Nobel Peace Prize Jury Under Investigation

Today marks the 2012 deadline for nominations for this year's Nobel Peace Prize, but as the prize committee meets this year to discuss what individual or group has "done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace," they will be under heightened scrutiny to be sure their choice fulfills the original intent of its founder, Albert Nobel.

The reason for the heightened pressure rests on an investigation by the Stockholm County Administrative Board of the committee's recent choices prompted by 'persistent complaints' by author and peace researcher, Fredrik Heffermehl, and roundly criticized choices by the committee in recent years -- most notably US President Barack Obama, a war commander governing over numerous military conflicts at the time he was awarded the auspicious "peace" prize in 2009.

Read More:

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/02/02-1

Doug Harvey - Parasites Lost

I once asked a Native American if he thought whether North America was in any way in a post-colonial period. His response was, “Have they left yet?” Of the New World republics that came about as a result of colonization, the United States is going to have the hardest time dealing with its past. Recently, we’ve see a lot of people willing to strut about with their guns and imagine themselves in some pre-pubescent fantasy of John Wayne’s “unbridled individualism.” Some become so deluded as to be willing to use these guns on perceived “enemies.” But this is symptomatic only; it is useful to remember how the actual land of North America came to be claimed by European and Euro-American colonists. More importantly, the causes of these neuroses can be better understood when one realizes what separating people from their resource base means.

Read More:

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/01/29-1

ACTA: “Usurps Congressional Authority”, “Threatens Numerous Public Interests”, “Backroom Special Interest Deal”, a “Masquerade"

We just beat back SOPA and PIPA with the web blackout.

Now everyone is talking about ACTA. But – because ACTA is complicated, and is just starting to receive coverage – most are not sure exactly what ACTA really is, or why we should be concerned about it.

We’ll give you an executive summary of what you need to know.

Instead of giving you the specifics about what’s actually in the bill (we provide links at the end for those who want to know), we’ll explain why the procedure used is a recipe for disaster.

Why are we stressing procedure over substance?

Because, as awful as ACTA is, there are other horrible bills such as the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement waiting in the wings … which may be even worse than ACTA.

Read More:

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=28958

Ancient walled city, older than Egypt's pyramids, unearthed off Georgia coast

Six hours southeast of Atlanta off the Georgia coast on Sapelo Island, archaeologists have unearthed the remains of an ancient walled city which predates the construction of Egypt's pyramids. Known as the Sapelo Shell Ring Complex, this ancient city was constructed around 2300 B.C. and featured three neighborhoods each surrounded by circular walls twenty feet in height constructed from tons of seashells. Some of the earliest pottery in North America was also found buried in the remains of this lost city.

The site is quite an enigma because at the time of its construction the Native Americans living in the area were simple hunters and gatherers who had yet to invent agriculture. Many scholars believe agriculture is a prerequisite for civilization. Did these simple tribal people somehow make the leap from hunting-and-gathering to civilization in a single bound producing not only a walled city but also the new technology of pottery without the benefit of agriculture? Or did an already civilized people arrive on the coast of Georgia from elsewhere and, if so, where did they come from and why?

Read More:

http://www.examiner.com/road-trip-travel-in-atlanta/ancient-walled-city-older-than-egypt-s-pyramids-unearthed-off-georgia-coast

Susoni - CGI: U.S. judges' tragic kickback greed exposes prison system profiteering

Sad state of affairs when those we elect to office are the real crooks.

Rumor 
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Read More:

http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?read=228644

Paul Imison - Violence Sweeps Central America

While Mexico grabs the headlines of soaring murder rates and rampaging drug gangs, the really heavy bloodshed is taking place to the south. The much smaller nations of Guatemala and El Salvador are seeing their worst violence since the civil wars of the 1980s, while Honduras is currently the murder capital of the world with 86 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants; a murder rate nearly five times higher than Mexico’s.

Even relatively peaceful Costa Rica, which boasts the highest standard of living in Central America, has seen its murder rate double since 2004 in a wave of violence that authorities largely attribute to drug-trafficking. As a result, Washington is encouraging its mostly right-wing allies in the region to pursue the same policies of militarization that have devastated Colombia and Mexico.

Central America was originally included in the Merida Initiative security package signed by the Bush administration in 2008, which pledged $1.6 billion of funds to the region over two years; the vast majority of which went to Mexico. Since 2010, aid to the region has been cranked up under the Central American Regional Security Initiative (CARSI), an offshoot of the System for Central American Integration (SICA).

