This marriage proposal will be hard to top.

City College of San Francisco Budget Update

eclectic infidel — Sat, 26 May 2012 16:40:18 PDT

Direct link to article... [littlegreenfootballs.com]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWPiSXEJXyY

Translation: Layoffs, cut classes, less instruction, higher fees.

Video and Photos: SpaceX's Rendezvous With the Space Station

Rightwingconspirator — Sat, 26 May 2012 12:27:36 PDT

Direct link to article... [littlegreenfootballs.com]

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/05/spacex-rendezvous-iss/

Video

Update: You can see a video of SpaceX's successful berthing with the International Space Station above and several still images after the text below.
Tune in May 24 at 11 p.m. PDT (7 a.m. GMT) to see a live feed of SpaceX taking its next historic step: a rendezvous with the International Space Station.
In recent days, SpaceX's Dragon capsule has performed some interesting orbital ballet around the station, coming within a few miles, backing away, and then coming in close again. Dragon is expected to come to its closest approach, just 32 feet from the ISS, which will be its final hold position, known as a capture point.

For more details see the Dragon X web site.

Kansas governor signs 'Shariah bill' to ban Islamic law

UNIXon — Sat, 26 May 2012 12:09:42 PDT

Direct link to article... [littlegreenfootballs.com]

Creeping Fascism.

The law has been dubbed the "Shariah bill" because critics say it targets the Islamic legal code. Shariah, or Islamic law, covers all aspects of Muslim life, including religious obligations and financial dealings. Opponents of state bans say they could nullify wills or legal contracts between Muslims.

Article by MSNBC/Reuters.

Glenn Beck in Exile: Don't cry for the former Fox star—he's building a 24/7 media empire in his loopy image.- the Atlantic

MikeySDCA — Sat, 26 May 2012 12:07:26 PDT

Direct link to article... [littlegreenfootballs.com]

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/06/glenn-beck-in-exile/8985/

When Glenn Beck "parted company" with Fox News in June of last year, he took his Glenn Beck-ness with him. He took his tears, and his chalkboards, and his patriotic unction. He took his world-historical sweep and his zodiac of personal demons. He took his edifying projects and his long-haul feuds, his hobbyhorses and hobgoblins. He took his face, his voice, the vials of his wrath, the quivering curds of his indignation--he took it all, and he left the network. Gone! There was no replacement for Glenn Beck. None was possible. The portal simply resealed itself, and there we were again--we the people, the watchers of Fox, back with the everyday lineup of guffers and bluffers.
Where did Glenn Beck go, on his nimbus of madness? To the Internet, that's where. In September 2011, mere months into his exile, Beck launched a Web TV network called GBTV. It was risky, very risky, a precipitous venture from a precipitous man. Dozens of new employees, millions of dollars invested--and what would it do to the brand? "Beck premiered today," crowed Keith Olbermann, "having lost about 90 percent of the audience he had at Fox!" And it was true: Beck was down from a daily average of 2.2 million Fox viewers to a hard core of 230,000 GBTV subscribers. But oh, the feeling that he might have blown it--this was champagne to Glenn Beck. It mingled strangely in his mind with a whiff of divine ordination. "I'm about to take on massive debt," he confided huskily during an October episode of The Glenn Beck Program on GBTV. "It seems absolutely crazy to me, and I'm not going to keep asking if that's right." We could feel the pressure of oncoming tears: his face was getting that glandular look. "I will listen and obey ... I have prayed and prayed and prayed for the answers that I'm going to give you today ... I'm a guy who is making crazy business moves right now. I left the biggest and best cable news network at the pintacle of news in the world!" That's right, folks, the pintacle. The pinnacle of the pentacle. It doesn't get any higher than that.

Vatican Leak Inquiry: Pope's Butler Charged

MikeySDCA — Sat, 26 May 2012 08:10:33 PDT

Direct link to article... [littlegreenfootballs.com]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18219390

The Pope's butler has been charged in connection with the Vatican's inquiry into a series of media leaks.
Vatican magistrates have named 46-year-old Paolo Gabriele as the suspect in their investigation, saying he illegally took confidential documents.
A series of leaks, dubbed Vatileaks, has revealed alleged corruption, mismanagement and internal conflicts.
Last month, Pope Benedict XVI set up a special commission of cardinals to find the source of the confidential memos.
Mr Gabriele is the pope's personal butler and assistant and one of very few laymen to have access to the Pope's private apartments.

