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Lab Results Raise New Concerns Over Gulf Seafood
(Aug. 31) — A Boston lab hired by the United Commercial Fishermen’s Association to analyze coastal fishing waters says findings suggest the government’s claim that Gulf of Mexico seafood is safe to eat may be premature.
The lab, Boston Chemical Data Corp., said it found dispersant in a sample taken near Biloxi, Miss., almost a month after BP said it had stopped using the toxic chemical to break up the record amounts of crude spewed by the Gulf oil spill. The leak was finally capped on July 15.
3Rs meant rations, roller skates…and real education: School pictures from the 1940s, 50s and 60s
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They are a snapshot of a bygone age and as these charming pictures from the Forties, Fifties and Sixties show, growing up in post-war Britain was an experience that would be unrecognisable to today’s children.
It was a time when school dinners meant clearing your plate, however unappetising the food; playtime meant rough and tumble games and lessons involved learning to write using a slate and chalk…
Playing in the traffic: Trikes and cardboard cars teach road safety in 1939
No bottom?
Snoop Dogg Joins the War on Cybercrime
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In a somewhat untraditional partnership, Snoop Dogg and Symantec’s Norton want you to show off your lyrical skills on the subject of cybercrime and enter the "Hack is Wack" cybercrime rap contest.Snoop Dogg and Norton
The contest, which runs through Sept. 30, 2010, asks participants to create and upload a two-minute rap video at www.HackIsWack.com.
Snoop is going make the initial call for entries through his Facebook account, Twitter and YouTube page.
If you have the skills and bust out the phattest rap, you’ll receive round trip airfare for two to Los Angeles along with two days and two nights hotel stay to meet with Snoop’s management and learn more about his business. You’ll also get two tickets to a Snoop Dogg concert and a new laptop pimped out with Norton Internet Security 2011.
Really? Two tickets to a Snoop Dogg concert and Norton Internet Security 2011? I don’t know which of those I would want less.
And a meet and greet with his management? wtf?
Moral Bankruptcy at HSH Nordbank
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Child pornography planted on a work computer, a house break-in and illegal wiretapping: The leadership of Germany’s HSH Nordbank stands accused of going to great lengths to rid itself of unwanted senior officials. Prosecutors in both New York and Germany have launched investigations.
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Some say…
… he never blinks, and that he roams around the woods at night foraging for wolves..
Some say that he appears on high value stamps in Sweden, and that he can catch fish with his tongue..
All we know is, he’s called Ben Collins
Wrongfully Accused Of File-Sharing? File For Harassment
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Last month it was revealed that ACS:Law, the now infamous one-man law firm that has sent out tens of thousands demands for cash settlements to make supposed copyright infringement lawsuits go away, has been referred to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal on allegations of misconduct.
This referral, achieved through the tireless work of those wrongfully accused and consumer groups such as Which? and BeingThreatened.com, was much-welcomed news. But the wheels of justice can turn very slowly. It could take months, maybe more than a year, for the authorities to do their work. This is a serious problem for those still affected by the actions of ACS:Law principal Andrew Crossley.
Make no mistake, this is not going away soon. Crossley is regularly going to court and gaining the identities of thousands more individuals he says are infringing his clients’ copyrights, yet he has no solid proof in almost any instance that this is the case. As a result of flawed evidence, huge numbers of people say they have been accused in error.
Noticing this apparent failing, a team of lawyers in the north of England have announced that they are pursuing a group action and are urging people to come forward to participate. Noting that Crossley has been referred to the SDT for “bullying and excessive conduct”, Ralli Solicitors say that letter recipients may be entitled to compensation for harassment.
Suddenly Facebook CEO starts caring about privacy
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Facebook Inc Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg says a lawsuit by a man who claims to own a huge chunk of the popular social networking website is seeking to uncover needless details about his private life.
Garbage collection in Java
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AT the first glance, what can you see in the picture above? I thought the man was on a rubbish dump, and the boat was one of the rubbish when I first saw this picture. Until I read further, only then I realize that it’s actually not a rubbish dump, but a very polluted river.
