Fault Lines: The Top 1%

The richest 1% of US Americans earn nearly a quarter of the country's income and control an astonishing 40% of its wealth. Inequality in the US is more extreme than it's been in almost a century — and the gap between the super rich and the poor and middle class people has widened drastically over the last 30 years.
Meanwhile, in Washington, a bitter partisan debate over how to cut deficit spending and reduce the US' 14.3 trillion dollar debt is underway. As low and middle class wages stagnate and unemployment remains above 9%, Republicans and Democrats are tussling over whether to slash funding for the medical and retirement programs that are the backbone of the US's social safety net, and whether to raise taxes — or to cut them further.
The budget debate and the economy are the battleground on which the 2012 presidential election race will be fought. And the United States has never seemed so divided — both politically and economically.
How did the gap grow so wide, and so quickly? And how are the convictions, campaign contributions and charitable donations of the top 1% impacting the other 99% of Americans? Fault Lines investigates the gap between the rich and the rest.
This episode of Fault Lines first aired on Al Jazeera English on August 2, 2011 at 0930 GMT.

'UK's biggest' cocaine haul found on Southampton yacht

The UK's largest ever seizure of a Class A drug has been made from a luxury yacht in Southampton, the UK Border Agency has said.

Officials found 1.2 tonnes of cocaine with a street value of between £50m and £300m in the yacht two months ago.
The 90% pure drugs were so well hidden in the 65ft pleasure cruiser, the Louise, it took six days to find them.
They had originated in the Caribbean and were en route to the Netherlands. Dutch police have arrested six men.
They are thought to be an organised crime gang.
Morning raids French authorities were alerted to the £1m craft Louise while it was in the Caribbean in May and it was then tracked to Southampton, on its way to Holland.
Officials spent six days searching the vessel and found the drugs packed in a specially-designed compartment beneath the boat's bathing platform, UKBA said.
It is understood the cocaine, which originated in South America, was packed inside the boat while it was in Venezuela.
Since the drugs were found in June, the UKBA has helped Dutch police track members of the gang and six men were arrested during early morning raids on Tuesday.
Two 44-year-olds were arrested in Amsterdam, a 60-year-old was held in Meppel, a 32-year-old and 34-year-old were arrested in Heusden, while a 27-year-old was held in Waalwijk.
A total of 100,000 euros (£87,300), two Harley Davidson motorcycles, two firearms, a silencer and a quantity of ecstasy were also seized.
@'BBC'

Bon Iver Live In Concert August 2, 2011 Washington, D.C.'s 9:30 Club

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Michael Brooks: Alleged hacker is my biggest fan

Jake Davis, the teenager accused of hacking into News International and the Serious Organised Crime Squad networks, carried my new book, Free Radicals: The secret anarchy of science into court. Today, I woke up to find myself hot property, with news articles examining why Davis would be so interested in a science book. The thing everyone wants to know is, how does it make me feel? Well, it's nice to see a reader. And it's nice to appeal to teenagers in particular.
So many of his generation think science is dull, beyond them and something that has no need of their input. That's because every generation before them has colluded in creating the myth that science is boring, that scientists are dull, passionless, cold and logical.
Science is far too important to our futures to let that situation just roll on through another generation. After all, these are the people who will have to make decisions about climate change, genetic engineering, medical technologies and energy production.
The book is about what scientists really do - the lengths they go to to make discoveries. They fight and brawl, they sometimes cheat and take drugs. They perform reckless experiments on themselves. They lie when they have to. There are no rules - or at least they act as if there are no rules. So, yes I'm very happy that more people - especially teenagers - are now going to see scientists as they really are: adventurers and risk-takers.
We're all living twice as long as people 200 years ago because of pioneering scientists who have created extraordinary medical advances - sometimes through life-threatening experiments on themselves. We have mobile phones and the internet because of risk-taking, adventurous scientists (we have iPods because of Steve Jobs of Apple, who says that taking LSD was one of the most important things he ever did in his life). Even just being a scientist often involves defending your work from the rabid attacks of colleagues. It's not for wimps.
I can imagine Davis sees himself as someone who lives outside the law, who isn't afraid of authority, who is smart and driven to do bigger, more audacious things than anyone around him. In that sense, he's very like some of the characters in Free Radicals. I'm not endorsing drug use, hacking or reckless self-experimentation, but If there's one thing I'd like to see come out of this strange moment in my life, it is having more of the risk-taking, adventurous teens view science as something they would like to get involved with.
Michael Brooks @'New Scientist'
Read Michael Brooks's exclusive New Scientist feature based on his book, Free Radicals.

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Archie Shepp & Gnawa Fire Music - Festival Jazz à Porquerolles 07/22/11

Archie Shepp (saxophones)
Hamid Drake (drums)
Tom Mc Clung (piano)
Jean-Jacques Avenel (bass)
Mahmoud Gania (guembri, vocals)
Malika Gania (vocals)
Abdellah El Gourd (guembri, vocals)
Youssef Jandouk (crotales)