March 2, 2014

Marine mining: Underwater gold rush sparks fears of ocean catastrophe

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/03/01/marine-mining-underwater-gold-rush-sparks-fears-of-ocean-catastrophe/

Marine mining: Underwater gold rush sparks fears of ocean catastrophe
By Suzanne Goldenberg, The Guardian
Saturday, March 1, 2014 23:54 EST

~snip~

This is the last frontier: the ocean floor, 4,000 metres beneath the waters of the central Pacific, where mining companies are now exploring for the rich deposits of ores needed to keep industry humming and smartphones switched on.

The prospect of a race to the bottom of the ocean – a 21st-century high seas version of the Klondike gold rush – has alarmed scientists. The oceans, which make up 45% of the world’s surface, are already degraded by overfishing, industrial waste, plastic debris and climate change, which is altering their chemistry. Now comes a new extractive industry – and scientists say governments are not prepared.

“It’s like a land grab,” said Sylvia Earle, an oceanographer and explorer-in-residence for National Geographic. “It’s a handful of individuals who are giving away or letting disproportionate special interests have access to large parts of the planet that just happen to be under water.”

The vast expanses of the central Pacific seabed being opened up for mining are still largely an unknown, she said. “What are we sacrificing by looking at the deep sea with dollar signs on the few tangible materials that we know are there? We haven’t begun to truly explore the ocean before we have started aiming to exploit it.”

March 1, 2014

Brit Spooks Get Knickers in a Wad Spying on Yahoo Sex Videos

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Brit-Spooks-Get-Knickers-i-by-Donn-Marten-Gchq_Gchq_Government_Privacy-140228-323.html



Brit Spooks Get Knickers in a Wad Spying on Yahoo Sex Videos
By Donn Marten
OpEdNews Op Eds 2/28/2014 at 08:40:08

GCHQ, the American Stasi's overseas counterpart across the pond have just been busted for their theft and storage of webcam images and videos - including sexually explicit images - from millions of law-abiding Yahoo users. This latest transgression against privacy and basic human dignity from the Norsefire arm of the U.S. Surveillance machine smacks of the type of perverted voyeurism that in most decent societies would have the perps arrested and in more 'regressive' ones have the offenders penises chopped off in a public exhibition of what dirty perverts should expect. Here in the land of lies, woes and high government criminality that is now called The Homeland however and in the U.K. where the obscene concept of royalty not only exists but is actually embraced such lewdly criminal conduct never results in the lawbreakers being arrested or for that matter fired from their jobs for abuse of power.

The program is code-named "OPTIC NERVE" [suggested code-name of "PENILE-ERECTION"] and is the latest gift delivered to those who still believe in the concept of transparency in government by former government contractor turned whistleblower Edward Snowden was revealed in a story published by The Guardian entitled "Yahoo webcam images from millions of users intercepted by GCHQ" by Spencer Ackerman and James Ball states that:

GCHQ files dating between 2008 and 2010 explicity state that a surveillance program codenamed Optic Nerve collected still images of Yahoo webcam chats in bulk and saved them to agency databases, regardless of whether individual users were an intelligence target or not.

In one six-month period in 2008 alone, the agency collected webcam imagery - including substantial quantities of sexually explicit communications - from more than 1.8 million Yahoo user accounts globally.

March 1, 2014

Roundup In 75% of Air and Water Sampled -- Causes Kidney Failure

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Roundup-In-75-of-Air-and-by-Washington-s-Blog-FDA_Food_Glyphosate_Kidney-Disease-140228-507.html



Roundup In 75% of Air and Water Sampled -- Causes Kidney Failure
By Washington's Blog
General News 2/28/2014 at 12:00:14

A new study from the U.S. Geological Survey -- soon to be published in the journal Enviromental Toxicology and Chemistry -- finds that Monsanto's Roundup herbicide (technically known as "glyphosate&quot and its toxic degradation byproduct AMPA were found in over 75% of all air and rain samples in Mississippi in 2007.

Another new study -- published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health -- proposes that the epidemic of kidney failure found in areas with hard water is caused by an adverse reaction between Roundup and the chemicals found in hard water:



~snip~

Indeed, "Roundup-ready plants" -- plants genetically engineered to be able to tolerate Roundup -- have overtaken the country. For example:

* Monsanto reports that -- between 2008 and 2009 -- 95% of all sugarbeets planted were genetically engineered to be able to tolerate high doses of the pesticide Roundup
* The USDA reports that 93% of all soy and 85% of all corn grown in the U.S. is an herbicide-resistant GE variety.
* Similarly, around 93% of all cottonseed oil and more than 90% of all canola oil produced in the U.S. is herbicide-resistant GE.

March 1, 2014

Finally Cuts to the Military, but not the Right Ones

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Finally-Cuts-to-the-Milita-by-Jim-Turnage-Military-Budget_Military-Contractors_Military-Deployment_Military-Equipment-Weapsons-Supplies-140228-937.html

Finally Cuts to the Military, but not the Right Ones
By Jim Turnage
OpEdNews Op Eds 2/28/2014 at 08:47:30

The news services were buzzing today, 2/24/2014 about cuts in military spending. I have been advocating this for years. The U.S. spends five times more than any other nation on its military. We all now know that much of it is in the form of waste and lack of oversight by the Pentagon regarding its defense industries. However, these cuts are not the ones that the Pentagon should make.

