hello… what’s up… how is everyone? i’m on my way out… and i’ll be back on Sunday!!!

don’t get into too much trouble, okay?

oh… i’m going to my dad’s house with my sisters. sans kids, husbands, lovers… just the four of us before i go… ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

and my paperwork is all good EXCEPT missing one doc… a waiver by each of us of health care. i told the lady… that wasn’t a form in the booklet. she said, well, it’s required. okay. so one more piece of signed paper to wait for… but she said even if i don’t get it from the soon-to-be ex, the divorce would be signed in 30 days. i can’t wait that long…

no. no. no. so let’s keep everything crossed that the ex will send the paper ASAP…

love you all… pf8

1. The New York Times reports Congress passes bill to bar bias based on genes. “A bill that would prohibit discrimination by health insurers and employers based on the information that people carry in their genes won final approval in Congress on Thursday by an overwhelming vote.” Bush has suggested he will sign the legislation and if he doesn’t the bill, which “passed the House on Thursday by a 414-to-1 vote, and the Senate by 95-to-0 a week earlier” likely has the votes to override his veto.

   The legislation is a start, but doesn’t prohibit the government from using genetic discrimination. And according to the NY Times story, “as genetic tests provide ever more information at lower costs, the entire notion of insuring against unknown risk that has long defined the industry may be upended.” This may “give ammunition to those who argue for universal health care”.

2. The Washington Post reports White House plans proactive cyber-Security role for spy agencies. “America’s spy agencies for the first time would be tasked with gathering intelligence on threats to the nation’s computer networks under a policy set to be detailed by the White House next week… The [anonymous] official said the president’s new cyber-security directive will share the intelligence gleaned through monitoring threats across the government space with the private sector, which experts say is being hit with the same types of attacks that the federal dot-gov space is battling… Most of the 18 strategic goals laid out in the cyber initiative are currently classified, and few within the government have been fully briefed on the the plan.”

   Alan Paller, director of research at the Bethesda based SANS Institute, which tracks hacking trends, said few federal civilian agencies or private sector companies have the analysts or computer power to spot the most stealthy cyber attacks. Agencies like the NSA, he said, are in a bit of a tight spot in sharing new threat information with allies and the private sector, because spy agencies very often glean intelligence by exploiting the very same security vulnerabilities in hardware and software used by enemies of the United States.

   “This is the oldest conflict in security, because if we give away our best exploits, we lose the ability to use them offensively,” Paller said. “That’s a conflict the guys at NSA deal with every day. When you find good ones, how long do you wait before you tell the vendors and people defending our own networks?”

   On the surface, does this government-private partnership seems similar to the collusion between the telcos and the Bush Administraion?

Four at Four continues below the fold with the expanding ocean’s hypoxic zones, the collapse of the west coast salmon fishery, and fungal doom for Pacific Northwest amphibians.

3. The Los Angeles Times reports Oxygen-poor ocean zones are growing. Researchers link their growth to climate change and these hypoxic zones cannot sustain most marine life. These oxygen-pore zones are expanding from the ocean depths to the continental shelves where the commercial fisheries are.

   Researchers believe these phenomena are linked to subsurface layers of hypoxic water in the tropical Pacific and Atlantic oceans that have been thickening over the last 50 years, according to the analysis published today in the journal Science.

   The study, led by Lothar Stramma at the University of Kiel in Germany, warns that the spread of hypoxic waters that suffocate marine life is consistent with climate models forecasting what would happen as greenhouse gases accumulate in the atmosphere…

   “If you warm waters, they hold much less oxygen,” said coauthor Gregory C. Johnson, an oceanographer with the federal Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle. “That’s the same as a bottle of soda water. If you open it warm, it’ll fizz all over the place. If you open it cold, it will slowly fizz out as it warms.”

   More importantly, Johnson said, the lighter warm water creates a cap over the colder depths, making it less likely that oxygen-enriched surface water will mix with colder water. Other biogeochemical processes also rob oxygen from deeper waters, such as the decomposition and re-mineralization of dead plankton as it settles to the seafloor.

