A surreal scientific blunder last week raised a huge question mark about the temperature records that underpin the worldwide alarm over global warming. On Monday, Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), which is run by Al Gore's chief scientific ally, Dr James Hansen, and is one of four bodies responsible for monitoring global temperatures, announced that last month was the hottest October on record.
This was startling. Across the world there were reports of unseasonal snow and plummeting temperatures last month, from the American Great Plains to China, and from the Alps to New Zealand. China's official news agency reported that Tibet had suffered its "worst snowstorm ever". In the US, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration registered 63 local snowfall records and 115 lowest-ever temperatures for the month, and ranked it as only the 70th-warmest October in 114 years.
So what explained the anomaly? GISS's computerised temperature maps seemed to show readings across a large part of Russia had been up to 10 degrees higher than normal. But when expert readers of the two leading warming-sceptic blogs, Watts Up With That and Climate Audit, began detailed analysis of the GISS data they made an astonishing discovery. The reason for the freak figures was that scores of temperature records from Russia and elsewhere were not based on October readings at all. Figures from the previous month had simply been carried over and repeated two months running.
The error was so glaring that when it was reported on the two blogs - run by the US meteorologist Anthony Watts and Steve McIntyre, the Canadian computer analyst who won fame for his expert debunking of the notorious "hockey stick" graph - GISS began hastily revising its figures. This only made the confusion worse because, to compensate for the lowered temperatures in Russia, GISS claimed to have discovered a new "hotspot" in the Arctic - in a month when satellite images were showing Arctic sea-ice recovering so fast from its summer melt that three weeks ago it was 30 per cent more extensive than at the same time last year.
A GISS spokesman lamely explained that the reason for the error in the Russian figures was that they were obtained from another body, and that GISS did not have resources to exercise proper quality control over the data it was supplied with. This is an astonishing admission: the figures published by Dr Hansen's institute are not only one of the four data sets that the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) relies on to promote its case for global warming, but they are the most widely quoted, since they consistently show higher temperatures than the others.
If there is one scientist more responsible than any other for the alarm over global warming it is Dr Hansen, who set the whole scare in train back in 1988 with his testimony to a US Senate committee chaired by Al Gore. Again and again, Dr Hansen has been to the fore in making extreme claims over the dangers of climate change. (He was recently in the news here for supporting the Greenpeace activists acquitted of criminally damaging a coal-fired power station in Kent, on the grounds that the harm done to the planet by a new power station would far outweigh any damage they had done themselves.)
Yet last week's latest episode is far from the first time Dr Hansen's methodology has been called in question. In 2007 he was forced by Mr Watts and Mr McIntyre to revise his published figures for US surface temperatures, to show that the hottest decade of the 20th century was not the 1990s, as he had claimed, but the 1930s.
Another of his close allies is Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the IPCC, who recently startled a university audience in Australia by claiming that global temperatures have recently been rising "very much faster" than ever, in front of a graph showing them rising sharply in the past decade. In fact, as many of his audience were aware, they have not been rising in recent years and since 2007 have dropped.
Dr Pachauri, a former railway engineer with no qualifications in climate science, may believe what Dr Hansen tells him. But whether, on the basis of such evidence, it is wise for the world's governments to embark on some of the most costly economic measures ever proposed, to remedy a problem which may actually not exist, is a question which should give us all pause for thought.
#1
When I read about the pseudo-scientific drivel that exudes from Gore and his addled minions, all I can think about is how Galileo must have felt, trying to promote his heliocentric theory of the motion of the solar system.
I'm sure that glaciers could smother New York City and Los Angeles, and snowmen be built in Death Valley - and the Glowbawl Warming apologists would still be defending their inane theories.
#2
They're not really inane theories, to me, it seems they are working just fine... that is, in upping the ante of "global governance", asking for world-wide redistribution of wealth, for me gvt interventionism, allowing transational ngos a great deal of (non-answerable) power,... and not to mention getting some people VERY rich, starting with Mr. strong & gore.
#3
Just remember these guys aren't just wacko pseudo scientists. They are power brokers who want to invent carbon trading credits as a way to finance the UN and which will deliver the next securitized debt debacle.
