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Car Bomb Kills Lebanese General, China Begins Banning American Films, Electability, Arctic Ice, Extreme Weather |
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An explosion in a Beirut suburb kills Francois el-Hajj, the Lebanese military’s chief of operations and a widely discussed potential replacement for General Michel Suleiman should Suleiman ascend to the presidency. Al Jazeera’s correspondent said:
This is a significant unfolding of events because the army was the only military institution that is seen as neutral, and not taking sides in the political crisis in Lebanon. Perhaps this is a message to the army that they are targets too.
The Lebanon-centered blog Blacksmiths of Lebanon points a finger at Syria.
Hollywood officials have announced that China is banning American films:
The Chinese government has not announced any ban, but American movies are no longer being approved for release early next year, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The Chinese action, those officials said, may be in retaliation for the U.S. decision last April to file an intellectual property rights case with the World Trade Organization. The filing was meant to pressure China to more strictly enforce its intellectual property rights laws and to give American companies greater access to the Chinese market.
Ian Welsh: “Edwards is more electable. Period.” Our own Red Wind, though he focuses more on Hillary’s un-electability, perhaps concurs (see the end of his piece).
No more summer ice in the Arctic by 2013? More extreme weather in developing countries? I don’t even know where to begin…for starters, global warming denier wingnuts can take a seat: your pseudo-science, in the face of real science as cited above (by the BBC and the UN, at that), makes you look increasingly like today’s equivalent of the 19th century’s “biological racists.” Humanity has a real problem on its hands.
About that summer ice. Here’s the question I have: Will this go as predicted. There was another story that I noticed today (http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/arctic-sea-ice -47121205) that says sea ice is re-freezing at a record rate this winter.
Now, the prediction I heard was that ice melting would allow convection to draw water away from the area, thus changing the temperature of the water and stopping it from refreezing. That’s when the real problems kick in. This year, at least, it seems we’ll cycle between frozen and un-frozen. So, when does this get bad? When does ice stop forming at all?