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The Mission - Gods Own Medicine
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Thursday, 30 September 2010
New report warns iconic Kimberley tourism brand at risk from industrialisation
A new study by the Curtin University Sustainable Tourism Centre identifies plans for a massive polluting LNG industrial site near Broome as a serious threat to the Kimberley’s unique and globally-recognised tourism ‘brand’.The report entitled “Kimberley Whale Coast Tourism: A review of opportunities and threats” by Dr Michael Hughes and colleagues from Curtin University was commissioned by The Wilderness Society and launched on 31 August, 2010 in Kings Park, Perth.
Some key findings:
- The Kimberley tourism ‘brand’ is based on the unique natural and cultural values of the region, including its wildlife and vast, unspoiled coast and landscapes;
- Tourism is more valuable to the regional economy than resource projects which return less to the local economy, employ fewer local people and have relatively short lifespans;
- When iconic brands are damaged – as occurred in the 1970’s with the location of an oil refinery on the Shetland Islands – it takes a lot of time, money and effort to rebuild
- Currently around 10 tour operators, including Aboriginal run businesses, offer whale-watching experiences out of Broome & the Dampier Peninisula – the site of the proposed LNG hub and port.
- There appears to be a substantial imbalance between government support for tourism, including Indigenous tourism enterprises, and the far greater level of funding for resource extraction projects.
- The government needs to recognise the findings of the study which highlight the fact that Broome and surrounding communities do not need large scale industrial projects to secure their economic future.
Environment groups believe Kimberley tourism needs better management and requires much more Indigenous involvement. This can be achieved through expanded Indigenous Rangers programs, creation of new Indigenous Protected Areas (IPAs) and the introduction of a comprehensive licensing and permit system for tourism operators and tourists accessing remote land and sea country.
Wednesday, 29 September 2010
ubuweb [MP3 link] A recitation of all the rock songs the US played during the PSYOP campaign against Noriega: http://is.gd/fzUSL
♪♫ Grinderman on 'Later'
Show the little upstarts how it's done guys!!!
At the beginning of this last clip there is an old boss of mine Simon Raymonde behind Sandie Shaw (to the left) probably better known to most of you as one third of the Cocteau Twins!!!
(Thanx JC!)
At the beginning of this last clip there is an old boss of mine Simon Raymonde behind Sandie Shaw (to the left) probably better known to most of you as one third of the Cocteau Twins!!!
(Thanx JC!)
Q & A w/ Adrian Sherwood tonight...
onusherwood doing a Q&A session tonight on the On-U Sound messageboard at 2100 GMT http://www.onu-sound.com/messageboard/
Side effects of drugs in water still murky
After a recent study found traces of eight illicit drugs, including cocaine, ecstasy, and methamphetamines, in the waterways of a Spanish national park, fear started to circulate along with the headlines.
Is the environment, people have started to wonder, becoming a wasteland for discarded and partially digested medications?
As studies continue to find a growing number of pharmaceuticals and illegal drugs in a growing number of places, experts say, there are some real concerns about threats to wildlife and human health. But most substances are at levels far too low to cause problems. Many others are big question marks.
Scientists still don't know how a lot of chemicals, especially the illegal ones, might affect animals or at what level they become dangerous. Those studies just haven't been done.
"The vast majority of compounds do not pose a threat," said Paul Sibley, an aquatic toxicologist at the University of Guelph in Ontario.
"For illicit drugs, we're not quite as sure," he added. "My gut sense is that we probably don't need to be worried about this. But because studies have never been done looking at their toxicology or the responses of animals, we can't say there won't be a problem."
Whether over-the-counter or under-the-table, the most common way for drugs to escape into the environment is through the sewage system. When you pop a pill, your body breaks down some, but not all of the active chemicals in a drug. Whatever is leftover comes out in your excrement and goes down the toilet.
Most sewage treatment plants are designed to break down biological matter in substances like human waste and food scraps. But pharmaceutical chemicals often slip right through, either in wastewater that flows into streams and lakes, or in sludge that is often spread on agricultural fields.
Farm animals often consume antibiotics and other drugs, too, and their manure also helps taint agricultural run-off. From there, the chemicals end up in streams, lakes and other waterways.
