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Guardian Unlimited -
14 hours and 55 minutes ago
divimg alt=""
src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/41220?ns=guardianpageName=Comment+is+free%3A+America%2C+cowering+to+an+imaginary+enemy%2C+is+not+the+country+I+once+knewch=Comment+is+freec3=The+Guardianc4=US+news%2CAl-Qaida+%28News%29%2CTerrorism+-+international%2CObama+White+House+%28News%29%2CUS+foreign+policy%2CWorld+newsc5=Not+commercially+useful%2CUS+Electionsc6=Simon+Jenkinsc7=2008_12_05c8=1129131c9=articlec10=GUc11=Comment+is+freec12=blogc13=c14=Comment+is+freeh2=GU%2FComment+is+free%2Fblog%2FComment+is+free"
width="1" height="1" //divpAmerica seems much in need of Roosevelt's maxim to stop fearing fear
itself. Virtually all comment on the Mumbai massacre has mentioned 9/11 and al-Qaida, and thus
invited citizens to continue feeling afraid. No matter that Mumbai appears to have been primarily
about Kashmir and the status of India's Muslims. No matter that Osama bin Laden has no dog in that
fight. Any stick will do to elevate al-Qaida as America's enemy number one./ppLast week, the CIA
warned of a terrorist threat that "might be unleashed" during the presidential transition, a threat
that George Bush described as "dangerously real". On Wednesday Barack Obama was formally told by a
congressional inquiry that "it is more likely than not that a weapon of mass destruction, either
nuclear or biological, will be used in a terrorist attack" in his first year of office. The inquiry
demanded that an official must be appointed "to oversee efforts to prevent such an attack", as if
millions of Americans in and out of uniform were not doing that already. /ppThen London added its
pennyworth, with a Home Office minister, Lord West, telling of "another great plot building up
again" and a "huge threat" from al-Qaida. The purpose of all this scaremongering remains a
mystery./ppReactions to Mumbai have seemed to suggest Americans are still seeking fellowship in
their 9/11 pain, as after the London and Madrid bombings. Gone are the days when Americans would
tell Britons to shrug off IRA terrorist attacks (many instigated from America) and grow up. Any
explosion anywhere now abets the extraordinary 9/11 iconography, underpinning the politics of fear
that has been the leitmotif of the Bush presidency./ppDebating this presidency in New York on
Tuesday night, I found myself pitted against Bush's impresario of fear, Karl Rove. Nothing in his
master's glorious reign quite matched his "victory" over terror. The sense of unreality was
equalled by Rove's supporters, to whom all who did not fear the "Islamofascists" were "liberal
upper-east side elitists", an apparently crushing epithet. One assured me that Afghanistan would
soon be won by merely "moving the surge" to Kabul. The whole evening was like the scene in Gone
with the Wind where Southern gallants out-boast each other in predicting victory over the Yankees.
/ppRove was undeniably a master manipulator of fear politics, like Tony Blair's Alastair Campbell,
who called him a "kindred spirit". Both Bush and Blair were led to portray al-Qaida in its Tora
Bora cave as they had Saddam Hussein, as a threat to their respective realms. It was what the
sociologist Ulrich Beck described as an exaggerated risk "exploited as an elixir to an ailing
leader". On this the two leaders built a culture of self-validating counter-terrorism, where both
the absence of any threat and the presence of one can be made equally supportive. /ppThe media's
fondness for describing any explosion as "al-Qaeda-linked" has turned what was a tiny, if
efficient, cabal of fanatics into a global menace, ridiculously on a par with Hitler and postwar
communism. Whoever said the political brain has advanced over time was mad./ppOn every visit to
America I am stunned by the pervasiveness of fear. Terrified officials pounce on the slightest
deviation from security rules. Americans must strip almost to their underwear to board even the
shortest domestic flights. IDs are scanned in the meanest office blocks. Computers must be
dismantled. National guardsmen troop out at dawn to protect New York installations "against the
terrorist threat". /ppThe repressive Patriot Act - mocking a patriotism that was once built on
courage and the rule of law - remains in operation. Getting through American immigration with a
brown face is an indignity that many Indians and Arabs of my acquaintance now simply refuse to
endure. I had trouble even with a Baghdad visa in my passport./ppBarack Obama, who is pledged to
close Guantaacute;namo Bay, is being challenged to say what he will do with what the conservative
Weekly Standard asserts are "250 participants in the most devastating terrorist attacks in history"
from "an enemy unlike any other this nation has ever faced". Britons should not smile at this
hyperbole. The same madness afflicts Jacqui Smith's Home Office./ppIn the 1960s Richard Hofstadter,
the American political scientist, puzzled over the anti-intellectualism of much of American public
life, echoing the remark of the Puritan, John Cotton, in 1642 that "the more learned and witty you
bee, the more fit to act for Satan". Listening to the debate on Tuesday I realised how deep is that
strand, how strong the line of descent to the war on terror from previous generations who likewise
puffed up the mafia and home-grown communism. /ppThe 1950s Kefauver commission on organised crime
sought a foe to demonise as foreign, sinister and ubiquitous. The inquiry found that there was no
national "mafia" worthy of the name, or of their attention, just disparate bunches of local
hoodlums. Kefauver and the FBI, whose burgeoning empire depended on him, were furious. They had
come to need the mafia and its menace to justify their budget, effort and status. /ppThe same
