♪♫ Guided By Voices - Tractor Rape Chain

American Rock Royalty reunites for “Classic Lineup” tour!!!
(coming to my city this Saturday night!)

Report Casts World’s Rivers in 'Crisis State'

The world's rivers, the single largest renewable water resource for humans and a crucible of aquatic biodiversity, are in a crisis of ominous proportions, according to a new global analysis.

The report, published today in the journal Nature, is the first to simultaneously account for the effects of such things as pollution, dam building, agricultural runoff, the conversion of wetlands and the introduction of exotic species on the health of the world's rivers.

The resulting portrait of the global riverine environment, according to the scientists who conducted the analysis, is grim. It reveals that nearly 80 percent of the world's human population lives in areas where river waters are highly threatened posing a major threat to human water security and resulting in aquatic environments where thousands of species of plants and animals are at risk of extinction.

"Rivers around the world really are in a crisis state," says Peter B. McIntyre, a senior author of the new study and a professor of zoology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Center for Limnology.

The Nature report was authored by an international team co-led by Charles J. Vörösmarty of the City University of New York, an expert on global water resources, and McIntyre, an expert on freshwater biodiversity.

Examining the influence of numerous types of threats to water quality and aquatic life across all of the world's river systems, the study is the first to explicitly assess both human water security and biodiversity in parallel. Fresh water is widely regarded as the world's most essential natural resource, underpinning human life and economic development as well as the existence of countless organisms ranging from microscopic life to fish, amphibians, birds and terrestrial animals of all kinds.

Over many millennia, humans have exerted an increasingly pervasive influence on fresh water resources. Rivers, in particular, have attracted humans and have been altered through damming, irrigation and other agricultural and engineering practices since the advent of civilization. In recent times, chemical pollution, burgeoning human populations, and the accidental as well as purposeful global redistribution of plants, fish, and other animal species have had far-reaching effects on rivers and their aquatic inhabitants.

"Flowing rivers represent the largest single renewable water resource for humans," notes Vörösmarty. "What we've discovered is that when you map out these many sources of threat, you see a fully global syndrome of river degradation."

What jumps out, say McIntyre and Vörösmarty, is that rivers in different parts of the world are subject to similar types of stresses, such things as agricultural intensification, industrial development, river habitat modification and other factors. Compounding the problem is that some of the negative influences on rivers arrive in indirect ways. Mercury pollution, for example, is a byproduct of electricity generation at coal-fired power plants and pollutes surface water via the atmosphere.

"We find a real stew of chemicals flowing through our waterways," explains Vörösmarty, noting that the study represents a state-of-the-art summary, yet was unable to account for such things as threats from mining, the growing number of pharmaceuticals found in surface water and the synergistic effects of all the stresses affecting rivers.

"And what we're doing is treating the symptoms of a larger problem," Vörösmarty explains. "We know it is far more cost effective to protect these water systems in the first place. So the current emphasis on treating the symptoms rather than the underlying causes makes little sense from a water security standpoint or a biodiversity standpoint, or for that matter an economic standpoint."...

Continue reading

Terry Devitt @'USNews'

Field of screams - Transgenic crops’ built-in pesticide found to be contaminating waterways

One of the main arguments offered in support of the wide use of genetically engineered crops is that they reduce overall pesticide use. This is particularly the case with Monsanto's "Bt" line of corn, soy, and cotton seeds, which are able to produce their own pesticide, a "natural" toxin from genes of the bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis. Ironically, commercial pesticide derived from Bt also happens to be one of the only chemical pesticides approved for use in organic agriculture, because it's produced through a biological process.

Biotechnology companies thus consider Bt seeds some of their most "eco-friendly" products. In theory, farmers don't have to spray pesticide as much or as often on these crops, and therefore pesticide runoff into waterways is much less of a concern. Well, after years of denial, Monsanto finally admitted recently that superbugs, or pests that have evolved to be able to eat the Bt crops, are a real and growing concern. And now, researchers at the University of Notre Dame have shown that the Bt from genetically engineered maize is polluting waterways in Indiana (the study area). They found Bt toxin in almost 25 percent of streams they tested, and all the streams that tested positive were within 1,500 feet from a cornfield.

