Friday, 6 May 2011
Thursday, 5 May 2011
Russian icebreaker springs nuclear leak
Russia has launched an urgent rescue mission after one its its atom-powered icebreakers developed a nuclear leak in the frozen seas of the Arctic and was forced to abandon its mission.
The Rosatomflot nuclear fleet said in a statement that "insignificant increase in activity" had been reported on board its Taimyr icebreaker.But the incident was serious enough to force the mammoth vessel to abandon its mission and try to track its way back to port in the north-west city of Murmansk.
"What we are most concerned about right now is movement along the waterways," the RIA Novosti news agency quoted top Rosatomflot official Andrei Smirnov as saying.
The fleet official said another icebreaker was being dispatched to the region to help the vessel's journey back to port.
The incident was reported in the Kara Sea - a part of the Arctic Ocean that rests about 2,000 kilometres east of Norway's border.
Officials said the increased levels of radiation were initially reported in an the air ventilation system surrounding the nuclear reactor core.
They added that radiation levels remained normal outside the outer protecting covering.
But other details - including how many people were on board the ship - remained unclear and one part of the Russian statement suggested that officials were looking into the possibility of the situation becoming more serious.
"If the situation deteriorates, the reactor system will be shut down and the cooling process will begin," Mr Rosatomflot said.
He stressed that the seriousness of the event at the moment could be registered as a zero on the seven-point International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale - a level officially defined as "bearing no safety significance".
The Arctic sea accident revived memories of the Kursk nuclear submarine disaster that claimed the lives of 118 Russian sailors in August 2000.
Russian officials were painfully slow to acknowledge the scale of that disaster and state television only began devoting full attention to it nearly 48 hours after the Kursk blasts went off.
No information about the nuclear leak had appeared on Russian state television within three hours of the initial report.
@'ABC'
blakehounshell Blake Hounshell
Musharraf says he used to jog by bin Laden's house telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews…
Quietus Mix 26: Aidan Moffat's Midnight Mix
Aidan Moffat has given us just one instruction for his Quietus mix: 'My only recommendation is that you listen to it between midnight and 1am only.' Now, we're going to have to break this command, because for most right-minded people this is far too rousing, mentally stimulating a beast not to deeply challenge any trip into the land of nod. Perhaps Glen Branca, Aphex Twin and Moondog were what Aidan liked to listen to as he wrote his excellent Uncle Agony Sex Advice column for the Quietus? And no doubt his love of Bill Wells inspired their forthcoming joint album, while Moondog, Mulatu Astatke, John Barry and Fridge could soundtrack the bearded Scot heading to the er, fridge at midnight to pop open a final ale. The Quietus was lucky enough to see Aidan Moffat play at the very strange Dazed festival a few weeks ago; accompanied by only an Autoharp and a cold, he played a selection of songs new and old (including Arab Strap material) to a room of swooning young girls, and fashion crone Pam Hogg. Moffat, one of the finest lyricists in contemporary British music, should surely be set forth on a tour of the mustier British folk clubs to show them how music both rambunctious and thoughtfully honest should be done. Listen to the mix below. Aidan Moffat's album with Bill Wells, Everything's Getting Older, is out on Monday.
Patrick Vieira shocked by 'scandalous' France race quota allegations
Patrick Vieira said he is shocked by the alleged plan to limit the numbers of non-white players for France
@ The Guardian 5/5/11
READ MORE HERE
Bradley Manning is at the center of the WikiLeaks controversy. But who is he?
In January 2010, more than 130 people gathered to celebrate the opening of Room B-28, a “hacker space” in the basement of the computer science building at Boston University. The room had two rows of computers running open-source software, and, in conformity to the hacker ethic, its walls were painted with wildly colored murals, extensions of the free expression to be practiced there. That was the reason for the power tools, too — in case someone wanted to build something amazing and beautiful, such as the musical staircase, under construction now, that chimes when you step on it.
One of the visitors was a young Army specialist named Bradley Manning, on leave from duty in Iraq. He had been working with computers, modifying code, since he was a kid. David House, founder of the hacker space, said he immediately sensed that Manning “was in the community,” someone who understood how technology could be empowering. This was the sort of world Manning hoped to inhabit one day, friends said. He had joined the Army so the GI Bill would finance his education. He had his eye on a PhD in physics.
Days later, he would be on a plane back to Baghdad and a culture where rule-breaking was not celebrated. And eight months after that, House — who had chatted with the man for barely 15 minutes — went to visit him in the brig at the Quantico Marine Base in Virginia, where Manning was being held as the prime suspect inthe largest national security leak in U.S. history...
