May 6, 2013

Deadhead Drops Out of Economy, Tunes Into Scofflaw Nation: Books

The hard-luck stories in Barbara Garson’s “Down the Up Escalator: How the 99 Percent Live in the Great Recession” fall into two sections: people who have lost their jobs and people who have lost their homes.

Somehow, though, it’s not a gloomy book (at least not on the surface). Garson writes less about the terrible things that have happened to Americans since the crash than about the resigned/resourceful ways they’re coping.

Take Michael, a young Indiana Deadhead who has settled with such easygoing hopelessness into the new economy that he’s given up even looking for a job he might advance in.

His father works a miserable 50-to-60-hour week as a supervisor at the distribution center of a big-box retailer that, after 35 years, is trying to force him out so it can hire a younger, cheaper replacement.

“I’m not going to live that way,” Michael tells Garson. It makes her think about acquaintances from her own generation who made the choice to drop out.

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http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-04-29/deadhead-drops-out-of-economy-tunes-into-scofflaw-nation-books

May 6, 2013

Chicago Muslims Irate Over ‘Suicide Bomber’ Doll Parody

Members of Chicago’s Muslim community denounced a parody greeting card depicting a muslim “talking doll” as a toy suicide bomber.

WGN-TV reported on Sunday that the card, which features phrases like “Pull string for message, if you dare” and “She’ll blow your brains out,” was brought to the attention of the local chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) after a woman spotted it inside a stationary store. The doll featured on the card is a take-off of an actual toy, the “Aamina the Muslim Girl” doll.

Ahmed Rehab, the chapter’s executive director, said the greeting card plays to “an ugly ravenous stereotype that suggests that anybody who looks a certain way is a terrorist.”

According to The Daily Mail, the card was made by NobleWorks, a New Jersey-based company that specializes in caustic parody cards.

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http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/05/06/chicago-muslims-irate-over-suicide-bomber-doll-parody/

May 6, 2013

Syria Threat Over Israel Air Strike Risks Wider Conflict

By Calev Ben-David and Glen Carey - May 6, 2013
Syria threatened retaliation against Israel after an aerial strike on the outskirts of Damascus caused explosions that rocked the capital, increasing the risk of a wider regional conflict.

The attack killed 42 Syrian soldiers, with more than 100 still unaccounted for, the Coventry, England-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said today in an e-mailed statement. Israel didn’t confirm involvement in the assault yesterday. Its military also carried out an airstrike in Syria on May 3, The Associated Press reported, citing unidentified Israeli officials who said the attack targeted a shipment of missiles thought to be bound for Hezbollah militants in Lebanon.

Syria’s Deputy Foreign Minister Fayssal Mekdad told CNN the airstrikes were a “declaration of war” and that the government would retaliate in its own time. Information Minister Omran al- Zoubi said on state TV that Syria would use “any means” to protect its people. He said the overnight strike hit a military research center in Jamraya, northwest of Damascus. Syria deployed rocket batteries directed toward Israel, the pro- government Damas Post website said.

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2013-05-06/syria-threat-over-israel-air-strike-risks-wider-conflict.html

May 6, 2013

GM Plans About $16 Billion in Investments in U.S. by 2016

By Tim Higgins - May 6, 2013

General Motors Co. (GM), profitable for 13 consecutive quarters, is planning to invest about $16 billion on U.S. factories and facilities through 2016, more than it will spend in China, the company said.

“The $11 billion in capital that will be spent in China by 2016 is coming out of our joint ventures rather than Detroit and is far less than the approximately $16 billion in capital GM will invest in the U.S. over that time,” Selim Bingol, GM vice president of public policy, said in a letter published in the Wall Street Journal.

GM disclosed the U.S. investment figure after announcing the $11 billion investment for its joint ventures in China last month in Shanghai. That was an increase from a 2011 outline to spend $7 billion through 2015. GM through its joint ventures sold 2.84 million vehicles in China, its biggest market, last year and wants to boost that to 5 million by 2015.

