Welcome to Overnight News Digest, a collection of top stories brought to you by various contributing editors at Daily Kos.
We thank our founder, Magnifico, for coming up with this series.
Also, a big hat tip goes out to our current Editor-in-chief, Neon Vincent.
Tonight's OND links to Meteor Blades' Green Diary Rescue and Open Threadas well.
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Iran stokes nuclear tension by test-firing missiles
By Julian Borger
September 27, 2009
(Interceptor7)
Iran plans to test-fire missiles capable of hitting targets across the Middle East tomorrow, in a show of defiance before Thursday's pivotal talks on the country's nuclear programme.
The test of the Shahab-3, following trials of short-range missiles today, is likely to raise tensions across the region. Iran claims the missile, based on a North Korean design, has a range of 1,500 miles – far enough to reach Israel and Iran's other Middle East rivals Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
Dust storms spread deadly diseases worldwide
John Vidal
The Observer, Sunday 27 September 2009
(Magnifico)
A dust storm blankets Sydney's iconic Opera House at sunrise. Photograph: Tim Wimborne/Reuters
Huge dust storms, like the ones that blanketed Sydney twice last week, hit Queensland yesterday and turned the air red across much of eastern Australia, are spreading lethal epidemics around the world. However, they can also absorb climate change emissions, say researchers studying the little understood but growing phenomenon.
The Sydney storm, which left millions of people choking on some of the worst air pollution in 70 years, was a consequence of the 10-year drought that has turned parts of Australia's interior into a giant dust bowl, providing perfect conditions for high winds to whip loose soil into the air and carry it thousands of miles across the continent.
Angela Merkel claims German election victory
Kate Connolly in Berlin
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 27 September 2009 18.55 BST
(Magnifico)
The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, was today on track to form a centre-right government with her preferred coalition partners, the pro-business Free Democrats, initial election results showed.
Exit polls issued by state television revealed that her Christian Democrats (CDU) and its sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), had secured 33.5%, with the Free Democrats (FDP) taking 15%, giving a Bundestag majority of at least 308 seats.
The results bring an end to an unwieldy four-year "grand coalition"
Other top storis by Magnifico:
Six Nato troops killed in Afghanistan
http://www.guardian.co.uk/...
Mistake to set date for Afghanistan exit, says Robert Gates
http://www.guardian.co.uk/...
Gates: Bush lacked Afghanistan strategy; Obama's is 'first real' one
http://thehill.com/...
China probes child lead poisoning
By BBC
Page last updated at 12:24 GMT, Sunday, 27 September 2009 13:24 UK
(interceptor7)
Chinese state media say a battery plant has been closed after more than 120 children living nearby were found to have lead poisoning.
Officials in the city of Longyan in the south-east province of Fujian have launched an inquiry into the poisoning, Xinhua news agency says.
Authorities say they will pay medical costs and test all children aged under 14 who live near the plant.
China has reported a series of cases of children with lead poisoning this year. |
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Group marches for 'white civil rights' in wake of bus beating
By Maria Baran and George Pawlaczyk | Belleville News Democrat
September 27, 2009
(Magnifico)
BELLEVILLE, Ill. — A group waving flags adorned with swastikas traded insults with and challenged a crowd of about 250 onlookers from behind yellow wooden barricades manned by police including SWAT members during a midday protest Saturday.
After an hour of loud protesting by white supremacists, who were countered by a silent demonstration, police ended the two downtown rallies at 12:30 p.m.
Bill Clinton: 'Vast right-wing conspiracy' still going strong in the Obama era
By Aaron Blake - 09/27/09 10:57 AM ET
(Magnifico)
Former President Bill Clinton said Sunday that the "vast right-wing conspiracy" that worked against his presidency is alive and well, albeit in slightly reduced numbers.
"It's not as strong as it was, because America has changed demographically. But it's as virulent as it was," Clinton said on NBC’s "Meet the Press." |
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U.S. Job Seekers Exceed Openings by Record Ratio
By PETER S. GOODMAN
Published: September 26, 2009
(Magnifico)
Despite signs that the economy has resumed growing, unemployed Americans now confront a job market that is bleaker than ever in the current recession, and employment prospects are still getting worse.
