Albert Hofmann, father of drug LSD, dies in Switzerland

GENEVA (AP) — Albert Hofmann, the father of the mind-altering drug LSD whose medical discovery inspired — and arguably corrupted — millions in the 1960s hippie generation, has died. He was 102.

Hofmann died Tuesday at his home in Burg im Leimental, said Doris Stuker, a municipal clerk in the village near Basel where Hofmann moved following his retirement in 1971.

For decades after LSD was banned in the late 1960s, Hofmann defended his invention.

"I produced the substance as a medicine. ... It's not my fault if people abused it," he once said.

NY Times Iraq Death Chart

Disparities in Life Expectancy Increasing

"Over the past two decades, life expectancy has actually declined in dozens and dozens of counties throughout the U.S., mostly in poor, rural areas. Since life expectancy has continued to improve in more affluent areas, this trend has nothing to do with the limits of human survival, but rather with disparities in education, employment, social services and health care," said Dr. David L. Katz, director of the Prevention Research Center at Yale University School of Medicine. "At some point, human life expectancy will cease rising for us all, because we will have reached the natural limits of our life span. But right now, what we see is a wedge of social inequities driving apart the survival experiences of different parts of our country. Removing that wedge, and narrowing the survival gap, is clearly a public health priority of the first order."

Former AL Gov. Don Siegelman Says Media Ignoring Details of His 'Electronically Stolen' 2002 Election

Mark, I mention the vote stealing in every interview. 60 Minutes cut it out. Don Abrams didn't want to go there either. I have told the story to the Washington Post and LA Times.

Cops and Former Secret Service Agents Ran Black Ops on Green Groups

Received a call from Ketchum yesterday afternoon re three sites in DC. It seems Taco Bell turned out some product made from bioengineered corn. The chemicals used on the corn have not been approved for human consumption. Hence Taco Bell produced potential glow-in-the-dark tacos. Taco Bell is owned by Kraft. The Ketchum Office, New York, has the ball. They suspect the initiative is being generated from one of three places:

1.Center for Food Safety, 7th & Penn SE
2.Friends of the Earth, 1025 Vermont Ave (Between K & L Streets)
3.GE Food Alert, 1200 18th St NW (18th & M)

#1 is located on 3rd floor. Main entrance is key card. Alley is locked by iron gates. 7 dempsters [sic] in alley—take your pick.
#2 is in the same building as Chile Embassy. Armed guard in lobby & cameras everywhere. There is a dumpster in the alley behind the building. Don't know if it is tied to bldg. or a neighborhood property. Cameras everywhere.
#3 is doable but behind locked iron gates at rear of bldg.

Calif. congresswoman sworn in, booed

"The president wants to stay the course and a man who wants to replace him suggests we could be in Iraq for 100 years," she said. "But Madam Speaker, history will not judge us kindly if we sacrifice four generations of Americans because of the folly of one."

Longshoremen to close ports on West Coast to protest war

dockworkers of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union have decided to stop work for eight hours in all U.S. West Coast ports on May 1, International Workers' Day, to call for an end to the war.

Texans Build World's Most Powerful Laser

Dude! The photos remind me of that movie Real Genius.

In the basement of the physics building at the University of Texas at Austin, the school's High Intensity Laser Science Group built a petawatt laser in hopes of recreating astronomical phenomena like supernovae in miniature.

Documents prove FBI has national eavesdropping program that tracks IMs, emails and cell phones

Documents released under the Freedom of Information Act and given to the Washington Post -- which stuck the story on page three -- show that the FBI's massive dragnet, connected to the backends of telecommunications carriers, "allows authorized FBI agents and analysts, with point-and-click ease, to receive e-mails, instant messages, cellphone calls and other communications that tell them not only what a suspect is saying, but where he is and where he has been, depending on the wording of a court order or a government directive," the Post says.

Truckers Protest, the Resistance Begins

Then, on April 1, in a wave of defiance, truck drivers began taking the strongest form of action they can take – inaction. Faced with $4/gallon diesel fuel, they slowed down, shut down and started honking. On the New Jersey Turnpike, a convoy of trucks stretching “as far as the eye can see,” according to a turnpike spokesman, drove at a glacial 20 mph. Outside of Chicago, they slowed and drove three abreast, blocking traffic and taking arrests. They jammed into Harrisburg PA; they slowed down the Port of Tampa where 50 rigs sat idle in protest. Near Buffalo, one driver told the press he was taking the week off “to pray for the economy.”

