BBC News - Karadzic: Sarajevo and Srebrenica crimes are myths

Ex-Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic has dismissed as myths the alleged two worst atrocities of the 1992-95 Bosnian war and denied his involvement.

Mr Karadzic told his trial at The Hague that Sarajevo, where some 12,000 people died in 44 months, was "not a city under siege" by Bosnian Serb forces.

He said claims of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of more than 7,000 Muslim men and boys were based on "false myths".

He is accused of genocide and war crimes committed during the conflict.

The 64-year-old insists he is innocent of all 11 charges.

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.

BBC News - Tymoshenko's ruling coalition in Ukraine collapses

The ruling coalition of Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has disintegrated, according to the speaker of parliament, Volodymyr Lytvyn.

Mr Lytvyn said the coalition had failed to produce signatures from enough MPs to prove it had a majority.

Mrs Tymoshenko's government faces a no-confidence vote in parliament on Wednesday.

Ukraine's new President, Viktor Yanukovych, has said he wants to form a new coalition or call snap elections.

Mr Yanukovych was declared the winner of February's presidential election - a result Mrs Tymoshenko has refused to accept.

She has vowed to continue as prime minister - though it appears that some of her parliamentary allies may be deserting her.

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.

BBC News - MEP Nigel Farage fined over 'insulting' tirade

Eurosceptic MEP Nigel Farage has been fined just under 3,000 euros (£2,700) after refusing to apologise for a tirade in the European Parliament.

He was reprimanded for "insulting" behaviour after telling President of the European Council Herman van Rompuy he had "the charisma of a damp rag".

The authorities said he would lose an allowance paid to MEPs for 10 days but would not be suspended.

Mr Farage said his was a legitimate "voice of opposition" to EU policies.

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.

Exclusive: Ashcroft `not suitable for a peerage' - Channel 4 News

Channel 4 News can reveal that the chairman of the committee responsible for vetting honours given to political donors believed Lord Ashcroft was not a suitable man for a peerage.

 Lord Ashcroft, a major Conservative party benefactor, yesterday admitted that he was a "non-dom", which means he has avoided paying British tax on international earnings.

Channel 4 News has learned that the chairman of the committee responsible for giving honours to political donors, Lord Thomson, who has now passed away, felt that Ashcroft was not a suitable man to be a peer because he neither lived full-time in Britain nor paid UK taxes.

Lord Thomson's wife told Channel 4 News that in the year 2000 Lord Thomson was contacted while in Nicosia by the British consul there.

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.

The Ashcroft letters: how tax promise was key to Tory donor's peerage | Politics | guardian.co.uk

Confidential correspondence between Tony Blair, William Hague and the honours committee on Lord Ashcroft's peerage and concerns over his tax status

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.

EuroIntelligence:

In his column in FT Deutschland, Wolfgang Munchau says it is time for Germany's government to make up its mind about Greece. After George Papandreou declares himself - now expected today - Germany will have to declare quickly whether it considers the latest, significantly improved Greek austerity plan as sufficient. Germany should make such a declaration, but expect many hysterical reactions in a country, in which the media believed, or were led to believe, that the agreement of Feb 11 in the European Council amounted to nothing.

as well as Italy, Spain and Germany:

FT.com / Europe - Five European states back burka ban

More than half of voters in four other major European states back a push by France's Nicolas Sarkozy to ban women from wearing the burka, according to an opinion poll for the Financial Times.

As Mr Sarkozy presses ahead with plans to ban the wearing of the burka in public places, the FT's latest Harris poll shows the move is not just strongly supported in France, but wins enthusiastic backing in the UK, Italy, Spain and Germany.

The poll shows some 70 per cent of respondents in France said they supported plans to forbid the wearing of the garment which covers the female body from head to toe. There was similar sentiment in Spain and Italy, where 65 per cent and 63 per cent respectively favoured a ban.

The strength of feeling in the UK and Germany may seem particularly surprising. Britain has a strong liberal tradition that respects an individual's right to full expression of religious views. But here, some 57 per cent of people still favoured a ban. In Germany, which is also reluctant to clamp down in minority rights, some 50 per cent favoured a ban.

The march of civilizations is a series of defenses that man has put up against the dread of pure existence.

