|
HEADLINES & SUMMARIES
Want
these articles delivered to your inbox as soon as they
are available? Become
an NHNE Wavemaker!
>> ARCHAEOLOGISTS
GRANTED ACCESS TO JAPAN'S SACRED TOMBS -
The divine origins of Japan's imperial family come under scrutiny
as it allows limited access to two burial sites. Ancient
myth holds that Japan's emperors are the direct descendants
of the sun goddess Amaterasu Omikami, and that the current
monarch is the latest in an unbroken line of 125 emperors stretching
back more than 2,600 years to Jimmu in the seventh century
BC. The greatest fear is that proper inspections of the tombs
will reveal compelling evidence that the Japanese imperial
family originated from China and the Korean peninsula.
>> STUDENTS USE NET TO FORCE BANK TO ABANDON CONTROVERSIAL
CHARGES - HSBC this week scrapped interest charges
on graduate accounts after a "viral campaign" on
social networking site Facebook and the threat of chaos in
its branches brought on by student protesters.
>> SLOW
CLIMATE CHANGE BY EATING LESS MEAT - Eating
less meat could help slow global warming by reducing the number
of livestock and thereby decreasing the amount of methane flatulence
from the animals, scientists said on Thursday.
>>>> U.S. STUDY FINDS POTENTIAL NEW WAYS TO FIGHT
AGING -
Researchers said on Thursday they had found more ways to activate
the body's own anti-aging defenses -- perhaps with a pill that
could fight multiple diseases at once.
METEORITE LIKELY CAUSED CRATER IN PERU - Peruvian astronomers
said Thursday that evidence shows a meteorite crashed near
Lake Titicaca over the weekend, leaving an elliptical crater
and magnetic rock fragments in an impact powerful enough to
register on seismic charts.
>> HOBBIT
WASN'T A MODERN HUMAN - Scientists, wringing
their hands over the identity of the famed "hobbit" fossil,
have found a new clue in the wrist. Since the discovery of
the bones in Indonesia in 2003, researchers have wrangled over
whether the find was an ancient human ancestor or simply a
modern human suffering from a genetic disorder. Now, a study
of the bones in the creature's left wrist lends weight to the
human ancestor theory.
>> KALAHARI
BUSHMEN: CRUSHED BETWEEN TWO WORLDS - 50 years after her
father famously chronicled the lives of the Kalahari Bushmen,
Lucia Van Der Post visits their tribal homeland in Botswana
-- and finds a demoralised people trapped in a limbo between
their ancient heritage and the modern world.
>>>> CURRENT
NEAR-EARTH ASTEROID STATISTICS & RESEARCH - There are between one and two million near-Earth objects
(NEOs) -- chunks of space rock whose orbits may pass within
30 million miles of Earth -- that pose a significant impact
threat to the planet. Of the 4,535 NEOs detected and tracked
(704 of which are real whoppers), none are on a definite collision
course, but there could be millions more, many of them potentially
lethal, lurking in the cosmos.
>> DOCUMENTARY: 'THE WAR TAPES' - Straight from the
front lines in Iraq, THE WAR TAPES is the first war movie filmed
by soldiers themselves. It is Operation Iraqi Freedom as filmed
by Sergeant Steve Pink, Sergeant Zack Bazzi and Specialist
Mike Moriarty and other soldiers.
ABANDONED MONKEY FINDS LOVE WITH A PIGEON - They're an odd
couple in every sense but a monkey and a pigeon have become
inseparable at an animal sanctuary in China.
CHINA TO HOLD FIRST-EVER 'NO CAR DAY' ON SATURDAY -
China will initiate its first-ever nationwide "no car day" this
weekend in an effort to promote environmental health and alleviate
increasingly gridlocked urban roads, state press said Monday.
