Scientists at UC Berkeley have made a major advancement in the field of mind reading, reconstructing YouTube videos based on brain scans from people who’d seen them. Researchers would put subjects into an MRI machine and track their brain activity as they viewed videos. Once they’d build a model of…
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Far from being a heroic amateur as he’s so often portrayed the explorer championed science and, as Robin McKie reveals, was a victim of cruel luck – and deception On 12 November 1912, a party of British explorers was crossing the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica when one of the team, Charles Wright, noticed “a small object projecting above the surface”. He halted and discovered the tip of a
Continue reading …EU given six weeks to protect itself against ‘inevitable Greek default’
September 24, 2011 No Comment
IMF tells eurozone to address debt crisis once and for all amid mounting frustration over threat of double-dip recession European Union governments will spend the next six weeks putting together a firewall to protect their fragile banking systems against what is now seen as an inevitable Greek default. G20 sources said up to 50% was likely to be wiped off the face value of Greece’s €350bn debt – but not until Europe had put into place a war chest to prevent the contagion spreading. More money will be disbursed by the International Monetary Fund and the EU next month to keep the Greek government afloat, but this is seen as a short-term fix while Europe’s leaders beef up the eurozone bailout fund, the European Financial Stability Facility. Europe came under ferocious pressure at this weekend’s meeting of the IMF in Washington to contain the spiralling sovereign debt crisis, which is blamed for dragging the global economy to the brink of a double-dip recession. The IMF is reportedly willing to continue bailing out Greece for the short-term, provided Europe uses the time to tackle the issue of debt once and for all. The Washington-based lender believes the 18-month delay since Greece was first bailed out last spring has exacerbated the crisis. Tim Geithner, the US treasury secretary, said: “The threat of cascading default, bank runs and catastrophic risk must be taken off the table, otherwise it will undermine all other efforts, both within Europe and globally. Decisions as to how to conclusively address the region’s problems cannot wait until the crisis gets more severe.” The US and Britain believe that Europe needs to deploy massive firepower in order to prevent a domino effect from Greece bringing down the other vulnerable members of the eurozone such as Portugal, Italy and Spain. However, ministers remain reluctant to admit publicly that a Greek default is inevitable. George Osborne said in Washington: “No one here has put forward a plan for that; Greece has got a programme and needs to implement it.” A communique from the finance ministers and central bankers of the IMF’s member states, released after Saturday’s meetings, reiterated the need for urgent action from the eurozone and set a deadline of mid-October for reforming the bailout fund. G20 sources said the meetings had ratcheted up the sense of alarm over the crisis, saying “there’s been a very visible shift in pace, mood and urgency”, but there was a sense of exasperation among non-eurozone members about the lack of concrete action. A clearly exasperated Canadian finance minister, Jim Flaherty, told journalists: “We’ve been talking about Greece since January 2010.” European ministers had to endure an ear-bending from their counterparts in the rest of the world this weekend. George Osborne used his statement to the IMF committee to press Europe to accelerate measures to transform the single currency into a fully fledged fiscal union. “The eurozone should follow the remorseless logic of monetary union through progress on institutional reform, greater fiscal integration and coordination of budget policies,” he said. Ministers from the G20 group of major economies have called for an urgent ratification of the 21 July agreement, brokered by Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy, to beef up the powers of the EFSF. Osborne warned on Friday that Europe has just six weeks to resolve its political crisis. Insiders say there is disarray among Europe’s leaders about the best way to contain the fallout from a Greek default. The European Central Bank would have to play a major role in any rescue package, but so far has intervened only reluctantly. Its president, Jean-Claude Trichet, has repeatedly insisted that a Greek default is unthinkable. European debt crisis European banks IMF Economics Global economy Greece Europe Heather Stewart Larry Elliott guardian.co.uk