   The low-oxygen zones are different from the “dead zones” caused by algae blooms fed by agricultural fertilizer runoff.

4. The Guardian reports Salmon fishing is halted on US west coast. “The US government has ordered west coast salmon fishing, a vital contributor to the regional economy and culture, shut down for the year due to the decimation of the wild fish population. The ‘fishery failure’ declaration made yesterday by the commerce department deals an estimated $290m blow to America’s west coast”.

   The Los Angeles Times adds the Salmon fishery may get federal bailout. “Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez’s announcement comes amid what he called ‘the unprecedented collapse’ of the salmon population off California and Oregon. By proclaiming a salmon fishery failure for waters off the two states, Gutierrez gives Congress a green light to consider a bailout of the West’s fishing industry for the second time in the last three years.” The last bailout was over $60 million. Funny how this “unprecidented” collapse is the second time salmon collapsed in three years under the Bush administration’s oversight.

5. The Seattle Times reports a Fungus threatens Pacific Northwest’s amphibians. “I think of this like Ebola for frogs,” said Steven Wagner, a biology professor. Since 2005, he and his students at Central Washington University have found Washington’s evidence that the state’s frogs “are being attacked by a fungus blamed for wiping out amphibian populations around the globe… ‘People are ignoring it,’ Wagner said. ‘But can we afford to do that?'”

   “Frogs made it through the mass-extinction events that knocked out the dinosaurs,” said David Wake, a biologist at the University of California, Berkeley, who was one of the first to sound the alarm over declining amphibians. “Now there are more amphibian species at the edge of extinction than for any other group of vertebrates … and that should be a warning for all of us.”

   First discovered in 1998, the fungal disease called chytridiomycosis has been implicated in the collapse of amphibian populations in Central America, Australia, Europe and other places. Researchers documented its march across Panama and the carnage left behind. In North America, the fungus is rampant in California’s Sierra Nevada. It has been linked to die-offs in Colorado, Wyoming and Arizona.

This is one of the most amazing pieces of video i’ve seen in a while.  If you dont like modern dance you may not enjoy the routine…but the dancers themselves are beyond belief….a dance team where the female lost an arm, the male lost a leg…

Polina Seminova….amazing ballet…less-than-desirable cinematography…still an enjoyable video..

it just wouldnt be me if i kept it too serious….the dancing starts at about 1:45…

“she asked for one more dance, and i’m like ‘yeah’…how am i supposed to leave?”

usher always makes me smile…

….”and cut”….

Have a great weekend!!!   ~73v

Though his mind is not for rent,

Don’t put him down as arrogant.

His reserve, a quiet defense,

Riding out the days events.

The river

Friday’s Headlines: As Gas Costs Soar, Buyers Are Flocking to Small Cars: Fed to Pursue Aggressive Checks on Credit Cards:  Call to Arabs on Palestinian aid: Turkey launches intensive air strikes in north Iraq: Mugabe invents coup plot as poll chaos continues: Diamond miners strike gold with wreck: The Litvinenko files: Was he really murdered?: Income tax secrets go up online – and promptly come down amid fury: Tibetans shot officer ‘to avenge killing of monk’: Ecuador leader shakes up military

Police remove Hong Kong torch protesters ‘for own protection’

Police removed human rights protesters from the streets of Hong Kong this morning as the anger of pro-China supporters flared on the first day of the Olympic torch’s domestic journey.

Several activists were bundled into a van and driven away after furious pro-Olympic demonstrators waving Chinese flags tried to break through the police line protecting them, haranguing them and attempting to seize their placards and Tibetan flag – which is banned in China.

Around 50,000 spectators gathered to celebrate the approach of the games and set the flame on the road to Beijing. Most were in upbeat mood despite the rain.

“It is a great and solemn honour for Hong Kong, Asia’s world city, to welcome back the Olympic flame on behalf of our proud nation,” the region’s chief executive, Donald Tsang, said at the relay’s start.

