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Thomas Paine

To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead.

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

BlogHopping

Smog is raising risks of premature births by 128%

One of the biggest polluters in the world, Saskatchewan moves ahead on carbon storage

Alberta ponying up $2 billion to make carbon capture and storage work

( Guess I'm impossible to please. Storing Oxygen underground where it can't be broken up is another abuse of a limited resource.  This one is vital to our ecology. )

Alberta closes books on 2008-2009 fiscal year with $852m shortfall

( It seemed at times the most popular sticker to put on a pickup was "Please God, let there be another Oil Boom. I promise not to piss it all away next time." Think Stelmach got the message ? )

The Bagua Movement

Iraq auctions oil fields

Bank of America accused of anti-consumer practices

Pirate Bay owners get rich in jail

debunking myths about canadian health care system

Time to end false bipartisanship

Russia buys 12 spy drones from Israel

Russia to sell 1000 infantry fighting vehicles to Greece

pole hill sanitarium

Dr. Sardonicus is a music buff - and has excellent posts on Michael Jackson, Ed McMahon, the Band, and Barry Beckett

Welcome Back to Pottersville

Franken beats Frankenstein  -  finally confirmed by the Minnesota Supreme Court as the winner over Norm Coleman

The Food Policy Vacuum - for every recall we hear about there are probably 100 taking place

Robert Kenner - Food Inc

What have we learned from Stonewall ? Retrospective on riot started by police brutality

The commission has been road-blocked : Republicans war on the FEC

Maps

A perfect storm could shed light on secretive energy markets

Larijani faction emerges as third force in Iranian power struggle

Israel attempts to stop S-300 air defense supplies to Iran

Ignorance is strength

Double games don't work in Pakistan

India envoy questions US stance onIndo-Iran ties

Cash-strapped states up against budget deadlines

Britain drops plans to make ID cards compulsory

30 June - Morning BlogNews

Israeli drones killed 29 civilians in Gaza war

High tech brigade heads for Afghanistan loaded with gadgets

EPA says Monsanto mine violates law

Ladybird risk to 1000 species

Olsen, Boies join in suing to overturn Proposition 8

Ahmadinejad orders investigation of Neda's death

UK economy shrinking at fastest rate in over 50 years

The rise of online prostitution

Export Emergency

Proposed farm animal care board under fire

Sprouting - a raw foods answer to immunity

'Bycatch' whaling a growing threat to coastal whales

Best photos past 24 hours

Monday, June 29, 2009

BlogNews

Dams are thwarting Louisiana marsh restoration

Deserts crossing Mediterranean /wildlife/article/40136

Interior Dept designates solar energy zones

EPA list shows dangerous coal ash sites in 10 states

Military shuts out scientists from infra-red signatures on all meteors which hit the planet

Help, Ezra

Don't get that college degree!

The persecution of Michael Jackson

Demonising Iran conveniently hides uncomfortable truths for the West

India set to decriminalize homosexuality ?

Tell  Secretary Clinton we want a clean energy future, not the dirtiest oil on Earth

Unregulated nanotechnology - are your products safe ?

Flood of Afghan heroin fuels drug plague in Russia

Who's behind food safety bills ?

How to build a high traffic blog without killing yourself

There. I fixed it

The Existentialist Cowboy

Flight 11 ( nor 77 ) Did Not Fly on 9/11 !

American politics : the choice between 'Most Bad' and 'Not Really Very Good'

Obama Admin drafts memo to detain terror suspects indefinitely

Monday Morning with the Pundits

Obama vows to prosecute torture, but there's a catch

Use it as a whip against others - not as a restraint on US actions.  All hail the 'World Sheriff' : that was a Reagan cartoon.

Negroponte applauds U.S. for joining UN Human Rights Council

Obama edging towards Bush view ending Habeas Corpus

There's your real 'terrorist threat : unlike the 'Taliban', the government is here, corrupt, and swollen with stolen taxpayer dollars wasted as quickly as possible...or faster !

40 years later, still second-class Americans

Hersch : US has a covert operation in Iran

U.S. shifts anti drug focus to fresh fields

NATO's new Columbian adventure in Afghanistan

Goliath vs the Ants : what Opium 'Eradication' in Afghanistan tells us about the West and the rest

Big Oil's answer to carbon law may be fuel imports

In a society organized passively by Free Markets and Free Elections, organized greed always beats disorganized Democracy

Recovery threatened by Toxic Assets  still hidden in key banks

Madoff sentenced to 150 years for Ponzi scheme (The official 'fall guy' for deregulation ? )

The Archdruid Report : The Thermodynamic Economy

Betraying the Planet

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Morning BlogRoaming

Pulled off the Oldephartte file in Google Reader

Dr. John von Kampen : a Deadly Weapon for Peace

Who are the players in the world's most deadly game : threatening with nuclear bombs ?...This world needs stability and peaceful coexistence of cultures. Not one dominant ideology suppressing other beliefs, convictions, lifestyles, ideologies, economies and freedom of people to shape their own lives. Or a 'rogue' one using threats and its bomb to silence some neighbours. Various U.S. adventures have turned the planet into a more dangerous place in the past 25 years.

