MindMover
MindMover's JournalOccupy: What to expect in May Day "general strike"
In hundreds of cities around the world on Tuesday, protesters are taking to the streets to protest rising economic inequality as part of a "general strike" for which citizens are being encouraged to skip work and school and forgo shopping. Here's what you need to know:
What exactly is this? The May Day protests are the centerpiece of a "spring offensive" by the Occupy movement, which garnered headlines last fall after protesters set up camp in New York's Zucotti Park. The protests grew after police pepper-sprayed and arrested protesters, and Occupy encampments and protests soon erupted around the world.
By December, authorities had cleared out many of these encampments, and the movement faded from the headlines. The most committed Occupiers continued their protests, but their actions were smaller and more targeted: Infiltrations of foreclosure auctions and shareholder meetings, "sleepful protests" on Wall Street, picket lines for workers rights among them. (In some cities, such as Oakland, large protests endured.) The May Day marches, which are being held with labor and immigrants rights groups on a day that represent an effort by the movement to reinsert its message back into the national conversation.
How will it affect me? Depends. If you're interested in participating, you can learn more by checking out the main Occupy Wall Street site or the sites for marches in specific areas: New York, the Bay Area, Chicago, Southern California and Seattle among them.
If you're just looking to get to work, the protests could bring headaches. In the Bay Area, Occupiers had planned to blockade the Golden Gate Bridge from Marin to San Francisco - but those plans were cancelled on Monday. Ferry service, however, is expected to be disrupted as workers go on strike.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57424440-503544/occupy-what-to-expect-in-may-day-general-strike/
Poll: Has Occupy been effective for the 99%ers without specific reasons for protesting..?
Quantum teleportation achieved over ten miles of free space
Quantum teleportation has achieved a new milestone or, should we say, a new ten-milestone: scientists have recently had success teleporting information between photons over a free space distance of nearly ten miles, an unprecedented length. The researchers who have accomplished this feat note that this brings us closer to communicating information without needing a traditional signal, and that the ten miles they have reached could span the distance between the surface of the earth and space.
As we've explained before, "quantum teleportation" is quite different from how many people imagine teleportation to work. Rather than picking one thing up and placing it somewhere else, quantum teleportation involves entangling two things, like photons or ions, so their states are dependent on one another and each can be affected by the measurement of the other's state.
When one of the items is sent a distance away, entanglement ensures that changing the state of one causes the other to change as well, allowing the teleportation of quantum information, if not matter. However, the distance particles can be from each other has been limited so far to a number of meters.
Teleportation over distances of a few hundred meters has previously only been accomplished with the photons traveling in fiber channels to help preserve their state. In this particular experiment, researchers maximally entangled two photons using both spatial and polarization modes and sent the one with higher energy through a ten-mile-long free space channel. They found that the distant photon was still able to respond to changes in state of the photon they held onto even at this unprecedented distance.
However, the long-distance teleportation of a photon is only a small step towards developing applications for the procedure. While photons are good at transmitting information, they are not as good as ions at allowing manipulation, an advancement we'd need for encryption. Researchers were also able to maintain the fidelity of the long-distance teleportation at 89 percent— decent enough for information, but still dangerous for the whole-body human teleportation that we're all looking forward to.
http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2010/05/quantum-teleportation-achieved-over-ten-miles-of-free-space.ars
Poll: Is teleportation possible for humans ?
Experts Believe Iran Conflict Is Less Likely
Source: NYTIMES
WASHINGTON — After a winter of alarm over the possibility that a military conflict over the Iranian nuclear program might be imminent, American officials and outside analysts now believe that the chances of war in the near future have significantly decreased.
They cite a series of factors that, for now, argue against a conflict. The threat of tighter economic sanctions has prompted the Iranians to try more flexible tactics in their dealings with the United States and other powers, while the revival of direct negotiations has tempered the most inflammatory talk on all sides.
A growing divide in Israel between political leaders and military and intelligence officials over the wisdom of attacking Iran has begun to surface. And the White House appears determined to prevent any confrontation that could disrupt world oil markets in an election year.
“I do think the temperature has cooled,” an Obama administration official said this week.
At the same time, no one is discounting the possibility that the current optimism could fade. “While there isn’t an agreement between the U.S. and Israel on how much time, there is an agreement that there is some time to give diplomacy a chance,” said Dennis B. Ross, who previously handled Iran policy for the Obama administration.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/30/world/middleeast/chances-of-iran-strike-receding-us-officials-say.html?_r=1&smid=tw-nytimesworld&seid=auto
Let’s Lasso Us Some Space Rocks: Asteroid Mining And You
Last Tuesday, the future finally sounded like the future. A coalition of willing billionaires, spaceflight professionals, and scientific advisors under the banner of Planetary Resources announced their deadly serious intention to go out there and mine themselves some asteroids (video). And the scientific community responded with a heartfelt finally. Assuming this plan isn’t the prelude to some kind of Bond-villain-esque scheme to hold the world hostage for trillions of dollars or they’ll drop an asteroid on our heads (note to self: screenplay??), what’s going to happen? What does it mean for astronomers and planetary scientists? What contributions will the scientific community make, and what data do we stand to gain?