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Firerush Ventures faces fresh scrutiny as chief operating officer Mark Labovitch leaves post after just one year Tony Blair’s business operations are under scrutiny after the departure from his investment firm of a high-profile banker with connections to some of the world’s richest investors and the revelation that the former prime minister secured big deals in the Middle East for a Wall Street bank. Mark Labovitch’s resignation as chief operating officer of Blair’s Firerush Ventures, little more than a year after he was appointed to the post, threatens to leave a hole in Blair’s business empire. Labovitch, 48 – who was appointed at the same time as a former Lehman Brothers banker, Varun Chandra, joined Firerush as an adviser – was seen in financial circles as someone who could open doors for Blair. The Financial News newspaper described him as possessing “an expansive Rolodex of contacts and relationships built up during more than a decade as a senior investment banker”. Firerush is crucial to Blair’s fortunes, not to mention the 130 people who work for him. Blair explained a couple of years ago, when his staff was much smaller, that he had to “earn £5m a year to pay the wages”. Firerush, which gives its address as a PO box in west London, is licensed by the Financial Services Authority to offer investment advice in a number of countries, including three that have low-tax environments – Gibraltar, Lithuania and Romania. Records filed at Companies House show that the Oxford-educated Labovitch joined Firerush on 1 June last year. He resigned on 28 July this year. It is unclear why Labovitch – who is reportedly to become a director at Coventry City football club and has joined Gems, a Dubai-based provider of private education – parted company with Blair. In an email sent to the Observer, he declined to comment. Blair’s spokesman also declined to answer emailed questions. News of his departure comes as a Channel 4 Dispatches programme to be broadcast tomorrow reveals Blair’s role in two multi-billion dollar contracts in Palestine. The programme shows how, in his role as the Quartet’s Representative to the Middle East, Blair helped persuade the Israeli government to open up radio frequencies so that a mobile phone company, Wataniya, could operate in the West Bank. He also championed the development of a huge gas field off the coast of Gaza operated by British Gas. Both Wataniya and British Gas are major clients of JP Morgan, the US investment bank that pays Blair £2m a year for a role as a senior advisor. Blair’s business empire sparked interest in his relationship with the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA), the $70bn fund used to invest the country’s oil money abroad. Blair’s close links to Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of the country’s former leader, are well documented. Last week a senior executive of the fund suggested that the former prime minister had made representations to Gaddafi on behalf of JP Morgan. It also emerged that, after he stepped down from Number 10, Blair wrote to Muammar Gaddafi offering investment advice for projects in Africa. “You know I am doing a lot of work there and know of good worthwhile projects for investment,” Blair told the despot. A spokesman said Blair never sought payment nor received it from Gaddafi or the LIA. Since he left office, Blair’s business empire has helped him sustain a jet-set lifestyle. The Daily Mail claims he is a regular at Abu Dhabi’s Emirates Palace hotel, one of the most expensive resorts in the world. He has acquired a £5.75m country house in Buckinghamshire and a £3.7m home in London. In addition, Blair and his wife, Cherie, have bought properties for their children. In addition to his work for JP Morgan, Blair is on a lucrative contract to advise the insurance firm Zurich and is understood to be paid as much as £200,000 a speech. Blair has also been paid for consultancy work by a South Korean oil firm, UI Energy Corporation, which has extensive interests in the US and Iraq, and by the ruling family in Kuwait, from whom he received a reported £1m fee. Another of his companies, Tony Blair Associates, which offers “strategic advice on both a commercial and pro-bono basis” has a contract with Mubadala, an Abu Dhabi investment fund. Blair also earns a reported £700,000 a year as an adviser to Khosla Ventures, a US venture capitalist firm founded by Indian billionaire Vinod Khosla. Labovitch’s exit follows that of another Firerush director, former No 10 staffer Jo