#5
Have no fear our lord and messiah Barack Obama will solve global warming, lower the oceans, and solve all the problems in the Middle East. And imagine what he'll do after lunch.
#6
That the alarmists are being publicly busted in the mass media is a sign of progress. As long as temperatures had been (naturally) increasing, global warming alarmists were able to convince many. However, temperatures are no longer increasing. Many are no longer convinced.
As the earth's temperature fails to increase or even cools back down, alarmists will look increasingly foolish to an increasing number of people.
Posted by: Minister of funny walks ||
11/16/2008 13:01 Comments ||
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Aren't Hansen's "data" also the ones which he would never release directly, in raw form, for others to evaluate? (an astounding and unprecedented thing to do in science, I believe)
Not that any proof were needed, but will THIS outrageous unscientific and clearly unethical behavior beging to wake anybody up?
Essentially falsified data, increasing use of weasel words by the IPCC (hedging their previously strong bets), models that are no better than random number generators - HELLO.
Gov. Arnold? GOP? Anybody home?
Not that I was under any illusions about science, as a human endeavor practiced in human society, with all that implies (and having been assigned Kuhn's "Structure of Scientific Revolutions" no less than 3 times in high school and college) - but does anyone else get the sense that, with few exceptions, many key professions and lines of work are just collapsing in terms of their integrity? Or is it just me?
#8
Dr. Hansen has been a rebel for years. Camped out in NY because he was ostracised from Greenbelt,Md. He's sloppy, lazy, and has a big mouth. No wonder Fat Albert patronizes him. It's time to retire him and stop listening to his babble.
Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai warned on Sunday that President Robert Mugabe would cause the collapse of a power-sharing agreement if he imposes a unity government.
"He would have literally collapsed the deal," Tsvangirai told AFP in Stasbourg, northern France, during a rare visit to Europe.
The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader also said negotiations on the power-sharing government with Mugabe must not be allowed to run on indefinitely.
"It can't be forever," Tsvangirai said. "We cannot go on and on and on."
The MDC has said it would only join a unity government once a constitutional amendment is passed to comply with all the terms of the September 15 deal, under which Mugabe would remain president and Tsvangirai become premier.
However Zimbabwe's parliament needs to approve an amendment to create the office of the prime minister and define its powers.
Mugabe vowed to soon form a new government after regional leaders proposed earlier this month that his ZANU-PF and the MDC immediately set up a new cabinet. The proposal was rejected by the opposition.
(SomaliNet) The European Union has banned all Angolan airlines from landing at European airports due to safety considerations. Cambodian airline Siem Reap Airways is also included in the ban.
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11/16/2008 00:00 ||
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So purchasing a return ticket on the red-eye from Luanda to Phnom Penh might not be good value?
(SomaliNet) The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is to relocate 60,000 refugees from the Congolese city of Goma. The two camps in which the refugees are currently living are under threat due to continued fighting between government troops and Tutsi rebels.
The UN has also, for the first time in weeks, begun to hand out food to citizens in areas controlled by the rebels. A food convoy crossed the front line on Friday.
As the fighting continues, there are signs that more and more foreign troops are joining in. It is believed that soldiers from Angola and Zimbabwe are now involved in the hostilities and that the rebels are receiving funds from Rwanda.
Earlier on Friday, EU envoy Roeland van de Geer told Radio Netherlands Worldwide that President Joseph Kabila is now prepared to hold talks with rebel leader Laurent Nkunda.
President Kabila had refused talks up to now but, the EU representative said, the rebels' military strength had changed his mind.
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The Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) yesterday launched a month-long mass-awareness campaign in the city, demanding trial of the war criminals, end of fundamentalism and reinstallation of the 1972 constitution.
Posted by: Fred ||
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WASHINGTON -- South Korea sees no need to tap the International Monetary Fund for funding, a senior official from the country's finance ministry said Saturday. Speaking to foreign press following the conclusion of the Group of 20's first summit in Washington, Shin Je-Yoon, deputy minister for international affairs, said that asking IMF for aid was still a stigma in the Asian nation, which was given an IMF bailout during a financial crisis in the late 1990s.
