Weapons of Mass Destruction

Nigerian Taxi Drivers Strike For Missing Penis

IN Nigeria things are happening.

Motor bike Taxi drivers from Gwagwalada, a small locality close to Abuja in the middle of Nigeria, have gathered to protest against a client they accuse of using pigeons to steal penises.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the suspect's last victim is a 35 year old Motor Bike Taxi driver named Musa Abubakar. The suspect denies all accusations.
Abubakar claims Mohammed Ma'aji had stolen his "family jewels" with the help of a white "spiritual pigeon" hidden in his bag.

This spiritual pigeon was wearing a small black tie around its neck.

"I drove this man to three different places. On our way back to our point of departure, he squeezed his legs tightly around me which made feel sick and weak immediately. I therefore stopped riding to have a look in my trousers and it was gone!"

Says Mohammed Ma'aji: "I already have one, what do you want me to do with his?..It is likely that Abubakar lost his penis yesterday evening with a woman."

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Women's underwear needed in fight for democracy in Myanmar

MONTREAL — Canadian women are being asked to volunteer their undergarments in an international effort to shame Myanmar's ruling junta into giving citizens greater access to humanitarian aid and human rights.

Organizers launched the Canadian edition of the Panties for Peace! campaign Tuesday with a call for women to send their underwear to the Myanmar embassy in Ottawa.

The campaign plays off regional superstitions that contact with women's panties can sap a man's power. Activists claim the fear is shared by the leaders of the country's military regime.

"If you don't believe me, you can bring this to the Yangon airport - you will be shot dead," said activist Thet Thet Tun as she clutched a pair of white undies. "So we use this against them."

Spearheaded by a pro-democracy group based in Thailand, the campaign was launched in the fall to draw attention to human rights abuses against women in the country.

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Green Stimulus: Let's Try Again

by Dean Baker

Dean Baker suggests we should find forms of stimuli that can get the economy on a more energy-efficient path.
(Photo: Macmath)

    The last week provided new evidence the economy remains weak and the recent spate of predictions of a short mild non-recession will be proven wrong. That means it is time to get out in front of the herd of surprised economists and start talking about another stimulus package.

    The first stimulus package was focused on tax breaks. Just under $50 billion went to businesses. This was a political payoff to President Bush and his backers to avoid a veto; no one expected these tax breaks to have any immediate effect on the economy. There is a substantial body of economic research that shows such tax breaks have little impact on business investment.

    Another $100 billion was paid out to individuals in the form of $600 per person tax rebates. Based on the experience with a similar set of rebates in 2001, there was reason to hope much of this money would be spent, giving an immediate boost to the economy.

    However, there is one very important difference between the economy today and the economy in 2001, when the last rebate checks were mailed out. In 2001, house prices were rising rapidly. This meant tens of millions of homeowners were seeing the equity in their home increase, and, therefore, would feel comfortable spending their rebate check.

    We are in the opposite situation today. House prices are plummeting at double-digit rates. More than ten million homeowners already have mortgages that exceed the value of their homes, and tens of millions of others are seeing the equity accumulated over a working lifetime vanish in months.

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Tomgram: Frida Berrigan, The Pentagon Takes Over

by Tom Englehardt

Here are words to pin to the Bush years like a wilting corsage: "We don't know what we paid for." That's a quote from Mary Ugone, the Defense Department's deputy inspector general for auditing, concerning massive Pentagon payments made during the occupation and war in Iraq for which there is no existing (or grossly inadequate) documentation. In fact, according to the inspector general for the Defense Department, "the Pentagon cannot account for almost $15 billion worth of goods and services ranging from trucks, bottled water and mattresses to rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns that were bought from contractors in the Iraq reconstruction effort." An internal audit of $8 billion that the Pentagon paid out to U.S. and Iraqi private contractors found that "nearly every transaction failed to comply with federal laws or regulations aimed at preventing fraud, in some cases lacking even basic invoices explaining how the money was spent."

