by Steve Connor, February 04, 2012, The Independent

The bitterly cold weather sweeping Britain and the rest of Europe has been linked by scientists with the ice-free seas of the Arctic, where global warming is exerting its greatest influence.

A dramatic loss of sea ice covering the Barents and Kara Seas above northern Russia could explain why a chill Arctic wind has engulfed much of Europe and killed 221 people over the past week.

The death toll from Arctic blast has been particularly severe in the Ukraine, where many of the dead have been people sleeping on the streets. Heating and food tents have been set up to ease their hardship. In Romania 24 people are known to have died and 17 in Poland.

A growing number of experts believe complex wind patterns are being changed because melting Arctic sea ice has exposed huge swaths of normally frozen ocean to the atmosphere above.

"The current weather pattern fits earlier predictions of computer models for how the atmosphere responds to the loss of sea ice due to global warming," said Professor Stefan Rahmstorf of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. "The ice-free areas of the ocean act like a heater as the water is warmer than the Arctic air above it. This favours the formation of a high-pressure system near the Barents Sea, which steers cold air into Europe." READ...

by Drake Bennett, February 02, 2012, Bloomberg BusinessWeek

Last July, 14 months after United and Continental Airlines announced they were combining to form the largest carrier in the world, the merged airline took one of the thousands of steps required to integrate its fleet: It harmonized the coffee. Just as each carrier had its own logo, slogan, and peerage of frequent-flier status levels, each served its own blend of joe. Continental’s coffee was from a company called Fresh Brew, United’s was from Starbucks (SBUX).

“The new United,” as the merged airline called itself, had to choose. With one food-service supply chain, it made no sense to maintain two coffee contracts. And buying from one source offered the possibility of bigger volume discounts, exactly the sort of savings that United and Continental executives had hoped to create with the merger. The coffee question represented a tiny aspect of the problem of running an airline, but the quantities were huge: Last year the new United (UAL) sent enough coffee into the sky to brew 62 million cups.

The vice-president in charge of food services at United is a slim, chipper woman named Sandra Pineau-Boddison. She considers herself a coffee enthusiast “only if you count mochas as true coffee.” Still, Pineau-Boddison did not take United’s coffee decision lightly. For months the issue dominated the meetings of the beverage committee, a 14-member panel drawn from procurement, flight operations, finance, food services, and marketing. United’s head chef, a burly, bearded Irishman named Gerry McLoughlin, sat in. The committee solicited bids, then came up with 12 different blends to try. Members tasted them blind, and, in an affront to Pineau-Boddison’s sweet tooth, tasted them black. READ....

by Arifa Akbar,  January 30,  2012, The Independent

It was not the objects that I saw in and around Mecca that made my pilgrimage such an extraordinary and exhilarating experience.

I went on the hajj in 2006, and then, as now, its meaning did not lie in the physical structures in Mecca themselves – the cube-like Kaaba, or House of God, which is the centre-point of all Islamic worship; the black curtain woven with scripture that is draped across it; the ancient Black Stone encased in glass beside it; the towering pillars of the Grand Mosque that encompass it all.

It lay in the experience of being among the throbbing ocean of worshippers who were treading their way around the Kaaba in circles, like an immense whirling dervish. It was a breathtaking procession in which to be, with its sense of order, meditation and prayer, along with its frenzy, vigour and its edge of chaos. The ritualised encircling had a ferocious momentum. If you imagine a judgment day, it might look like this. READ...

By JONATHAN MARTIN, January 26, 2012, Politico.com

TAMPA, Fla. — As the Republican race moves to a state defined by the extremes in recession-era America — where the underwater and unemployed live just a few miles from the 1 percent — a sharp class divide is emerging between the two top contenders.

Mitt Romney’s crowds look like something out of the president’s suite at a University of Florida football game — prosperous, trim, Tattersall-clad and supportive but not rowdy.

