TEHRAN — Thirty-six years after construction began under the shah, Iran finally opened its first nuclear power plant at a ceremony on Saturday.

Attended by senior officials from Iran and Russia, which helped build the station through years of concern by the United States and other Western nations that Iran was using its civilian program to mask a plan to build a bomb, the ceremony marked the beginning of the transfer of low-enriched uranium fuel rods from a storage site into the plant.

Officials of both countries said Saturday’s events signified the opening, not the startup, of the plant near Bushehr, in southern Iran, as a working nuclear plant.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/world/middleeast/22bushehr.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

>>2070756

con't

And it is one sure to upset United States diplomats who had encouraged Russia to delay the opening, though they have not objected to the project as it could be seen as helping to bring Iran’s nuclear program fully under the aegis of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Mr. Kiriyenko, speaking to members of the news media in an amphitheater of the Bushehr complex, took pains to emphasize, as Russians have for years, that the plant complied with the agency’s requirements. “Not a single professional in the world has any questions about the chance that the Bushehr nuclear power plant could be used for nonpeaceful purposes,” he said.

The rest of the Top 25:

Record Pts Pv
1. Alabama (54) 14-0 1,491 1
2. Ohio St. (3) 11-2 1,400 5
3. Boise St. (1) 14-0 1,336 4
4. Florida 13-1 1,237 3
5. Texas (1) 13-1 1,223 2
6. TCU 12-1 1,160 6
7. Oklahoma (1) 8-5 1,104 —
8. Nebraska 10-4 1,033 14
9. Iowa 11-2 1,007 7
10. Virginia Tech 10-3 973 10
11. Oregon 10-3 870 11
12. Wisconsin 10-3 822 16
13. Miami 9-4 785 19
14. Southern Cal 9-4 590 22
15. Pittsburgh 10-3 516 15
16. Georgia Tech 11-3 511 13
17. Arkansas 8-5 496 —
18. North Carolina 8-5 397 —
19. Penn St. 11-2 382 9
20. Florida St. 7-6 379 —
21. LSU 9-4 300 17
22. Auburn 8-5 296 —
23. Georgia 8-5 206 —
24. Oregon St. 8-5 198 —
25. West Virginia 9-4 184 25

Let's GO ARKANSAS!!!

http://www.sportingnews.com/ncaa-football/feed/2010-08/ap-top-25

IMagaine that - paying fines to avoid criminal charges, so that they can continue to get contracts which fund their company...

A report says the private security company formerly called Blackwater Worldwide has agreed with the U.S. State Department to pay $42 million in fines for hundreds of violations of U.S. export control regulations.

The New York Times reported late Friday that the company, now known as Xe Services, agreed to pay the fines to avoid criminal charges that would preclude it from being able to compete for future government contracts.

http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/usa/Blackwater-Security-Agrees-to-Pay-42-Million-in-Fines-10121
8999.html

I honestly feel for those poor Pakistani's plight...

SUKKUR, Pakistan — About 150,000 Pakistanis were forced to move to higher ground as floodwaters from a freshly swollen Indus River submerged dozens more towns and villages in the south, a government spokesman said Saturday.
Officials expect the floodwaters will recede nationwide in the next few days as the last river torrents empty into the Arabian Sea. Survivors may find little left when they return home, however: The waters have washed away houses, roads, bridges and crops vital to livelihoods.
Already, 600,000 people are in relief camps set up in Sindh province during the flooding over the past month.
As the latest surge approached, "We evacuated more than 150,000 people from interior parts of Sindh in the past 24 hours," said Jamil Soomro, a spokesman for the provincial government. The floods submerged new areas in Thatta district.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jX_KetVCMo64AOZxSMudPWArFrJgD9HNTBC00

Egg Recall - check your fridge...


FRIDAY, Aug. 20 (HealthDay News) -- Another U.S. egg producer said Friday that it was recalling eggs because they could be infected with the foodborne bacteria salmonella.


Hillandale Farms of New Hampton, Iowa, said it was voluntarily recalling 170 million shell eggs produced since April that were sent to 14 states in the Midwest and West because there have been laboratory-confirmed cases of Salmonella enteritidis associated with some of the eggs.