This is, admittedly, chump change for the Pentagon in the age of Bush. And even when "reform" is attempted, the medicine is often worse than the disease. Congressional critics and others have, for instance, accused the Houston-based private contractor KBR, formerly a division of Halliburton, of "wasteful spending and mismanagement and of exploiting its political ties to Vice President Dick Cheney" in fulfilling enormous contracts to support U.S. troops in Iraq. Now, the Pentagon is planning to make amends by dividing the latest contract for food, shelter, and basic services in Iraq between KBR and two other large contractors, Fluor Corporation and DynCorp International. According to the New York Times, "[T]he new three-company deal could actually result in higher costs for American taxpayers and weak oversight by the military."

These telling details rose last week from the subterranean depths of a bloated Bush-era Pentagon. As Frida Berrigan indicates in one of the more important pieces Tomdispatch has posted, the Pentagon's massive expansion on just about every front during George W. Bush's two terms in office may be the greatest story never told of our time. It might, in fact, be the most important American story of the new century and, while you can find many of its disparate parts in your daily papers, the mainstream media has yet to offer a significant overview of the Pentagon in our time. This suggests a great deal about what isn't being dealt with in our world. How, for instance, is it possible to have a presidential election campaign that goes on for years in which the size of the Pentagon never comes up as an issue (unless the candidates are all plunking for an expansion of American troop strength)?

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As gas goes up, driving goes down

(CNN) -- At a time when gas prices are at an all-time high, Americans have curtailed their driving at a historic rate.

Americans are not driving as much as they did a year ago as gas prices skyrocket.

The Department of Transportation said figures from March show the steepest decrease in driving ever recorded.

Compared with March a year earlier, Americans drove an estimated 4.3 percent less -- that's 11 billion fewer miles, the DOT's Federal Highway Administration said Monday, calling it "the sharpest yearly drop for any month in FHWA history." Records have been kept since 1942.

According to AAA, for the first time since 2002, Americans said they were planning to drive less over the Memorial Day weekend than they did the year before.

Tracy and Adam Crews posted on iReport that their annual Memorial Day weekend has traditionally involved camping and fishing.

"Well, due to the continual rise in gas, we felt our only recourse was to nix the idea this year and stay home" in Jacksonville, Florida, they wrote.

Instead, the couple said they "decided to camp out in the backyard. We set the tent up, just finished installing our above ground pool, and cleaned up the grill. ... We have ourselves a campsite! It's been a blast!"

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The Question of Global Warming

By Freeman Dyson

At this point I return to the Keeling graph, which demonstrates the strong coupling between atmosphere and plants. The wiggles in the graph show us that every carbon dioxide molecule in the atmosphere is incorporated in a plant within a time of the order of twelve years. Therefore, if we can control what the plants do with the carbon, the fate of the carbon in the atmosphere is in our hands. That is what Nordhaus meant when he mentioned "genetically engineered carbon-eating trees" as a low-cost backstop to global warming. The science and technology of genetic engineering are not yet ripe for large-scale use. We do not understand the language of the genome well enough to read and write it fluently. But the science is advancing rapidly, and the technology of reading and writing genomes is advancing even more rapidly. I consider it likely that we shall have "genetically engineered carbon-eating trees" within twenty years, and almost certainly within fifty years.

Carbon-eating trees could convert most of the carbon that they absorb from the atmosphere into some chemically stable form and bury it underground. Or they could convert the carbon into liquid fuels and other useful chemicals. Biotechnology is enormously powerful, capable of burying or transforming any molecule of carbon dioxide that comes into its grasp. Keeling's wiggles prove that a big fraction of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere comes within the grasp of biotechnology every decade. If one quarter of the world's forests were replanted with carbon-eating varieties of the same species, the forests would be preserved as ecological resources and as habitats for wildlife, and the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would be reduced by half in about fifty years.

