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GAIA AND HOMOSAPIENS

CBC Hourly News
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CBC World at Six News - "What's Going On Out There?"
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Music to accompany you on your cyber-visit
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Note-- The symbol ^ denotes that that article can be read in full at the link. Articles with titles in italics are from a recent issue.

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Breaking News

US | Political Corruption - Rash of Scandals Tests Democrats at Sensitive Time
The Neww York Times - By Jeff Zeleny - March 4, 2010
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WASHINGTON — The ethical woes facing Democrats are piling up, with barely a day passing in recent weeks without headlines from Washington to New York and beyond filled with word of scandal or allegations of wrongdoing. The mix of power and the temptations of corruption can be a compelling political narrative at any time. But with voters appearing to be in an angry mood and many already inclined to view all things Washington with mistrust, the risks for Democrats could be that much greater this year.

US facing surge in rightwing extremists and militias
Civil rights report shows 250% rise in 'patriot' groups
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The US is facing a surge in anti-government extremist groups and armed militias, driven by deepening hostility on the right to Barack Obama, anger over the economy, and the increasing propagation of conspiracy theories by parts of the mass media such as Fox News.

95 per cent chance that Man is to blame for global warming, say scientists
Times of London - By Ben Webster, Environment Editor _ Marc 5, 2010
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The evidence that human activity is causing global warming is much stronger than previously stated and is found in all parts of the world, according to a study that attempts to refute claims from sceptics. The “fingerprints” of human influence on the climate can be detected not only in rising temperatures but also in the saltiness of the oceans, rising humidity, changes in rainfall and the shrinking of Arctic Sea ice at the rate of 600,000 sq km a decade.

Brazil rebuffs US, says it will go own way on Iran

Mercury News / AP - By Matthew Lee - March 3, 2010 - LINK ^

Brazil rebuffed a U.S. appeal for new sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program, vowing during a visit from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton not to "bow down" to gathering international pressure. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva pre-empted Clinton even before she could make the case for new United Nations Security Council penalties. Silva is an outspoken opponent of sanctions, and his country currently sits on the Security Council, which will be asked to approve its toughest-ever penalties on Iran later this year.

US / Canada | Northwest at risk of megaquake like one in Chile
Google News / AP - By Alicia Chang - march 3, 2010
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LOS ANGELES — Just 50 miles off the Pacific Northwest coast is an earthquake hotspot that threatens to unleash on Seattle, Portland and Vancouver the kind of damage that has shattered Chile. The fault has been dormant for more than 300 years, but when it awakens — tomorrow or decades from now — the consequences could be devastating. Recent computer simulations of a hypothetical magnitude-9 quake found that shaking could last 2 to 5 minutes — strong enough to potentially cause poorly constructed buildings from British Columbia to Northern California to collapse and severely damage highways and bridges.

US | Illinois judge won't toss torture suit naming Rumsfeld
The Daily Journal AP - By Mike Robison - MMarch 5, 2010
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CHICAGO -- A federal judge refused Friday to dismiss a civil lawsuit accusing former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld of responsibility for the alleged torture by U.S. forces of two Americans who worked for an Iraqi contracting firm. U.S. District Judge Wayne R. Andersen's ruling did not say the two contractors had proven any of their claims. But it did say they had alleged enough specific mistreatment to warrant hearing evidence of exactly what happened.

International / Bi-National Issues

The Historical Mirror | Myth of the altruistic conqueror
Socialist Worker - February 23, 2010
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Brazil / US | Brazil rebuffs US, says it will go own way on Iran
Mercury News - By Matthew Lee - March 3, 2010
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Brazil rebuffed a U.S. appeal for new sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program, vowing during a visit from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton not to "bow down" to gathering international pressure. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is an outspoken opponent of sanctions, and his country currently sits on the Security Council, which will be asked to approve its toughest-ever penalties on Iran later this year.

UAE / Israel | Police Chief Said to Seek Arrest of Netanyahu
Reuters - March 2, 2010
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Dubai's police chief plans to seek the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the head of Israel's spy agency over the killing of a Hamas leader in the emirate, Al Jazeera television reported.

UAE / US | Dubai asks FBI to investigate terror ties to US
Press TV - March 5, 2010
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Amid ongoing investigation of the terrorist murder of a Hamas commander in Dubai, the UAE police have asked the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to look into alleged ties of the suspects to Americans.

