- Signs of the Times Archive for Fri, 05 Sep 2008 -



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Best of the Web
Inside The LC: The Strange but Mostly True Story of Laurel Canyon and the Birth of the Hippie Generation Part X

Dave McGowan
Center for an Informed America
2008-08-29 23:40:00

"By the time Manson shifted base from Rustic Canyon to an old ranch in Chatsworth, he'd begun formulating the notion that he and his followers had to prepare themselves for a race war with Black America."
Barney Hoskyns (in Hotel California, his take on the Laurel Canyon/Sunset Strip scene)

In this outing, we will be temporarily leaving Laurel Canyon. But don't worry; we won't be traveling far, and we'll be returning soon enough.

Today we will be exploring Rustic Canyon, which lies about nine miles west of Laurel Canyon. It was there, in Lower Rustic Canyon, that Beach Boy Dennis Wilson lived in what Steven Gaines described in Heroes and Villains as "a palatial log-cabin-style house at 14400 Sunset Boulevard that had once belonged to humorist Will Rogers." The expansive home sat on three landscaped acres of gently rolling hills.

The Floor of Upper Rustic Canyon
©Unknown
The Floor of Upper Rustic Canyon


In the summer of 1968, as is fairly well known, Charlie Manson and various members of his entourage moved in with Wilson. "Tex" Watson, curiously enough, was already living there. As many as two-dozen members of Manson's clan spent the entire summer there, with Wilson picking up the tab for all expenses. The Mansonites (mostly nubile young women) regularly drove Wilson's expensive cars and demolished at least one of them. Dennis didn't seem to mind; he was busy recording Manson in his home studio and inviting fellow musicians, like Neil Young, over to the house to hear Charlie perform (Young was so impressed that he urged Mo Ostin to sign him).

Dennis would later claim that he had destroyed all the Manson demo tapes, that he remembered almost nothing of his time with Charlie and the Family, and that he certainly knew nothing about the Tate and LaBianca murders, which were committed in the summer of 1969, about a year after the Family had vacated the Rustic Canyon residence.

The end of the line for the stairway leading to the floor of Rustic Canyon
©Unknown
The end of the line for the stairway leading to the floor of Rustic Canyon


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U.S. News
White House spied on Iraq leaders

Haroon Siddique
The Guardian
2008-09-05 15:57:00

The Bush administration has spied on the Iraqi prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, and other senior figures in his government, the Washington Post reported today.

The claim is one of many in a new book by the paper's associate editor Bob Woodward, who with Carl Bernstein uncovered the Watergate scandal that led to Richard Nixon's resignation.

"The War Within: A Secret White House History 2006-2008" is based on more than 150 interviews with key figures in the Iraq war as well two interviews with the president himself. The books paints a picture of Bush often at loggerheads with his military advisers and other officials.

Woodward says groundbreaking surveillance techniques - and not the much-trumpeted surge by 30,000 additional troops - were the main reason for the reduction in violence in Iraq over the past 16 months.

In 2006, Bush maintained publicly that US forces were winning, while privately believing the strategy of training Iraq security forces and transferring responsibility to the new government was failing, according to the Post.

Woodward says the president lost confidence in General George Casey, then the commander of coalition forces in Iraq, and General John Abizaid, who was the head of US central command.

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Obama piles up 10 million dollars after Palin attacks


Agence France Presse
2008-09-05 14:01:00

St Paul, Minnesota - Barack Obama has taken in a record 10 million dollars in campaign cash since Republican vice presidential pick Sarah Palin's scorching assault on the Democratic White House nominee.

"Palin's attacks have resulted in our campaign raising over 10 million dollars -- a one day record -- I hope she gives a speech every day," said Obama spokesman Bill Burton.

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Meet Todd Palin, Potentially America's First Second Man

Kiran Khalid and Lee Ferran
ABC News
2008-09-05 13:49:00

If the McCain-Palin ticket Wins, Todd Palin Would Stand by Wife and VP Sarah Palin as First Second Dude

For a man well seasoned in dealing with the Alaskan back country, Todd Palin is still adjusting to the wilderness of Washington and the searing national spotlight that was thrust on him and his family when his wife, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, was tapped to be the first ever female Republican vice presidential nominee.

todd-palin
©US Magazine


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Public divided on Palin

Foon Rhee
boston.com
2008-09-05 11:16:00

Vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin is a hit among Republicans, but a new poll out today suggests she has quite a bit of work to do to convince Americans she's ready for the big time.

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Sarah Palin lawyers are accused of stalling Troopergate inquiry

Tim Reid
timesonline.co.uk
2008-09-05 11:14:00

Sarah Palin's lawyers were accused yesterday of trying to delay a potentially damaging inquiry into the Republican vice-presidential nominee until after the general election.