Unemployed Workers Competing for Limited Job Prospects
Job seekers now outnumber openings six to one, the worst ratio since the government began tracking open positions in 2000. According to the Labor Department’s latest numbers, from July, only 2.4 million full-time permanent jobs were open, with 14.5 million people officially unemployed.
And even though the pace of layoffs is slowing, many companies remain anxious about growth prospects in the months ahead, making them reluctant to add to their payrolls.
"There’s too much uncertainty out there," said Thomas A. Kochan, a labor economist at M.I.T.’s Sloan School of Management. "There’s not going to be an upsurge in job openings for quite a while, not until employers feel confident the economy is really growing."
Hunger hits Detroit's middle class
By Steve Hargreaves, CNNMoney.com staff writer
September 21, 2009: 9:06 AM ET
(Neon Vincent)
DETROIT (CNNMoney.com) -- On a side street in an old industrial neighborhood, a delivery man stacks a dolly of goods outside a store. Ten feet away stands another man clad in military fatigues, combat boots and what appears to be a flak jacket. He looks straight out of Baghdad. But this isn't Iraq. It's southeast Detroit, and he's there to guard the groceries. |
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Philippine storm death toll rises to 73, 23 still missing
www.chinaview.cn 2009-09-27 20:18:31
(Magnifico)
MANILA, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- Seventy-three people were killed while 23 others remain missing one day after tropical storm Kestana battered northern Philippines, bringing epic rainfall that caused massive flooding and landslides, government officials said.
By 6 p.m. (1000 GMT) Sunday, 69,513 families in Metro Manila and neighboring provinces have been displaced after homes were destroyed and the government's temporary evacuation centers only managed to shelter around 12,000 families, or nearly 60,000 people, said Anthony Golez, Office in Charge of the National Disaster Coordinating Council.
Most of victims drowned while others were buried in landslides. A soldier and four para-military volunteers were dead while trying to save others, Golez said in the latest NDCC statement.
China likely to cut energy use per unit of GDP by 5% this year
www.chinaview.cn 2009-09-27 11:33:44
BEIJING, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- China is possible to reduce its energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product (GDP) by 5 percent this year, but arduous tasks remain to fulfill the pledge of 20 percent cut by 2010, said Xie Zhenhua, vice minister of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), Sunday.
In the first half of this year, energy consumption per unit of GDP was down 3.35 percent, and the emissions of sulfur dioxide and COD were down by 5.4 percent and 2.46 percent respectively.
China has made real efforts to preserve energy in the fight against climate change, said Xie, the country's top representative in international climate change negotiations at a press conference. |
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I really had a hard time coming up with a song/video for tonight's OND.
Finally, I settled on Bob Dylan's Hard Rain, for a lot of reasons.
It's raining tonight here in Chicago, and I guess it just put me in mind of all the pain and suffering going on in the Phillipines.
I know this song isn't necessarily about a storm, but I think it works.
Due to my 2 computer crashes, I wasn't able to format our traditional potpourri-style storie like I wanted.
Anyway, here they are.
From our illustrious Editor-in cheif, Neon Vincent:
Detroit in the National News
The stories below are part of a planned year-long series in Time and other publications in the Time-Warner media conglomerate entitled Assignment Detroit. More stories, including a blog, can be found at the link.
Time: http://www.time.com/...
By Daniel Okrent
If Detroit had been savaged by a hurricane and submerged by a ravenous flood, we'd know a lot more about it. If drought and carelessness had spread brush fires across the city, we'd see it on the evening news every night. Earthquake, tornadoes, you name it — if natural disaster had devastated the city that was once the living proof of American prosperity, the rest of the country might take notice.
But Detroit, once our fourth largest city, now 11th and slipping rapidly, has had no such luck. Its disaster has long been a slow unwinding that seemed to remove it from the rest of the country. Even the death rattle that in the past year emanated from its signature industry brought more attention to the auto executives than to the people of the city, who had for so long been victimized by their dreadful decision-making.
By any quantifiable standard, the city is on life support. Detroit's treasury is $300 million short of the funds needed to provide the barest municipal services. The school system, which six years ago was compelled by the teachers' union to reject a philanthropist's offer of $200 million to build 15 small, independent charter high schools, is in receivership. The murder rate is soaring, and 7 out of 10 remain unsolved. Three years after Katrina devastated New Orleans, unemployment in that city hit a peak of 11%. In Detroit, the unemployment rate is 28.9%. That's worth spelling out: twenty-eight point nine percent.
Time: Assignment Detroit: Why Time Inc. Is in Motown
By John Huey
This summer the editors at Time Inc. did something a little out of the ordinary for us or, frankly, for anybody: we bought a house in Detroit. As houses go, it's nice enough — three stories, five bedrooms, 3½ baths with a yard and a basement. We paid $99,000, about $80,000 above the average price of a house in the city limits.
Why would we ever do such a thing? Because we believe that Detroit right now is a great American story. No city has had more influence on the country's economic and social evolution. Detroit was the birthplace of both the industrial age and the nation's middle class, and the city's rise and fall — and struggle to rise again — are a window into the challenges facing all of modern America. From urban planning to the crisis of manufacturing, from the lingering role of race and class in our society to the struggle for better health care and education, it's all happening at its most extreme in the Motor City.
CNN Money: Hunger hits Detroit's middle class
By Steve Hargreaves
DETROIT (CNNMoney.com) -- On a side street in an old industrial neighborhood, a delivery man stacks a dolly of goods outside a store. Ten feet away stands another man clad in military fatigues, combat boots and what appears to be a flak jacket. He looks straight out of Baghdad. But this isn't Iraq. It's southeast Detroit, and he's there to guard the groceries.
"No pictures, put the camera down," he yells. My companion and I, on a tour of how people in this city are using urban farms to grow their own food, speed off.
In this recession-racked town, the lack of food is a serious problem. It's a theme that comes up again and again in conversations in Detroit. There isn't a single major chain supermarket in the city, forcing residents to buy food from corner stores or discount chains or locally owned operations. Often offering less healthy, less varied, or more expensive food.
Time: For Iraqi Refugees, a City of Hope
By Bobby Ghosh / Dearborn
For Wasan Aljanaby, the journey from her native Iraq to the U.S. was long and convoluted: with her husband and young son, she fled first to Jordan, then Turkey, Argentina and Ecuador. Everywhere they went, inhospitable immigration rules prevented them from even trying to put down roots. It wasn't until they were finally granted asylum in the U.S. last year that the Aljanabys could finally unpack their lives and settle down.
The easiest part of it all was deciding where in the U.S. they would settle down. "From the beginning, our destination was Detroit," says Aljanaby.
It didn't matter that Motown was experiencing the nation's highest rates of unemployment or that Aljanaby's skills as an Arabic-English translator might be more valuable in states with concentrations of defense contractors. More important was the fact that her husband had some relatives in Dearborn. "We knew we'd get shelter, food and the chance to build our lives," says Aljanaby.
Time: Detroit Tries to Get on a Road to Renewal
By Alex Altman / Detroit
Detroit has become an icon of the failed American city, but vast swaths of it don't look like city at all. Turn your Chevy away from downtown and the postcard skyline gives way first to seedy dollar stores and then to desolation. The collapse of the Big Three automakers has accelerated Detroit's decline, but residents have been steadily fleeing since the 1950s. In that time, the population has dwindled from about 2 million to less than half that. Bustling neighborhoods have vanished, leaving behind lonely houses with crumbling porches and jack-o'-lantern windows. On these sprawling urban prairies, feral dogs and pheasants stalk streets with debris strewn like driftwood: an empty mail crate, a discarded winter jacket, a bunny-eared TV in tall grass. Asked recently about a dip in the city's murder rate, a mayoral candidate deadpanned, "I don't mean to be sarcastic, but there just isn't anyone left to kill."
Detroit's motto, coined in 1827 to memorialize a devastating fire, translates from Latin as "We hope for better things; it shall arise from the ashes." But hope is in short supply. At 13%, Detroit's unemployment rate is the worst in the country among major metropolitan areas. City hall, long racked by corruption and cronyism, became a punch line last fall amid former mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's imprisonment. To make matters worse, the city is struggling to bankroll potential remedies. Its projected $300 million budget deficit recently spurred ratings agencies to downgrade its municipal bonds to junk status. (See pictures of Detroit's decline.)
And yet if Detroit is the nexus of the Rust Belt's decay, it's also a signpost for where other ailing cities may be headed--and a laboratory for the sort of radical reconstruction needed to fend off urban decline. "People know that times are bad. But we're not going to roll over and die," says George Jackson, CEO of the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation. "To me, this is war. And I think we're going to win."