It is likely that biotechnology will dominate our lives and our economic activities during the second half of the twenty-first century, just as computer technology dominated our lives and our economy during the second half of the twentieth. Biotechnology could be a great equalizer, spreading wealth over the world wherever there is land and air and water and sunlight. This has nothing to do with the misguided efforts that are now being made to reduce carbon emissions by growing corn and converting it into ethanol fuel. The ethanol program fails to reduce emissions and incidentally hurts poor people all over the world by raising the price of food. After we have mastered biotechnology, the rules of the climate game will be radically changed. In a world economy based on biotechnology, some low-cost and environmentally benign backstop to carbon emissions is likely to become a reality.

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Airline Safety Guide

 

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Group wants Wi-Fi banned from public buildings

By Gadi Schwartz

A group in Santa Fe says the city is discriminating against them because they say that they're allergic to the wireless Internet signal. And now they want Wi-Fi banned from public buildings.

Arthur Firstenberg says he is highly sensitive to certain types of electric fields, including wireless Internet and cell phones.

"I get chest pain and it doesn't go away right away," he said.

Firstenberg and dozens of other electro-sensitive people in Santa Fe claim that putting up Wi-Fi in public places is a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

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Food Banks Face High Costs but Feeding More People

by Evelyn Nieves

Empty shelves surround Janis Koscielniak with the Durango Food Bank in Colorado as she pulls items for clients. (Photo: Yodit Gidey / The Durango Herald)

    Stockton, California - Jackie Hoffman sifted through a laundry bin filled with aging bread, choosing a loaf of white.

    Like nearly a third of the first 50 customers to arrive at the Emergency Food Bank of Stockton that morning, Hoffman was new to the pantry. But since she lost her sales job at a local newspaper in December, she has not found work in Stockton, which has the highest foreclosure rate in the country and a hurting job market.

    "I'm down on my luck," Hoffman said, squeezing and sniffing the bread. "And food is going through the roof. I need help."

    Hoffman, 55, is one of the growing number of "nontraditional" food pantry clients across the country. They include more formerly independent senior citizens, more people who own houses and more people who used to call themselves "middle-class" - those who are not used to fretting over the price of milk.

    "We're getting calls all the time from people who want to know how to get here," said Kristine Gibson, community outreach manager at the Stockton food pantry. "And when I ask where they live, they give an address of a nice neighborhood, one where you or I would want to live."

    April saw the biggest jump in food prices in 18 years, according to the Labor Department. At the same time, workers' average weekly earnings, adjusted for inflation, dropped for the seventh straight month.

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Safety Lapses Raised Risks In Trailers for Katrina Victims

Formaldehyde Found in High Levels; 17,000 Say Homes Caused Illnesses

Nicole Esposito says her daughters Alyssa, 16 months, above, and Alexa, 4, developed health problems while the family lived in a FEMA trailer. (By Nikki Kahn -- The Washington Post)

By Spencer S. Hsu

Within days of Hurricane Katrina's landfall in August 2005, frantic officials at the Federal Emergency Management Agency ordered nearly $2.7 billion worth of trailers and mobile homes to house the storm's victims, many of them using a single page of specifications.

Just 25 lines spelled out FEMA's requirements, with little mention of the safety of those to be housed. Manufacturers produced trailers with unusual speed. Within months, some residents began complaining about unusual sickness; breathing problems; burning eyes, noses and throats; even deaths.

Today, industry and government experts depict the rushed procurement and construction as key failures that may have triggered a public health catastrophe among the more than 300,000 people, many of them children, who lived in FEMA homes.

Formaldehyde -- an industrial chemical that can cause nasal cancer, may be linked to leukemia, and worsens asthma and respiratory problems -- was present in many of the FEMA housing units in amounts exceeding the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's recommended 15-minute exposure limit for workers, the limit at which acute health symptoms begin to appear in sensitive individuals.

Weak government contracting, sloppy private construction, a surge of low-quality wood imports from China and inconsistent regulation all contributed to the crisis, a Washington Post review found. But each of the key players has pointed fingers at others, a chain of blame with a cost that will not be known for years.