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Palin aides peeked into trooper's files, union says

Matt Smith and Scott Bronstein
CNN.com
2008-09-05 11:11:00

Aides to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin improperly obtained her former brother-in-law's state police personnel files and cited information from those records to raise complaints about the officer, the head of Alaska's state police union said Thursday.

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Nearly 125 Shot Dead In Chicago Over Summer

Adam Harrington
cbs2chicago.com
2008-09-04 04:46:00

Chicago ― An estimated 123 people were shot and killed over the summer. That's nearly double the number of soldiers killed in Iraq over the same time period.

In May, cbs2chicago.com began tracking city shootings and posting them on Google maps. Information compiled from our reporters, wire service reports and the Chicago Police Major Incidents log indicated that 123 people were shot and killed throughout the city between the start of Memorial Day weekend on May 26, and the end of Labor Day on Sept. 1.

According to the Defense Department, 65 soldiers were killed in combat in Iraq. About the same number were killed in Afghanistan over that same period.

In the same time period, an estimated 245 people were shot and wounded in the city.

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Palin Pick Is GOP Hypocrisy at its Best

Laura Flanders
AlterNet
2008-09-05 04:06:00

Will the media test her on substance or let her play "Ms. Congeniality?" It is up to the public to see through the fact-free diet we're being fed.

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Soldiers' Suicide Rate On Pace to Set Record

Ann Scott Tyson
The Washington Post
2008-09-05 02:59:00

Suicides among active-duty soldiers this year are on pace to exceed both last year's all-time record and, for the first time since the Vietnam War, the rate among the general U.S. population, Army officials said yesterday.

Ninety-three active-duty soldiers had killed themselves through the end of August, the latest data show. A third of those cases are under investigation by the Armed Forces Medical Examiner's Office. In 2007, 115 soldiers committed suicide.

Failed relationships, legal and financial troubles, and the high stress of wartime operations in Iraq and Afghanistan are the leading factors linked to the suicides, Army officials said.

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The Politics of Evil in the US Elections

Marwan Bishara
Counter Punch
2008-08-19 22:40:00

I could only shake my head in bewilderment, as I listened to the interviews Rick Warren, a Baptist pastor, conducted with Barack Obama and John McCain, the US presidential candidates for the Democratic and Republican parties, respectively.

Most absurd during the two-hour special were the exchanges about "evil".

When asked how they would deal with evil if they were elected president - would they ignore it, negotiate with it, contain it, or defeat it - Obama said he would "confront it" while McCain said unflinchingly that he would "defeat it".

After this "civil forum" was broadcast on CNN, the network's so-called "best team on television" commented on the candidates' performance.

This only managed to add insult to injury.

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Judging Palin by an Eighth-Grade Standard

E.J. Dionne
washingtonpost.com
2008-09-04 21:58:00

There is only one way to understand the rave reviews that some are giving Sarah Palin's speech: People expected her to be a blithering fool and were shocked that she could read a decent speech prepared for her by the McCain campaign. She is being judged by much too low a standard.

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Palin switched colleges 6 times in 6 years


Associated Press
2008-09-04 21:37:00

SPOKANE, Wash. - Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin seems to have switched colleges at least six times in six years, including two stints at the University of Idaho before graduating from there in 1987.


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LA doctor, Bermuda PM's son, faces 10 more charges in patient abuse case


Associated Press
2008-09-04 18:51:00

Los Angeles - A Los Angeles doctor who is the son of Bermuda's premier has been charged with sexually abusing four more patients.

The charges were announced Thursday for Dr. Kevin Antario Brown, who now faces 33 counts for allegedly molesting 12 patients. His father is Bermuda Premier Ewart Brown.

District attorney spokeswoman Jane Robison says the charges include forcible rape, lewd act upon a child and sexual battery. Brown has pleaded not guilty to all counts.

Brown was arrested July 8 and initially charged with sexually molesting a female patient and a female undercover police officer who posed as a patient. Robison says 10 accusers have since come forward.

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Environmentalists can't corral Palin

Dina Cappiello
Associated Press
2008-09-04 18:38:00

At the National Governors Association conference where she first met John McCain, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin had other business: making her case to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne against classifying the polar bear as a threatened species.

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UK & Euro-Asian News
Cool reception for Cheney in Azerbaijan


Russia Today
2008-09-05 15:38:00

American Vice President Dick Cheney's visit to the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, appears to be have been unsuccessful for Washington, unlike his visit to Tbilisi.

Cheney received a cool welcome and, according to Russia's Kommersant newspaper, Azerbaijan's President Ilkham Aliyev has implied that Baku is going to play a waiting game concerning the Nabucco gas pipeline, which is set to bypass Russia.

Neither President Ilkham Aliyev nor the Prime Minister, Artur Rasizade, were there to greet Cheney at Baku airport. Instead, he was met by the country's First Deputy PM and the Foreign Minister.

