MARTY ESSEN – As a professional speaker, I’ve spent much of the past four years performing at colleges across the country. While the subject of my show is rare and interesting wildlife on all seven continents, I also address the effects of global warming.
Extreme Weather Link ‘Can No Longer Be Ignored’
STEVE CONNOR – Scientists are to end their 20-year reluctance to link climate change with extreme weather – the heavy storms, floods and droughts which often fill news bulletins – as part of a radical departure from a previous equivocal position that many now see as increasingly untenable.
Next Plutonium Space Launch Set
BRUCE GAGNON – The next plutonium enabled space mission, the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), is scheduled to be launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida between November 25 and December 18 of this year. The MSL rover, known as “Curiosity,” will be fueled with 4.8 kilograms (10.56 pounds) of plutonium dioxide. It will be, NASA says, “the largest, most capable rover ever sent to another planet.”
Report: Time is Ripe to Rebalance U.S. Security Resources
LAWRENCE KORB and MIRIAM PEMBERTON – Two of 2011’s most extraordinary developments point in a single direction.
First, the death of Osama bin Laden was accomplished by means that resembled a police action. A painstaking investigation preceded the operation by a group of special forces roughly the size of a SWAT team. Then came the extensive diplomatic work to improve the critical, complex, and challenging relationship between the United States and Pakistan.
Sacred Mantras Need Examination
URI AVNERY – The Palestinians are planning something thoroughly obnoxious: they intend to apply to the UN for statehood. Why obnoxious? Any Israeli spokesman (not to mention spokeswoman) will tell you readily: because it is a “unilateral†move. How dare they proclaim a state unilaterally? How dare they do so without the consent of the other party to the conflict – us?
Honduras: A Sty in the Eye of the Obama Regime
IAN HARRIS – Honduras has for a long time been a “banana republic†controlled by U.S. interests. With the lowest per capita income in Central America, but with a strong military, Honduras in the 80s was viewed as a “U.S. surrogate†in the region, providing a base for counter-insurgency operations especially in Nicaragua. The Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) signed in 2005 further cemented U.S. economic influence with Honduras.