Welcome to the Overnight News Digest (OND) for Tuesday, October 27, 2009.
OND is a regular feature on Daily Kos, consisting of current news stories from around the world, sometimes coupled with a daily theme, original research or commentary. Each editor of OND imparts their own presentation style and content choices, typically publishing near 12:00AM Eastern Time.
The OND concept was borne under the keen keyboard of Magnifico - proper respect is due.
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This diary is named for its "Hump Point" video: Black Napkins by Frank Zappa
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When it is posted, Green Diary Rescue & Open Thread often links to that evening's OND - consider this reference as returning the kind favor.
Please feel free to browse and add your own links, content or thoughts in the Comments section.
Timestamps shown are relative to each publication.
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US sends envoys to Honduras talks
By (BBC)
Three senior US officials are being sent to Honduras in an effort to resolve the country's political crisis, the US state department says.
The delegation will urge interim leader Roberto Micheletti and ousted President Manuel Zelaya to resume stalled talks.
Negotiations broke down last week after Mr Micheletti said he would step down, but only if Mr Zelaya also gave up his claim to the presidency.
The US is keen for a deal to be reached before elections due on 27 November. |
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Former GM plant set to make electric cars
By Steve Hargreaves
Electric carmaker Fisker Automotive said Tuesday it is buying an old General Motors plant in Wilmington, Del., and plans on making up to 100,000 vehicles a year at the recently shuttered facility.
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Until July, the plant had employed over 1,000 workers making Pontiac, Saturn and Opel sports cars for General Motors. GM closed the facility as part of its corporate restructuring.
Fisker says its new plant will employ 2,000 factory workers and support another 3,000 vendor jobs by 2014. Production is set to begin in 2012.
"It gives me great pride to give UAW Local 435 workers the opportunity to partner with Fisker Automotive to create a greener America by building a plug-in hybrid car that will compete globally," Gary Casteel, a United Autoworkers union official at the plant, said in a statement. |
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Unemployed hope Congress extends benefits once again
By Les Blumenthal
Wayne Ryan is sleeping on a futon on the floor of his empty mobile home. He hocked his DVDs and CDs for food money. The unemployed carpenter from Bonney Lake hasn't had a job in 14 months. His unemployment ran out weeks ago. He says he's just about hit rock bottom
. . .
Two years ago, Benay Doolittle of Kennewick was making $100,000 as an information technology worker. Today she's on food stamps, living at a girlfriend's house. She's filed for bankruptcy. She says her unemployment benefits have ended and no one has shown interest in the hundreds of resumes she's sent out.
. . .
Theirs are the faces behind the numbers. They shared their stories of being down and out through no fault of their own as Congress considers whether to extend unemployment benefits for a third time since the recession began.
The Senate is expected to act this week on extending the benefits for 14 weeks, with an additional six weeks for states whose unemployment rate is above 8.5 percent. With an unemployment rate of 9.3 percent, Washington state would qualify. The House earlier passed a less generous version; the two bills will have to be reconciled. |
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Israel forms task force to counter Goldstone Gaza report
By Barak Ravid
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday approved the creation of a task force of professionals who will present a series of recommendations for countering the Goldstone report and its implications.
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Netanyahu said earlier this week that the establishment of an independent committee of inquiry on Operation Cast Lead is not under consideration. "No soldiers or officers will be brought before a commission of inquiry," he said.
. . .
But international pressure for Israel to set up an inquiry into allegations made by the Goldstone report to the effect that Israeli soldiers carried out war crimes in Gaza last winter has continued to mount. |
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Pakistan offensive 'kills dozens'
By (Al Jazeera)
. . .
Security forces were said to have surrounded Nawazkot, a purported Taliban stronghold, and fighters were killed in clashes on the approach to Sararogha to the east and Kanigurram further south.
Warplanes and helicopter gunships bombarded positions believed to be used by the estimated 12,000 fighters believed to operating in the region, the military said on Tuesday.
. . .
Residents of Kotkai could been seen picking through the rubble of their homes, while in the nearby town of Wana the main hospital had been overwhelmed by casualties.
More than 125,000 people have been registered as displaced by the fighting since October 13, UN officials have said. |
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China executes Tibetan protesters
By (Al Jazeera)
Two people have been executed in China for their involvement in deadly riots in Tibet last year, the Chinese foreign ministry said.
The deaths on Tuesday are the first officially confirmed to have been carried out.