Read More:

HTTP://WWW.COUNTERPUNCH.ORG/2012/01/27/VIOLENCE-SWEEPS-CENTRAL-AMERICA/

FBI Wants New App to Wiretap the Internet

The FBI's Strategic Information and Operations Center (SOIC) posted a 'Request for Information (RFI)' online last week seeking companies to build a social network monitoring system for the FBI. The 12-page document (.pdf) spells out what the bureau wants from such a system and invites potential contractors to reply by February 10, 2012.

It says the application should provide information about possible domestic and global threats superimposed onto maps "using mash-up technology".

It says the application should collect "open source" information and have the ability to:

Read More:

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/01/26-3

Tom Leonard - That's one way to cut crime! Californian city pipes BIRDSONG on to the streets to calm citizens

A desert city in California claims it has dramatically cut crime by piping birdsong from the English hedgerows onto its streets.

Mayor R Rex Parris, who commissioned the recordings from a Surrey-based sound consultant, claims the birdsong is calming the citizens of Lancaster by altering the chemicals in the brain.

Residents of Lancaster have been treated to the restful twittering of robins, wrens, tits and blackbirds for the past 10 months after Mr Parris installed more than 70 speakers in the town.

The warbles and twitters, mixed with soft synthesiser tones and water sounds, is broadcast five hours a day along a once crime-infested half-mile stretch of Lancaster Boulevard.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2088129/Californian-city-Lancaster-pipes-BIRDSONG-England-streets.html#ixzz1kbyp9eWM

3rd Annual TV News Trust Poll

PPP's 3rd annual TV news trust poll (2011 version here, 2010 version here) finds that Fox News tops the list for both the source Americans trust the most and the one they trust the least.

Fox is the most trusted TV news source for 34% of voters, followed by PBS at 17%, CNN at 12%, ABC News at 11%, CBS News at 8%, MSNBC at 5%, and Comedy Central and NBC each at 4%.

68% of Republicans pick Fox as their most trusted source, with no one else even hitting double digits. Democrats split closely three ways with PBS at 21%, ABC News at 19%, and CNN at 17%. Despite having a reputation for appealing to the left MSNBC actually polls in only 6th place among Democrats at 8%, finishing slightly behind even Fox News' 9%. Independents split almost evenly between Fox News (29%) and PBS (27%).

Fox is also the least trusted TV news source for 34% of voters, followed by Comedy Central at 16%, MSNBC at 15%, CNN at 11%, ABC News at 7%, CBS News at 5%, PBS at 2%, and NBC News at 1%.

Read More:

http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2012/01/3rd-annual-tv-news-trust-poll.html

Chris Hedges - Thank You for Standing Up

I spent Friday morning sitting on a wooden bench in a fourth-floor courtroom in the New York Criminal Court in Manhattan. I was waiting to be sentenced for “disturbing the peace” and “refusing to obey a lawful order” during an Occupy demonstration in front of Goldman Sachs in November.

Those sentenced before me constituted the usual fare of the court. They were poor people of color accused of mostly petty crimes—drug possession, thefts, shoplifting, trespassing because they were homeless and needed a place to sleep, inappropriate touching, grand larceny and violation of probation. They were escorted out of a backroom by a police officer, stood meekly before the judge with their hands cuffed behind them, were hastily defended by a lawyer clutching a few folders, and were sentenced. Ten days in jail. Sixty days in jail. Six months in jail. A steady stream of convictions.  My sentence, by comparison, was slight. I was given an ACD, or “adjournment in contemplation of dismissal,” which means that if I am not arrested in the next six months my case is dismissed. If I am arrested during this period of informal probation the old charge will be added to the new one before I am sentenced.

Read More:

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/thank_you_for_standing_up_20120123/

Paul Thomas - Universal Public Education Is Dead

The National Education Association (NEA) [4] received criticism for publishing an Op-Ed with Teach for America (TFA) [5]. Ken Bernstein found the piece to be “unbelievable,”[6] while raising the possibility that union members felt betrayed. Anthony Cody first responded with “I just don’t get it,” [7] and then raised this question [8]:

“I wonder how it is possible to fight vigorously for a minimum one-year residency program and simultaneously praise someone whose recruitment model features a five week summer training course, and targets people who do not even wish to become teachers?”