Hundreds of studies have found traces of pharmaceuticals in water, Sibley said, especially downstream of treatment plants. Other studies have found these compounds in the tissues of fish and other animals. In most cases, at least in the developed world, levels are too low to have major consequences. But there are some major exceptions.
Scientists are particularly concerned about a class of pharmaceuticals known as endocrine-disruptors. Traces of estrogen from birth control pills, for example, are now known to affect animals at really tiny concentrations.
Antibiotics are another concern, because once they are unleashed in the environment, they can prompt the development of dangerously drug-resistant bacteria.
Even drugs that don't fit into those categories have been shown to cause problems in some cases, especially when levels get high enough, said Bryan Brooks, director of the Environmental Health Science program at Baylor University in Waco, Texas.
A 2004 paper in the Journal Nature, for example, documented a catastrophic vulture die-off in India. It turned out that the birds were eating the carcasses of cows that had been given a type of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medication, similar to ibuprofen or naproxen. The drug was making the birds sick.
In a paper published earlier this year in the journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, scientists reported that minnows exposed to certain antidepressants were slower to flee from predators. Another paper in the same journal issue found that tadpoles exposed to antidepressants -- at levels similar to what might show up in the environment in some places -- ate less and grew more slowly.
"We don't really have a good handle at all about how drug side effects may present risks to aquatic organisms," Brooks said. "Where the science is going now is trying to scrutinize the available data for pharmaceuticals and how they act in animals, and to prioritize which drugs may require further study."
A similar toxicological focus on illegal drugs will probably soon follow, Sibley said. The new study out of Spain looked at water in a park that is surrounded by nightclubs and malls. Many places face the same type of exposures.
"I'd be willing to say you could go to any major urban center globally, including in the U.S. and Canada, and find trace levels of these compounds, especially if you've got an active area of social life," Sibley said. "They are likely very, very ubiquitous."
Emily Sohn @'Discovery'
Is the environment, people have started to wonder, becoming a wasteland for discarded and partially digested medications?
As studies continue to find a growing number of pharmaceuticals and illegal drugs in a growing number of places, experts say, there are some real concerns about threats to wildlife and human health. But most substances are at levels far too low to cause problems. Many others are big question marks.
Scientists still don't know how a lot of chemicals, especially the illegal ones, might affect animals or at what level they become dangerous. Those studies just haven't been done.
"The vast majority of compounds do not pose a threat," said Paul Sibley, an aquatic toxicologist at the University of Guelph in Ontario.
"For illicit drugs, we're not quite as sure," he added. "My gut sense is that we probably don't need to be worried about this. But because studies have never been done looking at their toxicology or the responses of animals, we can't say there won't be a problem."
Whether over-the-counter or under-the-table, the most common way for drugs to escape into the environment is through the sewage system. When you pop a pill, your body breaks down some, but not all of the active chemicals in a drug. Whatever is leftover comes out in your excrement and goes down the toilet.
Most sewage treatment plants are designed to break down biological matter in substances like human waste and food scraps. But pharmaceutical chemicals often slip right through, either in wastewater that flows into streams and lakes, or in sludge that is often spread on agricultural fields.
Farm animals often consume antibiotics and other drugs, too, and their manure also helps taint agricultural run-off. From there, the chemicals end up in streams, lakes and other waterways.
Hundreds of studies have found traces of pharmaceuticals in water, Sibley said, especially downstream of treatment plants. Other studies have found these compounds in the tissues of fish and other animals. In most cases, at least in the developed world, levels are too low to have major consequences. But there are some major exceptions.
Scientists are particularly concerned about a class of pharmaceuticals known as endocrine-disruptors. Traces of estrogen from birth control pills, for example, are now known to affect animals at really tiny concentrations.
Antibiotics are another concern, because once they are unleashed in the environment, they can prompt the development of dangerously drug-resistant bacteria.
Even drugs that don't fit into those categories have been shown to cause problems in some cases, especially when levels get high enough, said Bryan Brooks, director of the Environmental Health Science program at Baylor University in Waco, Texas.
A 2004 paper in the Journal Nature, for example, documented a catastrophic vulture die-off in India. It turned out that the birds were eating the carcasses of cows that had been given a type of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medication, similar to ibuprofen or naproxen. The drug was making the birds sick.
In a paper published earlier this year in the journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, scientists reported that minnows exposed to certain antidepressants were slower to flee from predators. Another paper in the same journal issue found that tadpoles exposed to antidepressants -- at levels similar to what might show up in the environment in some places -- ate less and grew more slowly.
