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GAIA AND HOMOSAPIENS

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NoteThe symbol ^ denotes that that article can be read in full at the link. Articles with titles in italics are from recent issue.

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CBC Hourly News
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CBC World at Six News - "What's Going On Out There?"
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Haiti Earthquake | Minute By Minute Rolling Updates
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Get Google Rolling Updates on Haiti Catastrophe

Haiti | The Human Cost

Earthquake Leaves a Million Haitians on the Streets
KWTX - January 22, 2010
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U.S. Army prepares Guantanamo Bay for waves of refugees intercepted at sea
By Daily Mail Foreign Service - January 23, 2010
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The U.S. has begun preparing Guantanamo Bay for Haitians migrants in case of a mass exodus spurred by the earthquake. Officials confirmed that about 100 tents, each capable of holding 10 people, have been erected already. They have more than 1,000 more on hand in case waves of Haitians leave their homeland and are captured at sea.

Haiti children face ongoing disease and trauma
Tehran Jimes - January 19, 2010
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Miles from capital, Haiti quake ruins coastal city
AP - January 18, 2010
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Haiti | The Seismic Event

The Unnatural Side of the Haiti Quake
The New Repiblic - By Bradford Plumer - January 14, 2010
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Seismologist Roger Musson: Haiti Quake Was the 'Big One'
Time Magazine - By Eden Hatrrell - Januaty 13, 2010
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The British Geological Survey in Edinburgh has been one of the leading geoscience research centers in the world since its founding in 1835. To understand more about the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that devastated Haiti on Tuesday, TIME spoke with one of the survey's seismologists, Roger Musson, about the science behind the seismic event.

Haiti | The Reconstruction?

Habitat For Humanity Aims to Erect One - Room Houses In Haiti
The New York Times / Reuters - January 21, 2010
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Imaging Life

The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure, when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them. — Patrick Henry

Breaking News - Top Story

ALERT | US - The Power of the US Constitution Is Being Given Over to the Corporations
Public Citizen - Current
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The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled this week that corporations are entitled to spend unlimited funds in our elections, rolling back a century of modest limits. The First Amendment was never intended to permit corporations to buy our elections and control our government. Now this is possible. The corporate sector is based on making money for these entities, and not for protecting the public good. Guess what? if this stands, the pubic good will cease to exist. Sign This petition now.

Fair Elections Now Act: Give congressional candidates a public financing alternative to elections now bankrolled by corporations. We must pass a constitutional amendment to ensure corporate money does not overwhelm our democracy and clarify that the First Amendment is for the citizenry -- not corporations. Corporations are businesses. not citizens, and shuld be regulated by laws. The Constitution gives to corporate America except hrough legislatiom. Do you eant 'your' governmebt to be a government of, by and for the corporations? In that case, don't sign the petition. Add your name to the petition to Congress today!

Related Artocle | Teddy Roosevelt Was Right: Ban ALL Corporate Contributions
The Nation - By John Nichols - JJanuary 22, 2010
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What to do about the decision by U.S. Supreme Court to -- in the words of Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold -- "(ignore) important principles of judicial restraint and respect for precedent" in order to make corporations the dominant players in American politics?
Of course, there will be legislative scrambling at the local, state and federal levels. The decision by Chief Justice John Roberts and four other justices to reject history and precedent in order to put a radical pro-corporate spin on the First Amendment throws into question rules designed to regulate even the worst campaign abuses by business interests.

Feingold, the Wisconsin Democrat who leant his name to the McCain-Feingold Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act of 2002, will be working overtime to defend not just the progress he has made as a reformer but a century of clean-government legislation.

"It is important to note that the decision does not affect McCain-Feingold's soft money ban, which will continue to prevent corporate contributions to the political parties from corrupting the political process. But this decision was a terrible mistake," says the Wisconsin senator. "Presented with a relatively narrow legal issue, the Supreme Court chose to roll back laws that have limited the role of corporate money in federal elections since Teddy Roosevelt was president. Ignoring important principles of judicial restraint and respect for precedent, the Court has given corporate money a breathtaking new role in federal campaigns. Just six years ago, the Court said that the prohibition on corporations and unions dipping into their treasuries to influence campaigns was ‘firmly embedded in our law.' Yet this Court has just upended that prohibition, and a century's worth of campaign finance law designed to stem corruption in government. The American people will pay dearly for this decision when, more than ever, their voices are drowned out by corporate spending in our federal elections. In the coming weeks, I will work with my colleagues to pass legislation restoring as many of the critical restraints on corporate control of our elections as possible."

When all is said and done, however, that may not be enough.

Related Article | Fighting’ Obama hits Supreme Court over campaign finance
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Obama finds his gloves at lasi and checks into the ring.
Christian Acince Monitor - By Patrik Jonsson, Staff writer - January 23, 2010
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics ... urt-over-campaign-finance
The Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling striking down a 2002 campaign finance reform law ‘strikes at democracy itself,’ Obama says in his weekly address. Republicans say ‘free speech’ – even in the form of money – strengthens democracy.

Editor - Yeah, like our entire existence as a nation depends on our worship at the altar of money. So, fine words Barack, but it's still not certain that you are ready to get into the ring or whether you prefer ihe acadwmic approach.

Global

EU Aid to be Used for Fingerprinting Refugees
Terraviva - By David Cronin - January 14, 2010
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BRUSSELS (IPS) - Aid traditionally reserved for keeping victims of war and disasters alive may now be used for security-related projects such as the R efu gees fingerprinting of refugees, European Union officials have decided. Although the European Commission's humanitarian office (ECHO) regularly publishes statements detailing how much food, medicines or blankets it gives to people in distress, it has drawn no attention to a widening in the scope of its activities in recent years. Through a partnership with the United Nations' Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the office has been financing the development of a computer system designed to store the fingerprints and other biometric data of refugees.
Editor - It now aeems that the funds will help keep certain EU and UNHCR staff assured of their salaries.

