Pacific Views

More Story And Them

Alternet: The Japanese Chauvinistic Husbands' Association encourages men to try the novel approach of saving their marriages by paying attention to their families, treating their wives well and helping out at home. A mix of renewable energy technologies could tackle global warming, but no one approach is likely to do the trick, according to a new report by the American Solar Energy Society (pdf). It costs the US $1 billion per year to incarcerate marijuana users. A new peace plan for Iraq is on offer by Sunni insurgents. US government plans to test conventional explosives at abandoned nuclear testing sites have alarmed the communities that were downwind from the radioactive dust left by the original tests and tribal authorities who say that the 'Divine Strake' tests would violate land-use treaties. Bob Moser thinks that not only could Democrats reclaim the South, they should:

... I can't say it better than Chris Kromm, director of the liberal Institute for Southern Studies in Durham, North Carolina. "For Democrats to turn their back on a region that half of all African-Americans and a growing number of Latinos call home, a place devastated by Hurricane Katrina, plant closings, poverty and other indignities -- in short, for progressives to give up on the very place where they could argue they are needed most -- would rightfully be viewed as a historic retreat from the party's commitment to justice for all."

Financial Times: North Korea has agreed to dismantle its nuclear program in exchange for international help in resolving a severe energy shortage. John Bolton is reportedly very irritated by the deal.

BBC: A pair of Belgian explorers will soon begin a 4,300km (2,672 mile) sled journey across the Arctic to study changes in the ice and coordinate ground observations with satellite data. Who were the Baader-Meinhof gang? Sweden has been taking in thousands of Iraqi refugees and is asking its EU neighbors to pick up the slack. An article on drug enforcement in Mexico reveals that the US government is perfectly happy to allow Mexicans into the country if they're being extradited for trial. Canada's conservative prime minister has announced a $1.3 billion climate change fund as part of an upcoming budget in an attempt to shore up support with voters who perceive his party as being weak on the environment. Bus bombs in Lebanon add to the tension a day before the 2nd anniversary of Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's assassination. Ahmadinejad declares that Iran is ready for talks. Residents of Baghdad are using Google Earth to plan escape routes or avoid kidnapping and arrest.

The Guardian: Monbiot details how Britain's biggest arms dealer, BAE, has acted like a law unto themselves. In Baghdad yesterday, a call for national unity on the anniversary of the Askariya mosque bombing was interrupted by a marketplace bombing that killed at least 80 people.

DailyKos: The FBI lost 160 laptops between 2002 and 2005. Have you seen the fnords? A brief history of Pakistan. Conservatism is just another word for aristocracy. Bonddad outlines the 5 fundamental problems of the US economy. David Sirota reports on the childish games used by the press to block free access to the Capitol. Jerome a Paris on how useful it was to demonize Putin and ignore what he said about the Bush administration's behavior.

Shakespeare's Sister: The insufferable dumbness of Bush's foreign policy. Doesn't saying that 'men have no control over themselves' kind of put them down? Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) wants ISPs to record all internet activity. Spurred by Ezra Klein's comments on the subject, Shakes points out that prison rape doesn't seem to bother most people, that it's discussed as though it's a perfectly fine side effect of incarceration. The reaction to John Amaechi's coming out wasn't exactly glowing, but it says a lot when being gay in the NBA isn't the end of the world.

Maru is alarmed to discover subversive knitting (scroll down a bit), as practiced originally by the notoriously iconoclastic March sisters in Little Women.

Panda's Thumb: Evolutionary neutrality, the proliferation of traits that don't affect survivability one way or the other, fits in with natural selection perfectly well. Haeckel's error continues to provide fodder for un-Intelligent Design proponents. A happy Darwin day book review.

Asia Times: India's energy needs are likely to continue as a key factor in that country's attitudes towards Iran. Will Iraq go the way of Yugoslavia, descending into genocide and balkanization? If there is to be a global flu epidemic, Indonesias lackadaisical bird flu policies are surely the weakest link in global public health:

... Two and a half years later, Indonesia's bird-flu problem has evolved into the region's worst with no clear plan to change direction. Jakarta officially only offers poultry farmers half the going market rate for H5N1-positive fowl killed as part of government culls, providing a strong disincentive for grassroots farmers to report infections in their flocks. Worse, there have been widespread reports that many Indonesian farmers have not received the compensation promised by the central government from provincial authorities. ...

BoomanTribune: A look at the horror of US prisons would indicate to any sane person that this country should never have been allowed to manage prisons in any other part of the world. What is it exactly, besides the ExxonMobil money, about global warming deniers that allows them to so fully suspend rational thought when confronted with scientific evidence? A catastrophic era of nuclear wars would be the most probable result of a US strike on Iran.

Random science & technology news: Napping is good for your heart, says a new study whose findings may indicate significant long-term stress reduction from just two to three half-hour naps per week. Fatherhood encourages enhanced neuron connections in the prefrontal cortex in ways comparable to being in a more enriched physical environment. $150 laptops may be the key to wiring the developing world to the internet. The educational community is becoming increasingly interested in how to use blogging to further their goals. The planet's most adorable dead couple. The very shiny and navigationally enhanced new Blackberry 8800. A new study published in the journal Neurology supports the effectiveness of medical marijuana for pain management in critically ill patients.

The Nation: Another look at the Pentagon Inspector General's review of the cooked Iraqi intelligence. For help in unruly Somalia, the Bush administration is willing to overlook despotism and corruption in Ethiopia. The IPCC report said that global warming is "unequivocal," but will anything useful be done? Gaza, one of the circles of Hell made real.

My Left Wing: Pandagon has been crashed by spammer attacks, but lorraine responds here to the character assassination of Amanda and Melissa, and Amanda's recent resignation from the Edwards campaign. Nonpartisan helps explain why former Sen. Mike Gravel is running for president. Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) will be reintroducing legislation this week to allow industrial hemp farming.

Posted by natasha at February 13, 2007 09:13 AM | Recommended Reading | Technorati links |