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Oct 6, 2010

In blow to Obama, Guantanamo detainee trial delayed | Reuters

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Wednesday refused to let a key witness testify in the first criminal trial of a terrorism suspect from the Guantanamo Bay military prison, a setback for the Obama administration's effort to prosecute such cases.

Laptop users warned of knees damage

In one recent case, a 12-year-old boy developed a sponge-patterned skin discolouration on his left thigh after playing computer games for a few hours every day for several months.

Test tube baby hails Nobel winner

Cambridge physiologist Professor Robert Edwards developed IVF treatment with Patrick Steptoe, a gynaecologic surgeon, who died in 1988.

Nobel Prize for British IVF pioneer

Colleagues have reacted with delight to the news that British test tube baby pioneer Professor Robert Edwards has been given the Nobel Prize for medicine. Skip related content

Cambridge physiologist Prof Edwards, now 85, and Patrick Steptoe, a gynaecologic surgeon, developed IVF technology in which egg cells are fertilised outside the body and implanted in the womb. Dr Steptoe died in 1988.

Sleeping well 'helps weight loss' - Yahoo! News UK

Sleeping well 'helps weight loss'
An adequate night's sleep not only increases fat loss for a dieter but can help control feelings of hunger, a study has shown.

Smoking 'raise oral cancer risk'

Smoking 'raise oral cancer risk'
Each year the diseases, known as upper aero-digestive tract (UADT) cancers, kill 10,000 people in the UK and more than 100,000 across Europe.

Dentists jailed over patient fraud

Dentists jailed over patient fraud
Ikhlaq Hussain, 38, of College Road, Alum Rock, Birmingham, was sentenced to 30 months and Jaspal Singh Bachada, 37, of Redlake Drive, Stourbridge, was jailed for 20 months.

Lead poisoning kills 400 children in Nigeria: MSF

A Nigerian girl walks past a dismantled makeshift structure
The children died over the last six months in several villages in Zamfara state, where lead-rich run-off from illegal gold mining has entered the soil and water supply, said Medecines Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders - MSF).

New Portuguese centre seeks frontline in cancer research

General view of the amphitheater of the Champalimaud Center of the Unknown
For some, the Center's dramatic name might evoke a touch of magical realism: but with 500 million euros' (685 million dollars) funding from the will of a Portuguese industrialist, they have the means to back their vision.

World pours 11.7 billion dollars into anti-AIDS fight

The White House displays a large AIDS awareness ribbon in 2009
UN chief Ban Ki-moon announced the commitment at UN headquarters where more than 40 donor countries, private foundations, and corporations were meeting to replenish the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria for 2011 through 2013.

'Fruit and veg for healthy baby'

'Fruit and veg for healthy baby'
Experts found that women who consumed three or more daily servings of leafy vegetables in the three months prior to falling pregnant had 50% less chance of having a small baby.

Denials slow battle against Nigeria lead poisoning

Hundreds of children have died in the last six months in seven villages in Zamfara state, where lead-rich run-off from illegal gold mining has entered the soil and water supply, according to Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders - MSF).

Noisy work 'a heart disease risk'

Noisy work 'a heart disease risk' Enlarge photo
People who are exposed to long-term workplace noise - of the type that makes it difficult to hold a conversation - are two to three times more likely to have heart problems as those working in quiet environments.

Light drinking 'will not harm baby'

Light drinking 'will not harm baby
Women can safely drink a 175ml glass of wine, a 50ml glass of spirits or just under a pint of beer each week without affecting intellectual or behavioural development, according to a new study.

Nurse plan to tackle troop suicides

Additional dedicated nurses for troops and veterans with mental health problems and a 24-hour helpline are to be introduced to tackle the "national scandal" of post-conflict suicides, Liam Fox has announced.

Why Don't ICDs Prevent Sudden Cardiac Death After Recent MI?: Abstract and Introduction

PSA Screening: Wait Until Age 60?

The authors did a meta-analysis of the published literature and all presentations since 2005

Where to Invest When the Stock Market Is Limping

By Dennis G. Murray

Introduction

Ready to jump ship on the stock market and put your money in a mattress?
Since 2000, the market's total return has been downright dismal: -1.6% a year, based on the Standard & Poor's 500, an index of the 500 largest US companies. Many investors wish they'd looked elsewhere instead of sticking blindly with stocks.
If you're among them, now is your chance to try to change things. With unemployment at around 10%, federal debt levels at record highs, and consumer confidence sputtering, chances are stocks won't yield anywhere near the double-digit returns that investors have taken for granted in former years. Sadly, many experts are predicting several more years of middling or negative returns.
Although you should still own some stocks -- for diversification and to avoid missing out on a rebound in the markets -- financial advisors recommend several nonstock categories of investments that might make sense for you, with the pluses and minuses of each.

