Photo: fiskfisk / CC The woods, meadows, and streams of California’s Tahoe National Forest make up a diverse ecosystem, rich in biodiversity and home to a variety of wild animals — but for one male wolverine that calls the region ‘home’, things are a little on the lonely side. Buddy, as he’s known, was first spotted three years ago, the first confirmed sighting of a wolverine in California since 1922. Research… Read the full story on TreeHugger
Continue reading …
In just his second Sprint Cup start, 20-year-old Trevor Bayne stunned NASCAR’s biggest names with a thrilling win Sunday in the Daytona 500, NASCAR’s biggest race. The AP’s Robert Ray reports from Daytona Beach, Florida. (Feb. 20)
Continue reading …Wisconsin Protests: America Speaks Out Against Destructive Republican Policies
February 21, 2011 No CommentWisconsin “Budget Repair Bill” Protest Pt 2 from Matt Wisniewski on Vimeo . (Big props to Matt Wisniewski for the footage) See part 1 here How can you not be inspired and hopeful viewing this video of the Wisconsin protests? One of the dangers of solely getting your information from television news is that in the insular, rarefied air inside the Beltway from where these pundits opine, these are merely abstract concepts: deficits, collective bargaining, unions, state employees, protests, budgets, fiscal austerity, and on and on. But look at that video. Those aren’t abstract concepts. Those are real people: just like you and I, our fathers, mothers, sisters and brothers. They aren’t fighting to keep obscene bonuses after needing the government to bail them out. They’re not even protesting to get raises, just the right to keep their collective bargaining rights for the future. And they are rising above the noise and bluster of right wing framing, and a complicit media who can’t seem to grasp that there’s a whole world outside of their cloistered cocktail circuit to fight for their right to a voice. And in doing so, they’re exhibiting more understanding of democracy in six days than the Republicans would like to see the dying middle class exhibit in their life. And make no mistake, there is a war going on and these protestors are not going to give in without a fight. My colleague Jon Perr writes about it on Perrspectives : In just the latest front in the perpetual GOP campaign to divide and conquer , Republicans are trying to get Americans to turn on their neighbors who work for government and unions on each other. Of course, the Republican assault on collective bargaining rights for public employees in Wisconsin , Ohio , around the country has nothing to do with recession-ravaged state budgets and everything to do with fatally wounding a Democratic constituency. And to do it, Republican leaders are telling tall tales about rapidly expanding government workforces stuffed with overpaid, undeserving public employees. Like so much else conservative mythmaking, it’s simply not true . The Mythical Pay Gap With a sluggish U.S. economy, cash-strapped states and under-funded pension programs, leading lights of the GOP are scape-goating government workers and their unions for the nation’s woes. Of course, there’s only one problem with Rush Limbaugh’s claim that public sector employees are “freeloaders” and the charge from Indiana Governor and GOP White House hopeful Mitch Daniels that they are a “new privileged class in America.” Perhaps the strongest recent broadside against public servants came from Minnesota Governor and 2012 Republican presidential contender Tim Pawlenty . In a December Wall Street Journal op-ed titled ” Government Unions vs. Taxpayers ,” Pawlenty echoed half-term Governor Sarah Palin by targeting “unionized public employees [who] are making more money, receiving more generous benefits, and enjoying greater job security than the working families forced to pay for it with ever-higher taxes, deficits and debt.” How did this happen? Very quietly. The rise of government unions has been like a silent coup, an inside job engineered by self-interested politicians and fueled by campaign contributions. Pawlenty repeated his charge to Fox News: “You have public employees making more than their private-sector counterparts. They used to be under-benefited and underpaid. Now they’re both over-benefited and overpaid…it needs to stop.” Sadly for would-be President Pawlenty, the charge – whether at the federal, state or local level – is false. That’s the conclusion of a recent study by the Economic Policy Institute . Just one of many recent analyses debunking Republican charges about government workers and their unions, EPI found that “on average, state and local government workers are compensated 3.75% less than workers in the private sector.” The report by Labor and Employment Relations Professor Jeffrey Keefe of Rutgers University revealed that public employees are undercompensated compared to similarly skilled private sector counterparts
