Blogger Screws Up

Blogger is screwed this morning. You cannot read anyones articles only their front pages. So until this is fixed sorry all you will get to read is whats on this front page. #@@!$#%!!!

Hobbit Controversy

The scientific controversy around Our Lady of Flores, (Lady of Flowers), aka the hobbit, continues...

The hobbit is definitely a new species of human, related to but separate from Homo sapiens, concludes a study by a Florida State University team published yesterday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Neuro-paleontologist Dean Falk, the head researcher, says she is "absolutely convinced" the brain of LB1, as the hobbit is officially known, is not abnormal.

The discovery of Homo floresiensis makes it much more likely that stories of other mythical, human-like creatures are founded on grains of truth.

Homo floresiensis (Liang Bua Cave, Indonesia) and a modern human skull

Peter Brown

File under cryptozoology; Dwarves, fairies, picts, brownies, gnomes, little people.

For more cryptozoology news check out this blog; Cryptomundo.




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Pagans Party

The discovery of an ancient village at Stonehenge proves what neo-pagans have known all along, we know how to party!

After 4,600 years, we still gather for festivals.

The discovery reconfigures the geometry of Stonehenge, indicating that it is not an isolated monument but part of a larger religious complex that may have encompassed the area. It also casts the people who built the monument in an unexpected light, indicating that they were not only the somber worshipers of Stonehenge but also a raucous, hard-partying group who gathered for regular festivals.

An earlier discovery found that the village at Stonehenge may have been a gathering place of pagans from across Europe.

This is demonstrated by the 'Amesbury Archer', recently found in a 4,000-year-old grave, one of Europe's richest, near Stonehenge.

He was surrounded by about 100 items, including golden hair ornaments - some of the earliest gold objects found in Britain.

But his teeth provided the real surprise. Tests on their enamel, formed in early childhood and which contains telltale chemical signatures from local soil and rocks, showed the archer came from the Alps while the ornaments found in his grave were traced to Spain and France.

This discovery suggests that metalworkers from the Continent had already begun to trade and work in tin, copper and other metals in Britain 4,000 years ago and may have played key roles in building Stonehenge. The monument appears to have been the centre of major activity by travellers roaming across Britain, Ireland and the Continent.

See

The Monument Builders

Here Comes The Sun

Pyramid in Ukraine

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stonehenge,, pagans,, archaeology,, paganism,, magick,, occult,, witch,, witchcraft,, celts,, picts,, neo-pagans,, heathens

Bio Fuels = Eco Disaster

The production of biofuels, long a cornerstone of the quest for greener energy, may sometimes create more harmful emissions than fossil fuels, scientific studies are finding.

Says the NYTimes in an article on Palm Oil. Once a Dream Fuel, Palm Oil May Be an Eco-Nightmare

As I have blogged here, Palm Oil production is creating an eco disaster in Indonesia and Malaysia with wildfires and threats to the endangered Organutan population.

And with both the Bush and Harper regimes promoting biofuels in grains and corn the result is increasing prices for these commodities which adversely affect other farm commodities like pork.

The Chair of Manitoba Pork Council says swine producers on the two sides of the Canada U.S. border share a common concern over rapidly rising feed prices resulting from expanded ethanol production.

And this is why the Harpocrites want to open the market up to the big Agribusiness giants like ADM and Cargill who also produce soya, palm oil, etc. But to do that they must eliminate the Wheat Board.

Biofuels are not ecologically sound alternatives to petroleum, they are just another capitalist band-aid, like Kyoto with its carbon exchange marketing.

Capitalism can only offer 'profit based' ways of adjusting to the current ecological and environmental crisis we face. That is because this crisis is about capitalism, which is not sustainable.

That is the real problem of Green Capitalism and all the so called Green alternatives, they are not alternatives at all, merely attempts to ameliorate the worst excesses of capitalism.

Without the development of democratic self managed (worker community control) socialism, capitalism Green or otherwise will continue to lead to planetary entropy.


See

GMO News Roundup

Lost and Found

Boreno is Burning

Bio-Fuels


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primates, organutan, , ADM, ArcherDaniels Midland, , bio-fuels, Canada Wheat Board, , capitalism, Cargill, , ecology, , Environment, , Green, green capitalism, Indonesia, Kyoto, palm oil, , socialism, sustainable, workers control

SDA a year late

Kate at SDA discovers Nazanin Afshin-Jam campaign to free an Iranian girl from a death sentence, a year late and a dollar shy. Canada's Most Relevant Womens Rights Activist

I reported on this last June when the MSM missed the press confernce Nazanin held on Parliament Hill with women MP's from all parties raising the issue of her namesake in Iran being sentenced to death for defending herself and her cousin from rapists.

And shock of shocks Kate also says something nice about Belinda Stronach.

Of course thats a cheeky headline, denying that there are other relevant womens rights activists in Canada but what do you expect from a rightwhingnutbar. Most of the Blogging Tories have ignored this important campaign.

And while she praises Nazanin Afshin-Jam and Belinda I wonder how much Kate donated for Nazanin Fateh's release. Since this is the first time she even bothered to blog about this important Canadian initiated campaign. Put money where mouth is.