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Burmese junta extends Aung San Suu Kyi detention

by Peter Walker 

The detained Burmese opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. Photograph: Pornchai Kittiwongsakul/EPA

Burma's junta today extended the house arrest of the country's democratically elected opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, dashing hopes she might be freed after five years of detention.

A delegation from the military regime's interior ministry visited the Nobel peace laureate this afternoon at her home in Rangoon, where she has been held since May 2003.

As the group left after the 10-minute meeting, government officials told reporters that Suu Kyi had been told her house arrest order had been extended for another 12-month period.

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The League of Public Domain Properties

Undercover with Barbara Ehrenreich

 by Jill Owens

Four years ago, Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America hit the shelves, quickly becoming both a runaway bestseller, a New York Times Notable Book of 2001, and a modern classic. Ehrenreich's undercover investigation into low-wage America—the world of the working poor—struck a chord with readers across the country, as she struggled to pay rent, buy clothes (even at Wal-Mart, one of her places of employment), or eat anything other than fast food on the meager pay from minimum-wage jobs.

Now, in Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream, Ehrenreich takes on the world of white-collar unemployment—a world that is becoming more familiar, unhappily, to more and more Americans. She legally changed her name to Barbara Alexander, lined up people to support her new résumé as a public relations professional, and plunged into the job-transition industry, an eerie no-man's land filled with unscrupulous (and ultimately unhelpful) job coaches, boot camps, and networking prayer breakfasts.

The Washington Post calls Bait and Switch "a worthy companion to Nickel and Dimed," and Kirkus Reviews reports, "Another unsettling message about an ugly America from a trustworthy herald. Read it and weep—especially if you're a job-seeker." Barbara Ehrenreich's new book is as acerbic and witty as only she can be, but it is also chilling in its indictment of an incompetent, downsized, and overworked America.
 

Jill: What surprised you most about doing the work for Bait and Switch?

Barbara Ehrenreich: It was a surprise right from the beginning. Now, we're talking on a very basic philosophical level. I'm a journalist, I'm educated as a scientist, I operate in a fact- and logic-based world. What I did not know is that I was leaving it, as I entered these fringes of the corporate world. I expected the corporate world would be very logical and rational, bottom-line oriented. So right from the start, I was disoriented, with, for example, my very first career coach, the guy who illustrated his "lessons," such as they were, with Wizard of Oz dolls—and an Elvis doll, too!—and that was the first clue to me that this was a whole other metaphysical framework that I was entering.

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School buses = fat kids, broke taxpayers

by Beth Quinn

I saw a letter to the editor a couple of weeks ago from a man advocating that we cut back on school bus transportation for kids.

When I saw that, I said to myself, bless this guy. His name is Bill Kuhens of Otisville, and the man has a lot of common sense.

I've been wanting to write a column along those lines for some time now, but I was too cowardly. I just wasn't up to having the full wrath of parents descend upon my head.

But Bill has given me courage, and I'm going out on his limb with him.

We need to start finding ways to cut back on school bus transportation for kids. And we need to do it both for our pocketbooks and for the kids themselves.

Before you dismiss this out of hand, let me start by saying I know we can't go back to the good old days when we walked six miles uphill in a snowstorm to get to school.

We will always need buses to pick up kids who live miles and miles away — and for sports teams and for BOCES and for the handicapped kids. We can't do without those.

But when did we start picking up kids who live next door to the school? Or a block away? Or even a mile away? When did kids' legs fall off?

Or — more to the point — when did kids get too fat to walk a couple of miles to school?

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Hacked Wii Balance Board Surfs Google Earth

"They Used Pat for Public Consumption, Just Like Jessica Lynch": An Interview with Mary Tillman

By Emily Wilson

The official cover-up of football star-turned-soldier Pat Tillman's death by "friendly fire" has led his family on a four-year mission for justice.