"We don't really have a good handle at all about how drug side effects may present risks to aquatic organisms," Brooks said. "Where the science is going now is trying to scrutinize the available data for pharmaceuticals and how they act in animals, and to prioritize which drugs may require further study."
A similar toxicological focus on illegal drugs will probably soon follow, Sibley said. The new study out of Spain looked at water in a park that is surrounded by nightclubs and malls. Many places face the same type of exposures.
"I'd be willing to say you could go to any major urban center globally, including in the U.S. and Canada, and find trace levels of these compounds, especially if you've got an active area of social life," Sibley said. "They are likely very, very ubiquitous."
Emily Sohn @'Discovery'
Tea & Crackers - How corporate interests and Republican insiders built the Tea Party monster
It's taken three trips to Kentucky, but I'm finally getting my Tea Party epiphany exactly where you'd expect: at a Sarah Palin rally. The red-hot mama of American exceptionalism has flown in to speak at something called the National Quartet Convention in Louisville, a gospel-music hoedown in a giant convention center filled with thousands of elderly white Southerners. Palin — who earlier this morning held a closed-door fundraiser for Rand Paul, the Tea Party champion running for the U.S. Senate — is railing against a GOP establishment that has just seen Tea Partiers oust entrenched Republican hacks in Delaware and New York. The dingbat revolution, it seems, is nigh. "We're shaking up the good ol' boys," Palin chortles, to the best applause her aging crowd can muster. She then issues an oft-repeated warning (her speeches are usually a tired succession of half-coherent one-liners dumped on ravenous audiences like chum to sharks) to Republican insiders who underestimated the power of the Tea Party Death Star. "Buck up," she says, "or stay in the truck."
Stay in what truck? I wonder. What the hell does that even mean?
Scanning the thousands of hopped-up faces in the crowd, I am immediately struck by two things. One is that there isn't a single black person here. The other is the truly awesome quantity of medical hardware: Seemingly every third person in the place is sucking oxygen from a tank or propping their giant atrophied glutes on motorized wheelchair-scooters. As Palin launches into her Ronald Reagan impression — "Government's not the solution! Government's the problem!" — the person sitting next to me leans over and explains.
"The scooters are because of Medicare," he whispers helpfully. "They have these commercials down here: 'You won't even have to pay for your scooter! Medicare will pay!' Practically everyone in Kentucky has one."
A hall full of elderly white people in Medicare-paid scooters, railing against government spending and imagining themselves revolutionaries as they cheer on the vice-presidential puppet hand-picked by the GOP establishment. If there exists a better snapshot of everything the Tea Party represents, I can't imagine it...
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Matt Taibbi @'Rolling Stone'
Iran jails pioneering blogger for 'anti-state activity'
An Iranian court has sentenced a prominent Iranian-Canadian blogger to more than 19 years in jail, rights groups and Iranian media say.
Hossein Derakhshan was charged with "propagating against the regime" and "co-operating with hostile states".
Mr Derakhshan was arrested in 2008 during a visit to the country.
He is credited with launching Iran's blogging revolution. Originally critical of the government, he later backed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Derakhshan was also sentenced for promoting counter-revolutionary groups, insulting Islamic thought and religious figures and managing obscene websites, Mashreq news website reported.
Judicial sources said he could appeal the ruling.
After moving to Toronto, Canada, from Tehran in 2000, he posted simple instructions in Farsi on how to publish blogs - thus helping to spark an explosion of blogging in Iran.
He paid a highly-publicised visit Israel - Iran's arch-enemy - in 2006, saying he wanted to act as a bridge between the two countries.
Pressure group the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran called Derakhshan "a prisoner of conscience, prosecuted and sentenced solely for his opinions and writings".
The group says there are more than 500 prisoners of conscience in Iranian jails.
Iranian opposition bloggers continue to be active despite a government crackdown since disputed elections last year that saw President Ahmadinejad re-elected.
Opposition leaders said the election was rigged.
California shop sells 'marijuana ice cream' for medicinal purposes
It's medical marijuana for people with a sweet tooth.
A new shop in Santa Cruz sells ice cream infused with marijuana extract.
Makers of "Crème De Canna" say one bite is equivalent to four to five puffs of a really good marijuana cigarette.
