A Tucson firefighter may have slowed down his unit’s response to the Jan. 8 shooting spree targeting Gabrielle Giffords—because he refused to go out on the call. According to city memos, Mark Ekstrum, a 28-year veteran, “mentioned something about ‘political bantering’ and he did not want to be part…
Continue reading …
Image credit: CHOW “If you are willing to kill it, you should shut the f___ up and eat all of it.” Chef Chris Cosentino—who made our slideshow of 10 Master Chefs Driving the Green Food Movement —does not mince his words when he talks about offal—a fancy word for all those off cuts that most of us would rather not think about. And while vegans will most likely consider this as offensive as any other type of animal… Read the full story on TreeHugger
Continue reading …
We’re not sure how they feel in lands where fiber optic connections flow like wine, but in most of the developed world a up to 42 megabit per second internet connection feels mighty fine. Fine enough, in fact, that it can make sense to share it with your peers, and that’s why Netgear’s new MBR1310 and MBR2000 routers are here. They’re quad-band DC-HSPA+ units that dole out that precious 3G data over 802.11n WiFi or via four 10/100 wired ethernet ports, with the MBR2000 adding ADSL2+ for a wired backup option. If you’re lucky enough to be working with LTE in Europe, there’s the MBR1517 as well, virtually identical to the model announced for Verizon but presumably with different carrier support. No word on when, where, or how much any of these fallback connectivity options will cost. PR after the break. Continue reading Netgear unveils a pair of 42Mbps HSPA+ routers, and one for LTE Netgear unveils a pair of 42Mbps HSPA+ routers, and one for LTE originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Feb 2011 10:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Colin Powell’s former chief of staff says he thinks the secretary of state was deliberately lied to and manipulated by the vice president’s office in the lead-up to the Iraq war. “I think there was some manipulation of this material and there was some outright lying,” Lawrence Wilkerson told MSNBC’s…
Continue reading …
Image photographed at Herman Miller Archives In the recent LifeEdited competition to design a small apartment, many of the entries (including the winner) involved carefully designed storage wall systems to create a minimalist look while storing everything from bikes to kites. Even when editing his life, TreeHugger founder Graham Hill still had lots of stuff. In fact, this was a problem for people even in 1945, when LIFE magazine commissioned
Continue reading …
Our generation has finally rediscovered the lost revolutionary heritage of our forefathers – we must keep the dream alive I was born the same week Hosni Mubarak came to power. Arabs of my generation grew up with a keen awareness of two realities: that we did not have any say in choosing our leaders, and that our countries were still living the colonial present, still not free from foreign control. Something we couldn’t get hold of was preventing us from representing ourselves or defending our rights. Some dark force seemed to be imprisoning us metaphorically, while if we protested this state of affairs or campaigned to change our fate we were imprisoned in the literal dungeons of the Abu Zabal prison , or countless others police stations across the Arab world. Many of us are stuck in the much larger jail that is Gaza . Since Camp David , a very special breed of security states were built, all geared towards the direct containment of our aspirations for freedom. Our generation knew nothing other than these regimes, which to us appeared eternal, omniscient, and omnipotent. Older generations knew things were not always this way. Sometimes they would discuss, in lowered voices, the days of Gamal Abdel Nasser when Egypt was at the helm of Arab resistance. In other moments, they would tell stories of the Palestinian revolution of the 60s and 70s. Yet, they too were bitterly disappointed at our present, feeling disempowered, unable to tell us what happened, and how it was lost. To be sure, the past gave us a tradition of which we were proud. Yet, that tradition seemed ever so distant, its legacy of hope and achievement way beyond our reach. How many of us watched films and documentaries about this era, reading old books, all the while dreaming of being young and Arab in that extraordinary hour when Egypt launched its epic confrontation with colonial rule in 1952; or when the Suez Canal was nationalised and the British, French and Israeli aggression was defeated in 1956; or at that heady moment when Algeria celebrated independence in 1962; or when thousands joined the struggle for Palestinian liberation in the 60s and 70s? The tradition to which those moments of hope belonged was so vivid in our imagination, but so far from our reality. For the past 30 years, those who fought for freedom were imprisoned, tortured, mocked or marginalised. Those of us who campaigned for change were ignored and brutalised. Yet, by the grace of this Egyptian revolution and its Tunisian sister, the struggles of the last decades have been vindicated and the tradition has been reclaimed. Popular movements now