BBC News - Former Labour leader Michael Foot has died

Former Labour Party leader Michael Foot has died, aged 96.

Mr Foot was elected Labour leader in 1980, succeeding Jim Callaghan, but stood down after losing the 1983 election to Margaret Thatcher.

Mr Foot, who was also a prolific writer, was first elected to Parliament in 1945 and was an MP for 47 years.

Prior to becoming Labour leader, Mr Foot served in the Callaghan and Harold Wilson governments as Minister for Employment and Commons leader.

Mr Foot's death was announced in the House of Commons by Justice Secretary Jack Straw, who paid tribute to his skills as a Parliamentary orator, comparing one speech he had given in 1980 to a "Mozart concerto".

Higher energy prices push annual inflation in OECD area up to 2.1%

An annual increase of 10.6% in energy prices pushed overall inflation up to 2.1% in the OECD area in the year to January 2010, compared with 1.9% in December 2009. Energy prices rose by 19.1% in the United States.
Consumer prices for food in the OECD area decreased by 0.7% in the year to January 2010, compared with a fall of 1.0% in December. Excluding food and energy, consumer prices rose by 1.6% in the year to January 2010, unchanged from December 2009.

Euro area annual inflation (HICP) rose slightly to 1.0% in January 2010, up from 0.9% in December but still subdued compared with the United States where inflation was 2.6%, Canada (1.9%) and the United Kingdom, which at 3.5% recorded the highest annual inflation among the G7 countries, partly reflecting the return to a 17.5% VAT rate. Annual inflation in Japan remained firmly in negative territory with prices falling by 1.3% over the year compared to a decline of 1.7% in December. Annual inflation was 1.3% in Italy, 1.1% in France and 0.8% in Germany.

Hedge funds raise bets against euro - FT.com

Hedge funds are raising their bets against the euro amid growing fears of a regulatory backlash against their trading positions on the specific sovereign debt of Greece and other weak eurozone economies.

Many of the world's biggest hedge funds have become increasingly concerned about fierce criticism by European politicians that their country bets have heightened the crisis of confidence in some markets.

Lord Turner, the chairman of the Financial Services Authority, the UK market regulator, on Tuesday became the latest heavyweight figure to add his support to an investigation into speculative positions in financial instruments that gain from a fall in prices of sovereign and corporate debt.
...
Speaking to a parliamentary select committee on Tuesday, Lord Turner said that regulators should seriously consider preventing investors from buying so-called credit default swaps on both corporate and sovereign debt unless they are using it to hedge an existing investment. CDS provide insurance against default of a debt instrument.

While playing down the effect of so-called "naked" purchases of CDS - buying credit default protection without ownership of the underlying bond - Lord Turner said that a ban on speculative purchases "is something that should be discussed".

"Ce qui vient au monde pour ne rien troubler ne mérite ni égards ni patience." René Char

Millions of homeowners are offered 25-year 'green' loans - Scotsman.com News

HOMEOWNERS will be able to take out "green loans" to pay for energy efficiency improvements such as insulation and double glazing under new government plans.
The scheme, announced yesterday, would mean the loans could be paid back through savings on utility bills.

According to the government, the plan would mean that households could save money on heating and electricity costs while also helping to meet climate change targets.

The Pay As You Save (PAYS) programme aims to overcome the financial barriers - such as upfront costs - people face in trying to make their homes greener and more energy efficient.

Overall, according to the government's calculations, homeowner's would be better off despite having to repay the loan because the amount paid back each year would be less than the savings on bills.

The loan would be tied to the property, rather than the individual who takes it out.

This would require new legislation to be passed, which would be aimed at enabling the loan to be paid off over a period of 25 years instead of forcing people to repay it before they moved house.

According to government calculations, a homeowner living in a three-bedroom, semi-detached property who installed solar panels on the roof would be £170 better off each year, despite having to pay back the loan.

Modern conservatives engage in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy: the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.Galbraith

Will the Quest for Fiscal Sustainability Destabilize Private Debt?
By Robert Parenteau, CFA

The question of fiscal sustainability looms large at the moment - not just in the peripheral nations of the eurozone, but also in the UK, the US, and Japan. More restrictive fiscal paths are being proposed in order to avoid rapidly rising government debt to GDP ratios, and the financing challenges they may entail, including the possibility of default for nations without sovereign currencies.