>>>> VITAMIN D MAY CONTRIBUTE TO LONGER LIVES -
Vitamin D is good for your bones, doctors have said for years,
but new research suggests that taking a vitamin pill a day
might extend your life. The findings, published yesterday in
the journal Archives of Internal Medicine, add to the growing
medical literature about the benefits of what is sometimes
called the "sunshine vitamin" because it is produced
by the skin in response to sunlight. Recent studies have linked
vitamin D deficiencies to higher risk of cancer, diabetes and
multiple sclerosis. It could play a role in reducing heart
disease and preventing pre-eclampsia in pregnant women.
>> WHY DOESN'T THE GOP WANT OHIO'S VOTING MACHINES
TESTED? - Ohio Republicans have blocked a proposal to test electronic
voting machines prior to the 2008 presidential primary.
>> FOLLOWUP
2: THE ARREST & TASERING OF ANDREW MEYER -
Police have released the incident report detailing the
Tasering of a University of Florida student during a campus
forum with Sen. John Kerry Monday, and the officer who
actually Tasered Andrew Meyer wrote in the report that
Meyer later told police, "You
didn't do anything wrong."... Despite humorous videos,
pictures and acts attributed to Andrew Meyer online, friends
of the University of Florida student insist his arrest Monday
at an appearance by Sen. John Kerry was not any sort of publicity
stunt.
>> PRISONS PURGING BOOKS ON FAITH FROM LIBRARIES - Behind
the walls of federal prisons nationwide, chaplains have been
quietly carrying out a systematic purge of religious books
and materials that were once available to prisoners in chapel
libraries.
>> URI GELLER'S YOUTUBE TAKEDOWN -
Geller got rich insisting that his supernatural abilities were
real, so a number of magicians and skeptics -- most notably
James "The Amazing" Randi
-- mounted a campaign to discredit the performer. Randi exposed
Geller during numerous TV appearances, demonstrating that his
mental feats were nothing more than trickery. These old clips,
including a NOVA program called "Secrets of the Psychics," have
recently begun appearing on YouTube and other video-sharing
websites... Over the last year, he and his business associate
have successfully removed many of these clips from the Web
by charging that they violate his copyrights.
PERU LINKS ILLNESS TO SUPPOSED METEORITE - Officials are investigating
unconfirmed reports that a meteorite crashed in southern Peru
over the weekend and caused dozens of people to become sick.
>> U.S. PAYING OFF IRAQ'S WORST WAR CRIMINALS TO PREVENT
ATTACKS - Embedded with the U.S. Army and Iraqi
militias, Rowley shows us that the Sunni "freedom fighters" with
whom the United States is now allied are not just insurgents
who had been killing Americans but war criminals responsible
for sectarian cleansing. Rowley, and his co-producers David
Enders and Hiba Dawood, are the only Western journalists to
bring a camera into the refugee camp where the displaced Shiites
recount being attacked, bombed and driven out by the very tribes
Petraeus and Bush are hailing as heroes.
GREG
PALAST COMMENTS ON STUDENT ARREST & TASERING -
I sent out a story earlier today about a student that was arrested
and tasered during a question and answer session yesterday
with John Kerry at the University of Florida. If you watched
the video, you probably noticed that the student, Andrew Meyer,
based his questions on information contained in Greg Palast's
book "Armed Madhouse". In fact, he had Palast's book
in his hands, referenced it as the source of his questions,
and recommended that Kerry read it. Kerry said he had. Palast
just finished sending a message out to his readers about the
incident...
>> KERRY
CONDEMNS HECKLER ARREST (INCLUDES VIDEO LINKS) -
Sen. John Kerry on Tuesday condemned the arrest of a University
of Florida student at one of his speeches, saying that
he was engaged in a "good healthy discussion" with
21-year-old Andrew Meyer when he was Tasered and taken into
custody.
>> BOOK
EXCERPT: 'MY SON, THE DALAI LAMA' -
This spare, fascinating autobiography by the Dalai Lama's mama
addresses issues as diverse as faith, political intrigue
and the harsh demands of rural life. Born at the turn of
the century to a hardworking peasant family in a frontier
region of Tibet, Diki Tsering (her married name) entered
an arranged marriage at 16 and found herself entirely under
the thumb of a brutal, sometimes violent mother-in-law. She
bore 16 children, but only seven survived their toddlerhoods
(four of these deaths were blamed on a malevolent family
ghost). One of her sons, of course, was recognized at age
four as the incarnation of the Dalai Lama, the highest religious
and political leader in Tibet.