Asteroids are not just little floating gold mines, they’re precious scientific relics. They are the only nearby remnants of the presolar nebula, and preserve a vast trove of data about the cloud of gas and dust that formed our Sun and Solar System, the processes that built up the planets, and even fragments of what came before. Asteroids can provide vital insights into theories of planet formation by telling us about disk composition and temperature. They preserve the history of the processes that built them up, telling us about how dust and rock clump together to form larger bodies, a subject of great interest to those who study extrasolar planets. They’re also the best source for the composition of the presolar nebula, and by extension provide one of the benchmarks for the solar abundance set, or the relative abundances of the chemical elements, key to our understanding of nucleosynthesis and related topics. Right now, however, our only access to asteroids is via meteorites (ah, astronomy; where waiting for research material to fall out of the sky is a viable strategy). Meteorites are often found after sitting on the surface for a long time, enduring Earth’s many chemical processes. This destroys any volatiles that may have been retained, and introduces contamination. And they’re quite rare. In particular the CI carbonaceous chondrite group, upon which the solar abundance set is benchmarked, is very rare; the majority of our data comes from 12 pounds of rock in a jar in France.
So astronomers and planetary scientists would love to get their hands on tons of pristine space rock. Why haven’t we done it yet? Mining asteroids – or at least returning samples from them – has long been a staple not just of science fiction, but of decadal surveys and mission concepts. NASA, JPL, and even some private firms have studied mission concepts for sample returns and rendezvous with asteroids for a long time. But only a few targeted missions have been launched, such as the Dawn spacecraft currently studying the asteroid Vesta and the Japanese Hayabusa spacecraft, which successfully returned 1500 grains of material from the Near-Earth asteroid 25143 Itokawa. Other spacecraft such as Deep Space 1 and Galileo have swung by asteroids on their way to other destinations, but done little more than photograph the objects in passing. And NASA’s planetary science budget has suffered greatly in recent years as the agency struggles to keep JWST alive in the face of Congressional budget cuts.
http://astrobites.com/2012/04/29/lets-lasso-us-some-space-rocks-asteroid-mining-and-you/
A Senator Fights Back
It is dangerous to challenge the funnel cloud of corporate and right-wing political advertising this year, but Senator Claire McCaskill, Democrat of Missouri, has decided to fight back. She is running commercials that talk directly about the ads trying to prevent her re-election.
“They’re not from around here, spending millions to attack and attack,” said one of her recent commercials, showing clips from the opposing ads that have become ubiquitous in her state. “But what they’re doing to Claire McCaskill is nothing compared to what their special-interest agenda will do to you.”
It will be an uphill fight. Republican interest groups are outspending Ms. McCaskill and other Missouri Democrats by a 7-to-1 ratio; Ms. McCaskill herself is being outspent by 3 to 1. Though she has raised nearly $10 million, the amount could be dwarfed by the unlimited money at the disposal of Republican-oriented groups.
Once again, as in 2010, Congressional races will be the elections most affected by unregulated slush-fund money. Though “super PACs” and secretive independent groups will be spending hundreds of millions on the presidential race, it is at the Congressional level where big money can have the most impact. Many candidates, particularly in smaller states, cannot compete with independent groups, allowing individual wealthy donors to have an oversized influence on the future of the House or the Senate.
Already, conservative interest groups have spent more than $17 million on televised attack ads in state and local races, and Jeremy Peters of The Times recently reported that they plan to spend more than $100 million by November. Total outside spending on Congressional races this year is likely to exceed the $300 million level of 2010.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/29/opinion/sunday/a-senator-fights-back.html?
Poll ?: Is Justice Stevens as right today as he was in 2010 ?
Supreme Court Justice Stevens concluded his dissent of Citizens United:
At bottom, the Court's opinion is thus a rejection of the common sense of the American people, who have recognized a need to prevent corporations from undermining self government since the founding, and who have fought against the distinctive corrupting potential of corporate electioneering since the days of Theodore Roosevelt. It is a strange time to repudiate that common sense. While American democracy is imperfect, few outside the majority of this Court would have thought its flaws included a dearth of corporate money in politics.
Walmart Unaccountable to Consumers’ Demands
A Statement From the Coalition Pressuring Walmart Not to Sell GE Sweet Corn
Washington, D.C. — In January, Food & Water Watch launched a campaign to pressure Walmart to refuse to sell Monsanto’s GE sweet corn. In coordination with CREDO Action, SumOfUs, Center for Food Safety, Center for Environmental Health, and Corporate Accountability International nearly 500,000 people signed petitions asking Walmart to refuse to stock Monsanto’s genetically engineered (GE) sweet corn, more than 150 events have taken place at Walmart stores across the country and over 8,500 people have called Walmart executives, store and regional managers, and Walmart’s customer service line.