After the Sept. 11 attacks, football star Pat Tillman left a multimillion-dollar contract with the Arizona Cardinals to join the Army Rangers, wanting to go fight Al-Qaeda. When the former NFL safety was killed in Afghanistan in April 2004, Army officials told his family he died in an enemy ambush. Five weeks later, after Tillman was posthumously awarded the Silver Star, and after Army officials at a nationally televised memorial had told a story of him charging up a hill in pursuit of enemy insurgents, the Army reported that, in fact, Tillman had been shot three times in the head by "friendly fire."

Since discovering that Tillman was killed by friendly fire, his family, led by his mother, Mary, and his brother, Kevin, who served with him in the Army, has been trying to find who was responsible for covering up what happened in Pat's death. After seven investigations, two Congressional hearings, and support from politicians ranging from Democratic California Rep. Mike Honda to Republican presidential candidate John McCain to retired general Wesley Clark, Mary Tillman says no one has been held accountable.

Now, with Narda Zacchino, former deputy editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, she has written a book about Pat's life and her struggle to find out the truth about his death. The title is Boots on the Ground by Dusk: My Tribute to Pat Tillman. AlterNet writer Emily Wilson sat down with her recently in San Francisco to talk about the book.

Emily Wilson: In the book you have a lot of stories about Pat as a toddler, a kid and a teenager. Why did you choose to include those?

Mary Tillman: I included the stories about Pat growing up because I felt that for the reader to care about what happened to him, they had to have a little bit of an understanding about who he was. I felt the media coverage sort of turned him into a caricature. I wanted to present him as a human being.

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GEORGE W. BUSH STAMPED "IDIOT KING" FIRST CLASS FOREVER

By Antoine du Rocher

NEW YORK, 30 APRIL 2008 —While the planned U.S. Postal Service First-Class postage increase is the hot story of the moment in numismatics, and the "Forever Stamp" is the hot-selling item at the post office, the centerpiece of an art exhibition in New York promises to be a much stickier, and much more enduring, commemorative issue: the "George W. Bush Idiot King" stamp that paints the Commander in Chief as a first-class idiot.

The show, curated by Judy Pfaff of the CUE Art Foundation, gives center stage to the Houston-based artist, David Krueger (b. 1953), whose work mixes political commentary,  technology and artistic experimentation to produce work that broadcasts a message of disappointment and political disillusionment through the humble postage stamp.

Krueger has issued numerous stamps over the last several years to comment on issues like gun violence, environmental damage, and the bias of Fox News, but the most buzz-worthy of his stamps must be the image of Bush as Idiot King.  

David Krueger: Idiot King [detail], 2001
Sheet of perforated, laser printed stamps
8 ½" x 11"
Photo courtesy of CUE Art Foundation

Krueger created the Idiot King stamp in 2001, long before the folly of the Bush years would become evident and at the time, it may have seemed a cheap shot, but in retrospect, some would call it prescient. And, deliberately or not, timing the show to coincide with the price hike for the First-Class Mail stamp adds to the ironic resonance of Krueger's work.

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Wikileaks publishes anti-counterfeiting treaty doc that tries to extend US copyright law around the world

Posted by Cory Doctorow, May 23, 2008 7:07 AM | permalink

Wendy sez, "Wikileaks has a document apparently leaked from drafting negotiations around the proposed "Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement." The discussion paper has the stated objective to 'Establish, among nations committed to strong IPR protection, a common standard for IPR enforcement to combat global infringements of IPR particularly in the context of counterfeiting and piracy that addresses today's challenges, in terms of increasing international cooperation, strengthening the framework of practices that contribute to effective enforcement of IPRs, and strengthening relevant IPR enforcement measures themselves.' Of course the proposed 'cooperation' would once again extend the worst of US IP law and beyond -- DMCA anticircumvention and ISP takedown, criminal penalties for non-commercial copying, enforcement with minimal process -- onto partners such as developing countries for whom these enclosure regimes are even less appropriate. " Link, See also (Thanks, Wendy!)