Lobsang Gyaltsen and Loyak were executed for arson-related crimes committed in Lhasa, the regional capital, in March last year, the International Campaign for Tibet, which campaigns for self-rule for the mountain region in far-west China, said on Monday.
Protests led by Buddhist monks against Chinese rule on March 14 last year gave way to violence. |
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Angola arms traffickers convicted
By (BBC)
The son of ex-French President Francois Mitterrand and an ex-government minister have been convicted for their roles in illegal arms sales to Angola.
Jean-Christophe Mitterrand was given a two-year suspended sentence, and ex-Interior Minister Charles Pasqua was jailed for one year by the Paris court.
They were convicted of accepting bribes to facilitate arms deals to Angola in 1993-98, in breach of French law. |
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'Violent attacks' on Zimbabwe MDC
By (BBC)
Zimbabwe's Movement for Democratic Change has said there are "increased violent" attacks on its party members.
MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said a top official was stopped and beaten up by militants from President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF on Tuesday morning.
His warning comes a few days after an MDC residence was raided by police. |
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Debating the daddy state
By Nick Miroff
Complaining about the government is a national pastime on this communist-run island, but it’s a tradition typically practiced indoors.
Decades of state media control and harsh punishment for dissent have conditioned Cubans to vent their political frustrations in private, and rarely outside the presence of trusted company.
So when Cubans were asked recently to air their grievances at a local community meeting in Havana, the criticism stuck mostly to earthly affairs: potholes, garbage collection and the high costs of fruits and vegetables at the nearby produce market.
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Since then, authorities have set up discussions at universities, government workplaces and under the glow of street lamps. Community organizations called Committees for the Defense of the Revolution — created in part to root out anti-government activity — are now tasked with collecting criticism of the socialist system, along with suggestions for how to reform it. |
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America's Cup in troubled waters
By Tom Hundley
The America’s Cup, yachting’s Holy Grail, has traveled a long way from the days when Wall Street millionaires summering in Newport, R.I. regarded the 158-year-old Victorian ewer as part of the family silver.
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The event, set for February, is to be hosted by Ras al-Khaimah, a scruffy backwater that is part of the United Arab Emirates. The site was picked by the defending champions, the Alinghi team from Switzerland.
The surprise choice did not please the American challengers, BMW Oracle, headed by software tycoon Larry Ellison. The Americans responded with a lawsuit, claiming that holding the race so close to Iran "presents grave safety concerns for the team members of an American challenger named 'USA' that flies an American flag on a 200-foot mast."
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The American side portrays the U.A.E. as a place crawling with Iranians, terrorists, suicide bombers and Al Qaeda fanatics. It worries that war might break out at any moment between Iran and Israel, or Iran and the rest of the world. |
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Russia, India, China suggest collective strategy on Afghanistan
By (RIA Novosti)
Russia, India and China have proposed to develop a collective strategy to stabilize Afghanistan and expect a positive answer from the United States, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday.
"The three countries are able and are ready to work with other countries to develop a collective strategy," Lavrov said after a trilateral ministerial meeting held in Bangalore, India.
Lavrov said that the army, police forces and other authorities in Afghanistan are not yet prepared to solve problems in the country themselves. |
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Israel blocks water to Palestinians - report
By (RIA Novosti)
A human rights watchdog on Tuesday accused Israel of denying Palestinians the right to receive sufficient water supplies and pursuing discriminatory policies.
In an extensive report, Amnesty International revealed the extent to which Israel's discriminatory water policies and practices are denying Palestinians their right to water access.
It said Israel was "maintaining total control over the shared water resources," while its daily water consumption per capita was four times higher than that in the Palestinian territories. |
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UN chief says elections, referendums may resolve Sudan conflict
By (RIA Novosti)
Democratic elections, as well as nationwide referendums, are the key issues for resolving a long-standing conflict in Sudan, the UN Secretary General said.
"The holding of elections and referendums are among the key milestones of the peace agreement ending the long-running north-south civil war in Sudan that have yet to be reached," the UN official website quoted Secretary General Ban Ki-moon as saying.
The UN Mission in Sudan was established in 2005 to monitor the peace agreement between the government in Khartoum and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement in southern Sudan, which ended the longest-running civil war in Africa.
