January 20, 2014

Green Fade-Out: Europe to Ditch Climate Protection Goals

Source: Spiegel Online

The EU's reputation as a model of environmental responsibility may soon be history. The European Commission wants to forgo ambitious climate protection goals and pave the way for fracking -- jeopardizing Germany's touted energy revolution in the process.

The climate between Brussels and Berlin is polluted, something European Commission officials attribute, among other things, to the "reckless" way German Chancellor Angela Merkel blocked stricter exhaust emissions during her re-election campaign to placate domestic automotive manufacturers like Daimler and BMW. This kind of blatant self-interest, officials complained at the time, is poisoning the climate.

But now it seems that the climate is no longer of much importance to the European Commission, the EU's executive branch, either. Commission sources have long been hinting that the body intends to move away from ambitious climate protection goals. On Tuesday, the Süddeutsche Zeitung reported as much.

At the request of Commission President José Manuel Barroso, EU member states are no longer to receive specific guidelines for the development ofrenewable energy. The stated aim of increasing the share of green energy across the EU to up to 27 percent will hold. But how seriously countries tackle this project will no longer be regulated within the plan. As of 2020 at the latest -- when the current commitment to further increase the share of green energy expires -- climate protection in the EU will apparently be pursued on a voluntary basis.



Read more: http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/european-commission-move-away-from-climate-protection-goals-a-943664.html

January 20, 2014

Queen hands over the reigns to Prince Charles - historic step closer to a new king

Source: Mirror

It is being dubbed the “gentle succession” – as the Queen gradually begins to relinquish some of her traditional duties as monarch.

As she approaches her 88th birthday in April after almost 62 years on the throne, she has agreed to hand over part of her workload in a historic “job-share” arrangement with Prince Charles.

In a royal first, he will be taking on more head of state-style responsibilities as the Palace starts to make tentative plans for his eventual succession.

Courtiers yesterday described the softly-softly move as “wise” – and “just plain common sense”.


Read more: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/queen-hands-over-reigns-prince-3039892#.UtyraHmttFQ

January 19, 2014

Clinton / Bloomberg 2016

Michael Bloomberg is returning to his political roots.

The former Democrat, who became a Republican and then independent to run for mayor, is backing Democrats with his first big donation as a private citizen.

Bloomberg gave $2.5 million to the Senate Majority PAC, a political action committee dedicated to helping Democrats keep control of the Senate. That's a big infusion for the group, which spent $34 million on candidate support in the 2012 election cycle.

Ex-Deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson said the contribution arises from Bloomberg's relationship with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.)

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/bloomberg-backs-democrats-big-donation-private-citizen-article-1.1569490

January 19, 2014

America's Number One Prescription Sleep Aid Could Trigger 'Zombies,' Murder and Other Disturbing Beh

America's Number One Prescription Sleep Aid Could Trigger 'Zombies,' Murder and Other Disturbing Behavior

On March 29, 2009, Robert Stewart, 45, stormed into the Pinelake Health and Rehab nursing home in Carthage, North Carolina and opened fire, killing eight people and wounding two. Stewart’s apparent target was his estranged wife, who worked as a nurse in the home. She hid in a bathroom and was unharmed. Stewart was charged with eight counts of first-degree murder; if convicted, he could face the death penalty. Even though there was evidence that Stewart’s actions were premeditated (he allegedly had a target), Stewart’s defense team successfully argued that since he was under the influence of Ambien, a sleep aid, at the time of the shooting, he was not in control of his actions. Instead of the charges sought by the prosecutors, Stewart was convicted on eight counts of second-degree murder. He received 142 – 179 years in prison.