Gnome 3 and GnoMenu...Linux changes

SirJohn Whitmore - his ( brave ? ) New World

...soon we'll get it the hard way that we can survive with more of less. Performance Cultures Leadership believes important opportunities are being lost because of lack of creative leadership.

 On the crisis

The Microsoft Free Desktop Environment

 - Windows 7 will NOT support 'in place' installation outside the USA. Linux is penetrating business markets rapidly due to the financial crisis. IBM is strongly pushing forward in those segments and penetrating places that formerly were nearly exclusive parts of Microsoft's playground. Linux News

For your eyes only. Ever seen $134 billion ?

Government of Japan caught red handed trying to dump US Treasury bonds at a discount

What you can do with Ubuntu

Earthrace superboat joining Sea Shepherd fleet

Dr Nasir Khan

I have read and appreciated many articles by Sudhan on Suzy-Q

The necessity of cultural boycott Pulse Media

When Archbishop Desmon Tutu was asked for his reaction to what he saw in the occupied territories, he noted sadly that it was worse than apartheid. He should know.

America's 'Bases of Empire' Steve Lendman Global Research 

hundreds of global bases...How can a war with no defined endpoints beyond the avoidance of retreat ever have a  convenient stopping point ?

Bagram detainees were treated 'worse than animals' AntiWar.com

beaten, deprived of sleep and threatened with dogs

UN asked to probe CIA Rendition

Memo confirms Bush and Blair knew claims Iraq had WMD were lies

Farah bombing : airstrike report belies 'blame Taliban' line

Nancy Pelosi : a Hawk in Donkey's clothing Tikkun magazine

Congressional approval to continue funding of the ongoing war in Iraq , a major segment of the $90 billion appropraite package, passed on Tuesday thanks to heavy-handed pressure by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., against anti-war Democrats.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

The Dysfunction of the 21st Century Crusades

Enzyme linked to longevity

Earth can generate summer out of winter
Geothermal energy

NQ must read for First Responders
NYT published a story about Saudi links to extremist groups
...prominent Saudi charity heavily supported by members of Saudi royal family showed support for terrorist organizations through at least 2006
( friend of US government ? )
Obama prickly with questioners when he knows he's wrong
White House pressers 'The Obama Show' - not press releases
"...what we have is a President overly dependent on himself as a personality, who desperately needs a teleprompter, doesn't like questions about himself personally and is quite content to use the policy templates left to him by his predecessor. The more things change..."

Definancialization, Deglobalisation, Relocalisation
We all have to prepare for a life without much money, where imported goods are scarce and where people will have to provide for their own needs and for those of their immediate neighbours. A few governments have already collapsed, others may be on their way, and before too long we may find our maps redrawn in dramatic ways.
Sustainability, What's in a word ?
In a word, unsustainable. What does that mean, exactly ? Chris Clugson has recently published a summary on The Oil Drum
All recent recessions were caused by price of oil
We have to prepare for a non-industrial future while we still have some resources with which to do itLink
Global Paradigms

Ignore the chickenhawks pushing for an Iran coup

Obama using political wealth for health reform
( Government can't compete with private insurers. Bureaucrats have no payola to buy off lawmakers. Business will massacre any attempt to do so. )

Mountain crisis, mouse reform - rhetoric without substance on fiscal reform

On Iran, etc. June 18
"...Obama's rejection of neoconservative grand designs of fighting Islamofascism and remaking the Middle East, like his commitment to renew the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, has helped reduce anti-Americanism while empowering those players that favor stronger ties with the United States and the West."
( The troops are still out there. What rejection he is seeing isn't universally obvious : which is to say 'change' is something yet to become evident. )

Spending like there's no tomorrow
Current debt $11 trillion, deficit this year $2 trillion

Tell your Senators F-22s are a waste of our money

'Funds to pay for the unneeded jets ( 22 ) would come from cutting funds for Energy Departments cleanups at nuclear weapons sites
( Radiation is good for you ! )
End these planes or Obama will

Airstrike report belies 'blame Taliban' line
Report carefully edited to save embarassment from having to admi earlier reports blaming Taliban were fraudulent

'There's no way I'm going to deploy to Afghanistan'
The wars in Iraq and ASfghanistan are not going to be ended by politicians or people at the top. They are not responsive to the people, they are responsive to corporate America.
The number of soldiers contacting 'Courage to Resist' has been escalating in recent months. Since May 2008, a 200 percent jump.

