Alberta's Plan to Kill Wolves

Alberta has clearly been lost to the relentless exploitation of the tar sands by corporations bent on extracting a profit regardless of the environmental costs. The latest atrocity against nature to be revealed is a plan to kill roughly about 6,000 wolves over the next five years ostensibly to protect woodland caribou. In reality caribou habitat is being destroyed by development at an unprecedented rate. Watch this DeSmogBlog video to understand the dirty politics and the "ethical oil campaign" propaganda behind Canada's cynical folly:

Weekend Edition: God's Particle?

US Person recalls the echos of triumph surrounding the "discovery" of cold fusion in 1989. Hailed as the ultimate clean solution to our energy problems, the sun in a test tube turned out to be little more than a hoax ("pathological science"), another of a historically long line of disreputable claims in the field of science. Creationists are found of referring to the checkered record of scientists too eager for acclaim and financial reward as they attempt to dismantle the evidentiary edifice of evolution or the impacts of global warming. Just a year ago it was claimed by European scientists, some of them connected with CERN (European Center for Nuclear Research) in Switzerland, super luminal neutrinos were discovered. The claim was greeted with justifiable skepticism by most of the particle physics community since such a discovery would put Einstein's special theory of relativity by which we understand the universe into doubt. Indeed, the OPERA program claim was subjected to rigorous scrutiny and a measurement error was discovered, not faster than light neutrinos.

Higgs congratulates physicist Fabiola Gianotti

Now, after 40 years of searching and billions spent, CERN scientists using the biggest accelerator ever invented, the Large Hadron Collider, claim to have smashed two protons traveling at the speed of light to produce the "God Particle", or more humbly, Higgs' boson. The claim that the elusive boson has been found is a landmark development in science akin to the discovery of the structure of DNA.  Higgs' boson is fundamental to the "Standard Model" of physics--or how the universe exists--because it is this sub-atomic particle which gives every other its mass. The discovery is presented as provisional, but CERN scientists associated with the effort and the $10.5 billion accelerator are jubilant [photo, top] because the degree of confidence in an actual discovery is at the 5 sigma level--less than one in three million chance the results are random. Two sets of experiments independently confirmed the existence of a new sub-atomic particle with a mass of about 133 times that of a proton equivalent to 125.3 GeV. The Standard Model predicted the mass of a Higgs' particle to be 125.5 GeV.  A neat, much desired conformation to quantum mechanical equations to be sure. However, the Standard Model also predicts more than one tyoe of Higgs' boson. Thus, CERN scientists are cautious about the exact identity of the new particle pending further research. Nevertheless, celebrity physicist Steven Hawking admitted he would have to pay up on his bet of $100 that the Higgs' would never be found.

Professor emeritus Peter Higgs, 83, who conceptualized the boson in 1964, never liked the name, "God Particle" notwithstanding his atheism. As Der Spiegel acutely wrote, matter only comprises 4% of the universe, the rest is composed of dark matter and dark energy of which man knows nothing. Higgs, a winner of the prestigious Dirac Medal, is an odds-on favorite to win a Nobel Prize now that the particle he theorized on a rainy weekend in Scotland has been located. Dr. Higgs and six other physicists developed the theory of the Higgs field, which if collided with enough energy, they thought would produce a fragile, but heavy sub-atomic particle. Higgs shed a tear at the seminar announcing the confirmation of his "one big idea", something he did not think would happen in his lifetime. The boson, because its exact physical mass was unknown and its life span in the millionth of second, eluded stalking scientists at CERN's Large Electron Positron Collider and the Tevatron at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois. Both of these accelerators are now shut down. The Large Hadron Collider was created in part to search for the Higg's boson. That a "boson-like" particle has been detected to a great degree of certainty is a vindication of man's current mathematical model of nature, but what is absolutely certain is more questions about the ultimate nature of the Creation will be asked than ever answered by mankind.

'Toontime: Through a Screen, Lightly

[credit: Rachel Gold, Tiroler Tagezeitung]

US Person must admit he enjoyed the telecasts of the European Cup which ended last week with the favorite, Spain, winning over a spent Italy which unexpectedly beat Germany to reach the championship game. Watching from afar one could not notice the Eurozone is in a deep financial crisis. The modern stadiums in Poland and Ukraine were filled by enthusiastic fans with painted faces and humorous costumes. Mid-field seats at the final in Kiev were reportedly going for $4500; Spain has Depression- level unemployment. But who wants to think about austerity when there is a good football match to watch? The next distraction: the London Olympics.