The Journal last week ran a commentary on its op-ed page titled, “Welcome to General Tso’s Motors,” saying China “is disproportionately benefiting” from the 2009 U.S.-backed bankruptcy reorganization of Detroit-based GM. The Journal’s editorial page previously has criticized the bailout.

GM “was in China long before the economic meltdown of 2008-2009, and not one dollar of U.S. taxpayer rescue money was spent on our operations there,” Bingol said in the letter. “Our Chinese joint ventures are self-funding, meaning we require funds spent there to be generated there.”

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-06/gm-plans-to-invest-about-16-billon-in-u-s-by-2016.html

May 6, 2013

California Girds for Severe Fire Season as Dry Lands Burn

By Michael B. Marois - May 6, 2013
Californians are preparing for a prolonged season of wildfires after an unusually dry winter that left millions of acres of scrub brush in the most populous U.S. state primed to burn.

The tinder-box conditions have sparked more than 840 wildfires since January, about 320 more than the five-year average, according to the state Forestry and Fire Protection Department, known as Cal Fire. A fast-moving fire in Ventura County over the weekend charred an area the size of San Francisco, forced the evacuation of a college with 4,900 students and threatened 4,000 homes northwest of Los Angeles.

Wind-swept fires across the state following similarly dry winter months in 2008 burned more than 1.2 million acres and killed 13 firefighters, according to Cal Fire. In 2007, firestorms swept through Southern California, destroying 1,500 homes, displacing almost a million residents and killing 17.

“It’s pretty shocking that we are having fires of this size already,” said Bill Stewart, a professor of forest economics and policy with the University of California at Berkeley. “It could be a big one. I wouldn’t be surprised if we surpassed 2007.”

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-06/california-wildfire-prompts-evacuations-north-of-l-a-.html

May 5, 2013

Pamela Geller's Talk at Toronto Shul Scrapped in 'Hate Speech' Flap

Did Police Threaten Rabbi Over Anti-Islam Firebrand?

By JTA
Published May 05, 2013.

A speaking engagement by American anti-Islamic firebrand Pamela Geller was moved following police intervention.

Geller, a vocal critic of radical Islam, was due to speak May 13 at a Chabad synagogue in Thornhill, north of Toronto, but the synagogue’s rabbi, Mendel Kaplan, backed out after a visit by the hate crimes unit of local police.

“Rabbi Kaplan decided to cancel Ms. Geller’s appearance, as it would place him in conflict with the values of our organization, which support a safe, welcoming and inclusive community for all,” read a statement issued May 2 by the York Regional Police. Kaplan also serves as a police chaplain.

Geller is known for protesting past plans to build a mosque near Ground Zero in New York City, and has posted anti-Jihad signs in that city’s subway system. Geller’s speaking engagement, still slated for May 13, was moved to a different venue, according to the Jewish Defense League of Canada.

The Toronto Sun reported May 1 that police “threatened” to remove Rabbi Kaplan as a police chaplain if he hosted Geller. Police called that allegation “a flagrant misrepresentation of the facts.”


Read more: http://forward.com/articles/176008/pamela-gellers-talk-at-toronto-shul-scrapped-in-ha/#ixzz2SSuul1cP

May 5, 2013

Embassies Raise Alert Levels, Israelis Line Up For Gas Masks

Syria strike raises fears that Hezbollah may attack homefront or missions abroad

By ASHER ZEIGER May 5, 2013, 11:52 pm

Preparedness at Israeli embassies was stepped up on Sunday over fears that Hezbollah may stage an attack as retaliation for Israeli airstrikes on Syria over the weekend.

In Israel, requests for gas-mask kits were up fourfold as fears grew of a possible Syrian response, though officials said the likelihood of a Syrian response is low.

Hezbollah, which was reportedly the intended recipient of the Iranian missile shipments stored at sites targeted in Damascus on Friday and Sunday, has been known to strike at Israeli and Jewish targets around the world, including a bus of Israeli tourists in Bulgaria last year. The group is also believed to be linked to attacks and attempted attacks on Israeli embassies in Georgia and India.

