ch.annel2-i.s-n.ow-a.ngry

Any article about Manuel Antonio Noriega Moreno (more commonly known as Manuel Noriega) should contain a reference to his career in the CIA, as well as United States support for the early years of his dictatorship. I see Reuters conveniently omits that choice bit of information. It took 30 seconds to look it up on Wikipedia, and another 10 seconds to confirm such information from Encyclopedia.com. Wiki has been proven to be near or on par with Britannica, and is certainly more detailed than Encyclopedia.com.  They talk about his war crimes in Panama and various conflicts, but make no mention that the CIA trained him before that. An important fact in any discussion about Noriega.

How quickly history becomes history.

UK scientists call EU biofuel policy a ‘mistake.’ They go on to say that carbon mitigation from biofuels is less than just growing new forest on the lands where biofuels would be produced, because the forests will absorb more carbon than the biofuel will mitigate carbon from fossil fuels.

What they didn’t mention, however, is how much carbon the biofuels will mitigate while growing. Yeah, because all plants eat CO2 when they grow. The more they eat, the bigger they grow. This factor must also be taken into account, even if for nothing else than to say that it’s negligible.

I think it would be neat to invent a way to easily screen (you’d probably have to use nanotech materials that are at least ten years away) a greenhouse so it admits 2-3 times the normal amount of CO2 in comparison to O2 or N2. Your greenhouse would grow 2-3 times as normal AND eat 2-3 times the normal amount of  CO2 it would normaly have eaten. Then you get 2-3 times as much biofuel and extra net carbon mitigation Of course, we’d have to find low-carbon way of harvesting all this greenhouse grown biofuel (and if we do it hydroponically, it’ll be 3-5 times the crop size or we’ll just be able to crop 2-3 times faster) that doesn’t increase carbon too much, plus a way of making the greenhouse that isn’t too carbon intensive. Maybe we can make it out of carbon nanotube material, then it’ll be harder than diamond and easy to clean, and never fall apart. If it’s made out of carbon, that’s less carbon that can go into the atmosphere (especially if it’s the type harder than diamond, which will probably outlast humans before it erodes and re-enters the atmosphere).

We could take modern day threshers and build them to greehouse scale, have a greenhouse designed with rows to be threshed, and have a mini-thresher attached to a mobile conveyor belt or tube of some sort, and just have it go down the rows and thresh. If we do it right, we can probably top the grass or whatever every week or two, and let it grow back. We can have what’s referred to as a ‘rotating’ garden or ‘cycle’ garden, where the harvest and grow cycle are continuous except for cleaning and other maintenance. The grass will grow back unless it’s roots are killed or a catastrophic failure of the grow system or greenhouse occurs (pests, disease, oil leaks etc.)

Depending on how much light is needed, you could shade part of the top of the greenhouse with semi-translucent solar arrays, or a patchwork of non-translucent solar arrays designed to give optimal light reduction. You can then power the greenhouse from the solar, and your only carbon output will be from the humans breathing in there.

Of course, this is 50-100 years away from being practical. Even longer when you consider the sabre-rattling state of the world which hinders civilian progress for the sake of military might. If we didn’t waste our brains and precious few young person resources killing or being killed, imagine what the world might actually be like. If we switch to a sustainability model, the earth has plenty enough space to support us until we begin colonizing space and the rest of the solar systems before we use this backwater as a diving board for galactic exploration.

Oh my yes, if we live long enough we will certainly do that. We’ll have to.

“The military said an aircraft fired a Hellfire missile at two gunmen on the roof of the Sunni Arab mosque in the town of Tarmiya on Thursday after ordering everyone inside to evacuate.”

“He said the mosque sustained only minor damage in the operation in which 20 people were detained. The U.S. combat outpost had been repeatedly attacked by gunmen in the mosque since May, he added.”

If a Hellfire missile, when fired at the roof of a church barely causes any damage, why are they called ‘Hellfire?’ Shouldn’t they be something more like ‘Heckfire’ or maybe ‘Matchstickfire?’

“Two countries have been removed from the list in recent years: Iraq in 2003, after the U.S.-led ouster of Saddam Hussein, and Libya last year after Tripoli renounced weapons of mass destruction and the use of terrorism.”

And here I thought the AP would be a source of good information. Well, I can’t find anything except dubious “government sources” with a google of Iraq terrorist support. Notice how the “government sources” quote Iraq’s involvement in al Qaeda, which has been proven to be a lie.

Two words: Governments lie. They have interests to protect and a vested interest in getting their way. They lie the same way businesses lie. You heard about the Utah mine collapse, where the mine owner insists it was ‘an earthquake’ and not unsafe mine practices that killed the men he’s looking for (and killed the men that are looking for his men). He’s lying. USGS recorded no seismic activity except for the shock of the mines collapsing.

Speaking of government lies, I did, however, find a VERY interesting propaganda website from our government while searching for Iraq terrorism sponsorship:  Defend America,  which is run by the U.S. military.

I’m still experimenting with this Wordpress thing, so pardon me if I fuck shit up to hell occasionally. I’ll probably be fiddling with the CSS and may from time to time break things. And I’m bad at backing things up so I usually end up fixing them the hard way.

ciao

I like, how, when George W. Bush finally wins an election with a bare 51% of the vote, that’s considered a mandate of the people and gives him free reign to request and pretty much do anything he wants, but when Hugo Chavez gets elected with 62.87% of the vote and we get from our Elder Brother media:

“President Hugo Chavez proposed a constitutional change on Wednesday to reduce Venezuela’s maximum workday to six hours as part of broader legal changes to advance his self-styled socialist revolution.”

That’s right, 62% makes you self-styled, 51% gives you a ‘mandate.’ Make what you will of this.

