Clean Energy Future: Congress Passes Budget
Scientists put carbon ceiling at a trillion tonnes
Dryland development needs science and sustainability
U.S. Wind Power Industry Installs More Than 2,800 MW in Q1 2009
China To Subsidize Energy Saving Lamps
Emergency Action Taken for Threatened and Endangered Sea Turtles:Six-month Closure Ordered of Gulf of Mexico Fishery
Swine Flu Spreads, Tips for the US
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Pew Forum: Obama, Catholics and the Notre Dame Commencement
Most Catholics who have heard about the issue support the University of Notre Dame’s decision to invite President Barack Obama to speak and receive an honorary degree at its May 17 commencement, even though he supports abortion rights and embryonic stem cell research. But a new poll conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life also finds a deep division on this issue
Diamond Way Buddhism – New York, USA
Lama Ole Nydahl, internationally renowned Danish-born Buddhist master, author, and the founder of Diamond Way Buddhism Worldwide, visits New York City for a rare, three-day event…
Street Drug Linked To Lasting Social Deficits
“This tells us that [methamphetamine] use has psychological consequences, and, potentially, consequences for these individuals’ social functioning. The size of these social reasoning deficits was comparable to the memory problems that have also been found in users of MA, consistent with other evidence showing that MA is a dangerous drug which can do lasting harm.“However, we must also consider the possibility that these deficits could have been present before drug use and even a risk factor for drug use, in that people who struggle to make sense of other people might be more vulnerable to taking drugs in the first place.”
“When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.”
~ Helen Keller
Dalai Lama Enlightens UCSB – Daily Nexus
“The 20th century has been the century of violence. The 21st century should be the century of dialogue.”
Speaking to a packed Events Center this past Friday, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama’s message was one of compassion and peace for all human beings. During his fourth visit to UCSB, the Nobel Laureate sat cross-legged before nearly 5,600 attendees for two lectures and argued for peaceful solutions to contemporary global problems.
Suicide is a major cause of death in Cuba.
clipped from www.utne.com
August in Havana is a mounting wave of heat—so consuming, the sun so piercing, it can warp your sense of reason. Tempt you to surrender. Make you flirt with insanity. The pained faces around you are covered in grimy sweat, a haze of resignation in the eyes. Here or there a woman fans herself, perhaps with some ladylike, store-bought thing, but more often with a stray scrap of cardboard. Inside, heat radiates from every surface, the temperature rising as the torridity soaks deeper into the concrete walls. Outside is worse. Few dare venture into the scorching light.
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A Buddhist preacher in Thailand has announced plans for new guidelines aimed at curbing the flamboyant behaviour of gay and transgender monks. …
‘ETIQUETTE GUIDE’ FOR THAI MONKS !
Mel Gibson’s family values | Salon
The ultra-orthodox Catholic can’t get remarried in the church unless he says he made a “mistake” and gets an annulment — after a 28-year marriage. Time to reform Catholic divorce.Holy Week ended with a big bang in the conservative Catholic community. Robyn Moore, Mel Gibson’s wife of 28 years and mother of their seven children, filed for divorce in Los Angeles. With no prenuptial agreement, she is likely to get a settlement worth somewhere around half a billion dollars….
Hoist on his own… um … petard.
Want to Go Solar? Cut Your Energy Use First
Our Penchant For Rarity Could Threaten Conservation Efforts
U.S. DOE Heats Up New Energy Standards for Home Furnaces
Plants could override climate change effects on wildfires
Ontario to enact toughest pesticide ban in Canada
Rise in dust storms spurs environmental fears
U.S. and Mexico Hold Border Environmental Forum to Help Confront
Climate Change
Be out of circulation Friday through Monday. Have a great weekend!
George J. Tenet, the C.I.A. director who insisted that the agency had thoroughly researched its proposal and pressed it on other officials, did not examine the history of the most shocking method, the near-drowning technique known as waterboarding.
The top officials he briefed did not learn that waterboarding had been prosecuted by the United States in war-crimes trials after World War II and was a well-documented favorite of despotic governments since the Spanish Inquisition; one waterboard used under Pol Pot was even on display at the genocide museum in Cambodia.
They did not know that some veteran trainers from the SERE program itself had warned in internal memorandums that, morality aside, the methods were ineffective. Nor were most of the officials aware that the former military psychologist who played a central role in persuading C.I.A. officials to use the harsh methods had never conducted a real interrogation, or that the Justice Department lawyer most responsible for declaring the methods legal had idiosyncratic ideas that even the Bush Justice Department would later renounce.
The process was “a perfect storm of ignorance and enthusiasm,” a former C.I.A. official said.
In Adopting Harsh Tactics, No Inquiry Into Their Past Use – NYTimes.com
And, of course, no one volunteered to try them out.