Hillandale said the eggs covered by its recall were distributed to grocery distribution centers, retail grocery stores and food-service companies that service or are located in Arkansas, California, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Texas, and Wisconsin.

The eggs were distributed under the following brand names: Hillandale Farms, Sunny Farms, and Sunny Meadow in 6-egg cartons, dozen-egg cartons, 18-egg cartons, 30-egg packages, and 5-dozen cases. Loose eggs were packaged under the following brand names: Wholesome Farms and West Creek in 15 and 30-dozen tray packs, Hillandale said in a news release.

On Wednesday, Wright County Egg, another Iowa company at the center of a massive recall of eggs linked to salmonella contamination, dramatically broadened its nationwide recall to 380 million eggs.


http://health.usnews.com/health-news/managing-your-healthcare/policy/articles/2010/08/21/2nd-egg-rec
all-linked-to-salmonella-under-way.html

So the US has accidently killed some people and it's convenient to say NATO forces did it...

KABUL, Aug 21 (Reuters) - Air strikes by the NATO-led force in Afghanistan accidentally killed at least three Afghan police in the country's north and a woman and two children in the west, officials said on Saturday.

Sensitivities about civilian casualties and "friendly fire" incidents have been running high as violence spreads across Afghanistan, reaching its worst levels since the Taliban were ousted in late 2001.

Such incidents have been a major irritant between Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government and foreign forces fighting in Afghanistan, leading to a major falling-out last year.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSSGE67K01K._CH_.2400

I'm surprised the president wants to oppose a Supreme court ruling that favors him and all politicians...

VINEYARD HAVEN, Mass. — President Barack Obama says Republicans should join him in opposing a Supreme Court ruling that vastly increased how much corporations and unions can spend on campaign ads.
Instead, the GOP wants to "keep the public in the dark" about who's behind the expenditures, Obama charged in his weekly radio and Internet address, released Saturday as he vacationed on Martha's Vineyard.
"You'd think that reducing corporate and even foreign influence over our elections wouldn't be a partisan issue," said Obama. "But the Republican leaders in Congress said no. In fact,they used their power to block the issue from even coming up for a vote.
"This can only mean that the leaders of the other party want to keep the public in the dark," said the president. "They don't want you to know which interests are paying for the ads. The only people who don't want to disclose the truth are people with something to hide."
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., scoffed at the president's message.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hTNJgyRUMX8tMO8BXubBck4tH-8AD9HNQFGG0

Another POTUS thread - I didn't intend to follow one up with another, but it seems Obama also wants political ads to source their funding - sounds good to me...

WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama Saturday renewed his call for legislation that would require groups to reveal funding sources for political ads, saying Americans are already being overwhelmed by "a flood of attack ads run by shadowy groups."

In his weekly radio address, Mr. Obama said a Supreme Court decision gives corporations too much sway over elections and urged Republicans to stop blocking legislation he says would add more transparency to the election process.

"We don't know who's behind these ads and we don't know who's paying for them," said the president. "You don't know if it's a foreign-controlled corporation. You don't know if it's BP. You don't know if it's a big insurance company or a Wall Street bank."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703461504575442992037326202.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

I thought he was just taking advantage of his popularity in a realm he has little/no experience anyway...

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - If protests do break out in Haiti to contest Friday's decision to bar hip-hop star Wyclef Jean from running for the presidency of his earthquake-shattered homeland, they may only be short-lived.

Haiti's electoral authority said Jean did not meet the requirement that presidential candidates have five consecutive years of residency in Haiti prior to running.

At worst, some had feared the ruling could spark riots in the poorest country in the Americas, which has been ravaged by political upheaval, dictatorship and military rule since a slave revolt threw off French colonial rule 200 years ago.

"They say Wyclef is no longer in the race but he is the one whom the population is marching behind -- 100 percent," said one disappointed supporter, Michel Jerome, who ekes out a living charging cellphones in Port-au-Prince.

But following the late-night decision by the electoral council, the streets of the capital appeared calm.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE67K0LW20100821

As always, sucks for the taxpayer. It should have been illegal for him to use campaign funds for defense lawyers anyway IMO...