However, most of the analysis and negotiation regarding the appropriate fiscal trajectory from here is occurring in something of a vacuum. The financial balance approach reveals that this way of proceeding may introduce new instabilities (see here and here). Intended changes to the financial balance of one sector can only be accomplished if the remaining sectors also adjust. Pursuing fiscal sustainability along currently proposed lines is likely to increase the odds of destabilizing the private sectors in the eurozone and elsewhere - unless an offsetting increase in current account balances can be accomplished in tandem.

....

For the economy as a whole, in any accounting period, total income must equal total expenditures. There are, after all, two sides to every transaction: a spender of money and a receiver of money income. Similarly, total saving out of income flows must equal total investment in tangible capital during any accounting period.

....

For individual sectors of the economy, these equalities need not hold. The financial balance of any one sector can be in surplus, in balance, or in deficit. The only requirement is, regardless of how many sectors we choose to divide the whole economy into, the sum of the sectoral financial balances must equal zero. For example, if we divide the economy into three sectors - the domestic private (households and firms), government, and foreign sectors, the following identity must hold true:

Domestic Private Sector Financial Balance + Fiscal Balance + Foreign Financial Balance = 0

Note that it is impossible for all three sectors to net save - that is, to run a financial surplus - at the same time. All three sectors could run a financial balance, but they cannot all accomplish a financial surplus and accumulate financial assets at the same time - some sector has to be issuing liabilities.

I will admit to not having had a high opinion of accounting as a profession when I was in school and I despise having to do my own books to prepare my income tax return, but, at long last, I am forced to give the profession its due. There are two things that citizens really need to understand:

1. As Keynes noted, the family budget is fundamentally unlike the national budget, especially when the country issues its own money. Different considerations apply and acting as though the national budget has to be treated like a family budget leads to disaster, as it did in the 1930s under Hoover and Mellon.

2. If your trade balance is negative you cannot have both a private sector surplus and a government or fiscal surplus, as a matter of accounting definitions. To do so would violate the basic structure of double entry book-keeping, on which hundreds of years of economic development have been based. In practice, you go into debt to foreigners if you try, which is what the USA has done with China. Instead, you have to make such changes as will allow you to have a zero or a positive balance of trade.

Robert Parenteau continues:

Since foreigners earn a surplus by selling more exports to their trading partners than they buy in imports, the last term can be replaced by the inverse of the trade or current account balance. This reveals the cunning core of the Asian neo-mercantilist strategy. If a current account surplus can be sustained, then both the private sector and the government can maintain a financial surplus as well. Domestic debt burdens, be they public or private, need not build up over time on household, business, or government balance sheets. (Emphasis added. ARG)

Domestic Private Sector Financial Balance + Fiscal Balance - Current Account Balance = 0

Again, keep in mind this is an accounting identity, not a theory. If it is wrong, then five centuries of double entry book keeping must also be wrong. To make these relationships between sectors even clearer, we can visually represent this accounting identity in the following financial balances map as displayed below.

On the vertical axis we track the fiscal balance, and on the horizontal axis we track the current account balance. If we rearrange the financial balance identity as follows, we can also introduce the domestic private sector financial balance to the map:

Domestic Private Sector Financial Balance = Current Account Balance - Fiscal Balance

That means at every point on this map where the current account balance is equal to the fiscal balance, we know the domestic private sector financial balance must equal zero. In other words, the income of households and businesses just matches their expenditures (or alternatively, if you prefer, the saving out of income flows by the domestic private sector just matches the investment expenditures of the sector). The dotted line that passes through the origin at a 45 degree angle marks off the range of possible combinations where the domestic private sector is neither net issuing financial liabilities to other sectors, nor is it net accumulating financial assets from other sectors.

But all choices are not equal here. If your domestic sector businesses run a deficit very long, unless they are subsidized by the government, they will go out of business. It also becomes obvious that exporting businesses to China has its drawbacks, especially when the country is increasingly reliant on imported oil to run its economy, as that means that your remaining domestic business sector had better remain profitable because if it loses money, (DPS deficit), at the same time as your trade balance is negative, (Current Account Deficit), your government sector budget, (Fiscal Balance), has to be in deficit. It is no longer a matter of choice. That choice was made when the manufacturing was shipped overseas and no alternate domestic energy source was developed.