>> ROBERT
FISK: THE PLUNDERING OF MESOPOTAMIA (& HUMAN
HISTORY) - 2,000-year-old Sumerian cities torn apart and plundered
by robbers. The very walls of the mighty Ur of the Chaldees
cracking under the strain of massive troop movements, the privatisation
of looting as landlords buy up the remaining sites of ancient
Mesopotamia to strip them of their artefacts and wealth. The
near total destruction of Iraq's historic past -- the very
cradle of human civilisation -- has emerged as one of the most
shameful symbols of our disastrous occupation.
>>>> MAMMOTH DUNG, PREHISTORIC GOO MAY SPEED WARMING - For
millennia, layers of animal waste and other organic matter
left behind by the creatures that used to roam the Arctic tundra
have been sealed inside the frozen permafrost. Now climate
change is thawing the permafrost and lifting this prehistoric
ooze from suspended animation.
>>>> IN
GREENLAND, AN INTERFAITH RALLY FOR CLIMATE CHANGE -
Surrounded by icebergs, Sunni, Shiite, Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish,
Christian, and Shinto leaders committed themselves last Friday
to leave the planet "in all its wisdom and beauty to the
generations to come." They included the Grand Rabbi of
Paris, René-Samuel Sirat, Bishop Sofie Petersen of
Greenland, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington, and
the Rev. Jim Ball, founder of the Evangelical Environmental
Network.
>>>> 16,306
ANIMALS & PLANTS ON THREATENED SPECIES
'RED LIST' - Nearly 200 animals and plants have
been added to a global database of threatened species, the
World Conservation Union announced Wednesday, adding that the
number is certainly on the low end. From the lowland gorillas
of Africa to corals of the Galapagos Islands, more than 16,300
species are threatened with extinction, the group said in releasing
its annual Red List.
>> VITAL
SIGNS 2007-2008 - Record levels of consumption
by a global population that now numbers 6.6 billion people
are pushing the limits of ecosystem services upon which all
life depends, according to the latest Worldwatch Institute
report.
WORLD
FACING ‘ARSENIC TIMEBOMB’ - About 140 million
people, mainly in developing countries, are being poisoned
by arsenic in their drinking water, researchers believe.
>> THE FUTURE OF DRINKING WATER - For years, NRDC has been
crying in the wilderness that bottled water is not any safer
than tap -- and in many cases actually is tap... Suddenly,
everyone seems to have discovered that tap water can be perfectly
drinkable --and that bottled water has problems of its own.
>> FORMULA INDUSTRY PUSHED FOR TONED DOWN BREAST-FEEDING
ADS - In an attempt to raise the nation's historically low
rate of breast-feeding, federal health officials commissioned
an attention-grabbing advertising campaign a few years ago
to convince mothers that their babies faced real health risks
if they did not breast-feed... Plans to run these blunt ads
infuriated the politically powerful infant formula industry,
which hired a former chairman of the Republican National Committee
and a former top regulatory official to lobby the Health and
Human Services Department. Not long afterward, department political
appointees toned down the campaign.
>> U.K. INVENTION CREATES MORE ENERGY THAN IT USES - British
scientists claim they have invented a revolutionary device
that seems to 'create' energy from virtually nothing. Their
so-called thermal energy cell could soon be fitted into ordinary
homes, halving domestic heating bills and making a major contribution
towards cutting carbon emissions.
>> INSURING AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE -
It was a very wet summer in much of England. Floods in central
and western parts of the country, the worst in decades, resulted
in widespread misery: around 60,000 homes and businesses were
damaged or destroyed. Insurers, which are facing at least £3
billion ($6.1 billion) in claims, have said they expect household
premiums to rise next year.