"Next year's elections, the first multi-party polls in decades, must be seen as part of a larger process of democratic transformation, requiring a long-term commitment by all parties," he said. |
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Deal-Breaker for Climate-Change Treaty May Be Obama’s Congress
By Alex Morales and Kim Chipman
When Barack Obama was elected president, he was heralded as a possible savior for climate- treaty talks that had dragged on for years while George W. Bush rejected limits on U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions.
"America is back" at the United Nations negotiating table, Democratic Senator John Kerry declared after the November election. Danish climate minister Connie Hedegaard said U.S. emissions policy moved forward 35 years overnight.
Instead, Obama may send empty-handed envoys in December to the table in Copenhagen where 192 countries will try to assign emissions reductions because Congress has given him no mandate. With the European Union, Japan and Australia ready to pledge cuts of more than 20 percent only if other nations follow suit, the stage is set for promises to collapse. |
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USA Politics, Economy, Major Events |
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Car Dealers Protected From New Consumer Protection Agency
By Paul Kiel
Last week, the House Financial Services Committee voted to establish a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency. The agency would have broad authority—but thanks to fierce lobbying, it’ll also have big gaps. Consumer advocates point to an exemption for auto dealers as one that’s particularly worrisome.
An amendment stripped auto dealers from the proposed agency’s oversight. With strong backing by the powerful dealer lobby, and despite the White House’s attempts to kill it, the amendment easily passed in the committee, 47-21. Nearly half of the panel’s Democrats voted for the amendment along with the committee’s Republicans, who’ve generally opposed the new agency.
The exception for auto dealers sets up an odd situation: Many of the larger financial institutions that provide auto loans will be under the new agency’s supervision, but that supervision would stop at the dealer’s door. That’s more than a technicality, consumer advocates say, because some dealers exploit their role as the middleman between the consumer and the loan. |
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More on Bubbles
By Kevin Drum
Steve Randy Waldman takes a crack at explaining why an expanding money supply sometimes creates ordinary consumer price inflation and other times creates asset price inflation . . .
So: as income inequality goes up, more money flows to the well-off, who use it to buy financial assets. Conversely, less money flows to the poor and middle class, who respond by increasing their debt level. Both of these mechanisms produce a higher demand for financial assets and therefore promote asset inflation.
Turn that around, of course, and you limit asset inflation but promote consumer inflation instead, which has to be held in check via periodic recessions. So the question is, which would you rather have: periodic modest recessions or long periods of stability interrupted by occasional huge bubbles bursting? The latter is typical of the "Great Moderation" of the post-1980 era
. . . I might put it a little more pithily: rich people tend to do really stupid things when they have too much money lying around for too long. So do poor people, of course, but in their case "too much money" is only enough to buy a bigger TV, not enough to blow up the world. . . |
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Lost paper trail allows borrower to ignore $460,000 mortgage debt
By Mark Frauenfelder
A White Plains, NY federal court eliminated a woman's $460,000 mortgage debt because the paper trail was so messy that the mortgage lender couldn't prove that it actually owned the debt.
<blockqoute>In March, PHH Mortgage filed a proof of claim to the debt noting that it was owed $461,263, which included more than $30,000 in past-due payments. The homeowner's lawyer sought to have the loan modified, but after the bank dragged its feet, as the lawyer described PHH's actions to the [New York] Times, the lawyer asked PHH to prove its claim.</blockqoute> |
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US consumer confidence takes hit
By (BBC)
US consumer confidence fell sharply and unexpectedly in October as fears about future job prospects increasingly preyed upon Americans.
The closely-watched Consumer Confidence Index from the Conference Board business organisation slipped to 47.7 from a revised 53.4 in September.
Analysts were expecting the index to be unchanged or even to rise slightly.
Separately, a leading US index has found that house prices rose by more than expected in August. |
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US charges two for 'Denmark plot'
By (BBC)
Two men from Chicago have been charged with plotting overseas attacks, including on the Danish newspaper which published cartoons about Islam.
David Coleman Headley, 49, and Tahawwur Hussain Rana, 48, were arrested earlier this month.
US prosecutors say Mr Headley travelled to Denmark twice to plan an attack on the Jyllands-Posten newspaper offices.
They say he was infuriated by the paper's publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in 2006. |
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Lost US pilots' licenses revoked
By (BBC)
Two US pilots who overshot their destination after losing track of time while using their personal laptops have had their licenses revoked.