Gibbons, who was Blair’s director of corporate affairs and left last year. He advised Russian oligarchs during his time at the investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein and was responsible for stitching together more than $8bn-worth of deals for the oil and gas giant Gazprom. He also has strong connections to wealthy investors in the Middle East and was, until recently, an executive of the company that owns the Independent newspaper. As COO of Firerush, Labovitch was at the centre of a complex web of companies that, due to the way they are structured, have to disclose only a minimal amount of information concerning Blair’s business operations, the profits he makes or indeed how he makes his money. However, someone familiar with Blair’s business activities suggested he is keen to cultivate closer relationships with Russian oligarchs. Earlier this month he gave a speech at the eighth Yalta annual meeting organised by Yalta European Strategy, which campaigns for Ukraine to join the European Union. The Yalta meetings are promoted by a foundation set up by Victor Pinchuk, one of the world’s richest men, who has an estimated fortune of $3.3bn and owns TV channels and steel plants. Tony Blair Jamie Doward guardian.co.uk
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Mission launched to measure change in Himalayas as anecdotal evidence grows of melting ice on mountain’s southern approach Climbers and custodians of Everest say that rapid climate change could soon make for an ice-free ascent of the world’s tallest mountain. Their warning comes come amid a new international effort to gauge the effects of climate change in the Himalayas – and shield local people from potential hazards. A US-funded mission, led by the Mountain Institute, is meeting in Kathmandu to try to find practical solutions to the threat of catastrophic high-altitude flooding from lakes forming at the foot of melting glaciers. Scientists acknowledge they have yet to form a complete picture of the changes under way in the high Himalayas. The task of offering a definitive scientific account of the extent of melting is daunting – and not just because the area is so vast and inaccessible. Scientists are still working to recover from a PR disaster early last year when it emerged that a United Nations report on climate change had claimed – wrongly – that the Himalayan glaciers would disappear by 2035. Rupert Murdoch’s HarperCollins went through a similar exercise in humiliation when its new Times Atlas claimed up to 15% ice loss had taken place in Greenland – a finding immediately disputed by scientists as an exaggeration. But growing anecdotal evidence, from climbers and local people, suggests climate change is making a strong impact even well above the 8,000m line, with signs of melting ice on the southern approach to Everest. “When I climbed Mount Everest last year I climbed the majority of ice without crampons because there was so much bare rock,” said John All, an expert on Nepal glaciers from the University of Western Kentucky. “In the past that would have been suicide because there was so much ice.” He said the terrain he crossed was very different from the landscapes described by earlier generations of climbers. Historic photographs of the Everest region also showed a longer and deeper covering of ice. All added: “I wonder when Mount Everest will finally become a rock climb rather than an ice climb.” Everest Base Camp, which occupies a high rocky plateau next to the Khumbu glacier, has undergone similar changes, said Tshering Tenzing Sherpa, who has overseen rubbish collection at the site for the past few years. The summer monsoon months brought several deep new crevasses in the black ice beneath the rocks, Tenzing said. “Everything is changing with the glaciers.” Mount Everest Mountains Climate change Climate change Mountaineering Nepal United States Suzanne Goldenberg guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …We might need a 10th podium at the next GOP debate: Conservative site NewsMax says Chris Christie is considering getting into the race and will tell donors within days. The report comes after Bill Kristol at the Weekly Standard floated the idea after watching Thursday night’s debate. Kristol followed up…
Continue reading …Rick Santorum looked to bring boo-gate to a halt on Fox News yesterday: “I condemn the people who booed that gay soldier,” he said, referring to the handful of jeers during a question at the GOP debate about Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. The candidate says he didn’t speak up at…