Secret plans for US troops to stay in Iraq

from the guardian

A secret draft agreement is being drawn up to allow United States forces to remain in Iraq indefinitely, it has been reported.

The document, which was written a month ago and is and marked "secret" and "sensitive", is intended to replace the United Nations mandate for coalition troops, including British forces, to remain in Iraq, which expires at the end of the year.

Tax breaks for billionaires

good ole american way...

These investment advisors and hedge fund managers can take advantage of this tax structure because they are often compensated through a scheme that, in part, pays them according to the returns on the fund. The industry standard for hedge fund managers is “two and twenty,” which is shorthand for an “overhead” fee of 2% of capital under management plus carried interest (often called a “carry”) of 20% of the returns on the fund. Thus a $100 million fund earning 20% would pay its fund manager $2 million for overhead and $4 million in carry. The carry portion of their compensation is treated under the tax code as capital gains for the fund manager and is taxable at the much lower capital gains tax rate of 15%.

National Archives Protest 3-19-08

You probably didn't see this on the nightly news or CNN or anywhere else...

Iraq Veterans Against the War and Veterans For Peace take action to protect the sacred documents of the United States and call for all present to Support and Defend the Constitution.　This dramatic action took place at the National Archives on the 5th anniversary of the start of the tragic war in Iraq. Veterans participated in civil disobedience and gave a lesson in civic duty to hundreds of visitors to the Archives. Copies of the Constitution were distributed to the crowd.

Bush administration suspended search and seizure rights following 9/11

The ACLU first noticed the 37-page fourth amendment brief on a list of justice department documents that the Bush administration said were relevant to a lawsuit over government surveillance. The group plans to continue fighting in court for total de-classification of the brief.

"The administration's lawyers believe the president should be permitted to violate statutory law, to violate international treaties, and even to violate the fourth amendment inside the US," Jameel Jaffer, director of the ACLU's national security project, said. "They believe that the president should be above the law."

Kraftwerk - Heavy Metal Kids

the link is to an obit for: Klaus Dinger, RIP (Kraftwerk, Neu!, motorik king), about whom I did not know but it was very interesting to hear the very different style of Kraftwerk.

Stroke of insight

Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor had an opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: One morning, she realized she was having a massive stroke. As it happened -- as she felt her brain functions slip away one by one, speech, movement, understanding -- she studied and remembered every moment. This is a powerful story of recovery and awareness -- of how our brains define us and connect us to the world and to one another. (Recorded February 2008 in Monterey, California. Duration: 18:44.)

Ex-Terror Detainee Says U.S. Tortured Him

A German resident held by the U.S. for almost five years tells 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley that Americans tortured him in many ways - including hanging him from the ceiling for five days early in his captivity when he was in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

Even after determining he was not a terrorist, Murat Kurnaz says the torture continued. Kurnaz tells his story for the first time on American television this Sunday, March 30, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

Kurnaz, an ethnic Turk born and raised in Germany, went to Pakistan in late 2001 at age 19 to study Islam and wound up in Pakistani police custody. It was three months after 9/11, and Kurnaz says the U.S. was offering bounties for suspicious foreigners. Kurnaz says he was "sold" to the Americans for $3,000 and brought to Kandahar as terrorist suspect.

'I'll kill you!' - Cops caught on video at UN Tibet protest

"I'll kill you!" a cop can be heard in the video. "I'll f------ kill you! What did I tell you guys? What did I tell you?"
The cop then appears to push one of the men onto a sidewalk. Another cop can be seen shoving protesters.

"While the tape shows a chaotic scene, nothing on it remotely justifies a threat to kill protesters and nothing justifies repeated hitting," Christopher Dunn, the New York Civil Liberties Union's associate legal director, said. "This is a blatant example of excessive force and the NYPD should investigate."

Cassini Tastes Organic Material At Saturn's Geyser Moon

NASA's Cassini spacecraft tasted and sampled a surprising organic brew erupting in geyser-like fashion from Saturn's moon Enceladus during a close flyby on March 12. Scientists are amazed that this tiny moon is so active, "hot" and brimming with water vapor and organic chemicals.

New heat maps of the surface show higher temperatures than previously known in the south polar region, with hot tracks running the length of giant fissures. Additionally, scientists say the organics "taste and smell" like some of those found in a comet. The jets themselves harmlessly peppered Cassini, exerting measurable torque on the spacecraft, and providing an indirect measure of the plume density.

