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GAIA AND HOMOSAPIENS

***** The Richard Dimbleby Lecture by HRH Prince Charles, titled “Facing the Future”
St James’s Palace State Apartments, London, 7th July 2009 - An Exceptional In-Depth Holistic Call to Wake Up and Act Before It Is Too Late
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Jordan Page Pendulum Music Video
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"Listen" By Jordan Page
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Note: The symbol ^ denotes that that article can be read in full at the link.

Imaging Life Up Front

Video - 43.39 min | A Changing World - The Nature of Things
CBC - December 3, 2009
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From new companies rushing to claim the Arctic's plentiful resources to the effect climate change has had on animals as well as plant life. As the Arctic meltdown continues at an ever accelerating pace, who will protect it?

***** Breaking News

US | Millions of Bush administration emails retrieved
CBC - Monday, December 14, 2009
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Computer technicians have found 22 million missing White House emails from the George W. Bush administration, according to two groups that are settling lawsuits they filed over the failure by the Bush White House to install an electronic record-keeping system The two groups — Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and the National Security Archive — made the announcement as they settled lawsuits they'd filed against the executive office of the president in 2007. But the public might not see any of the emails for some time because they will now go through the National Archives' normal process for releasing presidential and agency records.

International Regions

Middle East | US 'sends special forces to Yemen' amid crisis
Press TV - Iran - Monday, December 14, 2009
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US special forces have reportedly been sent to Yemen to train its army, as the Yemeni military backed by the Saudi Arabian army has been fighting local Houthi fighters in the north of the country. The development comes amid fears that foreign military intervention in the country has put Yemeni civilians in dire condition.

Editor - Is ihe American government now expanding its involvement geographically in this probematic region. Recent history would support this.

South Asia | US Drone attacks may be expanded Into Cities In Pakistan
U.S. officials seek to push CIA drone strikes into the major city of Quetta to try to pressure Pakistan into pursuing Taliban leaders based there.
Press TV (Iran) - December 15, 2009
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Editor - Tongue in Cheek - What's Next? - US drone attacks on terrorists in American cities?

Related Story | US - NORAD Flight Exercise Planned for Washington, D.C.
North American Aerospace Defense Command - December 14, 2009
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NORAD will conduct exercise flights Dec. 15 in the skies over the National Capital Region (Washington, D.C.). The flights will take place beginning around midnight and continue into the early morning hours Tuesday. In the event of inclement weather, the exercise will take place the following day. People can expect to hear and see NORAD fighter aircraft, Civil Air Patrol aircraft, and Coast Guard helicopters as they participate in these exercises. The exercise has been carefully planned and will be closely controlled to ensure NORAD’s rapid response capability. NORAD has conducted exercise flights of this nature throughout the U.S. and Canada since the start of Operation Noble Eagle, the command’s response to the terrorist attacks that occurred on Sept. 11, 2001.

United States Government

***** Justice | Editorial - Settling Indian Trusts
The New York Times - December 14, 2009
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Complete article is reproduced here.
For the last 13 years, the case of Cobell v. Salazar has wound its way through the United States District Court for the District of Columbia like a latter-day version of Dickens’s Jarndyce v. Jarndyce. The defendants — the secretaries of interior, Treasury, and the Interior Department’s chief of Indian affairs — have changed over the years, and so has the judge. Now, at last, a settlement has been reached. The federal government has agreed to pay $3.4 billion to settle claims that it had shortchanged accounts it has held in trust since the 19th century for hundreds of thousands of American Indians.

The agreement would pay $1.4 billion directly to individual holders of the trusts. It would also set up a $2 billion fund to buy fractional shares in the trusts from willing sellers in an effort to consolidate fragments of tribal land into more profitable holdings.

Elouise Cobell, the lead plaintiff and most visible symbol in the case, said she thought the Indians were owed more. But, she acknowledged, the number of elderly claimants had dwindled and further litigation would only mean the deaths of more of the very people who were meant to benefit from the trusts.

The trusts are a legacy of an 1887 law that divided some tribal lands among individuals and placed the lands in federally administered trusts. The federal government then leased the land for mining, grazing and other purposes, returning the proceeds to the trusts. Over time, records were lost, mishandled and destroyed, and the trusts were divided into tinier and tinier pieces as they were passed down to descendants.

The $3.4 billion is a mere fraction of the trusts’ estimated value, but given the pressure of time, fiscal realities and the tendency of Congress to try to legislate away the problem, this is the best solution likely and at least partial atonement for a major historical default by the federal government. The agreement still needs approval by Congress and the federal courts. After more than a century of delay and obstruction, both should move quickly, followed by swift and efficient administration of the settlement by the Interior Department.

