This video is called Mushroom time lapse Amanita Muscaria.
Two days ago, there was a young fly agaric. Today, it looks full grown. Fast!
One of the very young fly agarics of two days ago is red by now.
Fungi on Texel island: here.
This video says about itself:
This video contains clips highlighting the denials made by the British Government concerning the use of UK territory in CIA rendition “torture” flights. It now appears that UK territory was used by the US in at least two rendition flights. Either the British Government lied or they were kept in the dark by Washington. It is simply not believable that the US took six years to discover whether any of its aircraft ever touched down on UK soil.
By Paddy McGuffin in Britain:
Blair ‘knew abuse risk’Wednesday 29 September 2010
Tony Blair jumped into bed with the US “war on terror” despite knowing within weeks of its launch that there was a risk Britons were being tortured, according to newly published secret documents.
The information, contained in an internal government memo, came to light after High Court judges forced the government to release a number of confidential documents on Tuesday.
In the memo Blair acknowledged the possibility that British nationals and residents were being tortured by the US in January 2002.
Yet despite concerns being voiced, MI5 and MI6 continued providing questions for US interrogators to put to suspects.
The documents were ordered published as part of an ongoing civil case being brought by six former Guantanamo detainees against the British state over its alleged complicity in their detention and abuse.
Lawyers representing Binyam Mohamed, Bisher Al Rawi, Jamil El Banna, Richard Belmar, Omar Deghayes and Martin Mubanga have condemned the glacial speed of government disclosure of key documents, which it is believed would support their clients’ claims.
Among the newly released documents is a letter from the Foreign Office to the Prime Minister’s Office containing handwritten comments that appear to come from Mr Blair.
The letter is entitled UK Nationals Held in Afghanistan and Guantanamo and includes a chart listing detainees who might be British.
The comment, apparently made by Mr Blair, reads: “The key is to find out how they are being treated.
“Though I was initially sceptical about claims of torture, we must make it clear to the US that any such action would be totally unacceptable and very quickly establish it isn’t happening.”
Lawyers for the former detainees asked Mr Justice Silber to ensure that further documents be disclosed to the court without delay in accordance with the disclosure orders he had made in July.
Richard Hermer QC said there had also been a “deeply troubling” failure by the security services and government departments to answer questions that went to the heart of the case.
Commenting on the disclosure Amnesty International UK director Kate Allen said: “What Tony Blair knew about torture allegations and when he knew it should form an important part of the forthcoming torture inquiry.
“This letter – and any others like it – should be carefully examined by the Gibson inquiry.
“The inquiry should leave no stone unturned in an effort to get at the truth, including whether senior ministers turned a blind eye to torture.”
Secret documents disclosed in Britain’s High Court revealed former British prime minister Tony Blair was warned in the weeks after US forces began rounding up terrorism suspects that British nationals held by the US in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay were being tortured, the Guardian said on September 30: here.
Relatives of those killed in the July 7 2005 bombings have condemned attempts by the Metropolitan Police and MI5 to have evidence at the inquest into the atrocity heard in secret: here.
A Scottish MSP accused the Crown Office on Wednesday of ducking questions regarding a possible prosecution of key government figures over the war in Iraq: here.
Britain: One police force slated another on Thursday over a controversial CCTV scheme which saw more than 200 surveillance cameras installed in two largely Muslim Birmingham neighbourhoods: here.
Judge to US: Yes, Really, Torture is Illegal: here.
A US judge blocked the government on Wednesday from calling a key witness in the first civilian trial of a Guantanamo Bay detainee: here.
A Tale of 2 Gitmo Opinions: Ruling Altered to Hide Evidence of Dead, Tortured Witnesses: here.
Obama admin caught censoring and rewriting judge’s Guantanamo ruling: here.
Clinton Cabinet Member Sought Iraq Provocation But W. Himself Sought Provocation: here.
This video from Spain says about itself:
Workers in Madrid start their general strike by closing shops on 29 September 2010. They are chanting “Close!” and “Strike!”
Over 10 million workers staged a general strike in Spain on Wednesday in response to vicious government attacks on their rights and pensions: here.
Union-led rallies in defence of working peoples’ hard-won rights and against pay freezes rocked cities the length and breadth of Europe on Wednesday: here.
The halls of EU power in Brussels trembled to the footsteps of more than 100,000 workers on Wednesday as they converged from across Europe to reject crippling austerity cuts: here.
Europeans Protest Budget Cuts: here.
Thousands of trade unionists took to the streets across Britain on Wednesday in protest at the Con-Dem coalition targeting vicious “ideological” spending cuts at low-paid public-sector workers: here.
Scottish health workers joined the European day of action on Wednesday by demanding that “fat-cat bankers” be forced to tighten their belts to save vital hospital services from government cuts: here.
This video says about itself:
14 September 2010The European Commission, the executive body of the European Union, will have no choice but to start a legal action against France for its expulsion of Roma, Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding said Tuesday during a press conference.
“Enough is enough,” said Reding. “I am personally convinced that the commission will have no choice.”
“I intend to recommend to President Barroso the fast track infringement procedure, so we lose no time,” she said.
Reding called France’s expulsion of the Roma people a “disgrace.”
On Monday French media published a leaked French official memo suggesting the Roma had been specifically targeted by the authorities.