Dubai police asked the FBI to investigate US-issued pre-paid credit cards used by 13 of the terror suspects in the killing of Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, Dubai daily The National reported Tuesday. Thirteen of the 27 suspects used pre-paid MasterCards issued by MetaBank, a regional American bank, to purchase plane tickets and book hotel rooms," the daily quoted police as saying.

According to the Police, the credit cards bore the same names as the fake passports used by the suspects to enter Dubai.

UAE | The Dubai assassination and the "war on terror"
World Socialist Website - By Patrick O'Connor - March 2, 2010
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The reaction of governments around the world to the murder of Hamas member Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai last month underscores the extent to which basic precepts of international law have been torn up under the "war on terror". As far as the US government and its allies are concerned, extra-judicial executions and so-called targeted killings now constitute a legitimate state activity and do not warrant comment, let alone condemnation... The more or less open acceptance by Washington and its allies of Mossad’s latest atrocity is because similar methods now form a central component of the "war on terror". As well as being subject to indefinite detention without trial, rendition and torture, individuals identified as a threat to the security of the US state are routinely executed in countries including Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and Yemen.

Germany / Israel | An Israeli Affront Against Germany
Der Spiegel - By Matthias Gebauer, Christoph Schult and Holger Stark - March 1, 2010
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Following the assassination of Hamas militant Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, German state prosecutors are considering murder charges in the case. Investigations in Dubai and the West are strongly pointing to Mossad involvement in the targeted killing.

Israel / West Bank | IDF calls off West Bank raid due to Facebook leak
Reuters and Haaretz Service - March 3, 2010
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The Israel Defense Forces called off a raid in Palestinian territory after a soldier posted details, including the time and place, on the social networking website Facebook, Army Radio reported on Wednesday.

US / Iraq | US Fears Election Strife in Iraq Could Affect Pullout
The New York Times - By Helene Cooper - March 3, 2010
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US ? Turkey | US administration to block vote on Turkey 'genocide'
BBC News - March 5, 2010
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The vote of the US sparked committee parked outrage in Turkey
The Obama administration has said it will seek to block a controversial bill describing as genocide the World War I killing of Armenians by Turks. A congressional panel on Thursday approved the resolution, paving the way for a possible vote by the House.But US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the administration would "work very hard" to prevent this.

Nstional News

Afghanistan | ‘70 per cent of Afghan police recruits drop out’
LONDON: Nearly 70 per cent of Afghan police recruits drop out during training, the top US army officer in charge of shaping the new Afghan security forces said on Tuesday.
The News / Pakistan - By Rabi-ul-Awwal - March 3, 2010
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israel | Livni to Netanyahu: With you in power, Israel is a pariah state
Opposition leader Tzipi Livni sharply criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday in a speech made during a Knesset session marking the one-year anniversary of Netanyahu's ascension to power.
Haaretz - By Jonathan Lis - march 3, 2010
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The Chile Earthquake

For Chile's Bachelet, decision to call on army was weighty
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She and both her parents were imprisoned and tortured under Chile's military dictatorship; her father died. Now, as president, she hesitated before calling on military to confront post-quake unrest.

Reporting from Mexico City - Given the family history of Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, it is with some irony that she has been forced in the final days of her government to call on the army to rescue her earthquake-ravaged nation.

Another Milton Friedman Chile quake aftershock
Salon - By Andrew Leonard - March 4, 2010
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Naomi Klein points out that Salvador Allende's government was responsible for the country's tough building codes.

Naomi Klein, while reprising some points from her chapter on Chile in "The Shock Doctrine," brings us the latest datum on that specific issue.

Chile's modern seismic building code, drafted to resist earthquakes, was adopted in 1972. That year is enormously significant because it was one year before Pinochet seized power in a bloody US-backed coup. That means that if one person deserves credit for the law, it is not Friedman, or Pinochet, but Salvador Allende, Chile's democratically elected socialist president.

Editor - As a an assassment Naomi Klein"s take on this event'', the adoption of the builbing code, fails to make known when and under which presedent the law was drafted that was subsequently passed into law. As a Ford Foundation consultant to the Regional planning Office of the National Ministry of Economic Planning between !965 and 1969, I had no personal knowledge of the participation of the Chicago / Friedman team in a building code draft. While it may have been true, it seems unlikely. The Friedman team was composed of economists from the University of Chicago School of Economics. It preceded the Ford Foundation Advisory Program and remainded there following my departure to return to MIT in 1969. The latter program was headed by John Friedman, my professor at MIT, a graduate of the Chicago School, but not of the 'Chicago Stripe'..