Contact with the plane was lost for over an hour after the pilots flew 150 miles (240km) past their scheduled destination at Minneapolis last week.
First Officer Richard Cole and Captain Timothy Cheney said they were engrossed in discussing a new company policy.
Government regulators say they broke a number of federal aviation regulations. |
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Senate Climate Bill Revives Complaints of Coal-Dependent States
By Daniel Whitten and Jim Efstathiou Jr.
Climate change legislation proposed in the U.S. Senate has revived a fight over the cost of combating global warming between coal-dependent states and those that get energy from cleaner sources.
In a draft of a letter to the climate legislation’s sponsors, Senator Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat, said the House and Senate bills put coal at a disadvantage and that he wants to revise how free pollution permits would be distributed.
Senator Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat who is chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, on Oct. 23 proposed a climate bill that requires emissions cuts of 20 percent below 2005 levels by 2020, 42 percent by 2030 and 83 percent by 2050. Limits passed in the House are similar, except the 2020 reduction target is 17 percent.
Both bills would establish carbon dioxide emission limits, and require major polluters to buy pollution credits after the government initially gives many away to ease the cost during the transition. Utilities that don’t use coal would get more of the credits they need for free than coal-burning plants, according to Harkin. |
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Our view on coal production: Mountaintop mining leaves giant scars in Appalachia
By (USA Today)
Buried underneath Appalachia is some of the best coal in the USA, and for years it was mined the traditional underground way, which can be difficult, dangerous and expensive. In the 1970s, however, mining companies figured out a cheaper and more productive way to get at much of that coal: Use explosives to blow the tops off mountains and take the coal directly out of the ground.
"Mountaintop removal" mining became widespread in the 1990s and now accounts for about 10% of U.S. coal production. It employs thousands of workers in Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Pennsylvania and Ohio. But it often comes at a grievous environmental cost that will leave its mark long after the coal is burned.
Debris from mountaintops has filled up and destroyed surrounding streams — more than 1,200 miles of them, by a government estimate. Mountains have been lowered, some by as much as 800 feet, and vast areas have been denuded of trees.
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While blowing up mountaintops for surface mining is not illegal, two restrictions bar dumping the waste in or near surrounding waterways. But it took environmentalistlawsuits during the Clinton administration to push federal agencies to enforce the prohibitions, and regulatory changes during the coal-friendly Bush administration undercut the rules. |
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Opposing view: Preserve high-wage jobs
By Hal Quinn
There are several ways to see mountaintop mining in Appalachia, but critics see only one — it's the picture of big shovels extracting coal in rugged terrain. What they don't see are the 80,000-plus jobs in a half-dozen states throughout Appalachia that are tied to surface coal mining.
Thousands of these miners, their families and friends rallied this month in Kentucky, West Virginia and other coal communities to save their jobs from federal regulators in Washington who have imposed a creeping moratorium on the region's coal mining. These are high-wage jobs capable of supporting families, paying up to twice the average wage in Appalachia, a region that like most of rural America has struggled to create high-wage employment.
Neither do critics see the impact of lost mining revenue on hundreds of coal country communities. A quarter of West Virginia's 55 counties derive more than 40% of their annual budget from surface mining. . . |
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Welcome to the "Hump Point" of this OND.
News can be sobering and engrossing - at this point in the diary, an offering of brief escapism:
Random notes related to this video:
I was there.
Back to what's happening:
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No bell curve in the jaws of peak oil
By Peter Pogany
If levity were allowed in the serious matter of running out of cheap oil, one might say "A funny thing happened on the way to the peak." The maximum rate of global output may be somewhat higher than the already reached ca. 87 million barrels per day, but world oil does not want to go there. Like a frightened horse in a dark forest, it has stopped; keeps neighing and shaking its sweaty head, letting the rider (global society) know that this is it. No further! A clear sense of direction has been lost and those mysterious lights that flicker here and there only make our mobility provider turn its insides out.
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Central bank policies to cure the current economic downturn by flooding the banking system with liquidity may well turn out to be more harmful than it now appears. Betting stubbornly on the success of "quantitative easing" to restart the growth of prosperity is reminiscent of the liquored-up rake’s crazy martingale.
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The fact that economic wellness has become subservient to oil remains a blind spot for most economists.