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• Email your thoughts to rob.smyth@guardian.co.uk • Click here for all the latest scores from around Europe • All the stats and tables you need are here 23 min “First day at university? I distinctly remember beer was 28p for a pint of Adnams. And that’s about all,” says Steve McCabe, aged 149. Twenty-eight pence?! 22 min Pennant is receiving treatment. He appeared to twist his knee, under no pressure from any defenders. The camera cuts to the Manchester United, where Jonny Evans is smiling like a man who’s avoided a firing squad. It’s the reverse of the old here’s-what-you-could-have-won ending on Bullseye. 21 min It’s been an interesting game, as it usually is when Stoke play at home to the big boys, but in terms of actual football it’s been a stinker – an “incoherent swirl of energy”, to use the splendid phrase with which Hugh McIlvanney damned English football in the 1970s. Stoke have played the more coherent football, in fact. 20 min “So, you managed to corner a girl, and then instead of trying to put the moves on you talked about naff Britpop bands?” says Nick Honeywell. “Clearly you’re a man who doesn’t believe in being brave.” To be fair, Nick, it was 1995. Wearing Fred Perry polos and talking about Britpop were on page 1 of all good university guides. 19 min Berbatov heads Anderson’s corner wide from 10 yards. It was a tricky chance, as he had to jump backwards to meet the ball. 17 min United haven’t really got going at all as an attacking force. The Hernandez chance came from nothing, and they haven’t really put three or four passes together. You could argue that they are without five first-choice players – Rooney, Hernandez, Vidic, Smalling and Cleverley – so this is a serious opportunity for Stoke. 16 min “Ohhh,” adds Tony, whose emails are adding so much to tonight’s MBM. 15 min “You’re not blogging anymore,” says Tony. “You’re not blo-o-ogging aneeeemore….” What does that even mean? 14 min Delap’s long throw is headed behind for a corner, again with De Gea staying on his line. From the resulting corner, Crouch is penalised for clambering all over Phil Jones. He headed wide from a couple of yards anyway, but these are very good signs for Stoke. 13 min Anyone reading? What do you remember about your first day at university? Some body must have a funny/cute/life-affirming/criminality-based story. It is pretty much the best day of most of our lives. 12 min “I’m neither casual xenophobe nor ABU (okay, maybe a little) but I haven’t found De Gea to be overly convincing for United so far,” says Niall Mullen. “That said I am rubbing my thighs with glee. Although that has nothing to do with the football.” Of all the deviant gestures – or at least the ones you can show before the watershed – there is nothing as terrifying as watching a man drag his palms up and down his thighs with a gleeful look on his face. Thank goodness Killer BOB didn’t do it in Twin Peaks. Can you imagine the horror? 11 min A glorious solo run down the left wing from the remarkable Phil Jones ends with a chipped cross that is headed behind for a corner. Jones appealed for handball and a penalty, vehemently so, but it looked okay on first viewing. Before the corner is taken, Michael Owen replaces Hernandez. 10 min A long throw from Delap causes more problems, with De Gea staying on his line this time. Eventually Pennant’s shot is blocked. Stoke are causing lots of problems here. 9 min “Can we have Susie from Essex’s side of the story?” says Gary Naylor. “Preferably from Mac Millings.” Oh I only spoke to her about Menswe@r and other hip Britpop bands. I wasn’t that competent a human being. 8 min Hernandez is limping down the tunnel. They’ve just shown the penalty incident again. Woodgate got a slight stud on the ball, but that’s irrelevant because he shoved Hernandez from behind. I think it’s a clear penalty, although Craig Burley on ESPN says it was 50/50. How many caps has he won? 6 min Hernandez is still off the field. 5 min Sir Alex Ferguson is prowling the touchline furiously, even more so now after a shocking tackle from Glenn Whelan on Patrice Evra near the halfway line. A clear yellow card. 4 min “It’s my first day at university today and my accumulator is all set to come in… If United win,” says George Solomon. “I’m sure you and your readers would agree this is a good enough excuse to all get behind United, so my first night out is paid for.” It’s your first day at uni and you’re on the MBM. Come on, man! It’s your first day at uni, the greatest day of your life! I’ll never forget mine: inane small talk, Susie from Essex with the green Puma retro trainers, inane small talk, more inane small talk. The best day ever. 3 min That should have been a penalty for United. Hernandez broke beyond a flat-footed defence onto a deflected pass, moved into the area and was shoved clumsily from behind by Woodgate That knocked Hernandez off balance, and he collided with the keeper as he fell. He’s in a bit of pain, and is currently receiving treatment. That should have been a penalty, and probably a red card for Woodgate. 