>> CLIMATE CHANGE THREATENS WORLD FOOD PRODUCTION - By the
end of this century, if current trends continue, world agriculture
will be in serious trouble... global agriculture potential
could fall by about five to 15 or 20 percent as a result of
global warming, if nothing is done by the 2080s.
>>>> NEW REPORT VISUALIZES IMPACT ON U.S. COASTAL
CITIES - Architecture 2030 has compiled a report that features
images depicting the dramatic effects of sea level rise --
from about 3 to 16 feet -- on 21 cities around the country.
>> FIRST EDITION 'BOOK OF MORMON' FOUND IN NEW YORK
HOME - A 177-year-old first edition of the Book of Mormon found
in a home near Palmyra -- the birthplace of the Mormon religion
-- will be put up for bid next week at an upstate New York
estate auction.
>> ALAN GREENSPAN CLAIMS IRAQ WAR WAS REALLY FOR OIL -
America’s
elder statesman of finance, Alan Greenspan, has shaken the
White House by declaring that the prime motive for the war
in Iraq was oil.
>> IRAQ WAR PROTESTERS MARCH ON D.C. - Tens of thousands
of antiwar demonstrators, including a prominent contingent
of Iraq veterans, struck a more confrontational tone than at
previous protests, with more than 160 protesters arrested Saturday
at the foot of the U.S. Capitol.
EARTH
MIGHT SURVIVE SUN'S EXPLOSION - About five billion years
from now, astronomers say, the Sun will run out of hydrogen
fuel and swell temporarily more than 100 times in diameter
into a so-called red giant, swallowing Mercury and Venus and
dooming life on Earth, but perhaps not Earth itself.
>> SCIENTISTS
USE 'DARK WEB' TO TRACK EXTREMISTS & TERRORISTS - Terrorists and extremists have set up shop on the Internet,
using it to recruit new members, spread propaganda and plan
attacks across the world. The size and scope of these dark
corners of the Web are vast and disturbing. But in a non-descript
building in Tucson, a team of computational scientists are
using the cutting-edge technology and novel new approaches
to track their moves online, providing an invaluable tool in
the global war on terror.
>> 2001
INTERVIEW WITH THE DALAI LAMA - Some of the Asian traditions
rely on work, or intelligence, and do not ask people to simply
accept the teachings on faith. There is a lot of explanation
that follows investigation, so for those who are skeptical
of purely faith-based systems, the Asian traditions can be
very attractive.
>> GREENSPAN ATTACKS BUSH ON FISCAL ROLE -
Alan Greenspan, who was chairman of the Federal Reserve for
nearly two decades, in a long-awaited memoir, is harshly
critical of President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and
the Republican-controlled Congress, as abandoning their party’s
principles on spending and deficits.
DALAI
LAMA CRITICIZED RICHARD GERE'S PHOTOGRAPHY - Hollywood
star Richard Gere was devastated when his spiritual hero and
mentor, the Dalai Lama, criticised his photography calling
them "poor quality".
>> MORMONS APOLOGIZE FOR
'MOUNTAIN MEADOWS MASSACRE' -
A Mormon apostle, speaking Tuesday at the 150th anniversary
memorial service for victims of the Mountain Meadows Massacre,
apologized for the church's role, expressing "profound
regret for the massacre."
WORLD
WAR I CONDEMNED TWO MILLION BRITISH WOMEN TO BE SINGLE - They dreamt of love, marriage
and children. But, as a new book reveals, the Great War robbed
two million women of the men they would have married, leading
many into relationships which could only be whispered about...
>>
CUTBACKS IMPERIL CLIMATE RESEARCH - The government's climate change research is threatened by
spending cuts that will reduce scientists' observations from
space and on the ground, a study says.
Want these articles delivered
to your inbox as soon as they are available? Become
an NHNE Wavemaker!
Complete
List of:
Current Articles
>> Featured
Articles <<
>>>> "Must
Read" Articles <<<<
|