Wheat, Sugar, and Hogs

Staples like corn, coffee, and soybeans come under the umbrella of "commodities," which are traded in the form of contracts on regulated exchanges. Without getting into too much detail, this essentially means that an investor, through a commodities broker, agrees to buy or sell a fixed amount of a commodity at a certain price in the future, betting that it'll go higher or lower over that time span. For example, a 1-cent change in the per-bushel price of 10,000 bushels of wheat can mean a $100 gain or loss in the value of what's known as a "futures contract."
Why now? Commodities can add a nice bit of diversification to a portfolio that's heavy on stocks and bonds. "Over long periods of time, certain commodities are a very good bet," says Steven Abernathy, chairman of The Abernathy Group in New York City. "China is industrializing, and it probably has 20-plus years to go. That means they'll be spending a lot on basic building commodities -- lumber, steel, cement, and the like."
A low-cost way to invest in commodities is through shares in iPath Dow Jones-AIG Commodity Index Total Return.It's an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that follows the Dow Jones-UBS Commodity Index, which is comprised of futures contracts on 19 major commodities, including gold, aluminum, cattle, cotton, and wheat. The ETF is up 7.5% since September 2009; the ticker symbol is DJP. The Website is: http://www.ipathetn.com/DJP-overview.jsp.
Cautions: Scammers have infiltrated the commodities business, with cold-call promises of quick and dirty profits with little or no risk. As the old saying goes, "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is." If you have any doubts about a commodities-related solicitation, check with the National Futures Association, a self-regulatory organization, to see if the company or broker in question is registered to trade futures contracts. The Website is at: www.nfa.futures.org. Go to the Broker/Firm Information link. The site also offers a Webcast on the different types of scams that are most popular these days, plus tips on how to protect yourself. To learn more about investing in commodities, plus questions to ask anyone who is selling them, check out http://www.nasaa.org/investor_education/Investor_Alerts___Tips/

The Peoples Voice News, Oct 06, 2010

Permalink Firefighters Watch as Home Burns to the Ground - Video

OBION COUNTY, Tenn. - Imagine your home catches fire but the local fire department won't respond, then watches it burn. That's exactly what happened to a local family tonight. A local neighborhood is furious after firefighters watched as an Obion County, Tennessee, home burned to the ground. The homeowner, Gene Cranick, said he offered to pay whatever it would take for firefighters to put out the flames, but was told it was too late. They wouldn't do anything to stop his house from burning. Each year, Obion County residents must pay $75 if they want fire protection from the city of South Fulton. But the Cranicks did not pay. The mayor said if homeowners don't pay, they're out of luck.

Permalink Want To Know If The FBI Is Tracking You? Look For One Of These

Want to know if the government is really tracking you? If you find one of these tucked underneath your car, you can start freaking out. A routine visit to the mechanic by a Redditor and his friend turned up this ominous-looking device nestled right next to the exhaust on his friend’s car.

Permalink MY LETTER TO NEIL SEDAKA TO BOYCOTT ISRAEL WAS IGNORED

Back in June I wrote an open letter to Neil Sedaka asking him to reconsider a planned concert he had scheduled in Israel. The concert will go ahead as planned. Details can be read HERE, followed by the letter I wrote to him…. AN OPEN LETTER TO NEIL SEDAKA TO BOYCOTT APARTHEID

Permalink Bank bailout supporters struggling for re-election

The government's giant bank bailout may well have averted a second Great Depression, economists say, but a lot of voters aren't buying it. Support for the program is turning into a kiss of death for many in Congress. Longtime Republican lawmakers — tarred by their votes for the emergency aid to banks, insurance and auto companies — have been sent packing in primaries. Fresh political attack ads are lambasting candidates from both parties for supporting the $700 billion package that Republican President George W. Bush pushed through Congress at the height of the financial crisis in October 2008.

Permalink Israeli army kidnapped 485 Palestinians last month

A statistics report issued by Palestine’s supreme national committee to support prisoners said Israeli occupation forces have ramped up in this last month of September arrest campaigns against Palestinians, confirming 485 arrests, mostly in occupied Al-Quds.

Permalink Young adults from 'Generation Y' bombarded by more images of death than any previous generation

Young people in their teens and 20s have seen more pictures of death than any previous generation, the Church of England said today.
It cited television images of the destruction of the Twin Towers, the execution of hostages in Iraq, memorial websites and assisted deaths of the terminally ill.