Deficit spending is not a matter of morality but of basic accounting. The choices were made when Wall Street was allowed to export our consumer manufacturing so as to be able to generate temporary profits to the financial sector. This is why Bruce McF has extolled the virtues of an export oriented economy.

The Three Sector Financial Balances Map also reveals the extent to which Wall Street has sold out the citizens of the USA for their own short term profits. My question is this: How could >90% of the economists in the USA go along with policies that turned the USA into a country with a permanent balance of trade, or current account deficit? And how can it be said that any of the Secretaries of the Treasury, Chairmen of the Federal Reserve Board and Chairmen of relevant committees in both houses of Congress be said to have acted in the national interest since at least 1980?

Parthenau proceeds to apply these considerations to the current situation in Europe and elsewhere, especially with regard to the looming problems with Commercial Real Estate re-finance. For that, see the article.

As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

FT.com / Companies / Financial Services - Hedge funds raise bets against euro

Hedge funds are raising their bets against the euro amid growing fears of a regulatory backlash against their trading positions on the specific sovereign debt of Greece and other weak eurozone economies.

Many of the world's biggest hedge funds have become increasingly concerned about fierce criticism by European politicians that their country bets have heightened the crisis of confidence in some markets.

Lord Turner, the chairman of the Financial Services Authority, the UK market regulator, on Tuesday became the latest heavyweight figure to add his support to an investigation into speculative positions in financial instruments that gain from a fall in prices of sovereign and corporate debt.

...

...market positions against the euro, which on Tuesday hit a fresh nine-month low against the dollar, as a whole are up sharply.

The manager of one multi-billion London-based fund said: "Hedge funds are now expressing the same view on the weaknesses of individual eurozone countries via the euro".

Greek Budget-Busting Outweighed Effect of Swaps Such as Goldman's - WSJ.com

Greece's current crisis -- which has weakened the euro and sown concerns about the debt levels of some other European countries -- shows Europe's political ambitions for a broad euro are clashing with economic realities. It also suggests Greece's economic success was partly a mirage created by misreported economic statistics.

This is a consequence of a weakness that economists and historians say was built into the common currency at birth: the lack of a coordinated fiscal policy to go with monetary union. <...> Once a country is in the currency, little can be done to a wayward member because the euro's architects built in no real means of enforcement.  That's in part because of a compromise made in a 1996 European summit in Dublin that placed the decision whether to levy fines on errant governments with other EU governments. That was a victory for Jacques Chirac, then French president, over German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, who wanted the fines to be automatic. Since then no country has been fined. <...>

The lax attitude to fiscal rules began early. Eager to get the euro in place in the late 1990s, EU leaders decided 1997 would be the key year. If everyone could meet the targets for that year, the currency could be launched. <...>

In short, says Vassilis Monastiriotis of the London School of Economics, Greece "failed to internalize the logic of the euro zone--which is fiscal discipline."

A fiscal discipline exemplified by France and Germany:

In the face of an economic downturn, others joined the Greeks. France and Germany breached the deficit limit in 2002, 2003 and 2004, setting the example that even the bloc's economic powerhouses didn't have to play by the rules. In 2003, the Netherlands and Italy did too. "When Germany and France got into difficulty, there was not a strong reaction from the European Union," says Jean-Luc Dehaene, a former Belgian prime minister. Finance ministers decided on the response, and "they tend to make a political decision," he says.

Of the 12 early members of the euro, all but Belgium, Luxembourg and Finland have overrun the budget rule at least once. Finally, under political pressure, the norms were softened in 2005 to allow the deficit limit to be breached in an economic downturn.

The march of civilizations is a series of defenses that man has put up against the dread of pure existence.

I do not really know where to put this... I guess economy is as good a place as any other. This is one of the most outrageous articles I have ever read.
The Huffington post: WSJ Columnist Attributes Low Death Toll In Chile Quake To Friedman, Pinochet.
The name of the asshole is Bret Stephen, ex Jerusalem Post now WSJ.

BBC News - Bachelet urges Chile earthquake survivors to stay calm

Chile's president has appealed for calm in the earthquake-ravaged city of Concepcion, vowing a stern response to any renewal of looting and violence.