Wenonah Hauter, Executive Director of Food & Water Watch: “Walmart says it cares about customers’ safety and satisfaction but in response to the nearly half a million concerned citizens who asked Walma rt not to sell this unlabeled, untested and potentially unsafe GE sweet corn it only offered the glib statement that it ‘does not specifically source foods that have been genetically modified’ and it ‘follows all federal and state regulations.’
“It is well-known that the company routinely asks its suppliers to jump through rigorous hoops and agree to unfair terms in order to keep Walmart’s profit margins high. Walmart wields a lot of power over its suppliers and can easily get a commitment from them that their corn is not genetically engineered. If Walmart tells its suppliers that it does not want GE sweet corn, it would stop the product in its tracks.
“While the non-answer Walmart offers is misleading, it is clear in one definitive way. The company states that it ‘requires our suppliers to be in strict compliance with all labeling and disclosure laws,’ which, incidentally, don’t exist for GE foods. Therefore, it is clear that retailers like Walmart will continue to be unresponsive to consumers’ concerns around the risks of GE foods until the law forces them to be accountable.”
http://sumofus.org/press/walmart-unaccountable-to-consumers-demands/?
Poll ?: Are the American people being forced to eat what is potentially dangerous due to our increased poverty levels ?
Best Political Cartoon.....
[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/41483660@N04/7125397373/][img]
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[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/41483660@N04/7125397373/]The-Choice[/url]
Ex-Mossad Chief Dagan: Conflict between Israel, Iran is the entire world's problem
At a conference in New York, Meir Dagan also voices support for former Shin Bet head Yuval Diskin, who criticized Israel's leadership handling of Iran crisis, Palestinian peace process.
Former Mossad chief Meir Dagan said on Sunday that Iran's leadership is using "smart" diplomacy to advance its nuclear program, and that the Iranian threat is not a "quarrel" between Israel and Iran, but an international issue.
Speaking at a conference sponsored by the Jerusalem Post in New York, Dagan described President Ahmadinejad's regime as "smart" and "a master of diplomacy that heads forward consistently to achieve its nuclear objectives."
It is wrong to describe the issue as a "quarrel between Israel and Iran," Dagan asserted, adding that the Iranian problem "must be solved by the international community."
Earlier at the conference, Dagan backed former head of the Shin Bet security service, Yuval Diskin, who sharply criticized the Israeli leadership over the weekend. Diskin criticized Netanyahu and Barak on their bellicose stance on Iran, as well as what he called the premier's unwillingness to advance peace talks with the Palestinian Authority.
Dagan said that Diskin was his friend, and added that he "spoke his own truth."
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/ex-mossad-chief-dagan-conflict-between-israel-iran-is-the-entire-world-s-problem-1.427162?localLinksEnabled=false
Scott Walker's Austerity Agenda Yields 'Worst Job Losses in US'
We've heard about Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's war on workers.
We've heard about Scott Walker's war on women.
But what about Scott Walker's war on Illinois.
The governor—who has made himself the face of an American austerity push that uses the fantasy of “shared sacrfice” to redistribute wealth upward—went to Springfield, Illinois, two weeks ago to tell the state's business leaders that their state should do it his way. Walker's argument was that Illinois was getting everything wrong and that Wisconsin was getting everything right when it came to encouraging job creation.
As he has for the past year in Florida, Arizona, Texas, California and other states, Walker was trying to export his approach to governing (and to pick up lots of campaign money): attacks on public employees, deep cuts in education and training, the undermining of public services and the rejection of federal support for transportation and broadband Internet development.
That, Walker said, is the way to create jobs.
Then reality set in.
The Bloomberg business new service, not exactly a liberal institution, ran a story headlined: “Republican Whipping-Boy Illinois Beats Wisconsin on Jobs.”
http://www.thenation.com/blog/167610/scott-walkers-austerity-agenda-yields-worst-job-losses-us
Poll: Who will win in Wisconsin ?
State media: Egyptian military council will form new government
Source: CNN
Cairo (CNN) -- The head of Egypt's ruling military council announced that he would form a new government "within hours," state media reported Sunday.
The announcement by Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi came just hours after that nation's lower parliamentary house suspended its session to protest the civilian government led by Mubarak-era Prime Minister Kamal Ganzouri.
In remarks broadcast on state television, Speaker Saad el-Katatni of the Freedom and Justice Party said that the lower house was suspending its session for a week to protest the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces ignoring calls to dismiss Ganzouri's government.
The Freedom and Justice Party is the political arm of Egypt's long-banned Muslim Brotherhood, which has claimed the lion's share of seats in Egypt's parliament and become a leading force in the country's new politics.
In recent weeks, the group has clashed with the military council and the civilian government the generals installed.
The Brotherhood has as its stated aim the establishment of a more traditional Islamic society in Egypt. It was officially banned in Egypt under Mubarak but unofficially tolerated, though its members were periodically harassed and jailed.
Read more: http://edition.cnn.com/2012/04/29/world/africa/egypt-tensions/index.html?eref=edition&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=cnni
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