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DAWN OF THE ANTHROPOCENE EPOCH
HUMAN BEINGS HAVE BECOME SO INFLUENTIAL IN NATURAL PROCESSES THAT SCIENTISTS NOW WORRY NATURE HAS LOST VITAL RESILIENCE MEASURES 11 February 2008 :: HotSpring.fm At a meeting of European scientists, in Stockholm, Sweden, the man who coined the term ‘anthropocene’ to describe the new geological epoch in which human influence dominates natural processes, announced that the term has gained acceptance in a growing number of fields. The real import of the term, and of its increasing relevance to what science is showing about the effects of human civilization on the environment, globally, is that ecological information is increasingly vital to implementing human ambitions in a responsible and sustainable way. [Full Story] ELECTION IRREGULARITIES: LOUISIANA DEMOCRATS DISENFRANCHISED WHEN PARTY REGISTRATION SWITCHED The presidential campaign of Barack Obama has issued a statement regarding reports of voter-registration irregularities in Louisiana that allegedly led to the denial of the vote to hundreds of people. The Obama campaign website published the following: "The Obama campaign submitted an urgent request for assistance to the Secretary of State’s Division of Elections today, after receiving widespread reports from Democrats across Louisiana who reported that they were not allowed to vote because their party affiliation had been switched." [Full Story] ELECTION IRREGULARITIES: WASHINGTON GOP PRIMARY CALLED WITH 242 VOTE MARGIN AT JUST 87% OF COUNT The presidential campaign of Mike Huckabee is "exploring all available legal options regarding the dubious final results for the state of Washington State Republican precinct caucuses". The state's Republican party halted the count at 87% of votes counted, a margin of just 242 votes separating John McCain from Mike Huckabee, and a reported 12,000 votes tallied to that point. [Full Story] PLAN B 3.0: MOBILIZING TO SAVE CIVILIATION Ecologist and researcher Lester Brown, founder and president of the Earth Policy Institute, has issued the 3rd installment of his ‘Plan B’ books —Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization (2008)—, which lay out the most vital research underlying and the most optimal means of meeting the need to transition to a sustainable economy that not only works in harmony with natural system, but also helps to reverse the excesses of the existing industrial model. [Full Story] RAINDROPS NEW SOURCE OF LOW-INTENSITY CLEAN ENERGY A new study has shown that raindrops can be used to produce electricity. The key is the mechanical energy of the raindrops, meaning the energy contained in their motion and in the way that force is diffused when striking a given type of surface. [Full Story] RFID TECHNOLOGY, PRIVACY & INDIVIDUAL LIBERTIES The field of Radio-Frequency IDentification is rapidly expanding, with new applications being proposed for security, commercial distribution, and tracking of goods, information and individuals, on a constant basis. The US government has proposed requiring that all new passports carry RFID chips, either for efficiency, ease of use or for security, though none of these is clearly enhanced without a massive technological upgrade, across the world. [Full Story] SPACEBLOOMS: IS THE FUTURE OF FARMING IN OUTER SPACE? Space flora or “xflora”, a category of synthetic biochemical organism, engineered to exist in floating colonies in space, combines nano-technology with and biotechnology. While it sounds near impossible, the concept is to create organisms that can feed from their environment, even where that environment would be deadly (for chill, high radiation or lack of nutrients) to earthborne organisms, and that can be harvested freely as future “off-Earth” human colonies or transports may require. [Full Story] SUPER TUESDAY PRIMARIES: NEW MEXICO FACES QUESTIONS OF PROCESS INTEGRITY IN DEMOCRATIC CAUCUS Reports from New Mexico are demonstrating a range of problems that faced voters during the Super Tuesday "nationwide primary" Democratic party caucuses there. The New Mexico caucus system is run by the party itself, and involves actual paper ballots, cast by each individual voting. But the list of voters eligible to participate is not maintained by the party itself or by the state, but instead by ES&S, an electronic voting-machine manufacturer. [Full Story] SUPER TUESDAY PRIMARIES: BALLOTING IRREGULARITIES REPORTED IN LOS ANGELES COUNTY, NEW JERSEY & GEORGIA As the most widespread presidential primary vote in US history took place