The crux of the illness invalidating contemporary analysis is the nonrecognition that an exhaustible resource is constraining economic growth and that this phenomenon is intimately related to the crisis of monetary-financial institutions. A cardinal manifestation of this infirmity is the constant search for parallels to a radically novel situation by combing the annals of "bubble history," from the royal defaults of England’s financially challenged Edward III to the housing debacle. |
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Cute Animal in Danger: Cuscus
By Jen Phillips
The cuscus is a marsupial native to Australia and New Guinea. This nocturnal tree-dweller has opposable toes and fingers like a monkey which help it keep hold of slippery branches. It can also use its long, prehensile tail to keep its balance. The cuscus is actually a member of the opossum family and ranges in length from about one to two feet (with the tail an additional two feet long) and weighing in around 10 lbs. . .
. . . It lives mostly in New Guinean rainforests and is suffering devastating habitat loss from logging and agriculture; it's also been hunted extensively both for its meat and distinctive, woolly coat. It's now considered "critically endangered" and due to its remote habitat, it's not even certain how many of the animals still exist today. |
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Ecuador wants money not to drill
By (Al Jazeera)
Ecuador's president is in London this week to promote a unique proposal: pay his country around $4 billion not to drill for oil in a pristine Amazon reserve.
Germany and Spain have expressed interest in Rafael Correa's idea, which environmentalists say could set a precedent in the fight against global warming by lowering the high cost to poor countries of going green.
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"This is the first time the government of a major oil-producing country has voluntarily offered to forego lucrative oil extraction in order to help combat climate change," Matt Finer, a staff scientist for Save America's Forests and author of a study on Correa's initiative, said. |
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Australia coastal living at risk
By (BBC)
Australians may have to leave coastal areas as rising sea levels threaten homes, according to a new report.
The parliamentary committee report says urgent action is needed, as seas are expected to rise by 80cm (31 inches).
About 80% of Australians live in coastal areas, and the report recommends new laws banning further development in coastal regions.
Correspondents say the authorities are divided over whether to retreat from rising seas or defend the coastline. |
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Gaza thirsts as sewage crisis mounts
By Heather Sharp
Gaza's aquifer and only natural freshwater source is "in danger of collapse," the UN is warning.
Engineers have long been battling to keep the densely populated strip's water and sewage system limping along.
But in September the UN Environment Programme warned that damage to the underground aquifer - due to the Israeli and Egyptian blockade, conflict, and years of overuse and underinvestment - could take centuries to reverse if it is not halted now. |
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Melting Kyrgyz glaciers pose threat
By Martin Vennard
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Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan's neighbours, such as Uzbekistan - which has a thirsty cotton growing industry - rely on the glaciers for their water supplies.
Mr Ermenbaev says that although the melting may appear to be good news for the downstream countries, providing increased supplies, it will lead to water shortages in the long term.
Access to water resources has already created tension between countries in the region.
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"It's not good for the downstream countries to have a lot of water in their reservoirs which could evaporate without benefiting them," Mr Ermenbaev says. |
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Dell Powers Up Solar Lot, Florida to Power 3,000 Homes with Solar Energy
By Jason Mick
. . .
Dell Computer just received a completed 130 kW installation of Solar Trees at its headquarters in Round Rock, Texas. . .
The resulting parking lot, dubbed the Dell Solar Grove, both provides 50 shady parking spots and clean green energy. The lot also features Envision Solar's CleanCharge solar charging stations using the Coulomb ChargePoint technology. These stations will help charge current and upcoming plug-in vehicles, such as the Tesla Roadster or 2011 Chevy Volt. The plan to use solar to charge EVs is also being championed by Japanese automaker Nissan, who looks to use solar to charge up its 2011 Leaf EV.
Also making solar news is the near completion of the Soto Next Generation Solar Energy Center in Arcadia, Florida. Owned by Florida Power & Light Company, this 25 MW installation features 90,000 photovoltaic panels and will go online by the end of this month. When it does go online, it will become one of the nation's single largest solar installations. Together with centers in Martin County and at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Florida will be shortly getting 110 MW of new solar generation capacity, boosting it to the second largest solar-producing state in the nation.
The new Soto Center will generate enough power for 3,000 homes. . . |
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U.S. households could cut emissions sharply: study
By David Morgan
The United States could cut climate-changing carbon emissions significantly over the next decade by getting American households to take actions that require no new laws or regulations and no loss of well-being, a report said on Monday.