synthetic sense of fear enveloped the McCarthy hearings on communism. A grain of truth was
exaggerated to boost McCarthy's standing as a defender of the people against a real and present
danger, that of reds under every bed. Communism had to be erected as an internal weapon of mass
destruction, and much cruelty resulted./ppAt least organised crime and communism posed genuine
threats to American liberties. Al-Qaida does not, yet it has become the ruling obsession of Bush's
courtiers. They see al-Qaida fiends on every side, bearded mullahs, caches of bombs, ricin and
anthrax. The precautionary principle has become fanaticised. By treating the unknown as an enemy,
we ensure that the unknown becomes one. /ppMost of the outrages committed by graduates of the
Pakistan terrorism camps are locally motivated, and will continue as long as such motivation
survives. A network of criminal suicide squads with no coherent programme has no conceivable hope
of undermining western democracy. It can just set off bombs, and will always do so if front-line
policing is weak and constantly overruled by a grand "counterterrorism" bureaucracy. /ppJust when
America had won a real victory in the century-old combat with communism, it allowed itself to be
terrified by a band of fanatics who, in part through America's negligence, "got lucky once" and
pulled off a coup on 9/11. For seven years its behaviour at home and image abroad have been dogged
by the reaction to it. The challenge to Obama, here as elsewhere, is immense. /ppThe attractive
feature of the America in which I once lived was its bold self-confidence. To find the survivors of
the Bush presidency still cowering in a mental bunker afraid of a bunch of Arabs - and with British
ministers for company - strips western democracy of a leadership that should be both heroic and
sensible. It is surely an un-American activity./ppa
href="mailto:simon.jenkins@guardian.co.uk"simon.jenkins@guardian.co.uk/a/pdiv style="float: left;
margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/usa"United
States/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/alqaida"Al-Qaida/a/lilia
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/terrorism"Global terrorism/a/lilia
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/obama-white-house"Obama White House/a/lilia
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/usforeignpolicy"US foreign policy/a/li/ul/diva
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of
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MetaFilter -
18 hours and 20 minutes ago
a href="http://www.esquire.com/features/best-and-brightest-2008/bringing-back-the-dead-1208"Raising
the Dead./a When scientist Mark Roth's one-year-old daughter died after heart surgery, Roth
obsessed clinically first about immortality, then about a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suspended_animation"suspended animation/a, when all life
processes temporarily cease. His a href="http://labs.fhcrc.org/roth/" subsequent research work/a --
placing yeast, nematodes, drosophila, frogs, and zebrafish into suspended animation (clinical
death) for up to 24 hours, then reviving them unharmed -- earned him a a
href="http://www.macfound.org/site/c.lkLXJ8MQKrH/b.2913825/apps/nl/content2.asp?content_id=%7B901B69E7-3C10-41E9-AEE1-D7C6B61A2C1B%7Dnotoc=1"MacArthur
Fellowship/a and a a
href="http://www.fhcrc.org/about/pubs/center_news/weekly/2007_0813_br3_darpa.html"Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency/a (DARPA) Award. br / Roth's research quot;offers the possibility of
important new clinical strategies for treating trauma, stroke, cancer, and a host of other
conditions where temporary reduction in metabolism would provide much-needed time for physicians to
address underlying problems.quot;

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Guardian Unlimited -
20 hours and 57 minutes ago
divimg alt=""
src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/58623?ns=guardianpageName=World+news%3A+Canada+suspends+parliament+in+reprieve+for+under-fire+PMch=World+newsc3=guardian.co.ukc4=Canada+%28News%29%2CWorld+newsc5=Not+commercially+useful%2CNorth+America+Travelc6=Mark+Tranc7=2008_12_04c8=1129067c9=articlec10=GUc11=World+newsc12=Canadac13=c14=h2=GU%2FWorld+news%2FCanada"
width="1" height="1" //divpThe Canadian government won a reprieve today when the governor general
agreed to suspend parliament until late January, putting off a no-confidence vote that the prime
minister was expected to lose./ppIn a controversial decision, Michaëlle Jean agreed to the
suspension request from the prime minister, Stephen Harper, who is trying to cling to power less
than two months after winning re-election./ppJean, the representative of the Queen as Canada's head
of state, holds a mostly ceremonial position as governor general, but she has the power to accept
or reject any request from Harper to suspend parliament. /ppBefore today's meeting between Harper
and Jean, the opposition said a suspension of parliament would only delay what they saw as Harper's
inevitable defeat. /ppIn a televised address yesterday, Harper condemned the opposition plan to
gain power through a no-confidence vote as undemocratic and vowed to use "every legal means" to
stop the attempt to unseat his minority Conservative government./ppA Canadian government has never
been thrown out by a no-confidence vote to be replaced without an election. /ppHarper will now work
on a budget that includes a stimulus package amid criticism from the opposition liberal leader,
Stephane Dion, that the government has no plan to respond to the shocks from the global economic
slowdown./ppThree opposition parties have banded together in an attempt to unseat the government.
