February 2012
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“It took us 10 years to find Osama Bin Laden and we found him,” she...”
– Janet Napolitano insists Mexico drug war not a failure
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Uncovering mass graves of Holocaust horrors at... →
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'Rambo' plant set to blossom as Africa's top crop →
Scientists say the long-neglected cassava root becomes even more productive in hotter temperatures and could be the best bet for African farmers threatened by climate change. Scientists from the Colombia-based International Centre for Tropical Agriculture praised cassava as the “rambo of the food crops” after publishing findings Monday in the scientific journal Tropical Plant...
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Mexicans find millennium-old game board →
Archaeologists carrying out restoration at a site in the southeastern state of Campeche discovered a Mayan game board dating from more than 1,000 years ago, Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History said.
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Free HIV treatment on NHS for foreign nationals →
Foreign nationals are to be offered free treatment for HIV on the NHS under plans backed by the government.
Campaigners say the move in England will reduce the risk of Britons being infected and cut the costs of more expensive later treatment.
Currently only British residents are eligible, which excludes migrants.
The Department of Health said it would bring England into line with Scotland...
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A little PDF help?
So I have a ton of PDF files that I’m going through and annotating, but since I can’t write very well or type for a while because of my craptastic hands, highlighting text and what not is my main way of taking notes. I’ve been using Preview on my Macbook Pro for a while, but I don’t know if there’s a way to isolate my notes so that only my highlights are shown,...
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Putin protesters form human chain around Moscow →
Russians protesting against the likely return of Vladimir Putin as president in elections next weekend have made a final push to show their discontent by forming a human chain around the capital.
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Afghan airport hit by Taliban 'revenge' car... →
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India Close to Eradicating Polio, But Challenges... →
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Syria promises referendum results as EU imposes... →
The Syrian regime will announce Monday the results of its much-touted constitutional referendum, but for residents fearing for their lives in Homs — unsure whether the next government rocket will fall on their house — the vote is of little concern.
The results of the referendum, which President Bashar al-Assad’s regime has said is a move toward reform, will be announced Monday...
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Putin assassination plot foiled: Russian officials →
Ukrainian security services have thwarted a plot to kill Russian PM Vladimir Putin, Russian officials say.
Two suspects were detained in the Ukrainian port of Odessa, Russia’s state-owned Channel One TV reports.
The arrested men were both shown on TV admitting their involvement in the plot, after an explosion at a flat in January in which one suspect died.
Ukrainian security officials...
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“President Obama once said he wants everybody in America to go to college. What a...”
– Republican presidential candidate RICK SANTORUM, on Sunday’s Meet The Press.
No seriously. This guy is a fucking dick.
(via the Los Angeles Times)
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Stop Spike TV from looting our collective past! →
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“I came here with friends. They said they would pay each of us 2000...”
– ‘Paid-for support’ claims deflate Putin’s ballooning popularity
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4500-year old Sumerian temple found in Ur →
Iraqi and foreign archaeologists have uncovered a temple at the Sumerian city of Ur, which dates back to about 2500 B.C., the head of the Antiquities Department says.
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Classic Maya Civilization Collapse Related to... →
A new study reports that the disintegration of the Maya Civilization may have been related to relatively modest reductions in rainfall.
The study was led by Professors Martín Medina-Elizalde of the Yucatan Center for Scientific Research in Mexico and Eelco Rohling of the University of Southampton in the UK. Professor Rohling says: “Our results show rather modest rainfall reductions...
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Twelve killed in Koran protests →
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Coordinated attacks across Iraq kill an estimated... →
achichi-javier:
At least 60 people were killed and over 200 injured in a wave of car bombings and small arms fire across Iraq. Although the attacks targeted security installations and government buildings, civilians suffered the greatest casualties. The worst violence was concentrated in neighborhoods in Baghdad, many of which were predominately Shiite, during the morning commute between 6:00...
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How an 1870s marine expedition changed... →
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Bird flu still a menace in Asia and beyond →
The H5N1 virus has killed 345 people worldwide since 2003, when it rampaged across large swaths of Asia decimating poultry stocks before later surfacing in parts of Africa, the Middle East and Europe. The number of poultry outbreaks has greatly diminished since then, but the virus remains entrenched in several countries and continues to surface sporadically, resulting in 20 to 30 human deaths...
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Building the Great Pyramid today using... →
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Germany urged to end sex offender castration →
Europe’s top human rights watchdog, the Council of Europe, has urged Germany to end the practice of surgically castrating sex offenders. Read more…
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“The collection was totally, totally smashed,” Mr. Waheed said. “The whole...”
– Vandalism at Maldives Museum Stirs Fears of Extremism
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European Court censures Italy over African... →
The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that Italy violated the rights of Eritrean and Somali migrants by sending them back to Libya.
The 13 Eritreans and 11 Somalis were among a group of about 200 people who left Libya on three boats in 2009. Two of the 24 have since died.
The court ordered Italy to pay each migrant in the case 15,000 euros (£13,000; $20,000) in damages.
Read...
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Anger as Afghan children die in winter freeze →
Why, Afghans ask, can it not do something as simple as protect people against the predictable winter cold?
Most of these deaths have been happening not in far-off valleys of the Hindu Kush but in the capital, Kabul - the focus of the international aid effort.
Like many other children who perished, Kabulay died in a tented camp for people displaced by the war between Nato and the Taliban.
There...
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UN estimates cocaine trafficking in West, Central... →
UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. agency that fights drugs and crime estimated that cocaine trafficking is generating some $900 million annually in West and Central Africa as South American cartels use the shortest route to transport drugs to Europe.
Yuri Fedotov, the head of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, told the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday that in addition to an upsurge in cocaine...
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Rainforest Plant Combats Multi-Resistant Bacterial... →
Aggressive infections in hospitals are an increasing health problem worldwide. The development of bacterial resistance is alarming. Now a young Danish scientist has found a natural substance in a Chilean rainforest plant that effectively supports the effect of traditional treatment with antibiotics. Read more…
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UN to bolster Somalia peacekeeping force Amisom →
The UN Security Council is to vote to increase the African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia by more than 5,000 soldiers, diplomats have said.
The resolution will increase the number of troops in the country to 17,731 from its current level of 12,000.
In Somalia, Ethiopian troops are advancing on the strategic central city of Baidoa, held by al-Shabab militants.
British Prime Minister David...
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Nasty 'Superbug' Emerging? Strikes Otherwise... →
“Historically, in Western countries, classical strains of Klebsiella pneumoniae have caused infections mostly in sick, hospitalized patients whose host defense systems are compromised,” says Thomas Russo, MD, professor in the Department of Medicine at the UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and head of its Infectious Disease Division.
“But in the last 10 to 15 years,...
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“In the agency’s $2.8 billion budget for 2013, unveiled on Monday, they’ve...”
– Pentagon’s Project ‘Avatar’: Same as the Movie, but With Robots Instead of Aliens
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What If Earth's Magnetic Poles Flip? →
The end of the world as we know it could come in any number of ways, depending on who you ask. Some people believe global cataclysm will occur when Earth’s magnetic poles reverse. When north goes south, they say, the continents will lurch in one direction or the other, triggering massive earthquakes, rapid climate change and species extinctions.
The geologic record shows that hundreds of...