Nobody expects the Spanish Prosecution Gonzales, Yoo, etc.

Saving the Medical Industrial Complex
( Hm. The word Insurance isn't mentioned )
119 million Americans would bolt from their private insurers to the public option if they were given a chance ( poll from 'defenders' of private insurance ? With friends like that...it scarce needs more enemies. )
'When half-measures and half-baked compromises leave the American people disappointed or angry, the fault will be laid on the government's failure to do the job right.'

( So what to do : vote Republican ? From the frypan back to the fire. Ever read ClapSo at a view from the bridge at Clapsotronics ? He's beyond p.o.'d though.
'Which right wing copoRATe media fat cat would yield the most soylent green?"
It's a poll : and the characterizations should be seen at least once. )
laBAMAnostra and laBUSHanostra agree :
That the disaster of a war should continue indefinitely
That the waste,fraud,and abuse pork barrel spending on ever larger pentagon budgets should continue and money 'should be no object' when it comes to the funding of military death and destruction
That the thieving corpoRATe insurance companies should be able to pocket almost half of our health care dollars
That the wal-fare system started by the klinton klan should be able to poverty pimp we poor folks into ever deeper poverty!
That the inherently dishonest corpoRATe criminals should be allowed to continue to 'self police' as the idiots in washingtOOn chant the deregulation mantra.

Detainees were also murdered at Bagram in Afghanistan
Murders linked to interrogation tactics enacted by Bush Administration
Link( Absolute bumpf and false excuse : torture is not now and never was 'interrogation.' It is a means of procuring false confessions. End of story. Torture invariably - and reliably - produces Lies. )

MIDEAST : Prisoners shackled and hidden away Public Committee against Torture in Israel report

Our haunted planet

Animal Crackers

Animal Rights activist jailed inside a CMU gives first account of life inside secretive prisons

ACLU has filed challenge to legality of 'Communications Management Units'

Ancient granary predates agriculture

Cancer joins threats to wildlife

Let he who has an ear listen : real effects of climate change

Nuclear power could cost trillions over renewables

Facebook launches 'Live Stream' widget for all publishers,networks and developers

Dead Sea sinkholes swallow up the unwary

New washing machine uses only 1 cup of water

High school girl discovers styrofoam eating bacterium

Boy discovers microbe that eats plastic

Are your family's products safe ?

Neutralizing the toxicity of vaccines

Vaccine pioneers never recommended mass vaccinating of populations. The government of India has come out with a quarter page ad in The Hindu warning parents not to vaccinate beyond Government approved vaccines.link

Linked article ends on a note questioning priorities in US : protocol over science

Reporting on health and the health of reporting

Palin praises waste dump ruling

Eclectic selections : cowboss's news

Definitely organic and animal interest selections

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Reality Check - Iran

The subversion of the free press by the CIA
Private military contractors writing the news ? Pentagon propaganda at its worst
Iran had a democracy before we took it away

Dictatorship Watch : Going Behind the Headlines

Meantime warlords' propaganda rattles the world
Al Qaeda threat rattles Pakistan extremists' goal to infiltrate military adds to uncertainty to army offensive in tribal regions
Mossad-Taliban whistleblower killed in Pakistan - a tribal leader who earlier defected from Pakistan Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud and revealed the militant group's ties with the US and Israel has been shot dead : Qari Zainuddin
Dr Naemmi among 5 killed by suicide blast
Asif Ghaddari and sons empire
Obama's first 100 days : the madman did well
In his first 100 days, Obama has excused torture,opposed habeas corpus,and demanded more secret government. He has kept Bush's gulag intact and at least 17,000 prisoners beyond the reach of justice. On April 24 his lawyers won an appeal that ruled that Guantanamo prisoners were not 'persons' and therefore had no right not to be tortured. His national intelligence director, Adm. Dennis Blair, says he believes torture works. One of his senior officials in Latin America is accused of covering up the torture of an American nun in Guatemela ; another is a Pinochet apologist. As Daniel Elsberg has pointed out, America experienced a military coup under Bush, whose Secretary of "defense", Robert Gates, along with the same warmaking officials, have been retained by Obama.