Though he acknowledged the IMF has extended loans to needy nations without the tough conditions attached in previous crisis, seeking aid from the IMF is still hard for Koreans to accept, he said. "It is not a good impression," said Shin, adding that such a move may generate a public backlash.
Besides, he noted, the nation has accumulated a large amount of foreign reserves as a "first line of defense." Also, the nation has entered into currency swap lines with the U.S., China and Japan for much-needed dollars. South Korea has been suffering from a dollar squeeze in recent months due to strains in the money market.
Shin acknowledged that outflows from the stock market may continue, but he doesn't expect anything "drastic." He also said the economy was under pressure as the nation's exports feel the pinch from the crisis and global downturn. To spur growth, the government has cut interest rates and implemented fiscal stimulus.
Shin said the door remains open for further fiscal stimulus, and the government still has much room to implement fiscal measures.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/16/2008 00:00 ||
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She would be fantastic. [Secretary of state] Hillary Clinton has an international reputation and relationship with the worlds leaders.
Granted, but her "international reputation" is one of being a conniving cold-fish and her primary "relationships" are with her fellow Trans-Atlantic progressive-elites. It might be a good pedigree to have as the errand-girl carrying water for an Obama Administration but a lousy career choice for her.
#5
Senator Clinton has an international reputation as the wife of President Clinton. Which is to say, none whatsoever. Don't forget that out there beyond our borders political wives are expected to make pleasant conversation while being served tea, to admire the little children presenting them with bouquets and, most importantly, to make no waves while the menfolk get on with their negotiations. If they can charm their husband's opposite numbers while ornamenting the dinner table, that's an extra benefit. Only actual female heads of state are listened to, with the attention commensurate to the size and wealth of the countries they govern.
Also, the Secretary of State also has to run a large and rambunctious department. Dear Hillary's only experience in that direction -- trying to put together a universal health care plan for her husband -- was a dismal failure on the management front, by all reports.
The Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier could be handed over to the Indian Navy in 2012 if Delhi provides sufficient funding for the project, the director of a Russian shipyard said on Thursday.
And in 2012, another two billion will have the Gorshkov ready in 2015 ...
"Construction of the ship will be completed in 2010 and tests will start in 2011, while in 2012 it will be transferred to the Indian Navy," Sevmash chief Nikolai Kalistratov said, stressing that it would only be handed over if Delhi provided sufficient funding to complete the construction.
Another shipyard executive said the market dictated that India should pay a further $2 billion. "The market price of such an aircraft carrier varies between $3 billion and $4 billion. The ongoing maintenance and upgrade makes up 60-70% of the new carrier's cost. This is about $2 billion," said Sergei Novoselov, deputy general director of Sevmash.
A source in Russian Defense Ministry said that if India failed to foot the bill, the carrier could be given to the Russian Navy. "If India does not pay up, we will keep the aircraft carrier," he said.
Kalistratov said the aircraft carrier was 49% complete and would be floated out before the end of this week so construction could be completed in a wet dock.
The original $750 million contract to deliver the Admiral Gorshkov to India, which Russia's state-run arms exporter Rosoboronexport signed with the Indian Navy in 2004, projected the work would be completed in 2008. However, Russia later claimed it underestimated the scale and the cost of the modernization and demanded an additional $1.2 billion, which New Delhi said was "exorbitant."
After long-running delays and disputes, Russia and India agreed in February to raise retrofit costs for the aircraft carrier, docked at the Sevmash shipyard in northern Russia for the past 12 years, by at least $800 million. The current contract covers a complete overhaul of the ship and equipping it with modern weaponry, including MiG-29K Fulcrum aircraft and Ka-27 Helix-A and Ka-31 Helix-B anti-submarine helicopters.
The carrier, renamed the Vikramaditya, is to replace India's INS Viraat carrier, which, although currently operational, is now 50 years old. After modernization, the carrier is expected to be seaworthy for 30 years.
