Apocalypse then: How a comet ended the Roman Empire

Paul R. Epstein, M.D., M.P.H.: Why the Wild Winter Weather?
Winter weather has been especially harsh this year, as it was last year. Scientists have long predicted that weather across the Northern Hemisphere could get colder with Global Warming. How might this work? Some commentators have invoked changes in atmospheric circulation over Siberia to explain the severe winter weather besieging Europe and parts of the U.S. But there is another part of this puzzle lying closer to our own shores. Warming may be leading to cooling via melting Arctic ice. For t...

Siberian cold stops German bicycle tourist
ULAN-UDE, Russia, Jan. 11 (UPI) -- Russian authorities said a German cyclist underestimated Siberia's brutal weather and wound up in a Hospital during a long-distance ride this week. Sven Riedel, 37, suffered a serious case of frostbite while attempting to pedal 300 kilometers (186.4 miles) from Ulan-Ude to Lake Baikal in eastern Siberia. "I wanted to see Lake Baikal," Riedel told Russia's Ria Novosti news agency. "I didn't think it would be so cold." Officials said it was actually plenty cold w...

Book Week attacked for anti-Israel Event
Jewish Book Week has defended a session in its forthcoming programme featuring a panel of two Journalists known for their bitter denunciations of Israel, and which is jointly promoted by a journal accused of “unremitting hostility” to Israel. Haaretz columnist Gideon Levy will discuss his book, The Punishment of Gaza, with Independent journalist Johann Hari in an event billed as in association with the London Review of Books. The session, due to take place in London on March 6, has b...

Whether you like it or not
The following was written by Amy Chua, who is a Professor at Yale Law School and author of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. WSJ: Here are some things my daughters, Sophia and Louisa, were never allowed to do: • attend a sleepover • have a playdate • be in a school play • complain about not being in a school play • watch TV or play Computer Games • choose their own extracurricular activities • get any grade less than an A • not be the No. 1 Student in every s

Global Repositioning
The recent Earthquakes that occurred in Chile and Haiti in 2010 was a direct result of a shift of tectonic plates caused by Volcanic Activity beneath the earths crust. These disturbances are centered around the "Pacific Ring of Fire" as it is called. This is a major series of fault lines connecting the San Andreas Fault with a continuation of fault lines that navigates the perimeter of the Pacific Ocean and is just one of the many Rings of Fire circumventing the planet. These recent ea...

Prince Harry eyes North Pole trek
Prince Harry is determined to join wounded British Soldiers on a landmark trek to the North Pole, his office said Wednesday -- Military commitments and his brother's Wedding plans permitting. Two servicemen who lost limbs fighting in Afghanistan, plus two others maimed in the conflict, are attempting to become the first amputees to trek unaided to the pole. The expedition, leaving on March 23, will raise money for the Walking With the Wounded charity, which helps to rehabilitate injured Troops a...

"I Believe We Can Be Better"
Everyone either wondered what the President would say, or knew what he should say at the memorial for the Victims of the shooting in Tucson. Now we know what he did say. It may be the finest Speech he's given as president, thus far. He spoke not merely as the President, but as an American shaken by the events in Tucson, and inspired by what those who were wounded or killed, and those who tackled and disarmed the gunman represented about America. He spoke as a parent, heartbroken at the death ...

Somalia to launch attacks soon on al-Qaida
UNITED NATIONS - Somalia's new Prime Minister said 8,000 government Troops will start waging attacks on Islamist Insurgents and al-Qaida Terrorists "very, very soon." Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, a Somali-American educator, also said in an interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday night that increased U.S. and international support for his government is essential to end Somalia's lawlessness and prevent Terrorists from continuing to use the country as a safe haven. He also warned that...

Somalia to launch attacks soon on al-Qaida
Somalia's new Prime Minister said 8,000 government Troops will start waging attacks on Islamist Insurgents and al-Qaida Terrorists "very, very soon." Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, a Somali-American educator, also said in an interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday night that increased U.S. and international support for his government is essential to end Somalia's lawlessness and prevent Terrorists from continuing to use the country as a safe haven. He also warned that nearly 2.5 million Som...

GM chickens 'do not spread flu'
Green ham with your eggs? UK scientists have created the world's first genetically modified chickens that do not spread bird flu. Writing in Science journal, the team says their work demonstrates it is possible to create a variety of GM farm animals resistant to viral diseases. The research team inserted an artificial gene into chickens; this introduces a tiny part of the bird flu virus into chicken cells. These chickens become infected but render the virus harmless to other Poultry. The...

John Gross, 75, Dies
John Gross. The Jewish Republic of Letters lost a prominent and valued citizen earlier this week with the death of John Gross, 75. He edited London’s Times Literary Supplement in the 1970s before moving stateside and working as an editor and critic at the other Times; he also contributed frequently (and frequently on Jewish topics) to the New York Review of Books. He wrote one book about James Joyce, one about Shylock, and one about “Growing Up English and Jewish in London.” &...

Forecaster: Two phenomena responsible for world's bizarre weather
The catastrophic weather events taking place across the globe - from Brazil’s and Australia’s Flooding to the Eastern United States’ heavy Snowfall - have two likely explanations. Tony Barnston, lead forecaster at Columbia University’s International Research Institute for Climate and Society, said two phenomena - La Niña and the North Atlantic Oscillation - are likely responsible for the patterns we’re seeing. Though La Niña is diff...

9/11 flag unfurled, raised at Ariz. girls funeral
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — The largest flag recovered from Ground Zero after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center is being unfurled and raised at the Funeral of the youngest Victim of the Mass Shooting in Arizona. Services are being held Thursday in Tucson for 9-year-old Christina Taylor Green. She was born on Sept. 11, 2001, and was killed Saturday when police say a gunman opened fired on a crowd at an event for Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. The congresswoman was gravely wounded and six people...