The coalition, which has promised to fast-track billions in dollars in spending as the country
heads into recession, has the backing of Canada's beleaguered car and forestry sectors./ppCanadians
are split on whom to support. According to an Angus Reid poll for Canadian TV, 64% do not support
Dion becoming prime minister in a coalition government, but 53% oppose the Conservatives' current
economic policy. Some 57% are concerned about the separatist Bloc Quebecois's role in the
coalition. /ppAnalysts say Canada's political paralysis is unprecedented. A Canadian governor
general has never before refused a request by the prime minister to temporarily suspend parliament,
but such a move had never been requested to delay a no-confidence vote when it was clear the
government lacked the confidence of a majority of MPs./pp"There is no precedent whatsoever in
Canada and probably in the Commonwealth," said Ned Franks, a constitutional scholar and political
scientist. "We are in uncharted territory."/pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px;
margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/canada"Canada/a/li/ul/diva
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of
this content is subject to our a
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news 3dvf -
22 hours ago
Le site New Scientist présente une nouvelle technique de création de cheveux
réalistes notamment utilisée sur le dernier clip de l'artiste Björk
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Guardian Unlimited -
23 hours and 25 minutes ago
divimg alt=""
src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/90555?ns=guardianpageName=World+news%3A+Canadian+PM+fights+to+stay+in+powerch=World+newsc3=guardian.co.ukc4=Canada+%28News%29%2CWorld+newsc5=Not+commercially+useful%2CNorth+America+Travelc6=Mark+Tranc7=2008_12_04c8=1128964c9=articlec10=GUc11=World+newsc12=Canadac13=c14=h2=GU%2FWorld+news%2FCanada"
width="1" height="1" //divpThe Canadian prime minister, Stephen Harper, is expected to try to
suspend parliament today in an attempt to hang on to power, less than two months after he won
re-election./ppHarper will holds talks with the governor general to try to avoid an opposition
no-confidence vote next week that the government would probably lose. /ppThe governor general,
Michaelle Jean - the representative of the Queen as Canada's head of state - holds a mostly
ceremonial position, but has the power to accept or reject any request Harper might make to suspend
parliament. /ppIn a televised address yesterday, Harper, condemned the opposition plan to gain
power as undemocratic. He vowed to use "every legal means" to stop the no-confidence vote to unseat
his minority Conservative government and replace it with an opposition-led coalition./ppIf the
coalition succeeds, it would be the first time a Canadian government has been thrown out by a
no-confidence vote and replaced without an election./ppA cabinet minister has suggested that Harper
would ask Jean to suspend parliament until next month, giving him time to present a budget that
includes a stimulus package. /ppThe opposition liberal leader, Stephane Dion, has accused the
government of having no plan to deal with recession and said that a suspension of parliament would
only delay Harper's inevitable defeat. /ppCanada's political crisis stems from the government's
response to the global economic crisis. Three opposition parties have united against the
government's handling of the economy, accusing it of failing to come up with a suitable response to
the crisis./ppCanada's beleaguered car and forestry sectors are backing the coalition, as it has
promised to fast-track billions in dollars in spending as the country heads into a
recession./ppCanadians are split on who to support. According to an Angus Reid poll for Canadian
TV, 64% do not support Dion becoming prime minister in a coalition government, but 53% oppose the
Conservatives' current economic policy./pp57% are also concerned about the separatist Bloc
Quebecois's role in the coalition. Analysts say Canada's political paralysis is
unprecedented./ppCanada's governor general has never refused a request by the prime minister to
temporarily suspend parliament, but nor has one been asked to suspend parliament to delay a no
confidence vote when it was clear the government lacked the confidence of a majority of
MPs./pp"There is no precedent whatsoever in Canada and probably in the Commonwealth," said Ned
Franks, a constitutional scholar and political scientist. "We are in uncharted territory."/pdiv
style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/canada"Canada/a/li/ul/diva
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of
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Boing Boing -
1 days and 4 hours ago
Salim sez, "Studley was an 1800s organ and piano maker, as well as a carpenter and mason, who
worked for the Smith Organ Co. He built this amazing tool-chest which packs in just about every