The majority of the deductions will be from those who serve, and who have actually served in wars for our nation. Benefits and pay cuts for soldiers simply emphasize the fact that they are only appreciated during the wars in which they served. Once they come home, they become unimportant to our government, while many of them became wealthy because of defense industry investments. (Just ask Vietnam veterans.)

I have been campaigning for years to close obsolete bases in dozens of countries. Virtually none of them are critical to our national defense. I featured the fact that we continue to maintain bases in such countries as the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and Japan. Why?

Our military signs off on billions of dollars of waste. I worked for a company in my twenties that was supported entirely by the military and space programs. I remember the cost of many items in our warehouse. It was not uncommon for a single screw to cost 38 dollars each. And that was in 1965. Imagine what our military pays for the same screw today.

March 1, 2014

Carnival in Crimea

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Carnival-in-Crimea-by-Pepe-Escobar-America_Crimea_Pentagon_Putin-140301-655.html



A crowd of angry pro-Russian demonstrators, as well as police and media, accompany Ukrainian MP Petro Poroshenko as he walks through the streets of the Crimean city of Simferopol.

Carnival in Crimea
By Pepe Escobar
OpEdNews Op Eds 3/1/2014 at 01:13:40

Time waits for no one, but apparently will wait for Crimea. The speaker of the Crimean parliament, Vladimir Konstantinov, has confirmed there will be a referendum on greater autonomy from Ukraine on May 25.

Until then, Crimea will be as hot and steamy as carnival in Rio -- because Crimea is all about Sevastopol, the port of call for the Russian Black Sea fleet.

If the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is a bull, this is the red flag to end all red flags. Even if you're deep in alcohol nirvana dancin' your troubles away at carnival in Rio -- or New Orleans, or Venice, or Trinidad and Tobago -- your brain will have registered that NATO's ultimate wet dream is to command a Western puppet Ukrainian government to kick the Russian navy out of its base in Sevastopol. The negotiated lease applies until 2042. Threats and rumors of reneging it have already emerged.

The absolute majority of the Crimean peninsula is populated by Russian speakers. Very few Ukrainians live there. In 1954, it took only 15 minutes for Ukrainian Nikita Krushchev -- he of the banging shoe at the UN floor -- to give Crimea as a free gift to Ukraine (then part of the USSR). In Russia, Crimea is perceived as Russian. Nothing will change that fact.

March 1, 2014

Who Benefits from Keystone XL?

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Who-Benefits-from-Keystone-by-Alan-Grayson-China_Keystone-Xl-Pipeline-140228-134.html



Who Benefits from Keystone XL?
By Alan Grayson
OpEdNews Op Eds 2/28/2014 at 12:14:51

~snip~

The Chinese economy consists of taking raw materials and energy, making that into stuff, and then selling that stuff - a/k/a "manufacturing." Chinese leaders understand that in order for that model to work, China needs steady supplies of raw materials and energy. By how do you get a steady supply of energy, in a world where those supplies are dominated by a cartel, and are concentrated in a part of the world prone to war? In America, we've been trying to puzzle that out for four decades, without success.

Well, the Chinese have figured it out. They're going to get their energy from Canada, a stable country, and pass it through the United States, another stable country. They will pay the Canadians the world price for oil. They will pay us nothing, or next to nothing. So Uncle Sam is Uncle Sucker.

And not for the first time. For the past decade, China has pursued an utterly unscrupulous and incredibly successful strategy in "trade" with the United States. China has been importing from the United States roughly $50 billion in goods each year, much of it food, raw materials and energy. China has been exporting to the United States roughly $350 billion in goods each year, mostly manufactured goods. And China has been buying roughly $300 billion in U.S. assets each year, mostly U.S. Treasuries. So we buy their stuff, putting their people to work. And they buy our assets, driving us deeper and deeper into debt. America loses - twice.

Now China has peeled off a tiny portion of that trade surplus, just $30 billion, and audaciously is trying to parlay that into permanent energy independence. China has put that money into Canadian tar sands.

March 1, 2014

Heading for the Margins: Why Is Britain Running Away from Europe?

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/will-straw-essay-on-the-role-of-britain-in-the-european-union-a-956230.html



Great Britain used to play a key role in leading Europe, and the benefits have been substantial. But now, the UK is turning its back on the EU and has chosen to focus on peripheral issues. It is the wrong move.

Heading for the Margins: Why Is Britain Running Away from Europe?
An Essay by Will Straw
February 28, 2014 – 12:43 PM

In the aftermath of the Second World War, Winston Churchill called for the creation of a "United States of Europe" to bind France and Germany together. In doing so, he made clear that Britain would be a supportive but independent partner of any such entity. He famously said: 'We are with Europe but not of it."