All over the world, America's assault on innocent people, directly or by agents, has been stepped up. Read more

Steph's blog : Iran sends a powerful message to the West

Anyone who didn't think Ahmadinejad wouldn't win by a landslide didn't have their finger on the pulse of Iranian politics....Mousavi was never going to win because his appeal was too narrow. His electoral base was the rich, middle class, neoliberal elite in North Tehran and the ex-pats, while Ahmadinejad's support was widespread....he has won enormous kudos throughout the world for his challenging of American hegemony, for the unfairness of the UN Security Council and of his criticizing of the Israeli ethnic cleansing and occupation of Palestine....America and Israel have been threatening war with Iran since 2005.

..........................................................................................

Prior to the invasion of Iraq, Cheney had 'intel' fixed around the desired result : manufacturing evidence of weapons of mass destruction via using fertilizer as a threat of being 'weaponized' - yellowcake.

Then Iran was and is for years believed to be made a threat by Russia - virtually a next door neighbour and a constant lookout for that sort of event.; yet who warns against an attack on Iran. The Cuban Missile Crisis was a calculated reaction to deployment of nuclear missiles in Turkey. More lately floating nuclear reactors are proposed for the Arctic. That attention - getter is ignored by the selective attention of the media just as much as Russia's threats not to attacks Iran : yet Russia has actual - not imaginary - WMD.

Into that background comes this story

Son of Shah says protesters defeat could lead to nuclear war

Rather gives 'what comes round, goes round' a whole new meaning, doesn't it ?

Soros, the CIA, Mossad and the new media destabilization of IranLink

Opposition leader Mir-Houssein Mousavi declares victory hours before the polls close, insuring any results to the contrary will be called into question. Western media goes into overdrive, seeing who can offer the most hyperbolic denunciation fo the vote...
Enter Destabilization 1.01 This version of the destabilization program is less messy, offering plausible deniability for the western powers who are overthrowing a foreign government.
Destabilization 1.2 involves seemingly disinterested, democracy promoting NGOs with feelgood names like the Open Society Institute, Freedom House and The National Endowment for Democracy. They fund, train, support and mobilize opposition movements in countries which have been targeted for destabilization, often around elections and usually organized around an identifiable color.
Now we arrive at Destabilization 2.0, really not much different than a slight tweak of Destabilization 1.2. The only thing different now is that Twitter, acebook, YouTube and other social media are employed to amplify the effect of ( and the impression of ) internal protests.

The American Hand in Iran
In 2005, Trish Shuh identified organizations whose sole purpose is to overthrow the government of Iran.

Link
International issues in the Iranian crisis

Iran divided and the 'October Surprise'
1981 : U.S. military supplies moving to Iran, Iran Contra : Iran leadership splits

Militarization of Space : Threat of Nuclear War on Earth
Global, Orbital First Strike Potential

The Show Must Go On
Link
'

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Readers and Gadgets

Screenshot application of google readerImage via Wikipedia


Go to Google. Notice the categories on the upper left. Click on More. 11 categories listed and Even More. Impressive !
I integrated their desktop on Windows XP a few years back - on an 1800+ I think. Really nice...but slow. Privacy ? What's that ?

Google Reader is sharable! Set up RSS feeds.
Google Reader is your new watercooler.

Google Search features

iGoogle is addictive. Again you can set up RSS feeds, customize the decor,add pages...things also available on Netvibes and Pageflakes. Since they are run by different people - you have a wider variety of recommendations. I notice the bathing beauties on iGoogle tend to have clear clickjacking warnings on them from time to time coming up from the NoScript Firefox Add On.
Someone who is running Linux because his computer loaded a Trojan spambot and was so outraged he dumped Windows altogether tends to note such things. Actually, I can't even load gif images on this machine. If you check out their characteristics, you may not wish to either.

You might ease back on installing toolbars such as Google Toolbar. They tend to eat up screen space, clash with programs, and be hard to unistall.
I'm wary of desktop programs which bypass the browser for the same reasons. At least with browser programs you get to change the View so that different toolbars aren't always displayed - if you've put them on! - and can add buttons using Drag and Drop to your Bookmarks toolbar. You can easily cut checked options down to Tab and Address to maximize screen space.
Check available Add Ons for reviews and clustered applications which will give you a drop-down menu rather than adding a number of buttons. Too many tricks added and running together are bad news for your system - and can freeze it up by using too many resources and even clashing. If funky things are happening on your system - you may have been too greedy.

I'm referring to the display on Mozilla's Firefox here. It's installed in the free Open Source Ubuntu Linux operating system I had installed after malware made it past my defences for Windows XP: antivirus, mechanical trap on e-mail and more. Then again - how many people go to so many strange locations ?

