Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/166992778?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Top prize at Gotham Film Awards ends in tie (omg!)
New York (AP) ? In truly independent fashion, the Gotham Independent Film Awards ended with a tie for Best Feature. Terrence Malick's highly imaginative "The Tree of Life," and Mike Mills' flashback comedy, "Beginners," both received the night's high honor.
The unprecedented ruling was announced via video screen to the audience by jury member Natalie Portman who said her peers were "stuck" when it came to selecting a winner, so they "chose to honor both."
"The Tree of Life," starring Brad Pitt and Sean Penn, also won the Palm d'Or at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. "Beginners" was released last year and stars Ewan McGregor and Christopher Plummer.
The Gotham Film Awards kicks off the award season, and has honored many Oscar-nominated films, including the 2008 winner for Best Picture, "The Hurt Locker."
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Dell Streak 7 Review
Because of its 7-inch display screen, the Dell Streak 7 is probably the smallest tablet computers on the market. Many people may find this a disadvantage, but its size provides it with supreme mobility. Additionally, it has some fantastic specifications such as highly effective processor chip, 4G, and also to top it all off it features a comparatively low cost. How exactly does it compare with other Google android tablet computers out there? Positive points about the Dell Streak 7 [...]
Source: http://tabletbuzzblog.com/dell-streak-7-review/
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Monday, November 28, 2011
Ahead Of Climate Talks, U.S. Leadership In Question
Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images The U.S. is second only to China in emitting gases that cause global warming. Above, the smoke stacks at American Electric Power's Mountaineer power plant in West Virginia.
A new round of United Nations climate talks is getting under way in Durban, South Africa, Monday. And domestic struggles here in the United States are hampering the global talks.
The United States is second only to China in emitting gases that cause global warming. Despite a presidential pledge to reduce emissions two years ago, we're spewing more carbon dioxide than ever into the atmosphere.
That's putting a crimp on the 20-year-long struggle to develop a meaningful climate treaty.
I'm not unrealistic about what we're able to achieve, but I'm very confident we can achieve more than we have done so far, which is basically zero.
There was a glimmer of hope at a U.N. meeting two years ago in Copenhagen. Nations weren't going for a binding treaty, but some pledged to take serious action anyway.
President Obama stood before the tense meeting and promised that the United States would do its part.
"Almost all the major economies have put forward legitimate targets, significant targets, ambitious targets," he said. "And I'm confident that America will fulfill the commitments that we have made, cutting our emissions in the range of 17 percent by 2020 and in the range of 80 percent by 2050, in line with final legislation."
Ambitious targets, indeed, but the last phrase, "in line with final legislation" ended up being a killer caveat.
The promise to cut emissions was contingent on Congress passing an aggressive cap-and-trade bill. But that 2,000-page bill went into the trash instead of onto the president's desk. The Great Recession briefly achieved what Congress didn't ? national emissions fell for a short time. But no longer.
"Starting in 2010 it looks like we're starting to see an uptick again, and you would expect to see emissions continuing to increase in a business-as-usual case out to 2020," says Kevin Kennedy at the World Resources Institute.
The president's recently enacted fuel-efficiency standards for cars and light trucks will put a meaningful dent in our emissions, Kennedy says. And rules about power plants, due out early next year, could also reduce carbon dioxide emissions. How much, of course, depends on how stringent the rules are. States, especially California, have laws designed to lower their emissions in the coming decades.
But even with all those state and federal actions taken together, the World Resources Institute figures that the nation can't achieve a 17 percent reduction in emissions by 2020. New federal laws would need to fill the gap, and prospects for that aren't good.
"Nowhere else in the world do you see a political debate about whether climate science is real, whether or not the climate is actually changing," Kennedy says. "That political climate makes it very difficult to move forward in a comprehensive way. And that is something we need to address in this country."
Is U.S. Leadership Key?
Part of the problem is this: Even Congress members who accept the science of climate change are concerned that if the United States dramatically slashes its emissions, that could harm economic competitiveness. And by itself, U.S. action won't do much to slow global warming. Meaningful action requires an agreement that extends far beyond our national borders.
Nowhere else in the world do you see a political debate about whether climate science is real, whether or not the climate is actually changing. That political climate makes it very difficult to move forward in a comprehensive way.
And that brings us back to the climate talks in South Africa. Alden Meyer at the Union of Concerned Scientists says the weak actions domestically mean the U.S. doesn't have much leverage in the international talks.
"The U.S. is not able to show its partners how we are going to meet the 17 percent reduction President Obama committed to," Meyer says. Also we are struggling to come up with our fair share of the financing for developing nation action on technology, on adaptation, on preserving forests. So we're not bringing a lot to the table."
For years, Europe has taken the lead at the international talks. But the EU hasn't gotten others to follow. Scott Barrett at Columbia University holds out hope that things would be better if the United States led the way.
"If you look at lots of global issues in the past, where we've had success in the past, we've had U.S. leadership. On this issue we have not had proper U.S. leadership," Barrett says.
The great challenge is to identify actions that every major player is willing to take ? actions that can make a difference to the climate without upsetting economic competitiveness around the world.
What's politically possible may not be as much as scientists say we need to accomplish to stabilize the planet's atmosphere, but Barrett says we need to start somewhere.
"I'm not unrealistic about what we're able to achieve," Barrett says, "but I'm very confident we can achieve more than we have done so far, which is basically zero."
And, he adds, climate change is the hardest problem the world has ever tried to address collectively.
