Edition 4 (28th March 2008)

Yes there are things happening in the world other than the the French President's wife's clothes and Olympic Sports Trials.

Some interesting articles from the mainstream media over the last week (plus a little added sarcasm):

Health:
MMR doctor defends his research
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7314144.stm
Best way to stop anyone damaging industry profits? Have a witch hunt one anyone with the temerity to even question the way things currently are.


Environment:
Call for delay to biofuels policy
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7309099.stm
Is someone of influence finally standing up to the immoral scam that is biofuels?

10 Million Tons Floating: Our Plastic Oceans
http://www.opednews.com/articles/2/life_a_frosty_w_080325_10_million_tons_floa.htm This is the real environment crisis, especially as you will almost definately eat from this food chain. However everyone's "green conscience" is busy running round in circles as to whether man-made CO2 is more influential than the big shiny thing in the sky on the ever changing global climate (see quote of the week).

Warning on plastic's toxic threat
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7316441.stm and its not just in the North Pacific this is happening - it is happening in every ocean!


Science:
Prepare for the Worst, Because Solar Storms Are About to Get Ugly
http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/magazine/16-04/st_spaceweather Don't bother asking for a sat-nav on your next birthday or Christmas present list


Civil Liberties:
Privacy alarm over fingerprinting at Heathrow's fifth terminal
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/law/article3607446.ece
A police state doesn't come into being overnight. Historically it comes drip, by drip, by drip.

DNA test ‘puts innocent at risk’ of convictions
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article3607485.ece
An article for anyone in the "Well I've got nothing to fear from a survellence society" brigade - there are plenty of them out there


Education:
Teachers reject 'Army propaganda'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/7311917.stm
An interesting follow up from last weeks report about the re-writing of history in British schools.


Finance & Economics:
Silverstein WTC insurance payout
http://www.blogger.com/
Only got an insurance payout of $4.6 billion? (as if that isn’t motive enough to do something dodgy) Don’t worry, this is America – sue the airlines too & you’ll get even more.


International Diplomacy:
Paramilitaries open fire on hundreds of monks and nuns at Tibet rally
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article3612661.ece Look if you make all the world's consumer goods then hey who's going to critisize what you do to some unarmed nuns & monks?


The War on Terror:
US military Iraq toll hits 4,000
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7310924.stm
No mention of the 100,000+ civilians who have died, but they haven't been counted (at all) as they are just "collateral damage"apparently

Over 70,000 deaths, and over 1 million disabilities among American soldiers attributed to Iraq Wars says U.S. government data
http://www.agoracosmopolitan.com/home/Frontpage/2008/03/21/02286.html
If this article is even vaguely right, the true cost of the Iraq War is actually even more unpaletable.


Quote of the week:
"The history of Britain & Europe over the last 700,000 years is littered with rapid and severe climate changes, when apparently settled plant, animal and human communities were swept away in periods as short as ten years - much less than a human lifespan."
- Homo Britannicus by Chris Stringer (leader of the London Natural History Museum's Department of Palaeontology's research into human origins)