BREVITAS

Ecology

Tree Hugger - There have been an increasing number of stories coming to light detailing how organized crime syndicates around the world have been getting their dirty little fingers into the green world. The latest: Italian police have arrested two businessmen on fraud charges, linking them with Mafia in wind farm permit fixing schemes; and the government of Madagascar (such as it is) appears to be tied in with what's being called a 'timber mafia', profiting from illegal wood sales largely sent to China.

Reuters - Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez says he will join a team of Cuban scientists on flights to "bomb clouds" to create rain amid a severe drought that has aroused public anger due to water and electricity rationing. Chavez, who has asked Venezuelans to take three-minute showers to save water, said the Cubans had arrived in Venezuela and were preparing to fly specially equipped aircraft above the Orinoco river. "I'm going in a plane; any cloud that crosses me, I'll zap it so that it rains," Chavez said at a ceremony late on Saturday with family members of five Cubans convicted of spying in the United States. Many countries have programs aimed at altering weather patterns, commonly known as cloud seeding, although the effectiveness of such techniques is disputed.

Corporados

Cory Doctorow, Boing Boing - The Times Labs blog takes a hard look at the data on music sales and live performances and concludes that while the labels' profits might be falling, artists are taking in more money, thanks to the booming growth of live shows. The Times says that they'd like more granular data about who's making all the money from concerts -- is there a category of act that's a real winner here? -- but the trend seems clear. The 21st century music scene is the best world ever for some musicians and music-industry businesses, and the worst for others. Which raises the question: is it really copyright law's job to make sure that last years winners keep on winning? Or is it enough to ensure that there will always be winners? "Our data make two things clear: one, that the growth in live revenue shows no signs of slowing and two, that live is by far and away the most lucrative section of industry revenue for artists themselves, because they retain such a big percentage of the money from ticket sales."

Obama

Lloyd Grove, Daily Beast - As Jacob Weisberg wrote recently in Slate, "Obama has a healthy disdain for the overrated virtue of political loyalty… If you're useful, you can hang around with him. If you start to look like a liability, enjoy your time with the wolves. . . The president is catlike also in his lack of evident affection for the people who take care of him." . . The Daily Beast Body Count

War Department

BBC - The US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has blocked the publication of further images of US soldiers abusing foreign detainees. The US administration filed a request with the Supreme Court late on Friday preventing the release of the photos. The order refers to some 40 images, including some of prisoners being abused in Afghanistan and Iraq. Last month, Congress gave Mr Gates new powers to prevent their release under a law signed by the US president. . . The American Civil Liberties Union had sued for the release of 21 of the images. The group says it will continue to press for the release of the images, arguing they represent "an important part of the historical record".

More funny stuff in official Ft Hood story

Police state

Slashdot - Earlier this year, there was much ado about a Ron Paul staffer, Steve Bierfeldt, being detained by the TSA for carrying large sums of money. The ACLU sued on his behalf, and the TSA changed its rules, now stating that its officers can only screen for unsafe materials. With that, the ACLU dropped its suit. [Ben Wizner, a staff lawyer for the ACLU, said] "screeners get a narrow exception to the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches, strictly to keep weapons and explosives off planes, not to help police enforce other laws."

Money & work

NNPA - Almost one in five black men 20-years-old or older are without a job, according to figures released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics earlier this month. The seasonally-adjusted October unemployment rate for black males is above 17 percent whereas the jobless rate for white adult males and females is under double digits at 9.5 percent and 7.4 percent, respectively. At 12.4 percent, joblessness for black women also skews above the national rate, which is currently at 10.2 percent, approaching the

Wall Street Journal - In the past two years, the FDIC has taken over 150 failed banks. In the process, it has seized more than 5,000 houses, subdivisions, buildings, parcels and other foreclosed assets. The current backlog of property stuck on the agency's books, with an appraised value of $1.8 billion, ranges from an $18,700 clapboard home with stained carpets in Birmingham, Ala., to a $1.7 million mountainside lodge with a heated driveway in Steamboat Springs, Colo. . .

Freedom & Justice

ACLU - The Supreme Court heard arguments in Sullivan v. Florida and Graham v. Florida. In both cases, the petitioners argued that when a child is sentenced to life without the possibility of parole, it violates the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. Both Sullivan and Graham committed crimes in which no one was killed: when he was 13, Joe Sullivan raped a woman, and at 16, Terrance Graham committed armed burglary. Sullivan and Graham are sentenced to die in prison. In the United States, approximately 2,570 children are serving life sentences without the possibility of parole. Children as young as 13 have been sentenced to spend the rest of their lives in prison without a second chance and an opportunity for release. We are the only country in the world where children are serving such cruel sentences.

Brian Doherty, Hit & Run - An undercover cop enters a bridal shop run by city councilwoman in West Point, Georgia, and nabs her in the act of serving gratis mimosas to her customers, in violation of both city and state law. She is cuffed and taken away in front of her customers, and ultimately gets away with a mere 30-days probation. Crimestoppers textbook: The law-abiding might not know of this controlled substance, "mimosas," often linked to violence, inappropriate toasting, and the street custom of "brunch." It is a mixture of champagne--frequently the cheapest variety available, to pump up the pushers profits--tainted with orange juice, often called "OJ" on the street. (This is the juice of a fruit that might be growing, unbeknownst to you, in your own back yard; check a horticulture guide for how to recognize it.) Parents, please listen to your children and keep a keen ear for this street slang that often signals trouble--"OJ" and "the bubbly" are both danger signs--such as the intent to go into business selling bridal acoutrements.

Palm Beach Post - An overgrown lawn could cost a homeowner $1,000 a day. A plan to quadruple the penalty from the current maximum of $250 per day for a first violation is scheduled for consideration at Tuesday night's town council meeting. A repeat violation by the same person would be boosted to $5,000 a day maximum from $500 per day. If the code enforcement board finds that the violation is irreversible - the unapproved removal of an historic tree, for example - the violator would face a maximum fine of $15,000. The current maximum penalty is $5,000.

Health

LA Times - Transcendental Meditation has been around for many years and is perhaps the most scientifically tested of all forms of meditation. Two studies presented this week add to the evidence that this form of stress reduction benefits people with heart disease and those at high risk for it. One study, presented on Monday at the American Heart Assn.'s annual meeting, found that heart disease patients who practice TM have almost 50% lower rates of heart attacks, stroke and deaths compared to similar patients who don't practice meditation. . . In the second study, published today in the American Journal of Hypertension, researchers found that TM was an effective tool to reduce blood pressure, anxiety, depression and anger among college students at risk for high blood pressure.

Wired - A study of DNA from ancient and modern Adelie penguins suggests that scientists may have miscalculated the rates at which genetic clocks tick off evolutionary time in other species as well. A team of researchers collected mitochondrial DNA from penguins currently living in rookeries in Antarctica and from bones of penguins that had lived in the same spot as long as 44,000 years ago. Analysis of the DNA reveals that the penguins are evolving on a molecular scale two to six times faster than standard calculations indicated, the team reports in the November Trends in Genetics.

The mix

DCist - The D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics rejected an initiative petition on the issue of legalizing same-sex marriage in the District of Columbia. . . The Board held that such ballot measures do 'not present a proper subject of initiative because it would authorize discrimination prohibited under the Human Rights Act.' The Board's reasoning in today's decision also turns on the existing law established by the Jury and Marriage Amendment Act of 2009, the one that allows the District to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other jurisdictions.