Still think we ought to offer the Indians the Kitty Hawk ...
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The Vikrant, now being built in Cochin shipyard, Kerala, will hit the water in 2010 and is epected to enter service in 2012. A sister ship will be ready by 2017.
So India may have two Indian built aircraft carriers before the Gorshkov is ready.
Posted by: john frum ||
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#2
I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a Gorshkov today.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/16/2008 14:02 Comments ||
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#8
BY various MSM-Net sources, the NERPA Sub is reportedly only leased to INDIA for as long as 10 years, NOT necess leased-to-own as other sources had claimed, an arrangement which could prove legally and diplom tricky iff RUSSIA OR INDIA NEED TO USE THE SHIP + SIMILAR IN COMBAT MISSIONS.
Pragmatically, wid the USN-DOD itself debating the LT utility of the CV21 class versus extending the service lives of the NIMITZ-Class, as given the advances in super-tech + proposed OWG-NWO "1000-Flag/Nation" Global Task Force = UNO Global Naval Police, smaller CV's like GORSHKOV are basically INTERNATIONAL AIR-SEA CADET TRAINING SHIPS FOR JAMES T. KIRK'S STARFLEET + FEDERATION [OF EARTH/TERRAN SYS SPACE COLONIES].
#9
First thingys first - RUSSIA wants the $$$, but I doubt it will turn the GORSHKOV, etc. over to India iff the latter appears to Russ to becom destabilized wid risk of national breakup ala PAN-ASIA ISLAMIST THREAT 2015-2020. Russ itself is subject to many of the same Islamist pressures ala 2015-2020, and ultimately may decide to keep the Gorshy for itself anyway in order to milpol CYA its own domestic arse agz Radical Islamism!?
Leaders of the world's 20 largest economies pledged action to reverse a looming global recession and prevent future financial upheaval, but shied away from a coordinated stimulus plan. Yep. We're screwed.
World leaders agreed at the economic crisis summit to an action plan for reforming the financial system and promised to work together to restore global growth, according to a final communiqué. "We are determined to enhance our cooperation and work together to restore global growth and achieve needed reforms in the world's financial systems," the final statement from the G20 group of countries said.
Posted by: Fred ||
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I'm filled with confidence (cause I believe that World-wide economic crisis is the only thing that can stop the triumphant march of Transnational progressivism).
Soak the peasants. [It's great to be King]
Tax Serfdom [the time has come cause we know how it worked last time - keeping the right caste in power for a thousand many years]
#4
WORLD MILITRYA FORUM > G-20 SUMMIT FAILURE: USA BOUND TO COLLAPSE DUE TO OVEREXCESSIVE NATIONAL DEBTS, CHINA TO TAKE OVER US ROLE IN TERROR WAR, WORLD AFFAIRS; + CHINA MUST CAREFULLY WEIGH ITS TRUE NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE/FREEDOMS AS IT TAKES OVER THE POLITICAL, MILITARY, AND ECONOMIC, ETC. GEOPOLTTICAL LEADERSHIP FROM THE BANKRUPT USA.
The Middle East is in danger of accumulating large stocks of nuclear material over the next decade that could be used to produce over 1,700 nuclear bombs, a U.S. research center has projected in a newly released report.
The Institute for Science and International Security, headed by David Albright, one the world's top experts on nuclear weapons and the prevention of nuclear proliferation, recently released its report urging president-elect Barack Obama to take a number of measures to avoid such an outcome, including convincing Israel to halt production of its nuclear weapons.
"The Obama administration should make a key priority of persuading Israel to join the negotiations for a universal, verified treaty that bans the production of plutonium and highly enriched uranium for nuclear explosives, commonly called the Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty (FMCT)," the institute argued. "As an interim step, the United States should press Israel to suspend any production of fissile material for nuclear weapons. Toward this goal, the United States should change its relatively new policy of seeking a cutoff treaty that does not include verification. The Bush administration's rejection of the long-standing U.S. policy of requiring verification was a mistake that the incoming administration needs to rectify."
