Prometheus 6

Humans, chimps split 4 million years ago: study
Fri Feb 23, 2007 12:51 PM ET
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A new study, certain to be controversial, maintains that chimpanzees and humans split from a common ancestor just 4 million years ago -- a much shorter time than current estimates of 5 million to 7 million years ago.

The researchers compared the DNA of chimpanzees, humans and our next-closest ancestor, the gorilla, as well as orangutans.

They used a well-known type of calculation that had not been previously applied to genetics to come up with their own "molecular clock" estimate of when humans became uniquely human.

Giuliani To Run For President Of 9/11
February 21, 2007 | Issue 43•08

NEW YORK—At a well-attended rally in front of his new Ground Zero headquarters Monday, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani officially announced his plan to run for president of 9/11.

"My fellow citizens of 9/11, today I will make you a promise," said Giuliani during his 18-minute announcement speech in front of a charred and torn American flag. "As president of 9/11, I will usher in a bold new 9/11 for all."

U.S. economy leaving record numbers in severe poverty
By Tony Pugh

McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON - The percentage of poor Americans who are living in severe poverty has reached a 32-year high, millions of working Americans are falling closer to the poverty line and the gulf between the nation's "haves" and "have-nots" continues to widen.

A McClatchy Newspapers analysis of 2005 census figures, the latest available, found that nearly 16 million Americans are living in deep or severe poverty. A family of four with two children and an annual income of less than $9,903 - half the federal poverty line - was considered severely poor in 2005. So were individuals who made less than $5,080 a year.

via BlackAmazon

The Beating of Billy Ray Johnson

On a Saturday night three years ago, a mentally disabled black man from Linden was taken to a party filled with white kids half his age. A few hours later, he was dumped by the side of the road, bleeding and unconscious. But of all the crimes that were committed, none was worse than how the small East Texas town responded—and who were considered the victims.

by Pamela Colloff

[B]y the following morning, Billy Ray had yet to regain consciousness. A CAT scan found that he had suffered a subarachnoid hemorrhage, a serious brain injury that can be caused by blunt force to the head. While he lay in a coma, word spread that he had last been seen Saturday night at a pasture party with some white boys half his age. Still, the sheriff’s department did not grasp that it had a criminal investigation on its hands until Lieutenant Ray Copeland, the department’s chief investigator, began receiving anonymous phone calls—three that week, all from what sounded to him like the same soft-spoken white man. “Y’all need to look into what happened to Billy Ray,” the caller said, and hung up.

Arab hip-hop doesn't get airplay on stuffy state-run radio and TV stations around the Middle East, so rappers have turned to MySpace.com and other Internet sites to find their audiences. No record deals are in the works for the Gaza crew, but fans abound in the Middle East, Europe and the U.S.; PR's website has had thousands of visitors since last June, according to Al Farra.

Thursday, Feb. 22, 2007
Taking the Rap
By TIM McGIRK

As the late 1990s shooting deaths of Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G. demonstrated, the rap life can be a dangerous existence. But being a rapper in Gaza? Now that presents some unique hazards. At a concert by the Palestinian Rapperz (PR) last summer, Islamic youths, outraged by the group's arm thrusts and crotch grabs, rushed onstage and beat up its four members. Soon after, a Palestinian M.C. known as Sompol was also assailed for immorality. He was kidnapped midperformance and let go three hours later, after a warning at gunpoint to stop bringing un-Islamic Western behavior into Gaza.

And yet rap is thriving. The U.S. import has taken root in the Palestinian territories and Israel, evolving into a gritty hybrid expression of the Arab-Israeli conflict that steers clear of the original's current preoccupations with flashy wealth, gangster attitudes and fast women. "It's preposterous to pose as a gangster out here," says Sagol, 59, hailed as the Israeli godfather of hip-hop. Instead, Israeli and Palestinian artists have borrowed from earlier, more socially conscious rappers such as Shakur, and sharpened their songs to a razorlike political edge.

Iraq Rebuilding Short on Qualified Civilians
By Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, February 24, 2007; A01

In Diyala, the vast province northeast of Baghdad where Sunnis and Shiites are battling for primacy with mortars and nighttime abductions, the U.S. government has contracted the job of promoting democracy to a Pakistani citizen who has never lived or worked in a democracy.

The management of reconstruction projects in the province has been assigned to a Border Patrol commander with no reconstruction experience. The task of communicating with the embassy in Baghdad has been handed off to a man with no background in drafting diplomatic cables. The post of agriculture adviser has gone unfilled because the U.S. Department of Agriculture has provided just one of the six farming experts the State Department asked for a year ago.

Actually, yes.

Turkish leaders are concerned that Iraq's Kurds want Kirkuk's oil revenue to fund a bid for independence that could encourage separatist Kurdish guerrillas in Turkey who have been fighting for autonomy since 1984. The conflict has killed 37,000 people.

Turkey has not ruled out military incursions into Iraq to hunt separatist Kurds, despite warnings from the United States, which fears that such moves could lead to tensions with the Iraqi Kurdish groups allied with Washington.