2 min Pennant wins a corner inside the first minute. Etherington plays it short, and Stoke make a bit of a balls of it. No idea what they were doing there, as they should surely have put it under the crossbar. Anyway, it leads to the first throw in, down the right. Delap fires it in, De Gea charges from his line but doesn’t hold it, and eventually Valencia clears. 1 min Manchester United kick off from right to left. They are booed for doing so. Revised teams Stoke (4-4-2) Begovic; Wilkinson, Shawcross, Woodgate, Wilson; Pennant, Whelan, Delap, Etherington; Walters, Crouch. Substitutes: Sorensen, Huth, Whitehead, Upson, Shotton, Jerome, Palacios. Manchester United (4-4-2) De Gea; Valencia, Ferdinand, Jones, Evra; Nani, Fletcher, Anderson, Young; Hernandez, Berbatov. Substitutes: Lindegaard, Owen, Giggs, Park, Welbeck, Fabio, Macheda. Referee Peter Walton. Jonny Evans has injured himself in the warm-up , so Antonio Valencia will come into the side at right-back, with Phil Jones moving into the middle. Prediction on which you are advised not to stake your mortgage, or even four pence Stoke 3-2 United. Team news There’s no Wayne Rooney, as keen followers of Coleen Rooney’s Twitter page will have deduced last night. Rooney has a hamstring strain; his absence means the return of Berbarotica™. Stoke (4-4-2) Begovic; Wilkinson, Shawcross, Woodgate, Wilson; Pennant, Whelan, Delap, Etherington; Walters, Crouch. Substitutes: Sorensen, Huth, Whitehead, Upson, Shotton, Jerome, Palacios. Manchester United (4-4-2) De Gea; Jones, Ferdinand, Evans, Evra; Nani, Fletcher, Anderson, Young; Hernandez, Berbatov. Substitutes: Lindegaard, Owen, Giggs, Park, Welbeck, Fabio, Valencia. Referee Peter Walton. Preamble Evening. The slogan for this game is simple: it’s Delap v De Gea. Ever since David de Gea signed for Manchester United, casual xenophobes and ABUs have been frantically rubbing their thighs in anticipation of his trial by long throw. It’s a bit of a cliché, of course, and there is so much more to what should be a fascinating clash. Equally, it would be daft to ignore the fact that De Gea is likely to have a character-building 90 minutes ahead. So will a young, injury-ravaged United, on a ground where Stoke have lost only once in 2011. Premier League 2011-12 Stoke City Manchester United Premier League Rob Smyth guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …West Bank tensions grow as Jewish women settlers learn how to use guns
September 24, 2011 No Comment
The quest for Palestinian statehood at the UN has worsened a climate of fear on the ground in the Occupied Territories The settlers come down the hill from the outpost, mostly on foot, but occasionally on horseback or in tractors or 4x4s. They carry Israeli flags, and sometimes bring guns, shovels and dogs. There may be as few as three or as many as 40. They taunt the local villagers and sometimes attack them. Often the Israeli army arrives and trains its weapons on the villagers. In Qusra, deep among the terraced hills of the West Bank, fear is on the rise. “The settlers are provoking us continuously,” said Hani Abu Reidi, head of the village council. “They uproot olive trees, kill our sheep, burn our mosques and curse our prophet. They want to drag us into the sphere of violence. We do not want to go there.” As the Palestinian quest for statehood looks set to be mired in diplomatic back rooms for weeks or months, tension on the ground is mounting. Both Palestinian villagers and Jewish settlers say each other is responsible for a spike in attacks over the past fortnight; mostly small-scale incidents such as throwing stones, molotov cocktails and insults. Both sides claim the other is preparing to invade their communities and attack their people. It has created an edgy climate of fear and menace, and is a forewarning of potential battles to come if the struggle for the land moves up a gear with impending Palestinian statehood. The request by the Palestinians to be admitted to the United Nations as a full member state, formally submitted on Friday, will now be considered by the security council for an undefined period, during which efforts to get both sides back to the negotiating table will intensify. If no progress is made, the Palestinians will press for a vote at the security council, a move the US has