The picture above shows no sign of a river to me, to you too I suppose. The man above is actually collecting things like plastic bottles to be recycled and can probably earn a pound or two a week by doing so. People now fish for rubbish at the river, instead of fish.
If you’ve been wondering what river is that and its location, the river is called Citarum located in Indonesia .
Tests find sickened family has 50.3 ppm of Corexit’s 2-butoxyethanol in swimming pool
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“Our heads are still swimming,” stated Barbara Schebler of Homosassa, Florida, who received word last Friday that test results on the water from her family’s swimming pool showed 50.3 ppm of 2-butoxyethanol, a marker for the dispersant Corexit 9527A used to break up and sink BP’s oil in the Gulf of Mexico.
[..]
BP Press Officer Daren Beaudo released a statement on August 28 that reads, “Unified Command records indicate that the last date of use of the Corexit 9527 was May 22,” almost three months before the samples were taken from the pool.
Yet, the Schebler’s report is the second time in the last 10 days that the 2-butoxyethanol marker for Corexit 9527A has been discovered near the Gulf. It has also been found near the Florida border in Cotton Bayou, AL, at about 1/4 the level as in Homosassa, FL. A WKRG segment from August 19 featured an inland water sample that tested for 13.3 ppm of the Corexit dispersant.
The question remains, how did this chemical find its way into the Schebler’s pool in such a high concentration?
Fidel Castro takes blame for persecution of Cuban gays
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Fidel Castro has said that he is ultimately responsible for the persecution suffered by homosexuals in Cuba after the revolution of 1959.
The former president told the Mexican newspaper La Jornada that there were moments of great injustice against the gay community.
"If someone is responsible, it’s me," he said.
In the 1960s and 70s, many homosexuals in Cuba were fired, imprisoned or sent to “re-education camps”.
Mr Castro said homosexuals had traditionally been discriminated in Cuba, just as black people and women.
But, nevertheless, he admits he didn’t pay enough attention to what was going on against the gay community.
“At the time we were being sabotaged systematically, there were armed attacks against us, we had too many problems,” said the 84-year-old Communist leader.
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[Here] we have an 80+ year old guy, who has actually learned. Who at this late age, has developed. Someone, who has no incentive to develop, because he’s worshiped as a demigod. It wasn’t bitter necessity that forced his insights. His admission, nonetheless is something pretty unusual. Sure, he’s still trying to shift blame and is not abjectly on his knees, but this is quite extraordinary. He’s actually risen above his upbringing and old prejudices.What then are we to make of politicians in the U.S., who are younger by decades, who grew up in a much more free society, who have the benefit of experience that is not being suppressed in a totalitarian system – what are we to make of those politicians who are less enlightened today, today, than an old tyrant on a small island, politicians who practice active homophobia?
Sao Paolo
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This is Sao Paolo, Brazil during the Holland-Brazil World Cup quarterfinal in South Africa. See if you notice something missing.
Army Revises Training to Deal With Unfit Recruits
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Dawn breaks at this, the Army’s largest training post, with the reliable sound of fresh recruits marching to their morning exercise. But these days, something looks different.
That familiar standby, the situp, is gone, or almost gone. Exercises that look like pilates or yoga routines are in. And the traditional bane of the new private, the long run, has been downgraded.
This is the Army’s new physical-training program, which has been rolled out this year at its five basic training posts that handle 145,000 recruits a year. Nearly a decade in the making, its official goal is to reduce injuries and better prepare soldiers for the rigors of combat in rough terrain like Afghanistan.
But as much as anything, the program was created to help address one of the most pressing issues facing the military today: overweight and unfit recruits.
“What we were finding was that the soldiers we’re getting in today’s Army are not in as good shape as they used to be,” said Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling, who oversees basic training for the Army. “This is not just an Army issue. This is a national issue.”
