Bandaríkin mergsogin af milljarðamæringum

The dysfunctional society: US billionaires on the rise—roads, bridges in decay

Two recent reports cast light on the impact of growing social inequality in the US. The first, the annual inventory of the very rich compiled this month by the business magazine Forbes, tracks the wealth of the world’s billionaires, and their increasing numbers in the US. The second is the “report card” issued by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) on the state of the infrastructure in the United States.

Together these studies provide a devastating exposure of the price being paid—in the form of basic necessities of daily life—for the ongoing process of diverting ever-greater sums of the national wealth into the personal investments portfolios and bank accounts of the super-rich in America.

Report Card for Americas Infrastructure

The 2004 fortune 500

Harðvíruð hegðun prímata

Surprisingly Complex Behaviors Appear To Be 'Hard-wired' In The Primate Brain

Scientists have long known that many of the behaviors of lower organisms are innate. In the insect world, for example, instinctive behaviors predominate. Birds have a larger repertoire of fixed behaviors than dogs.

In primates, voluntary or learned behavior predominates. So neuroscientists have assumed that in primate brains the hard-wiring is limited to simple movements and complex behaviors are all learned.

Now, however, studies are finding that a number of surprisingly complex behaviors appear to be built into the brains of primates as well. These are “biologically significant” behaviors that appear likely to improve the primate’s ability to survive and reproduce. They include aggressive facial patterns, defensive forelimb movements, hand-to-mouth and reaching-and-grasping movements.

Ég held að það sé harðvírað í mig að teygja mig í snooze takkann á morgnana.

Vísindi, trú og IMAX

A New Screen Test for Imax: It's the Bible vs. the Volcano [Bugmenot.com]

Several Imax theaters, including some in science museums, are refusing to show movies that mention the subject - or the Big Bang or the geology of the earth - fearing protests from people who object to films that contradict biblical descriptions of the origin of Earth and its creatures.

...

People who follow trends at commercial and institutional Imax theaters say that in recent years, religious controversy has adversely affected the distribution of a number of films, including "Cosmic Voyage," which depicts the universe in dimensions running from the scale of subatomic particles to clusters of galaxies; "Galápagos," about the islands where Darwin theorized about evolution; and "Volcanoes of the Deep Sea," an underwater epic about the bizarre creatures that flourish in the hot, sulfurous emanations from vents in the ocean floor.

"Volcanoes," released in 2003 and sponsored in part by the National Science Foundation and Rutgers University, has been turned down at about a dozen science centers, mostly in the South, said Dr. Richard Lutz, the Rutgers oceanographer who was chief scientist for the film. He said theater officials rejected the film because of its brief references to evolution, in particular to the possibility that life on Earth originated at the undersea vents.

Ofboðslega eru trúarbrögð þroskaheftandi fyrirbæri.

Góðar umræður um þetta á /.

Lög bjarga einhverskonar lífi

Öldungadeild Bandaríkjaþings samþykkir lög til að bjarga lífi heilaskaddaðrar konu

Öldungadeild Bandaríkjaþings samþykkti í kvöld lög til að reyna að tryggja að búnaður, sem notaður hefur verið til að dæla næringu í æð alvarlega heilaskaddaðrar konu, verði gangsettur á ný. Búnaðurinn var aftengdur á föstudag að ósk eiginmanns hennar en ættingjar konunnar hafa barist fyrir því að henni verði haldið á lífi.

...

„Forsetinn telur, að þetta sé mál sem fjallar um mikilvæg grundvallaratriði," sagði Scott McClellan, talsmaður Bush. Forsetinn fór í kvöld frá Texas til Washington svo hann geti staðfest lögin um leið og þau eru tilbúin. Gert er ráð fyrir að fulltrúadeild þingsins komi saman á morgun til að greiða atkvæði um lögin.

...

Foreldrar Schiavos, sem eru kaþólskir og mjög trúræknir, vildu ekki samþykkja að tækin, sem hafa séð um að dæla næringu í æðar hennar, yrðu aftengd. Tækin hafa tvisvar áður verið aftengd en síðan tengd á ný eftir nýjan dómaraúrskurð.