Islamic Court Frees Iranian Teen From Death Sentence
CNW Telbec (Communiqués de presse), Canada - 5 hours ago
31 /CNW/ -- After two grueling years in prison, Iranian teen Nazanin Fatehi was released today and spared from her original death sentence following an ...
Former Miss Canada helps free jailed Iranian teen CBC British Columbia
Canadian-led campaign wins Iran teen's freedom Toronto Star
Islamic Court in Iran Spares Teenage Girl From Death Penalty

What is important to remember about this campaign is not just that it was about sexism of Sharia law in Iran but also about racism in Iran. Nazanin Fatehi is Kurdish.


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BMO More ATM's Less People

The Bank of Montreal (BMO) is laying off 1000 workers while making record profits.

At Bank of Montreal, the company earned a profit of nearly $2.67 billion for the fiscal year ended last Oct. 31, compared with $2.4 billion in 2005.

The reason given for these cuts; said with complete ablomp and full of the heartfelt concern;

"It's not staff who really deal with customers face to face," said Ralph Marranca.


Right you don't have staff who deal with customers, you cut them years ago and replaced them with ATM's.

ATM's are the Daleks of the Banking business.

You are forced to use them, contrary to certain bloggers assertions otherwise, because the banks have replaced staff with them.

And BMO has replaced branch expansion with online banking. Which the staff being cut are the IT backbone of.

A spokesman for the bank said the employees affected will include support staff including back office, administrative and technical support workers.

And the guy making the cuts is the outgoing President of the BMO; Tony Gomper who earned this year a cool $9,981,608

Salary: $1,000,000 Bonus: $1,700,000 Subtotal: $2,700,000 -10% chg Other: $560,454 Share Units: $2,700,000 Option Gains: $4,021,164 TOTAL: $9,981,608 New option grant: 158,200 ($2,700,000)

And who once said this about why you don't layoff staff;

Investment in people, like investment in education, is the single best investment that a Canadian company can make. I think it is very short-sighted to go into massive lay-offs as a strategy, because you’d be throwing away a stockpile of goodwill and future value for the shareholders. I believe that massive lay-offs of that sort point to a failure of management to anticipate the kind of economic environment in which we are going to be operating.

Repeat that out loud, Tony. You and your management are a failure. But you are laughing all the way out of the bank while leaving your staff with the crying towel.


A tip o' the blog to Far and Wide

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Lonely Academics

“individuals who bare their souls in books are isolated and lonely, living in a virtual reality instead of forming real relationships or helping to change the world.”

"Academics are living in a world where emotions may be real but everything else is make-believe"

Academics think of themselves as rebels against mainstream society, but that rebellion is mostly confined to ivory towers,

Just replace the words books, Academics, ivory towers with blogs and bloggers and cyberspace and you will get a sense of the stupidity of comments about blogging made by this U of C prof.

More comments by bloggers on his comments are here, here and here




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Michael Keren, U o fC, Univeristy of Calgary, academic, blogs, , bloggers, , blogging, Canada

Still Waiting On Wait Times 1

The most important priority of the Harpocrite government was wait times, and well we are still waiting to see what will be done to reduce them.

So far the New Government gets a big F for failure from those in the know.

A survey of Canadian doctors has given the battle to reduce health-care waiting times a marginal or failing grade. The combined efforts of governments to address wait times in targeted areas earned a D (poor) or F (very poor) grade from 57 per cent of respondents. Only 13 per cent felt the effort was producing excellent (A) or good (B) results.

And the result of the Tories jigging wait times is this;

Patient's choice: Wait 14 weeks or pay $5000

"In other words, the priority in some areas is causing ... less priority in other areas," says association president Dr. Colin McMillan.

See:

Medicare

Healthcare


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health care, medicare, Canada, Conservatives, Harper, Tony Clement, waittimes, politics, health, government, CMA, doctors, failing grade

Sheila Fraser Tory

So outspoken Liberal government critic Auditor General Sheila Fraser has fired the Environmental Commissioner, Johanne Gelinas, a political move do ya think. Of course.

Sheila who herself has been critical of the Liberals always seemed to address the Conservatives favorite pet peeves and gave them ammunition to attack the Liberals. Hmmm funny that.

Johanne Gelinas would have been as critical of the Harpocrites as she had been of the Liberals, and we certainly can't have that.

Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, a longtime friend of Gelinas, said her departure has been in the works for months. "It's been coming for some time. Ever since she filed her report on climate change there have been attempts to shut down her office and curtail her role," May said.

So did Sheila do Harper a favour and fire Gelinas in order to give the Tories plausible deniability. Inquiring minds want to know.


See

Environment



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'El Comandante' Fidel Spoils Party

Bad news for all those folks planning their Post-Castro celebration at the Orange Bowl

New video shows improved Castro

And socialism in Cuba will not collapse with the passing of Comrade El Comandante Fidel.

Post-Castro Cuba already a reality, experts say

Castro, 'El Comandante', is most often known to his people as 'Fidel', even to his face. They 'argue with him, they claim him', writes Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

See

Castro

Cuba

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