Rod Blagojevich is broke, and U.S. taxpayers could be on the hook.A Blagojevich defense, funded by taxpayers like you?
Blagojevich found guilty on just one of 24 counts
The former Illinois governor, facing a retrial on corruption charges, has exhausted the $2.7 million from his campaign treasury that funded his defense. That may force him to rely on federal taxpayers to pay his attorneys -- unless he can land more reality television or media gigs, his advisers say.

And some Chicagoans are not exactly thrilled at the prospect of paying to defend a disgraced politico who already had his day in court in a six-year investigation that has cost millions and resulted in jurors deadlocking on 23 of 24 counts. On Tuesday, a federal jury convicted Blagojevich of one count of lying to the FBI.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/20/AR2010082005731.html

ShoreBank Corp., the Chicago lender operating under a Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. cease-and- desist order for 13 months, and seven other banks were shut by regulators as 2010 bank failures climbed to 118.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-21/shorebank-of-chicago-seven-others-shuttered-as-2010-failure
s-climb-to-118.html

No earthquakes is good...


Southern California is long overdue for a major earthquake along the San Andreas fault, according to a landmark study of historic seismic activity released Friday.

The study, produced after several years of field studies in the Carrizo Plain area about 100 miles northwest of Los Angeles, found that earthquakes along the San Andreas fault have occurred far more often than previously believed.

For years, scientists have said major earthquakes occurred every 250 to 450 years along this part of the San Andreas. The new study found big temblors on the fault every 88 years, on average.


http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-earthquake-fault-20100821,0,946323.story

>>2070921
california sucks
if sanfagcisco falls into the ocean, nothing of value will be lost.

FORT WORTH, Texas — Military supervisors must have access to soldiers' personnel records and be aware of signs of potential workplace violence, the Defense Department said Friday in its final report on the Fort Hood shootings.
The report addresses some government failures and other problems uncovered in the Pentagon investigation launched after the Nov. 5 shootings that left 13 dead and dozens injured on the Texas Army post. In some cases, the final report does not provide specific guidance on how to change, update or clarify policies but says they should comply with certain military policies and codes.
Soon after the Pentagon report's January release, Defense Secretary Robert Gates ordered a comprehensive weapons policy for military bases and addressed other pressing issues.
The 23-page Defense Department report released Friday addresses the remaining Pentagon recommendations — including a greater focus on predicting and preventing internal threats. It also says policy changes will improve communications between government agencies and military installations, and expand military bases' emergency response capabilities.
But it says more studies are necessary in certain areas, because medical and mental-health screening policies "do not provide a comprehensive assessment of violence indicators" and another policy "lacks the clarity necessary to help commanders distinguish appropriate religious practices from those that might indicate a potential for violence or self-radicalization."
An Army psychiatrist, Maj. Nidal Hasan, has been charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder. In October he faces an Article 32 hearing, similar to a civilian grand jury proceeding, in which a judge will hear witness testimony to determine whether the case should go to trial.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ihGepAkECGoDagETVBMpPb3w7Y3gD9HNHT700

>>2070929
I was expecting a c-c-c-combo breaker soon, but not by some douchebag namefag with nothing of value to offer the thread.

>>2070942

>workplace violence
>military

silly army

Looks like a battle-royale...

Former President Bill Clinton recorded an automated phone message calling four-term Miami U.S. Rep. Meek “my friend” and mentioning that President Obama is also backing Meek’s Senate bid. Both Clinton and Obama campaigned for Meek in South Florida this week.

While Meek stresses his Washington ties, Palm Beach billionaire Greene is taking the opposite tack in a new TV spot released today.

“If you want to send Washington a wake-up call, send me to the Senate. I’ll shake things up and never let you down,” Greene says in his new ad.

http://www.postonpolitics.com/2010/08/insider-meek-outsider-greene-begin-closing-arguments-in-democr
atic-senate-primary/

Every time Facebook introduces a new feature it initiates a game of cat-and-mouse with its users when privacy holes are opened up and the user is left to close them. It comes as no surprise, then, that Facebook's new location-sharing feature, Places, continues this cycle of potential data leaks.