CNN Money: GM's challenge - Survive and save Detroit
By Alex Taylor III
DETROIT (Fortune) -- No city in America has been more entwined with the fortunes of a single industry as Detroit with autos. The nicknames "Motor City" and "Motown," coined years ago, have stuck for good reason.
Most of the industry pioneers -- names like Wayne and Hupp, Packard and Maxwell -- have long since disappeared, and foreign automakers are expanding not in Michigan but farther south. Yet Detroit remains the home of the Big Three.
In Detroit, GM is the biggest game in town. Even after Chrysler fled to a northern suburb and Ford (F, Fortune 500) retreated to its Dearborn, Mich., campus, GM doubled down on the city.
Fortune via CNN Money: A GM factory gets a second chance
By David Whitford
DETROIT (Fortune) -- Here's George McGregor, autoworker. He's 63 years old, a gregarious, barrel-chested graybeard with a gold stud in his ear and a gold cross around his neck.
This is his story. It's a particular story, all his own. It's also an American story, specifically, a Detroit story, about a time that has passed and a city that will never be the same. And it's a story about a factory -- GM's Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant -- one of only two factories still making cars in the city where carmaking was born.
CNN Money: The Fixers: Tough love for union town
By Steve Hargreaves
DETROIT (CNNMoney.com) -- Cindy Pasky loves Detroit.
A native Detroiter, she's headquartered her 1,600 employee, $160 million-a-year multinational tech staffing agency in the city. She sits on the board of at least a half-dozen local charities. And she'd be the first to point out that the city has some of the brightest engineering minds in the world.
But she thinks Detroit's workers have a problem, and they're going to need to get over it before this city can mount a true turnaround.
CNN Money: The Fixers: Prospecting for business in Detroit
By Steve Hargreaves
DETROIT (CNNMoney.com) -- It's Brian Holdwick's job to bring new businesses to Detroit. No easy task when nearly one out of every three Detroiters is now out of work.
Holdwick, 43, is head of business development at the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation, a non-profit organization that serves as the city's economic development arm.
For the last 11 years it's been his job to entice companies to set up shop in an area with high crime, high taxes, often on contaminated or derelict property.
All that boils down to this: it's usually more expensive to open a new company in Detroit than it is to open the same firm in a suburb 30 miles outside of town in a brand new industrial park.
CNN Money: Stopping Detroit's brain drain
By Steve Hargreaves
DETROIT (CNNMoney.com) -- Three years ago, with a freshly-minted law degree, Connecticut native Tom Northrop started job hunting in Detroit.
While this seems like a normal step after law school, his prospective employers just didn't get it. Not many young, single, educated people were moving to Detroit.
They were so surprised they wanted him to put his reasoning down on paper: He was marrying a girl from the area. Perhaps it was only to ease their sense of disbelief.
CNN Money: Detroit's jobless economy: Startups take root
By Steve Hargreaves
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- In Detroit, a city with rampant unemployment, big crowds in the middle of the day may mean someone is giving out freebies. But on a recent workday, over 450 people packed an auditorium downtown. They weren't looking for a hand out, sympathy or even a job application. They were looking to start their own business.
Helping them to do that was the thinking behind a recent day-long workshop, the last in a series of events this summer meant to foster innovation in the struggling city.
These would-be entrepreneurs flocked to an auditorium on Wayne State University's campus with ideas big and small.
CNN Money: The Fixers: That entrepreneurial spirit
By Steve Hargreaves
DETROIT (CNNMoney.com) -- Tatiana Grant is young, exudes energy, has big ideas, and loves Detroit.
At 24, Grant's already self-employed at her own public relations company, having spent time working for the Detroit Pistons, a shopping mall company and the Detroit Super Bowl Host Committee before that.
In addition to her for-profit public relations work, Grant volunteers her time promoting the city through Detroit Synergy, a lose network of downtown business owners and community groups. The group meets twice a month at a downtown location as a means of promoting the businesses, and also organizes beautification projects and other events in the city. She's been on the organization's steering team since college.
"There were so many negative things in the news about this city," she says. "And then I just found this group of volunteer individuals working their tails off to see something positive going on. That's kind of what pulled me in."
CNN Money: The Fixers: Bankrolling Detroit's turnaround
By Steve Hargreaves
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Sometimes you need a little starter cash to get things going.
Mariam Noland, president of the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan, took that idea to a whole new level.
Nolan and her organization raised $100 million for Detroit's New Economy Initiative, which aims to diversify the area's businesses away from the automobile industry.
CNN Money: The Fixers: Onshoring to Detroit
By Steve Hargreaves
DETROIT (CNNMoney.com) -- When it comes to creating jobs, people in Detroit need to start experimenting and exploring.
Even if the auto industry recovers, no one really thinks it will be hiring people like it once did.
Rukmal Fernando is experimenting in Detroit, and experimenting with the global economy in an unusual way.
CNN Money: Detroit swap: Auto plants for fashion showrooms
By Sheena Harrison
DETROIT (CNNMoney.com) -- Detroit's auto industry trained generations of workers in design and manufacturing. As that business fades and its jobs disappear, city planners are hoping to redeploy the city's creative minds and craftsmen toward a new and growing field: fashion.
They may seem like wildly different industries, but cars and clothes have elements in common, Detroit fashion insiders say. The city's industrial history gives it a unique design sensibility, and its manufacturing capabilities play well to a growing demand for garments that are made in America.
"Car designers are very aware of fashion, and they understand the principles of design," says Joe Faris, a metro Detroit resident and senior designer for Schott N.Y.C. "Creative people are just creative -- it can be applied both ways."
Sports Illustrated: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/...
Lee Jenkins
They overlap before home games on Thursday afternoons, the thousands rushing into Comerica Park and the hundreds filing into Central United Methodist Church one block over on East Adams. The crowd streaming into the yard is drawn by a baseball team in first place, a pennant race on full blast, one final taste of summer. The group headed to the church is drawn by a free lunch. In the auditorium on the second floor of the church, the folks sit on metal folding chairs at wooden tables, wolfing down sloppy joes and talking about their neighbors, the Detroit Tigers. "You see the Twins blow that lead last night?" asks Willis Snead, who lives in a trailer park nearby. "That was great for us."
"I really think we're going to win it all this year," says Robert Montgomery, who sells beer at Tigers games. "But after that I'm moving somewhere with more jobs."
From jlms qkw:
from the Deseret News (guess who owns them?)
http://www.deseretnews.com/...
Ethics initiative would slash allowed money
Analysis shows nearly half of money for candidates would be banned
More than $2.4 million given to Utah legislative candidates in 2008 — almost half of all their donations — would be banned under a proposed citizen ethics initiative, a Deseret News analysis shows.
Most of the donations that would have disappeared were from corporations, political parties, a few individuals who gave large amounts, and legislators who were running for leadership positions and spread around their own campaign money.
Initiative supporters say making such money go away is good and would make lawmakers more beholden to individuals than special interests.
But critics say it may make it tough for anyone to win except the wealthy, who can use their own money to campaign.
the whole article looks pretty interesting, it's hard to get that idea from the intro.
meanwhile, over at the SLTrib,
http://www.sltrib.com/...
Health insurance: Utahns say soaring premiums imperil coverage
When Jerry Lorenzen moved to Utah seven years ago, his monthly health insurance premium was $55 a month, affordable for the retired IBM engineer and his wife.
Today, he pays nearly 10 times that, and his story is a cautionary tale about the rising costs of health care. There is no shortage of reasons to explain why the costs are spiraling -- but solutions remain elusive.
One thing is certain. For Lorenzen and millions of Americans like him, the danger of losing health coverage grows with every passing day.
It wasn't always that way. IBM had been generous to Lorenzen, who was 58 when his premiums were $55. The tech giant subsidized his health insurance by contributing $7,000 a year. If it hadn't, Lorenzen's expense would have been almost $640 a month.
the above article is part of a series, linked at the site.
From palantir:
http://www.wired.com/...
Obama Appoints Scholar as New Copyright Czar -- David Kravets
The "copyleft" and the "copyright" are both applauding the presidential appointment Friday of Victoria A. Espinel to become the nation’s first copyright czar.
Congress created the new czar position last year as part of intellectual property reform legislation.