Bt gets into streams and rivers by leaching out of crop debris left on fields through the now-ubiquitous industrial "no-till" farming technique, in which fields aren't plowed after harvest so as to prevent soil erosion. As a result, leaves and stalks get washed into streams through large-scale farms' irrigation canals: the Notre Dame scientists found such debris in almost 90 percent of streams near cornfields. And while the Bt levels detected weren't shockingly high, the tests were performed six months after harvest. The debris had been sitting in the streams and leaching Bt pesticide into the water for quite a while.

The fun part? No one has any idea yet of the effects of long-term, low-dose exposure to Bt on fish and wildlife. Perhaps it's high time somebody did a study on that since, as the researchers dryly observed, the presence of Bt toxin "may be a more common occurrence in watersheds draining maize-growing regions than previously recognized." Apparently.

So. Not only do genetically engineered crops have worse yields than conventionally bred crops, cost more, lead to pesticide resistance, contaminate other plants with their transgenes, possibly cause allergies and even organ damage, but now we also learn that the plants themselves are possibly poisonous to the environment.

These kinds of genetically engineered seeds keep being touted as the only way we're going to feed the world. Isn't it about time we started investing in less toxic alternatives?

Tom Laskaway@'grist'

Surveillance State: Government Snooping, Prying, and Informing Worse Than You Think

The dried blood on the concrete floor is there for all to see, a stain forever marking the spot on a Memphis motel balcony where Martin Luther King, Jr. lay mortally wounded by a sniper’s bullet.

It is a stark and ghostly image speaking to the sharp pain of absence. King is gone. His aides are gone. Only the stain remains. What now?

That image is, of course, a photograph taken by Ernest C. Withers, Memphis born and bred, and known as the photographer of the civil rights movement. He was there at the Lorraine Motel, as he had been at so many other critical places, recording iconic images of those tumultuous years.

In addition to photographing moments large and small in the struggle for black civil rights in the South, Withers had another job. He was an informer for the FBI, passing along information on the doings of King, Ralph Abernathy, Andrew Young, Ben Hooks, and other leaders of the movement. He reported on meetings he attended as a photographer, welcomed in by those he knew so intimately. He passed along photos of events and gatherings to his handler, Special Agent William H. Lawrence of the FBI’s Memphis office. He named names and sketched out plans.

In an exhaustive recent report, the Memphis Commercial Appeal detailed Withers’s undercover activities, provoking a pained and complex response from the many who knew him and were involved in the civil rights movement. His family simply refuses to believe that the paper’s report could be accurate. On the other hand, Andrew Young, with King during those last moments, accepts Withers’s career as an informant, saying it just doesn’t bother him. Civil rights leaders, including King, viewed Withers as crucial to the movement’s struggle to portray itself accurately in Jet, Ebony, and other black journals. In that Withers was successful -- and the rest, Young suggests, doesn’t matter. Besides, he told the Commercial Appeal, they had nothing to hide. “I don't think Dr. King would have minded him making a little money on the side.”

Activist and comedian Dick Gregory, hearing Young’s comments, turned on his old comrade. “We are talking about a guy hired by the FBI to destroy us and the fact that Andy could say that means there must be a deep hatred down inside of him,” he said. “If he feels that way about King only God knows what he feels about the rest of us.”

This is the way it is with informers, so useful to reckless law enforcement authorities and employed by the tens of thousands as the secret shock troops of J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI. Surveillance has multiple uses, not the least of which is to sow mistrust, which in turn eats at the cohesion of families, social and political movements, and ultimately the fabric of community itself...

Continue reading

Stephan Salisbury @'AlterNet'

You just don't get it America do you?

More US States Allowing Guns in Bars and Restaurants

The Ultimate Guide to Rapper Names

(Click to enlarge)

@'Fast Design Co.'