Wubi  *- Ubutu installer for Windows users

* Meant as a temporary installation to try Ubuntu. On an upgrade I lost the ability to access the program from the boot menu !


News feeds from the BBC 

50 free Linux alternatives to popular M$ applications

HP Pavilion dv1597ea + Ubuntu 6.06 ß1 (FLICK)R...Image by jcraveiro via Flickr
Linux App Finder

13 Blackberry apps for the social networker

50 Twitter tools for designers and developers

Tinker : Follow Twitter conversations

Lifehacker's Firefox Add On Packs

I have a number of E-mail accounts, of course. Opera's free service was so good I eventually subscribed for the paid subscription upgrade. BTW : I'm thrifty.

Opit's LinkFest! at the Opera Community was a bit of a revelation. It was my first real social network after years of just commenting on blogs. Now, of course I scarcely have time to stay current with all my online activities. When I started Oldephartteintraining on WordPress years ago blogging was like shouting down a well ; response was scarce. That I rather expected, though. I wasn't running a chatroom but a resource centre which didn't call for constant monitoring : though there are loyal fans who follow my news roundups. I came to Opera because I was running what was once a rather obscure paid browser which was picked up by Google and made freeware - which I have used for years.

Opera tries to unite users across browsers

Opera Link Synchronize Bookmarks,Custom Search and History across Different Computers

Dropbox
Recommended by Dr. John v. Kampen of My Hiding Place, where he blogs about Ubuntu and physics ( especially near space ) and other science news

List of Web Browsers

Startpage Search Engine 

Care 2 E-cards

BelArc Adviser Proprietary Windows Freeware

A V G Antivirus

Avast Antivirus

You cannot use more than one AntiVirus at a time without conflict which will disable them - nor Firewalls either, for that matter.

HowTo Tech Tips

Anti-Malware HowTo

MalwareBytes AntiMalware

Web of Trust Malware Warning Co-Op : Firefox PlugIn

KeyScrambler Personal Free Version of Proprietary Program

TrueCrypt : Hidden Operating System

How Surfers can protect private info

Learning Tools Directory

Alesti : Online RSS Reader

Discover : social news aggregator

Bookmark List

Add This! Bookmarking and Sharing

Faves Social Bookmarking

Global Internet Freedom Consortium 

backtype : Find, follow and share comments

CoComment Tracks and monitors threads on which you comment. Can slow surfing.

CommentLuv Wordpress PlugIn


FriendFeed What your friends are surfing

Friend Connect

extreMe Tracking

FeedJit! Live traffic feed and other widgets

Twingley Blog Search

PDF Me Not : Online viewer or Firefox Extension

List of aggregators


Feb 2010  Dr John v. Kampen suggested OSINT
Open Source Intelligence Internet Training

Journalists' Toolkit
A training site for multimedia and online journalists
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Saturday, June 20, 2009

Opit Online

Image representing delicious as depicted in Cr...Image via CrunchBase

Delicious /OPIT - Sharable Bookmarks Community File

Image representing StumbleUpon as depicted in ...Image via CrunchBase
Diigo/Oldephartte - Sharable Bookmarks Community FileClipmarks/Oldephartte - Sharable Notes Community
Facebook

Image representing Diigo as depicted in CrunchBaseImage via CrunchBase
Google Reader/Oldephartte -Sharable RSS CommunityLivejournal/Oldephartte -Weblog
oldephartte(intraining) - archives for My Opera posts
September 2010 also added TPM Cafe posts (TPM  reader blog posts end Oct 1)
Open Salon - John Farnham's Blog
Opit's LinkFest!or Oldephartteintraining II at Opera
Netvibes/Oldephartte395 -Social Personalized Homepage
Pageflakes -Social Personalized Homepage
StumbleUpon/Oldephartte -Sharable Bookmarks Community
TPM Cafe/Opit - Blogging Community : Politics ( Archive )
Twitter/Opit

Caption of Netvibes login pageImage via Wikipedia
I often frequent Care 2 and Current TV/Opit News Sharing Communities
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Another Blog ?

I've been getting 404 errors on my posts at Opit's LinkFest! when trying to crosslink within the blog so as to get links collections which are on separate pages : otherwise it takes too long to load.
Yep. There are that many.
Bear with me while I backup a failing game plan here : having tried - and not abandoned - other means of pursuing targeted Search.
I'm no Geek...at least I don't think so. I still know there is so much I don't know that it's frustrating to flounder about searching for solutions. I am finding more interesting problems. Does that count ?