Though Israel has never publicly admitted it has nuclear arms, it is largely believed to possess about 200 nuclear warheads. Iran has defied the international community for years by running a nuclear program which many observers fear may allow it to obtain nuclear arms in the future.
More recently, several Middle Eastern countries including the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Egypt and Turkey announced their intention of building nuclear power plants.
Though most countries said they want to build reactors in order to reduce their dependency on fossil fuels as their sole source of energy, the institute's researchers believe they also wish to create a nuclear infrastructure in their own countries in light of the possibility that Iran will obtain nuclear arms.
In the year 2020 a number of nuclear reactors in the Middle East are expected to be completed, producing over 13 tons of plutonium. According to the institute, a nuclear device requires only eight kilograms to be assembled.
The institute believes the White House should strive to have Egypt, Iran and Israel ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). It also has stated that the U.S. should discourage the reprocessing of irradiated power reactor fuel both domestically and internationally.
Oh that's just brilliant of them. We can't get the Iranians to stop their progress for a bomb in the first place but we're going to persuade them to ratify the CTBT? The Iranians have to test a bomb when they build it, not only to know if their design works but to demonstrate to the world that they have it and can build more. There's no way in the world the Iranians will sign that away, and Bambi will be delusional if he thinks he can charm the Mad Mullahs.
The Egyptians will build a bomb if only because they can't stand the thought of the Medes and Persians having something they don't have. As for the Israelis, they don't have to test now, but they're not going to admit to having the bomb so it's irrelevant.
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11/16/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Why disarm an ally if negotiations are unable to disarm a hostile regime like Iran?
#3
That's almost delusional, as proposals go, if only because international treaties as accepted only bind western powers, commies used to get away from not respecting them scot free, and so do third world countries... the "UN" world order has been a one-way street for quite some time already.
#4
I think their proposal should have been that Bojangles should ask the Israelis to tear down their wall, allow free immigration of Muslims into Israel, in exchange for which he will use US taxpayer money to buy them new homes in Freedonia.
#9
Compare wid PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > TRIANGULATING AN ASIAN CONFLICT - Both AL QAEDA + TALIBAN, etc. Islamist Groups are on the verge of securing NUCLEAR BOMBS from Pakistani sources. As RUSSIA, CHINA, INDIA, + OTHER ASIAN NATIONS ARE GEOGRPAHICALLY MUCH CLOSER TO THE MAIN OR MOST POTENT ATMRF ISLAMIST MILITANT-TERROR GROUPS THAN THE USA ANDOR NATO-EU, CHINA + INDIA = NEW RISE OF HAN-HINDU NATIONALISM should induce, not hinder, both impor Asian Nations = Nuclear States into CLOSER, NOT FARTHER OF UNILATERAL, regional milpol cooper to stop the LOOMING REAL THREAT OF ISLAMIST NUCLEARIZATION + likely ISLAMIST NUCLEAR TERROR.
IOW, a NEW 9-11 in America does NOT mean nuclear-ambitious Radical Islam will change from its campaign to destabilize and control large parts of EAST-CENTRAL-SOUTH ASIA.
*SAME > THE UNITED STATES OF ISLAM [Political, Economic, + Military, etc. UNIFIED MUSLIM WORLD]
US killtech behemoth Northrop Grumman has has said that it is ready to take orders for the "world's first ruggedised, weaponised high energy solid state laser designed for battlefield applications". The raygun module is dubbed FIRESTRIKE.
"This is a rugged electric laser with power levels, beam quality and runtime suitable for offensive and defensive military utility," said Northrop beam-cannon chief Dan Wildt.
"Combined with advanced electro optical and/or infrared sensors, the FIRESTRIKE laser can provide self-defense [or] precision strike capabilities."
Northrop has long been working to produce weapons-grade solid state lasers with US military funding. To date, the only way to make a laser useful as a weapon in its own right - rather than a pointer for other systems, or a dazzler - has been to use chemically fuelled systems.
There are two combat lasers under development right now using chemical fuels. The biggest is the jumbo-jet mounted Airborne Laser (ABL), intended to blast enemy ICBMs above their launch bases. Then there's the Hercules transport-plane Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL) gunship model, intended perhaps as a silent, undetectable sky-sniper for the US special-ops community.
