Checkered Lounge Pants

http://http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/05/06/136061056/was-anonymous-behind-playstation-hack

Al Qaeda Frontrunner Kills 18 - The Daily Beast

Here's something to think about as Japan continues working to fix its stricken reactors. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is now criticized as being extremely close to the industry, routinely postponing requiring maintenance until crises develop, and even then usually delivering only a slap on the wrist. The agency puts up with violations, says critic David Lochbaum, because “Otherwise, nearly all the U.S. reactors would have to shut down.” NRC employees frequently leave to work for nuclear industry companies and lobbying organizations, then return to the commission. The problem is becoming particularly pressing as the country's nuclear infrastructure ages. No license renewal application has been turned down by the NRC since the first one was granted in 2000. That includes the Vermont Yankee plant, whose design is similar to that of the troubled Fukushima plant in Japan, and whose cooling tower collapsed in 2007. Last year, radioactive titrium was detected in the groundwater, ...

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"Hi! Whats new?" was the voice over the phone. "Whats new!" I responded. Uhmm what is new, raced through my mind. It just seemed like a long time that I was asked that wasn't rhetorical. "Yup. Trains been so broken-down that I been working up in Sarnia because FAA has threatened to pull transport license in the US if the railway doesn't improve the condition of its fleet," said the voice. "I racked up 68 hours of overtime in 8 days," went on the voice. Well there is a lot happening but it isn't so new. I went on to say that my break wall had washed away a few days ago when the southerly winds turned into gales and drove breakers up on shore for a day or so. I have been wrestling with my insurance to cough up a cheque they committed to pay for a conditioning trainer for 6 more months. A long lost buddy had called up to meet for coffee earlier this week. I am leaving for Winnipeg next week to visit my Dad who went into palliative car...

France shuts border to trains from Italy to stop north African migrants and political activists from entering the country. France has shut its border to trains from Italy in an attempt to stop north African migrants and political activists from entering the country. The action drew a formal protest on Sunday from Rome and accusations it was violating European principles. A group of French and Italian activists had planned to board what they had dubbed The Train of Dignity in the Italian border town of Ventimiglia in support of migrants trying to cross the border. About 60 mainly Tunisian migrants were at the station seeking passage to France, and were given sandwiches and drinks by support groups. Italian railway and border police said France was preventing all trains passing the Ventimiglia-Menton border. Franco Frattini, Italy's foreign minister, instructed the country's ambassador in Paris to express "the firm protest of the Italian government to the French authorities...

The operator of Japan's crippled nuclear plant laid out a blueprint Sunday for stopping radiation leaks and stabilizing damaged reactors within the next six to nine months as a first step toward allowing some of the tens of thousands of evacuees to return to the area. While the government said the timeframe was realistic, those forced to flee their homes, jobs and farms were frustrated that their exile is not going to end soon. And officials acknowledge that unforeseen complications, or even another natural disaster, could set that timetable back even further. “Well, this year is lost,” said Kenji Matsueda, 49, who is living in an evacuation centre in Fukushima after being forced from his home 20 kilometres from the plant. “I have no idea what I will do. Nine months is a long time. And it could be longer. I don't think they really know.” Pressure has been building on the government and plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. to resolve Japan's worst-ever nuclear power accid...

Desperate Japan dumps radioactive water in sea JAPANESE engineers were forced yesterday to release radioactive water into the sea while resorting to desperate measures such as using bath salts to try to find the source of leaks at a crippled nuclear power complex hit by a tsunami on March 11. Engineers also planned to build two giant "silt curtains" made of polyester in the sea to hinder the spread of more contamination from the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, 240km north of Tokyo. The plant operator released low-level radioactive seawater that had been used to cool overheated fuel rods after it ran out of storage capacity for more highly contaminated water, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said. "We have instructed strict monitoring of the ocean to firmly grasp the impact on the environment," said Edano. Operator Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) said it would release more than 10,000 tons of contaminated water that was about 100 times more radioactive than legal ...

