You are currently browsing the monthly archive for November 2010.
Justice and morality are human concepts. Trying to understand them through 2000 year old bronze age goggles does little to enhance one’s understanding as 43ally from youtube illustrates.
One needs to just to watch the frenzy in the North American media whenever Israel is negatively portrayed. Our institutional blindspots are sacrosanct and should be above reproach. When other countries do this we are understandably peeved, but do we appreciate the irony of the situation? China certainly does.
“When a US delegate once confronted a Chinese diplomat about Beijing’s uncompromising support for Pakistan, the Chinese reportedly responded with a heavily-loaded sarcastic remark: “Pakistan is our Israel”.
But judging by China’s unrelenting support for some of its allies, including North Korea, Burma, Zimbabwe and Sudan, its protective arm around these countries is no different from the US and Western political embrace of Israel – right or wrong.”
Ouch. It really sucks when other people start playing by our rules.
“The New York Times newspaper said on Tuesday that the US administration is facing a “confrontational relationship” with an assertive China and is trying to respond to “a surge of Chinese triumphalism” by strengthening Washington’s relationship with Japan and South Korea.
US President Barack Obama is planning to visit four Asian countries next month – Japan, Indonesia, India and South Korea – while bypassing China.”
China is flexing its international muscle and attempting to use international institutions to do so.
“China sees value in promoting its image as the Security Council member defending the rights of the developing world, and China sees value in relying on the UN to counter US power,” said Linda Jakobson, director of the programme on China and Global Security at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
Jakobson, an in-house China expert at SIPRI, points out that Beijing also sees value in participating in UN peacekeeping operations “both because this enhances the image of China as a responsible power but also because it gives Chinese military experience”.
I wonder when the sudden rush back to the ‘rule of law’ will happen? I imagine when the same unlawful implements/policies the West has been using for decades start getting pointed in the opposite direction.
Smells great, can cause cancer. Awesome!
How safe is that fabric freshener, or that lovely shampoo that smells nice, or even the laundry detergent that adds a bit of zing to your towels and clothes? Possibly not very safe at all:
“U.S. researchers analyzed 25 commonly used scented products, and found that they emit an average of 17 chemicals each. Of the 133 chemicals detected in all the products, nearly one-quarter are classified as toxic or hazardous under at least one federal law.
More than one-third of the products emitted at least one chemical classified as a probable carcinogen by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.But only one of the 133 chemicals emitted by these items was listed on a product label, and only two of the chemicals were publicly disclosed elsewhere.”
How nice. That cinnamon vanilla sunrise you have been deeply inhaling because it smells so darn fresh could contain carcinogenic ingredients.
“Federal law doesn’t require companies to disclose ingredients used in fragrances, even though a single fragrance can be a mixture of several hundred ingredients, according to lead author Anne Steinemann, a professor of civil and environmental engineering and of public affairs at the University of Washington in Seattle.”
And, of course, if you are not aware of how companies ‘green-wash’ their products:
“We analyzed best-selling products, and about half of them made some claim about being green, organic or natural,” Steinemann said in a university news release. “Surprisingly, the green products’ emissions of hazardous chemicals were not significantly different from the other products.”
As usual, the profit motive comes far ahead of any human safety concerns. But hey, if you do not like it, do not buy it right?
When the comedians come out in full force calling for civilized debate, we know something is seriously awry with the political discourse in the United States.
Considering the level of civility displayed…
Or the crazy sauce word salad that oozes forth from the tea parties candidates:
Today, it seems that American electorate has a stark choice to make between sanity
or unreality stances on how to govern a nation…
I can only hope that people choose wisely because we need less, not more, crazy in politics.
NASA revs up the coverage as buckyballs are discovered in significant quantities in space.
Newsworthy science has catchy names!
PASADENA, Calif. – “A soccer ball-shaped carbon molecule that some scientists think may have helped seed life on Earth is more common in the universe than initially believed.”
Fantastic! Amazing! err….wth is a buckyball? Wikipedia helps a little:
A fullerene is any molecule composed entirely of carbon, in the form of a hollow sphere, ellipsoid, or tube. Spherical fullerenes are also called buckyballs, and cylindrical ones are called carbon nanotubes or buckytubes. Fullerenes are similar in structure to graphite, which is composed of stacked graphene sheets of linked hexagonal rings; but they may also contain pentagonal (or sometimes heptagonal) rings.[1]
Where in space?
“Using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, researchers spotted the carbon spheres known as buckyballs around three dying sun-like stars in the Milky Way and in the space between stars. The telescope also detected the cosmic balls floating around a dying star in a nearby galaxy.”
We are set, at least as Sciency type news is concerned, especially if it has a cool name.
bleatmop
Mystro
The Arbourist
Dead Wild Roses 
Your opinions…