But chem lasers need big tanks of dangerous toxic fuel, and produce equally hazardous and corrosive exhaust products. Their logistics requirements are nightmarish, and realistically they are only for static use or mounting in large aircraft or ships.
Solid state lasers, powered by electricity, are much easier to deal with. Until now, however, they have had rather low power levels. As an example, Boeing's Humvee-mounted "Laser Avenger" has to be shone on an enemy munition for quite some time before it will explode.
Northrop reckon they've changed all that. A single FIRESTRIKE module weighs 400lb and delivers 15 kilowatts. FIRESTRIKEs can be linked together to get a more powerful beam, apparently.
It would seem, then, that FIRESTRIKE is simply one of Northrop's previously-announced solid state laser "chain" units, ready for sale. The firm has said that at least eight of these can be linked up to get a proper 100 kilowatt beam, generally seen as the threshold for a true battlefield weapon. Beam quality, for the laser aficionados among those reading, is listed at "nominally 1.5 times the diffraction limit". Others may be pleased to note that FIRESTRIKEs come with Ethernet interface as standard.
Energy efficiency for Northrop's chains is supposedly in the 20 per cent region. This suggests that a full-bore 100kW battle ray will weigh about 1.5 tonnes and require half a megawatt of power. That's pretty hefty, but it's within the ballpark for modern combat vehicles.
Portable blaster rifles or carbines aren't really on the cards yet, then. But a reasonably useful laser tank could well be a goer if Northrop can do what they say.
There was no word on possible waterproof versions, with handy attachments for mounting on the head of one's hollowed out volcano lair swimming-pool menagerie. By comparison, a small, hand held five Watt laser can burn a hole in a cinder block.
Infectious diseases strike suddenly and can change quickly, leaving scientists scrambling to develop effective treatments. Staying one step ahead of disease is the goal of the $18 million Regional Biocontainment Laboratory dedicated yesterday at the University of Missouri. There, scientists will study diseases including the plague, anthrax and "Q Fever" in a safe, contained environment.
Experts say the research will be essential in battling the next generation of diseases.
"Were only a jet-plane ride away from our next epidemic, and were actually in this race with microbes," said Samuel Stanley Jr., director of the center for Biodefense & Emerging Infectious Disease Research at Washington University.
"They have this incredible ability to evolve, theyre changing all the time, and as they change they become resistant to the antibiotics. ... And at this point in time, Im not sure whos winning the race, but it may not be us," Stanley said.
The new laboratory, one of 13 facilities planned in the nation, was funded in large part by the National Institutes of Health to help scientists win the race. The MU lab will focus mainly on zoonotic diseases that can be transmitted from animals to humans. The labs Level 3 security status means all diseases studied there will be treatable with a known vaccine or treatment.
But concern still exists about housing the potentially deadly diseases along East Campus Drive, close to a large student population. How can scientists be sure that what happens inside the lab stays inside?
To answer that question, MU scientists took reporters and some of the 85 people who attended a ribbon-cutting on a tour of some of the 10,000 square feet of lab space. They stressed safety.
* Doors to each laboratory require security keys, and scientists must pass through multiple secure sites to enter all labs. No clothing from the outside can be worn inside the labs. Disinfection occurs before scientists leave.
* Hallways in the facility have negative air pressure. Even if exterior doors were to open, air would be drawn inward.
* Air circulating inside the building is cleaned with highly efficient HEPA air filters. All liquid or exhaust from the building is purified by an autoclave, a device that heats and sterilizes it.
* The lab structure has a backup battery to maintain a continuous flow of electricity in the event of a power outage. A backup generator also can provide power to the facility for as long as two weeks.
* Researchers must undergo a federal background check. At least two people will work on research at a time to help ensure that no harmful pathogens are intentionally removed from the facility.
Proponents say the new lab is one of the most secure research facilities in the country and will be a major recruiting tool to lure new faculty to MU.