A research team led by Michigan State University estimated that 7.4 percent of current U.S. emissions -- slightly more than the total emissions of France -- could be eliminated in 10 years if U.S. households became energy-efficient by adopting available forms of technology, including more fuel-efficient cars and home heating systems. |
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U.N. lowers expectations for Copenhagen climate deal
By Louis Charbonneau
The United Nations on Monday lowered expectations for clinching a legally binding agreement at a U.N. climate change summit in Copenhagen in December, saying it might take longer to secure a final deal.
For months Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and other top officials at the United Nations have been urging industrialized and developing nations to overcome their differences so they can "seal the deal" and get a binding agreement in Copenhagen.
But recently U.N. officials and diplomats have said privately that it is unlikely a legally binding deal on reducing greenhouse gas emissions will be clinched at the Copenhagen summit. They have suggested that the most that could be expected was a nonbinding political declaration. |
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Brazil eyes deeper CO2 cuts, backs U.N. forest plan
By Raymond Colitt
Brazil's Environment Minister Carlos Minc said on Tuesday that the government is studying deeper emissions cuts than previously announced and that it favors a U.N.-backed forest preservation scheme.
The South American nation is expected to play a key role in negotiations at a Copenhagen summit in December that will seek to frame a new international treaty on climate change.
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The government had already decided it would conditionally back a proposed scheme in Copenhagen called reduced emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD), Minc said.
Under REDD rich countries reward developing nations for preserving forests to prevent CO2 emissions through the use of an expanded carbon market. The scheme could be adopted as part of a broader climate pact in Copenhagen. |
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Arctic Lake Sediments Show Warming, Unique Ecological Changes In Recent Decades
By (ScienceDaily)
An analysis of sediment cores indicates that biological and chemical changes occurring at a remote Arctic lake are unprecedented over the past 200,000 years and likely are the result of human-caused climate change, according to a new study led by the University of Colorado at Boulder.
While environmental changes at the lake over the past millennia have been shown to be tightly linked with natural causes of climate change -- like periodic, well-understood wobbles in Earth's orbit -- changes seen in the sediment cores since about 1950 indicate expected climate cooling is being overridden by human activity like greenhouse gas emissions. The research team reconstructed past climate and environmental changes at the lake on Baffin Island using indicators that included algae, fossil insects and geochemistry preserved in sediment cores that extend back 200,000 years. |
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Asia, Africa Are ‘More Vulnerable’ to Climate Change
By Dinakar Sethuraman
Developing nations in South Asia and Africa including India may face greater threats from heat- trapping pollution if nations fail to reach a new climate agreement at Copenhagen, a United Nations official said.
"The unfortunate coincidence is that developing countries are located in the tropical belt and are more vulnerable to the impact of climate change," said Marcel Alers, a climate change mitigation adviser to the United Nations Development Program.
South Asia and Africa may be "hit first and hit harder" because they have fewer resources than developed nations to meet the consequences of greenhouse gas emissions such as floods, droughts and water shortages, Alers said in an interview at the Carbon Asia Forum in Singapore yesterday. |
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Chart: How the ‘Darpa for Energy’ Is Slicing Its $150-Million Pie
By Alexis Madrigal
The Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency announced its first grant awards Monday morning, handing out more than $150 million for what the agency describes as "bold, transformational" energy projects.
The fledgling "Darpa for energy" bet between half a million and 9 million dollars on 37 companies and universities.
The lion’s share of the grant money went to energy-storage projects followed by biomass-energy technologies and then renewable power like wind and solar. That said, the money was spread pretty evenly among the agency’s areas of interest. Of the 10 technological categories, seven of them received more than $10 million, and none received more than $30 million. Oil and gas received the least money with a sole project garnering $1 million. |
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EFF launches Hall of Shame for copyright abusers
By Cory Doctorow
Hugh from the Electronic Frontier Foundation sez, "Today, EFF is launching our new 'Takedown Hall of Shame' project, which collects the worst and most shameful examples of bogus DMCA takedowns. We've got everything from the recent Ralph Lauren takedown to Michael Savage's attempts to silence critics to a video NPR tried to remove just last week!"
. . .