Teacher fired for refusing to sign loyalty oath

Cal State system ousts another instructor who objects on religious grounds to a pledge adopted by California in 1952 to root out communists.

When Wendy Gonaver was offered a job teaching American studies at Cal State Fullerton this academic year, she was pleased to be headed back to the classroom to talk about one of her favorite themes: protecting constitutional freedoms.

But the day before class was scheduled to begin, her appointment as a lecturer abruptly ended over just the kind of issue that might have figured in her course. She lost the job because she did not sign a loyalty oath swearing to “defend” the U.S. and California constitutions “against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”

USA

As Gas Costs Soar, Buyers Are Flocking to Small Cars

DETROIT – Soaring gas prices have turned the steady migration by Americans to smaller cars into a stampede.

In what industry analysts are calling a first, about one in five vehicles sold in the United States was a compact or subcompact car during April, based on monthly sales data released Thursday. Almost a decade ago, when sport utility vehicles were at their peak of popularity, only one in every eight vehicles sold was a small car.

The switch to smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles has been building in recent years, but has accelerated recently with the advent of $3.50-a-gallon gas. At the same time, sales of pickup trucks and large sport utility vehicles have dropped sharply.

Fed to Pursue Aggressive Checks on Credit Cards

The Federal Reserve and two other banking regulators are set to unveil today one of the most aggressive efforts in decades to crack down on the credit card industry, prohibiting practices such as arbitrarily raising interest rates on outstanding balances.

The proposed regulations, which could be finalized by year’s end, would label as “unfair or deceptive” practices that consumers have long complained about. That includes charging interest on debt that has been repaid and assessing late fees when consumers are not given a reasonable amount of time to make a payment. When different interest rates apply to different balances on one card, companies would be prohibited from applying a payment first to the balance with the lowest rate.

Middle East

Call to Arabs on Palestinian aid

The Quartet of major powers mediating in the Middle East peace process has called on Arab states to honour aid pledges to the Palestinians.

The call was made after talks in London between the UN, US, UN, EU and Russia.

US officials say only about a fifth of money promised by Arab nations in December has been paid.

The Gaza Strip faces a strict Israeli blockade, imposed against Hamas militants, as well as in response to rocket attacks fired into Israel.

US officials say that of $717m promised by Arab League members, only $153m of Arab pledges have been delivered, all from three countries: Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Algeria.

Turkey launches intensive air strikes in north Iraq

ARBIL, Iraq (Reuters) – Turkish warplanes launched intensive bombing raids on Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq overnight but there were no reports of any casualties, a rebel spokesman said on Friday.

The air strikes began at 11.30 p.m. and lasted for three hours, targeting bases belonging to the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK), an off-shoot of the PKK fighting against Iran.

“There has been heavy bombing and many Turkish planes were involved. So far, we have no word of any casualties,” PKK spokesman Ahmed Danees told Reuters by telephone.

Africa

Mugabe invents coup plot as poll chaos continues

· Forged documents outline ‘British invasion plans’

· UK dismisses fakes as ruse to delay election results

It is Gordon Brown’s name on the letter with the familiar Downing Street address at the top. If it weren’t for the pesky business of the signature, it would place the prime minister at the heart of a conspiracy to drag the old Rhodesia from its grave in league with German bankers and South African white supremacists.

You could have read all about it across the front pages of Zimbabwe’s state-run press over recent weeks, backed by what are purported to be documents outlining opposition schemes to steal the unresolved presidential election, British plans to invade and put President Robert Mugabe on trial at The Hague, and the alleged letter from Brown saying that the ruling Zanu-PF party is “no longer relevant to the people of Zimbabwe”.

Diamond miners strike gold with wreck

· Discovery of ship off Africa excites archaeologists

· Experts debate whether captain was pirate

The ship was laden with tonnes of copper ingots, elephant tusks, gold coins – and cannons to fend off pirates lurking off Africa some five centuries ago. It had nothing to protect it from the fierce weather off a particularly bleak stretch of inhospitable coast, however, and sank.