North African threats trouble London
LONDON, Jan. 13 (UPI) -- British nationals are advised to avoid traveling in parts of Mauritania, Mali and Niger because of a high risk of Terrorism and Kidnappings, an official said. Jeremy Browne, the British minister responsible for consular affairs, warned that the activity of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, al-Qaida's North African affiliate, and the threat of kidnapping were endangering the lives of British nationals. "We currently advise against all travel to parts of Mauritania, Mali an...

Native-American Prayer to Father Sky and Mother Earth Opens Tucson Memorial Service Video 1/12/11
Here is video of the unusual opening “prayer” at the Tucson Memorial last night, offered by a University of Arizona Professor. The professor’s prayer was introduced as a “Native-American Blessing.” He opened the program by praying to “Father Sky,” “Mother Earth,” and even the four doors of the building. Before he finished, he had prayed for just about everyone and everything - including the “four-footed” creatures, and the...

A Conversation with the Author
In a New Year’s Day post, Anthony mounted the Abstract from a Paper titled Warming Power of CO2: Correlations with temperature change. Subsequent comments raised some questions about the Journal citation, International Journal of Geosciences, and the publisher, Scientific Research Publishing. I did two things: I called the listed number for SRP. After ten days I received a call back from a Chinese gentleman claiming that yes, SRP is a legitimate Journal publisher, with an o...

Sign of the Times: Another Law Professor Assails Legal Academy
Yahoo! Buzz Once upon a time, if you heard criticisms of law schools, they were perhaps most likely to come from from law-firm managing partners, who were known to gripe about having to be the ones to teach recent grads how to actually practice law. But increasingly, the calls are coming from within the house. That is, Law Professors — those who arguably have the least incentive to change the current system — are speaking out. Last June, Brian Tamanaha offered up this rather scathing...

Waziyatawin, University Of Victoria Professor, Accused Of Making Terroristic Threats
Macleans OnCampus: A University of Victoria Professor was investigated by the FBI after she was accused of making "terroristic threats" at a November Speech in Minnesota. Waziyatawin, who has only one name and is a member of the Dakota First Nation, was said to have made comments about reclaiming aboriginal lands "by any means necessary." Read the whole story: Macleans OnCampus Get HuffPost College On Twitter and Facebook! ...

Government at work: spend $500,000 to save $8,000
Gosh, it can’t be the money, can it? There must be something else going on. The juxtaposition is priceless. From Tom Nelson: UVA spends $500,000 on lawyers when it would cost only $8,000 to deliver public documents? UVA has been resisting (spending about $500,000 on outside lawyers for the effort) a similar, previous request by Attorney General Kenneth Cuccinelli, who is investigating Mann under the Fraud Against Taxpayers Act. That the e-mails are public documents seems clear. Mann, while...

Haiti: One year later
Haiti is the site of the world's first successful slave revolt of the modern nation-state era, and it has always been imperative that it should not be allowed to succeed. On the one-year anniversary of the Haiti Earthquake, Democracy Now! took a critical look at the "lack of progress" to put things kindly. It began by replaying a clip from its coverage a year ago, a clip that ended thus: DR. EVAN LYON: This aid attention is nice. The extra supplies are nice. The energy and the money is helpfu...

New find from dawn of the dinos
Researchers writing in the journal Science say Eodromaeus or "dawn runner" was a small, two-legged creature of not much more than 1.2m in length and 4-6kg in weight. They reconstructed the Dinosaur, a probable ancestor of Tyrannosaurus rex, from an almost complete set of bones found in the Valley of The Moon, in northwestern Argentina. Researchers from Argentina and the US first chanced upon fossilised bones belonging to Eodromaeus in 1996, but it has taken them this long to reconstruc...

Tribal feuds threaten Jordan's stability
SALT, Jordan (Reuters) - A sleepy Jordanian town erupts in violence last year after a young man is killed in a police shootout. Members of his Khrisat and Salt tribes clash with police, throwing stones, smashing ATM machines and burning police cars. The two-day rampage in the hillside town of Salt ends when Khrisat tribal elders sign a deal over cups of Arabic coffee with authorities to apply Atwa, a tribal truce granted to calm the fury between conflicting parties in an incident that normally ...

E.P.A. Revokes Controversial Mine Permit
The Environmental Protection Agency has revoked the permit for Arch Coal’s Spruce No. 1 mountaintop-removal Coal Mining project in West Virginia, saying that the mine would damage communities and wildlife. How are Climate Change, scarcer resources, Population Growth and other challenges reshaping society? From science to business to politics to living, our reporters track the high-stakes pursuit of a greener globe in a dialogue with experts and readers. Forests, oceans, air, species, land...

Bank: U.S. 'significant outlier' in 'positive' climate change investment environment
One of the world’s largest banks said Thursday there is “positive momentum” in 2011 for Climate Change-related investments. But the bank says there’s one exception to that rule: the United States. The global research arm of HSBC, the world’s sixth largest bank, said Thursday in an investment note that the uncertainty that marked climate investments in 2010 will be replaced this year by optimism. But HSBC warns that the United States is a “significant outlier” in

Australia Floods Are A Warning: Extreme Weather Events Will Intensify Due To Climate Change, Scientists Say
Stockholm — Though you can't make a direct link between Australia's killer floods and Climate Change, they do hold a warning for the future: Scientists predict such Extreme Weather events will increase both in intensity and frequency as the planet warms. Raging floodwaters have swamped thousands of homes and businesses in Queensland, leaving at least 25 people dead and dozens more missing since late November. Rail lines and highways have been washed away in what is shaping up to become A...