will begin a new chapter of legitimacy and honour in a struggle for genuine representation. We are living a dream. Against all the odds two tyrants have so far been overthrown; and Arab youth across the world are exchanging excited messages. “Mabrouk” (congratulations) is the word of the day and 11 February 2011 will be permanently marked as an anniversary of celebration and joy, a milestone in the international history of democracy. This Arab quest for freedom and liberation has always had powerful opponents; our dreams are their nightmares. They know as well as we do that the Egyptian revolution represents not just the overthrow of the ancien regime , but the decolonisation of the country. The first condition of true representative democracy is independence. But this is not something that the American, Israeli and other foreign governments wish for Egypt or any other Arab country, in spite of the attempts at presenting the Egyptian military establishment as a free-standing independent actor. Yet, it may still be possible to realise our dream if we can keep close to popular consensus, which in Egypt’s case has growing influence within the lower ranks of the army, who are overwhelmingly patriotic. The challenge for this generation of Arab youth is not to lose the momentum: our generation has finally rediscovered the lost revolutionary heritage of our parents and grandparents. Today, hundreds of thousands are struggling for their freedom in Bahrain, Libya, Yemen, Iraq and Palestine. If the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions have taught us anything, it is that we organise without respite until the rest of the Arab world is also free: we carry the dream. Arab and Middle East protests Protest Egypt Tunisia Middle East Abdel Razzaq Takriti guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Rachel Maddow: Protests in Wisconsin Are About the Survival of the Democratic Party
February 18, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media Rachel Maddow laid out very well in her opening segment how this struggle going on now in Wisconsin and other states is not about whether the state of Wisconsin has a financial crisis. It doesn’t. This is about busting the largest organization that organizes, gets out the vote and raises money for the Democratic Party, the public sector unions. And as Rachel noted and TPM reported — Wisconsin Gov. Walker Ginned Up Budget Shortfall To Undercut Worker Rights : Wisconsin’s new Republican governor has framed his assault on public worker’s collective bargaining rights as a needed measure of fiscal austerity during tough times. The reality is radically different. Unlike true austerity measures — service rollbacks, furloughs, and other temporary measures that cause pain but save money — rolling back worker’s bargaining rights by itself saves almost nothing on its own. But Walker’s doing it anyhow, to knock down a barrier and allow him to cut state employee benefits immediately. Furthermore, this broadside comes less than a month after the state’s fiscal bureau — the Wisconsin equivalent of the Congressional Budget Office — concluded that Wisconsin isn’t even in need of austerity measures, and could conclude the fiscal year with a surplus. In fact, they say that the current budget shortfall is a direct result of tax cut policies Walker enacted in his first days in office. “Walker was not forced into a budget repair bill by circumstances beyond he control,” says Jack Norman, research director at the Institute for Wisconsin Future — a public interest think tank. “He wanted a budget repair bill and forced it by pushing through tax cuts… so he could rush through these other changes.” “The state of Wisconsin has not reached the point at which austerity measures are needed,” Norman adds. More details there, so go read the rest.
Continue reading …President Obama has entered the fray in Wisconsin, slamming what he calls Gov. Scott Walker’s “assault” on unions—and that’s not all. Obama’s political operation, Organizing for America, has teamed up with union organizers to help build the thousands-strong protest in Madison and assemble demonstrations at other state capitals—including…
Continue reading …
Plans for US-style mega-dairies had many UK food activists worried but, for now at least, they are savoring the sweet taste of victory. The Soil Association reports that a planning application for the UK’s largest dairy farm was officially withdrawn on Wednesday. Emma Hockbridge, head of policy for the Soil Association, says that activists should not get too excited though: “…this is one down one to go. There is another planned … Read the full story on TreeHugger
Continue reading …By Jeremy Bowen BBC Middle East editor Continue reading the main story Mid-East Unrest Latest updates Live Bahrain protests: Your stories Egypt’s media revolution Bahrain: Global concerns It is only about two months since the first protests started in Tunisia. A desperate young man died after setting fire to himself because the police had stopped him selling fruit and vegetables. Since then the presidents of Tunisia and Egypt have gone. Demonstrators have learnt that if they push, if they overcome their fear of the police, then remarkable things can happen….
Continue reading …