The Kommersant newspaper reports that Cheney was very annoyed by the results of the meeting with President Aliyev and even refused to attend a ceremonial supper in his own honour.

Aleksandr Pikaev, an analyst from the Institute for World Economy and International Relations, believes Dick Cheney is hardly the right man for diplomacy in the region.

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Scientists get death threats over Large Hadron Collider

Roger Highfield
Telegraph
2008-09-05 14:05:00

Scientists working on the world's biggest machine are being besieged by phone calls and emails from people who fear the world will end next Wednesday, when the gigantic atom smasher starts up.

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One Azerbaijani dead, 10 injured in bomb attack in south Moscow


RIA Novosti
2008-09-05 03:35:00

Moscow - An explosion ripped through an outdoor cafe in south Moscow killing one and injuring 10 other people in south Moscow, police said on Thursday.

The bomb, equivalent to 400 grams of TNT, packed with bolts and screws exploded at 22:00 Moscow time (18:00 GMT) on Wednesday in a cafe that was packed with people from the Caucasus who had gathered for a wake.

One person from Azerbaijan, who was temporarily living in Moscow, died in the explosion and ten people were injured, two of them seriously.

"The bomb was packed with bolts and screws. It is believed that the criminal entered the cafe with [the bomb] in a briefcase or manbag and left it near one of the tables," the police source said, adding that investigators were working at the scene to try and gather more evidence.

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South Ossetia: Stealth Genocide

Madina Gusalti with Jeffrey Morris
Barrhaven Independent
2008-08-29 23:40:00

MedinaGusalti
©Mike Carroccetto
Medina Gusalti, named Ossetia's Woman of the Year in 2006 for her work in developing awareness for the Ossetian language and culture, is visiting Barrhaven while her land is being savagely attacked by Georgian soldiers.


Madina Gusalti is a journalist from South Ossetia who arrived in Barrhaven, Ontario, Canada on the afternoon of Fri., Aug. 8 to visit a classmate from university in Germany. Just hours before she arrived here, Georgian soldiers invaded her homeland, destroying homes and murdering innocent women, children and the elderly. Among the 2,000 slaughtered were her uncle and two cousins, killed by a Georgian soldier who found them and tossed a grenade into their hiding space. It is the third time that South Ossetia has faced an ethnic cleansing at the hands of the Georgian government, but it is a story that the western media has either ignored or denied. This is her story - a story of her people and their culture, their hope, their horrors, and the genocide that the world refuses to see.


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South Ossetians cry 'genocide'


Press TV
2008-09-01 23:07:00

International Criminal Court has been flooded with South Ossetians' briefs accusing Georgia of 'genocide' in the pro-independence republic.

South Ossetians
©Unknown


The court is still to receive a blizzard of 2,200 lawsuits which the province's bereavement-stricken public have submitted through the 'Organization of the South Ossetian people against genocide.'

"About 300 of them have been sent to the Hague court, and 200 will be presented to the court in the next few days," Ria Novosti quoted the head of the body, Zhanna Galeyeva, as saying.

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Around the World
Pakistan: US Drone plane's air strike kills six in North Waziristan

Malik Mumtaz & Mushtaq Yusufzai
thenews.com.pk
2008-09-05 04:49:00

Six more people, including two suspected Arab nationals and four Dawar tribal militants, were killed and four others injured in yet another missile strike by a US Predator on Achar Khel village near Miramshah in the North Waziristan Agency (NWA) on Thursday.

Official and tribal sources told The News that a US spy plane was seen flying over the area during the aerial attack on the village. According to the sources, the plane, which had been hovering over the border tribal villages for the past several days, fired a Hellfire missile that razed to the ground the house of local tribesman Farman Dawar at Achar Khel village, about 25 kilometres west of Miramshah.

Sources close to tribal militants, led by Maulana Hafiz Gul Bahadur, told The News that two among the dead were identified as Arab guests who had come to Farman's house for Iftar dinner, while the remaining four persons killed in the air strike were local Dawar tribesmen.

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Venezuelan President leaves SAfrica after energy deal: official


Agence France-Presse
2008-09-02 23:02:00

Chavez and Mbeki
©Unknown
Hugo Chavez (L) shakes hands with Thabo Mbeki before holding talks in Pretoria


Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has left South Africa after inking a raft of energy agreements with Pretoria, a senior government spokesman said Wednesday.

"He left late Tuesday after the state banquet which followed the signing of the agreements," Xolani Malawana told AFP.

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Big Brother
New fingerprint method could unlock cold cases

Michael Kahn
Reuters
2008-09-05 12:50:00

London -- It's a discovery that would make even Sherlock Holmes proud. British scientists have developed a new crime-fighting technique that allows police to lift fingerprints from bullets even if a criminal has wiped down a shell casing.

Image
©REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi
A woman gives her fingerprints to join a petition in a file photo.