Great Lakes nuclear shipments on hold - Canada - CBC News

This or that: Which would you choose? Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives

Has capitalism reached its limits? rabble.ca

Hydro rates skyrocket in B.C. rabble.ca

Chavez Libya talks offer rejected - Africa - Al Jazeera English

The son also slaughters - Opinion - Al Jazeera English

Wednesday, March 2, 2011 Yesterday I visited Drie Fonteinen, where I spoke with Armand Debelder for some time. Armand told me the good news that there will be a Lambic beer visitor's center opening in mid-May about 3 km from Beersel. The Flemish goverment and HORAL are the main forces behind the project, which will feature a 125 seat theater where movies of lambic production will be shown in four or five languages. It should be a modern center for the promotion of lambic beers.....sort of a living museum. It will be accesible by public transport. All I can say is, Excellent!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

MADISON, WI—Representatives of three Canadian unions are in Madison, Wisconsin this weekend, joining with thousands of workers and supporters to fight Governor Scott Walker’s union-busting budget bill. Teachers, firefighters, steel workers, state employees, university students, religious leaders and veterans have streamed into the state capital by the thousands over the last 10 days. More than 1,000 students have been occupying the Wisconsin state capital building, sleeping in Senators’ offices and maintaining a 24-hour a day occupation. Today, more than 100,000 people will fill the streets of Madison to demand that Walker remove the sections of the budget bill that would prevent public sector workers from bargaining collectively. “Walker’s bill represents a direct attack on workers’ rights,” says John Gordon, President of the 180,000-member Public Service Alliance of Canada. “Public sector workers shouldn’t have to pay for the financial crisis they didn’t create. We are here to say th...

(Whoaaa!!! Busted,eh? -CLP) By: The Canadian Press TORONTO - Victoria pop songstress Nelly Furtado says she was paid $1 million to perform for members of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's "clan" in 2007, but she now intends to donate the money to charity. The New York Times recently reported that several Western pop stars had accepted massive sums of money to perform for Gadhafi's family in recent years. Related Items Articles UN humanitarian chief worried about aid access to Libya, says borders should remain open A glance at anti-government protests and political unrest in 7 Arab countries Canada ramps up sanctions, says Gadhafi must go Libya oil chief says production down 50 per cent, urges foreign workers to return 'Brother leader' morphs into maniacal tyrant US moves naval, air forces near Libya, as Gadhafi forces manoeuvr to strike opposition cities Beyonce and Usher reportedly performed at a New Year's Eve party for Gadhafi's son Muatassim — Libya...

(My Lord....what a bunch of irresponsible morons...they cant pay for the two wars they got themselves in and they are attacking American workers in Wisconsin and Indiana... and now this!!!!!! When are the American people going to ditch these idiots once and for all??? -CLP) By Heather Cross CNN's Candy Crowley spoke to Senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman about the situation in Libya and whether the United States should get more involved in supporting the uprising there. Of course they think we should be imposing a no-fly zone and providing arms to the protesters so they can defend themselves. So as usual they want the Unites States injecting themselves militarily into another Middle Eastern country and potentially into the middle of another country's civil war. What could possibly go wrong? And McCain had lots of tough talk about war crimes tribunals for the mercenaries brought in by Muammar Gaddafi. Too bad he doesn't feel the same way about what we did to the Iraqis. ...

An architectural rendering developed by Creswin for a new stadium for the CFL's Winnipeg Blue Bombers. (blueandgold.ca) Documents released under Manitoba's information laws confirm businessman David Asper's Creswin Properties was paid more than $4 million by the province in a failed bid to build a new stadium for the CFL's Winnipeg Blue Bombers. But citing confidentiality concerns, the government release of more than 30 pages of itemized payments is short on the details. The documents show Creswin was compensated a total of $4,079,556.34 for architectural, legal, planning and communications work on the stadium project, which Asper spearheaded prior to exiting the process last December. Creswin was paid thousands for work such as reviewing emails, updating websites, media monitoring, making phone calls and electronic tax searches. In December the province, the football club, the City of Winnipeg and the University of Manitoba approved a new $190-million deal to build a 3...

A secret investigation may implicate dozens of high-ranking government officials. A guard at Kabul Bank. “If this were America, fifty people would have been arrested by now,” one American official said. In the spring of 2009, as the reëlection campaign of President Hamid Karzai was gathering momentum, a group of prominent Afghan businessmen met with the candidate for breakfast at the Presidential palace. Among them was Khalil Ferozi, the chief executive officer of Kabul Bank, a freewheeling financial institution owned by some of the most colorful and politically well-connected Afghans in the country, including one of President Karzai’s brothers. Ferozi, a banking novice, had a history that seemed lifted from a Saturday-afternoon adventure movie. In the late nineteen-nineties, working for the legendary anti-Taliban commander Ahmed Shah Massoud, he sold emeralds mined in the crags of the Panjshir Valley and used the proceeds to pay an obscure Russian company to print truckloads of Afghan...