Lieberman compares Pastor Hagee to Moses

By John Amato

C&Ler Bill G reminded me of this clip by Max. It's "Blumenthal's latest that takes us on a shocking and at times bizarre tour of right-wing Pastor John Hagee's annual Washington-Israel Summit". Hagee introduces Liebermann by saying that he supports Joe's vision of attacking Iran.

Hagee: Therefore it is time for America to embrace the words of Senator Joe Lieberman, and consider a military preemptive strike on Iran to prevent a nuclear holocaust of Israel.

Lieberman: I want to take the liberty of describing Pastor Hagee in the words that the Torah uses to describe Moses….he is a man of God.

How long has Joe Lieberman known Pastor Hagee anyway? We do know as far back as July of 2007, that's almost a year ago—Lieberman was hanging with Hagee, comparing him to Moses and knew nothing of his extreme positions? Will the press finally ask Joe about his relationship with Hagee now?

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Scientists Working on Matrix-esque Brain-Computer Interface

A team at Caltech is working on a MEMS-based robot probe that will be able to slowly creep electrodes into your brain to connect up to specific neurons. Creepy indeed, but with potential uses for advanced control of prosthetic limbs, Luke Skywalker-style. But the idea has greater potential for "state-of-the-art experimental techniques for electrophysiology." according to team-leader Michael Wolf. And that's just got me picturing the neural probes of The Matrix.

The device would sense its way in, using MEMS motors to carefully push in multiple electrodes into the brain and detecting electrical activity at their tips. When the system senses an activity spike, the robotic probe would adjust microscopically, and then either stay put or move on to find a better signal. The micro-mechanical part is still in development, but the team says the software side of the device (that would enable it to find the right neurons and adjust the probes locations if signals faded) is all but complete. It uses an algorithm inspired by one the US military uses to track aircraft.

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Ex-White House Aide Rips Bush In Mem

by Michael D. Shear.

Former White House press secretary Scott McClellan writes in a new memoir that the Iraq war was sold to the American people with a sophisticated "political propaganda campaign" led by President Bush and aimed at "manipulating sources of public opinion" and "downplaying the major reason for going to war."

McClellan includes the charges in a 341-page book, "What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception," that delivers a harsh look at the White House and the man he served for close to a decade. He describes Bush as demonstrating a "lack of inquisitiveness," says the White House operated in "permanent campaign" mode, and admits to having been deceived by some in the president's inner circle about the leak of a CIA operative's name.

The book, coming from a man who was a tight-lipped defender of administration aides and policy, is certain to give fuel to critics of the administration, and McClellan has harsh words for many of his past colleagues. He accuses former White House adviser Karl Rove of misleading him about his role in the CIA case. He describes Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as being deft at deflecting blame, and he calls Vice President Cheney "the magic man" who steered policy behind the scenes while leaving no fingerprints.

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No Room on the Wall

by John Cory

Vietnam, Iraq and beyond. A moment to reflect.
(photo: thomasbopedersen.org)

When there is no room left on stone
To write the wrong
Or spell the sin
Who will name the dead?
- John Cory

May 1, 2008, marked the fifth anniversary of the "Mission Accomplished" spectacle by George Bush. Twelve days or so later, Staff Sgt. Travis Twiggs, a three-tour Iraq veteran, committed suicide and killed his brother, Willard J. Twiggs.

A Marine for fifteen years, Travis suffered from PTSD, even wrote about it; tried to still the beast by reaching out to help others, but in the end it killed him. Collateral damage included his brother and a stunned and grieving family. Editor and Publisher has the article.

    While Bush, McCain and the GOP shout hosannas to war and scream about supporting the troops - back home and in need of help, veterans like Staff Sgt. Travis Twiggs find this as their support. You really don't have PTSD, Sarge, just the readjustment blues. It will pass.