Áhugavert af Guerilla News Network

Afghanistan: 'One Huge US Jail'

Outside Kabul, Afghanistan is bleaker, its provinces more inaccessible and lawless, than it was under the Taliban. If anyone leaves town, they do so in convoys. Afghanistan is a place where it is easy for people to disappear and perilous for anyone to investigate their fate. Even a seasoned aid agency such as Médécins Sans Frontières was forced to quit after five staff members were murdered last June. Only the 17,000-strong US forces, with their all-terrain Humvees and Apache attack helicopters, have the run of the land, and they have used the haze of fear and uncertainty that has engulfed the country to advance a draconian phase in the war against terror. Afghanistan has become the new Guantánamo Bay.

Senate Nod to Arctic Oil Drilling Stiffens Opposition

The United States uses about 20.8 million barrels of oil a day. If the refuge were opened to drilling, its oil would take about a decade to come online, Senate Democrats said, adding that conservation efforts and tighter fuel standards could make a greater impact much sooner.

‘’Drilling the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge won’t make a dent in gas prices at the pump or break our dependence on Middle East oil,’’ said Karen Wayland, legislative director at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration has estimated that Americans’ energy demand could increase by about 30 percent over the next 20 years. Democrats said that if Americans somehow managed to hold their oil consumption at today’s levels, the refuge might hold a total of six months’ worth of the fuel.

Eru prestar fréttamenn?

[Sr. Örn Bárður] fjallar um fréttastjóraráðningu í stólræðu

Hér er predikunin sjálf.

Presturinn er starfsmaður einnar elstu fréttastofu veraldar, kristinnar kirkju, sem heldur úti fréttaflutningi um landið allt og raunar veröld víða með því að flytja stöðugt fréttir af mesta viðburði mannkynssögunnar.

...

[Örn] sagði að starf fréttamannsins væri um margt líkt starfi prestsins sem líka segði fréttir.

Persónulega finnst mér töfralæknislíkingin nærtækari. #

Abu Ghraib Leikskólinn

Karpinski sagði 11 ára dreng hafa verið meðal fanga í Abu Ghraib

Sagði Karpinski [fyrrverandi yfirmaður fangelsisins] m.a. frá því að hún hafi oft talað við yngstu fangana í fangelsinu, þ. á m. dreng sem hafi litið út fyrir að vera átta ára. „En hann sagðist vera næstum orðinn 12 ára. Hann sagði mér að bróðir sinn væri þarna með sér. Þeir vildu fá að fara til mömmu sinnar og báðu mig að hringja í hana. Hann var grátandi.“

Maður á ekki orð.

Líknardráp á nýfæddum börnum

Study: Newborn euthanasia underreported

Euthanizing terminally ill newborns, while still very rare, is more common in the Netherlands than was believed when the startling practice was reported a few months ago -- and experts say it also occurs, quietly, in other countries.

...

In 2002, doctors at University Medical Center Groningen helped create the so-called Groningen protocol, a list of standards for performing and reporting euthanasia of newborns with serious, incurable deformities. The aim was to encourage more reporting and discussion.
...

"These were all very clear and very extreme cases," he said, where the newborns were suffering from severe, untreatable spina bifida, with major brain and spinal cord deformities and sometimes other birth defects. "Do we have them continue life in suffering or do we end the life and end the suffering?"

...

The Groningen protocol requires being sure that the newborn is suffering greatly with no hope of improvement, that the prognosis is certain and confirmed by at least one independent doctor, and that both parents give informed consent.

Er þetta réttlætanlegt?

Ég verð fyrir mitt leyti að svara því játandi.

Það er fátt hræðilegra en sárþjáður hvítvoðungur sem á sér ekki bata von.

Hvers eru pólskar kirkjur megnugar?

Pólska kirkjan hvetur þingmenn til að fella frumvarp um réttindi samkynhneigðra

Kirkjur í Póllandi, þar á meðal kaþólska kirkjan sem er mjög áhrifamikil, hvatti þingmenn í dag til að fella frumvarp þar sem kveðið er á um réttindi samkynhneigðra para.

Pólska kirkjuráðið segir í bréfi að með samböndum homma og lesbía „sé sett spurningarmerki við grundvallarstoðir samfélagsins.“

Frumvarpið var samþykkt í öldungadeild þingsins í desember en samkvæmt því mega samkynhneigðir skrá sig í sambandi hjá yfirvöldum, og mega þannig kaupa eignir saman og erfa hvort annað.

Vinstri maður í öldungadeildinni lagði frumvarpið fram en neðri deild þingsins þarf að samþykkja það og forsetinn að skrifa undir það.

Norðmenn á réttri leið

Næstum helmingur Norðmanna styður aðskilnað ríkis og kirkju

47% þátttakenda í könnuninni sögðust vilja að ríki og kirkja yrðu aðskilin, en 41% sögðust vilja að áfram yrðu tengsl þarna á milli. 3.912 manns tóku þátt í könnuninni sem Dagbladet lét gera. Í svipaðri könnun sem gerð var árið 1992 sögðu 60% þátttakenda að þeir væru andsnúnir aðskilnaði ríkis og kirkju, en aðeins 26% voru þá hlynntir aðskilnaðinum.

Eftirlitsstöðvarnar í Írak

What Iraq's checkpoints are like

You're driving along and you see a couple of soldiers standing by the side of the road - but that's a pretty ubiquitous sight in Baghdad, so you don't think anything of it. Next thing you know, soldiers are screaming at you, pointing their rifles and swiveling tank guns in your direction, and you didn't even know it was a checkpoint.

If it's confusing for me - and I'm an American - what is it like for Iraqis who don't speak English?

In situations like this, I've often had Iraqi drivers who step on the gas. It's a natural reaction: Angry soldiers are screaming at you in a language you don't understand, and you think they're saying "get out of here," and you're terrified to boot, so you try to drive your way out.

The United Model States of America

Human Rights Record of the US in 2004

Police violence and infringement of human rights by law enforcement agencies also constitute a serious problem. At present, 5,000 law enforcement agencies in the United States use TASER – a kind of electric shock gun, which sends out 50,000 volts of impulse voltage after hitting the target. Since 1999, more than 80 people died from TASER shootings, 60 percent of which occurred between November 2003 and November 2004.

...

According to statistics from the Department of Justice, the number of inmates in the United States jumped from 320,000 in 1980 to 2 million in 2000, a hike by six times. From 1995 to 2003, the number of inmates grew at an annual rate of 3.5 percent in the country, where one out of every 142 people is behind bars.

...

Jails have become one of the huge and most lucrative industries, with a combined staff of more than 530,000 and being the second largest employer in the United States only after the General Motors. Private prisons are more and more common. The country now has over 100 private prisons in 27 states and 18 private prison companies. The value of goods and services created by inmates surged from 400 million US dollars in 1980 to 1.1 billion US dollars in 1994. Abuse of prisoners and violence occur frequently in US jails and prisons, which are under disorderly management. The Los Angeles Times reported on Aug. 15 last year that over 40 state prison systems were once under some form of court order, for brutality, crowding, poor food and lack of medical care.

...

The population of people living in poverty has been on a steady rise. According to a report by The Sun on July, 6, 2004, from 1970 to 2000 (adjusted for inflation), the bottom 90 percent’s average income stagnated while the top 10 percent experienced an average yearly income increase of nearly 90 percent. Upper-middle-and-upper-class families that constitute the top 10 percent of the income distribution are prospering while many among the remaining 90 percent struggle to maintain their standard of living.

...

The colored people are generally poor, with living condition much worse than the white. According to a report of The Guardian of Britain on Oct. 9, 2004, the average net assets of a white family is 88,000 US dollars in 2002, 11 times of a family of Latin American ancestry, or nearly 15 times of a family of African ancestry. Nearly one third of the African ancestry families and 26 percent of the Latin American ancestry families have negative net assets. 74 percent of the white families have their own houses, while only 47 percent of families of the African and Latin American ancestry have their own houses.

...

In a related development, because of the “lingering atmosphere of fear” stemming from the Sept. 11 attacks and fallout from the Iraq War, there were 1,019 anti-Muslim incidents in the United States in 2003, representing a 69 percent increase. There were 221 incidents in 2003 of anti-muslim bias in California, tripled a year ago (Los Angeles Times, May 3).

...

The situation of American women and children was disturbing. The rates of women and children physically or sexually victimized were high. According to FBI Crime Statistics, in 2003 the United States witnessed 93,233 cases of raping. Virtually 63.2 in every 100,000 women fell victims. The statistics also showed that every two minutes one woman was sexually assaulted and every six minutes one woman was raped.

...

Child poverty was a serious problem. The Chicago Tribune reported on Aug. 27, 2004 that the number of children in poverty climbed from 12.1 million in 2002 to 12.9 million in 2003, a year-on-year increase of 0.9 percent. About 20 million children lived in “low-income working families”—with barely enough money to cover basic needs (AP Washington, Oct. 12, 2004).

