Italy collector finds Galileo's lost tooth, fingers

Nov 20, 2009 -   Source   Fri Nov 20, 2009 12:17pm EST ROME (Reuters) - An art collector has found a tooth, thumb and finger of the renowned Italian scientist Galileo Galilei who died in the 17th century, Florence's History of Science museum announced on Friday.   The body parts, along with another finger and a vertebrae, were cut from Galileo's corpse by scientists and historians during a burial ceremony held 95 years after his death in 1642.   Giovanni Targioni Tozzetti, a science historian who cut away the parts and wrote about the ceremony, "confessed he had found it hard to resist the temptation to take away the skull which had housed such extraordinary genius," the museum said. - 11 Comments

Rise of conservative women

Nov 18, 2009 - http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/15/michele-bachmann-president-sarah-palin   She is much more Religious Right then I like in Conservative politicians, but I still found her interesting.   The new wave of female firebrands striking fear into liberal America Right-wing radicals are already pinning presidential ambitions on a mother-of-five from Minnesota who calls herself a 'fool for Christ' and condemns Obama as a socialist at the head of a gangster regime

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• • Paul Harris in New York
  • The Observer, Sunday 15 November 2009
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Michele Bachmann gestures as she speaks at the Republican National Convention in 2008. Photograph: Paul Sancya/AP She is a striking brunette with a decidedly outspoken attitude. - 8 Comments

China Holds Firm on Major Issues in Obama’s Visit

Nov 18, 2009 - President Obama toured the historic Forbidden City in Beijing on Tuesday during a break from meetings with Chinese leaders. Source BEIJING — In six hours of meetings, at two dinners and during a stilted 30-minute news conference in which President Hu Jintao did not allow questions, President Obama was confronted, on his first visit, with a fast-rising China more willing to say no to the United States. On topics like Iran (Mr. - 1 Comment

Spiro Agnew must be laughing from his grave.

Nov 15, 2009 - Agnew speeches sparked move toward soft news Michael Socolow (Bangor Daily News) It remains the most influential indictment of American journalism ever made. Forty years ago today, this famous figure began railing against the corporate media. “A broader spectrum of national opinion should be represented among the commentators of the network news,” he argued, explaining that “men who can articulate other points of view should be brought forward, and the American people should be made aware of the trend toward the monopolization of the great public information vehicles and the concentration of more and more power over public opinion in fewer and fewer hands.” American democracy's perilous dependence on the corporate, capitalist media had previously been detailed. - 1 Comment

Understanding todays Soviet Russia

Nov 11, 2009 - Twenty Years After the Fall By George Friedman We are now at the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the beginning of the collapse of the Soviet empire in Eastern Europe. We are also nearing the 18th anniversary of the fall of the Soviet Union itself. This is more than simply a moment for reflection — it is a moment to consider the current state of the region and of Russia versus that whose passing we are now commemorating. - 0 Comments

Sarah, Sarah, Sarah

Nov 09, 2009 - WEST ALLIS, Wis. – Sarah Palin rallied thousands of abortion opponents Friday night with a a stark warning that the same philosophy that allows abortion rights could soon be invoked to allow the government to cut off health care for the elderly or children with special needs. Speaking to a fund-raising banquet of Wisconsin Right to Life, the former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee asserted that if policy-makers don’t believe a child in the womb is valuable, then “perhaps the same mind-set applies to other persons.” “What may they feel about an elderly person who doesn’t have a whole lot of productive years left,” Palin asked an audience of about 5,000 who paid $30 each to hear her speak in an airplane hangar-like exhibition hall at the Wisconsin state fairgrounds just outside of Milwaukee. - 9 Comments

UN Budgets and Follow the Money

Nov 09, 2009 - UN Budgets and Follow the Money Kenneth Anderson • November 8, 2009 9:01 pm The New York Times reports on budget season at the UN and various battles hotting up. It’s a good piece by Neil MacFarquhar, dated November 7, 2009. As the article says, that fact that it costs the United Nations an average of $2,473 per page to create every single document in its six official languages, while outside contractors complete the same work for around $450, prompts diplomats to accuse the organization of running amok during a global financial crisis. - 0 Comments