"A completely unexpected surprise is that the chemistry of Enceladus, what's coming out from inside, resembles that of a comet," said Hunter Waite, principal investigator for the Cassini Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. "To have primordial material coming out from inside a Saturn moon raises many questions on the formation of the Saturn system."

Mysterious Bee Deaths Linked to Pesticides

LEWISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Scientists investigating a mysterious ailment that killed many of the nation's honeybees are concentrating on pesticides and a new pathogen as possible culprits, and some beekeepers are already trying to keep their colonies away from pesticide-exposed fields.

After months of study, researchers are finding it difficult to tie the die-off to any single factor, said Maryann Frazier, a senior extension associate in Penn State University's entomology department.

“Two things right now ... that are really keeping us focused are the pathogen and the role of pesticides,” Frazier said...

Beekeeper Jim Aucker, of Millville, was left with just 240 of his 1,200 hives earlier this spring after the illness struck. He said he's back up to just under 600 now. He is convinced pesticides are playing a role.

“I have found spray materials in our dead hives. Whether it's 100 percent the cause, I'm not sure, but I'm positive it's not helping,” Aucker said. He doesn't plan to return to fields where he thinks there might be a pesticide problem.

Bats Perish, and No One Knows Why

They have plenty of company. In what is one of the worst calamities to hit bat populations in the United States, on average 90 percent of the hibernating bats in four caves and mines in New York have died since last winter.

Wildlife biologists fear a significant die-off in about 15 caves and mines in New York, as well as at sites in Massachusetts and Vermont. Whatever is killing the bats leaves them unusually thin and, in some cases, dotted with a white fungus. Bat experts fear that what they call White Nose Syndrome may spell doom for several species that keep insect pests under control.

Researchers have yet to determine whether the bats are being killed by a virus, bacteria, toxin, environmental hazard, metabolic disorder or fungus. Some have been found with pneumonia, but that and the fungus are believed to be secondary symptoms.

Experts: Sirhan Sirhan Did Not Kill RFK

Dr. Robert Joling, a forensics investigator who has studied the Robert Kennedy assassination for almost 40 years, determined that the fatal shots must have come from behind the senator.

Sirhan, however, was 4 to 6 feet in front of Kennedy and never got close enough to shoot Kennedy from behind, the investigator said.

The other evidence was the Pruszynski recording. This is the only audio recording of the assassination. Another scientist analyzed it and concluded that at least 13 shots were fired from two different guns.

Pentagon says it mistakenly shipped ballistic missile parts to Taiwan

OOPS! How can they even claim shipping weapons to another country was a mistake? What a crock? Are they afraid of China?

Billabong XXL Waves of the Year

NZ dolphin rescues beached whales

Hold that Thought, I've got to go to the Al Qaeda

Sometimes it seems to me that if there were just more common sense going around most of this bullshit would be the fodder of comics and no one would take it seriously. The fact is that common sense isn’t very common. You throw in a little fear; you season it with suspicion and the threat of want and loss and you’ve got a dish that can turn a pretty green planet into a dark blue nightmare at a moment’s notice.

Soldier Suicides at Record Level

Indict Bush and Cheney!

Last year, the southeastern Vermont town of Brattleboro voted to impeach President Bush. This year, local activist Kurt Daims wants to go one step further.

Daims and a group of his supporters are attempting to get an item on the ballot for Town Meeting Day that would indict President Bush and Vice President Cheney for crimes against the Constitution, making them subject to arrest if they ever set foot in town, stated the Brattleboro Reformer.

Forced Loyalty Oath Locks Kucinich out of Texas Primary

Dennis Kucinich may not win the Democratic nomination for president, but he's leaving a pro-democracy legacy across the country. To begin with, this candidate actually discusses critical issues demonstrating his respect for voters. With regard to the voters' right to know, he just asked for the first recount in memory for a presidential primary simply because it makes perfect sense. The New Hampshire results need a serious second look.

Kucinich struck another blow for democracy by challenging the restrictive loyalty oath required by the Texas Democratic Party to get on the primary ballot. He actually reads the contracts he signs. When presented with the loyalty oath required to run as a Democrat in the Texas primary, Kucinich prudently edited the document to reflect the requirements of free citizens living in a democracy: