The crimewave that shames the world

It’s one of the last great taboos: the murder of at least 20,000 women a year in the name of ‘honour’. Nor is the problem confined to the Middle East: the contagion is spreading rapidly

By Robert Fisk Tuesday, 7 September 2010

It is a tragedy, a horror, a crime against humanity. The details of the murders – of the women beheaded, burned to death, stoned to death, stabbed, electrocuted, strangled and buried alive for the “honour” of their families – are as barbaric as they are shameful. Many women’s groups in the Middle East and South-west Asia suspect the victims are at least four times the United Nations’ latest world figure of around 5,000 deaths a year. Most of the victims are young, many are teenagers, slaughtered under a vile tradition that goes back hundreds of years but which now spans half the globe.

Why School ‘Reform’ Fails

Student motivation is the problem.  

by Robert J. Samuelson

As 56 million children return to the nation’s 133,000 elementary and secondary schools, the promise of “reform” is again in the air. Education Secretary Arne Duncan has announced $4 billion in Race to the Top grants to states whose proposals demonstrated, according to Duncan, “a bold commitment to education reform” and “creativity and innovation [that is] breathtaking.” What they really show is that few subjects inspire more intellectual dishonesty and political puffery than “school reform.”

USA

FDA considers approving genetically modified salmon for human consumption



By Lyndsey Layton

Washington Post Staff Writer

The Food and Drug Administration is poised to approve the first genetically modified animal for human consumption, a highly anticipated decision that is stirring controversy and could mark a turning point in the way American food is produced.

FDA scientists gave a boost last week to the Massachusetts company that wants federal approval to market a genetically engineered salmon, declaring that the altered salmon is safe to eat and does not pose a threat to the environment.

In a New Role, Teachers Move to Run Schools



By WINNIE HU

Published: September 6, 2010

NEWARK – Shortly after landing at Malcolm X Shabazz High School as a Teach for America recruit, Dominique D. Lee grew disgusted with a system that produced ninth graders who could not name the seven continents or the governor of their state. He started wondering: What if I were in charge?Three years later, Mr. Lee, at just 25, is getting a chance to find out. Today, Mr. Lee and five other teachers – all veterans of Teach for America, a corps of college graduates who undergo five weeks of training and make a two-year commitment to teaching – are running a public school here with 650 children from kindergarten through eighth grade.

Europe

Lenihan asks EU to allow State guarantee large Anglo deposits

The Irish Times – Tuesday, September 7, 2010

ARTHUR BEESLEY European Correspondent in Brussels

MINISTER FOR Finance Brian Lenihan has asked the European Commission to allow the State to guarantee large corporate deposits in Anglo Irish Bank as it embarks on a wind-down of the bank’s business.

The request comes three weeks before the Government guarantee of short-term commercial deposits in six participating institutions expires.

Such deposits are particularly sensitive to any change to the scheme as they are typically overseen by professional managers who are considered likely to move their money elsewhere if State protection is not extended.

The Roma Are EU Citizens — Everywhere in the European Union

The World From Berlin  

Der Spiegel

Tens of thousands protested in France on Saturday against the government’s repatriation of Roma people to eastern Europe, chanting “stop repression” and “No to Sarkozy’s inhumane policies.”

The expulsions of Roma people this year is seen as an attempt by President Nicolas Sarkozy to revive his flagging popularity and detract from controversial reforms and spending cuts.

The French government has insisted it will push ahead with the expulsions after almost 1,000 people were sent back to Romania and Bulgaria since a government crackdown on crime and immigration at the end of July. Sarkozy is facing mounting opposition to the expulsions from rights groups, left-wing opponents and even some politicians from his own conservative camp.

Middle East

Iranian woman could be executed this week, son says

Mohammadi Ashtiani lashed; stoning could still take place, her lawyer says

Adrian Morrow

The Associated Press

The story of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the Iranian woman whose impending death sentence for adultery provoked international shock and galvanized women around the world, took another turn Monday as her lawyer and her son told reporters she may be executed later this week, at the end of the Islamic holy month.

The 43-year-old mother of two has also received 99 lashes in recent days as a punishment for a photo in The Times of London that purported to show her without a head scarf, they added. The photograph turned out to be of another woman. The newspaper later apologized for the error.

The glittering Gulf states’ dark labor secret

Foreign workers fuel the continued rise of the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, while working for low wages and in miserable conditions.

By David Lepeska, Contributor / September 6, 2010  

Doha, Qatar

The rise of the Arab states of the Persian Gulf is a now-familiar tale. Tiny societies of pearl divers, coastal merchants, and nomadic Bedouin were transformed in the last half of the 20th century by oil and natural-gas wealth. Sparkling office towers and hotels sprang into the muggy air, the monarchs that rule these tiny emirates became bywords for financial excess, and newspapers described the region’s economic “miracle.”

Now, countries like Qatar and the United Arab Emirates are seeking to polish all that glitter, spending hundreds of millions on universities in association with the likes of Harvard and on museums with organizations France’s famed Louvre.

Asia

Final talks on Australia leadership

Rival leaders hold another round of meetings with independent politicians who will decide the next government.  

07 Sep 2010 04:11 GMT

The three independent politicians who will decide who forms Australia’s next government have held final meetings with the country’s prime minister and the opposition leader.

They are expected to announce their decision on Tuesday.

Last month’s elections failed to deliver any party with a majority.

Two of the three politicians, Tony Windsor and Robb Oakeshott, said on Monday that all three – including Bob Katter – are likely to vote as a bloc to avoid a 75-seat tie that would probably trigger another election.

“The main game here has to be stability,” Windsor told ABC radio.

This will give the ruling centre-left Australian Labor Party led by Julia Gillard a two-seat majority or conservative opposition leader Tony Abbott a single-seat majority in the 150-seat House of Representatives.

It will be the country’s first minority government in almost 70 years.

Japan convicts Greenpeace’s ‘Tokyo Two’ for whaling investigation  

Two Greenpeace activists, dubbed the ‘Tokyo Two’ by the group, were given suspended sentences by a Japanese court after they conducted a private investigation into what they said was the illegal sale of whale meat.

 By Gavin Blair, Correspondent / September 6, 2010

Tokyo

A Greenpeace effort to expose what it sees as widespread corruption in Japan’s government-subsidized whaling industry ended on Monday with two of its activists convicted of theft and trespassing.

Greenpeace activists Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki — dubbed the “Tokyo Two” by their organization — received suspended sentences for taking a package from a delivery company in April 2008 that was filled with prime whale meat and addressed to the home of a crewmember on one of Japan’s research whaling vessels.

Africa

Press watchdog urges Egyptian ‘insult’ reporter’s acquittal

Press watchdog IPI called Monday for the acquittal of an Egyptian journalist accused of insulting a minister, as it stressed the need for freedom of opinion ahead of elections next year.

By Sapa-AFP  

“We are deeply concerned that this case will go before a criminal court, and hope that the judge will acquit Hamdi Qandeel of this crime,” International Press Institute (IPI) spokesman Anthony Mills said in a statement.

Hamdi Qandeel, a prominent opposition journalist, is accused of “insulting and libelling a public servant or citizen performing their work,” following comments he made about Egypt’s foreign minister, a judicial source said in Cairo.

Kagame attacks critics

Monitor Correspondent

Kigali

By David Kezio-Musoke Tuesday, September 7 2010

Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame was yesterday sworn-in for a second term in office. Addressing thousands of Rwandans and over a dozen African Heads of State, Mr Kagame lashed out at NGOs and human rights organisations that are critical of his government.

Mr Kagame said although Africa has many problems including lack of democracy, poverty and dependence, NGOs that are not accountable to anyone should not dictate the conduct of legitimate states. “It is difficult for us to comprehend those who want to give us lessons on inclusion, tolerance and human rights. We reject all their accusations. Self-proclaimed critics of Rwanda may say what they want, but they will neither dictate the direction we take as a nation, nor will they make a dent in our quest for self-determination,” Mr Kagame said.

Ignoring Asia A Blog

The thing about marathons is they’re great (if a little wearying) when you like the show and just horrible if you don’t.  Lots of marathons, premiers, and double features, but not much late at night unless you’re catching up on stuff you’ve already had a chance to see.

• ABC Family– The Secret Life of the American Teenager (premier), Friday Night Lights (Series Premier repeat)
• AMC– Dirty Harry x 2
• Bravo– The Real Housewives of New Jersey (Season Finale)
• Disney– Camp Rock 2 (because I know you just can’t get enough Jonas Brothers)
• Discovery– Dirty Jobs marathon
• ESPN– Boise State vs. Virginia Tech
• FX– Two and a Half Men marathon
• Food– The Best Thing I Ever Ate (premier), Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives (premier)
• History– New Pawn Stars and American Pickers
• Lifetime– Bringing Down the House, Notting Hill
• Oxygen– The Skeleton Key x 2
• SciFi– Underworld
• Spike– The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi
• TBS– Family Guy night
• Turner Classic– Make Way for Tomorrow, Tender Mercies
• TNT– The Closer (last week’s and new, next to last this season), Rizzoli & Isles (premier)
• Toon– Series Premiers for Regular Show and MAD, new Total Drama World Tour
• Travel– Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations marathon including premier of the 100th Episode Special and another premier (Paris)
• Vs.– Bull Durham, The Longest Yard (the good Burt Reynolds version)
• TV Land– Crocodile Dundee

Later-

• AMC– Rubicon, Mad Men (repeats of this week’s)
• Oxygen– The Craft
• Turner Classic– Playtime
• Vs.– Major League

Dave, Jon, and Stephen in repeats, but they’ll be new again tomorrow through Thursday.  Alton does Coconut cake.  Boondocks, Bitches to Rags the second episode of Season 3.

Zap2it TV Listings, Yahoo TV Listings

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

1 Suicide car bomber kills 19 in northwest Pakistan

by Lehaz Ali, AFP

8 mins ago

2 Iran stoning woman’s son fears execution after Ramadan

by Thibauld Malterre, AFP

45 mins ago

3 Spain rejects ETA truce, demands permanent disarming

by Katell Abiven, AFP

1 hr 1 min ago

4 Obama unveils new 50-billion-dollar infrastructure plan

AFP

Mon Sep 6, 12:25 pm ET

5 Greenpeace two get jail terms in Japan whale meat case

by Frank Zeller, AFP

Mon Sep 6, 6:48 am ET

6 Fresh suspicion over Pakistan-Australia cricket Test

AFP

Mon Sep 6, 6:06 am ET

7 Obama kicks off campaign with $50 billion jobs plan

By Steve Holland, Reuters

29 mins ago

8 Nineteen killed in suicide bombing in Pakistan

By Mustansar Baluch, Reuters

Mon Sep 6, 10:29 am ET

9 Graft and threats of violence cloud hopes for Afghan vote

By Tim Gaynor, Reuters

1 hr 58 mins ago

10 Afghan foreign troops death toll hits 500 for 2010

By Paul Tait, Reuters

2 hrs 28 mins ago

11 Japan fiscal targets need review: PM candidate’s aide

By Chisa Fujioka, Reuters

Mon Sep 6, 5:14 am ET

12 Obama assails GOP, promotes new jobs program

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE, Associated Press Writer

24 mins ago

13 Lawyer says Iranian woman could be stoned soon

By NASSER KARIMI, Associated Press Writer

58 mins ago

14 NKorea prepares for biggest convention in 30 years

By JEAN H. LEE, Associated Press Writer

Mon Sep 6, 12:14 pm ET

15 Suicide attack in NW Pakistan kills 17 people

By IJAZ MOHAMMAD, Associated Press Writers

Mon Sep 6, 9:43 am ET

16 Olympia, 2-war naval veteran, battles for survival

By JOANN LOVIGLIO, Associated Press Writer

Mon Sep 6, 6:07 am ET

“Punting the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.

Paul Krugman: 1938 in 2010

Here’s the situation: The U.S. economy has been crippled by a financial crisis. The president’s policies have limited the damage, but they were too cautious, and unemployment remains disastrously high. More action is clearly needed. Yet the public has soured on government activism, and seems poised to deal Democrats a severe defeat in the midterm elections.  

The president in question is Franklin Delano Roosevelt; the year is 1938. Within a few years, of course, the Great Depression was over. But it’s both instructive and discouraging to look at the state of America circa 1938 – instructive because the nature of the recovery that followed refutes the arguments dominating today’s public debate, discouraging because it’s hard to see anything like the miracle of the 1940s happening again.

Robert Reich: The Real Lesson of Labor Day

Welcome to the worst Labor Day in the memory of most Americans. Organized labor is down to about 7 percent of the private work force. Members of non-organized labor — most of the rest of us — are unemployed, underemployed or underwater. The Labor Department reported on Friday that just 67,000 new private-sector jobs were created in August, which, when added to the loss of public-sector (mostly temporary Census worker jobs) resulted in a net loss of over 50,000 jobs for the month. But at least 125,000 net new jobs are needed to keep up with the growth of the potential work force.

Face it: The national economy isn’t escaping the gravitational pull of the Great Recession. None of the standard booster rockets are working. Near-zero short-term interest rates from the Fed, almost record-low borrowing costs in the bond market, a giant stimulus package, along with tax credits for small businesses that hire the long-term unemployed have all failed to do enough.

That’s because the real problem has to do with the structure of the economy, not the business cycle. No booster rocket can work unless consumers are able, at some point, to keep the economy moving on their own. But consumers no longer have the purchasing power to buy the goods and services they produce as workers; for some time now, their means haven’t kept up with what the growing economy could and should have been able to provide them.

Robert Kuttmer: Not Just Jobs — Good Jobs

On Labor Day 2010, we are short at least 25 million jobs. And just as importantly, we don’t have enough jobs that pay decently.

The press last week was full of stories that the jobs picture was not as dismal as feared.

The economy is actually generating jobs again — just not enough to make a dent in the backlog of 15 million Americans officially out of work and another 8 million with part time jobs seeking full time ones, and millions more out of the labor force entirely.

In the government’s most recent report, released Friday, officially measured unemployment actually increased to 9.6 percent, just one tenth of a point below its rate last Labor Day.

The stock market rose on reports that we will avert a “double-dip” recession. Economic growth is still in positive territory. But the economy grew at a decent rate after the Great Depression bottomed out in 1933, as well. Nonetheless, unemployment remained stuck in double digits for the next seven years, until World War II.

As in the middle and late 1930s, economic growth is positive — just not strong enough to create sufficient jobs. This, of course, is the lingering fallout from the financial collapse of 2008, just as persistent unemployment in the Depression was the legacy of the Crash of 1929.

But there is a larger story here that predates the recent financial collapse. The economy not only has a scarcity of jobs, but a shortage of good jobs. And while Republicans would resist legislating a serious public jobs program, the administration should fight for one anyway.

Jane White: Work Until You’re Dead? That May Be the Only Option for Many Americans

any Americans are likely to have to work until they are dead, not as a result of Social Security shortfalls but because of their inadequate 401(k) savings or the fact that they have no retirement plan at all. This disaster has not dawned on the mutual fund companies that manage retirement assets, much less debated on Capitol Hill. Given that the first wave of Boomers is scheduled to turn 65 in 2011, Attention Must be Paid.

Here’s the raw deal in a nutshell: Unless you’ve got Chief and Executive in your job title — including “Ousted Disgraced CEO” — you are probably pension-poor, even if you earn a six-figure salary. That’s because only 11% of the private sector population is covered by a regular pension. Unlike during the postwar Fabulous Fifties and the Soaring Sixties when America was a “fortress economy” and almost half of the private sector was covered, currently even most employees of big companies can’t count on one. Only 17 of the Fortune 100 companies offer a traditional pension to new hires.

Katrina vanden Heuvel: No Holiday for Labor Unions

Labor Day this year comes draped in mourning. More than half of all workers have experienced a spell of unemployment, taken a cut in pay or hours, been forced to go part-time or seen other such problems during and after the Great Recession. Collapsing stock and house prices have destroyed a fifth of the wealth of the average household. Nearly six in ten Americans have canceled or cut back on holidays. Amidst all this, workers increasingly don’t even have labor unions as a potential answer to their insecurities — despite the fact that, of all the institutions in America, they more often than not got it right on the big issues facing the country, generally in the face of a bipartisan political and elite consensus.

Unions are in trouble. They represent less than 13 percent of the workforce and less than 8 percent of private workers. Union workers still receive higher wages and are more likely to have employer-provided health insurance, pensions and paid sick leave than non-union workers. But when unions represented over 33 percent of all private workers in the 1940s, they drove wage increases for everyone — non-union firms had to compete for good workers. Now, unions struggle just to defend their members’ wages and benefits. Over the past decade before the Great Recession, productivity soared, profits rose and CEO pay skyrocketed, but most workers lost ground.

David Sirota: Despite Celebration, the Iraq War Continues

Something about 21st century warfare brings out Washington’s lust for historical comparison. The moment the combat starts, lawmakers and the national press corps inevitably portray every explosion, invasion, front-line dispatch, political machination and wartime icon as momentous replicas of the past’s big moments and Great Men.

9/11 was Pearl Harbor. Colin Powell’s Iraq presentation at the United Nations was Adlai Stevenson’s Cuban Missile Crisis confrontation. Embedded journalists in Afghanistan strutted around like the intrepid Walter Cronkite on a foreign battlefield. George Bush was a Rooseveltian “war president.” The Iraq invasion was D-Day.

A byproduct of reporters’ narcissism, politicians’ vanity and the Beltway’s lockstep devotion to militarism, this present-tense hagiography ascribes the positive attributes of sanitized history to current events. And whether or not the analogies are appropriate, they inevitably help sell contemporary actions-no matter how ill-advised. As just one example: If 9/11 was Pearl Harbor, as television so often suggested, then American couch potatoes were bound to see “shock and awe” in Baghdad as a rational reprise of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima.

Of course, after we were told seven years ago that “major combat operations in Iraq have ended,” and after an historically unique conflict that has lasted longer than almost any other, you might think the press would start questioning the government’s martial stagecraft. You might also think all the comparisons to the past would stop. Instead, D.C. journalists and lawmakers are now celebrating the supposed withdrawal from Iraq, implicitly presenting the White House’s August announcement as the second coming of V-J Day.

The trouble is that the announcement is anything but, because the war isn’t even close to over. And we know that because the military is quietly acknowledging as much.

Iraq combat is far from over

U.S. soldiers help repel deadly attack on Iraq army headquarters

Monday Business Edition

I seem to be writing a lot about Economics these days.  Starting with The Big Fail (last week’s Monday Business Edition) there are 7 diaries-

• It’s only a Nobel Prize…
• “It’s not that I’m an uncaring person”
• enthusiasm updated
• Pyramid Scheme
• Great Austerian Success Stories!
• Do you validate?

What are my qualifications to do this?  Absolutely none.  I’m a critic, not a reporter Jim; except that as a History major I was required to take Economics 101 (where I got a gentleman’s B).  You might say I’m Neo-classically trained because along with millions of others my principal text was Economics by Paul Samuelson.

But I don’t often rest my hat on my own analysis, I prefer to cite others who have not ‘spent decades unlearning‘ the foundational principles of their “Science” (dismal though it is) in favor of Snake Headed Oil Salesmen hissing from the serpents in the garden (that’s another Stargate joke).

The Real Lesson of Labor Day

By Robert Reich

Friday, September 3, 2010

Welcome to the worst Labor Day in the memory of most Americans. Organized labor is down to about 7 percent of the private work force. Members of non-organized labor – most of the rest of us – are unemployed, underemployed or underwater. The Labor Department reported on Friday that just 67,000 new private-sector jobs were created in August, which, when added to the loss of public-sector (mostly temporary Census worker jobs) resulted in a net loss of over 50,000 jobs for the month. But at least 125,000 net new jobs are needed to keep up with the growth of the potential work force.

…

(T)he real problem has to do with the structure of the economy, not the business cycle. No booster rocket can work unless consumers are able, at some point, to keep the economy moving on their own. But consumers no longer have the purchasing power to buy the goods and services they produce as workers; for some time now, their means haven’t kept up with what the growing economy could and should have been able to provide them.

…

(The) Great Depression and its aftermath demonstrate that there is only one way back to full recovery: through more widely shared prosperity. In the 1930s, the American economy was completely restructured. New Deal measures – Social Security, a 40-hour work week with time-and-a-half overtime, unemployment insurance, the right to form unions and bargain collectively, the minimum wage – leveled the playing field.

In the decades after World War II, legislation like the G.I. Bill, a vast expansion of public higher education and civil rights and voting rights laws further reduced economic inequality. Much of this was paid for with a 70 percent to 90 percent marginal income tax on the highest incomes. And as America’s middle class shared more of the economy’s gains, it was able to buy more of the goods and services the economy could provide. The result: rapid growth and more jobs.

1938 in 2010

By PAUL KRUGMAN, The New York Times

Published: September 5, 2010

The economic moral is clear: when the economy is deeply depressed, the usual rules don’t apply. Austerity is self-defeating: when everyone tries to pay down debt at the same time, the result is depression and deflation, and debt problems grow even worse. And conversely, it is possible – indeed, necessary – for the nation as a whole to spend its way out of debt: a temporary surge of deficit spending, on a sufficient scale, can cure problems brought on by past excesses.

But the story of 1938 also shows how hard it is to apply these insights. Even under F.D.R., there was never the political will to do what was needed to end the Great Depression; its eventual resolution came essentially by accident.

I had hoped that we would do better this time. But it turns out that politicians and economists alike have spent decades unlearning the lessons of the 1930s, and are determined to repeat all the old mistakes. And it’s slightly sickening to realize that the big winners in the midterm elections are likely to be the very people who first got us into this mess, then did everything in their power to block action to get us out.

If you still have the stomach for it I’ll also cite this analysis on Open Left brought to my attention by Jay Ackroyd on Eschaton–

When we say “the Dems hate the Left” or they’re beating up on “dirty fucking hippies”, what we’re REALLY saying is that, for the Third-Wayers, neoliberalism vs. social democracy is actually the whole ballgame.  The last vestiges of American social democracy - the New Deal and all its accoutrements - must be wiped out, at all costs.

They haven’t been able to say so – because they need the votes of the “little people”.  But there’s almost no play left in that gambit.  With each [dispiriting] election betrayal (Clinton and NAFTA, Obama and Health Care, Obama and Social Security) the Democratic brand gets weaker and weaker.

We on the Left, the “netroots”, etc., need to understand the centrality of this point more than we do.  The coming fight over Social Security is not one issue among many, it’s the defining issue of this period.  Third Way politics is dependent on the bubble economy.  This has failed.  We can’t go back there.  We have to make this known.

As Jay says- “Eventually you have to consider the possibility they are getting the policies they want to get.”

1 What might make the Fed flinch?

By Emily Kaiser, Reuters

Sun Sep 5, 3:54 pm ET

2 Bankers gather to assure industry is on right track

By Arno Schuetze, Reuters

Mon Sep 6, 2:30 am ET

3 China Inc gets new chairman as state-owned firms’ clout grows

By Zhou Xin and Simon Rabinovitch, Reuters

1 hr 26 mins ago

4 China allows insurers to invest in PE, property

By Samuel Shen and Melanie Lee, Reuters

Mon Sep 6, 12:46 am ET

5 German banker hits nerve with anti-immigration book

by Simon Sturdee, AFP

1 hr 52 mins ago

6 Afghans crowd scandal-hit bank to withdraw savings

by Lynne O’Donnell, AFP

Sat Sep 4, 12:07 pm ET

7 Germany to extend life of nuclear reactors

AFP

Sun Sep 5, 11:03 pm ET

8 BP spill costs hit 8 bln dlrs as crews unearth clues

by Jo Biddle, AFP

Sat Sep 4, 3:25 am ET

9 Petrobras sells 64 bln dlrs of stock to fund oil exploration

by Mauricio Rabuffetti, AFP

Fri Sep 3, 4:57 pm ET

10 Shipping companies eye fabled Asia route as ice melts

by Pierre-Henry Deshayes, AFP

Fri Sep 3, 2:59 pm ET

11 Azerbaijan, Russia seal major gas deal, more to come

by Emil Guliyev, AFP

Fri Sep 3, 2:15 pm ET

12 Carrefour says it will open first Indian outlet by November

by Penny MacRae, AFP

Fri Sep 3, 10:01 am ET

13 Official: Obama backing research tax credits

By JULIE PACE, Associated Press Writer

Sun Sep 5, 12:23 pm ET

14 Greenest state behind the waste-to-energy race

By NOAKI SCHWARTZ, Associated Press Writer

Sun Sep 5, 1:27 pm ET

15 Afghan Central Bank: Kabul Bank has ‘stabilized’

By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press Writer

Sun Sep 5, 11:16 am ET

16 Farms being prosecuted for importing Thai workers

By MARK NIESSE, Associated Press Writer

Sat Sep 4, 5:39 pm ET

Sing it loud.  And if that doesn’t get you a little verklempt, look for the Union Label below the fold.

This is your morning Open Thread. Pour your favorite beverage and review the past and comment on the future.

September 6 is the 249th day of the year (250th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 116 days remaining until the end of the year.

On this day in 1995, Cal Ripken Jr of the Baltimore Orioles plays in his 2,131st consecutive game, breaking a record that stood for 56 years.

Calvin Edwin “Cal” Ripken, Jr. (born August 24, 1960) is a former Major League Baseball shortstop and third baseman who played his entire career (1981-2001) for the Baltimore Orioles.

During his baseball career, he earned the nickname “Iron Man” for doggedly remaining in the lineup despite numerous minor injuries and for his reliability to “show up” to work every day. He is perhaps best known for breaking New York Yankees first baseman Lou Gehrig’s record for consecutive games played, a record many deemed unbreakable. Ripken surpassed the 56-year-old record when he played in his 2,131st consecutive game on September 6, 1995 between the Orioles and the California Angels in front of a sold-out crowd at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. To make the feat even more memorable, Ripken hit a home run in the previous night’s game that tied Gehrig’s record and another home run in his 2,131st game, which fans later voted as Major League Baseball’s “Most Memorable Moment” in MLB history. Ripken played in an additional 502 straight games over the next three years, and his streak ended at 2,632 games when he voluntarily removed his name from the lineup for the final Orioles home game of the 1998 season. His record 2,632 straight games spanned over seventeen seasons, from May 30, 1982 to September 20, 1998.

 3114 BC – According to the proleptic Julian calendar the current era in the Maya Long Count Calendar started. (Non-standard interpretation)

394 – Battle of the Frigidus: The Christian Roman Emperor Theodosius I defeats and kills the pagan usurper Eugenius and his Frankish magister militum Arbogast.

1492 – Christopher Columbus sails from La Gomera in the Canary Islands, his final port of call before crossing the Atlantic for the first time.

1522 – The Victoria, the only surviving ship of Ferdinand Magellan’s expedition, returns to Sanlucar de Barrameda in Spain, becoming the first ship to circumnavigate the world.

1620 – The Pilgrims sail from Plymouth, England, on the Mayflower to settle in North America. (Old Style date; September 16 per New Style date.)

1628 – Puritans settle Salem, which will later become part of Massachusetts Bay Colony.

1634 – Thirty Years’ War: In the Battle of Nordlingen the Catholic Imperial army defeats Protestant armies of Sweden and Germany.

1669 – The siege of Candia ends with the Venetian fortress surrendering to the Ottomans.

1781 – The Battle of Groton Heights takes place, resulting a British victory.

1847 – Henry David Thoreau leaves Walden Pond and moves in with Ralph Waldo Emerson and his family in Concord, Massachusetts.

1861 – American Civil War: Forces under Union General Ulysses S. Grant bloodlessly capture Paducah, Kentucky, which gives the Union control of the mouth of the Tennessee River.

1863 – American Civil War: Confederates evacuate Battery Wagner and Morris Island in South Carolina.

1870 – Louisa Ann Swain of Laramie, Wyoming becomes the first woman in the United States to cast a vote legally after 1807.

1885 – Eastern Rumelia declares its union with Bulgaria. The Unification of Bulgaria is accomplished.

1901 – Anarchist Leon Czolgosz shoots and fatally wounds US President William McKinley at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York.

1930 – Democratically elected Argentine president Hipolito Yrigoyen is deposed in a military coup.

1937 – Spanish Civil War: The start of the Battle of El Mazuco.

1939 – World War II: The Battle of Barking Creek.

1939 – World War II: South Africa declares war on Germany.

1940 – King Carol II of Romania abdicates and is succeeded by his son Michael.

1943 – The Monterrey Institute of Technology, one of the largest and most influential private universities in Latin America, is founded in Monterrey, Mexico.

1944 – World War II: The city of Ypres, Belgium is liberated by allied forces.

1948 – Juliana becomes Queen of the Netherlands.

1949 – Allied military authorities relinquish control of former Nazi Germany assets back to German control.

1952 – Canada’s first television station, CBFT-TV, opens in Montreal.

1955 – Istanbul Pogrom: Istanbul’s Greek and Armenian minority are the target of a government-sponsored pogrom.

1963 – The Centre for International Industrial Property Studies (CEIPI) is founded.

1965 – War of 1965: India retaliates

following Pakistan’s failed Operation Grand Slam which resulted in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 that is ended following the signing of the Tashkent Declaration.

   * 1966 – In Cape Town, South Africa, the architect of Apartheid, Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd, is stabbed to death during a parliamentary meeting.

1968 – Swaziland becomes independent.

1970 – Two passenger jets bound from Europe to New York are simultaneously hijacked by Palestinian terrorist members of PFLP and taken to Dawson’s Field in Jordan.

1972 – Munich Massacre: 9 Israel athletes taken hostage at the Munich Olympic Games by the Palestinian “Black September” terrorist group died (as did a German policeman) at the hands of the kidnappers during a failed rescue attempt. 2 other Israeli athletes are slain in the initial attack the previous day.

1976 – Cold War: Soviet air force pilot Lt. Viktor Belenko lands a MiG-25 jet fighter at Hakodate on the island of Hokkaido in Japan and requests political asylum in the United States.

1983 – The Soviet Union admits to shooting down Korean Air Flight KAL-007, stating that the pilots did not know it was a civilian aircraft when it violated Soviet airspace.

1986 – In Istanbul, two terrorists from Abu Nidal’s organization kill 22 and wound six inside the Neve Shalom synagogue during Shabbat services.

1991 – The Soviet Union recognizes the independence of the Baltic states: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

1991 – The name Saint Petersburg is restored to Russia’s second largest city, which had been renamed Leningrad in 1924.

1992 – Hunters discover the emaciated body of Christopher Johnson McCandless at his camp 20 miles (32 km) west of the town of Healy, Alaska.

1995 – Cal Ripken Jr of the Baltimore Orioles plays in his 2,131st consecutive game, breaking a record that stood for 56 years.

1997 – Diana, Princess of Wales is laid to rest in front of a television audience of more than 2.5 billion.

My sister-in-law, who knows that I am “Going Green”, sent me this article about the nutritional and practical uses for the consummate salad component, the cucumber. While I can attest ot some of the accuracy of the nutritional information, I have yet to try out cleaning the sink or eating cucumber slices to ward off a hangover. So for something amusing

1. Cucumbers contain most of the vitamins you need every day, just one cucumber contains Vitamin B1, Vitamin B2, Vitamin B3, Vitamin B5, Vitamin B6, Folic Acid, Vitamin C, Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Potassium and Zinc.

2. Feeling tired in the afternoon, put down the caffeinated soda and pick up a cucumber. Cucumbers are a good source of B Vitamins and Carbohydrates that can provide that quick pick-me-up that can last for hours.

3. Tired of your bathroom mirror fogging up after a shower? Try rubbing a cucumber slice along the mirror, it will eliminate the fog and provide a soothing, spa-like fragrance.

4. Are grubs and slugs ruining your planting beds? Place a few slices in a small pie tin and your garden will be free of pests all season long. The chemicals in the cucumber react with the aluminum to give off a scent undetectable to humans but drive garden pests crazy and make them flee the area.

5 Looking for a fast and easy way to remove cellulite before going out or to the pool? Try rubbing a slice or two of cucumbers along your problem area for a few minutes, the phytochemicals in the cucumber cause the collagen in your skin to tighten, firming up the outer layer and reducing the visibility of cellulite. Works great on wrinkles too!!!

6.. Want to avoid a hangover or terrible headache? Eat a few cucumber slices before going to bed and wake up refreshed and headache free. Cucumbers contain enough sugar, B vitamins and electrolytes to replenish essential nutrients the body lost, keeping everything in equilibrium, avoiding both a hangover and headache!!

7. Looking to fight off that afternoon or evening snacking binge? Cucumbers have been used for centuries and often used by European trappers, traders and explores for quick meals to thwart off starvation.

8. Have an important meeting or job interview and you realize that you don’t have enough time to polish your shoes? Rub a freshly cut cucumber over the shoe, its chemicals will provide a quick and durable shine that not only looks great but also repels water.

9. Out of WD 40 and need to fix a squeaky hinge? Take a cucumber slice and rub it along the problematic hinge, and voila, the squeak is gone!

10. Stressed out and don’t have time for massage, facial or visit to the spa? Cut up an entire cucumber and place it in a boiling pot of water, the chemicals and nutrients from the cucumber with react with the boiling water and be released in the steam, creating a soothing, relaxing aroma that has been shown the reduce stress in new mothers and college students during final exams.

11. Just finish a business lunch and realize you don’t have gum or mints? Take a slice of cucumber and press it to the roof of your mouth with your tongue for 30 seconds to eliminate bad breath, the phytochemcials will kill the bacteria in your mouth responsible for causing bad breath.

Hopefully, the kitchen has cucumbers

12. Looking for a ‘green’ way to clean your faucets, sinks or stainless steel? Take a slice of cucumber and rub it on the surface you want to clean, not only will it remove years of tarnish and bring back the shine, but is won’t leave streaks and won’t harm you fingers or fingernails while you clean.

13. Using a pen and made a mistake? Take the outside of the cucumber and slowly use it to erase the pen writing, also works great on crayons and markers that the kids have used to decorate the walls!!

Pakistan’s flooded farms unable to be sown

Aid workers fear the crisis will be prolonged amid uncertainty over next season’s crop

By RAVI NESSMAN

SHAH JAMAL, Pakistan – Abid Hussein fears the deep floodwaters that destroyed his cotton crop, rotted his wheat seeds and swept away his farming tools are not done ravaging his life.

Just weeks before the wheat planting season is to start, his 1.5-acre (0.6-hectare) farm still lies under 3 feet (0.9 meter) of water, and he is certain it will not drain in time.

“I will not be able to plant,” the 35-year-old father of four said in despair.

Tales of the unexpected: The dark side of bedtime stories

A new biography of Roald Dahl throws light on the private life of one of our best-loved writers. But why are so many children’s authors such damaged human beings?

By John Walsh Monday, 6 September 2010

“A terrible wrathful man, with a slow fuse burning in one end of his belly and a stick of dynamite in the other.” That was how Roald Dahl described his long-term American publisher Alfred Knopf in the New York Times in 1983 – but it could easily have applied to himself.

The much-loved, best-selling children’s author, one of the UK’s most popular post-war writers, was a man of considerable fury and contempt for people who crossed him, or whom he considered beneath him. The creator of Willy Wonka, the Twits and Fantastic Mr Fox was often less than fantastic as a human being.

USA

Congressional Charities Are Pulling In Corporate Cash



By ERIC LIPTON

Published: September 5, 2010

WASHINGTON – Representative Joe Baca has achieved near celebrity status in his suburban Los Angeles district, as much for his record of giveaways – Thanksgiving turkeys, college scholarships, spare boots for firefighters – as for anything he has done in Congress.

That generosity is made possible by the Joe Baca Foundation, a charity his family set up three years ago to aid local organizations. It provides another benefit, too: helping the Democratic congressman run something akin to a permanent political campaign.

Obama to call for $100 billion business tax credit



By Anne E. Kornblut and Lori Montgomery

Washington Post Staff Writer

Sunday, September 5, 2010; 9:01 PM

Under mounting pressure to intensify his focus on the economy ahead of the midterm elections, President Obama will call for a $100 billion business tax credit this week, using a speech in Cleveland on Wednesday to launch what administration officials said was a new policy push.

The business proposal – what one aide called a key part of a limited economic package – would increase and permanently extend research and development tax credits for businesses, rewarding companies that develop new technologies domestically and preserve American jobs.

Europe

Basque separatist group Eta calls off 50-year campaign of violence

But lack of clarity brings only muted response from Spanish political figures

By Alasdair Fotheringham in Madrid Monday, 6 September 2010

Three hooded figures flanked by flags, filmed for a grainy video released to the BBC, announced yesterday that the Basque separatist group Eta was calling off the armed campaign it has waged for more than half a century.

Their statement defended Eta’s actions but suggested that the group might now be ready to turn to the political process to pursue its aim of an independent Basque state. “Eta confirms its commitment to finding a democratic solution to the conflict,” one of the hooded figures, a woman, said.

French immigration minister forced to change date of wedding after Facebook campaign

France’s immigration minister has changed the date of his wedding after Facebook users pledged to disrupt the ceremony in response to immigration policies.  

Published: 12:20AM BST 06 Sep 2010

The minister, former Socialist Eric Besson, 52, has attracted criticism for his role in the government’s tightening of immigration policies.

France’s government has come under fire at home and abroad over security measures including the expulsion of thousands of Roma and the revocation of French nationality for immigrants found guilty of attacking police officers.

On Saturday tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets across France to denounce the security measures.

By Sunday evening over 940 users of the social networking site Facebook had signed up to a group planning to “create havoc” at Mr Besson’s wedding to 24-year-old art student Yasmine Tordjman, which had been due to take place on Sept 16 in Paris.

Middle East

Israeli police accused of targeting Jerusalem’s Arab residents Monday, 6 September 2010



By Catrina Stewart in Jerusalem

A leading civil-rights group has accused Israeli police of systematic discrimination against the Arab residents of East Jerusalem as growing numbers of hardline religious Jews take up residence in Palestinian areas.

A report from the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (Acri) found that violent confrontations between Jewish residents and their Palestinian neighbours had risen rapidly, but that Israeli police have largely ignored Palestinian complaints.

Asia

Vedanta investors look into human rights issues in India

Mining company’s operations in India under scrutiny by shareholders following pressure from Amnesty and celebrities

Elena Moya

The Guardian, Monday 6 September 2010

Shareholders of Vedanta Resources are taking action to clarify issues about the mining company’s operations in India over concerns about alleged breaches of human rights and environmental laws.

Institutional investors have formed a coalition to investigate some of the issues that have dogged the company recently.

Independently, shareholders including Aviva Investors are considering going to Vedanta’s mining sites in India to assess the situation for themselves. They are also considering commissioning a report from an external consultancy.

Fit for a miniature Indian highway  

For 17 years, a former furniture maker has been selling his handmade wooden tiny trucks and tractors on a roadside in Punjab, the real versions rumbling by a few feet away.

By Mark Magnier, Los Angeles Times

September 6, 2010  

Reporting from Dhanaula, India – He’s watched the cheap Chinese toys come in, a flimsy, mass-produced onslaught. That’s of little concern. He’s doing something more meaningful, something that will last.

Balwinder Singh slowly works the sandpaper around the cargo bay of the miniature wooden truck, one of dozens in his roadside store. Horse carts are the most difficult, he says, with their rounded staves. Then there are the John Deere tractors, the combines, the gasoline trucks, reflecting the rich agricultural land that is Punjab, India’s breadbasket.

Latin America

Child mortality in Bolivia: a partial success

Twice as many newborn babies survive as did 20 years ago, but more still die here than in almost any country outside sub-Saharan Africa

Andres Schipani in La Paz

The Guardian, Monday 6 September 2010

At the entrance of La Paz’s maternity hospital, a banner reads: “A hospital that is a friend of the child and the mother.” Inside the maternity ward, Jimena Chambi has just given birth to a healthy baby, who is breastfeeding. “I am so happy he is healthy. I was so worried,” she says.

Jimena’s case seems to be an increasing reality in one of South America’s poorest countries, where recent policies have shown that it is possible to make the health of poorest and marginalised children a priority.

Since the mid-1990s the government has been moving towards a policy of universal healthcare provision for mothers and children, prioritising maternal health and child survival.

Ignoring Asia A Blog

Most of you who read my posts know that I am a big fan of the Gene Roddenberry Star Trek universe of science fiction.  Those of you who do not read my posts as often also know that I am a dedicated fan of Doctor Who.

What you might not know is that both of those TeeVee Series have contributed more that you might not have thought towards our technology as it stands at present.  Well, we do not have a TARDIS just yet, but we have many of the things that Star Trek pioneered.  Tonight we will study just a few of them that are common.

Please stay with us on this trek.  By the way, the term “Star Trek” was NEVER used in the original series, but finally was uttered in the very last installment of Star Trek, The Next Generation, by “Q”.  

But this is not about the series (or rather, the multitude of them) but rather for the devices that we now have on account of it and other science fiction classics.  Several have now been around for years, and others are just now becoming established.  Many readers use one or more every day.

One of the most common devices is the flip cellular telephone.  These were based on the design of the communicators used in the original Star Trek (henceforth referred to as TOS, for The Original Series), and later in Enterprise, the prequel to it.  Interestingly, now that smart phones are coming on strong, we see fewer flip phones these days, but in their heyday they were the most popular of the cellular telephones and millions are still in use.  I still have an old Motorola that continues to function within design parameters.

In the storyline, it was necessary to communicate over vast distances, so Roddenberry made up subspace radio.  This concept allowed information to be exchanged far in excess of the speed of light.  While we do not have subspace radio yet (and likely will not have it, since subspace was just a literary device), we do have quantum entanglement, and it promises to allow information to be transferred essentially instantaneously, in a since at infinite speeds.  Now, this is only a laboratory creation yet, and is only in its rudimentary form at present, but has been demonstrated.  It is possible to “entangle” two particles such that have, for example, one of two possible quantum states.  After entanglement, if the quantum state of one particle is caused to “flip”, then the quantum state in the other ones simultaneously flips as well, regardless of the distance between them, with on time lag.  Whether or not this will pan out for communication remains to be seen, but it does exist.  By the way, Einstein hated ideas like those, calling such phenomenon “spooky action at a distance”.

In Enterprise, a device that looks very much like a Kindle was used just about like those real devices are today.  I wonder if the designers of them got the idea from the show, like the flip phone designers did those many years ago?  I strongly suspect that they did, since lots of geeks enjoy the Star Trek universe.

We are even have and are developing a device similar to the phaser, at least as something like the stun setting goes.  Even the very name of one of the first one of these devices, the Tazer, shows its Trek origins.  However, the Tazer works by shooting darts trailing wires into the target, then discharging a powerful electric shock through them, so it is not a “ray gun” like a phaser.  The Army is developing a true ray gun, however, that serves a function similar to stun.  This device directs microwave radiation towards an individual or a crowd at a frequency that causes the water molecules at the surface of the skin to begin to rotate quickly (just like what happens inside of a microwave oven to cook food).  It turns out that pain sensors in the skin are located at the same place, and people who were test subjects describe the sensation as something akin to being dipped in boiling oil.  This is a true ray gun, albeit not a hand held one (current models are mounted on a truck).  The military claims that this device is designed to disperse ugly crowds during riot or near riot conditions.  This leads me to another point.

Since the days of infantry facing each other and firing muskets in great crowds is long passed, the military value of such device seems to me to be limited.  On the other hand, such a device is ideal for civil use in riots, as I mentioned in the preceding paragraph.  Far more effective than using water cannon, these devices could disperse a crowd over a wide area rather than hitting only one or two individuals at a time.  It does make one wonder.

We also are developing a ray gun that is like a phaser set to disintegrate.  Powerful chemical lasers are being fitted onto aircraft.  Such lasers generate tremendous temperatures when they hit a target, destroying it by vaporizing it, at least in the places where the laser hits, essentially punching through the target and destroying essential components inside it.  Uses include anti aircraft and anti missile applications.

What essentially amounts to Borg technology is being incorporated into warfighter’s helmets today (although as of yet technology implants into the human body are not used, I think).  Such helmets include ocular devices that allow the wearer to distinguish friendly from enemy forces, even in the dark, because of radio telemetry betwixt the friendlies distinguish them with different symbols on the ocular piece, in a sense very much like the Borg collective consciousness.

There are many other devices that we use on a daily basis without even knowing it that were first imagined in science fiction, going all the way back to Wells and Verne.  Of course, computers are an obvious choice, but actually the concept of the computer predates science fiction as we know it.  Computing devices have been used, in the case of the abacus, since ancient times, and the ideas for a modern computer were first put forth in the 17th and 18th centuries, but the technology to make them possible did not exist for a practical machine until the early to mid 20th century.

Some devices that do have their roots in science fiction are robots (although there are historical accounts of robot like devices in the ancient world), but the robots of reality are quite unlike Mr. Data.  Modern robots are essentially devices that are programmed to perform specific actions over and over in environments where human counterparts are either inefficient or would be endangered.  Technically, a robot is a device that is programmed once and performs its functions without human intervention unless an off normal situation occurs.  Examples are the welding robots in automobile manufacturing facilitates and the Roomba vacuum cleaner.  The misuse of the term is common, most recently about the submarine machines that worked on the Deepwater Horizon disaster.  These are not robots at all, but remotely controlled multi tools that are operated by humans in a control room.  Since they are not autonomous, they are not really robots.  Unmanned aircraft like those used in the Afghanistan conflict are also not robots.

One of the most striking TOS devices is the diagnostic bed.  Gene Roddenberry actually got a call from the Navy about his use of it, because they were working on a program that at the time was classified that did many of the same things.  He finally convinced them that he just made it up, but now we have PET, CAT, and MRI scanners that do many of the things that the diagnostic bed did.  None of those would be feasible without digital image processing, not really a Star Trek original, but certainly used in the series.

UPDATE:  It just occurred to me that PET scanners are a real world use of antimatter.  PET stands for positron emission tomography, and the technology works by looking at the gamma photons emitted when the positrons (antimatter) emitted by the imaging medium annihilate electrons in the body.

I think that I will leave it here for tonight.  I would be interested in your thoughts about Star Trek, or other science fiction, devices that have worked their was into real use now.

Well, you have done it again!  You have wasted many more einsteins of perfectly good photons reading this science fiction nonscience.  And even though Jan Brewer develops the ability to conjugate verbs when she reads me say it, I always learn much more than I could possibly hope to teach by writing this series, so keep those comments, questions, corrections, and other thought coming.  Remember, no science or technology issue is off topic here.

Warmest regards,

Doc

Crossposted at Docudharma.com and at Dailykos.com