Image by Unai Rosende via Flickrhttp://article.wn.com/view/2010/07/06/La_Nina_expected_in_Pacific_this_year_WMO_s
La Nina is likely to cool the tropical Pacific in coming months, a phenomenon which usually causes stronger monsoons across Asia and eastern Australia, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Tuesday. The weather condition also promotes the development of storms including hurricanes in the tropical Atlantic, it said. El Nino, the opposite phenomenon which warms...
( That sounds like the Gulf of Mexico to me )
Which Dirt Should Your Baby Eat?
http://www.slate.com/id/2248524/?from=rss
Pathogens like H. pylori and hepatitis A that infect the gut and are thought to be very old make sense as regulators of immune development. So do microbes found in mud, soil, and rotting vegetation. And so do little worms called helminths.
End the War on Fat It could be making us sicker.
http://www.slate.com/id/2248754/?from=rss
Krauss and his colleagues analyzed the LDL particles they found in blood samples taken a dozen years earlier from 4,600 Swedish men and women and discovered that concentrations of the small- and medium-sized LDL particles best predicted whether the subjects later developed heart disease. Larger LDL particles, they noted in their study, which was published in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology, were essentially neutral with regard to the subjects' heart health.
This finding is particularly interesting in light of what Krauss had uncovered years earlier: Men who switch from a low-saturated-fat diet to one high in saturated fat experience an increase in total blood LDL cholesterol, as expected. But the change is mostly the result of a spike in the concentration of large LDL particles, not small. In other words, saturated fat consumption typically boosts the number of particles that Krauss has shown to be harmless.
Blood tests for LDL cholesterol might not even be a dependable indicator of your risk of heart disease.
The New Klingon
Without so much as a dictionary, Avatar fans are learning how to speak Na'vi.
http://www.slate.com/id/2248683/?from=rss
Twenty-four hours after Avatar appeared in theaters, the Web site Language Log was teeming with comments about Na'vi, the alien tongue spoken in the film. The site is always lively, but it was especially so that day because Paul Frommer—who created the language—had shown up to discuss Na'vi syntax and phonetics.
Aspiring Pandorans, however, can introduce themselves, give opinions, make requests, and even write poems in Na'vi. This, in fact, is what they are doing at learnnavi.org. The forum there already has 153,000 posts by 4,300 people—aficionados who chat, translate, and encourage novices who have never even studied a foreign language. (Yes, there are people who didn't bother learning Spanish in high school but who are eager to learn the invented language spoken on a fictional alien planet.) Na'vi, it would seem, has been taken over by the Na'vi speakers. While waiting on Frommer's full lexicon and grammar, Na'vi enthusiasts have produced their own study guides, word lists, and audio samples. They have posted guidelines for picking a "correct" Na'vi name and compiled warnings about common beginners' errors.
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Destroy the Afghan Opium Crops for Monsanto
http://www.opednews.com/Diary/Destroy-the-Afghan-Opium-C-by-Kenny-090404-258.html
US occupation of foreign countries is a corporate profiteer's dream.
Monsanto is not one to shy away from exploiting the US war/occupation of Afghanistan. It plays one side for the made for TV crop eradication programs and the other as 'friend' who will give the Afghani farmers 'free' seed if they won't grow their only cash crop.
Farmers who grow opium — an illegal* substance used to produce drugs like heroin and morphine — will be offered wheat seeds for free from either Afghan or U.S. officials to start growing wheat instead of opium. Then the kicker comes: “If the farmers refuse, U.S. or Afghan personnel will burn their fields, and then again offer them free replacement seeds.” Let’s repeat that for effect — U.S. personnel will burn their fields and then pressure the farmers again. And we wonder why the Afghan people have not yet warmed to our presence in their country. {more}
Corporate, hybrid, GM seed for the farmers. "The first one's free."
The genetically modified infestation into Afghan farming has been going on for awhile.
( * I wonder what 'illegal' means in a country taken over by foreigners who kill starving people while 'building a police force' that would cost multiples of GDP to run in nomad country ( mountains and arid valleys ) if it could actually be done? )
US warships cause anger in Costa Rica
http://www.infowars.com/us-warships-cause-anger-in-costa-rica
Costa Rica has allowed 46 US warships and 7,000 Marines to enter the country despite objection by the opposition parties, which describe the move as “illegal.”
The decision grants US troops permission to stay in Costa Rica from July 1 to December 31 to fight drug trafficking.
Opposition parties have not ruled out the possibility of taking action against the decision as they say it violates an agreement reached a decade ago with Washington that only allows the entry of coast guard vessels — not warships — into the country.
Russian-US relations: Wooing the West
http://ericwalberg.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=266
The past two years have witnessed a much more pliable Russia, retreating from the fiery rhetoric of Putin concerning NATO, the war in Afghanistan and America ’s targetting of Iran. Russian President Dmitri Medvedev has turned Russian foreign policy around, playing to US. He signed the new START treaty, agreed to transit war materiel to Afghanistan, and supports US-sponsored sanctions against Iran. To crown his charm offensive, he made a photo-op visit to the US last month to meet not only his “reset” friend in the White House, but business leaders such as Apple CEO Steve Jobs in Silicon Valley, much like his predecessor Nikita Khrushchev rubbed shoulders 
with American farmers a half century ago.
with American farmers a half century ago. At the same time, Russia is pursuing a less spectacular tack, one which is perhaps more important in the long term, to win over Europe. This process began under ex-president Vladimir Putin and is now gathering momentum. Integration into Europe is the name of the game. The proposed new European security treaty unveiled last year was a serious offer. The new EU-Russia Political and Security Committee, chaired jointly by EU High Representative Catherine Ashton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, announced that Trans-Dniestr may soon see the withdrawal of Russian troops, there since 1991, to be replaced by a joint European-Russian peacekeeping contingent. The European Parliament last month approved a resolution for visa-free travel with Russia. As the US flounders in Afghanistan, the accommodation with Europe becomes a reality.
So it is important to see the current Russian wooing of America as part of a two-track policy: to get Europe to continue to improve relations, it is necessary to keep the prickly Americans onside. Top on the agenda is ratification of START, now being debated in both US and Russian legislatures. Both Medvedev and United States Barack Obama have staked their careers on getting the treaty ratified. Medvedev’s recent trip was intended to show his unthreatening boyish demeanour, to lavish praise on US high tech, and disarm Cold Warriors in the Senate who threaten to derail the treaty. His allies even include Henry Kissinger who praised the treaty. Medvedev warned if it is not ratified simultaneously, the two countries would revert to some kind of Soviet past, when Russia was “cheated” by US non-ratification.
Russia’s accession to Washington’s demand for new UN sanctions against Iran could be dismissed as a meaningless gesture if it wasn’t for the subsequent cancellation of the S-300 missile contract. Russia signed the contract in 2005, when its relations with the US were at an all-time low after US-supported colour revolutions in Kyrgyzstan, Georgia and Ukraine. Russia finished assembling the missile systems in 2009 but has now admitted openly that it was cancelling the agreement due to pressure from Washington. The cancellation of the contract was a coup for Washington, and a blow to those who have come to expect Russia to take an independent role in world crises. It is also an expensive move, costing Russia up to $400m in a forfeit penalty, in addition to the $800m value of the sale, and could come back to haunt Medvedev.
The Fall of America and the Western World ( Advertisement )
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Media and Communications: Brazil
http://www.loc.gov/rr/international/hispanic/brazil/resources/media.html
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