Warehouse Trax Mix - Carl Taylor

Tracklist:

Todd Terry - Keep On Jumpin (Original Edit)
Maurice - This is Acid (K and T mix)
Carl Taylor – Warehouse Trax – j1
Adonis – No Way Back
DJ Sneak - Acid Digestion
Phuture - Acid Trax
Mike Denhurt - Black Smoke
Andy Vaz - Bygone Times (Trusme Remix)
The Black Dog CCTV Nation Redshape (Analog Mix)
Carl Taylor – warehouse trax – O19
Dave Clarke – Gonk
David Holmes VS Alter Ego – The Evil Needle
Carl Taylor – Warehouse Trax – DS27
LFO – Freak
Motor - Tete En Plastique
Dimitri Andreas - Tiger (James Ruskin Blueprint Mix)
Speedy J - Edlx_(Toy)
Phil Weeks - We The Brand
Fix - Dope Computer (Original Mix)
Radio Slave - Ego Trippin (Original)
joel Alter- Soul Clap (Savas Pascalidis Edit)
Richard Belson – Drums Go – (Carl Taylor rmx)
Seiji - Elevator (Original Mix)
Carl Taylor – Warehouse Trax – j11
Afro Jack - Pacha On Acid - Original Mix
Daft Punk – Rock n Roll
Carl Taylor – Warehouse Trax – ds28
Mr Lee – Pump Up London
Carl Taylor – Warehouse Trax – ds26

Download

Radio: Jon Savage – Savage Music 007 / Motorik

If you enjoy the cosmic/kraut/motorik sound, or elektronische musik as Soul Jazz recently called it, then this radio show is for you. Jon Savage, our presenter, has interviewed many of the main players within the scene and here presents a show focusing on the sound, his love of it and interviewing the likes of Conny Plank. If you haven’t listened to any of the Savage radio shows this is a fine place to start.

Download 

@'Test Pressing'

Source claims Andy Coulson knew about phone hacking

...Tabloids, Tories and Telephone Hacking is being screened on Channel 4 tonight at 8pm. Hosted by Peter Oborne, the programme says that it “investigates the paper’s working relationship with the police and claims of undue influence together with claims of intimidation against politicians, and explores the broader links between News International and the current government”.

Dominic Ponsford @'PressGazette'

redhalf Actors and musicians join Hollywood producer to record Liverpool FC protest film http://ow.ly/19heSH 2 minutes ago via HootSuite

Is There Any Evidence for the 'Porn-Addicted Brain'?

Is There Any Evidence for the 'Porn-Addicted Brain'? 

Ahmadinejad calls for US leaders to be 'buried'

Two Israeli troops guilty of using human shield in Gaza

An Israeli military court has convicted two Israeli soldiers for using a Palestinian child as a human shield during an offensive in Gaza in 2009.

The soldiers were found guilty of reckless endangerment and conduct unbecoming for forcing the nine-year-old boy to check suspected booby-traps.

It is reportedly the first such conviction in Israel - where the use of civilians as human shields is banned.

The sentencing will be decided at a later date, the court said.

No protection

On Sunday, the southern command military court found the two Israeli soldiers guilty of "exceeding their authority to the point of endangering life" and conduct unbecoming in the incident in Gaza City's suburb of Tel al-Hawa on 15 January 2009.

A summary of the verdict said that - when rounding up residents of Tel al-Hawa - the soldiers came across bags in a home and ordered the Palestinian boy to search for suspected booby-traps.

"The boy, who feared for his fate and was under the stress of the situation, wet his pants," the three-judge panel wrote in the summary of the verdict.

"The court has noted that, unlike the soldiers, the child was, naturally, bereft of any form of protection."

However, the court acknowledged that at the time the soldiers - whose names have not been released - had been under "difficult and dangerous conditions".

The bags that the boy - identified only as Majd R - had checked did not have any hidden explosives and the child was later returned to his family unharmed.

Israel launched its Gaza offensive in December 2008, saying it was aimed at halting Palestinian rocket attacks from the territory controlled by militant Hamas movement.

Some 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed during the 22-day fighting.

Last year's report by UN investigator Richard Goldstone accused both Israel and Hamas of war crimes during the fighting.

@'BBC'

David Byrne on Detroit