Michelle Bachelet says 14,000 troops are now in the region, after dozens of people were arrested on Monday.

A BBC reporter in Concepcion says police are now posted on street corners in the city centre, but says that aid convoys are yet to reach the needy.

The death toll from the 8.8-magnitude quake now stands at 795, officials say.

Emergency workers also say 19 people are still unaccounted for.

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.

BBC News - Gunmen shoot Nepal publisher dead in southern town

Unidentified gunmen have shot dead a newpaper publisher in the latest attack on the media in Nepal.

Arun Singhaniya was shot at point blank range by four attackers on motorbikes in the southern town of Janakpur near the Indian border.

It is not cleared who attacked him. He published a popular newspaper and owned a radio station in the town.

Journalists say political instability in Nepal has led to an increase in intimidation and attacks on the press.

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.

Al Jazeera English - Africa - Deadly landslide hits Uganda

A landslide has struck eastern Uganda following heavy rains,  killing at least 80 people and leaving hundreds missing, the country's minister for disaster preparedness has said.

National media reported that the landslide engulfed an entire village, burying many homes, in the eastern Bududa district - near mount Elgon on Monday night.

The head of the Uganda chapter of Red Cross, an international humanitarian organisation, said that up to 350 people have gone missing and are feared buried by the landslide.

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.

Al Jazeera English - Africa - Niger transitional government named

The leaders of Niger's military coup have named a transitional government of 20 ministers.

Major Salou Djibo, the leader of the coup which ousted Mamadou Tandja, Niger's president, announced the formation of the provisional cabinet on state television on Monday.

The line-up includes five military officers, but aside from the defence ministry, now headed by General Mamadou Ousseini, the other soldiers have been appointed to relatively minor departments.

Mahamadou Danda, the civilian prime minister who has urged the coup leaders to ensure a swift return to democratic rule, keeps the job he was handed last month.

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.

Al Jazeera English - Asia-Pacific - Xinjiang fighter 'killed by drone'

The leader of a Chinese separatist movement, believed to have links with al-Qaeda, has been killed in a US missile strike, Pakistani and Taliban officials have said.

Abdul Haq al-Turkistani was apparently killed in an American drone attack in Pakistan's North Waziristan province, close to the border with Afghanistan.

He was leader of the Turkistani Islamic Party, which has been designated as a terrorist group by the US government.

Al-Turkistani had accused Chinese authorities of committing "barbaric massacres" of Muslims in China's western Xinjiang region, and has called for attacks on Chinese people.

The Chinese foreign ministry said it is aware of al-Turkistani's reported death, but cannot confirm it.

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.

Dubai has asked the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation to look into prepaid cards issued by the Meta Financial Group's MetaBank which the suspects used, a United Arab Emirates newspaper said.

Citing an FBI source, The National newspaper said the investigation would look into any Israeli involvement in the killing. "Thirteen of the 27 suspects used prepaid MasterCards issued by MetaBank, a regional American bank, to purchase plane tickets and book hotel rooms," the newspaper said, quoting Dubai police.

MetaBank said it followed proper procedures when it issued the cards. Authorities told the bank that the suspects appeared to have used stolen passports to get employment with U.S. companies, MetaBank said in a statement on Tuesday. The companies paid the employees with prepaid cards issued by MetaBank and other banks.

MetaBank said it had launched its own review of the matter, and had so far found that it followed all bank and regulatory requirements. The suspects authorities had identified were not on any list that would indicate [?!?!] their identities were fraudulent, it said.

Read more...

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

Chilean Quake May Have Shortened Earth Days - NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

The Feb. 27 magnitude 8.8 earthquake in Chile may have shortened the length of each Earth day.

JPL research scientist Richard Gross computed how Earth's rotation should have changed as a result of the Feb. 27 quake. Using a complex model, he and fellow scientists came up with a preliminary calculation that the quake should have shortened the length of an Earth day by about 1.26 microseconds (a microsecond is one millionth of a second).

Perhaps more impressive is how much the quake shifted Earth's axis. Gross calculates the quake should have moved Earth's figure axis (the axis about which Earth's mass is balanced) by 2.7 milliarcseconds (about 8 centimeters, or 3 inches). Earth's figure axis is not the same as its north-south axis; they are offset by about 10 meters (about 33 feet).