Continue reading …
HUGE Protests in Libya – about 200 reported dead – Moammar al-Qaddafi CRACKDOWN! Where is Obama? African Mercenary Killed in Libya — PEOPLE WORLDWIDE UNITE ! — African Mercenary Killed in Libya 2 — PEOPLE WORLDWIDE UNITE ! Libya in flames: Qaddafi wages war on protesters, son vows to … Libya in flames: Qaddafi wages war on protesters, son vows to fight “until the last bullet” Michael Totten » Qaddafi is a Fascist Libya’s tyrant Moammar Qaddafi has killed more demonstrators than all other Middle Eastern dictators combined since the international Arab revolt began in Tunisia. He is now reportedly using artillery fire on unarmed civilians. … Libya in flames: Qaddafi wages war on protesters, son vows to … According to a journalist there, women were seen jumping off a bridge with their children as a last resort when Qaddafi’s mercenaries advanced on Read this post » Go to Source [more] … Seif Qaddafi's Speech | Daringminds.com Muammar el- Qaddafi , warned in a nationally televised address early on Monday that continued anti-government protests could lead to a civil war. The son, Seif al-Islam el- Qaddafi , said the army continued to support his father, … Moammar al- Qaddafi Has His Libyan Soldiers Machine Gun 200 … Libyan soldiers loyal to Terrorist Scumbag Moammar al- Qaddafi fire machine guns at mourners marching in a funeral for anti-government protesters in the city of Benghazi, as a doctor says 200 have been killed in the violence. … spedralbes says: RT @Warchadi : Seif # Qaddafi ” They want to be like Egyptians. Using Emails, Facebook and.. AHH…AH (Pause) ” Dude, It's called TWITTER. #Libya
Continue reading …Soros: Rupert Murdoch and Fox are Like Nazis, Tea Partiers are Being Deceived and Misled
February 21, 2011 No Comment
George Soros on Sunday likened Fox News and Rupert Murdoch to Nazis while claiming that Tea Partiers are being deceived and misled by a force they can't understand. Appearing on CNN's “Fareed Zakaria GPS,” the financier of far-left propaganda outlets such as the Center for American Progress, Media Matters for America, and MoveOn.org was not shy about his distaste for conservatives (video follows with transcript and commentary): FAREED ZAKARIA, HOST: George, I want you to look at a piece of video we have here. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GLENN BECK, FOX NEWS HOST: The question is, do we have a shadow government? And, if we do, who are those intelligent minority that is — that is guiding us through? And where are they guiding us to? If you skip past all of the puppets and the strings, if you stop looking at the puppets themselves, you have to see who's behind the puppets. Who is choosing the puppets and the players? Who's the puppet master? George Soros. (END VIDEO CLIP) ZAKARIA: So, George, Glenn Beck has been on this kick that you are actually the mastermind who is trying to bring down the American government. How do you react when you see this kind of thing? GEORGE SOROS: Well, I would be amused if — if people saw the joke in it, because what he is doing, he is projecting what FOX, what Rupert Murdoch is doing, because he has a — a media empire that is telling the people some falsehoods and this — and leading the government in the wrong direction. But, you know, by accusing me of doing that, it kind of makes it rather hard to see that it's really, he is working for the man who is doing it, which is FOX News. Almost a schoolyard response – “That's what you are but what am I.” I was half expecting Soros to next say, “I'm rubber, Beck's glue”: ZAKARIA: But it's very personal. I mean, he talks about you as a 14-year-old boy and he accuses you of — of essentially helping to round Jews up — you're Jewish yourself. You've lost — SOROS: Yes. ZAKARIA: You lost many, many people in the holocaust. How did you feel when you heard that? SOROS: Well, look, FOX News makes a habit — it has imported the methods of George Orwell, you know, newspeak, where you can tell the people falsehoods and deceive them. And you wouldn't believe that at an open society and a democracy these methods can succeed. Fascinating coming from a man that is personally funding the leading liberal propaganda outlets in America. But it got worse, because Soros next violated Godwin's Law : SOROS: But, actually, they did succeed. They succeeded in Germany where the Weimar Republic collapsed and you had a — a Nazi regime follow it. So this is a very, very dangerous way of deceiving people, and I would like