Money talks as readers know and the talking is the loudest on the side of the party of the plutocrats. Mitt Romney et al raised a staggering $100 million in June, topping their May effort of $77 million. Citizens United is working like a charm, Chief:

[credit: Steve Sack, Minneapolis Star-Tribune]

The character above resembles billionaire casino owner Sheldon Adelson, reported to have donated $10 million to the fascist Koch brothers who have pledged to bring down the "socialist Obama" if it takes every oil well they own. Adelson donated a whopping $21 million to a super PAC promoting former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, and another $10 million to a super PAC backing Mitt Romney. Buddy, can you spare a million?

South Korea Joins Japan's Charade

South Korea announced it would begin 'scientific whaling' a codeword for commercial whaling of Minke whales in its coastal waters. Korea already kills an estimated 200 whales a year as "bycatch" another codeword for incidental killing when fishing for other species. Officially whales are off limits to Korean fisherman, but if reported the bycatch in the nets can be sold. A whale is thought to bring $100,000 on the open market, so there is plenty of economic incentive to accidentally kill whales. Why the scientific community in South Korea would need more specimens than 200 a year is thus beyond credible explanation. What the government is attempting to do is grandfather the existing gray trade and make it legal trade. The New Zealand Foreign Minister called it "commercial whaling in drag". There is little doubt the decision is a maneuver around South Korea's obligations under the IWC ban on whaling similar to Japan's circumvention. Informed suspicion is that the whale catch is much more than 200 a year. Researchers estimate in a 2007 study that between 1999 and 2003, 827 whales were killed and sold for meat. Ulsan is Korea's whaling capital with an annual festival dedicated to whaling culture.  At nearby Bangudae, petroglyphs suggest whaling goes back 8,000 years.  Whale meat was consumed to prevent famine during World War II.   Traditions die hard in the Orient.[photo: whale meat in Ulsan market] South Korea's deplorable decision puts more onus on the International Whaling Commission to take effective action against efforts to circumvent and discredit the international ban.

Poaching War Escalates

Two rangers and 13 endangered okapi [photo] were killed when militiamen attacked the Okapi Wildlife Reserve near the village of Epulu in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on June 24th. Four other persons were killed including the wife of one of the rangers. Some of the okapi were residents of the station for twenty-three years where they served as specie ambassadors to help educate visitors and locals about the rainforest and its inhabitants. John Lukas, head of the Reserve, said the attacks were in retaliation for efforts to stop elephant poaching and illegal gold mining. The army and UN troops are pursuing the murderers, but they must proceed with caution since the Mai Mai Simba bandits took over 30 local villagers hostage to help transport loot through the forest. Led by a man named Morgan the militia are armed with automatic weapons which they purchase with money gotten from the illegal and deplorable trade in elephant ivory that is threatening to destroy surviving elephants continent-wide.

Conservation work has taken on a dangerous edge in recent years as field researchers, activists, and staff face the possibility of death at the hands of thwarted poachers, exploiters and militia living off the land. Global Witness counts 711 persons killed defending land and forest rights between 2002 and 2011. Last year alone 106 were killed, the highest number in ten years. In the DRC a conflict between villagers and a logging company resulted in beatings and rapes by state security forces. Seventy-year old Frederic Moloma Tuka was killed, but very few such deaths result in legal prosecutions. Two months ago Cambodian forest advocate, Chut Wutty, was shot dead while escorting journalists to the scene of illegal logging. The Cambodian military has provided various versions of what happened when Wutty was stopped by military police. One of its soldiers was also killed in the confrontation.

Gabon burned its stock of 1200 confiscated ivory tusks last week as a message to the world about how Gabon will deal with wildlife crime. President Ali Bongo said his country does not want "our children to inherit an empty forest". The Wildlife Conservation Society recently reported that monitored elephant populations in central Africa were cut in half between 2006 and 2011. Elephant poaching is at its worst levels in a decade according to TRAFFIC and MIKE two programs that monitor elephant populations. The good news in this bleak picture of extermination is that seizures of illegal ivory are up--in 2011 there were 14 large scale seizures amounting to 24 tons of ivory--but successful prosecutions of organized crime syndicates must be obtained if elephants and other seriously endangered animals are to be saved from extinction by the greed of man.

