Key Copenhagen policy on forest protection hangs in balance: here.
The brutal measures employed by the Danish police in Copenhagen on Saturday must serve as a warning to the working class and youth in Europe and internationally: here.
Connie Hedegaard resigns as president of Copenhagen climate summit: here.
Feeling the recession bite? Then hit out at a banker
Sunday 13 December 2009
Recession-hit punters are getting their own back on the banks by playing one of the country’s newest amusement arcade games called Whack a Banker.
Inventor Tim Hunkin said that the Whack a Banker machine at his pier arcade in Southwold, Suffolk, was proving a great investment.
Punters are promised a “truly rewarding banking experience” and have to use a mallet to hit as many bald pop-up figures as they can in a limited time.
“You pay 40p to hit as many bankers as you can in 30 seconds as their heads pop up. It’s based on an older game called Whack a Mole,” said Mr Hunkin.
“It’s proving very popular. I keep having to replace worn-out mallets.”
He added: “The bankers are bald and all look the same because that’s how I think people see bankers – as faceless.
“And, of course, the bankers never really lose. If you win the game a banker’s voice says: ‘You win. We retire. Thank you very much to the taxpayer for paying our pensions‘.”
In solidarity with the detainees currently on hunger strike to protest inhumane conditions at the Los Fresnos immigration jail (Port Isabel, TX), I’m highlighting Homeland Guantanamos. Much more than an educational online game, this project documents actual detainees’ stories and the abuses they endured while in detention. Approximately 300,000 immigrants both legal and illegal are being detained in the U.S., many without conviction of any crime. This non-linear storytelling/investigative project invites players to discover what’s really happening on the inside: here.
Genetic tracking is now being extended to all penguin species on the Antarctic peninsula.
Zoological Society of London scientist Dr Tom Hart said: “Knowing how penguins are responding to climate change is vital to conservation efforts.
“If we understand how their populations are changing, we can do something about it, such as making sure that our protected areas are in the right place for penguins in 100 years’ time.”
New pictures reveal rich Antarctic marine life in area of rapid climate change: here.
A proposal aimed at saving the world’s tropical forests has suffered a major setback after negotiators at the UN climate talks had to ditch plans for faster action on the problem because rich countries aren’t willing to finance it: here.
ScienceDaily (Dec. 21, 2009) — All insect-eating migratory birds who winter in Africa and breed in the Dutch woods have decreased in numbers since 1984. This has been revealed by research conducted by the University of Groningen, the SOVON Dutch Centre for Field Ornithology, Statistics Netherlands (CBS), Radboud University Nijmegen and Alterra, published on 16 December in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences: here.
[Macaroni] Penguins at a Leicestershire zoo are helping scientists with a new project to track the movements of their cousins in Antarctica: here.
The Antarctica Blog: Evolution and the Macaroni penguin: here.
How will the birds of Antarctica take the new wind ‘farm’? Here.
Century-old Antarctic weather station shows warming: here.
King Penguins have been observed for the first time, being chased and eaten at sea by Antarctic fur seals which have previously only been noted catching them on land: here.
While participating in a study of penguins in Antarctica, the author braved extreme weather, primitive living conditions and intense isolation: here.
Marine Protected Areas : a solution for saving the penguin: here.
In a clear sign of Washington’s declining influence, even in a country it still occupies, companies from China, Russia, Malaysia and Angola, along with several European oil giants, won most of the rights to explore and develop Iraq’s oil fields: here.
One of Tony Blair‘s most senior civil servants has launched a savage attack on the former prime minister over the Iraq war: here.
‘Sycophant’ Tony Blair used deceit to justify Iraq war, says former DPP: here.
Former prime minister Tony Blair has effectively admitted he is guilty of war crimes even before he testifies to the Iraq inquiry, anti-war campaigners have claimed: here.
Former prime minister Tony Blair was facing further accusations that he led the country into the Iraq war on a lie: here.
Intoxicated by power, Blair tricked us into war: here.
The British government’s near-hysterical reaction to a war crimes warrant against former Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni coincided with a damning BBC interview given by former Prime Minister Tony Blair: here.
An UNSCOM interview sheds new light on the Iraq invasion: here.
TONY BLAIR AND GORDON BROWN SHOULD BE TRIED AS WAR CRIMINALS – Military families press conference is told: here.
Gordon Brown has been called to give evidence to the Iraq inquiry but not before next year’s general election, it was announced yesterday: here.
A US soldier from a West Virginia backwater was thrust into the spotlight after she was identified as one of the troops pictured apparently abusing Iraqi prisoners: here.
A Dutch court has begun hearing a suit filed by 16 Iraqi Kurds seeking compensation from a businessman who sold chemicals to Saddam Hussein: here.
Today, from the forest to the south of the nature reserve, the sound of a great spotted woodpecker making music with a tree branch. An early herald of spring, even though it is freezing today.
This video says about itself:
Great Spotted Woodpecker, female, has wedged a pine cone into a telegraph pole so she can extract seeds easier.
A ring-necked parakeet.
In a garden opposite the reserve: dunnock, blue tit, robin.
Climate activists have criticised Danish police for employing draconian tactics after nearly 1,000 people were arrested in Copenhagen during climate change protests at the weekend: here.
About the Copenhagen conference: Climate justice campaigners have condemned Britain for being the only country to ask developing nations to repay “aid” given to tackle environmental change: here.
This video from the USA is called Berkeley Student PROTEST againt tuition hike- beaten by police!!!!!
California police are engaged in a major crackdown on student protests against budget cuts, tuition increases and the attack on public education: here.
Britain: David Miliband has launched an unprecedented attack on a High Court ruling which would force the government to disclose information relating to the detention and torture of Binyam Mohamed, branding it “irresponsible”: here.
Reprieve has accused the government of gross hypocrisy over its attempts to smear torture opponents and the media to deflect attention from its own shameful involvement in the abuse of Binyam Mohamed: here.
Legal action group Reprieve has dismissed attempts by a Tory member of the intelligence and security committee (ISC) to downplay MI5′s role in the torture of Binyam Mohamed: here.
New evidence cataloguing the torture and abuse of Binyam Mohamed by US intelligence services emerged on Thursday – despite the British government’s continued attempts to prevent details of his case being released: here.
The US has been slammed over its threats to withdraw intelligence sharing in the wake of the Court of Appeal ruling in the Binyam Mohamed case: here. See also here.
The political fallout over revelations of Britain’s complicity in the torture by US forces of former Guantanamo Bay detainee Binyam Mohamed has embroiled the Brown government and MI5 in equal measure: here.
The Court of Appeal’s judgement in the Binyam Mohamed case reveals the depth of the relationship of the US and British security services: here.
Britain is becoming a police state, academics have warned after an MP announced that counter-terrorism officers were being stationed in universities identified as vulnerable to extremists: here.
From British daily 