Espinel, who requires Senate confirmation, has a past in teaching and government. Most recently, she was a visiting scholar at the George Mason University School of Law, where she taught intellectual property and international trade. The White House said she was an intellectual property adviser to the staff of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senate Finance Committee, House Judiciary Committee and House Ways and Means Committee. Espinel, in 2005, served as the nation’s top trade negotiator for intellectual property at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
From wader:
http://english.aljazeera.net/...
Iran fires rockets in show of force
By (Al Jazeera)
Monday, September 28, 2009 03:18 Mecca time, 00:18 GMT
Iran has tested two short-range missiles in a show of force just two days after the US and its allies warned Tehran over a newly revealed nuclear facility it had been secretly constructing.
General Hossein Salami, the head of the Revolutionary Guard Air Force, said the missiles successfully hit their targets on Sunday and Iran had perfected its short range missiles to defend itself from any attacks.
. . .
Iran stages regular military manoeuvres in strategic Gulf waters, showcasing its long- and medium-range missiles as well as other weaponry.
But analysts say the timing of the latest missile tests indicated a show of force in the face of the international condemnation over the erstwhile secret nuclear facility.
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http://english.aljazeera.net/...
Honduras warns Brazil over Zelaya
By (Al Jazeera)
Sunday, September 27, 2009 22:00 Mecca time, 19:00 GMT
Honduras' government has given Brazil 10 days to decide on the status of Manuel Zelaya, the ousted president, who took refuge in the Brazilian embassy last week after sneaking back into the country.
The interim government said in a statement on Saturday: "We urge the Brazilian government to define the status of Mr Zelaya in a period of no more than 10 days.
"If not, we will be obliged to take additional measures under international law," the statement said.
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the Brazilian president, responded on Sunday by telling reporters at a summit in Venezuela that Brazil would not agree to the demands by Roberto Micheletti, Honduras' interim leader.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/...
Guantanamo closure target 'tough'
By (BBC)
18:01 GMT, Sunday, 27 September 2009 19:01 UK
US Defence Secretary Robert Gates says meeting President Barack Obama's 22 January deadline for closing the Guantanamo Bay camp will be "tough".
In interviews with US TV networks, Mr Gates said that closing the camp was proving more complicated than expected.
Mr Gates played down the importance of possibly pushing the date back.
More than 220 inmates are in the camp. Some are expected to be sent to other countries, others could face military tribunals or be tried in US courts.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/...
US columnist William Safire dies
By Imtiaz Tyab
20:22 GMT, Sunday, 27 September 2009 21:22 UK
William Safire, the Pulitzer Prize-winning political columnist for the New York Times, has died of cancer at the age of 79.
Safire also worked as speechwriter and aide to President Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandal that ultimately drove him from office in 1974.
For the last 30 years of his life, he was best known for his famous New York Times magazine column "On Language".
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/...
Vintage technology up for auction
By (BBC)
23:37 GMT, Friday, 25 September 2009 00:37 UK
A collection of early technology that includes pre-war TVs is expected to fetch up to £1m at auction next week.
Bonhams said the collection of 758 items includes many regarded as firsts of their kind.
It belongs to Michael Bennett-Levy, from Edinburgh, who has spent 30 years collecting examples of early technology from across several centuries.
Among the pieces is what is billed by the auction house as an "unequalled" group of 26 pre-war TVs.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/...
Nestle milk link to Grace Mugabe
15:25 GMT, Sunday, 27 September 2009 16:25 UK
By (BBC)
The Swiss multinational Nestle is buying milk from a farm seized from its white owners and now owned by the wife of Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe.
. . .
Nestle says it has no contract with the farm, but buys milk on a cash on delivery basis after other suppliers went out of business.
. . .
Mrs Grace Mugabe is subject to US and EU sanctions, along with her husband and some other Zimbabwean officials.
But since Nestle is based in Switzerland it is not bound by those sanctions.
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http://www.haaretz.com/...
Israel comes to a halt as Yom Kippur begins
By (Haaretz Service)
18:35 27/09/2009
The start of the Jewish Day of Atonement at sundown Sunday marked the beginning of a day like no other in Israel, on which even Israelis with no connection to religion tend to put their normal lives on hold.
Businesses and institutions shut down, television and radio stations suspended their broadcasts, no flights left or came and nearly no motor vehicles could be spotted on Israel's streets.