The memo contradicted assurances to EU officials from Besson and Lellouche that immigrants were being treated on a case-by-case basis.
The order, dated 5 August, was sent from the interior ministry to regional police chiefs.
“Three hundred camps or illegal settlements must be cleared within three months, Roma camps are a priority,” it said, according to the BBC.
Besson told France 2 television on Monday that he was “not aware of this circular”.
Last week the European Parliament urged the French government to halt the deportations – a call rejected by Paris.
Today: European Union To Take Legal Action Against France Over Roma: here.
Hungarian state television announced on Wednesday that it is appealing to the Supreme Court to block a vile political ad by a populist party that characterises Roma people as “parasites” and “criminals”: here.
The antiwar activists issued grand jury subpoenas after last week’s FBI raids in Minneapolis and Chicago could face jail time for their political support for third world movements the US declares to be “terrorist”: here. And here.
Solidarity with US socialists and anti-war activists raided by FBI: here.
By Fred Mazelis in the USA:
Revealing episode from the history of the civil rights movementErnest Withers and the FBI
29 September 2010
The name Ernest Withers is known to only a small number of people—participants in the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s, historians and photographers. His work, however, includes iconic images of these early struggles and is known to many millions. It was Withers who covered the trial in the murder of Emmett Till in 1955, and who took the famous photo of the striking sanitation workers in Memphis carrying signs declaring, “I Am a Man.” He was with Martin Luther King, Jr., at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis on April 4, 1968, the day the civil rights leader was assassinated.
It was thus of some historical importance when the Commercial Appeal of Memphis, Tennessee, revealed earlier this month that Withers, who died three years ago at the age of 85, had been an informant for the FBI.
Progressive Dissent Is in the FBI’s Crosshairs: here.
Raids on Activists May Indicate FBI Abuse of Power: here.
The Communist Party USA (CPUSA) said the September 24 raids had nothing to do with protecting the US people against terrorism and “everything to do with chilling the long-cherished tradition of the right to dissent”: here.
Left-wing, AntiWar and student groups are being spied on by the state of Pennsylvania: here.
William Bennett Turner, PoliPointPress: “Yetta Stromberg was 19 years old when she was a counselor at a summer camp for young Communists. It was 1929. The camp was in the mountains near San Bernardino, California. The campers came from working-class Communist families from Los Angeles. The 40 or so boys and girls ranged in age from 6 to 16. The parents paid only $6 a week per camper, as all the adults at the camp, including Stromberg, were volunteers. At 7:00 every morning, Stromberg led a flag-raising ceremony for the campers. As the children stood by their beds, one of them would raise a red flag while the others recited in unison this pledge. On August 3, 1929, the camp was raided by several carloads of American Legion members from nearby Redlands, led by George H. Johnson, the district attorney of San Bernardino County. The raid was prompted by the Better America Federation of Los Angeles and the Intelligence Bureau of the Los Angeles Police Department, who were keeping a close eye on radical activities”: here.
This viodeo from the USA is called Rethink Afghanistan War (Part 5): Women of Afghanistan.
Amid signs of increasing desperation in the nine-year US war in Afghanistan, Washington has simultaneously launched a major offensive in Kandahar and escalated its attacks across the border in Pakistan: here.
Pre-trial hearings began Monday into atrocities committed by US Army soldiers over the past year near Kandahar: here. And here.
A soldier’s exposure of the circumstances of a colleague’s death is being exploited to push for the deployment of more Australian troops to the Afghan war: here.
Spreading democracy in Afghanistan, arrest of one journalist at a time: here.
A Nato raid in Afghanistan’s eastern Ghazni province has killed four children and wounded three adults, an Afghan official has said: here.
Obama’s Wars, the new book by journalist Bob Woodward, reveals that the CIA has been running a private army of 3,000 Afghan mercenaries since 2002, operating in both Afghanistan and Pakistan: here.
Ann Jones has spent much of the past nine years in Afghanistan working as a journalist, photographer and humanitarian aid worker. She has focused largely on the impact the war has had on the women of Afghanistan. Her new book is War Is Not Over When It’s Over: Women and the Unseen Consequences of Conflict. [includes rush transcript]: here.
Figures released Tuesday by the US Census Bureau reveal sharply worsening conditions for tens of millions of Americans under the impact of the economic crisis and the accumulation of vast wealth by a relative handful: here.
Thousands of workers are continuing their walkout at a factory owned by Taiwan-based Foxconn corporation in Sriperumbudur, in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu despite violent attacks by police. On September 24, police forces broke up an occupation of the plant by workers, brutally beating dozens and detaining 1,200 workers for a whole day before releasing them in the evening: here.
Philippine budget: Austerity for the poor, subsidies for the rich: here.
This video says about itself:
John Monks, General Secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), calls to demonstrate on 29 September 2010. Join us at European Day of Action: “No to austerity — Priority for jobs and growth! “More information: http://www.etuc.org/a/7407
General strike in Spain against anti-labour laws and austerity measures: here.
Video of Spanish Workers closing shops at start of general strike: here.
The latest decision by the German government for a paltry increase in welfare payments is a deliberate provocation aimed against the 5 million adults and 1.7 million children dependent on such payments: here.