Authorities in Britain and the United States used the method to re-open three cold cases, including a U.S. double murder that police are now optimistic of solving, said John Bond, the physicist who developed the technique.

"In one case there was enough evidence that could lead to an identification of an offender," said Bond, a researcher at the University of Leicester and consultant at Northamptonshire Police in Britain.

The conventional method of taking fingerprints has been around for more than 100 years and involves creating a chemical reaction with the sweat left behind on an object to produce an image police can use.

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Dalhousie University to help U.S. catch cyber terrorists

Devin Stevens
The Chronicle Herald
2008-08-22 03:03:00

A major software project is underway by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to monitor levels of Internet traffic and detect possible security breaches - and Dalhousie University is going to help build it.

But the researchers involved say the new technology won't give the government your private information.

"We won't have access to the content of e-mails, passwords or anything like that," said John McHugh, who holds a Canada Research Chair in Privacy and Security at Dalhousie.

"We're just looking at bytes and addresses."

Homeland Security awarded the $815,000 project to CA Labs, a New York software and information technology company.

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The Dark 'Night'...of Hollywood Misinformation

B.R. Merrick
Strike The Root
2008-09-03 00:40:00

I'm a sucker for great acting. I've sat through films that are sub-par, and films that are greatly disturbing, to watch a great actor earn his paycheck. Therefore, I've been anticipating The Dark Knight, Heath Ledger's final complete performance (he will apparently still be featured in another movie), a performance for which he prepared by spending a month in near-isolation, and an act that apparently scared Michael Caine out of his socks on the first day of shooting. The media are buzzing with talk of a posthumous Oscar.

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Tasers: Lethal Weapons


Globe and Mail
2008-09-05 00:01:00

Tasers can kill. This hypothesis -- at once radical and glaringly obvious -- has been uttered by Quebec coroner Catherine Rudel-Tessier, after examining a disturbing taser death in Montreal. It should be posted at every police station in Canada.


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California man dies after police subdue him with Taser


Associated Press
2008-09-04 23:55:00

Garden Grove - Authorities are investigating the death of a mentally ill man who was shocked with a Taser while being subdued by Garden Grove police.


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Axis of Evil
Shin Bet to Palestinian: Collaborate or go to jail

Yossi Melman
Haaretz
2008-09-04 02:56:00

On July 27, Gaza resident Hamed Keshta arrived at the Erez border crossing, carrying an entry permit into Israel. He was headed to Ashkelon's Ganei Dan Hotel to meet with representatives from his employer, EUBAM. The European Union Border Assistance Mission in Rafah supervises and assists the Palestinian Authority in operating the border crossing with Egypt.

This was the first time since 1994 that Keshta, 33, of Rafah, married with two children, had crossed the border into Israel. It was to apply for a visa at the Canadian embassy in Tel Aviv. Keshta remained in Canada, even obtaining citizenship, until 2004 when he returned to Gaza. Since then he has worked as an interpreter and as a "fixer," a go-between for Western media outlets. He worked for the London Sunday Times, Britain's Channel 4 TV and the French production company Playprod. He has been at EUBAM since April 2006. The Ashkelon meeting was connected to a promotion from interpreter to assistant security director in the Rafah area.

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The Mysterious 'Sarkozy Letter'


Moon of Alabama Blog
2008-08-23 13:46:00

Isn't it funny how some 'western' politician still bluster about the signed ceasefire agreement over Georgia and Russian peacekeepers in Georgia. But they do this, of course, with a purpose. They want to change the accepted and signed ceasefire agreement.

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Work of Evil: Beyond the Worst-Case Scenario in Somalia

Chris Floyd
Empire Burlesque
2008-09-04 18:05:00

Jim Lobe at Antiwar.com brings fresh news of what has become, proportionately, the most savage, brutal and ruinous front in the global campaign of military aggression known as the "War on Terror": Somalia.

We have been tracking the situation in Somalia here since American military and security forces and their Ethiopian proxies invaded the country in December 2006, in a "regime change" operation to overthrow the first quasi-stable government Somalia had seen in 15 years. As we noted earlier this year:

American forces have bombed fleeing refugees, slaughtered innocent herdsmen and destroyed villages in attempts to assassinate a handful of individual alleged, on shaky and specious evidence, to be "part of" or "associated with" or "linked to" al Qaeda. American agents have seized refugees from the Somali war, including U.S. citizens, and had them "renditioned" to the notorious prisons of the Ethiopian dictatorship. And as we have noted here many times, the Bush Administration has sent in death squads to "kill anyone left alive" after American strikes.

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Middle East Madness
Reflections of an American-Israeli-Palestinian Jew

Uriel Heilman
The Telegraph/Blogs
2008-09-05 14:11:00

The Israeli activist who went to Gaza by boat from Cyprus, flouting Israel's blockade of the Hamas-ruled territory, wrote an account of his arrest by Israeli authorities upon his return to the Jewish state.