The report found that the challenge for Western authorities was to identify, pre-empt and prevent home-grown threats, which was difficult because many of those who might undertake an attack often commit no crimes along the path to extremism.

Seriously. Just stop fucking with their homelands. And they will stop fucking with us. How many al Qaeda threats did we have before we invaded the Middle East and started stationing troops in Saudi Arabia, propping up their dictatorship? Oh, right none, the only ones we had were from places like Iran, whose government we had toppled back in the 50s, and a few smaller nations (that we were probably interfering with for oil ‘rights’ anyway).

There was no such thing as radical Islam until we created it. It’s our term. We call out an American Crusade (George W. Bush has actually called our invasion and massacre of Afghani civilians a ‘crusade’), they call out Jihad.  Is our civilization really that myopic and born-yesterday that we swallow this shit whole and smile afterwards? Some Americans still believe Sadam was butt-banging bin Laden while the Trade Centers were falling. Some still believe we will find those WMDs (that even our government has admitted was lies). Some still believe we will bring about Iraqi freedom and not Iraqis.

We didn’t bring freedom to Cambodia, we didn’t bring freedom to Korea, we didn’t bring freedom to Vietnam, we didn’t bring freedom to Grenada, we didn’t bring freedom to Nicaragua, we didn’t bring freedom to Cuba. In fact, I’m not sure we’ve actually brought any ‘freedom’ to any country we’ve invaded militarily, and we’re taking away freedom at home. I am a voice of dissent to the political power elite and the plutarchy that controls our land. It’s a good thing I don’t make international calls, or I might be being spied upon by our good ol’ acronym stew of gov organizations. Or wait, do I have to make international calls to be spied upon? Only time will tell. I guess, in another 6 months when the law is over, Congress will do some ‘oversight’ and tell us that it’s all good, they caught some terrorists and no real Americans were spied upon and that we don’t need to know any details but they’re making the law permanent anyway.

See, now they’re fucking with our homeland, and it’s gonna start pissing people off. I guess that’s where the radicalization comes in. People come here seeking freedom, only to find out that because they’re an immigrant or of foreign (read: Middle Eastern) descent that they are targets (our government’s own term) for communicating with their family back home.

The American government is at threat level Orange. The American populace is at threat level Stupid. Or maybe that’s just threat level Apathetic. We’re told we can vote every two years and that’s the only say we should have in how our country runs. We’ve elected some rich stranger and he’s an honest old guy that would never do anything to hurt you, right?

Right?

The United States, Burns said, considers “this $30 billion in assistance to Israel to be an investment in peace, in long-term peace — peace cannot be made without strength”.

You cannot pour gasoline onto a fire and expect it to go out. I honestly don’t know what else can be said about this issue that hasn’t already been said by greater minds. We bomb civilians and arm those who bomb civilians. We can abuse English and call them “military targets” but that does not obviate the fact that they are indeed civilians dying in these ‘wars’ we and others wage.

But you’re not gonna find that in American media.

We are so going to go to war with Iran, and it will be a huge mistake. We are going to go in trumpeting WMD or “They might possibly want to make a weapon,” as the excuse changed to in Iraq after no real WMDs were found. Then the excuse changed to, “we must liberate the Iraqis.” Eventually, we will be ‘liberating’ Iran just as we have Afghanistan and Iraq. How many more hundreds of thousands must die before we wake up and see that violence against a nation will not stop terrorists.

If Soviet Russia had invaded the U.S. and dropped bombs everywhere, would we not rise up against them with any way possible? Would we not become terrorists ourselves if we had no other way of fighting off an invading force?  I bet you we would. I mean, basically, if you look at the Revolutionary War, that’s what we did. From the perspective of our mother country, anyway. I can assure you the monarchy of England was not telling their people what brave freedom fighters we were; instead I’m guessing we were demonized at treasonous cowards and traitors to the crown. But other nations helped us, European nations helped us.

A look at history can bring about a radical shift in perspective on current events, no?

“About 253,000 Pixar Sarge die-cast toy cars with lead paint were also recalled. Lead has been linked to health problems in children, including brain damage.

Earlier this month Mattel’s Fisher-Price unit recalled about 1.5 million preschool toys made by China-based contract manufacturer Lida Toy Co. because the paint on the toys might contain excessive amounts of lead. The global recall included products based on popular preschool characters from ‘Sesame Street’ and ‘Dora the Explorer.’”

Seriously, what is a safe amount of lead in paint on children’s toys?

Oh, right, NONE.

“Like mercury, another heavy metal, lead is a potent neurotoxin which accumulates in soft tissues and bone over time.”

Seriously, US media, this kind of information took me like 5 seconds to look up. All you have to do is find it, then fact-check it. Even dictionary.com mentions it’s toxic.

“lead poisoning or plumbism, intoxication of the system by organic compounds containing lead. These enter the body by respiration (of dust, fumes, or sprays) or by ingestion of food or other substances that contain lead. Lead poisoning, formerly a leading occupational hazard in industrialized countries, can be an acute episode but is usually a chronic, cumulative disease brought about by continuous exposure.”

And I’m quite sure Reuters employs much better sources of information like Lexis-Nexis or whatever the current shit-hot for-pay vetted information systems are employed today.

Oh! A paragraph on the dangers of lead. Sort of.

“Nancy Nord, acting chairwoman of the CPSC, said the new recall was made especially large to prevent injuries from the toys.

“‘There is absolutely no excuse for lead to be found in toys entering this country,’ she said. ‘It is totally unacceptable and it needs to stop. This agency is going to take whatever action it needs to take to address that problem aggressively.’”

The CPSC is the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

So I wonder, exactly, what percentage of toys that Mattel currently has on shelves this 18.5 million toys recalled represents?