Permalink Chavez goes to war against Uncle Sam

Plans to nationalise the Vestey meat empire's Venezuelan estates are a blow to one of the UK's richest families. In 1903, two entrepreneurial Liverpudlian brothers arrived in Caracas determined to add to their burgeoning empire of foreign food producers by buying Venezuelan cattle ranches. Over the next decade, William and Edmund Vestey added 11 ranches covering thousands of hectares of prime pasture to a list of holdings that ranged from egg processing plants in China to beef herds in Madagascar.

Permalink Dissent in the age of Obama

Peace activists had high hopes of an Obama presidency only to face the harsh realities of FBI raids and intimidation. Recently, the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) raided the homes of at least eight anti-war/social justice activists here in the US. I happen to be a prominent anti-war activist myself, and have joked that I am a “little hurt” that I was not raided and perhaps I should try harder. Even though, we have the urge to try and be light-hearted in this time of an increasing police state, with civil liberties on the retreat, it really isn't funny considering that the activists could face some serious charges stemming from these raids.

10/04/10

Permalink DOJ Urges Citizens to Report “Extremists” Handing Out Literature

If you posted an Obama Joker poster or Tea Party literature on a public bulletin board, the Justice Department is warning you are a possible terrorist. According to a hand-out distributed by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, a component of the Justice Department, “extremist literature distributed at the mall or posted on public bulletin boards” is suspicious and a potential indicator of terrorist activities.

Permalink Germans killed in Pakistan strike

Officials say five Germans among eight fighters killed in drone strike in North Waziristan. A suspected US drone strike has killed eight fighters in northwest Pakistan, with Pakistani intelligence officials saying that at least five of the the men were Germans. They also said that the eight men, killed in the raid on a mosque in Mir Ali in North Waziristan on Monday, were members of a group called Jihad Islami. But independently confirmed details of the incident were unavailable, and both the US and German governments have yet to comment on the strike.

Permalink Losing our religion

A survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life reveals some alarming results about religious knowledge in the US.Say Amen! Well, maybe not so much. This week the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life released a poll showing that Americans arguably know less about various world religions than they do about who won the disco ball on the last season of Dancing With the Stars. This shouldn’t be hugely surprising.

Permalink One Nation Under Duress - Vdeo

Charlie McGrath talks about the economic state of the nation.

Permalink Russian scientists expect increased solar radiation, not doomsday in 2012

Energy institute chief says Earth cycles point to new crisis in 2012
Russian Sects And Fringe Beliefs - Part Two: Waiting for Doomsday in the Penza Region. The scientific community does not expect the end of the world in 2012 as predicted by the Mayan Prophecy, although increased solar activity may harm satellites and endanger astronauts, a Russian doctor of physical and mathematical sciences said on Monday.

Permalink Birth of the National Security State

It is not far fetched to speculate that the United States has, over the past ten years, been sliding into a form of authoritarianism that retains only some aspects of the constitution and a limited rule of law. America’s president can, for example, commit soldiers to combat overseas without a constitutionally mandated declaration of war by congress while it is quite possible to be detained by the authorities and locked up without any prospect of trial or opportunity to defend oneself. The government even believes it can kill American citizens based only on suspicion. I prefer to think of this transformation as the National Security State because it rests on a popular consensus that liberties must be sacrificed in exchange for greater public safety from various threats, international terrorism being the most prominent. It might just as well be called the National Warfare State as it also requires constant conflict to justify its existence.

10/03/10

Permalink Gilad Atzmon Talking to Jumoke Fashola BBC Radio London - Music

I was talking this morning to Jumoke Fashola, BBC Radio London. We discussed music, Gaza, Jazza, OHE's new album, Robert Wyatt, Israel, Palestine and life in general. You may find it interesting.

Permalink Killing each Taliban soldier costs $50 Million

"Killing 20 Taliban costs $1 Billion / Killing all the Taliban would cost $1.7 Trillion" The Pentagon will not tell the public what it costs to locate, target and kill a single Taliban soldier because the price-tag is so scandalously high that it makes the Taliban appear to be Super-Soldiers. As set out in this article, the estimated cost to kill each Taliban is as high as $100 million, with a conservative estimate being $50 million. A public discussion should be taking place in the United States regarding whether the Taliban have become too expensive an enemy to defeat.

Permalink We've Got to Stamp Out Modern Slavery

Workers are powerless against the contractors used by multinationals who relocate to wherever production is cheapest. The re-emergence of slavery on ships off West Africa is profoundly shocking but it is not a surprise. Last week slavery its modern form came to light in cases of forced labour uncovered on trawlers fishing for the European market. In a haunting echo of the 18th century triangular trade, west African workers were found off the coast of Sierra Leone on board boats where they lived and worked in ships' holds with less than a metre of head height, sometimes for 18 hours a day for no pay, packed like sardines to sleep in spaces too small to stand up, with their documents taken from them and no means of escape.