people to be aware that they are being deceived. Now, I — because I saw it as a child, I immediately react that way. But people in America, they are innocent. They — they haven't had the experience. But having the experience now, and I hope they wake up and they realize that they are being deceived. Rupert Murdoch is like a Nazi using his media outlet Fox News to “tell the people falsehoods and deceive them.” And Zakaria sat there eating it up like a sheep. Clearly enjoying the conservative bashing, the CNN host moved in another predictable direction asking his guest, “What do you think of this broader movement of the Tea Party, of — of what's going on on the right?” Honestly, what did Zakaria think Soros was going to say? SOROS: Look, I think the people in the Tea Party are very decent people, hard-working. They've been hit by a force that — that comes from somewhere which they can't fully understand, and — and they are being misled. And they are misled by people who are using it for their selfish purposes, namely to remove regulations and — and reduce taxation. So reduce taxation and regulation, and they are being used and deceived. So the Tea Partiers are all idiots being misled into thinking loosened regulations and lower taxes are bad. Meanwhile, Soros funds organizations dishonestly trying to convince people that more regulations and higher taxes are good. Not surprisingly, Zakaria missed both the hypocrisy and the irony. I guess that makes him easily deceived and misled. (H/T Jeff Poor )
Continue reading …
Click here to view this media On Fareed Zakaria GPS , George Soros responded to the attacks being made against him by Glenn Beck and Fox News and he weighed in on the so-called “tea party” members being duped by the big monied interests pulling their strings. Sadly the network this aired on isn’t far behind Fox with the propaganda and the promotion of this astroturf Republican rebranding effort called the tea party. ZAKARIA: So, George, Glenn Beck has been on this kick that you are actually the mastermind who is trying to bring down the American government. How do you react when you see this kind of thing? SOROS: Well, I would be amused if — if people saw the joke in it, because what he is doing, he is projecting what FOX, what Rupert Murdoch is doing, because he has a — a media empire that is telling the people some falsehoods and this — and leading the government in the wrong direction. But, you know, by accusing me of doing that, it kind of makes it rather hard to see that it’s really, he is working for the man who is doing it, which is FOX News. ZAKARIA: But it’s very personal. I mean, he talks about you as a 14-year-old boy and he accuses you of — of essentially helping to round Jews up — you’re Jewish yourself. You’ve lost — SOROS: Yes. ZAKARIA: You lost many, many people in the holocaust. How did you feel when you heard that? SOROS: Well, look, FOX News makes a habit — it has imported the methods of George Orwell, you know, newspeak, where you can tell the people falsehoods and deceive them. And you wouldn’t believe that at an open society and a democracy these methods can succeed. But, actually, they did succeed. They succeeded in Germany where the Weimar Republic collapsed and you had a — a Nazi regime follow it. So this is a very, very dangerous way of deceiving people, and I would like people to be aware that they are being deceived. Now, I — because I saw it as a child, I immediately react that way. But people in America, they are innocent. They — they haven’t had the experience. But having the experience now, and I hope they wake up and they realize that they are being deceived. ZAKARIA: What do you think of this broader movement of the Tea Party, of — of what’s going on on the right? SOROS: Look, I think the people in the Tea Party are very decent people, hard-working. They’ve been hit by a force that — that comes from somewhere which they can’t fully understand, and — and they are being misled. And they are misled by people who are using it for their selfish purposes, namely to remove regulations and — and reduce taxation. So reduce taxation and regulation, and they are being used and deceived. ZAKARIA: Do — do you think that there is some — I’m struck by the fact that when I first met you, you were always accused of being this ultra capitalist. You were the speculator, you were the person who, you know, understood markets better than anyone. And now, you’re painted as this kind of left wing iconic figure. It’s been quite a journey. SOROS: Well, you just had the experience of speaking through the — to the puppet master and the extreme left wing manipulator, and you and the audience can make their own decisions.