EFF's Takedown Hall of Shame at www.eff.org/takedowns focuses on the most egregious examples of takedown abuse, including an example of a YouTube video National Public Radio tried to remove just this week that criticizes same-sex marriage. Other Hall of Shame honorees include NBC for requesting removal of an Obama campaign video and CBS for targeting a McCain campaign video in the critical months before the 2008 election. The Hall of Shame will be updated regularly, as bad takedowns continue to squash free speech rights of artists, critics, and commentators big and small. |
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Track where US gov bailout trillions went with augmented reality mobile app
By Xeni Jardin
A new augmented reality app from Layar allows Android and iPhone 3GS users to view recovery.gov contract dollars at play work in the real world.
. . . My only criticism so far (I haven't tried the apps): instead of blue circles as representational icons, the designers really should have chosen taxpayers' tears. |
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Scareware launched from tech blog
By (BBC)
Visitors to technology blog Gizmodo are being warned that they could have picked up more than tips about the latest must-have gadget.
According to security firm Sophos, the website was delivering advertisements "laced with malware" last week.
A statement on the Gizmodo website admits that it was tricked into running Suzuki adverts which were in fact from hackers.
It follows a similar problem on the New York Times website. |
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RIP GeoCities: End of an Era
By Michael Barkoviak
GeoCities has finally closed its doors, ending an era of free homepage service that many PC enthusiasts remember from the mid-90s.
GeoCities, a Yahoo subsidiary, hosted millions of free websites that were mainly built from stock templates that allowed anyone to have a personal site for blogs and pictures before Blogger and other similar services were launched.
. . .
Members of GeoCities who want to keep their site live will have the opportunity to do so by upgrading free membership up to a paid membership for $4.99.
Tribute sites dedicated to GeoCities are now popping up left and right on the internet, such as the GeoCities Archive Project. |
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China Continues to Build Cyberarmy Threat
By Michael Barkoviak
The threat of cyber attacks by China is increasing as hacker groups begin to organize with a Chinese government interested in increasing its long-term cyber attack capabilities.
An independent report issued by the congressional advisory panel said some elite groups of hackers are controlled by Beijing officials who issue the groups orders on targets to attack.
The Chinese government continues to build a cyber army aimed at attacking the U.S. government and other western nations, the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission noted in its report. The Pentagon, electric grids, and similar high-profile targets need to be better protected from foreign-based threat. |
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Google Voice Now Offers Service with Existing Numbers
By Shane McGlaun
Google Voice has been a rather controversial service since it debuted. The service allows a user to give out one phone number for their office, mobile, and landline phones to users and get the calls on whatever device they are using. The big catch to the service so far has been that it required users to change to a new Google Voice phone number.
Google announced today that is rolling out a new version of Google Voice for users who want to retain their exiting number. The new service allows callers to have calls they don’t answer forwarded to a Google Voice mailbox. The new "lite" version of Google Voice has many of the notable features from the full version.
The lite service allows users to access their voice mails on their phone as usual or on their computer. The service also allows users to have specific greetings for voice mail for each number that calls them. The voice mails are also turned into text that can be read and can be sent to you as a text message if you prefer. |
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Microsoft Kills Windows 7-themed "Family Guy" Variety Show Due to Questionable Content
By Jason Mick
Microsoft in recent years has often turned to unusual means of promoting its upcoming operating systems. While the well-received Windows 7 doesn't need much help selling itself to many customers, Microsoft still decided on some rather unusual marketing techniques. To supplement its televisions ads featuring a little girl exploring Windows 7 and showing how easy it is to use, and its latest "I'm a PC" commercials, Microsoft offered Windows 7 Parties and an upcoming sponsorship of a new show on Fox, the "Family Guy Presents: Seth & Alex's Almost Live Comedy Show", hosted by "Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane.
The show, set to air November 8 will feature a mix of live entertainment, celebrity appearances, and animated content. It is rumored to have "Family Guy"-like musical numbers. However, it won't be having a Microsoft-sponsored Windows 7 theme anymore.
Those hoping for a Windows 7 Family Guy montage sing-along will be disappointed, as Microsoft has officially cut the sponsorship. According to Variety, the ball dropped fell after Microsoft executives attended a taping on October 16. The program featured MacFarlane and Alex Borstein -- the voice of "Family Guy" matriarch Lois -- trying to sell Windows 7. The pair made typical off-color jokes as they frequently do on "Family Guy", exploring such taboo topics as the handicapped community, the Holocaust, and incest. |
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Unfazed by Apple's Legal Assault, Psystar Airs $50 Hack to Allow OS X 10.6 on PCs
By Jason Mick
Some PC users may detest Apple's Snow Leopard thanks in part to Apple's negative marketing against Windows 7 and past Windows products. However, for those looking to take a walk on the wild side and create a Snow Leopard/Windows 7 multi-boot PC or notebook (perhaps so you can have a replaceable battery) you now have an easy route thanks to a new product from Psystar.