yesterday, across the continent and beyond (American Samoa also voted), there were glitches, confusion and unjustifiable waits in states across the country. Three examples stand out: touchscreen machines failing in New Jersey, a suspiciously confusing ballot in Los Angeles, and multiple irregularities in Georgia, where long waits, questionable ID laws and more failing Diebold machines made voting a serious challenge by any rational standards. [Full Story] SUPER TUESDAY PRIMARIES: CLINTON, OBAMA DRAW EVEN, McCAIN TAKES COMMANDING LEAD IN GOP RACE The figures from the biggest day of primary voting in US history are coming in, and reveal a lot of interesting detail about the make-up of the campaigns. Sen. John McCain was the day's big winner, though he did not win enough delegates to seal the nomination. McCain, still struggling to convince many conservative Republicans, won 9 states on the day, including the big states of California, Illinois, Missouri, New York and New Jersey. [Full Story] SUPER TUESDAY PRIMARIES: AS 24 STATES GO TO POLLS, CLINTON IN DEAD HEAT WITH OBAMA, McCAIN LEADS GOP The biggest prize in the Super Tuesday 24-state primary vote today will be California, with more than 36 million inhabitants, the most populous state in the nation. Observers expect Clinton and Obama to nearly split the delegates available, which amount to more than 50% of the total. The Republican contest could be close to being decided, if frontrunner McCain achieves a "sweep", as some expect, with more than 40% of delegates in play, and a winner-take-all rule in some GOP contests. [Full Story] FINAL BUSH BUDGET SHOWS ECONOMIC WEAKNESS, POLICIES AT ODDS WITH MARKETPLACE, MOMENT Among the numerous scathing criticisms leveled against the record $3.1 trillion federal budget proposal —which will be the last of the George W. Bush White House— are fiscal irresponsibility, near record deficits, and plans to cut or eliminate fully 151 federal programs, in an effort to save just $18 billion, while base Defense Dept. spending increases by 8%. [Full Story] POLAR BEAR MAY BE LISTED BY U.S. AS ENDANGERED BY GLOBAL WARMING The global climate change crisis may soon enter a new phase in terms of human society's reaction, efforts to curb harmful activities that exacerbate the problem. The United States Dept. of the Interior is considering a proposal to list the polar bear as the first species facing extinction specifically as a side-effect of global warming. [Full Story] 'DAVOS CONVERSATION' ALLOWS PUBLIC TO MATCH IDEAS WITH POLICY-MAKERS The 'Davos Conversation' is a multimedia effort to bring online public together with major policy-makers, activists and economists, to broaden the scope of debate at the World Economic Forum. The question which was used as a platform for the online forum was "what one thing would make the world a better place?" [Full Story] UNIFIED EARTH THEORY: CAN INTEGRATING EFFORTS TO REDUCE POVERTY WITH SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT HEAL GLOBAL ECONOMY? At the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland, a range of ideas from international disease relief, healthcare, security, climate change, extreme poverty, and the responsibility of market incentives, took the discussions in a new direction. Fmr. US vice-president Al Gore spoke of the need for a "marriage" of policy regarding extreme poverty and the climate crisis. [Full Story] RFID TECHNOLOGY WILL BRING PERSONAL SPACE, TASTES UNDER CONSTANT SCRUTINY BY ANONYMOUS WATCHERS It is believed that RFID will soon be commonly used as a way of assisting marketers in providing "personalized" advertising to people, by matching —for instance— the constant presence of a cereal brand in a home, with that family's address, then sending related information via mail, e-mail or telemarketing. When we sit back to think of the implications, these "tags" could be emitting signals at all times, from quiet corners of our homes, providing invisible voyeurs with a dense fabric of information about our habits, tastes, even reading material. [Full Story] HYPER-CONVERGENCE OF MEDIA & SERVICES NECESSITATES NEW PARADIGM FOR SECURING PERSONAL DATA The potential for broad-scope "electronic agents" —preprogrammed service aggregators and self-organizing databases with proactive marketing capability—, aiding in everyday information-related activities, will require a new security standard to prevent identity theft, which could become one of the gravest threats to economic performance and individual liberty. [Full Story] TOUCHSCREEN VOTING MACHINES PUT IN QUESTION