    Miz Remy recently sent out a link to her vets regarding Agent Orange and prostate cancer rates among Vietnam Veterans. A glimpse of war without end.

    In the absurdity of false wars, this article says it all. War memorials are running out of room to list the dead. Mission Accomplished.

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They kill kids

 

Dear friends, In the next 72 hours, 109 countries are negotiating to ban cluster munitions -- weapons that, like land mines, kill children long after wars have ended. Immediate pressure is needed -- click to send your message: BAN CLUSTER BOMBS Final negotiations are underway right now in Dublin, Ireland on a treaty to ban cluster bombs. Arms manufacturers are pushing governments to riddle the treaty with loopholes and delays -- and the final text will be decided in the next 72 hours. Cluster munitions don't just kill during war. They scatter small, shiny, unexploded "bomblets" on the ground that hold their deadly charge for years. When children pick them up, they are often maimed or killed. Most governments agree that these weapons should be outlawed, but back-room pressure is rising to undercut a strong ban. If enough of us act before the treaty is signed on Friday, we can drown out the weapons merchants and convince our governments to ban cluster bombs once and for all. Click below to send a message, and then forward this email to friends and family: http://www.avaaz.org/en/ban_cluster_munitions/13.php?cl=92004844 The treaty to ban cluster munitions is the result of an inspiring, years-long campaign by citizens from around the world -- with victims and survivors of cluster bombs leading the way. One spokesman for the effort, Branislav Kapetanovic, lost his hands, legs, and some of his hearing and eyesight in a cluster-bomb explosion in his native Serbia. He is now in Dublin, pushing for the treaty -- but he took a moment to sent this message to the Avaaz community (you can see a video on the the Avaaz site): Cluster bombs are one of the most dangerous weapons of today. The majority of their victims are civilians, affecting millions worldwide. They have absolutely no place in a conflict situation. This week governments have gathered together in Dublin to outlaw this dangerous weapon. This is a historic meeting of the international community. Some governments are trying to undermine and weaken the treaty with loopholes and exceptions. They are trying to position the arms trade over the importance of lives of people like me. Rich governments don't always listen to victims, but they will listen to you -- their citizens. Please send a strong message to your government now that calls for a treaty with no exception, no loopholes, and no delays. Advocates like Kapetanovic have faced down enormous odds to reach this point, the brink of victory. Now, as citizens around the world, we can do our part, and raise a massive cry as the negotiators spar over the final text of the treaty. Watch the video, check out a map of countries that produce or use cluster bombs and send a message to your leaders, all from this link: http://www.avaaz.org/en/ban_cluster_munitions/14.php?cl=92004844 In 1997, the people-powered International Campaign to Ban Land Mines won a victory for humanity, earning a Nobel Peace Prize by ending the barbaric practice of laying mines in conflict zones. It would not have been possible without the efforts of thousands of ordinary people. This week, we can take the next step towards a more just, more peaceful world -- a world safer for children, and for generations to come. With hope, Ben, Pascal, Ricken, Galit, Graziela, Paul, Iain, and Veronique -- the Avaaz.org team PS: You can learn more about this issue at the Stop Cluster Munitions coalition website here: http://www.stopclustermunitions.org/ And here are some news articles about the state of the negotiations: http://uk.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUKL2629379720080526 http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/05/26/news/Ireland-Cluster-Bombs.php _______________ ABOUT AVAAZ Avaaz.org is an independent, not-for-profit global campaigning organization that works to ensure that the views and values of the world's people inform global decision-making. (Avaaz means "voice" in many languages.) Avaaz receives no money from governments or corporations, and is staffed by a global team based in London, Rio de Janeiro, New York, Paris, Washington DC, and Geneva. Don't forget to check out our Facebook and Myspace and Bebo pages!

George Soros: rocketing oil price is a bubble

By Edmund Conway

Speculators are largely responsible for driving crude prices to their peaks in recent weeks and the record oil price now looks like a bubble, George Soros has warned.