The activist, Jeff Halper, says he was given honorary Palestinian citizenship in Gaza, making him probably the only American-Israeli-Palestinian Jew in the world (Halper is a native of Minnesota).

Here are some of Halper's reflections:

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New "Break the Siege" ship to sail to Gaza

Saed Bannoura
International Middle East Media Center
2008-09-04 03:00:00

SS Liberty
©Free Gaza Movement
SS Liberty


Legislator Jamal Al Khodary, head of the Popular Committee Against the Siege, stated on Thursday that a new Break the Siege ship which includes European legislators, physicians, reporters and international figures will sail to Gaza from Cyprus on September 22.

Al Khodary added that physicians on board will remain in Gaza to perform surgeries and relief work for sick and injured Palestinians residents.

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Jim Crow alive and well in Hebron

Joel Gulledge
The Electronic Intifada
2008-09-03 02:44:00

Israeli settlers
©Rami Swidan/MaanImages
Masked Israeli settlers near the West Bank city of Nablus, June 2008.


I left my home in the United States to spend the summer in the West Bank, where I was attacked by Israeli settlers late last month. As a member of the Christian Peacemaker Team (CPT), I went to the south Hebron Hills to help keep young Palestinian children safe from Israeli settlers intent on dominating and hurting Palestinians. Armed only with a video camera, it was my job to escort the children back and forth from school and summer camp.

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Yet Another: Egyptian politician paid $2 million to decapitate Suzan Tamim


Yalibnan
2008-09-03 07:19:00

Cairo - Egyptian billionaire and key politician Hisham Talaat Mustafa was charged on Tuesday with paying two million dollars for the brutal killing of Lebanese pop singer Suzanne Tamim, reportedly his ex-lover.

Mustafa was arrested last week and charged yesterday with ordering the murder of Tamim at her luxury apartment in Dubai on July 28, Egyptian prosecutor Abdel Meguid Mahmud said in a statement carried by the official MENA news agency.


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Grand Theft Economics
UK: World Markets Reel On Recession Fears

Julia Kollewe and Kathryn Hopkins
The Guardian
2008-09-05 15:47:00

Stock markets fell sharply in London and around the world today after further evidence of weakness in the US jobs market revived worries about the health of the global economy.

Jobs data released this afternoon showed that unemployment in the US soared to its highest level in nearly five years in August, as the credit crunch continues to takes it toll on the country's already fragile economy.

The US Labour Department said that employment in the US outside the agricultural sector fell 84,000 in August, exceeding economists' expectations of a 75,000 drop.

There was also an unexpected increase in the country's unemployment rate last month, to 6.1% - the highest since December 2003. Analysts has expected it to remain steady at 5.7%.

The US non-farm payroll figures for July were revised up to 60,000 and June's to 100,000 from a previously reported 51,000 in each month. Employers cut payrolls for the eighth consecutive month and also reduced hiring in a bid to save money.

The figures were "very ugly across the board," said Boris Schlossberg at GFT Forex, New York. "The most startling thing for the market was this huge jump in the unemployment rate. That's the highest number in five years.

"The jobless rate suggests that the climate for job expansion has become much more difficult and suggests we are probably going to have a much harder fourth quarter facing us."

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US: Jobless rate at 5-year high

Glenn Somerville
Reuters
2008-09-05 13:08:00

Washington - The U.S. unemployment rate unexpectedly shot up to 6.1 percent in August, the highest in nearly five years, as employers cut payrolls for an eighth straight month and a decline in labor markets accelerated.

Image
©REUTERS/Graphic
The U.S. unemployment rate unexpectedly shot up to 6.1 percent in August, its highest in more than 4-1/2 years, as employers cut payrolls for an eighth straight month and labor markets showed signs of accelerating decline.


The Labor Department said on Friday 84,000 jobs were lost in August, significantly more than the 75,000 that economists surveyed by Reuters had forecast. In addition, July's job losses were revised up to 60,000 and June's to 100,000 from a previously reported 51,000 in each month.

Analysts said the bleak hiring data showed a weakening economy that likely will oblige the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates low for an extended period.

"The economy is clearly deteriorating," said Gary Thayer, senior economist for Wachovia Securities in St. Louis. "We're also seeing weakness around the globe so there's less reason for the Fed to focus on inflation and more reason to focus on getting the economy back on its feet."

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US Home foreclosures reach record high

Julie Haviv
Reuters
2008-09-05 13:00:00

New York - Home foreclosures and the rate of homes entering foreclosure rose to record highs in the second quarter, the Mortgage Bankers Association said on Friday.

Image
©REUTERS/Fred Prouser
A foreclosed home up for sale in Burbank, California, July 20, 2008.


"The national foreclosure numbers continue to be driven by the hardest-hit states continuing to get much worse," Jay Brinkmann, the association's chief economist and senior vice president for research and economics, said in a news release.