"The major risk that we focus on is protecting scientists," Kurilla said. "If we protect scientists from the work that theyre doing, then the risk to the public becomes nil."
In the event of a national emergency caused by the outbreak of disease, the lab would be one of the facilities used to quickly combat the problem.
"If we knew what was going to pop up next, we could easily prepare," said the labs director, George Stewart, who led the media tour. "The problem is the ultimate bioterrorist is Mother Nature, and she doesnt tell us whats lurking and is going to appear next." These scientists grew up watching The Andromeda Strain.
In a devastating week for Myanmar's democracy movement, dozens of its members have been sentenced to length prison terms, as the military-ruled government locks away writers and Buddhist monksas well as musicians, a poet and at least one journalist.
By the weekend, more than 80 had received sentences of up to 65 yearsa move that seemed designed to keep them jailed long past the upcoming elections, activists and analysts said Sunday.
"They are clearing the decks of anyone who is likely to challenge their authority ahead of the election" in 2010, Larry Jagan, a Bangkok-based newspaper columnist and Myanmar analyst, said of the generals who rule the country.
Many of those sentenced were arrested following mass pro-democracy protests that were crushed by the ruling junta in September 2007. According to U.N. estimates, at least 31 people were killed and thousands were detained. Many fled the country or went underground.
Others sentenced this week were arrested in 2007 for protesting a massive fuel-price hikedemonstrations that preceded the protests in September. The blogger received more than 20 years in prison for Internet activities, and a poet was sentenced to two years for allegedly concealing the text of an anti-government slogan in one of his works. The journalist was arrested while covering a demonstration staged by victims of this year's devastating cyclone.
News of the sentences came mostly through activists and analysts. The military junta that has ruled Myanmar since 1962 did not comment on the sentences, most of which were handed down in closed-door proceedings. It was not known why the prisoners were sentenced now, although many analysts concluded the move was made to eliminate opposition ahead of the election that the junta has described as part of its "roadmap to democracy." Opposition groups and other critics dismiss it as a sham meant to perpetuate military rule.
"Now they won't be able to participate in the election," said Soe Aung, spokesman for the National Council for the Union of Burma, a Thailand-based umbrella organization for exile groups. "The generals are trying to put the final nail in the coffin to keep themselves in power forever."
Twenty-three of those sentenced were members of the 88 Generation Students group, veterans of a brutally suppressed 1988 democratic uprising, who received prison terms of 65 years each, and a labor activist, Su Su Nway, was sentenced to 12 1/2 years. At least 10 people allied with the pro-democracy National League for Democracy party headed by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi received jail terms of eight to 24 years.
"They fear the 88 Generation Students. They were at the forefront of the protest last year, and they are not passive," Jagan said.
Early Sunday, nine of the more prominent members of the 88 Generation Students group were taken from infamous Insein Prison in a Yangon suburb to prisons in more remote parts of the country, according to Aung Din, co-founder of the Washington-based U.S. Campaign for Burma, which lobbies for political change in Myanmar, also called Burma.
"The transfer of political prisoners to far-flung districts is an additional punishment to the activists and such a move will cause extreme social and financial burden to the families," said Nyan Win, spokesman for the National League for Democracy party.
The European Union said last week that the election will be seen as illegitimate unless the junta frees all political prisoners.
Amnesty International and other human rights groups say the junta holds more than 2,100 political prisoners, up sharply from nearly 1,200 in June 2007, before the pro-democracy demonstrations.
The prisoners include opposition leader Suu Kyi, who has spent more than 13 of the past 19 years under house arrest.
Gordon Brown tonight called on the world's most powerful industrial nations to agree a programme of immediate and coordinated tax cuts to prevent the global economy sliding deeper into recession.
Yep, do that, cut some spending, rein in the stupidities and be smart about who you let go bust and who you don't ...
Arriving in New York for this weekend's unprecedented gathering of the leaders of the world's leading 20 economies, the prime minister said the need for a "fiscal stimulus" both for the UK economy and the world had increased after an autumn in which accelerating job losses had intensified fears of a deep and lasting slump.