device and instrument an organ tuner might need on location."' Studley Toolchest, ideal for the
inventor or scientist (Thanks, Salim!)...br style="clear: both;"/ a
href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=5141bb05ccef9723ad65f01c04daea1dp=1"img alt=""
style="border: 0;" border="0"
src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=5141bb05ccef9723ad65f01c04daea1dp=1"//a img
src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=5141bb05ccef9723ad65f01c04daea1d" style="display:
none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/
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Boing Boing -
1 days and 5 hours ago
Salim sez, Studley was an 1800s organ and piano maker, as well as a carpenter and mason, who worked
for the Smith Organ Co. He built this amazing tool-chest which packs in just about every device and
instrument an organ tuner might need on location. Studley Toolchest, ideal for the inventor or
scientist (Thanks, Salim!)...br style=clear: both;/ a
href=http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=5141bb05ccef9723ad65f01c04daea1dp=1img alt= style=border:
0; border=0 src=http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=5141bb05ccef9723ad65f01c04daea1dp=1//a img
src=http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=5141bb05ccef9723ad65f01c04daea1d style=display: none;
border=0 height=1 width=1 alt=/
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Gizmodo -
1 days and 8 hours ago
pimg src="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/gizmodo/2008/12/studleytoolchest.jpg" align="left"
hspace="4" vspace="2" width="494" height="553" style="display:block;" / Sometimes, things as
mundane as tool kits can look like great works of art. This piano repair box, perfected by Henry
Studley, does a great job of fixing up instruments, but it's careful placement of knicknacks also
makes it beautiful./p pStudley was an organ and piano maker, as well as a carpenter and mason, who
worked for the Smith Organ Co. at the turn of the 20th century. His tool chest was loaned by his
grandson to an exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History, until
a private collector bought it./p pWhen closed, it's dimensions are roughly 39-inches x 20-inches x
9-inches. When opened though, it widens out to 40 x 40. [a
href="http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Facriacao.com%2F2008%2F12%2F03%2Fstudley-toolchest-ideal-for-the-inventor-or-scientist%2Fhl=enie=UTF-8sl=pttl=en"acriacao/a]/p
pimg src="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/gizmodo/2008/12/studleytoolchest2.jpg" align="left"
hspace="4" vspace="2" width="494" height="405" style="display:block;" //p br style="clear: both;"/
a href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=c341bf6be149b2585c9c3a4703c001fap=1"img alt=""
style="border: 0;" border="0"
src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=c341bf6be149b2585c9c3a4703c001fap=1"//a img
src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=c341bf6be149b2585c9c3a4703c001fa" style="display:
none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/div class="feedflare" a
href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=crP2G7ik"img
src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?d=120" border="0"/img/a a
href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=iYMbg6za"img
src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?d=41" border="0"/img/a a
href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=v8pDWbJx"img
src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?i=v8pDWbJx" border="0"/img/a a
href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=kIO01hYY"img
src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?i=kIO01hYY" border="0"/img/a /divimg
src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~4/mNke19BOGyQ" height="1" width="1"/

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[H]ardOCP News Feed -
1 days and 17 hours ago
Scientist seem to be worried that technology is rewiring our brains. Wait, rewiring it in a good
way or a bad way?
What does a teenage brain on Google look like? Do all those hours spent online rewire the
circuitry? Could these kids even relate better to emoticons than to real people? These sound like
concerns from worried parents. But they're coming from brain scientists.
Comments
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FOXNews.com -
1 days and 21 hours ago
Anthropologist finds that high testosterone makes women tougher, more competitive -- and also puts
more fat on waist.
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Open"Source::critere -
1 days and 23 hours ago
Les gars de chez Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories ont utilisé un laser à dioxyde de
carbone pour marquer le logo Apple sur le dessus de cette tarte aux pommes (soufflé aux
pommes). Après avoir tapissé de pâte un moule carré puis lavoir garni de
pommes,
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