The increases in foreclosures in California and Florida overwhelmed improvements in states such as Texas, Massachusetts and Maryland, he said.

"It is unsurprising that mortgage delinquencies picked up further in the second quarter," John Ryding, chief economist, and Conrad DeQuadros, senior economist, at RDQ Economics in New York, said in commentary.

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UK: House prices are falling at fastest rate since the Great Depression

Harry Wallop and Edmund Conway
The Daily Telegraph
2008-09-05 03:38:00

House prices are falling at the fastest rate since the Great Depression new figures show, with the number of home owners in negative equity trebling in the last month alone.

Figures released by Halifax, the country's largest mortgage lender, showed that the average house price has slumped in value by 12.7 per cent since August last year - leaving the average price at just £174,178.

This represents a fall of more than £25,000 over the last year and is the fastest rate of decline since Halifax started collecting its monthly data in 1983.

However, leading City economists said that the housing market has never witnessed an annual fall of more than 10 per cent except for in 1931 - a year when Britain was hit by the aftermath of the Wall Street crash and sterling collapsed.

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Contractor fraud costs Katrina victims millions

Becky Bohrer
Associated Press
2008-08-29 22:51:00

Katrina contractor scam
©Bill Haber / Associated Press
Carl Bourque, an investigator for the Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors, talks with Joyce Jackson about the substandard work done by a contractor on her home.


Herreast Harrison wanted to rebuild after Katrina and thought she did everything right: She hired a contractor who seemed kind and listened to Christian music on the job. Months later, she claimed, he pocketed $57,000 and walked off with work undone, leaving a mess behind.

Harrison said it took thousands more to put things straight.

Three years after Hurricane Katrina, complaints about contractors continue, swamping legal aid attorneys and watchdog groups alike. Victims are left coping with shoddy work, incomplete work and sometimes outright fraud.

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The Living Planet
Haitian leader warns of 'extraordinary catastrophe'


Reuters
2008-09-05 00:15:00

PORT-AU-PRINCE - Hurricane Ike strengthened rapidly into a major Category 3 hurricane in the open Atlantic yesterday and Tropical Storm Hanna intensified as it swirled over the Bahamas toward the southeast U.S. Coast.

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Asian elephant cured in rehab of heroin addiction


Associated Press
2008-09-04 18:59:00

Beijing - An Asian elephant that became addicted to heroin at the hands of illegal traders will return home after a three-year rehab program, Chinese state media said Thursday.

Xiguang, a 4-year-old male Asian elephant, became addicted after he was captured by smugglers along the Chinese-Myanmar border in March 2005. The traders fed the elephant bananas laced with heroin as bait and to pacify the creature, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

When Xiguang was found two months later along with six other captured elephants in China's southwest, he was suffering from withdrawal and was sent to a protection center in China's tropical Hainan island.

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Health & Wellness
How Salmonella Bacteria Contaminate Salad Leaves


Science Daily
2008-09-05 12:18:00

How Salmonella bacteria can cause food poisoning by attaching to salad leaves is revealed in new research presented September 3 at the 21st International ICFMH Symposium 'Food Micro 2008' conference in Aberdeen.

The new study shows how some Salmonella bacteria use the long stringy appendages they normally use to help them 'swim' and move about to attach themselves to salad leaves and other vegetables, causing contamination and a health risk.

Image
©iStockphoto/Angel Rodriguez
Professor Frankel believes that as people eat more salads in an effort to be healthy, cases of Salmonella from salad leaves will increase.


Food poisoning from Salmonella and E. coli is commonly associated with eating contaminated bovine or chicken products, as the pathogens live in the guts of cows and the guts and egg-ducts of chickens, and contamination of meat can occur during the slaughtering process.

However, some recent outbreaks of food poisoning have been associated with contaminated salad or vegetable products, and more specifically, pre-bagged salads. For example, in 2007 a Salmonella outbreak in the UK was traced back to imported basil, and an E. coli outbreak in the USA in 2006 was traced to contaminated pre-packed baby spinach.

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Toxic Plastics: Bisphenol A Linked To Metabolic Syndrome In Human Tissue


Science Daily
2008-09-05 12:05:00

New research from the University of Cincinnati (UC) implicates the primary chemical used to produce hard plastics - bisphenol A (BPA) - as a risk factor for metabolic syndrome and its consequences.

Image
©University of Cincinnati
Polycarbonate plastic bottles like these contain bisphenol A.


In a laboratory study, using fresh human fat tissues, the UC team found that BPA suppresses a key hormone, adiponectin, which is responsible for regulating insulin sensitivity in the body and puts people at a substantially higher risk for metabolic syndrome.

Metabolic syndrome is a combination of risk factors that include lower responsiveness to insulin and higher blood levels of sugar and lipids. According to the American Heart Association, about 25 percent of Americans have metabolic syndrome. Left untreated, the disorder can lead to life-threatening health problems such as coronary artery disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes.