While this rising concern that NEA is failing its mission has received relatively strong coverage in the new media of blogs and twitter, Susan Ohanian [9] has been raising a similar (but nearly ignored) concern about the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) [10]—the largest professional organization for teachers of English. I too have challenged NCTE’s role insupporting national standards [11] and partnering with National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) for teacher certification standards [12]. But my voice like Ohanian’s has been essentially shouting down an empty well, it seems.

Read More:

http://dailycensored.com/2012/01/20/universal-public-education-is-dead-expanded/

Office Workers Spend Too Much Time at Their Desks, Experts Say

In a typical working week, people spend on average 5 hours and 41 minutes per day sitting at their desk and 7 hours sleeping at night. Prolonged sitting at your desk is not only bad for your physical health, but potentially your mental well-being.

These are some of the key findings of research being presented  the 13th of January, by Dr Myanna Duncan, Mr. Aadil Kazi and Professor Cheryl Haslam from the Work & Health Research Centre, Loughborough University, to delegates at the British Psychological Society's Annual Occupational Conference, at the Crowne Plaza, Chester.

Nearly 70% of employees surveyed did not meet recommended guidelines for physical activity; interestingly 50% of people surveyed aged 50 years and under, failed to meet these guidelines.

Read More:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120113210203.htm

Siv O'Neall - Hunger Is A ‘Weapon of Mass Destruction’

"Every five seconds, a child under 10 dies of hunger. – Thirty-five million people die each year from hunger or its immediate aftermath. – One billion people are permanently and severely malnourished and the situation is becoming increasingly catastrophic." (Jean Ziegler)

In his latest book “Mass Destruction – the Geopolitics of Hunger”, Jean Ziegler[1] talks about the current state of the world and the neoliberal politics of starvation of the poor, which has led to a crisis situation amounting to calculated murder. What we are witnessing today is the worst hunger crisis in human history is. And it is all because of human greed, colossal mismanagement for profit.

Professor Ziegler deals in detail with the various causes of the current worldwide hunger disaster, which could have been avoided. This crisis is not determined by fate – or, to use Ziegler’s own word – ‘La famine n’est pas une fatalité’. The world could perfectly well provide food for 12 million people, almost the double of the present population of 7 million.

Read More:

http://countercurrents.org/oneall200112.htm

Sarah Jaffe - $422,320 for a College Degree? With Tuition Skyrocketing, It is Time to Rethink Higher Education

$422,320.

That's what The Daily, News Corp. and Apple's daily news outlet for the iPad, calculated a college education could cost members of the class of 2034—children born this year, for the most part—if they attend one of the nation's priciest schools. But even an average public university will cost $81,000 for four years if tuition hikes continue at current rates—which are increasing much faster than inflation. As tuition continues to go up, and even the president calls for solutions, some are looking at radical possibilities for keeping tuition down—or even eliminating it.

The Daily found that tuition has been increasing even faster at public schools than private—4.5 percent a year for public universities and only 3.5 percent for private. According to Jane Wellman of the Delta Project, which studies the cost of higher education, public schools have been relying on tuition rather than endowments to make up for state education budget cuts..

Read More:

http://www.alternet.org/story/153788/%24422%2C320_for_a_college_degree_with_tuition_skyrocketing%2C_it_is_time_to_rethink_higher_education

Ethiopia forces thousands off land - Human Rights Watch

Ethiopia's government has been accused of forcing tens of thousands of people off their land so it can be leased to foreign investors.

US-based Human Rights Watch says people are being forcibly relocated to new villages that lack adequate food, farmland and facilities.

Ethiopia has already leased out more than 3.6 million hectares (8.8m acres) of land - an area the size of The Netherlands - HRW says.

Addis Ababa rejects HRW's allegations.

"I can tell you that it is baseless - on both grounds - on both the land grab issue and resettlement of the people," Ethiopian Information Minister Bereket Simon told the BBC World Service.

Read More:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-16590416

Rick Nauert - “Herd” Mentality Explained

A new research study sheds light on a behavior that is consistent among many species – that is, making decisions based upon the actions of others.

Scientists at the University of Leeds believe they may have found why humans flock like sheep and birds, subconsciously following a minority of individuals.

Researchers discovered that it takes a minority of just five per cent to influence a crowd’s direction – and that the other 95 per cent follow without realizing it.