United States Government

Bernanke confirmation runs into resistance in Senate
Some key lawmakers in the Senate are saying they will vote against the the Bernanke confirmation. The Fed chairman’s term expires at the end of this month.
Christian Science Monitor - By Ron Scherer Staff writer / January 22, 2010
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Accountability Questions After Revelations of Immigrant Deaths Were Covered Up
Truthout - By W illiam Fisher - Sunday 17 January 2010
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Spanish politician to sue FBI over Bin Laden photo
The FBI acknowledges having used Gaspar Llamazares as the model on s Bin Laden photo- fit.
Press TV - January 17. 2010
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Spanish politician Gaspar Llamazares threatens to prosecute the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for using his photo to produce al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden's modern image.

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Topical News

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Activism at the Ground Level

"It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog."
-- Mark Twain

US | Petition to President Obama on Abolition of Nuclear Weapons
Democracy in Action
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Arts & Culture

Music to accompany you on the cyber-highway
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Lhasa De Sela Concert - Haunting. Chilling.
The late singer Lhasa, performing La Frontera in a concert recorded in October 2004, as part of the Routes Montreal series in CBC Studio 12.)
Canada Live - January 15, 2010
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Economy and Finance

Bloomberg Economic News
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Bloomberg Current Worldwide Financial News
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Commentary | The Morality of Bankers
Hightower Lowdown - By Jim Hightower - December 21, 2009
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Complete here >
"Banker" and "morality" are not concepts you easily put together, but some of the biggest bankers in Europe are rushing out to insist that at heart, they are all about morality.

These declarations of personal ethics are prompted by the outrage that Europeans feel about the economic collapse bankers caused, and the obscene bonuses that they're now paying themselves. Americans are furious about the same thing, but in Europe, the greed is seen as a fundamental moral failure. The Archbishop of Canterbury, head of the Church of England, has called on bankers to "repent" for their ethical sins.

Incredibly, several bankers are defending themselves by asserting that their outsized bonuses allow them to donate to charity, thus proving their moral soundness.

Their charity defense reminds me of a story from Earl Long, former governor of Louisiana, about a rich man who died and showed up at the Pearly Gates demanding entry into heaven.

The gatekeeping angel found that this rich man had been a selfish, no-good so-and-so his whole life. But the man said, "Wait a minute, I have a pattern of charitable giving." He said he'd once tossed a nickel in a beggar's cup. Plus, a poor woman he encountered needed help, and he gave her a nickel. Then there was the time that he put a nickel in the Salvation Army kettle.

Hearing all this, the angel turned to St. Peter and asked, "What do we do with this man? And St. Peter said: "Give him back his 15 cents and tell him to go to hell!" That's a story that every big-shot banker needs to hear...and ponder.

Legal and Constitutional Issues

Bloomberg Index of Current Legal News
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Commentary | Monopolizng Our Voting System
Highower Lowdown - By Jim Hightower - December 21, 2009
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Complete here >
Voting is sacrosanct, right? Except that over the past decade, state and local election authorities have allowed something to come between the casting and the counting of our votes--privatization.

So, balloting, which has historically and properly been a purely public function, now relies on electronic machines that are made and controlled by a handful of corporations. These corporate computers are easily hacked, they break down on election day, they divert votes from one candidate to another, they drop votes, they mysteriously add votes--and they're expensive.

But the greatest problem is with the privatization concept itself. Voting is not a commodity or industry, it's a democratic right. To allow private interests to control the balloting mechanism--including allowing them to refuse to reveal their software codes --is a sacrilege that's destroying public trust in electoral integrity. Yet this privatization is about to be made geometrically worse by monopolization.

The largest purveyor of voting machines, ES&S, intends to buy out the second largest, now owned by the Diebold Corporation, a company that's notorious for unreliable equipment and publicly cheering on Republican candidates. This sale would give ES&S monopoly control of the voting systems in the vast majority of our cities and states.

Antitrust officials must stop this monopolization of America's most basic democratic process--and restore full public ownership and management of our voting systems. For more info, contact the reform group, Fair Vote at (301) 270-4616 or info@fairvote.org.

Politcal Issues

US | Commentary - Unify the new American ‘tea party’? Good luck with that.
Christian Science Monitor - By Patrik Jonsson, Staff writer - January 23, 2010
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An attempt to solidify the tea party movement with a convention next month in Nashville is now looking like it could backfire. So far, pragmatism, not party politics, has boosted the tea party’s profile.

Real cleat Politics Daily Rundown
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Opinion | US - A Case of Buyer's Remorse
Sphere - By Ftank Luntz - January 20, 2010
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It doesn't take a rocket scientist or a pollster to know that Americans are not happy with Washington. The honeymoon that greeted President Obama a year ago today has degenerated into hypercriticism, deep anxiety and downright anger.

That may sound more like a high-profile Hollywood divorce than a political analysis, yet in some ways that's exactly what Americans are going through right now. Make no mistake: Americans were giddy about getting rid of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, but they are clearly suffering from buyer's remorse a year later.

Science & Technology

Bloomberg Index of Current Science News
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Carbon nanotubes used to make batteries from fabrics
Ordinary cotton and polyester fabrics have been turned into batteries that retain their flexibility.
BBC - January 21, 2010
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Species and Communities

Audio | Quirks and Quarks - The Humans Who Went Extinct
CBC - Jsnuary 10, 2010
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Dr. Clive Finlayson, an evolutionary ecologist, at the University of Toronto has a new book, The Humans Who Went Extinct - Why Neanderthals died out and we survived, suggesting luck played a big role.

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Sound and Fury

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