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Sunday, November 27, 2011
Thousands rally in Egypt on "last chance Friday" (Reuters)
CAIRO (Reuters) ? Tens of thousands of Egyptians demanding an end to military rule packed Cairo's Tahrir square on Friday in the biggest turnout of a week of protests and violence that has killed 41 people.
The military rulers named a veteran former prime minister to head a new civilian cabinet, but that did little to appease the demonstrators who poured scorn on a name from the past.
The United States, long a bedrock supporter of Egypt's military, called on the generals to step aside "as soon as possible" and give real power to the new cabinet "immediately."
Protesters accuse the military of clinging to power since it took over when an uprising toppled President Hosni Mubarak on February 11. The past week of street battles between demonstrators and police have looked like a replay of February's unrest.
Kamal Ganzouri, named by the ruling army council to head a national salvation cabinet, said his powers were stronger than those given to previous prime ministers, but gave no details.
"I have asked the Field Marshal to give me a little time so I can form a cabinet that will satisfy the entire people," the veteran economist told a news conference, referring to army chief Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi.
He said the new government would not be announced before Monday, the date set for Egypt's first free parliamentary election in decades, which could be overshadowed if the violence of the past week continues.
Ganzouri, 78, served as prime minister under Mubarak from 1996 to 1999. He was appointed after Prime Minister Essam Sharaf's cabinet resigned this week amid the protests.
Protesters responded angrily to the naming of a Mubarak-era veteran. After his appointment was confirmed, crowds in Tahrir chanted in derision: "They brought a thief and appointed another thief," referring to Sharaf and Ganzouri.
Hundreds of protesters shouted "Ganzouri, we don't want you" outside the cabinet offices in central Cairo.
The military rulers have promised a faster transfer of power to a civilian president, now due to be elected in June, and say the parliamentary elections will go ahead as planned.
BATTLE ZONES
Until a truce calmed violence on Thursday, streets around Tahrir had become battle zones with stone-throwing protesters fighting police firing tear gas, pellets and rubber bullets, a repeat of the scenes that forced Mubarak from office.
Protesters called for a million-man march on what they dubbed "the Friday of the last chance." A steady stream of men, women and children surged into Tahrir before weekly Muslim prayers, often the day of the biggest demonstrations of this year's "Arab Spring" uprisings across the region.
Some, like Atef Sayed, 45, with his wife and two daughters, were protesting for the very first time.
"We're here to back the idea that the military council hands responsibility to civilians and focuses on military affairs. Nine months have gone by with many things that have happened in a way opposite to what the revolutionaries wanted," he said.
But enthusiasm for the protests was not universal.
About 5,000 people waving Egyptian flags demonstrated in favor of the military rulers in Cairo's Abbassiya district.
"The people want the emptying of the square," shouted the demonstrators, watched by hundreds of people on flyover bridges. A banner read: "Egypt will not be governed from Tahrir square."
Activists who tried to organize a march to Tahrir from a mosque in the capital's Shubra neighborhood were rebuffed.
"The army council will leave in six months. We have elections in three days. What do these people want?" asked one worshipper angrily. "They are hired to start trouble."
In its strongest statement on Egypt's turmoil so far, the White House stepped up pressure on the military rulers to speed up the handover to civilian control.
"Full transfer of power to a civilian government must take place in a just and inclusive manner that responds to the legitimate aspirations of the Egyptian people, as soon as possible," White House spokesman Jay Carney said in a statement.
"The United States strongly believes that the new Egyptian government must be empowered with real authority immediately."
FRUSTRATION WITH ARMY
The army, once hailed for its role in easing Mubarak from power, has come under increasing fire for dragging out a handover to civilian rule, even as Egypt's economy falters.
Many protesters say they do not trust the army to oversee a fair election next week.
The Muslim Brotherhood, which along with some other groups accepted army plans for a faster transition, wants the election to go ahead, drawing scorn from some protesters who say the Brotherhood is focused only on gaining seats in parliament.
The Brotherhood organized a protest last Friday against army efforts to shape a new constitution, but left Tahrir as protests widened. It held a separate rally this Friday at al-Azhar mosque for the "liberation" of Jerusalem from Israeli control.
The Health Ministry said 41 people have died in the week's violence, state television reported. More than 2,000 people were also wounded in the unrest in Cairo and several other cities.
The latest upheaval makes it even harder to dig the economy out of a crisis whose first victims are the millions of poor Egyptians whose frustration spurred the revolt against Mubarak.
Egypt's central bank unexpectedly raised interest rates on Thursday for the first time in more than two years, after depleting its foreign reserves trying to defend a currency weakened by the political chaos.
In fresh blows to confidence, the Egyptian pound weakened to more than six to the dollar for the first time since January 2005, and Standard & Poor's cut Egypt's credit rating.
The economic woes may argue in favor of Ganzouri, whose government virtually balanced the budget, cut inflation, held the exchange rate stable and maintained healthy foreign currency reserves during his time in office from 1996 to 1999.
He introduced some economic liberalization measures and many Egyptians viewed him as an official who was not tainted by corruption. But his record serving under Mubarak could stir opposition from those demanding a clean break with the past.
Some Facebook activists derided the choice of a Mubarak-era man to steer the country into a new era, listing four ancient pharaohs as useful alternatives if Ganzouri turns the job down.
"Tutankhamun is more suitable because he is from the youth," one said, referring to the boy king of ancient Egypt.
(Additional reporting by Shaimaa Fayed, Tamim Elyan, Dina Zayed and Ashraf Fahim; Writing by Alistair Lyon; Editing by Peter Graff)
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