Nira Ben-Jonathan, PhD, and her team are the first to report scientific evidence on the health effects of BPA at environmentally relevant doses equal to "average" human exposure. Previous studies have primarily focused on animal studies and high doses of BPA.

They report their findings in the Aug. 14, 2008, online edition of the journal Environmental Health Perspectives. This scientific data comes just before a key Federal Drug Administration meeting about the safety of the chemical in consumer products scheduled for Sept. 16, 2008.

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Flashback: Different Cultures, Similar Perceptions: Stereotyping of Western European Business Leaders


catalyst.org
2008-09-05 11:05:00

Different Cultures, Similar Perceptions: Stereotyping of Western European Business Leaders, a study conducted by Catalyst and researchers from the Institute for Management Development (IMD) in Switzerland, examined a major barrier to women's advancement in business: Gender stereotypes - generalizations we make about the characteristics of women and men.

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Groups team up to fight HIV

Janelle Frost
MyrtleBeachOnline.com
2008-09-05 10:39:00

Rape victims get assistance with medicine, follow-up treatment

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Court just says no -- again -- to genetically modified alfalfa

Jordan Lite
Scientific American
2008-09-02 23:12:00

Alfalfa GM
©Daniel Loiselle


We know you're just dying to taste that delectable genetically modified alfalfa, but you'll have to wait: an appeals court today ruled that the feds must review the potential environmental effects of the biotech seeds before farmers can plant them.

The decision by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals forces the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to issue an environmental impact statement on Roundup Ready alfalfa seeds, which are made by ag giant Monsanto and would be planted exclusively by Forage Genetics International.

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Why Soy Is NOT the Health Food You Think it Is


Mercola.com
2008-09-04 20:33:00

Soy is no health food. In fact, it's bad for your body, your thyroid, and your child's development, as Kaayla T. Daniel, PHD, CCN, explains in this exclusive video interview.

Dr. Daniel earned her PhD in Nutritional Sciences and Anti-Aging Therapies from the Union Institute and University in Cincinnati, was board certified as a clinical nutritionist (CCN) by the International and American Association of Clinical Nutritionists in Dallas and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Weston A. Price Foundation.

As a clinical nutritionist, she specializes in digestive disorders, women's reproductive health issues, infertility, and recovery from vegetarian and soy-based diets.



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Science & Technology
Theory Of Sun's Role In Formation Of Solar System Questioned


Science Daily
2008-09-05 12:13:00

A strange mix of oxygen found in a stony meteorite that exploded over Pueblito de Allende, Mexico nearly 40 years ago has puzzled scientists ever since.

meteorite
©Susan Brown
Pale specks on the surface of this meteorite are among the oldest minerals in the solar system. An odd mix of oxygen atoms within these minerals has puzzled scientists for decades.


Small flecks of minerals lodged in the stone and thought to date from the beginning of the solar system have a pattern of oxygen types, or isotopes, that differs from those found in all known planetary rocks, including those from Earth, its Moon and meteorites from Mars.

Now scientists from UC San Diego and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have eliminated one model proposed to explain the anomaly: the idea that light from the early Sun could have shifted the balance of oxygen isotopes in molecules that formed after it turned on. When they beamed light through carbon monoxide gas to form carbon dioxide, the balance of oxygen isotopes in the new molecules failed to shift in ways predicted by the model they report in the September 5 issue of Science.

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'Junk DNA' May Have Triggered Key Evolutionary Changes In Human Thumb And Foot


Science Daily
2008-09-05 12:09:00

Out of the 3 billion genetic letters that spell out the human genome, Yale scientists have found a handful that may have contributed to the evolutionary changes in human limbs that enabled us to manipulate tools and walk upright.

developing thumb, wrist and ankle of mouse embryos
©Yale University
A rapidly evolving sequence from the human genome drives gene activity in the developing thumb, wrist and ankle of mouse embryos.


Results from a comparative analysis of the human, chimpanzee, rhesus macaque and other genomes reported in the journal Science suggest our evolution may have been driven not only by sequence changes in genes, but by changes in areas of the genome once thought of as "junk DNA."

Those changes activated genes in primordial thumb and big toe in a developing mouse embryo, the researchers found.

"Our study identifies a potential genetic contributor to fundamental morphological differences between humans and apes," said James Noonan, Assistant Professor of Genetics in the Yale University School of Medicine and the senior author of the study.

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A Fine-tooth Comb To Measure The Accelerating Universe


Science Daily
2008-09-05 11:59:00

Astronomical instruments needed to answer crucial questions, such as the search for Earth-like planets or the way the Universe expands, have come a step closer with the first demonstration at the telescope of a new calibration system for precise spectrographs.

laser comb
©ESO
Artist's impression of the laser comb developed for astronomy. Such a laser comb is necessary to act as a "ruler" for calibrating the new, extremely precise spectrographs that will be needed in the future to search for Earth-like planets or measure the expansion of the Universe.