It’s super premium ice cream, so there are more calofires and fat than regular ice cream and it may have some side effects, that could add to the calorie-count as well.
“You're definitely going to back for seconds, the munchies are certainly probably going to be part of the experience. it really just depends on the individual and how they receive the plant," says founder Jonathan Kolodinski
A half-pint goes for $15 dollars buy customers have to have a medical marijuana card to buy it.
Flavors include Bananabis Foster, and Straw-Mari Cheesecake. Vegan and low-calorie flavors are in the works.
There's one catch: customers aren't able to eat the treat on the premises.
(valleycentral)
via Nothing To Do With Arbroath
Tuesday, 28 September 2010
Why in gawd's name...
...when you have Grinderman, The Stooges and Primal Scream performing 'Screamadelica' at next years Big Day Out is it being headlined by fugn Tool and fugn Rammstein?
WikiLeaks spokesman quits
SPIEGEL: Mr. Schmitt, you and WikiLeaks have been unreachable by e-mail for several weeks. What's wrong?
Schmitt: There are technical problems and no one to take care of them. WikiLeaks is stuck in a phase in which the project has to change itself. We grew insanely fast in recent months and we urgently need to become more professional and transparent in all areas. This development is being blocked internally. It is no longer clear even to me who is actually making decisions and who is answerable to them. Because of the high pressure we have all been under following the publication of the American military documents, we have not been able to restructure our organization accordingly. This has created a situation in which not all of the work is being done correctly, and that is overwhelming the project.
SPIEGEL: Is that your opinion or do all the people involved share it?
Schmitt: That is one of the points of dispute internally, but there are others. WikiLeaks, for example, was always free of discrimination. In the past we processed and published smaller submissions that were only of local importance the same way that we did more comprehensive documents that are of national or even international importance.
SPIEGEL: Why don't you do both?
Schmitt: We would like to, but unfortunately we've reached a dead-end. I have tried again and again to push for that, but Julian Assange reacted to any criticism with the allegation that I was disobedient to him and disloyal to the project. Four weeks ago, he suspended me-- acting as the prosecutor, judge and hangman in one person. Since then, for example, I have had no access to my WikiLeaks mail. So a lot of work is just sitting and other helpers are being blocked. I know that no one in our core team agreed with the move. But that doesn't seem to matter. WikiLeaks has a structural problem. I no longer want to take responsibility for it, and that's why I am leaving the project.
SPIEGEL: Why has your fight with Assange escalated to this degree?
Schmitt: We have all experienced intense stress in recent months. Mistakes happened, which is okay, as long as people learn from them. For that to happen, though, one has to admit them. Above all, though, we seem to have lost the faith that we are all pulling together.
SPIEGEL: Assange himself says that you questioned his power and wanted to take over leadership of WikiLeaks.
Schmitt: From my perspective there was no power struggle. It wasn't about personal interests, it was about our organization and its development. Only he can say why he sees things differently.
SPIEGEL: Nevertheless, you did advise him to temporarily retreat from the public eye as a result of the rape allegations lodged against him in Sweden.
Schmitt: The investigation into Julian in Sweden is, in my opinion, a personal attack against him, but they do not have anything to with WikiLeaks directly. Still, it does cost time and energy and it weighs on him. In my opinion it would have been best if he had pulled back a bit so that he could quietly deal with these problems. It would have been fine if he had continued his normal work out of the spotlight. But he clearly saw my internal proposal as an attack on his role.
SPIEGEL: What will happen now?
Schmitt: I worked on WikiLeaks because I considered the idea to be right and important. We tried numerous times to discuss all of the issues mentioned with Julian, without success. I have given more than 100 interviews to media all around the world, coordinated finances in Germany and also worked on the publication (of documents). Now I am pulling out of the project and will turn my tasks over to -- who knows?
SPIEGEL: Who are you referring to when you say "we"?
Schmitt: A handful of people in the core team, who have views about these things that are similar to mine but do not want to go public. A large amount of the work is done by people who want to remain unnamed. There is a lot of resentment there and others, like me, will leave.
SPIEGEL: You are leaving the project at a critical juncture. Do you not worry that a number of Internet activists may accuse you of betraying the cause?
