Everybody panic!! | WHO deeply concerned by mutated birdflu research | Reuters
The United Nations health body said it was "deeply concerned about the potential negative consequences" of work by two leading flu research teams who this month said they had found ways to make H5N1 into a easily transmissable form capable of causing lethal human pandemics.(Editing by Alistair Lyon)
Oh we decided to weaponize Bird-Flu, nothing to see here move along.
-Rob
Anti-Union NLRB gives the working class a break, a very very small one | Labor board gives U.S. unions a rare victory | Reuters.com
"This rule is about giving all employees who have petitioned for an election the right to vote in a timely manner and without the impediment of needless litigation," said NLRB Chairman Mark Pearce, a Democratic appointee of President Barack Obama.
What this effectively means is that union-busting law firms wont have as much time to crush organizing efforts. And of course they’re pissed about it.
Lawyers for the largest business lobbying group, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, filed a lawsuit in Washington to try to block the rule, which is scheduled to take effect on April 30. They say election periods could become so short that they could "ambush" employers and violate their free-speech rights.
Why and how the fuck do Corporations have “free-speech” rights?
Oh right America is a plutocracy, I almost forgot for a minute.
Even though this is a half measure, closer to a quarter measure, in todays political climate of a pansy Democrat in the White House and a congress that enjoys bending over being buggered by Tea-Party endorsed candidates, we still have to count this as a victory.
-Rob
Big-Oil raping the earth, business-as-usual. Spill reported at Shell Gulf of Mexico drill site | Reuters
(Reuters) - The U.S. Coast Guard was investigating a 13,000-gallon spill from an oil rig leased to Shell, operating about 26 miles southeast of last year's BP Plc Macondo oil well disaster, a Coast Guard spokesman said on Monday.
via Spill reported at Shell Gulf of Mexico drill site | Reuters.
Nope, nothing to see here, no need for regulation, carry on.
-Rob
North Korea leader dead, son hailed as Great Successor | Reuters
A tearful television announcer, dressed in black and her voice quavering, said the 69-year old iron ruler died on Saturday of "physical and mental over-work" on a train on his way to give field guidance - advice dispensed by the "Dear Leader" on his trips to factories, farms and military bases.
via North Korea leader dead, son hailed as Great Successor | Reuters.
What’s with all of these whack-job world leaders croaking and/or getting offed lately?
I mean seriously we have a major shortage of international kooks on our hands. Who are we going to make fun of? Oh there’s always W. Sure he’s an Ex-nonpresident but we can joke for decades about how he fucked three countries in the span of 8 years.
Ha hah.
Oh.
Ok.
I guess it’s not really funny at all.
I got nothing.
-Rob
BBC News – Christopher Hitchens dies after battle with cancer
Christopher Hitchens dies after battle with cancer
British author, literary critic and journalist Christopher Hitchens has died, aged 62, according to Vanity Fair magazine.
via BBC News - Christopher Hitchens dies after battle with cancer.
All I can say is good-riddance. The man who was right on so many issues but so fundamentally wrong on others can be described as nothing better then a jack-ass.
I’ll spare you a dissertation concerning his discognitive politics suffice it to say, he changed his views to suit the political winds as often as I change underwear, E.G. the so-called “war on terrorism” and Empire America’s brutal and oppressive foreign policy.
And no one give me any guff about “speaking ill of the dead” the man himself had an unhealthy preoccupation with Mother Teresa, after she had passed.
So again good-riddance to the drunken slob.
-r0b
Time names The Protester 2011 Person of the Year | Reuters
"Is there a global tipping point for frustration? Everywhere, it seems, people said they'd had enough," Time Editor Rick Stengel said in a statement.
via Time names The Protester 2011 Person of the Year | Reuters.
I’ve always held the notion that the center cannot hold. That sooner or later everyday people are going to wake up to this cluster-fuck of materialism and superficiality we cling to as modern society.
I really, really, really wish this could be that moment – yet I fear it is not.
The Arab spring had a coherence driven by years of mutual oppression we have nothing close to that in this country. The Occupy movement is tapping into something very real and very profound and I support it 100%, but it lacks a message, it lacks an actual narrative. Unlike the astroturfed “Tea Party” movement the Occupy movement has yet to find a platform that can actually be manifested as policy.
What it has managed to do is put the discussion on the national radar screen, to start a dialogue. let us hope this doesn’t get hijacked by the political establishment and turned into lukewarm half measures like we’ve seen so many times in the past.
I am not optimistic.
Cyber attacks could wreck world oil supply | Reuters
By Daniel Fineren
DOHA | Thu Dec 8, 2011 11:03am EST
(Reuters) - Hackers are bombarding the world's computer controlled energy sector, conducting industrial espionage and threatening potential global havoc through oil supply disruption.
Oil company executives warned that attacks were becoming more frequent and more carefully planned.
"If anybody gets into the area where you can control opening and closing of valves, or release valves, you can imagine what happens," said Ludolf Luehmann, an IT manager at Shell Europe's biggest company .
"It will cost lives and it will cost production, it will cost money, cause fires and cause loss of containment, environmental damage - huge, huge damage," he told the World Petroleum Congress in Doha.
More fear-mongering from Big Oil. Jesus, these threats JUST DON’T EXIST.
Let Mr. Mitnick and Poulson enlighten you. [link]
-r0b
Instagram Is Coming to Android #NotHoldingMyBreath.
Instagram, the hugely popular iPhone photography app that evokes 1970s style, has announced it’s finally developing an Android app.
Wait so I get to be all hipster like and take retro “ironic” pics?
“We have two people working on Android now,” Kevin Systrom, CEO of Instagram said at LeWeb in Paris. “I’m excited to be able to see our numbers today nearly double.”
Two WHOLE people? Like I said, I wont be holding my breath.
-r0b
Things That Never Happened In The History Of Macroeconomics – NYTimes.com
These days, you constantly see articles that make it seem as if there was a great debate in the 1930s between Keynes and Hayek, and that this debate has continued through the generations. As Warsh says, nothing like this happened. Hayek essentially made a fool of himself early in the Great Depression, and his ideas vanished from the professional discussion.
Things That Never Happened In The History Of Macroeconomics - NYTimes.com.
Libertarian evangelists please take note.
-r0b