The billionaire investor's comments came only days after the oil price soared to a record high of $135 a barrel amid speculation that crude could soon be catapulted towards the $200 mark.

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Mr Soros said that although the weak dollar, ebbing Middle Eastern supply and record Chinese demand could explain some of the increase in energy prices, the crude oil market had been significantly affected by speculation.

Telegraph TV: George Soros on oil prices

"Speculation... is increasingly affecting the price," he said. "The price has this parabolic shape which is characteristic of bubbles," he said.

'We face the most serious recession of our lifetime'

The comments are significant, not only because Mr Soros is the world's most prominent hedge fund investor but also because many experts have claimed speculation is only a minor factor affecting crude prices.

Oil prices stalled on Friday after their biggest one-day jump since the first Gulf War earlier in the week.

At just over $130 a barrel, the price has doubled in around a year, causing misery for motorists and businesses.

However, Mr Soros warned that the oil bubble would not burst until both the US and Britain were in recession, after which prices could fall dramatically.

"You can also anticipate that [the bubble] will eventually correct but that is unlikely to happen before the recession actually reduces the demand.

"The rise in the price of oil and food is going to weigh and aggravate the recession."

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Israeli blockade forces Gazans to burn chicks alive

Filterbrella concept umbrella: A mobile water filter for the wet day

by Jayaprashanth

Ingenuity gets an all new meaning in designer Andrew Leinonen simple yet very powerful Filterbrella concept. As you may have guessed, the Filterbrella is an umbrella but a very innovative and eco friendly one at that. The Filterbrella has a canopy which is made of compostable polylactic acid plastic blends. This gives the Filterbrella its environment charm. The Filterbrella has a very innovative activated carbon filter in its hollow rod. The hollow rod actually lets in rain water which gets purified by the activated carbon. This water flows into a bottle that is attached to the Filterbrella's handle, thus making available pure, potable rain water on the go. That is what ingenuity is all about. Though the Filterbrella is still a concept, it has all the underpinnings of becoming an instant hit if it ever makes it into commercial production which looks very likely in the near future.

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London's Olympic Stadium to be 'Flatpack,' Portable

London's Olympic Stadium is going to be huge, providing seating for over 80,000 people. The problem is, after the games leave there won't be as many uses for a stadium of that size. The solution? Construct it out of flatpack materials like an Ikea bookshelf, then just take it down and move it elsewhere after the games.

The stadium is to have a permanent 25,000 seat main structure, but for the Olympics they'll also install a 55,000 seat upper tier. When the games are over, it can be (relatively) easily taken down and, if needed, shipped to another Olympic city for the next games. In fact, London is currently talking to Chicago, a possible host of the 2016 games, about sending the stadium their way.

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New Secret X-Bomber Is Not So Secret Anymore

Northrop Grumman is working on a new classified bomber prototype for the Air Force, at an estimated cost—according to their financial statements—of $2 billion. Apparently, the first version will require human/clone/Cylon pilots, with a high-endurance unmanned model possibly following after that. According to military industry magazine DTI, there is a high probability that the New Generation Bomber—concept above—will be following the success of the X-47B unmanned bomber aircraft.

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Space station's sole toilet out of order

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The international space station's lone toilet is broken, leaving the crew with almost nowhere to go. So NASA may order an in-orbit plumbing service call when space shuttle Discovery visits next week.

Until then, the three-man crew will have to make do with a jury-rigged system when they need to urinate.

While one of the crew was using the Russian-made toilet last week, the toilet motor fan stopped working, according to NASA. Since then, the liquid waste gathering part of the toilet has been working on-and-off.

Fortunately, the solid waste collecting part is functioning normally.

Russian officials don't know the cause of the problem, and the crew has been unable to fix it.

The crew has used the toilet on the Soyuz return capsule, but it has a limited capacity. They now are using a backup bag-like collection system that can be connected to the broken toilet, according to NASA public affairs officials.

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