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.

Chandra :: Field Guide to X-ray Sources :: Cosmology/Deep Fields/X-ray Background

Before Chandra, when X-ray telescopes observed the sky, it was not dark between the points of X-ray light. Rather, a uniform background glow was apparent, similar to the diffuse glow produced by the lights from a distant city.

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.

Food Democracy Now - ACT TODAY! Or Kiss Your Organics Goodbye!

After years of bureaucratic wrangling, a recent USDA environmental review may finally approve Monsanto's GMO alfalfa. If approved, GMO alfalfa will fundamentally undermine the entire organic industry overnight. In addition, the USDA says Americans consumers don't care about the contamination of organics. ACT TODAY: comments are due by close of business Wednesday, March 3rd.

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.

Nuclear projects face financial obstacles - washingtonpost.com

Hopes for a nuclear revival, fanned by fears of global warming and a changing political climate in Washington, are running into new obstacles over a key element -- money.

A new approach for easing the cost of new multibillion-dollar reactors, which can take years to complete, has provoked a backlash from big-business customers unwilling to go along.

Financing has always been one of the biggest obstacles to a renaissance of nuclear power. The plants are expensive, and construction tends to run late and over budget. The projected cost for a pair of proposed Georgia plants would be $14 billion; the Obama administration last month pledged to provide them with $8.3 billion in federal loan guarantees.

So utilities have turned to state legislators and regulators to help contain capital costs. In states such as Georgia, Florida and South Carolina, utilities have won permission to charge customers for some of the cost of new reactors while construction is still in progress -- a financing technique that would save utilities a couple of billion dollars for each reactor. Previously, utilities had to wait until power plants were in operation before raising rates, as they still do in most states.

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.

BBC News - Etched ostrich eggs illustrate human sophistication

Inscribed ostrich shell fragments found in South Africa are among the earliest examples of the use of symbolism by modern humans, scientists say.

The etched shells from Diepkloof Rock Shelter in Western Cape have been dated to about 60,000 years ago.

Details are reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The researchers, who have investigated the material since 1999, argue that the markings are almost certainly a form of messaging - of graphic communication.

"The motif is two parallel lines, which we suppose were circular, but we do not have a complete refit of the eggs," explained Dr Pierre-Jean Texier from the University of Bordeaux, Talence, France

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.

BBC News - German court orders stored telecoms data deletion

Vast amounts of telephone and e-mail data held in Germany must be deleted, the country's highest court has ruled.

The constitutional court overturned a 2008 law requiring communications data to be kept for six months.

The law - designed to combat terrorism and serious crime - required telecoms companies to keep logs of calls, faxes, SMS messages, e-mails and internet use.

But nearly 35,000 Germans lodged complaints against it, arguing that the law violated their right to privacy.

Responding to the thousands of formal complaints, Germany's constitutional court described the law as a "particularly serious infringement of privacy in telecommunications".

However, it did not rule against data retention in principle

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.

The Twitter "Bomb Hoax" case: worse than we thought? | Opinion | The Lawyer

An apparent bomb hoax should be taken seriously.  But the charging and prosecution of Paul Chambers for making an ill-conceived joke on Twitter raises serious issues for anyone interested in social media and the role of criminal law; for Paul Chambers was not charged or prosecuted - at least not directly - for making a bomb hoax at all. 

And what he was charged and prosecuted for suggests that a significant injustice may be occurring, and which may occur again for other bloggers, twitterers, commenters, and other users of the internet.  Indeed, it may affect anyone who sends an email, even if there is a delivery failure

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.

Apple sues HTC over iPhone patents | Technology | guardian.co.uk

Apple is suing the Taiwanese handset maker HTC, alleging that it has infringed 20 patents relating to "the iPhone's user interface, underlying architecture and hardware".

Among the patents that Apple alleges have been infringed are a number relating to touchscreen interfaces - for which the iPhone has become the best-known, though it was not the first, mobile device.

"We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We've decided to do something about it," said Steve Jobs, Apple's chief executive, in a statement. "We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours."

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.

Sir Clive Sinclair: "I don't use a computer at all" | Technology | The Observer

Thirty years ago this month, Clive Sinclair launched a computer that he hoped would change the world. In the majority of cases it only changed the way people played primitive computer games, but it also turned a bespectacled, prematurely balding man into a hero for our times.