Brown proposed a four-point plan which he hopes will win support at tomorrow's summit and help tackle the most severe financial crisis for 90 years. "By acting now we can stimulate growth in all our economies," he said. "There is a need for urgency. The cost of inaction will be far greater than the cost of any action."
Brown believes an agreement by the G20 this weekend will provide his government with the political cover it needs to finance a multibillion-pound package of tax cuts in the upcoming pre-budget report. "For Britain, a fiscal stimulus is the right course, as Mervyn King [governor of the Bank of England] made clear today, and we will be setting out our proposals in the pre-budget report," he said.
Brown will argue that countries cannot rely on interest rate cuts alone in the face of the wider economic crisis, and that the impact of tax cuts or higher public spending will be lessened if only a handful of countries take part. "It is now becoming increasingly accepted around the world that a temporary and affordable fiscal stimulus is needed. This will have most impact if it is coordinated internationally."
Last night George Bush admitted the global financial system needed reform, but insisted that the credit crunch was not a failure of the free market system. Speaking at Federal Hall on Wall Street, he said while financial markets needed some new regulation and more transparency, free trade should not be restricted. "The answer is not to try to reinvent that system. It is to fix the problems we face, make the reforms we need, and move forward with the free market principles that have delivered prosperity and hope to people all across the globe," he said.
"While reforms in the financial sector are essential, the long-term solution to today's problems is sustained economic growth. And the surest path to that growth is free markets and free people."
The scale of the problem facing Brown was underlined yesterday as the pound fell to a six-year low against the dollar, ending the day at $1.48. It also ended at an all-time low against the euro of almost 85 pence as traders priced in more interest rate cuts in the UK following Wednesday's bleak outlook from the Bank of England.
Figures confirmed that Germany, the world's third largest economy, had entered recession. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development yesterday predicted the world's economies were heading into a "protracted recession".
The summit is seen by Downing Street as a crucial stage in tackling domestic and international problems. "This is a global problem that requires a global solution. Only by acting with our international partners can we address the challenging economic circumstances affecting families and business in Britain." Progress was urgently needed in three other areas, Brown said.
To identify and rectify the weaknesses of the international financial system exposed during the banking crisis.
For rich countries to pump more money into the International Monetary Fund to support developing countries.
Brown will push for world trade talks which opened in 2001 but finally broke down in the summer to be reopened and concluded by the end of this year.
Government officials are concerned that the meeting is being chaired by the outgoing President George Bush rather than president-elect, Barack Obama. They fear it means that Washington is less focused than other countries on making firm commitments. Brown will not be meeting Obama personally on his two day trip but his officials will be meeting Obama's transition team.
#1
Brown's Labour? And he's advocating tax cuts? Did the wife put something in my coffee?
Posted by: Jonathan ||
11/16/2008 12:37 Comments ||
Top||
#2
He knows that socialist overspending can only exists with economic growth and capitalism. Here is my country we see a lot of socialists saying they want to save capitalism... :)
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The world has never seen such freezing heat
The error was so glaring that when it was reported on the two blogs - run by the US meteorologist Anthony Watts and Steve McIntyre, the Canadian computer analyst who won fame for his expert debunking of the notorious "hockey stick" graph - GISS began hastily revising its figures. This only made the confusion worse because, to compensate for the lowered temperatures in Russia, GISS claimed to have discovered a new "hotspot" in the Arctic - in a month when satellite images were showing Arctic sea-ice recovering so fast from its summer melt that three weeks ago it was 30 per cent more extensive than at the same time last year.
Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai warned on Sunday that President Robert Mugabe would cause the collapse of a power-sharing agreement if he imposes a unity government. 
(SomaliNet) The European Union has banned all Angolan airlines from landing at European airports due to safety considerations. Cambodian airline Siem Reap Airways is also included in the ban.
Leaders of the world's 20 largest economies pledged action to reverse a looming global recession and prevent future financial upheaval, but shied away from a coordinated stimulus plan. 
Gordon Brown tonight called on the world's most powerful industrial nations to agree a programme of immediate and coordinated tax cuts to prevent the global economy sliding deeper into recession.