Places is far better in terms of protecting user privacy than previous new feature roll outs such as the Instant Personalization service launched in April. Nevertheless, Places can still reveal important data about you if you don't take the time to adjust your privacy settings.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUS133933282820100820

Arizona politics...

PHOENIX (AP) - As John McCain and J.D. Hayworth have dominated Arizona's political headlines, four Democrats are quietly wrangling for the chance to take on the winner.

John Dougherty is a retired journalist who wants to unleash investigators on Washington.

In a state that's elected women to Congress and top state leadership, Cathy Eden says she's poised to shatter the last major glass ceiling in Arizona politics.

Rodney Glassman is a former Tucson City Councilman who's loaned his $500,000 and says he's the first candidate in decades to give McCain a well-financed challenge.

And Randy Parraz is a Hispanic community organizer who says he's uniquely positioned to shine a spotlight on McCain's transition to being 1 of the nation's leading border security hawks.

http://www.kswt.com/Global/story.asp?S=13020935

>more than 9,000
WHAT
liberals cannot into economy

>>2070779
>Ohio St.
># 2
LOL Have fun losing to a team from the SEC by 40.Again.

I didn't know that our government had sent the guy on a state department mission to the ME...

NEW YORK — The furor over the planned mosque and Islamic center near ground zero has put Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf in a curious position: At the same time he is being vilified in the U.S. for spearheading the project, he is traveling the Mideast on a State Department mission as a symbol of American religious freedom.
Some of the imam's American critics said they fear he is using the taxpayer-funded trip to raise money and rally support in the Muslim world for the mosque.
"I think there is no place for this," said the Rev. Franklin Graham, who is the son of evangelist Billy Graham and opposes the Islamic center and mosque. "Can you imagine if the State Department paid to send me on a trip anywhere? The separation of church and state — the critics would have been howling."

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gRyd06U1xK8wLj4K7iR_6FfJtUTAD9HNFORO0

Lock that mother fucker up WTF...

The White House has called for the man convicted in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing to be returned to prison in Scotland.

President Obama's counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, said the US had expressed "strong conviction" to Scottish officials that Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi be brought back to jail.

Scottish ministers freed Megrahi, who has cancer, citing medical advice that he would likely die in three months.

Analysts say the anniversary of his freeing adds weight to the US call.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11045140

If news wouldn't get old, this should be archived.

A bed editorial piece from some bitch that doesn't get it.

The national debate about building a mosque near Ground Zero in New York is less about our freedom of religion than about the common sense and uncommon courtesy sometimes required to come together as Americans. In our society, we are free to do many things that we nonetheless choose not to. During my lifetime, a number of racial and ethnic slurs have been effectively banned from our national vocabulary -- not because our free speech has been limited, but because we recognize that these words are deeply offensive to our fellow citizens and we decide to avoid them.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/20/AR2010082002124.html?hpid=topnews

>>2071053

thanks bro - just doing my part to better /new/

>>2071059
>bed
*BAD

>>2071047
How do you like Scotland now? How do you like it that the party calling for Scottish independence is socialist?

SUCK IT, SCOTABOOS.

inb4 macfag - yes, I do use macbook, iPod touch and iPhone - it's a personal choice...

As software development for Nokia's Ovi platform struggles to compete with Apple's iOS and App Store, the Finnish phone maker has purchased analytics firm Motally to boost its offering.

Nokia announced the deal to purchase the U.S. company on Friday. A report from the Associated Press noted that the strategic acquisition intends to boost the Ovi platform and make it more enticing by offering more to mobile software developers.

"The Finnish company says the acquisition Friday underscores its attempt to improve mobile Web browsing analytics for software developers of its Internet services, that are struggling to match competitor Apple Inc.," the report said.

Terms of the deal, including price, were not revealed. But Motally is a relatively small company with just eight employees, founded recently in 2008.

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/08/20/nokia_buys_analytics_firm_to_compete_with_apples_app_s
tore.html

All I know is that this war is making it difficult to get poppy pods online anymore...

The longer it goes on, the less popular it gets.
Nearly six in 10 Americans are against the nine-year-old war in Afghanistan, according to a new poll.