As Jews across the country fasted and prayed, the emergency services were still operating. Security services declared a state of heightened alert in northern Israel in light of clashes that erupted between Israeli Arab and Jewish residents of the northern town of Acre last Yom Kippur.
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http://www.mcclatchydc.com/...
Group marches for 'white civil rights' in wake of bus beating
By Maria Baran and George Pawlaczyk
Sunday, September 27, 2009
A group waving flags adorned with swastikas traded insults with and challenged a crowd of about 250 onlookers from behind yellow wooden barricades manned by police including SWAT members during a midday protest Saturday.
. . .
While a police sniper watched from the roof of the police station, 22 members of white supremacist groups, shouted obscenities and made obscene hand gestures. One man, who had a crew cut and wore a black uniform, told the crowd of onlookers, "Wake up white America!"
. . .
The white supremacist rally was held in response to a Sept. 14 attack on a Belleville West High School bus, where two black students beat a white student. Members of the National Socialist Movement were joined by other pro-white groups and held signs that said, "It was a hate crime."
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http://scienceblogs.com/...
Happy Birthday Cobol
By Greg Laden
September 26, 2009 10:22 PM
COBOL is used to power almost all global ATM transactions and runs almost three quarters of the world's business applications. It helps book hundreds of holidays every single day.
And, according to enterprise application management company, Micro Focus, more than 200 billion lines of COBOL code in existence, with hundreds more being created every single day. And a COBOL programming gig is considered to be one of the safest jobs in IT.
So there.
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http://www.sciencedaily.com/...
Heavier Rainstorms Ahead Due To Global Climate Change, Study Predicts
By (ScienceDaily)
Sep. 27, 2009
Heavier rainstorms lie in our future. That's the clear conclusion of a new MIT and Caltech study on the impact that global climate change will have on precipitation patterns.
But the increase in extreme downpours is not uniformly spread around the world, the analysis shows. While the pattern is clear and consistent outside of the tropics, climate models give conflicting results within the tropics and more research will be needed to determine the likely outcomes in tropical regions.
Overall, previous studies have shown that average annual precipitation will increase in both the deep tropics and in temperate zones, but will decrease in the subtropics. However, it's important to know how the frequency and magnitude of extreme precipitation events will be affected, as these heavy downpours can lead to increased flooding and soil erosion.
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http://en.rian.ru/...
Pope Benedict XVI urges Europe to remember Christian roots
By (RIA Novosti)
September 27
Pope Benedict XVI urged the Czech Republic and all Europe on Sunday to remember their Christian roots.
Speaking at the Throne Hall of the Archbishop's House in Prague on the second day of his pastoral visit to the Czech Republic, the pontiff said: "... Attempts to marginalize the influence of Christianity upon public life - sometimes under the pretext that its teachings are detrimental to the well-being of society - are emerging in new forms.
. . .
The 82-year-old pontiff is visiting the Czech Republic as the country prepares to celebrate 20 years since the 1989 Velvet Revolution that ended the atheist Communist rule.
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http://en.rian.ru/...
Panama agrees to host two U.S. naval bases
By (RIA Novosti)
September 27
Panama will sign before October 2009 a treaty with the United States on the opening of two U.S. naval bases on its territory, a senior Panamanian government official said on Sunday.
According to Panama's La Prensa newspaper, a preliminary agreement was reached between Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during recent talks in New York.
. . .
The U.S. government will also allocate additional $7 million to Panama this year for the fight against organized crime and illicit drug trade.
. . .
All U.S. bases in Panama were closed and U.S. military forces left the country at the end of 1999 in accordance with the Panama Canal treaties.
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http://www.globalpost.com/...
How to profit from catastrophe
By Kathleen E. McLaughlin
September 27, 2009 08:35 ET
For most companies, risk is something to be managed, avoided and contained.
But for a handful of businesses thriving amid the global financial meltdown, risk is the currency of trade. Take Qiagen for example. A Swiss biogenetics company that develops and sells genetic testing products, it’s grown by 20 percent annually, even through the economic crisis.
That growth, the CEO says, has come from taking calculated risks — many of which have paid off. Among the payoffs: developing a new, reliable and fast test for the H1N1 flu strain, with results available within 40 minutes (hours ahead of other test products). The company also sells test kits for avian flu, HIV and the human papillomavirus (HPV), the precursor to cervical cancer and is continuing research on emerging diseases.
. . .