Congress | Alan Grayson: Afghan War 'Futile'
Bommon Dreams / Politico - By Meredith Shiner - Tuesday, December 15, 2009
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Florida Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson said Tuesday that the war in Afghanistan is "futile" and vowed to vote against the Pentagon's appropriations bill to protest President Barack Obama's decision to send more U.S. troops there. "This is an 18th century strategy being employed against a 14th century enemy," Grayson said. " Other countries, one after the other, have given up on this strategy over the years. This war is costing us much too much in both lives and money. There's too much blood being shed in Afghanistan. There's too much blood being shed in Iraq. And there are simply better ways to accomplish the same goals."

Grayson answered with a definitive "yes" when asked if he intends to vote against the pending Department of Defense appropriations bill.

Grayson is one of a dozen co-sponsors of a privileged resolution demanding an end to the war in Afghanistan. The leader of that effort, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), complained on the House floor Tuesday about efforts to attach an extension of unemployment benefits to the Pentagon appropriations bill.

"Unfortunately, we are now telling the American people that the only way they will get unemployment compensation is to support another $130 billion to keep wars going," Kucinich said. "What a cruel choice Congress is forcing on people out of work. Put your sons and daughters on the firing line, and we will pay you for being in the unemployment line."

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Topical News

The Arts and Culture

Climate Change | Audio / Slide Show | Bolivia - A Tale of Climate Change
The New York Times - December 14, 2009
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Economy and Finance

Bloomberg Economic News
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Bloomberg Current Worldwide Financial News
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Commeniary | Why capitalism fails
The man who saw the meltdown coming had another troubling insight: it will happen again
Boston Globe - By Stephen. Mihm, Globe Correspondent - September 13, 2009
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Since the global financial system started unraveling in dramatic fashion two years ago, distinguished economists have suffered a crisis of their own. Ivy League professors who had trumpeted the dawn of a new era of stability have scrambled to explain how, exactly, the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression had ambushed their entire profession.

Amid the hand-wringing and the self-flagellation, a few more cerebral commentators started to speak about the arrival of a “Minsky moment,” and a growing number of insiders began to warn of a coming “Minsky meltdown.”

“Minsky” was shorthand for Hyman Minsky, a hitherto obscure macroeconomist who died over a decade ago. Many economists had never heard of him when the crisis struck, and he remains a shadowy figure in the profession. But lately he has begun emerging as perhaps the most prescient big-picture thinker about what, exactly, we are going through. A contrarian amid the conformity of postwar America, an expert in the then-unfashionable subfields of finance and crisis, Minsky was one economist who saw what was coming. He predicted, decades ago, almost exactly the kind of meltdown that recently hammered the global economy.

Drug money saved banks in global crisis, claims UN advisor
Drugs and crime chief says $352bn in criminal proceeds was effectively laundered by financial institutionsThe Observer, Sunday 13 December 2009
The Observer - BY Rajeev Syal - Sunday 13 December 2009
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US | Editorial | The Banks - Even Bigger Than Too Big To FaiL
The New York Times - December 14, 2009
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If we have learned anything over the last couple of years, it is that banks that are too big to fail pose too much of a risk to the economy. Any serious effort to reform the financial system must ensure that no such banks exist

Energy

Sustainability - Argentina | Solar Villages Light Up the Andes
Truthout - Inter Press Service - By Marcela Valente - Sunday 13 December 2009
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Buenos, Aires - The residents of the Puna, the dry Andean highlands in northern Argentina, are cut off from everything - except the sun. Living on arid land thousands of metres above sea level, they are on their way to becoming "solar villages. "In the north and northwest of Jujuy province, people are finding that solar energy, a clean and inexhaustible source, can replace firewood, which is increasingly scarce. The EcoAndina Foundation is showing the way through a series of projects.

The Puna, at altitudes of 2,700 to 4,600 metres above sea level, is part of the vast Andean Altiplano shared by Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and Peru.

EcoAndina's goal is to improve living conditions for local residents by sustainably harnessing the abundant sunshine and wind, while maintaining the cultural and historic identity of local indigenous communities. Since it began its efforts two decades ago, some 400 solar energy units - which power family and community kitchens, bread ovens, heaters and hot-water tanks - have been installed in 30 towns in the region. In addition to cooking in solar stoves and ovens, which have proven as effective as gas stoves, the families now have heat and hot water in their homes. In the schools, solar panels warm the classrooms, and photovoltaic panels produce electricity.

Health and Fitness

Coffee and tea - Good cups, bad cups? - New Studies
CBC - Monday, December 14, 2009
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Coffee has long been considered a beverage that provides a pleasant pick-me-up when sipped in moderation. Too much, however, and you might find yourself irritable, nauseous, twitchy — or, in worst-case scenarios, suffering from an irregular heartbeat, breathing difficulties and convulsions. Researchers have also examined the possibility caffeine may cause health problems related to cholesterol, bones and cancers.