Ambien, a member of the class of medications known as hypnotics, was approved by the FDA in 1992. It was designed for short term use to combat insomnia and was a welcome change from the prevailing sleep aid at the time, Halcion, which had been implicated in psychosis, suicide, and addiction and had been banned in half a dozen countries. Ambien works by activating the neurotransmitter GABA and binding it to the GABA receptors in the same location as the benzodiazepines such as Xanax and Valium. The extra GABA activity triggered by the drug inhibits the neuron activity that is associated with insomnia. In other words, it slows down the brain. Ambien is extremely effective at initiating sleep, usually working within 20 minutes. It does not, however, have an effect on sustaining sleep unless it is taken in the controlled release form.

Although the Ambien prescribing information warned, in small print, that medications in the hypnotic class had occasional side effects including sleep walking, “abnormal thinking,” and “strange behavior,” these behaviors were listed as extremely rare, and any anecdotal evidence of “sleep driving,” “sleep eating,” or “sleep shopping”—all behaviors now associated with Ambien blackouts—were characterized as unusual quirks, or attributed to mixing the medication with alcohol. It wasn’t until Patrick Kennedy’s 2006 middle-of-the-night car accident and subsequent explanation to arriving officers that he was running late for a vote that the bizarre side effects of Ambien began to receive national attention. Kennedy claimed that he had taken the sleep aid and had no recollection of the events that night. After its approval, Ambien quickly rose to dominance in the sleep aid market. Travelers swore by it to combat jet lag, and women, who suffer more insomnia than men, bought it in droves. Sanofi, Ambien’s French manufacturer, made $2 billion in sales at its peak. In 2007 the generic version of Ambien was released, Zolpidem, and at less than $2 per pill, it still remains one of the most prescribed drugs in America, outselling popular painkillers like Percocet and prescription strength ibuprofen.

Shortly after the Kennedy incident, Ambien users sued Sanofi because of bizarre sleep-eating behaviors while on the drugs. According to Chana Lask, attorney for the class action suit, people were eating things like buttered cigarettes and eggs, complete with the shells, while under the influence of Ambien. Lask called people in this state “Ambien zombies.” As a result of the lawsuit, and of increasing reports coming in about “sleep driving,” the FDA ordered all hypnotics to issue stronger warnings on their labels.

http://www.alternet.org/drugs/americas-number-one-prescription-sleep-aid-could-trigger-zombies-murder-and-other-disturbing?ak_proof=1&akid=.1121926.wDJK8-&rd=1&src=newsletter948677&t=11

January 18, 2014

Actress Out Of San Francisco Production After Endorsing Tea Party Candidate

A famed actress is facing backlash in San Francisco’s Latino community, after she voiced support for a conservative candidate for California governor.

Maria Conchita Alonso starred in a campaign ad for Assemblyman Tim Donnelly of San Bernardino County, a Tea Party favorite who is seeking the Republican nomination.

Donnelly has voiced strong views against illegal immigration and was once involved with the Minutemen Project, a group that patrolled the border with Mexico to catch immigrants coming across.

“Politicians and big government are killing our prosperity, pushing welfare costs through the roof and driving our schools into the ground,” Donnelly said in the ad.

#t=58

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2014/01/18/actress-out-of-san-francisco-production-after-endorsing-tea-party-candidate/

January 17, 2014

Wife of Indian minister who hacked into her husband's Twitter account to announce he was 'having an

Source: Daily Mail

Wife of Indian minister who hacked into her husband's Twitter account to announce he was 'having an affair with a journalist' is found dead in hotel


The wife of an Indian government minister has been found dead in a five-star new Delhi hotel following reports she had hacked into her husband's Twitter account and published a series of romantic messages between him and a Pakistani journalist.

The body of Sunanda Pushkar Tharoor, 52, was discovered by authorities at the plush Leela Palace hotel. Authorities say they are not currently treated her death as suspicious.

Her death comes just one day after she and husband Shashi Tharoor, released a statement on Facebook claiming they were still happily married and intended to stay together.

Mr Tharoor's personal assistant Abhinav Kumar told reporters: 'She was lying in bed. There were no signs of any foul play or any struggle. She had no sign of poisoning or anything'.