BIG BANG BIG BOOM
Hurricane Earl Takes Aim at East Coast
[From the comments section on this article]:
It is not that people do not want the hurricane to be reported. It is the fact that it is reported in a sensationalist manner, designed to attract people, scare people… I remember when the news was exactly that, reports of the facts to inform people. In this case to cite the possibilities as reported by NOAA. Allow the people to make there risk assements. Not try to scare the people….The media has become a major disrupting factor in society.. the boundry between infotainment and the NEWS has become so blurred….i doubt if anybody would like to draw the line. It is not that we dont want the News….exactly the opposite in fact
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Haiti: Six months on
Even the dogs can dance better than I can
Marijuana effective in reducing pain, study shows
A team of Montreal researchers has lent scientific credibility to the view that smoking marijuana can ease chronic neuropathic pain and help patients sleep better.
People suffering from neuropathic pain often turn to opioids, antidepressants and local anesthetics, but those treatments have limitations and the side effects can be punishing. Many physicians and policy-makers, however, are reluctant to advocate the use of cannabis since there has been little scientific research into its effectiveness, even though patients champion its use.
The study, published Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, found that pain intensity among patients decreased with higher-potency marijuana. It is one of a handful of scientific attempts to determine the medicinal benefits of the drug.
Published on Monday, Aug. 30, 2010
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Misdiagnosed anti-psychotic drug may be killing stressed veterans
Thousands of soldiers suffering from PTSD have received the same medication over the last nine years, helping to make Seroquel one of the Veteran Affairs Department’s top drug expenditures and the No. 5 best-selling drug in the nation.
Several soldiers and veterans have died while taking the pills, raising concerns among some military families that the government is not being up front about the drug’s risks. They want Congress to investigate.
On April 27, the Associated Press reported, “The federal government on Tuesday reached a $520 million settlement with pharmaceutical manufacturer AstraZeneca, resolving allegations of illegal marketing of the company’s anti-psychotic drug Seroquel.”
With Neighbors Unaware, Toxic Spill at a BP Plant
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While the world was focused on the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a BP refinery here released huge amounts of toxic chemicals into the air that went unnoticed by residents until many saw their children come down with respiratory problems.
For 40 days after a piece of equipment critical to the refinery’s operation broke down, a total of 538,000 pounds of toxic chemicals, including the carcinogen benzene, poured out of the refinery.
Rather than taking the costly step of shutting down the refinery to make repairs, the engineers at the plant diverted gases to a smokestack and tried to burn them off, but hundreds of thousands of pounds still escaped into the air, according to state environmental officials.
Neither the state nor the oil company informed neighbors or local officials about the pollutants until two weeks after the release ended, and angry residents of Texas City have signed up in droves to join a $10 billion class-action lawsuit against BP.
Man Already Knows Everything He Needs To Know About Muslims
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Local man Scott Gentries told reporters Wednesday that his deliberately limited grasp of Islamic history and culture was still more than sufficient to shape his views of the entire Muslim world.
Gentries, 48, said he had absolutely no interest in exposing himself to further knowledge of Islamic civilization or putting his sweeping opinions into a broader context of any kind, and confirmed he was "perfectly happy" to make a handful of emotionally charged words the basis of his mistrust toward all members of the world’s second-largest religion.
"I learned all that really matters about the Muslim faith on 9/11," Gentries said in reference to the terrorist attacks on the United States undertaken by 19 of Islam’s approximately 1.6 billion practitioners. "What more do I need to know to stigmatize Muslims everywhere as inherently violent radicals?"
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“All Muslims are at war with America, and I will resist any attempt to challenge that assertion with potentially illuminating facts,” said Gentries, who threatened to leave the room if presented with the number of Muslims who live peacefully in the United States, serve in the country’s armed forces, or were victims themselves of the 9/11 attacks. “Period.”
“If you don’t believe me, wait until they put your wife in a burka,” Gentries continued in reference to the face-and-body-covering worn by a small minority of Muslim women and banned in the universities of Turkey, Tunisia, and Syria. “Or worse, a rape camp. That’s right: For reasons I am content being totally unable to articulate, I am choosing to associate Muslims with rape camps.”