“If you’re mining on the coast, sooner or later you’ll find a wreck,” Dieter Noli, an archaeologist who is researching the ship’s origins, said yesterday as he told how De Beers geologists stumbled on the wreck on April 1 as they prospected for diamonds off Namibia’s south-west coast.

The find “was what I’d been waiting for for 20 years”, Noli said. “I was pretty excited. I still am.”

Namdeb Diamond Corporation, a joint venture of the government of Namibia and De Beers, reported the find for the first time in a statement on Wednesday, and are planning a news conference in the Namibian capital on the discovery next week.

Europe

The Litvinenko files: Was he really murdered?

His gruesome and very public death shocked the world – and threw London and Moscow into their worst diplomatic crisis since the Cold War. But 18 months on, Mary Dejevsky argues we’re still not being told the whole, chilling story

Alexander Litvinenko died on 23 November 2006, after a mysterious and painful illness. The cause was identified, less than two hours before his death, by scientists at the British government’s Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston. They found that he had been poisoned, with the radioactive isotope polonium-210.

The diagnosis came too late for an antidote to be administered. But the victim, who had been a hale and hearty 44-year-old only four weeks before, had time to authorise a thunderous deathbed statement in which he accused Russia’s President, Vladimir Putin, of ordering his murder.

Income tax secrets go up online – and promptly come down amid fury

Rich and poor, young and old – for a few hours this week there were no secrets among Italians when millions of tax returns were published online, and promptly taken down again after howls of protest.

The country’s privacy watchdog ordered the national tax office, the Agenzia delle Entrate, to suspend publication on its website of personal information filed by all Italian taxpayers, arguing that the unprecedented move was a violation of privacy.

The information gave full details of tax returns, including not only income declared and tax paid for 2005 but also names, addresses and birthdates. The data were arranged alphabetically and according to the municipality in which the tax declarations were filed.

Asia

Tibetans shot officer ‘to avenge killing of monk’

A policeman shot dead in a rare gun battle in a Chinese village this week was killed by outraged Tibetans after he opened fire on a young monk, local sources said.

The story emerging from the remote village of Shanghongke in the northwestern Qinghai province contradicts the official report issued by state media, which claimed that the police officer, Lama Cedain, had died in a hail of bullets as he tried to arrest an insurgent leader.

The officer arrived at the village on Monday morning to arrest a 21-year-old monk, identified by Tibetan sources as Quduo, and shot him. It was not clear if the monk had been resisting arrest.

The monk was wanted by the authorities after he took part in a demonstration in the nearby town of Dari on March 21.

At South Korean museum, ‘paper bombs’ of the Cold War

JEONGSEON, South Korea: In early April, when North Korea called President Lee Myung Bak of South Korea an “impostor,” a “traitor” and an “American running dog,” the barrage sounded all too familiar to Jin Yong Seon. Jin has a museum filled with such verbiage.

In his Remembrance Museum in this former mining town 140 kilometers, or about 90 miles, east of Seoul, Jin is exhibiting 700 samples of what he calls “paper bombs” – the leaflets North and South Korea fired at each other in the years spanning the 1950-53 Korean War and up to 2000, when reconciliation efforts prompted a cease-fire in the propaganda contest.

Latin America

Ecuador leader shakes up military

President Rafael Correa breaks with tradition in overhauling the armed forces’ command in the wake of a Colombian incursion.

QUITO, ECUADOR — Intelligence failures, security lapses and the lack of civilian oversight brought to light by a recent Colombian military incursion into his country have prompted Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa to overhaul the command of his armed forces.

Correa’s shake-up comes in a nation where the military enjoys a high measure of autonomy, wields considerable economic and political power and has played a hand in the overthrow of three presidents since 1997.

“Past presidents couldn’t have attempted this, but Correa has space to maneuver,” said Bertha Garcia, a professor at the Pontifical Catholic University in Quito, the capital, highlighting Correa’s favorable standing in opinion polls and the country’s oil windfall. “His advantages include enormous popular support, $120-per- barrel oil and the public’s fatigue with the old system.”