The Associated Press-GfK poll finds that only 38% of respondents support President Obama's decision to expand the war effort, lower than the 46% who said they did in March.

Only 19% believe the situation will improve in Afghanistan over the next year, while 29% think it will get worse. And 49% believe the conditions will remain the same.

The results come about 10 weeks before November's midterm elections - which could define the rest of the President’s first term in office.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2010/08/20/2010-08-20_6_in_10_americans_are_against_the_war
_in_afghanistan_as_president_obama_sends_mo.html#ixzz0xGceShGj

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2010/08/20/2010-08-20_6_in_10_americans_are_against_the_war
_in_afghanistan_as_president_obama_sends_mo.html

T. LOUIS — Vice President Joe Biden boldly predicted Friday that voters would reject a "Republican tea party" of extreme candidates and Democrats would retain control of Congress this November.
In a pep talk for the party's rank and file, the vice president challenged the widespread notion that significant losses in House races, and perhaps the Senate, would cost the party its comfortable majorities — a possibility White House press secretary Robert Gibbs suggested last month before saying Democrats will hang onto the House.
"On Nov. 3 ... there will be in Washington, D.C., a Democratic majority in the House and a Democratic majority in the Senate. That will be the case," Biden said in a speech to the Democratic National Committee. And, he said, Democrats will do better than expected in gubernatorial races, too.
"If it weren't illegal, I'd make book on it," Biden quipped.
All 435 House seats, 36 in the Senate and 37 governors races are on the line.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i-9IjJtSLCIB91hD4EOTXCH7Yx6QD9HNB9680

A better editorial piece than the one posted earlier...

Social Security turned 75 this year, but the most important day for America's piggy bank will be in December when the president's fiscal commission could propose major and minor reforms to the program to extend its life past the 2030s, when it's scheduled to face major benefit cuts.

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2010/08/a-conservatives-take-on-social-security-reform/6
1841/

The forthcoming extradition of a major reputed arms dealer to the United States could yield the Obama administration a treasure trove of intelligence about the networks that move weapons and drugs around the world and about the governments that secretly facilitate the traffic.

That is, if he cooperates.

An appeals court in Thailand on Friday overturned a lower court's ruling and ordered that Viktor Bout, a 43-year-old former Russian military translator, be sent to the United States, where he faces federal charges of conspiring to sell weapons to a terrorist organization, money laundering and sanctions busting.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/20/AR2010082000452.html?hpid=moreheadli
nes

It's obvious we went to war with Iraq, so that we could set up our own government there. Long puppet strings...

The U.S. Army's 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, left Iraq last Thursday. Its departure marks an important milestone: It was the last major combat unit in Iraq. At the height of our operations, there were almost 170,000 U.S. servicemembers there.

By Sept. 1, there will only be about 50,000 U.S. soldiers left in Iraq. The new army that we're building up there is the State Department. That department is planning to staff two new $100 million outposts with diplomats and to more than double its private security guard force, to up to 7,000 people. It's buying 60 mine-resistant vehicles from the Pentagon, three new airplanes and 12 new helicopters.

All of this extraordinary (and expensive) activity suggests a less rosy view of the war than the one the Obama administration is painting. We may be pulling away from Iraq, but we still can't pull out.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/08/20/ED051F100M.DTL

Dirty Rotten Stinking Filthy Rich...

Only half of all Republicans and self-identified conservatives favor extending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, a new public opinion poll shows. Fewer say they favor extending the Bush tax cuts just for those making less than $250,000 a year.

A study released by CNN on Friday suggests that Republicans face a curious public opinion deficit in their efforts to keep tax rates at current levels for income groups across the board. The party's base isn't entirely sold on keeping the rates in place. But they also don't favor raising them on the wealthy and no one else.

Top officials in the GOP have said they will fight the president's proposal to extend the Bush tax cuts for the lower and middle classes while allowing those for the wealthy to expire. But few voting blocs appear to back that approach.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/20/only-50-of-gop-supports-e_n_689326.html

PARIS (Dow Jones)--French President Nicolas Sarkozy Friday downgraded the government's forecast for 2011 growth, but said cutting the public deficit to 6% of gross domestic product next year remained a major objective whatever the level of growth.