Permalink $5,000,000,000,000: The Cost Each Year of Vanishing Rainforest

British scientific experts have made a major breakthrough in the fight to save the natural world from destruction, leading to an international effort to safeguard a global system worth at least $5 trillion a year to mankind. 80 per cent of the world's remaining terrestrial biodiversity live in forests. Groundbreaking new research by a former banker, Pavan Sukhdev, to place a price tag on the worldwide network of environmental assets has triggered an international race to halt the destruction of rainforests, wetlands and coral reefs.

Permalink Court overturns US tycoon's will that left fortune to Panama's poor

It was going to be the largest single charitable donation in Panama's history: more than $50m (£32m) for poor children. Wilson Lucom, a US tycoon, left most of his estate to a foundation to help the neediest people in the country where he lived until his death in 2006, aged 88. Now, four years later, after a bitter legal battle, the fortune is going to one of Panama's most powerful dynasties – including the ambassador to Britain – and the children have been left without a cent.

Permalink Deficit Fraud Rand Paul On Extending Bush's Tax Cuts: "I'm Not Seeing It As A Cost"

Last month, a spokesman for Kentucky Republican Senate nominee Rand Paul said that, if elected, Paul "will vote against and filibuster any unbalanced budget proposal in the Senate." Not only can the budget not be filibustered, but Paul is going to make balancing the budget exceedingly difficult, as he is willing to extend all of the Bush tax cuts - including those for the richest two percent of Americans - without offsetting them with spending cuts or tax increases elsewhere, for a total cost of nearly $4 trillion.

Permalink 15-year-old raped in court: Rapist gets probation, teen gets 12 months

In 2005, 15-year-old Ashley was facing trial in Manhattan Family Court for lying to police after she told officers she didn't know who had assaulted her on the way to school. As she waited in the court's holding area for her court appearance, juvenile counselor Tony "Tyson" Simmons came up to the handcuffed girl, took her in an elevator to the building's basement, and raped her. Moments later, Ashley -- who's withholding her last name for fear of reprisal -- was in the courtroom being sentenced to 12 months in prison...

Permalink Exodus of Jewish Advisors from Obama White House Likely Not an Omen of Good Things to Come

While many–understandably sick to death of watching as powerful Jewish interests voraciously chew their way into the highest centers of power both in America and throughout the world–are no doubt cheering at the announced departure of Rahm Israel Emmanuel as White House Chief of Staff, there is more reason to look at this latest development with a certain amount of apprehension than relief.

Permalink Iran ready to help nab 9/11 perpetrators

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has once again renewed a call for a probe into the 9/11 US terror attacks, insisting that facts about the event must be clearly established. The US and its allies used the September 11 incident as a pretext to come to the Middle East region and carried out whatever they wanted, President Ahmadinejad said on Sunday.

Permalink Coming Soon to You - Massive DNA Destruction

Dr. Popp, founder of the International Institute of Biophysics, at Neuss, Germany, and Dr. Lipton, of the University of Wisconsin, both confirm that modern science now realizes and recognizes that our DNA structures directly reflect our consciousness. This makes it possible for us to willfully activate what science formerly called "junk" DNA, by increasing our individual consciousnesses. By activating dormant DNA, one would likely be able to perceive life beyond the five physical senses of sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell; and one's world of spiritual intuition, discernment, judgment, and wisdom begin to develop.

Permalink Who Pays to Deny Climate Change

European organisations dedicated to challenging scientific warnings about the gravity of climate change have refused to reveal who finances their work.

Permalink China offers to buy Greek debt - Video

Prime minister Wen Jiabao says his country will support Greece and rest of euro zone to overcome financial crisis. China has offered to buy Greek government bonds, in a show of support for the country whose debt burden pushed the euro zone into a crisis. Wen Jiabao, the Chinese prime minister, made the offer on Saturday at the start of a two-day visit to Greece, his first stop in a European tour.

Permalink HOMOPHOBIA, RELIGION, AND THE COLLAPSE OF INDUSTRIAL CIVILIZATION

His face is everywhere-on the internet, on TV, and throughout print media-that gentle, timid, barely-smiling young man with red hair, glasses, and a prodigious talent for playing the classical violin. I'm talking about Tyler Clementi, the freshman student at Rutgers who suicided last week after his roommate video taped him having sex with another man then uploaded the video to You Tube for all the world to see. Four other young people killed themselves in the last three weeks because of wrenching internal conflicts regarding their sexual orientation. Their faces were not as widely seen as Tyler's, but they remain casualties of a culture in which meanness-whether related to homophobia, bullying, or demented religiosity is epidemic.

Permalink Palestinians 'will not resume talks without new freeze on settlements'

The Palestinian leadership confirmed yesterday that it would not return to direct peace negotiations with the Israelis without an extension to the now-expired freeze on settlement construction, amid determined but increasingly frustrated efforts by the Americans to keep the talks alive.

10/02/10

Permalink The rising danger of US-China trade war

The overwhelming vote on Wednesday in the US House of Representatives for a bill opening the door for punitive tariffs against China over its currency marks a dangerous step toward trade war. The legislation, directed against any country whose currency is assessed as “fundamentally undervalued,” dovetails with increasingly strident demands from within the American political establishment, particularly its so-called liberal wing, for tough trade measures against China.

Permalink Pakistani attacks on NATO tankers deepen US crisis in Af-Pak war

More than two dozen trucks and oil tankers carrying supplies for the US military offensive against Kandahar in Afghanistan were destroyed in two separate attacks Friday in southern Pakistan. The attacks compounded the crisis for the US and NATO occupation forces arising from the Pakistani government's closure the previous day of a key border crossing.

Permalink Emanuel resignation highlights crisis of Obama administration

The decision of White House Chief-of-Staff Rahm Emanuel to resign his position to run for mayor of Chicago marks the fourth departure of leading administration advisers in just over two months. Emanuel’s resignation, officially announced by Obama on Friday at a White House news conference, follows the resignations of Office of Management and Budget (OMB) head Peter Orszag on July 30, Council of Economic Advisors chair Christina Romer on September 3, and the announcement on September 21 that National Economic Council Director Lawrence Summers will step down at the end of the year.

Permalink Fraud Factories: How Banks Profit From The Foreclosure Crisis - Video

By Rep. Alan Grayson "There is one set of rules for the banks and another set of laws for everyone else"

Permalink Race to the Bottom

Long ago, before economic models developed their current levels of sophistication, it used to be that the goal of a government's economic policy was to bring prosperity to its citizens; in other words, to raise the general level of material comfort, while at the same time reducing the amount of toil required to attain that end.

Permalink Bank of America delays foreclosures in 23 states

Bank of America is delaying foreclosures in 23 states as it examines whether it rushed the foreclosure process for thousands of homeowners without reading the documents. The move adds the nation's largest bank to a growing list of mortgage companies whose employees signed documents in foreclosure cases without verifying the information in them.

Permalink Barack who? Democrats turn their backs on 'pariah' Obama

Al Gore, the former US vice-president, has become the most prominent Democrat to campaign ahead of next month's mid-term elections without mentioning President Barack Obama, the man who so inspired the party in 2008. Kendrick Meek, the Democratic candidate for the US Senate, also neglected to let Mr Obama's name pass his lips during an appearance with Mr Gore in a union hall in Florida.

Permalink Obama's Dud Svengali

Obama is losing his strong right arm. Dark days lie ahead, in which the president will lose traction with Congress, needlessly offend key constituencies, lose control of his legislative agenda. Why? His chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, is quitting the White House, prelude to a bid to become mayor of Chicago.

Permalink GI’s Brains Fried by Military Dispensed Nose Candy

Now it is official. Researchers have shown that uranium oxide, or DU, “travels the nerves from the nose to the brain,” in the words of a University of Chicago doc and researcher. A tiny amount (a milligram) of this radioactive poison quick marches up your smelling nerves right into your brain and keeps firing 1.2 Million bullets a day – forever. That’s a bunch. 850 Rounds a Minute.

Permalink The Impending Collapse of Israel in Palestine

On November 15, 1988 the Palestine National Council (P.N.C.) meeting in Algiers proclaimed the Palestinian Declaration of Independence that created the independent state of Palestine. Today the State of Palestine is bilaterally recognized de jure by about 130 states. Palestine has de facto diplomatic recognition from most of Europe. It was only massive political pressure applied by the U.S. government that prevented European states from according to Palestine de jure diplomatic recognition.

Permalink One Nation Rally on the Mal - Slide Show

Slide show of Americans gathering and speaking out during Saturday's rally on the Mal. Video: http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/Videos.php/2010/10/03/sights-and-scenes-from-the-one-nation-ra

Permalink Overcoming AIPAC is not enough

Lawrence Davidson outlines a strategy for unshackling the United States from Israel, based on melding the liberation of the US from AIPAC with the revival of American national interests in the broader Middle East and Muslim world, and with the viable future of Palestine.



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