Mrs Pushkar Tharoor, had reportedly hacked the Twitter account of her husband, who is India's junior human resources minister, and published romantic messages apparently between him and journalist Mehr Tarar to his two million followers.

Mr Tharoor, known as 'Minister Twitter' for his love of the social messaging site - was left acutely embarrassed after the messages appeared on his feed.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2541446/Wife-Indian-minister-Shashi-Tharoor-dead-hotel.html

January 17, 2014

Japan's last WWII straggler dies at 91

Source: SFGate

Hiroo Onoda, the last Japanese imperial soldier to emerge from hiding in a jungle in the Philippines and surrender, 29 years after the end of World War II, has died. He was 91.

Onoda died Thursday at a Tokyo hospital after a brief stay there. Chief government spokesman Yoshihide Suga on Friday expressed his condolences, praising Onoda for his strong will to live and indomitable spirit.

"After World War II, Mr. Onoda lived in the jungle for many years and when he returned to Japan, I felt that finally, the war was finished. That's how I felt," Suga said.

Onoda was an intelligence officer who came out of hiding, erect but emaciated, in fatigues patched many times over, on Lubang island in the Philippines in March 1974, on his 52nd birthday. He surrendered only when his former commander flew there to reverse his 1945 orders to stay behind and spy on American troops.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/Japan-s-last-WWII-straggler-dies-at-91-5151443.php

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January 17, 2014

Dolphins see the world in the same way as humans do according to research

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/10579731/Dolphins-see-the-world-in-the-same-way-as-humans-do-according-to-research.html

January 17, 2014

California drought: Jerry Brown declares emergency, asks public to ration water

Source: SFGate

Gov. Jerry Brown on Friday officially declared a drought emergency in California, asking residents to voluntarily reduce their water use by 20 percent and committing to bolster the state's dwindling water supplies with better management and federal assistance.

The order, announced at a news conference at the governor's San Francisco office, comes as the state is gripped by a third consecutive year of dry weather.

Rivers are running low. Snowpack is meager. And communities across California are worried about having sufficient water for homes, businesses and farmland. The dry weather also has increased the threat of wildfire, with record acreage burning this month, including a 1,700-acre fire that continues to char the hills above Los Angeles.

With the emergency declaration, Brown said he would make it easier for communities to transfer water from wetter parts of the state to dryer areas. He also said he would seek federal assistance, though he didn't detail that effort.

"We are in an unprecedented and very serious situation," Brown said. "It's important to awaken all Californians to the serious matter of drought and the lack of rain."


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/California-drought-Jerry-Brown-declares-5152625.php

January 17, 2014

America’s Spies Want Edward Snowden Dead

Edward Snowden has made some dangerous enemies. As the American intelligence community struggles to contain the public damage done by the former National Security Agency contractor’s revelations of mass domestic spying, intelligence operators have continued to seethe in very personal terms against the 30-year-old whistle-blower.

“In a world where I would not be restricted from killing an American, I personally would go and kill him myself,” a current NSA analyst told BuzzFeed. “A lot of people share this sentiment.”

“I would love to put a bullet in his head,” one Pentagon official, a former special forces officer, said bluntly. “I do not take pleasure in taking another human beings life, having to do it in uniform, but he is single-handedly the greatest traitor in American history.”

That violent hostility lies just beneath the surface of the domestic debate over NSA spying is still ongoing. Some members of Congress have hailed Snowden as a whistle-blower, the New York Times has called for clemency, and pundits regularly defend his actions on Sunday talk shows. In intelligence community circles, Snowden is considered a nothing short of a traitor in wartime.

“His name is cursed every day over here,” a defense contractor told BuzzFeed, speaking from an overseas intelligence collections base. “Most everyone I talk to says he needs to be tried and hung, forget the trial and just hang him.”

One Army intelligence officer even offered BuzzFeed a chillingly detailed fantasy.....

http://www.buzzfeed.com/bennyjohnson/americas-spies-want-edward-snowden-dead