Continue reading …
A Delta plane’s engine failed in mid-air over Florida, forcing the flight to make an emergency landing Sunday morning, authorities said. The plane landed safely, and no one was hurt. (Feb. 20)
Continue reading …
Rabat – A son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi promised a programme of reforms on Sunday after bloody protests against his father’s rule reached the capital. Saif al-Islam…
Continue reading …
When your tablet needs a windowed UI, has it crossed some undrawn, implied boundary that makes it too complex for the kinds of casual tasks you’d want to accomplish on a tablet? Hard to say, but the mobile developers at Ixonos took to MWC last week to showcase a windowed build of Android on top of a tablet developed by Aava — so at the very least, we know it’s possible. The system is built atop Froyo and allows apps to continue running in the background — they don’t suspend, which means you can, say, play a video while you’re off composing messages. The company also demonstrated the software on a dual-screen 7-inch tablet, allowing apps to be launched on either screen and transferred between them — all seemingly without any customizations needed to individual apps, which is going to be key for a system like this to gain any market traction. Follow the break for Ixonos’ press release and demo video. Continue reading Ixonos shows off windowed UI for Android Ixonos shows off windowed UI for Android originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 20 Feb 2011 20:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Howard Kurtz in Lara Logan Segment Says Schlussel’s Conservative, Doesn’t Mention Rosen’s Liberal
February 21, 2011 No Comment
Howard Kurtz devoted a good part of “Reliable Sources” Sunday to the attack on CBS's Lara Logan when Egypt's Hosni Mubarak resigned as President. As he addressed some disgraceful comments made about the incident by members of the media, Kurtz made it clear to viewers that Debbie Schlussel was a conservative, better never once depicted Nir Rosen as a liberal (video follows with transcript and commentary): HOWARD KURTZ, HOST: After CBS's Lara Logan was beaten and sexually assaulted in Cairo, a journalist named Nir Rosen, who's written for “The New Yorker” and “The Nation” among others, lost his job at NYU Fellow for tweeting the following, Lara Logan had to outdo Anderson, meaning Anderson Cooper who was roughed up in Cairo. It would have been funny if it happened to Anderson too. Nir Rosen went on Cooper's 360 and here's what he had to say. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ANDERSON COOPER, HOST “ANDERSON COOPER 360″: Nir, how do you explain your tweets? NIR ROSEN, FREELANCE JOURNALIST: I don't have an explanation. I was a jerk. It was 2:00 in the morning and I was being thoughtless, forgetting that I wasn't just talking to a couple of people, that I was talking, in theory, to hundreds of thousands of people. (END VIDEO CLIP) As that clip was playing, the chyron at the bottom of the screen said, “Nir Rosen, Freelance Journalist.” Nothing about him being a liberal: KURTZ: Mary Elizabeth Williams, what he wrote was appalling, but he apologized profusely. Was this an overreaction for him to lose his job? MARY ELIZABETH WILLIAMS, SERVED AS CULTURE CRITIC FOR PUBLIC RADIO INTERNATIONAL'S “THE TAKEAWAY”WILLIAMS: And he also — he apologized. He expanded upon that in salon.com this week, where he said, again, that he apologized, but then he also backhandedly started talking about how he was so outraged that this attention only comes when, as he put it, the pretty blond lady has something happen to her. So is the outrage justified? It depends on who you're talking to. I know he's received threats. I think people have harassed him. That's never excusable. That's never the right reaction. Should he have lost his job. Yes, I think he should have because I think what he said was despicable. KURTZ: All right. Tweeting at 2:00 in the morning in dangerous. Now watch how Kurtz made it a point that Schlussel was conservative: KURTZ: Donatella Lorch, a conservative blogger named Debbie Schlussel wrote the following: “So sad, too bad, Lara. No one told her to go there. She knew the risks. And then this. How fitting that Lara Logan was 'liberated' by Muslims in Liberation Square while she was gushing over the other part of the liberation. Hope you're enjoying the revolution, Lara.” What are we to make of that? While he was speaking, this was on the screen clearly denoting Schlussel as a “Conservative Political Commentator”: As such, two mentions of Schlussel's political leaning but nothing about Rosen's. Why, Howie?
Continue reading …