Chilean quake shortened Earth's day, but not by much
A JPL scientist says we ended up losing 1.26 millionth of a second of a day, and that the magnitude 8.8 quake also shifted the axis around which the Earth rotates.
Los Angeles Times - By Carla HallMarch 3, 2010
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Video | Un "Show" | Homage al Espiritu de Chile
US Stream-TV - February 26. 2010 - Antes el Terramoto
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Underwater Plate Cuts 400-Mile Gash
The New York Times - By Henry Fountain - February 27, 2010
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*Editor - This recalls for me one of those smaller quakes in 1965 when I and my family were living in Concepcion where I was technical adviser to the Chilean government on habitat and regional development planning. On a Saturday morning while I was reading to the children. seated on the living room floor, there was a sudden vertical jolt. Fortunately no damage occured. Later, I was informed by the government provincial office that a fault line ran below that area. All the houses on that block had been destroyed in the 1960 quake excepting a two story wood frame house next to our newly built concrete reinforced house. In fact, during my 35 year career at the UN I was sent on missions to a number of earthquake-hit zones around the world to help governments prepare for post--disaster planning and recovery.

The 10,000-Mile Disaster
Time - Monday, June 6, 1960
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>i>Editor - As a Ford Foundation technical consultant to Chile's Ministry of National Planning on regional development between 1965-1969 I had occasion to witness the results of this earthquake on the nation first in Concepcion, where unsettling aftereffects were still being felt, then in Santiago. The intensities of the 2010 and 1960 quakes were similar. This is an account of the 1960 event at the latter date.

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United States Government

Administration Doctors Without Morals
The New york Times - By Leonard S. Rubenstein and Stephen N. kenakis - February 28, 2010
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Editor - This recalls the uses of medical procedures in Nazi Germany of this nature. Let's face it.

Op-Ed - Congress | Senator Bunning's Universe
The New York Times - By Paul Krugm an - March 4, 2010
So the Bunning blockade is over. For days, Senator Jim Bunning of Kentucky exploited Senate rules to block a one-month extension of unemployment benefits. In the end, he gave in, although not soon enough to prevent an interruption of payments to around 100,000 workers. But while the blockade is over, its lessons remain. Some of those lessons involve the spectacular dysfunctionality of the Senate. What I want to focus on right now, however, is the incredible gap that has opened up between the parties. Today, Democrats and Republicans live in different universes, both intellectually and morally.

General sounds alarm on U.S. Army training
McClatchy Newspapers - By - By Nancy A Youssef - March 3, 2010
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WASHINGTON — The Army's ability to train its forces is "increasingly at risk" because of the nation's protracted commitments to Iraq and Afghanistan, the general in charge of training has told the Army's chief of staff. In a Feb. 16 memo to Gen. George W. Casey, Gen. Martin Dempsey, the commander of the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, says that the Army has lost thousands of uniformed trainers because of troop demands in Iraq and Afghanistan, has had to put junior officers in charge of some key training functions and has delayed initial instruction for nearly 500 pilots because it doesn't have enough trainers.

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A new 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair poll finds that 67 percent of Americans disagree with the Supreme Court's recent Citizens United rulingloosening restrictions on corporate spending in campaigns. Only 16 percent of Americans agree with the ruling.

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Supreme Court | Toxic Waters - Rulings Restrict Clean Water Act, Hampering E.P.A.
The New York Times - By Charles Duhigg and Janet Roberts - February 28, 2010
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Editor - Is the Supreme Court protecting the corporations, major polluters of our waters, again? Should we start to refer to this Supreme Court as"The Toxic Supreme Court"? There appears to be some justification for this appelation.

The Toxic Court System | Editorial | If the Lawyer Fails
The New York Times - February 28, 2010
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Our legal system is complex and a lot more powerful than any individual. That is why the Constitution guarantees people accused of serious crimes the right to counsel. If a lawyer turns out to be negligent, the system must do all it can to protect the individual’s rights.
Supposed 'Independent Pentagon panel' has contractor contacts and financial ties in conflict with the purpose of its creation

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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

The people's history reading list for Activists
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Opinion | Climate Catastrophe: Surviving the 21st Century
Climate Stabilization Requires a Cultural and Political Revolution
Common Dreams - By Ronnie Cummins & Will Allen - February 14, 2010
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US | Environmentalist Prods Fellow Blacks to Join in Her Crusade
The N ew York Times - By Don Terry -March 4, 2010
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No one can accuse Naomi Davis of lacking ambition. She wants simultaneously to rebuild black America and save the planet — one neighborhood at a time. She knows she cannot do either alone. Her plan is to recruit and train an army. A green army..That is why Ms. Davis, a petite, 54-year-old lawyer turned environmental evangelist, was squeezing her way through a crowded South Side nightclub Monday night, passing out energy-efficient light bulbs that resemble spiral soft-serve custard swirls to anyone who would sign her e-mail list. She has been collecting names from across the country for years, preparing for a war she is waging between the “old gray economy and the new green economy.” More than 10,000 names are on her list.