Ramadan 2010 – The Big Picture
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Muslim men and women across the world are currently observing Ramadan, a month long celebration of self-purification and restraint. During Ramadan, the Muslim community fast, abstaining from food, drink, smoking and sex between sunrise and sunset. Muslims break their fast after sunset with an evening meal called Iftar, where a date is the first thing eaten followed by a traditional meal. During this time, Muslims are also encouraged to read the entire Quran, to give freely to those in need, and strengthen their ties to God through prayer. The goal of the fast is to teach humility, patience and sacrifice, and to ask forgiveness, practice self-restraint, and pray for guidance in the future. This year, Ramadan will continue until Saturday, September 9th.
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Kashmiri Muslims pray on a street on the third Friday of Ramadan, in Srinagar, India, Friday, Aug. 27, 2010. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri) #
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Color, Photos, and One Fuzzy Little Boy in a Field
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No chair. No shade. No juice box, Spongebob, or iPad. And, given the day of backbreaking labor ahead of the family who’d brought him, there’s certainly nobody to grab his hand, walk him over to the scant shade of that longleaf pine, and tell him his favorite story.
He just stands there. By himself.
I imagine this was neither the first nor last day this fuzzy little boy stood in that field by himself, watching his family work.
Belgian Church Leader Urged Victim to Be Silent
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The former leader of the Roman Catholic Church in Belgium urged a victim of serial sexual abuse by a bishop to keep silent for a year, until the bishop — the victim’s own uncle — could retire, according to tapes made by the victim last April and published over the weekend in two Belgian newspapers.
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Cardinal Godfried Danneels, 77, who retired as the archbishop of Brussels in January after 30 years, met with the victim, now 42, and his uncle, Bishop Robert Vangheluwe, 73, on April 8 to press the victim either to accept a private apology or to wait until the bishop retired, according to the tapes.
“The bishop will resign next year, so actually it would be better for you to wait,” the cardinal told the victim. “I don’t think you’d do yourself or him a favor by shouting this from the rooftops.” The cardinal warned the victim against trying to blackmail the church and suggested that he accept a private apology from the bishop and not drag “his name through the mud.”
The victim responded, “He has dragged my whole life through the mud, from 5 until 18 years old,” and asked, “Why do you feel sorry for him and not for me?”
Banks’ Created Fake Demand to Boost Profits and Yearly Bonuses
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Over the last two years of the housing bubble, Wall Street bankers perpetrated one of the greatest episodes of self-dealing in financial history.
Faced with increasing difficulty in selling the mortgage-backed securities that had been among their most lucrative products, the banks hit on a solution that preserved their quarterly earnings and huge bonuses:
They created fake demand.
A ProPublica analysis shows for the first time the extent to which banks — primarily Merrill Lynch, but also Citigroup, UBS and others — bought their own products and cranked up an assembly line that otherwise should have flagged.
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Beck vs MLK
Help me, United States Postal Service. You are my only hope.
Immigrants on Trains Near Northern Border Detained
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“It’s turned into a police state on the northern border,” said Cary M. Jensen, director of international services for the University of Rochester, whose foreign students, scholars and parents have been questioned and jailed, often because the patrol did not recognize their legal status. “It’s essentially become an internal document check.”
[..]
“At least in Arizona, you have to be doing something wrong to be stopped,” said the woman, a citizen of Chinese-American descent who said her Mexican boyfriend was sleeping when an agent started questioning him. “Here, you’re sitting on the train asleep and if you don’t look like a U.S. citizen, it’s ‘Wake up!’ ”
Abbas, Palestinians should die: Israeli rabbi
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An influential Israeli rabbi has said God should strike the Palestinians and their leader with a plague, calling for their death in a fiery sermon before Middle East peace talks set to begin next week.
"Abu Mazen and all these evil people should perish from this earth," Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, spiritual head of the religious Shas party in Israel’s government, said in a sermon late Saturday, using Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s popular name.
"God should strike them and these Palestinians — evil haters of Israel — with a plague," the 89-year-old rabbi said in his weekly address to the faithful, excerpts of which were broadcast on Israeli radio Sunday.
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Kodak’s 1975 Model Digital Camera
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Why would anyone ever want to view his or her pictures on a TV?
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“meet with Snoop’s management and learn more about his business“.
Maybe they’ll teach you how you, too, can get lucrative promotion deals with random consumer companies?
And if you just prick your finger and sign here in your blood, you too can find success in the music “business”…