Turks Charge Kurd With Inciting Hatred
Politician Made Remarks About Iraq
Associated Press
Saturday, February 24, 2007; A12

ANKARA, Turkey, Feb. 23 -- A politician was charged Friday with inciting hatred and threatening public safety after suggesting that fellow Kurds would rise against the state and fight if Turkey ever attacked their Kurdish brethren in neighboring Iraq.

Police detained Hilmi Aydogdu, leader of the Democratic Society Party's branch in the mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir, as he left a conference and questioned him over the remarks, said Nazmi Gur, a party spokesman.

Prosecutors later formally arrested Aydogdu and charged him with threatening public safety by inciting racial enmity and hatred. The charge carries a maximum three-year prison sentence.

Over the six years of a solidly Republican rule, Democrats got steamrolled over and over on proposals that should never even have come up. My favorite was Frist's imaginary "nuclear option."

Look that link over, Democrats.

What really annoyed me about you guys was that even I recognized the nature of the office of Senator meant it only takes one Senator to gum up the works.

Republicans know it, though. Watch as they attempt to disrupt you. They will set one...and only one...senator against you. This way the party can't be indicted as a whole for obstructionism.

You can beat them...but I bet you're scared. I bet you won't make them ACTUALLY filibuster.

U.S. District Judge Robert Holmes Bell, the chief judge in Michigan's Western District, said in an interview yesterday that Chiara has an excellent reputation in Grand Rapids.

"This is a very classy, distinguished, highly regarded public servant," said Bell, who was appointed to the bench during the Reagan administration. "She's one of the best United States attorneys we've had in this district, and all of my colleagues agree. . . . To have her suddenly disappear without warning catches us all flat-footed."

Justice Department Fires 8th U.S. Attorney
Dispute Over Death Penalty Cited
By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, February 24, 2007; A02

An eighth U.S. attorney announced her resignation yesterday, the latest in a wave of forced departures of federal prosecutors who have clashed with the Justice Department over the death penalty and other issues.

Margaret Chiara, the 63-year-old U.S. attorney in Grand Rapids, Mich., told her staff that she was leaving her post after more than five years, officials said. Sources familiar with the case confirmed that she was among a larger group of prosecutors who were first asked to resign Dec. 7.

Man, back when I was a Knicks fan I used to HATE this mother fucker...a sign of high respect.

Former Clippers Coach Dennis Johnson Dies Suddenly

Austin, Texas -- Dennis Johnson, a longtime NBA star and former Clippers’ coach, died Thursday in Austin, Texas at the age of 52.

Johnson was part of three NBA championships, two with the Boston Celtics and one with the Seattle SuperSonics, and had been coaching the Austin Toros of the NBA Developmental League.

Johnson became an assistant with the Clippers in February 2000. He was named Interim Head Coach on March 3, 2003 and compiled an 8-16 record.

Not only is Darkstar telling our business, talking about shit Black folks ONLY talk about in private, he brings proof.

I've been meaning to link My New Black History Month Agenda and keep getting distracted, so here it is while it's on my mind.

Remember this

Cortez said this week that former private Steven D. Green raped the girl before he did. Then Green shot her father, mother and sister before shooting the teen in the head, Cortez said.

He also testified that the soldiers tried to burn the girl's body. They burned their own clothes and threw the murder weapon, an AK-47, into a canal in an effort to dispose of the evidence.

and this

Mr Green's involvement has raised questions about the army's recruiting procedures in an increasingly unpopular war that has killed nearly 3,000 US troops.

He entered the army soon after being arrested for underage drinking, and had a record of alcohol and drug abuse.

To make up for a recruitment shortfall, the army has begun accepting a higher number of "category four" candidates who score low on a military aptitude test.

when you read this.

Stepping to the Plate, Giuliani Is Seeing Only Softballs
By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA

SPARTANBURG, S.C., Feb. 21 — In a swing through South Carolina this week, Rudolph W. Giuliani chose to campaign at a fire house, which is a little like Derek Jeter meeting with Yankees fans — a most unlikely forum for hostility, or even much skepticism.

Instead of the sometimes barbed give-and-take endured by the other candidates, Mr. Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, fielded a few questions from the firefighters and police officers who gathered to hear him here. The questions, which began with comments like, “Being in your presence here is just unbelievable,” stuck almost entirely to issues on which Mr. Giuliani is most comfortable, like airport security and border control.

It must have made them enjoy explosions.

The Army carried out a controlled explosion on the object which was declared safe.

Tape dispenser causes town alert

Police have yet to establish how a tape dispenser which caused a security alert in Ballymena came to be left on a bollard outside a PSNI station.

The tape dispenser, believed to have the abbreviation SOCO written on it, was found at the station on the Galgorm Road at about 1010 GMT.

The letters SOCO are most commonly associated with the PSNI's former Scenes Of Crimes Officers who have been re-named Crime Scene Investigators.