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.

DARPA wants military iPhone and Android apps * The Register

Bandwagon-bothering boffins at everyone's favourite military tech hothouse DARPA have announced that they would like some apps written for the iPhone or for handsets running Google's Android OS - "with potential relevance to the military specifically and the national security community more generally".

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.

BBC confirms death of 6Music, slashes online budget by a quarter * The Register

The BBC plans to axe its 6Music digital radio channel by the end of 2011 as part of a pledge made by the Corporation's director-general to cut costs at the Beeb.

The BBC Trust published the BBC's 79-page strategy review this morning. It was leaked to the press last week.

Under the proposals, which are now subject to a 12-week public consultation by the BBC Trust, around £600m-a-year will be redirected into "high-quality" programmes.

"Accepting the critical role that it must play in driving audiences to adopt digital radio, the BBC should nonetheless maintain its overall levels of investment in original radio content aimed specifically at digital services," said the review, which is subject to BBC Trust approval.

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.

A newspaper in Cyprus has just posted  an article on the manchineel, a deadly Caribbean tree which is in the process of eradication because of fears of how it may harm tourists. Poor manchineel. It is a threat, but it is beautiful--and an important part of our heritage. You can read more here:

"Beware of the man who does not talk, and the dog that does not bark." Cheyenne

Electric Politics | False Consciousness

One does not have to believe in utopian Marxist claptrap to suspect that in coining the term "false consciousness," Marx, or more likely Engels, scored a bull's eye. Why do people believe the things they do, even when their cherished ideas may be contrary to their own material interests?

In the United States, possible answers lie readily at hand for those who would look:

* American Exceptionalism: most advanced industrial counties, at least since the Second World War, no longer have an overarching system of socializing their young in a mystical national creed. They do not have a social belief system that says, subliminally, "my country is ipso facto and by the laws of God and Nature the best in the world. Accordingly, if other countries appear to have an advantage in some industrial technique, governmental policy, or social custom, I shall not study what they are doing with a view to improving my own country's position. No, I shall rearrange the facts to fit my preconception that America is the chosen nation."

* American anti-intellectualism: the United States periodically undergoes bouts of anti-intellectual sentiment, as Richard Hofstadter documented in his book Anti-intellectualism in American Life. Facts are stubborn things, and so often they puncture fond illusions. Best to ignore them, and stick with folk wisdom, or the "gut." This sort of behavior reached an apotheosis during the Bush administration, where militarily invading countries based on gut instinct, rather than ascertainable facts, was elevated to the level of a national security strategy.

"Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do." Jim Hightower

LAist: Documentary following kayakers in the L.A. river premieres tomorrow

There's something extremely exciting about this documentary. A group of activists in 2008 went out to Los Angeles River and kayaked it from the Valley to the Ocean--that's about 51 miles--challenging the government's contention that, save for less than four miles, it is not a navigable waterway, therefore ineligible to fall within the Clean Water Act.

Maybe we can eventually make language a complete impediment to understanding. -Hobbes

Abuse Case Rouses India's Middle Class - NYTimes.com

Ruchika Girotra's ordeal is hardly unique. Girls are molested all the time in India; powerful officials often abuse their office to avoid criminal prosecution; sclerotic courts are painfully slow and often corrupt.

But the case is emblematic of the way India's growing middle class, egged on by a lively news media hungry for sensational stories, is increasingly unwilling to accept these seemingly immutable truths and willing to fight back.

And increasingly the courts of law and public opinion have forced the government to act against the grossest abuses of power. The fight for justice for Ruchika has become a symbol of middle-class rage at a broken system.

"This was a cute girl from a middle-class family," said Ranjana Kumari, a leading women's rights advocate and director of the Center for Social Research in New Delhi. "The media, the activist groups and eventually the politicians could no longer ignore it. It has become a symbol of everything that is wrong with India."

The march of civilizations is a series of defenses that man has put up against the dread of pure existence.

Royal row 'threatens alternative medicine research' - Times Online

One of the world's leading centres for alternative medicine research is facing closure for lack of money after a row with a senior aide to the Prince of Wales.

The influential unit at the University of Exeter headed by Edzard Ernst, Britain's first Professor of Complementary Medicine, will shut next spring unless a new financial backer can be found, The Times has learnt.

Professor Ernst, whose work has been critical of the claims made for some alternative remedies such as homeopathy, blamed its uncertain future on a lack of support from his university since he clashed publicly with Prince Charles's office five years ago.

In 2005, The Times disclosed that the scientist had attacked the Smallwood report advocating complementary medicine, commissioned by the Prince, as "outrageous and deeply flawed". This prompted a formal complaint from Sir Michael Peat, the Prince's private secretary, who accused Professor Ernst of discussing a document he had been shown in confidence.

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.

Money matters in Eve Online game

Of all the economists in Iceland Dr Eyjolfur Gudmundsson has the most unlikely vantage point from which to observe the tribulations of the financial markets: deep space.

Dr Gudmundsson is the lead economist for CCPgames, the company responsible for Eve Online a sci-fi themed Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game with more than 300,000 players.

It is similar in concept to the BBC micro classic Elite and puts trading of commodities and manufactured goods at the centre of the game.
From CCP's headquarters in Reykjavik, Dr Gudmundsson monitors Eve's in-game economy, watching the price of raw materials or the latest type of ship with the same rigour that other economists watch the price of copper or coffee.

<snip>

In Dr Gudmundsson's personal view, it's possible to discern lessons in how future global crises may be avoided, from the economic behaviour of the Eve population. His main belief is that greater transparency would help individuals make better economic decisions.

"We should trust people in making their own decisions. People do make the good choices when they have the right information. More transparency is definitely something we need in the real life.

You can't be me, I'm taken

BBC News - Texas 'rapist' granted state's first posthumous pardon

The governor of the US state of Texas, Rick Perry, has posthumously pardoned a man who had died in jail after being wrongly convicted of rape.

It is the first time Texas has issued a posthumous pardon.

In 1986, Tim Cole was sentenced for the rape of a student. He always maintained he was innocent, right up to his death.

He had spent 13 years in prison when he died of an asthma attack in 1999. His innocence was proved by DNA tests nearly 10 years later.

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.

BBC News - Wales star Andy Powell admits 'golf buggy' charge

Wales rugby star Andy Powell has been banned from driving for 15 months after admitting driving a golf buggy while unfit through drink.

Powell was arrested at services at junction 33 of the M4 near the team hotel in the Vale of Glamorgan.

He was taken into custody with another man hours after a Six Nations match.

Powell pleaded guilty before Cardiff magistrates and as well as the ban, was fined £1,000 and ordered to pay £85 costs and a £15 victim surcharge.

Powell's lawyer Conrad Gadd told the court Powell, from Brecon, already admitted he had been "foolish".

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.

BBC News - From political maverick to historical footnote

So who was Scotland's first female MP?

It sounds a bit like an obscure question in a Caledonian Trivial Pursuit.

I've got a degree in modern history, I'm a former BBC political correspondent and I'm fairly confident I know more than a little about Scottish politics. But it was a question I struggled to answer.

When I went to the Scottish parliament to ask today's politicians, I found that they too had real difficulty in trying to name her.

Perhaps she was a red Clydesider? Or a Scottish suffragette?

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.

Incest Warning: Knut Should be Castrated, Animal Rights Group Says - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International

As if Berlin Zoo's polar bear star Knut hasn't had enough upheaval in his life, animal rights group PETA demanded on Tuesday that he should be castrated to avoid him inbreeding with his girlfriend Giovanna. The two apparently share the same grandfather. The demand is likely to outrage his many fans.

Knut the celebrity polar bear has been through a lot in his young life. First he was abandoned by his mother. Then animal rights campaigners reportedly called for him to be put down rather than face an unnatural childhood being hand-reared.

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.

Drinking to forget can have the oppositve effect and lead to more painful memories - Telegraph

Researchers found suffering a trauma after one or two drinks meant your brain remembered only snapshots without the "context" that made them more understandable.

That meant the memory was more painful and more likely to cause distress, said the scientists at University College London.

However in those that have drunk seven or more units of alcohol - four or five drinks - the memory was completely obliterated.

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.

http://crispian-jago.blogspot.com/2010/03/twat-in-hat.html

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.