Archive for July, 2012
Syria: Assad Brother-in-Law, Syria Defense Minister Killed in Damascus Blast
July 18th, 2012Via: Wall Street Journal: Three top military and security leaders in the Syrian regime including President Bashar al-Assad’s brother-in-law and the defense minister were killed in a bombing in Damascus on Wednesday in the biggest blow to the country’s rulers since the start of the uprising. State television said Mr. Shawkat, Defense Minister Maj. Gen. […]
Pentagon, CIA Sued for Lethal Drone Attacks on U.S. Citizens
July 18th, 2012Via: Wired: Survivors of three Americans killed by targeted drone attacks in Yemen last year sued top-ranking members of the United States government, alleging Wednesday they illegally killed the three, including a 16-year-old boy, in violation of international human rights law and the U.S. Constitution. “The government has killed three Americans. It should account for […]
Hard Times: Lost on Long Island
July 18th, 2012Via: Daily Ticker: In the new HBO documentary, “Hard Times: Lost on Long Island,” award-winning producer and director Marc Levin takes a deeper look at how many average middle class Americans are still struggling from the fallout of the Great Recession. The film puts a human face on the ongoing U.S. unemployment problem, which has […]
Michigan Governor Finalizing Plan to Raze Detroit Empty Homes
July 18th, 2012Via: Reuters: As the next step in an April deal between financially strapped Detroit and the state of Michigan, Governor Rick Snyder is finalizing a plan to tear down thousands of abandoned houses in a bid to make the city safer. Detroit has been hard-hit over the past four decades by a steep drop in […]
People Who Are Constantly Online Can Develop Mental Disorders
July 18th, 2012Your what hurts? Via: CBS: Get off that computer. A new study finds that constantly being online can affect your mental health. Researchers at the University of Gothenburg recently studied more than 4,100 Swedish men and women between the ages of 20 and 24 for a year and found that a majority of them who […]
USDA Prepares To Greenlight Gnarliest GMO Soy Yet
July 18th, 2012Via: Mother Jones: In early July, on the sleepy Friday after Independence Day, the USDA quietly signaled its intention to greenlight a new genetically engineered soybean seed from Dow AgroSciences. The product is designed to produce soy plants that withstand 2,4-D, a highly toxic herbicide (and, famously, the less toxic component in the notorious Vietnam […]
U.S. Geoengineers to Spray Sun-Reflecting Chemicals from Balloon
July 18th, 2012Mmm hmm. Via: Guardian: Two Harvard engineers are to spray sun-reflecting chemical particles into the atmosphere to artificially cool the planet, using a balloon flying 80,000 feet over Fort Sumner, New Mexico. The field experiment in solar geoengineering aims to ultimately create a technology to replicate the observed effects of volcanoes that spew sulphates into […]
NSA Building Dossiers on Every American
July 18th, 2012Are They building electronic dossiers on as many of us as they can? I don’t know, but it sure looks that way. —NSA, AT&T and the NarusInsight Intercept Suite (2007) Via: Network World: Binney was at HOPE and while his entire keynote is not yet posted, journalist Geoff Shively and Livestreamer Tim Pool had an […]
The Lily-Pad Strategy
July 18th, 2012Via: Tom Dispatch: Disappearing are the days when Ramstein was the signature US base, an American-town-sized behemoth filled with thousands or tens of thousands of Americans, PXs, Pizza Huts, and other amenities of home. But don’t for a second think that the Pentagon is packing up, downsizing its global mission, and heading home. In fact, […]
TSA Agents to Staff UK Airports During Olympics
July 18th, 2012Via: Sky News: US security agents are to be based at Heathrow and some other UK airports for the duration of the Olympic? Games, according to Sky sources. The Department for Transport has reached an agreement with the US Transportation Security Administration for specialist agents to be working at several UK airports. They will arrive […]