Arts & Culture

US | The Dark Arts and Shady Culture of Wall Street - No Accountability - $15 Billion for Jobs, $20 Billion for Bonuses
Huffington Post - Richard Eskow - March 1, 2010
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Editor - If robbing banks is criminal, couldn't one say that robbing the people's Treasury with the assistance of our Congress is big time criminality?

Climate Change

Op-Ed | We Can’t Wish Away Climate Change
The New York Times - By Al Gore - February 27, 2010
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Study Says Undersea Release of Methane Is Under Way
The New York Times - By Cornelia Dean - March 4, 2010
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Climate scientists have long warned that global warming could unlock vast stores of the greenhouse gas methane that are frozen into the Arctic permafrost, setting off potentially significant increases in global warming. Now researchers at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, and elsewhere say this change is under way in a little-studied area under the sea, the East Siberian Arctic Shelf, west of the Bering Strait.

The Corporate Charnel House

"If an activity is not, in our bureaucratic times, corporate, it is suspect."
The New Republic | Book Review - "Dostoyevsky and the French" - By Saul Bellow - February 23, 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 | How a New Jobless Era Will Transform America
How should we characterize the economic period we have now entered? The Atlantic - By Don Peck - March 2010
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US | ALERT | Citibank needs seven days?
Canada Free Press - By Marilyn Barnewall - March 2, 2010
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Late last week, a slight furor arose when it became public knowledge that Citibank sent the following notice to customers:

“Effective April 1, 2010, we reserve the right to require seven (7) days advance notice before permitting a withdrawal from all checking accounts. While we do not currently exercise this right and have not exercised it in the past, we are required by law to notify you of this change.”

In my opinion, this was not just a notice about Citibank or Citigroup. It was a notice to people that all banks are undercapitalized and all have the right to take up to seven (7) days to clear a check or to give you all the money in your checking account if you demand it.

Food and Nutrition

Fury as EU approves GM potato
The introduction of a genetically modified potato in Europe risks the development of human diseases that fail to respond to antibiotics, it was claimed last night.
The Independent - By Martin Hickman and Genevieve Roberts - March 4, 2010
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GM potato to be grown in Europe
Critics say the decision to approve the cultivation of a genetically modified potato and the use of three types of GM maize 'puts profit before people.
The Guardian - March 3, 2010
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Politcal Issues

Real clear Politics Daily Rundown
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Music Video | "Democracy Is Coming to the USA" - Leonard Cohen
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Study | Are Liberals Smarter Than Conservatives?
Time Magazine - By John Cloud - February 26, 2010
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Religion and Philosophy

Video | Fault Lines - Religion and the US military
Al Jazeera - June 26, 2009
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Science

Bloomberg Index of Current Science News
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Commentary | My Brain on My Mind
The ABCs of the thrumming, plastic mystery that allows us to think, feel, and remember
The American Scholar - By Priscilla Long 0 Winter 2010
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Dinosaur extinction link to asteroid crater confirmed
BBC News - By Paul Rincon, Science Reporter, Woodlands, Texas - March 4, 2010
An international panel of experts has strongly endorsed evidence that a space impact was behind the mass extinction event that killed off the dinosaurs.
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LINK Social Issues

Video | The Recession Generation
Experts explain why the current crop of 20-somethings is unequipped to face today's job market.
The Atlantic - February 9, 2010
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Technology and Innovation

Video | Ford's most advanced assembly plant operates in rural Brazil
DetNews.com - August 27, 2007
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Violence

US | Commentary - No Nukes
Common Dreams - By Ralph Nader - February 13, 2010
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US | Guns at Starbucks? Pushing the Right to Bear Arms in Public
The Christian Science Monitor - By Michael B. Farrell, Staff writer - February 27, 2010
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US | Justices signal they're ready to make gun ownership a national right
Los Angeles Times - By David G. Savage - March 3, 2010
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Reporting from Washington - The Supreme Court justices, hearing a 2nd Amendment challenge to Chicago's ban on handguns, signaled Tuesday that they were ready to extend gun rights nationwide, clearing the way for legal attacks on state and local gun restrictions.

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Sound and Fury

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