Fear not, coffee aficionados: recent studies suggest the beverage may offer a host of health benefits. Doctors are not yet recommending people increase their daily doses and Health Canada continues to recommend moderation — not exceeding a maximum of about three eight-ounce (237-millilitre) cups of brewed coffee for healthy adults. But some researchers say new evidence shows coffee's potent antioxidants can prevent the onset of some diseases. Here's a roundup of the latest scientific research.

Humor

Between Hanukkah and Christmas
Happy Hanukkah! We're celebrating Jewish performers on Laugh Out Loud with Simon Rakoff and Brian Lazanik.
CBC - Holiday Time - Laugh Out Loud - December 12, 2009
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Legal and Constitutional Issues

Bloomberg Index of Current Legal News
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Natural Resources

Iraq | The Dust Bowl of Babylon: Are Crippling Droughts the Next Great Threat to Iraq?
Truthout / TomDispatch - By Martin Chulov - Sunday 13 December 2009
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In a land where fundamental interpretations of monotheistic scripts often determine the tone of public discourse, particular attention is now being paid to the biblical Book of Revelation, in which the Euphrates River drying up was prophesized as a harbinger for the end of the world. It is not doomsday yet in Iraq, but the water shortage here has not been worse for at least the last two centuries -- and possibly for several millennia more. Government estimates suggest close to two million Iraqis face severe drinking water shortages and extremely limited hydropower-generated electricity in a part of the country where most households get by on no more than eight hours of supplied power per day, in the best of times.

Science & Technology

Bloomberg Index of Current Science News
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Solar Superstorm on Earth
Scientists are beginning to understand a historic solar storm in 1859. One day, they say, it could happen again.
NASA - October 23, 2009
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Newly uncovered scientific data of recorded history's most massive space storm is helping a NASA scientist investigate its intensity and the probability that what occurred on Earth and in the heavens almost a century-and-a-half ago could happen again.

In scientific circles where solar flares, magnetic storms and other unique solar events are discussed, the occurrences of September 1-2, 1859, are the star stuff of legend. Even 144 years ago, many of Earth's inhabitants realized something momentous had just occurred. Within hours, telegraph wires in both the United States and Europe spontaneously shorted out, causing numerous fires, while the Northern Lights, solar-induced phenomena more closely associated with regions near Earth's North Pole, were documented as far south as Rome, Havana and Hawaii, with similar effects at the South Pole.

What happened in 1859 was a combination of several events that occurred on the Sun at the same time. If they took place separately they would be somewhat notable events. But together they caused the most potent disruption of Earth's ionosphere in recorded history. "What they generated was the perfect space storm," says Bruce Tsurutani, a plasma physicist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Back in 1859 the invention of the telegraph was only 15 years old and society's electrical framework was truly in its infancy. A 1994 solar storm caused major malfunctions to two communications satellites, disrupting newspaper, network television and nationwide radio service throughout Canada. Other storms have affected systems ranging from cell phone service and TV signals to GPS systems and electrical power grids. In March 1989, a solar storm much less intense than the perfect space storm of 1859 caused the Hydro-Quebec (Canada) power grid to go down for over nine hours, and the resulting damages and loss in revenue were estimated to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

"The question I get asked most often is, 'Could a perfect space storm happen again, and when?'" added Tsurutani. "I tell people it could, and it could very well be even more intense than what transpired in 1859. As for when, we simply do not know," he said.

Social Issues

US | Poll Reveals Trauma of Joblessness in U.S.
The New York Times - By Michael Luo and Megan Thee Brenan - December 14, 2009
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More than half of the nation’s unemployed workers have borrowed money from friends or relatives since losing their jobs. An equal number have cut back on doctor visits or medical treatments because they are out of work. Almost half have suffered from depression or anxiety. About 4 in 10 parents have noticed behavioral changes in their children that they attribute to their difficulties in finding work. Joblessness has wreaked financial and emotional havoc on the lives of many of those out of work, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll of unemployed adults, causing major life changes, mental health issues and trouble maintaining even basic necessities.

Podcast | Ideas - Flesh and Stone - Part One
CBC - Interview with Sociologist Richard Sennett - 53.07 minutes
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The American sociologist Richard Sennett has had two great themes: the history and design of cities, and the organization of work. As a lover of cities, he has celebrated the expanded sympathy that urban life makes possible; as a student of work, he has criticized the fragmentation of time in the new capitalism; and as a writer, he has elevated sociology to a literary art. He talks with IDEAS producer, David Cayley.

Podcast | Ideas - Flesh and Stone - Part Two
CBC - Interview with Sociologist Richard Sennett - 53.01 minutes
- LINK ^

The American sociologist Richard Sennett has had two great themes: the history and design of cities, and the organization of work. As a lover of cities, he has celebrated the expanded sympathy that urban life makes possible; as a student of work, he has criticized the fragmentation of time in the new capitalism; and as a writer, he has elevated sociology to a literary art. He talks with IDEAS producer, David Cayley.

Sound and Fury

Music Video | Leonard Cohen | "Democracy Is Coming to the USA"
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