pledged to veto. The Palestinians would then have the option of asking the 193-member general assembly for enhanced status, albeit short of full statehood. As this process inches forward, anger on the ground is rising. On Friday, a routine stand-off between settlers from the outpost of Esh Kodesh and Qusra villagers ended in a haze of teargas and a hail of live bullets fired at the villagers by Israeli troops, two of which struck Issam Odeh, 33, killing the father-of-eight. Qusra set up a defence committee earlier this month after one of the village’s four mosques was vandalised in a settler attack condemned by the US and the European Union. Up to 20 unarmed men patrol the mosques from 8pm to 6am every night, and Abu Reidi claims they have already foiled at least one attack. Other Palestinian villages have followed suit. On the hilltops, preparations for clashes have also been under way for weeks. Security around settlements and outposts has been reinforced with extra barbed wire, CCTV cameras, security guards and trained attack dogs. And the settlers themselves are armed and primed in anticipation of what they believe will be incursions by Palestinians intent on making their hoped-for state a reality on the ground. This week, photographs were published on a pro-settler news website, Arutz Sheva , showing women from Pnei Kedem, an outpost south of Bethlehem, learning to shoot. In Shimon Hatzadik, a hardline Jewish enclave in the midst of the the Palestinian neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah, in east Jerusalem, settlers are preparing to invoke a law allowing self-defence against intruders. “We are talking about shooting at their legs and if that doesn’t work, and our lives are in danger, we won’t be afraid to shoot straight at them. Most of the residents here are armed,” spokesman Yehonatan Yosef told parliamentarians two weeks ago. Activists in the settlement of Qiryat Arba, on the edge of Hebron, have distributed clubs, helmets and teargas to nearby outposts. “They’ve been given all of the tools we could provide for them in order to protect themselves,” Bentzi Gopstein, a member of Qiryat Arba’s council, told the Ynet news website. “But we must remember that the best defence is offence. We can’t stay close to our fences. If the Arabs can come to us, they must learn we can come to them.” The settlers believe Israeli soldiers will be hampered by restraints imposed by commanders fearful of negative publicity. “They are not receiving the right orders,” said radical activist Itamar Ben-Gvir from Qiryat Arba. “There’s no state in the world that would allow the enemy to cross its lines and enter its communities. If the IDF will not act properly, we will have to defend ourselves.” Women and children would take part in defensive action, he said. “We want to present an equation: women against women; children against children. The Arabs are intending to use their children and we will not sit still.” Shaul Goldstein, mayor of the Gush Etzion settlement bloc south of Bethlehem, expects the focus in the coming weeks to “move from hypothetical issues in New York to practical terror here in Judaea and Samaria [the biblical term for the West Bank]“. Gush Etzion had a comparatively good relationship with its Palestinian neighbours, he said. “We are trying to talk to them to reduce friction and tension. But if the Palestinians march towards the settlements, there is a red line. If they try to cross, to penetrate our communities, it will be a big problem.” As well as fighting on the ground, many settlers believe they must also wage a political battle against the Israeli government. “Netanyahu is a weak leader, not standing for the values he was elected for,” said Goldstein. “The [settlement] construction freeze was the first in history – and this from a rightwinger. So we have to push him, to press him, to keep him to hold the line.” The settlers are not just fighting to hold on to the land they already occupy; they intend to expand and grow – as they see it, reclaiming the land that has been willed to them by God. “Our purpose is to build new towns and communities, new outposts in Judaea and Samaria,” said veteran activist Daniella Weiss. “It’s our role as Jews to build the land of the Jews.” In Qusra, Abu Reidi agreed the land is at the heart of confrontations between Jewish settlers and Palestinian villagers. “Their ultimate goal is to drive us from our land,” he said. “Defending the land is a holy task. If we let them succeed, they will take more and more.” Palestinian territories Israel United Nations Middle East Harriet Sherwood guardian.co.uk
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