Newt Gingrich supporters, with their spray-painted signs, American flag tees, flip-flops and fanny packs, more closely resemble a group that would fit in nicely playing a few bucks at the dog track.

Exit poll data and unmistakable anecdotal evidence from their events reflects an unfolding campaign in which Romney does best with voters that are a lot like him — wealthy, well-educated and lukewarm about the populist tea party movement. Gingrich is appealing most to Republicans who earn less than six figures, make up the core of the middle class, and are worried about their economic prospects and furious at the establishment.

It’s the tea party and the cocktail party.

Diann Franks was recently laid off from J.C. Penney.

Wearing khakis, black New Balance tennis shoes, a worn brown leather jacket and fanny pack, she came to the event carrying a copy of a Gingrich book.

“Just in general, we need a leader,” Franks said. “Somebody who can just put their foot down and say, ‘We’re mad as … and we’re not taking it anymore.’”

The sense of anger is palpable among Gingrich’s middle-class supporters. They’re often fearful about their own financial situation and think D.C. doesn’t need to be changed — it needs to be blown up. READ...

by Raheem Salman and Patrick J. McDonnell, Los Angeles Times, January 25, 2012

The teacher still keeps family photos of the dead, visual mementos of lives cut short in an unremitting hail of gunfire.

"The Americans killed children who were hiding inside the cupboards or under the beds," said Rafid Abdul Majeed Hadithi, 43, a teacher in the city of Haditha who says he witnessed the 2005 assault by U.S. Marines that took the lives of 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians. "Was this Marine charged with dereliction of duty because he didn't kill more? Is Iraqi blood so cheap?"

In the United States, the brutal saga of Haditha — among the dead were seven children, including a toddler, three women, and a 76-year-old man in a wheelchair — may have concluded Monday with Marine Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich's guilty plea to negligent dereliction of duty. A military judge said Tuesday that Wuterich will serve no time in the brig under the terms of his plea bargain.

It is not over, however, for Iraqis such as Thair Thabit Hadithi, 41, a photographer who says he came upon the scene shortly after the killings.

The Marine Corps initially said 15 Iraqis had been killed in a roadside bombing and that the others perished in a subsequent firefight. None of that was true. Hadithi said he had grisly photos of the scene, showing the devastation and bloodshed in a poor residential quarter. The photographer said he fled to Syria, fearing arrest once the Marines learned that he had images contradicting the official version of events. READ....

by Sebastian Haley, January 22, 2012,  VentureBeat

Like any news blog, VentureBeat gets a lot of spam. Sometimes it’s a long-lost relative from the Philippines who just needs us to send them $10,000 in unmarked bills so that we can claim our inheritance. More recently, “VISA” is claiming our credit cards have been suspended and that all we need to do to lift the restriction is disclose our social security number and mother’s maiden number to an unidentified Hotmail address. But every once in a while, an actual person with a story to tell finds their way to us. Enter Bill Chrouch, an ex-convict who is looking for funding for the 15,128 inventions he came up with while incarcerated.

The following human interest piece consists of excerpts from a series of emails between myself and Chrouch, Some minor grammatical editing was done for readability.

‎”“A rundown of my past includes a lot of time in jail and prison plus lots of charges that were from my old ways of thinking,” Chrouch wrote. “Over the years living the life of a criminal was hard on me and my family, and also a real eye opener cause that’s just not how I want to spend my life. A couple of years back I was sitting in my room locked down for around 20 hours a day, and I started thinking about ways I could make money and not have to commit crimes. I let my creativeness and my time mix and I would come up with ideas on new products just by studying my surroundings and creating new things in my mind. I was able to really think outside of the box cause I didn’t have all the stress a free person had. I came up with anything and everything including toys, websites/apps, green tech, tools, personal care products, to animal products and a lot of things in between. I understand that not every one of those ideas are great ideas, but I do however believe that there are quite a few of them that I know are good.” READ...