Some may recall that Apple tried to crush Psystar when the company started shipping cheaper third-party Macs priced as low as $399. Apple cited a provision in the EULA forbidding third parties to install Snow Leopard in their products without permission. Despite accusing the scrappy third-party vendor of violations of shrink wrap license, trademarks, and copyright infringement Apple has been unable to kill Psystar -- yet.
Now Psystar stands to become even more popular and controversial, thanks to its newly released Rebel EFI software hack. The hack allows a user-friendly installation of Snow Leopard that makes creating a "Hackintosh" approachable for even casual users. |
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Palin got at least $1.25 million for book, forms show
By Sean Cockerham and Erika Bolstad
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was paid at least $1.25 million for her upcoming memoir, a book that's one of the top pre-orders on online bestseller lists even before its release next month.
Palin reported that she'd received what she described as a "retainer" as part of a required financial disclosure to the Alaska Public Offices Commission. The disclosures, which cover Jan. 1 to her resignation date of July 26, were released Tuesday. They're the final financial information that the one-time Republican vice-presidential candidate is required to file with the state of Alaska.
No other details are offered on the book deal, but a retainer would be only an upfront piece of the total that Palin would receive for the book. HarperCollins, its publisher, describes "Going Rogue: An American Life" as a "rare, mom's-eye view of high-stakes national politics." |
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Miami Beach man calls Secret Service, asks to see Obama
By David Smiley
A Miami Beach mayoral candidate known for ranting about knife fights with Osama bin Laden and a friendship with John F. Kennedy drew notice Monday from the U.S. Secret Service.
With President Barack Obama on South Beach for a fundraiser, Raphael Herman showed up at Miami Beach City Hall bloodied and screaming, according to witnesses, and then called the Secret Service to say he knew where Obama was staying and would pay him a visit.
The Secret Service contacted Herman Monday night by fax and asked to speak with him, according to a release by Miami Beach police. |
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French Scientology guilty of fraud
By (Al Jazeera)
The French branch of the Church of Scientology has been fined $900,000 for defrauding vulnerable followers, a Paris court has ruled.
But the group, which is officially considered a sect in France, was not banned from operating in the country.
. . .
The court convicted six group leaders, the Scientology's Celebrity Centre, and its bookshop of organised fraud for preying financially on followers in the 1990s.
Investigators said the group pressured members into paying large sums of money for questionable financial gain and used "commercial harassment" against recruits. |
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Chris Ware's New Yorker cover
By Mark Frauenfelder
Chris Ware's incredible (and all-too-real) New Yorker cover . . . |
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'Younger wife' for marital bliss
By (BBC)
The secret to a happy marriage for men is choosing a wife who is smarter and at least five years younger than you, say UK experts.
These pairings are more likely to go the distance, particularly if neither has been divorced in the past, according to the Bath University team.
The findings predict a happy future for pop star Beyonce Knowles, 28, and rapper husband Jay-Z, 39.
The work is published in the European Journal of Operational Research. |
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Bittersweet: Palestinian home cooking
By Matt McAllester
For restaurant-goers throughout the Middle East there’s an aura of inevitability that grows with each step the waiter makes toward the table, menus in hand. I often think to myself: Don’t bother with the menus, my friend, just ask the only questions that matter. Will it be lamb kebab, sir? Or kofte kebab? Or chicken kebab?
From Ramallah to Baghdad to Tehran the kebab is the overwhelming presence on thousands of restaurant menus. Chunks of perfectly nice, usually marinated meat, threaded onto skewers and grilled over coal are almost inescapable — and they bore me to tears. What grates is that the dominance of the kebab is also entirely unnecessary. Arabic and Persian food is varied, complex and subtle — but the good stuff is rarely served outside the home. Eating out is a treat in the Middle East, and for a treat there’s only one thing to have: meat. Big, dull, expensive cubes of the stuff.
Which is why I have to write this slightly odd sentence: In over 10 years of working and traveling in the Middle East, the best Arabic food I have ever eaten, by a very large margin, is to be found in a small storefront Palestinian restaurant named Tanoreen in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. |
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