...

Children were victims of sex crimes. Every year about 400,000 children in the US were forced to engage in prostitution or other sexual dealings on the streets. Home-deserting or homeless children were the most likely to fall victims of sexual abuse. Reports on children sexually exploited, which were received by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, soared from 4,573 cases in 1998 to 81,987 cases in 2003 (The USA Today, Feb. 27,2004).

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Two thirds of juvenile detention facilities in the United States lock up mentally ill youth; every day, about 2,000 youth were incarcerated simply because community mental health services were unavailable. In 33 states, juvenile detention centers held youth with mental illness without any specific charges against them (http://demonstrats.reform.house.gov/Documents/200408171941-41051.pdf).

The USA Today reported on July 8, 2004 that between Jan. 1 and June 30 of 2003, 15,000 youth detained in US youth detention centers were awaiting mental health services, while children at the age of 10 or younger were locked up in 117 youth detention centers. The detention centers totally ignored human rights and personal safety with excessive use of drugs and force, and failed to take care of inmates with mental problems in a proper way. They even locked up prisoners in cages. There were reports about scandals involving correctional authorities in California, where two juvenile inmates hanged themselves after they were badly beaten by jail police (San Jose Mercury News and Singtao Daily, March 18, 2004).

...

At least 107 children were imprisoned in seven prisons including the Abu Ghraib Prison run by the US forces in Afghanistan. They were not allowed to get in contact with their families. Their term in prison was undetermined. It was not clear when they were going to be brought court hearing. Some of these children had been abused. One low-ranking US officer who had served in the Abu Ghraib Prison testified that US soldiers abused some of these children in custody, and they had even assaulted young girls sexually.

What’s more fierce is that US soldiers used military dogs to frighten these juvenile prisoners to see whose dog could scare them to lose control on excretion. US forces had violated the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, by detaining two Palestinian diplomats to Iraq in a prison ward of the Abu Ghraib Prison, together with 90 other men. They spent one year in the prison, suffering from very poor living conditions.

...

Instead of indulging itself in publishing the “human rights country report” to censure other countries unreasonably, the United States should reflect on its erroneous behavior on human rights and take its own human rights problems seriously. The double standards of the United States on human rights and its exercise of hegemonism and power politics under the pretext of promoting human rights will certainly put itself in an isolated and passive position and beget opposition from all just members of the international community.

Fitubollugen fundið í Suður Kóreu

Obesity-Causing Gene Found

It discovered that there is a link between the human gene TGFBI and obesity.

TGFBI, a gene on human chromosome 5, has been so far known to be closely related to many diseases, including corneal epithelial adhesion.

After studying 779 diabetic patients and 316 healthy people, the team found that the TGFBI gene has 28 kinds of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), of which three SNPs are closely linked to insulin density in the blood, body mass index and the waist-hip ratio representative obesity indicators.

Geimropi

Report: Space burst could be new object

A strange and powerful burst of radio waves from near the center of our galaxy may have come from a previously unknown type of space object, U.S. astronomers reported on Wednesday.

Other experts nicknamed the mysterious source a "burper" and said there would be a race to scan for similar radio bursts.

"We hit the jackpot," said Scott Hyman, a professor of physics at Sweet Briar College in Virginia, who led the study.

"An image of the Galactic center, made by collecting radio waves of about 1 meter (3 feet) in wavelength, revealed multiple bursts from the source during a seven-hour period from September 30 to October 1, 2002 -- five bursts in fact, and repeating at remarkably constant intervals."

Ég sé fyrir mér Guð á fylleríi. Það myndi allavega útskýra ansi margt í hans fari ef hann væri soldið mikið fyrir sopann.

Fáfræði giftir hunda í Indlandi

Börn giftast hundum

Foreldrar barna sem fá fyrst tennur í efri góm skipuleggja slíkar athafnir „í þágu friðar og velsældar fyrir allt samfélagið“ þar sem slíkur tannvöxtur þykir „óheillavænlegur“. „Í slíkum tilvikum er hjónaband með hundi ein leið til að bæja frá hinu illa,“

Er það eitthvað minna vitlaust að hella vatni yfir börn og fara með galdraþulu til að losa þau undan einhverju sem kallast erfðasynd?

Smá góðgæti fyrir okkur hugbúnaðarfólkið

Code as Design: Three Essays by Jack W. Reeves

Fundið á /.