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100820-707572.html

so once again the government fucks up and its the regular guy who gets screwed. How many government employees who failed to regulate BP are out of a job?

I think he's a liar, but hey that's just me...

Roger Clemens is now vowing to fight a federal perjury rap, which has fans blasting the once-beloved flamethrower, who is accused of lying to Congress about steroids.

“I never took HGH or Steroids. And I did not lie to Congress,” Clemens said on Twitter. “I look forward to challenging the government’s accusations, and hope people will keep an open mind until trial.”

Clemens sent out the tweet last night after being slapped with a 19-page indictment.

http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/baseball/other_mlb/view.bg?articleid=1275941&srvc=sports&
position=recent

It's cool to see world powers vying for strategic position in this part of the world...

MOSCOW, Aug 20 (Xinhua) -- President Dmitry Medvedev and his Armenian counterpart Serszh Sarkisyan signed an agreement Friday to prolong Russian military presence in Armenia by decades, local media reported.

The deal, inked during Medvedev's visit to the Armenian capital of Yerevan, will see Russia's lease of a miliary base in the South Caucasian nation being extended from 2020 to 2044, the report said.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-08/20/c_13454785.htm

Now THIS is an interesting story...

France has continued to deport scores of Roma people to Romania for a second day.

About 140 Roma were due to be flown to Bucharest, the Romanian capital, on Friday on a "voluntary basis", a day after 79 others left the country, receiving about $380 in the process.

Eric Besson, France's immigration minister, said that the Roma travelling on Friday were doing so on "a purely voluntary basis", with 850 to be repatriated to "their country of origin" by the end of the month.

The Roma are EU citizens, and therefore are legally permitted to move freely within the grouping's nations, however, they are not permitted to stay in France for more than three months without a work permit or proof that they can support themselves financially.

All adults who leave France will receive about $380 and all children $100.

Those who have not agreed to voluntarily return will face forced removal without any cash benefit in a month's time if they do not comply with the regulations for staying in the country.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2010/08/2010820104949237253.html

WASHINGTON -- The oil is there, at least 22 miles of it. You just can't see it.

A lot of the crude that spewed from BP's ruptured well is still in the Gulf of Mexico, but it's far below the surface and invisible. And it's likely to linger for months on end, scientists said Thursday in the first conclusive evidence of an underwater plume of oil from the disaster.

The plume consists of droplets too small for the eye to see, more than a half-mile down, said researchers who mapped it with high-tech sensors.

Scientists fear it could be a threat to certain small fish and crustaceans deep in the ocean. They will have plenty of time to study it for answers.

In the cold, 40-degree water, the oil is degrading at one-tenth the pace at which it breaks down at the surface. That means "the plumes could stick around for quite a while," said Ben Van Mooy of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, a co-author of the research, published online in the journal Science.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/19/AR2010081906901.html

Be interesting to see who wins...

Australia's top candidates for prime minister campaigned furiously Friday -- election eve -- as incumbent Julia Gillard was tied with coalition challenger Tony Abbott in a national opinion poll based on the country's complicated preferential voting system.
In Saturday's election, Gillard is the candidate of the left-of-center Labor Party; Abbott represents a conservative coalition.
The Newspoll published Friday morning puts the two political blocs at 50-50.

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/08/19/australia.election/?hpt=T1#fbid=OkJHWFnyQLX&wom=
false

This is definitely an issue that begs for discussion - should it be legal for nurses/doctors to strike? on what terms? should there be a time-limit? Tough questions on these tough issues...