Schmitt: I am aware of that, but you should assume that I have thought long and hard about the step. Nevertheless, in recent years, I have invested a considerable amount of time, money and energy into WikiLeaks. But I also have to be able to support the things for which I am publicly responsible. That is why the only option left for me at the moment is an orderly departure.
SPIEGEL: What is it that you no longer stand behind?
Schmitt: That we promise all of our sources that we will publish their material, for example. Recently, however, we have only focused on the major topics and applied practically all of our resources to them. Take the US Army Afghanistan documents at the end of July, for example. The video of the air strike in Baghdad in 2007, "Collateral Damage," was an extreme feat of strength for us. During the same period of time we also could have published dozens of other documents. And through our rising recognition in the last six months, we have again received a lot of material that urgently needs to be processed and published.
SPIEGEL: With the publication of classified Afghanistan reports, also through SPIEGEL, you have taken on the United States, a superpower. Washington is threatening to prosecute you for espionage and WikiLeaks supporters have been interrogated by the FBI. Bradley Manning, who is believed to be one of your informants, is sitting in jail. Are you afraid of the massive public pressure?
Schmitt: No, pressure from the outside is part of this. But this one-dimensional confrontation with the USA is not what we set out to do. For us it is always about uncovering corruption and abuse of power, wherever it happens -- on the smaller and larger scale -- around the world.
SPIEGEL: What does it mean for the organization now that its second most recognizable face after that of Julian Assange is leaving? Is WikiLeaks' future in jeopardy?
Schmitt: I hope not. The idea behind WikiLeaks is too important for that. There are a number of new people in Sweden and Great Britain and I hope that they will all work on something sensible. I believe in this concept that we set out to do, and I am confident that it will survive.
SPIEGEL: With a part of the WikiLeaks team now leaving, do your informants need to be concerned about what will happen with the material they submitted?
Schmitt: It is my view that material and money from donors should remain at WikiLeaks, because both were intended explicitly for this project. There are other opinions internally -- with our technical people, for example. No matter what, though, we will ensure that a clean transition happens.
SPIEGEL: You quit your job because of WikiLeaks. What will you do now?
Schmitt: I will continue to do my part to ensure that the idea of a decentralized whistleblower platform stays afloat. I will work on that now. And that, incidentally, is in line with one of our original shared convictions -- in the end, there needs to be a thousand WikiLeaks.
SPIEGEL: In your role as WikiLeaks spokesman, you have always gone by the name "Daniel Schmitt." What's your real name?
Schmmitt: It is high time that I also stop doing that and to go public with my name and my opinions. My name is Daniel Domscheit-Berg.
UN Fact-Finding Mission Says Israelis "Executed" US Citizen Furkan Dogan
The report of the fact-finding mission of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on the Israeli attack on the Gaza flotilla released last week shows conclusively, for the first time, that US citizen Furkan Dogan and five Turkish citizens were murdered execution-style by Israeli commandos.
The report reveals that Dogan, the 19-year-old US citizen of Turkish descent, was filming with a small video camera on the top deck of the Mavi Marmara when he was shot twice in the head, once in the back and in the left leg and foot and that he was shot in the face at point blank range while lying on the ground.
The report says Dogan had apparently been "lying on the deck in a conscious or semi-conscious, state for some time" before being shot in his face.
The forensic evidence that establishes that fact is "tattooing around the wound in his face," indicating that the shot was "delivered at point blank range." The report describes the forensic evidence as showing that "the trajectory of the wound, from bottom to top, together with a vital abrasion to the left shoulder that could be consistent with the bullet exit point, is compatible with the shot being received while he was lying on the ground on his back."
Based on both "forensic and firearm evidence," the fact-finding panel concluded that Dogan's killing and that of five Turkish citizens by the Israeli troops on the Mavi Marmari May 31 "can be characterized as extra-legal, arbitrary and summary executions." (See Report [.pdf] Page 38, Section 170)
The report confirmed what the Obama administration already knew from the autopsy report on Dogan, but the administration has remained silent about the killing of Dogan, which could be an extremely difficult political problem for the administration in its relations with Israel.
The Turkish government gave the autopsy report on Dogan to the US Embassy in July and it was then passed on to the Department of Justice, according to a US government source who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the administration's policy of silence on the matter. The source said the purpose of obtaining the report was to determine whether an investigation of the killing by the Justice Department (DOJ) was appropriate...
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Gareth Porter @'truth-out'
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