In the end, Britain did join the European Economic Community but only in 1973, 15 years after the Treaty of Rome was signed. We joined the Social Chapter in 1997, eight years after it was adopted by other member states. And we never signed up to Economic and Monetary Union or the Schengen Agreement on common borders.

In other words: Britain was always a bit late to the party. But once it found its way to Belgium, Britain had an uncanny knack of winning the big strategic battles. It is therefore a puzzle that the current British government has diverted its attention from winning the next round of key policy debates in Brussels and, instead, focused on a pointless exercise of seeking treaty change to repatriate powers. Britain should stop wasting its time with this futile endeavour and concentrate on aligning the EU's institutions with an agenda of growth and democracy.

While Britain's political leaders have been cautious and incremental in expanding the UK's involvement with Europe, they have been phenomenally successful in shaping its institutions to British strategic goals:

March 1, 2014

Economic Woes: The Uncertain Future of Ukraine's Finances

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/ukraine-facing-financial-instability-but-imf-may-help-soon-a-956353.html



With rapidly shrinking currency reserves and a capital flight problem, Ukraine faces an uncertain financial future. The IMF plans to send a "fact-finding mission" to Kiev next week, but will it be enough?

Economic Woes: The Uncertain Future of Ukraine's Finances
By David Böcking
February 28, 2014 – 04:37 PM

Stepan Kubiv, 51, looks as earnest as one would expect for the president of a central bank. Yet in Kubiv's case, he has only held his office as the governor of Ukraine's national bank since Monday. Prior to that, he was a "commandant" of Ukraine's Euromaidan opposition movement, which managed to topple President Viktor Yanukovych. Now Kubiv must take up a different battle -- keeping his country from financial collapse.

On Wednesday, Kubiv noted that his country's foreign currency reserves had dropped from $17.8 billion (€13 billion) to $15 billion just since the beginning of February, as the national bank attempted to prop up the exchange rate of the country's currency, the hryvnia. Those efforts met with little success, and the hryvnia has fallen to a record low against the dollar.

And that's not Kubiv's only woe. Despite Ukrainian banks limiting cash withdrawals from ATMs, the central bank president says customers withdrew around $3 billion just during the three days of street battles last week, an amount equivalent to 7 percent of all deposits. On Friday, Kubiv announced that foreign currency withdrawals were being further limited to 15,000 hryvnia ($1,500) per day in order to calm the current volatility.

Ongoing instability on the Crimea Peninsula has also not helped, with global stock exchanges hit hard on Thursday. Furthermore, the VTB on Thursday became the second major Russian bank to announce it was reducing its lending in Ukraine, which could cause businesses in the already economically stricken country to soon run out of cash. "Ukraine's banking sector appears to be destabilizing considerably," says Stefan Bielmeier, head economist at Germany's DZ Bank.

March 1, 2014

What Does a Soviet Submarine Have to Do With US Government Secrecy?

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/02/28-9



What Does a Soviet Submarine Have to Do With US Government Secrecy?
by Nathan Freed Wessler
Published on Friday, February 28, 2014 by Blog of Rights / ACLU

It is the height of the Cold War. A nuclear-missile-equipped Soviet submarine sinks in the Pacific Ocean, in suspicious circumstances. The CIA commissions reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes to secretly build a massive ship capable of lifting the submarine off the ocean floor using a colossal extendable claw. The ship is built, christened the "Glomar Explorer," and — disguised as a deep-sea mining vessel — sent on a top-secret recovery mission. Out on the high seas, the Glomar's claw locks onto the sub and raises it toward the surface — until it breaks into pieces with the crew watching helplessly. The crew recovers only a portion of it, the entombed bodies of Russian seamen still inside.

Soon, intrepid journalists get wind of the operation and file Freedom of Information Act requests for more information. A CIA lawyer — operating under the cover name Walt Logan — thinks up a novel way to keep the mission secret without telling an all-out lie: refuse to confirm or deny whether records about the Glomar Explorer's mission exist. One journalist sues over this confusing non-response, and a battle over government secrecy follows in court.

This is not the plot of a new Hollywood thriller. It is the true story of the origin of what is now known as the "Glomar response," recently presented in a fascinating Radiolab podcast featuring the ACLU's Jameel Jaffer. It is well worth a listen.

Why should we care? It's not just because we all like a good tale of intrigue at sea; it's because the CIA and other government agencies continue to use the Glomar response to facilitate excessive government secrecy when Americans seek records under the Freedom of Information Act. Building off that first episode of Cold War concealment four decades ago, in answer to requests by the ACLU and others, the government has refused to confirm or deny whether it has records about drone strikes, the targeted killing of U.S. citizens, secret detention and abuse of prisoners at the U.S. airbase in Bagram, Afghanistan, NSA surveillance, and torture and rendition of detainees. These are all areas where the public has a vital interest in accurate information about the government's actions and abuses. By relying on the Glomar response, the government seeks not only to keep the public in the dark and cut off debate, but also to preempt efforts to get courts to order release of specific documents.