Distribution centers and post offices across the country said that the number of requests for masks was four times that of usual. According to Maariv, Israel has in its possession enough gas masks for approximately 60 percent of the population.

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http://www.timesofisrael.com/embassies-raise-alert-levels-israelis-line-up-for-gas-masks/

May 5, 2013

‘Israel Trying To Drag US Into Syrian Conflict’

Israel’s reported second air strike on Syria in two days targeted a facility just outside the capital. But there was no escalation toward Israel to justify the attack – and Tel Aviv is only trying to drag the US into the conflict. That’s the view of journalist and Middle East expert Ali Rizk, who told RT he believes the actions are Israel’s attempt to influence US Middle East policy.

RT: This isn't just an isolated incident but a series of air offensives above a foreign territory. Why has Israel been so persistent despite the fact that such military action is a clear violation of international law?

Ali Rizk: I think you have to put all the pieces of the puzzle together. Remember that all of the furor and havoc about chemical weapons? Who was the one that made this first announcement…it was Itai Brun, the military intelligence Israeli official who made the announcement about Syria using chemical weapons from the very beginning, after President Obama had said time and again, “that is the red line.”

That didn’t succeed thus far in dragging the US to war against Syria so now I think we had two incidents.

There was a reported Israeli strike on a convoy and now we have indeed an Israeli strike on Jamraya. So I think we have a classical example of what we might call Israel trying to manipulate US policy in the Middle East, trying to drag Obama yet again into another confrontation.

I think that is the case which we have right now, once again. So Israel is going to continue with these practices until it drags the US into conflict.

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http://rt.com/op-edge/rizk-oren-syria-israel-839/

May 5, 2013

NASA Study Forecasts Global Warming to Trigger Global Rainfall and Drought

NASA recently revealed evidences that the risk of severe rainfall and drought worldwide may happen due to global warming.

The research team demonstrated through a modeling approach the effect of increasing amount of carbon dioxide concentrations on the rainfall types of Earth.

The team showed 14 computer simulations representing the 14 rainfall types worldwide such as those in the equatorial Pacific Ocean and Asian monsoon regions. The simulation showed that all regions will experience heavier rainfalls due to warming caused by an increasing level of carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere changing the entire rainfall system.

William Lau of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, lead author of the study, expounded the different scenarios that may possibly happen. Each region may suffer from heavier rain, less moderate rain, or extended drought.

The study forecasts that for every 1 degree Fahrenheit increase on warming, there will be a 3.9 percent increase on heavy rainfall and 1 percent on light rains. Moderate rainfall drops to 1.4 percent.
Tropical zones near the Pacific Ocean and Asian monsoon regions will experience heavier rainfall while those outside may suffer from drought.

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http://www.hngn.com/articles/2560/20130505/nasa-study-forecasts-global-warming-trigger-rainfall-draught.htm

May 5, 2013

Mount Cleveland Erupts: Alaska Volcano Explosions Affecting Air Travel

Alaska's Mount Cleveland volcano is undergoing a low-level eruption, according to scientists from the Alaska Volcano Observatory and the U.S. Geological Survey. The volcano first exploded Saturday morning at 5 a.m., but that explosion was followed by two more in the following hours at 9:17 and 11:44 a.m.

The volcano is currently sending a 15,000-foot cloud billowing into the sky eastward from the remote Alaskan island, which could affect air travel from Asia to North America. The aviation air alert level has been raised from "yellow" to "orange." Low-level emissions of gas, steam and ash have been detected by cameras and satellites, which have also recorded highly elevated surface temperatures at the summit.

"Sudden explosions of blocks and ash are possible with little or no warning," scientists said. "Ash clouds, if produced, could exceed 20,000 feet above sea level."

http://www.designntrend.com/articles/4178/20130505/mount-cleveland-erupts-alaska-volcano-explosions-air-travel.htm