Schwartz was among a panel of executives and experts who spoke about risks this month at the World Economic Forum’s summer meeting in the Chinese seaside city of Dalian. The forum focused on how businesses and governments will emerge from the financial crisis.
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http://campfire.theoildrum.com/...
Debt/Resource Thought Experiment: How Would YOU Craft G20 Policy?
By Nate Hagens
September 27, 2009 - 11:03am
The past few days, delegates from 20 of the worlds largest economies met in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania to further develop international strategies to deal with the ongoing financial, energy and social crises. The "Leader's Statement" could reasonably be summarized by this excerpt:
"We further committed to additional steps to ensure strong, sustainable, and balanced growth, and to build a stronger international financial system."
Considering there was no mention of biophysical limits, nor of mankinds underlying consumptive drivers and considering that 'strong' is at cross purposes with 'sustainable' and 'balanced', I am left with the frustrating conclusion that our same old cargo cult beliefs - that growth and consumption will follow money/debt - are unfortunately alive and well. Below the fold is a brief overview and a chance for TOD readers to play G20 policymaker.
. . .
There are 2 fundamental disconnects with reality prevalent among those advising our decisionmakers: 1) a misconception that money is somehow a resource and not the debt marker it really is and 2)that energy is treated the same as any other commodity, parsable into dollar terms by the market. Following these 2 faulty assumptions, we have painted ourselves into a dangerous corner - we expect by printing money and government guarantees, that the cargo will eventually resume flowing again, like magic. As such, after the phantom (government fiscal/monetary stimulus led) recovery in next year or so, I expect the financial system to unravel - either there is an across the board debt forgiveness, or the Fed and other parties tries to print their way out the problem.
...and here are the rest of Magifico's excellent pics.
Some are duplicates of the top stories above, but they're just as good the second time around, no?
Dust storms spread deadly diseases worldwide
http://www.guardian.co.uk/...
Angela Merkel claims German election victory
http://www.guardian.co.uk/...
Six Nato troops killed in Afghanistan
http://www.guardian.co.uk/...
Mistake to set date for Afghanistan exit, says Robert Gates
http://www.guardian.co.uk/...
Gates: Bush lacked Afghanistan strategy; Obama's is 'first real' one
http://thehill.com/...
Bill Clinton: 'Vast right-wing conspiracy' still going strong
http://thehill.com/...
Face it, Republican Party doesn't really matter when it comes to health care
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/...
Group marches for 'white civil rights' in wake of bus beating
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/...
How can 40,000 troops fix chronic corruption in Afghanistan?
http://features.csmonitor.com/...
No solid commitment on climate change from G-20
http://features.csmonitor.com/...
Pakistan suicide attacks signal Taliban's determination
http://www.latimes.com/...
U.S. drone crashes into Iraqi political office
http://www.latimes.com/...
VA to write emergency checks under GI Bill
http://www.latimes.com/...
No lie, Rep. Wilson is now a GOP star
http://www.latimes.com/...
U.S. to Demand Inspection of New Iran Plant ‘Within Weeks’
http://www.nytimes.com/...
Deadly Bomb Targets Afghan Minister
http://www.nytimes.com/...
U.S. Job Seekers Exceed Openings by Record Ratio
http://www.nytimes.com/...
Canadian oil, U.S. need
http://www.financialpost.com/...
Offer of free potatoes causes massive traffic jam
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/...
Australians back climate action
http://www.smh.com.au/...
South American leaders sign agreement creating South Bank
http://en.mercopress.com/...
Security Council calls on Honduras to stop harassing the Brazilian embassy
http://en.mercopress.com/...
Boeing's 'virtual fence' on Mexican border is full of holes, critics say
http://www.chicagotribune.com/...
Official: Brazil needs atomic bomb
http://english.aljazeera.net/...
Dozens die in Yemeni clashes
http://english.aljazeera.net/...
China likely to cut energy use per unit of GDP by 5% this year
http://news.xinhuanet.com/...
Philippine storm death toll rises to 73, 23 still missing
http://news.xinhuanet.com/...
India ready for global scrutiny on emissions
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...
UN set to treat caste as human rights violation
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...
Nestle milk link to Grace Mugabe
http://news.bbc.co.uk/...
Africa's burning charcoal problem
http://news.bbc.co.uk/...