One of the visitors was a young Army specialist named Bradley Manning, on leave from duty in Iraq. He had been working with computers, modifying code, since he was a kid. David House, founder of the hacker space, said he immediately sensed that Manning “was in the community,” someone who understood how technology could be empowering. This was the sort of world Manning hoped to inhabit one day, friends said. He had joined the Army so the GI Bill would finance his education. He had his eye on a PhD in physics.
Days later, he would be on a plane back to Baghdad and a culture where rule-breaking was not celebrated. And eight months after that, House — who had chatted with the man for barely 15 minutes — went to visit him in the brig at the Quantico Marine Base in Virginia, where Manning was being held as the prime suspect inthe largest national security leak in U.S. history...
Continue reading
Ellen Nakashima @'The Washington Post'
DSM-5: Revised proposal for diagnostic criteria for Gender Dysphoria published
Via the APA DSM-5 Development website:
For a detailed analysis of the proposal I recommend reading APA Releases 2nd Proposal to Replace GID in the DSM-5 by Kelley Winters at the GID Reform Weblog, which highlights at least four significant points:
First, it replaces the term Gender Incongruence with Gender Dysphoria, thereby shifting the diagnostic focus on to "distress with the wrong physical sex characteristics or the wrong social gender role rather than difference from expectations of assigned birth-sex" [Via GID Reform Weblog]
Second, it re-introduces the clinical significance criterion "which clarifies that diagnosis requires distress or impairment that meets a clinical threshold".
Third, the addition of a post-transition specifier should enable continued access to hormones "after the distress of gender dysphoria has been relieved by transition".
Fourth and last, the separation of gender diagnoses from sexual dysfunctions and paraphilias seems to be a step forward of sorts, although it should be noted that the problematic and controversial category of Transvestic Disorder remains in the DSM-5 proposal.
[Via Bird of Paradox]
P 01 Gender Dysphoria in Adolescents or Adults
Gender Dysphoria (in Adolescents or Adults)**
A. A marked incongruence between one?s experienced/expressed gender and assigned gender, of at least 6 months duration, as manifested by 2* or more of the following indicators: [2, 3, 4]**
1. a marked incongruence between one?s experienced/expressed gender and primary and/or secondary sex characteristics (or, in young adolescents, the anticipated secondary sex characteristics) [13, 16]
2. a strong desire to be rid of one?s primary and/or secondary sex characteristics because of a marked incongruence with one?s experienced/expressed gender (or, in young adolescents, a desire to prevent the development of the anticipated secondary sex characteristics) [17]
3. a strong desire for the primary and/or secondary sex characteristics of the other gender
4. a strong desire to be of the other gender (or some alternative gender different from one?s assigned gender)
5. a strong desire to be treated as the other gender (or some alternative gender different from one?s assigned gender)
6. a strong conviction that one has the typical feelings and reactions of the other gender (or some alternative gender different from one?s assigned gender)
B. The condition is associated with clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning, or with a significantly increased risk of suffering, such as distress or disability**
Subtypes
With a disorder of sex development [14]
Without a disorder of sex development
See also: [15, 16, 19]
Specifier**
Post-transition, i.e., the individual has transitioned to full-time living in the desired gender (with or without legalization of gender change) and has undergone (or is undergoing) at least one cross-sex medical procedure or treatment regimen, namely, regular cross-sex hormone treatment or gender reassignment surgery confirming the desired gender (e.g., penectomy, vaginoplasty in a natal male, mastectomy, phalloplasty in a natal female).
Note: Three changes have been made since the initial website launch in February 2010: the name of the diagnosis, the addition of the B criterion, and the addition of a specifier. Definitions and criterion under A remain unchanged.
For a detailed analysis of the proposal I recommend reading APA Releases 2nd Proposal to Replace GID in the DSM-5 by Kelley Winters at the GID Reform Weblog, which highlights at least four significant points:
First, it replaces the term Gender Incongruence with Gender Dysphoria, thereby shifting the diagnostic focus on to "distress with the wrong physical sex characteristics or the wrong social gender role rather than difference from expectations of assigned birth-sex" [Via GID Reform Weblog]
Second, it re-introduces the clinical significance criterion "which clarifies that diagnosis requires distress or impairment that meets a clinical threshold".
Third, the addition of a post-transition specifier should enable continued access to hormones "after the distress of gender dysphoria has been relieved by transition".
Fourth and last, the separation of gender diagnoses from sexual dysfunctions and paraphilias seems to be a step forward of sorts, although it should be noted that the problematic and controversial category of Transvestic Disorder remains in the DSM-5 proposal.
[Via Bird of Paradox]
This is totally offensive to me
You can complain here
empireofthekop Empire of the Kop
I want to say that I have received many messages from United fans expressing their disgust with those shirts.
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