The method uses a Nobel Prize-winning technology called a 'laser frequency comb', and is published in this week's issue of Science.

"It looks as if we are on the way to fulfil one of astronomers' dreams," says team member Theodor Hänsch, director at the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics (MPQ) in Germany. Hänsch, together with John Hall, was awarded the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physics for work including the frequency comb technique.

Astronomers use instruments called spectrographs to spread the light from celestial objects into its component colours, or frequencies, in the same way water droplets create a rainbow from sunlight. They can then measure the velocities of stars, galaxies and quasars, search for planets around other stars, or study the expansion of the Universe. A spectrograph must be accurately calibrated so that the frequencies of light can be correctly measured. This is similar to how we need accurate rulers to measure lengths correctly. In the present case, a laser provides a sort of ruler, for measuring colours rather than distances, with an extremely accurate and fine grid.

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DNA Shows That Last Woolly Mammoths Had North American Roots


Science Daily
2008-09-05 11:56:00

In a surprising reversal of conventional wisdom, a DNA-based study has revealed that the last of the woolly mammoths - which lived between 40,000 and 4,000 years ago - had roots that were exclusively North American.

woolly mammoths bones
©Hendrik Poinar
The last of the woolly mammoths originated in North America.


The research, which appears in the September issue of Current Biology, is expected to cause some controversy within the paleontological community.

"Scientists have always thought that because mammoths roamed such a huge territory - from Western Europe to Central North America - that North American woolly mammoths were a sideshow of no particular significance to the evolution of the species," said Hendrik Poinar, associate professor in the departments of Anthropology, and Pathology & Molecular Medicine at McMaster University.

Poinar and Régis Debruyne, a postdoctoral research fellow in Poinar's lab, spent the last three years collecting and sampling mammoths over much of their former range in Siberia and North America, extracting DNA and meticulously piecing together, comparing and overlapping hundreds of mammoth specimen using the second largest ancient DNA dataset available.

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Our Haunted Planet

No new articles.


Don't Panic! Lighten Up!
Flashback: Video: Diebold Accidentally Leaks Results Of 2008 Election Early


TheOnion.com
2008-02-27 04:14:00


Diebold Accidentally Leaks Results Of 2008 Election Early


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New Jersey cops kick in door over cockatoo's cries for help


Associated Press
2008-09-05 13:28:00

Trenton, NJ - Cries for help inside a Trenton, N.J., home turned out to be for the birds.

Neighbors called police Wednesday morning after hearing a woman's persistent cry of "Help me! Help me!" coming from a house. Officers arrived and when no one answered the door, they kicked it in to make a rescue.

But instead of a damsel in distress, officers found a caged cockatoo with a convincing call.

It wasn't the first time the 10-year-old bird named Luna said something that brought authorities to the home of owner Evelyn DeLeon.

About seven years ago, the bird cried like a baby for hours, leading to reports of a possible abandoned baby and a visit to the home by state child welfare workers. But it was only Luna practicing a newfound sound, DeLeon says.

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Black bear busts secret Utah pot farm


Associted Press
2008-09-05 13:25:00

Panguitch, Utah - One Utah community is cheering a special bear - but don't call him Smokey.

Investigators say a large black bear raided a clandestine marijuana growing operation so often that it chased the grower away.

"This bear is definitely law-enforcement minded," said Garfield County Sheriff Danny Perkins. "If I can find this bear I'm going to deputize him."

Deputies found food containers ripped apart and strewn everywhere, cans with bear teeth marks, claw marks and bear prints across the Garfield County camp on Tuesday.

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Greek rural postmen top odd book title list


Associated Press
2008-09-05 13:23:00

London - It may not be a best-seller, but "Greek Rural Postmen and Their Cancellation Numbers" has won a literary accolade: oddest book title of the past 30 years.

The book topped a poll to find the weirdest-ever winner of Britain's Diagram Prize for unusually monickered volumes.

It beat previous winners including "Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Nude Mice" and "How Green Were the Nazis?" in an online vote. The results were announced Friday by trade magazine The Bookseller, which organizes the prize.

The runner-up was "People Who Don't Know They're Dead." Third place went to "How To Avoid Huge Ships."

The Bookseller's charts editor, Philip Stone, said _ possibly with tongue in cheek _ that the winning book may have benefited from Britons' concern about the closure of rural post offices across the country.

"I sincerely believe that this title provides further proof to the current government that the British public are passionate about the maintenance and continuation of local mail delivery services," he said. "And not just nationally, but internationally."

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Leave Sarah Palin Alone!


Youtube
2008-09-04 05:05:00

A parody on the famous "Leave Britney Alone" video. (contains strong language)



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