The findings could have major implications for directing the flow of large crowds, in particular in disaster scenarios, where verbal communication may be difficult.

“There are many situations where this information could be used to good effect,” says Professor Jens Krause of the University’s Faculty of Biological Sciences.

Read More:

http://psychcentral.com/news/2008/02/15/herd-mentality-explained/1922.html

Edible Microchips, Biometric Identity Systems And Mind Reading Computers

As technology continues to advance at an exponential rate, will we someday find ourselves living in a “scientific dictatorship” where virtually everything that we do, say and think is monitored and controlled by technology?  To many of you that may sound like a wild assertion, but just keep reading.  Our world is changing faster than ever before, and scientists have some absolutely wild things planned for our future.  As you read this, they are feverishly developing edible microchips, cutting edge biometric identity systems, and mind reading computers.  Many futurists envision a world where someday nearly all humans are embedded with microchips and have thousands of tiny nanobots living inside of them.  The idea is that we can “take control of our own evolution” and use technology to “improve” humanity.  But very few of those futurists address the potential downsides.  The truth is that all of this technology could one day be used by a totalitarian government to establish a dystopian nightmare where nobody has any liberties and freedoms whatsoever.

Read More:

http://crisisboom.com/2012/01/19/edible-microchips-biometrics/#more-9882

Bill Quigley - Working and Poor in the USA

“Our nation, so richly endowed with natural resources and with a capable and industrious population, should be able to devise ways and means of insuring to all our able-bodied men and women, a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work.” Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1937

Millions of people in the US work and are still poor. Here are eight points that show why the US needs to dedicate itself to making work pay.

One. How many people work and are still poor?

In 2011, the US Department of Labor reported at least 10 million people worked and were still below the unrealistic official US poverty line, an increase of 1.5 million more than the last time they checked. The US poverty line is $18,530 for a mom and two kids. Since 2007 the numbers of working poor have been increasing. About 7 percent of all workers and 4 percent of all full-time workers earn wages that leave them below the poverty line.

Read More:

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/01/19-4

William K. Black - Apple's Anti-Employer Control Fraud

Apple has released a report on working conditions in its suppliers’ factories, highlighting a form of control fraud (fraud in which the head of a company subverts it for personal gain) that criminology has identified but rarely discussed.  I write overwhelmingly about accounting control fraud because it drives our recurrent, intensifying financial crises.  The primary intended victims of accounting control frauds are the shareholders and the creditors.  Other private sector control frauds target customers (e.g., George Akerlof’s 1970 article on “lemons”), and the public (e.g., the unlawful disposal of toxic waste, illegal logging, and tax fraud).

Anti-employee control frauds most commonly fall into four broad, but not mutually exclusive, categories – illegal work conditions due to violation of safety rules, violation of child labor laws, failure to pay employees’ wages and benefits, and frauds based on goods and loans provided by the employer to the employee that lock the employee into quasi-slavery.  Apple has just released a report on its suppliers that shows that anti-employee control fraud is the norm.  Remember, fraud is hidden and is often not discovered and Apple did not have an incentive to make an exhaustive investigation.  Apple calls its inquiries “audits” and it is apparent that most of its information comes from reviewing written and electronic records at its suppliers. 

Read More:

http://neweconomicperspectives.blogspot.com/2012/01/anti-employee-control-fraud.html

Ellen Schrecker - The Fading Dream of Higher Education in the US

It seems fitting that some of the activity inaugurated by the Occupy Wall Street movement migrated from city squares to college campuses, where students, from Berkeley to the City University of New York (CUNY), are protesting against the rising cost of their educations. Undeterred by pepper spray or police batons, they struggle to preserve the evanescent American dream of a top-flight affordable college education available to all. But, unless there are major transformations within academe and the rest of society, they may be fighting a losing battle.

Just as the frontier once allowed an enterprising individual to get ahead (or so the story went), by the middle of the 20th century, higher education had become the main engine of social mobility in the United States. A college degree, it was believed, would boost its holders into the middle class and then keep them and their children there. Recently, however, as the US economy turned sour, that promise no longer holds. Not only have rising tuitions and unmanageable student debt threatened to put a first-rate higher education out of reach for many of the 99 per cent, but it has also become harder for graduates to enter the well-paying careers they went to college for.

Read More:

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/01/2012113131643983539.html