DULUTH - At the ballot box on Wednesday, Duluth union nurses shot down contract proposals from St. Mary’s Duluth Clinic and St. Luke's Hospitals.
"I think it was the lack of employers coming to the table with true language that would allow for safe patient care,” SMDC Nurse and bargaining team member Steve Strand said.
90 percent of voting SMDC nurses rejected the offer. 86 percent at St. Luke's did the same and authorized a one-day strike.
"This vote of solidarity and the Duluth united nurses will show the employer that they need to come back to the table,” Strand said.
According to the nurse bargaining teams, the proposed contracts are dangerous for patients. They say it’s because the hospitals denied nurses the ability to close their units if they have too many patients.
Hospital representatives say their proposals are their last and best offers.

http://www.fox21online.com/news/nurse-strike

SAN FRANCISCO — A hijack threat halted an American Airlines flight just before takeoff Thursday, leaving the New York-bound jet sitting on the tarmac for several hours while it was searched and passengers were removed for extra scrutiny.
The FBI later determined that the telephoned threat wasn't credible, but in the wake of the 9/11 attacks and a series of airline scares in the past year, the incident still rattled nerves as it played out live on national TV.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hVGgkh2xLs1x3IHWYzLjF648CqLQD9HMTHLO0

BP hiding information? No fucking way!!!...

Aug. 20 (Bloomberg) -- BP Plc fired back at Transocean Ltd. in a dispute over the withholding of information about possible causes of the Gulf oil spill.

James Neath, BP’s associate general counsel, said an Aug. 18 letter from a Transocean attorney asserting BP wasn’t releasing critical data contained “many false and misleading assertions.”

“Given its content and tone, your letter is nothing more than a publicity stunt evidently designed to draw attention away from Transocean’s potential role in the Deepwater Horizon tragedy,” Neath wrote Steven Roberts, the Transocean attorney, in a response yesterday.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-08-19/bp-hits-back-at-transocean-in-feud-over-sharing-data-on-
spill.html

>>2071244


why does everyone hate the gypies?

"Your margaritaville machine is worth $90T." Anyone? Anyone?...

WASHINGTON — This year's federal deficit will surpass $1.3 trillion, a slight improvement over last year's record red ink, Congress' top budget analysts said Thursday.
It gave no comfort to lawmakers struggling to balance conflicting election-season pressures to cut budget gaps, jolt the economy and reduce taxes.
With polls showing voters unhappy with growing deficits, the issue will confront legislators when they return from their summer recess in September, less than two months from elections that will determine which party controls Congress.
Both parties quickly staked out positions.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g-YziTsAJw1ofv-BiXk2MoSXknwQD9HMPH9G0

More tough times lie ahead, according to a report on the state of the economy just released by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). Unemployment is likely to remain high, not returning to 5 percent or lower until at least 2014, while this year’s budget deficit will hit $1.342 trillion, the second highest ever.

“Putting the nation on a sustainable fiscal course will require policymakers to restrain the growth of spending substantially, raise revenues significantly above their average percentage of GDP of the past 40 years, or a combination of both,” the CBO wrote. Translation: the federal government will either have to cut expenditures or raise taxes to cover ballooning deficits. Any guesses as to which option federal lawmakers are likely to prefer?

http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/economy/economics-mainmenu-44/4359-how-bad-will-it-get

If there aren't any objections, I'm going to move on to some science and technology related news now.

A new low-dose abdominal computed tomography (CT) technique called adaptive statistical iterative reconstruction (ASIR) can reduce the radiation dose associated with abdominal CT scans by 23-66 percent, according to a study in the September issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology. Abdominal CT scans are typically used to help diagnose the cause of abdominal or pelvic pain and diseases of the internal organs, bowel, and colon.

>mutate itself to death
Now that is just fucking cool.

Researchers at the University of Minnesota Academic Health Center have identified two drugs that, when combined, may serve as an effective treatment for HIV.The two drugs, decitabine and gemcitabine - both FDA approved and currently used in pre-cancer and cancer therapy - were found to eliminate HIV infection in the mouse model by causing the virus to mutate itself to death - an outcome researchers dubbed "lethal mutagenesis."

Vaccines don't cause autism. Period. So this is pretty exciting news - A cancer vaccine...

In late April, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first cancer vaccine, Provenge, that can modestly extend the lives of men with advanced prostate cancer. Several major insurance plans and Medicare claims processors in some parts of the country, including Kansas and Missouri, already have agreed to pay for the costly treatment.

>>2071404


links?

Captcha Line Ark

so no one has added to this awesome thread or discussed any of the news articles...

/new/ is so fucking fail.