Chart of the Week: Debt'O'Rama

Commentator John Quinn @ marketoracle.uk.com posted these charts to show the massive transfer of debt that has taken place since 2007. Debt in the domestic financial sector has declined dramatically (black line) while household debt has increased despite what the talking heads on CMM say. Consumers have added $27 billion of credit card debt and $300 billion of additional student loans since 2008 (red line). Wall Street has dumped $4.3 trillion of toxic debt and $1 trillion of mortgage and credit card debt onto the taxpayers' back via the balance sheet of the Federal Reserve. Nevertheless, total debt has gone up, not down:

The global finance system no longer operates to allocate capital towards beneficial projects that enhance the world's standard of living; it operates as a self-serving casino that encourages speculation and rewards the greed of the world's six thousand or so plutocrats. (see Rothkopf's "Superclass") This dysfunctional system in which capital is traded as a commodity and not used to produce social value is what Marx predicted as the "comodification of capital" in the decadent stages of capitalism. The truth is that markets are not infallible, nor guided by an "invisible hand" to be unerringly efficient because the standard free-market economic model contains a fundamental misconception: humans are social animals not utterly rational, autonomous individuals making discrete decisions about utility. No wonder Allan Greenspan, himself not of the Christian evangelical tradition, had a crisis of faith!

That debt can become so onerous as to usurp democracy is not a new phenomenon in the world. Take the case of Newfoundland. The once independent island nation had the oldest parliament in the British Empire save Westminster, but in 1933 after the collapse of fish prices, debt servicing consumed 59% of the nation's revenues. The country defaulted on its external sovereign debt in 1936. The British government formed a commission to examine the status and future of tiny but independent Newfoundland. It recommended among other things that Newfoundland's government be suspended. And so 280,000 free, white, English-speaking people lost their sovereignty when Great Britain used its powers of the crown to federate Newfoundland with Canada. The United States used gunboats and the Monroe doctrine to impose a fiscal protectorate on the Dominican Republic, control its customs houses, and eventually occupy the country in 1916. Nicaragua and Haiti faced similar fates at the hands of Uncle Sam. In the most recent international financial crisis, only Iceland, having the advantage of a small, but politically active populace, has managed to hold on to control of it finances and thereby its sovereignty by showing the international banksters were to get off.

Weekend Edition: Another Lousy Ambassador

Another American diplomat bit the dust Friday when the ambassador to Kenya, Scott Gration, resigned under the cloud of a highly critical performance report by the State Department's Inspector General's office. State Department sources said it is the worst review of an ambassador's performance by the IG in several years. Gration was supposed to be one of the top three security advisors to the Obamanator, along with retired Air Force General Merrill McPeak and former Navy Secretary Richard Danzig. Nevertheless, Gration is just one of several high profile ambassadors to loose their comfortable positions after questions about their performance were raised. {01.03.12}

Gration apparently rubbed his embassy staff the wrong way with a penchant for micromanagement and operation outside established protocols. Gration even when so far as to set up an office in an embassy bathroom in order to conduct official business on his own laptop computer beyond the notice of his communications staff. A staffer summoned to Gration's unconventional workroom was required to sit on the throne. He is alleged to have exhibited erratic, controlling, and sometimes bullying behavior: he ordered all tables adjusted to the same height, ordered all clocks recalibrated, and told his staff he would "shoot them in the head" if they did not follow orders, an undiplomatic hyperbole which generated a formal complaint from staff. Attrition rates in the Nairobi Embassy were staggering; some staff even accepted transfers to Iraq and Afghanistan, referred to as "shit holes" among veteran State Department hands, to get away from the Kenyan post.

Gration is a former fighter-pilot instructor who retired from the military in 2006. He became an Obama acolyte during an extended African trip with the then Senator. Apparently the smoothly glib Obama so impressed him, he changed his political affiliation. One pundit described Gration as "the most mystical believer" in the Obamacon. Gration's slavish admiration netted him the post of Special Envoy to Sudan, thus he began his second career as a diplomat. Many considered his approach to sensitive negotiations over the independence of South Sudan incredibly naive. He was transferred to Kenya in February 2011, after lobbying for the ambassadorial appointment. Clearly Gration's abrasive personality and unconventional work habits may have been compatiable with the cockpit, but they rapidly became a liability for the administration, adulatory relationship with the President notwithstanding. Kenya faces potentially violent upheavals during the prelude to the 2013 national elections, and is considered to be a key player in controlling the failed state of Somalia.