INTEGRITY OF US ELECTION PROCESS Across the United States, problems are being discovered with what are supposed to be the state of the art in balloting technology: digital touchscreen voting machines. Security questions were raised initially when the machines were widely distributed, by a handful of companies, with no hard-copy record of voters' intent, which led to a nationwide movement calling for "verified voting", or voter-verified paper trails. [Full Story] WHISTLEBLOWER FMR FBI AGENT SAYS CORRUPT US OFFICIALS MAY HAVE LET NUCLEAR SECRETS GO TO TERRORISTS Sibel Edmonds was a translator at the FBI when she overheard, in taped wiretaps, conversations that involved US officials at high levels organizing and taking bribes in exchange for dealing nuclear secrets to the black market. The Sunday Times, a London-based Rupert Murdoch-owned newspaper, has now broken the story, after years of Edmonds being turned away by the US press, due to an unprecedented "state secrets privilege" gag order. The world press is taking note, while US media outlets continue to keep quiet or not investigate. [Full Story] AT&T ANNOUNCES PLANS TO INSPECT & FILTER INTERNET TRAFFIC & CONTENT AT&T is proposing the implementation of new filtering technologies "at the network level" that would essentially interrupt in a definitive way the public's freedom to access online content. The concept known as 'net neutrality' refers to consumers and netizens' ability to freely gain access to any site, paid or unpaid, without major telecommunications companies programming access as they do with cable television. [Full Story] GROUP OF 17 PROPOSES 'STRUCTURES & WORKING GROUPS' TO ACHIEVE BIPARTISANSHIP IN DC While speculation is widespread that the purpose of the Oklahoma meetings, involving 17 former and current politicians and public servants, is to announce the candidacy of New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, an independent, for the presidency, the groups says it only wants to lay out a series of principles of bipartisanship in government, which they hope presidential candidates will adopt. The mass media rumor mill is suggesting the group will propose Bloomberg as an independent candidate for the presidency, with fmr. Democratic senator Sam Nunn as his running mate. [Full Story] IOWA CAUCUSES COMPLICATE, ELUCIDATE MEASURE OF VOTER SUPPORT Often treated by mass media reporting as an "idiosyncratic" or "archaic" process, the Iowa caucuses are voters' first opportunity to weigh the value of the spectrum of candidates running for the office of the presidency. A caucus is not a vote, as such, but rather a discussion that ends with voters standing in the corner —quite literally— of the candidate they support. [Full Story] ELECTIONS, CREDIT, FUEL COSTS, SOIL QUALITY, WATER POLICY & ACCESS TO FOOD CRUCIAL IN 2008 2008 will be a year in which the integrity of election processes, the quality and resilience of cultivated soils, the availability of credit to consumers, the affordability of homes and rentals, and access to affordable vital staples like food and water, as well as the cost of transportation, will affect economies the world over. Some economic analysts have said the combination of these factors, resulting instability or environmental degradation, and migration of affected populations, could mean the world is facing an unprecedented level of economic precariousness. [Full Story] STABILITY KEY GOAL SHARED BY RIVALS IN PAKISTAN In the wake of the assassination of Pakistan People's Party leader Benazir Bhutto, stability seems to be the key goal among top rivals in secular political leadership. The PPP has announced that in keeping with Ms. Bhutto's wishes, her son Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, a 19-year-old student at Christ Church College, Oxford, will take the helm of the party, with her husband, Bilawal's father, managing day-to-day affairs until Bilawal finishes his studies. [Full Story] BHUTTO ASSASSINATION SIGNALS DEEP-RUNNING POLITICAL RIFT THAT COULD DESTABILIZE PAKISTAN Fmr. Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto, whose father was executed in the process of a military coup in the 1970s, and who has said she remained "broken" by what had happened to her during 5 years in military prison, was assassinated Thursday, while campaigning to restore free elections to her country. She had been the first woman elected PM in a Muslim country and had sworn she would combat radical fundamentalism and end the cycle of military takeovers. [Full Story] OVERCOMING ACRIMONY, BALI CONFERENCE BRINGS CONCESSIONS, START OF 'ROADMAP' The UN climate change policy conference on the Indonesian island of Bali has ended in dramatic fashion, as EU and US delegates found themselves in a war of words over differences in how to reach long-term reductions in "heat-trapping gases" emitted by human societies, essentially: carbon emissions. [Full Story] PAULSON BOND PROPOSAL AIMS TO STAVE OFF FORECLOSURES The Secretary of the US Treasury Dept., Henry Paulson, has proposed a plan whereby Congress would approve new legislation allowing state and local governments to issue tax-exempt bonds to homeowners with adjustable rate mortgages who need to refinance in order not to suffer foreclosure. The plan would allow "innovative mortgage programs" to be kept at lower cost, allowing affected borrowers to keep their homes while they pay down potentially crippling loans. [Full Story] THE 12-YEAR SEA-CHANGE, THE GREEN ECONOMY Between the years 2008 and 2020, we are likely to see a still unimaginably sweeping shift away from fossil fuels and high-contamination modes of powering our economy. The transition will have a political component, but will be driven mostly by cost concerns, resource scarcity, and public demand for cleaner air and responsible climate policy, a demand which is not ideological in nature. [Full Story] PUTIN'S UNITED RUSSIA PARTY SAID TO BE USING STATE POWER TO BLOCK OUT RIVALS Reports from across Russia indicate that by various means, state authorities are pressuring organizations and institutions of all kinds to force mass voter turnout for Pres. Putin's United Russia party. The Kremlin denies the allegations, but at least one high ranking election official has said he was given orders to ensure that United Russia receive 'double' the number of votes forecast by current opinion polling. [Full Story] REBEL SENATOR LEADS COUP ATTEMPT BY MILITARY MUTINY AGAINST ARROYO IN MANILA After a tense 7 hours, Philippines government forces, having surrounded the Peninsula Hotel in Makati, Manila's financial district, fired tear gas into the luxury hotel and were able to detain all the participants in the attempted coup d'état. Rebel senator Antonio Trillanes, Brigadier General Danilo Lim, and former vice president Teofisto Guingona are alleged to be the master-minds behind the conspiracy to overthrow Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's government. [Full Story] THE TIME IS NOW FOR GLOBAL ACTION ON EMISSIONS REDUCTION Due to the science we already have, the laws we have to govern our own activity and to force government to act for the public health, we face the real possibility of being forced, in American courts, in the future, to pay for damage done to the most affected populations in other parts of the world, as a result of inaction by our government. The public voice, and those campaigning for the level of public respect needed for election to office, should bring this issue to the fore, push for real initiatives to tackle the problem boldly, in a collaborative way, now. [Keep Reading] TEXT OF U.S. PRES. BUSH'S OPENING REMARKS TO ANNAPOLIS MIDEAST PEACE CONFERENCE Thank you for coming. Prime Minister Olmert, President Abbas, Secretary General Ban, former Prime Minister Blair, distinguished guests... We meet to lay the foundation for the establishment of a new nation — a democratic Palestinian state that will live side by side with Israel in peace and security. We meet to help bring an end to the violence that has been the true enemy of the aspirations of both the Israelis and Palestinians. [Full Transcript] HOUSING MARKET CRISIS TIED TO SPECULATION, 'PREDATORY' LENDING As the crisis stemming from high-risk sub-prime mortgage lenders' collapse in the US spreads, the real estate market beyond US borders is being hit by what observers are calling the 'credit crunch', taking for granted this will affect all international financial endeavors, such is the situation. The governor of the Bank of England has now warned that the United Kindom is facing what should be its tightest economic year in a decade, warning that the slowdown could last into 2009. [Full Story]
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BEIJING OLYMPICS BESET BY POLITICAL ABUSES, ENVIRONMENTAL WOES SCIENTISTS USE STALAGMITES IN CAVES TO CHECK ANCIENT, PREHISTORIC CLIMATE RECORD DARFUR: GENOCIDE BEFORE THE WORLD'S EYES PLAN B 2.0: COMPREHENSIVE ECOLOGY BOOK PRESENTATION AT GOOGLE HQ GOOGLE CALLS FOR ACTION TO PROTECT THE OPEN INTERNET 'NOT ONE CENT MORE THAN WE HAVE TO'
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