How Did Wisconsin Become the Most Politically Divisive Place in America?

researchok — Sat, 26 May 2012 01:13:46 PDT

Direct link to article... [littlegreenfootballs.com]

http://sigmundcarlandalfred.wordpress.com/2012/05/26/how-did-wisconsin-become-the-most-politically-divisive-place-in-america/

This past March, standing outside a Shell station in Mellen, Wis., in the state's far north, Mike Wiggins Jr. told me about a series of dark and premonitory dreams he had two years earlier. "One of them was a very vivid trip around the North Woods and seeing forests bleeding and sludge from a creek emptying into the Bad River," Wiggins said. "I ended up at a dilapidated northern log home with rotten snowshoes falling off the wall. I stepped out of the lodge, walked through some pine, and I was in a pipeline. There was a big pipe coming in and out of the ground as far as I could see.
"I had no idea what the hell that was all about," Wiggins continued. But he said the dream became clearer when a stranger named Matt Fifield came into his office several months later and handed him his card. Wiggins is the chairman of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, and Fifield, the managing director of Gogebic Taconite (GTac), a division of the Cline Group, a mining company based in Florida. He had come to Wiggins's office to discuss GTac's desire to build a $1.5 billion open-pit iron-ore mine in the Penokee Hills, about seven miles south of the Bad River reservation. The proposed mine would be several hundred feet deep, roughly four miles long and a half-mile wide; the company estimated it would bring 700 long-term jobs to the area. Fearing contamination of the local groundwater and pristine rivers, Wiggins told Fifield he planned to oppose the mine. He didn't know at the time that the company's lawyers would be working hand in hand with Republican legislators to draft a bill that would weaken Wisconsin environmental law and expedite the permitting process.
What followed was a drawn-out fight that resembled other statewide battles over labor, education and voter-registration laws -- all of which have been introduced since the election of the Republican governor Scott Walker in 2010. The most bitter of these fights began in early February last year, when Walker proposed eliminating virtually all collective-bargaining rights for a vast majority of the state's public-employee unions. Around the time that Walker announced the measure, similar laws were introduced in Michigan, Ohio and Florida, and a nationwide demonization of public employees caught fire. Within two months, the National Conference of State Legislators had tracked more than 100 bills, initiated across the country, attacking public-sector unions.

Who Will Step Up and Save the Middle Class? Liberals Must Face the Stark Truth: Both Parties Have Agreed to Sacrifice the Middle

researchok — Sat, 26 May 2012 01:11:04 PDT

Direct link to article... [littlegreenfootballs.com]

http://sigmundcarlandalfred.wordpress.com/2012/05/26/who-will-step-up-and-save-the-middle-class-liberals-must-face-the-stark-truth-both-parties-have-agreed-to-sacrifice-the-middle/

In the eyes of most of the world and in our own, to be an American is to be an optimist--entrepreneurial, positive-thinking, and future-oriented. It is not surprising, then, that our politics has not come to grips with the question of national decline. Yes, our governing elites have long debated America's power in the world and whether it's eroding. But about the future of Americans, as opposed to the future of the geopolitical hegemon,America, our most important politicians and pundits have much less to say. Despite the bitter public arguments over tax and budget policies, they share the implicit assumption that even harder times are ahead for the majority of Americans--if not 99 percent then at least 75 percent to 80 percent. But doom and gloom does not play well in American politics. So, whenever our policymakers cannot avoid the word "sacrifice," it is gingerly presented as a temporary inconvenience, to someone other than the listener, necessary to rebalance the government's books and return us to pre-crash prosperity in some unspecified, but surely near-term, future.
The evidence in front of our eyes is that on our current economic trajectory, the American middle class is headed for a further fall in its living standards, and the probability that the country's two-party governing class will change course is close to zero.
The conventional chatter from the nation's punditry declares that Washington has been made "dysfunctional" by excessive partisanship and incivility. A day does not go by without prominent editorialists, talking heads, and bloggers calling for Democrats and Republicans to come together in a "grand bargain" over budget policy. Yet from the point of view of its most influential clients, Washington is actually functioning quite well. Indeed, the most important grand bargain has already been consummated.