BREVITAS

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OUTLYING PRECINCTS

NY TIMES - At the end of the Republican presidential debate in New
Hampshire this month, when the Democrats joined the candidates on stage,
Mitt Romney found himself momentarily alone as his counterparts mingled,
looking around a bit stiffly for a companion. The moment was emblematic
of a broader reality that has helped shape the Republican contest and
could take center stage again on Thursday at a debate in Florida. Within
the small circle of contenders, Mr. Romney has become the most
disliked.. . . "Never get into a wrestling match with a pig," Senator
John McCain said in New Hampshire this month after reporters asked him
about Mr. Romney. "You both get dirty, and the pig likes it."Mike
Huckabee's pugilistic campaign chairman, Ed Rollins, appeared to stop
just short of threatening Mr. Romney with physical violence at one
point. "What I have to do is make sure that my anger with a guy like
Romney, whose teeth I want to knock out, doesn't get in the way of my
thought process," Mr. Rollins said. . .

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/24/us/politics/24romney.html?
_r=2&ei=5088&en=e14f37174b967b2a&ex=1358830800&oref=
slogin&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&pagewanted=print


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ECO CLIPS

INDEPENDENT, UK - The United States has blocked the release of a
landmark assessment of oil and gas activity in the Arctic as it prepares
to sell off exploration licenses for the frozen Chukchi Sea off Alaska,
one of the last intact habitats of the polar bear. Scientists at the
release of the censored report in Norway said there was "huge
frustration" that the US had derailed a science-based effort to manage
the race for the vast energy reserves of the Arctic. . . A draft of the
censored recommendations, seen by The Independent, called on governments
to conduct proper research on environmental impacts before signing off
new oil and gas projects in ecologically sensitive areas such as the
Chukchi.

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/01/22/6547/

DAILY GREEN - The impact of ecological resources damaged every year in
poor nations is a greater financial burden than national debt, a new
analysis has found. What's worse, it is rich nations that are causing
the damage in poor nations, either directly or indirectly.

http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/ecological-debt-47012102


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MID EAST

PR WATCH - The Center for Public Integrity "has released the first
analysis of its kind, Iraq – The War Card: Orchestrated Deception on
the Path to War ... identifying 935 false statements by eight top
administration officials that mentioned Iraq's possession of weapons of
mass destruction, or links to Al Qaeda, on at least 532 separate
occasions. The false statements included in the analysis were made by
President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Colin
Powell, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, and White
House press secretaries Ari Fleischer and Scott McClellan."

http://www.publicintegrity.org/WarCard

OBAMA BOOSTS ISRAELI VIOLENCE
http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/

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MONEY

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE - Lenders repossessed 31,676 residences in
California in the October-November-December period, according to
DataQuick Information Systems, a La Jolla research firm. That was a
dramatic 421.2 percent increase from 6,078 in the year-ago quarter. In
the Bay Area, foreclosures rose an equally stunning 482.5 percent to
4,573 in the fourth quarter, compared with 785 a year ago.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/01/22/BUTEUJN7I.DTL&tsp=1


SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, AUSTRALIA - Billionaire investor George Soros
said the world was facing the worst financial crisis since World War II
and the United States was threatened with recession, according to an
interview with the Austrian daily Standard.. . . He said over the past
few years politics had been guided by some basic misunderstandings
stemming from something that he called "market fundamentalism" - the
belief financial markets tended to act as a balance. "This is the wrong
idea," he said

http://business.smh.com.au/worst-financial-crisis-since-wwii-soros/
20080122-1nck.html


JONATHAN FREEDLAND, GUARDIAN UK - Where does this leave the ideology
that has governed not only Britain but the industrialized world for the
past 20 years? ... Surely this is the moment when Labor and the
centre-left can dare to question the neo-liberal dogma that has
prevailed since the days of Thatcher. ... Turbo-capitalism is not just
unfair - it is dishonest and dangerous. If that sounds excessive, focus,
if you will, on the banking sector at the heart of today's mess. It was
the reckless gobbling up and selling on of shaky sub-prime loans ...
that triggered the entire loss of confidence. . . Turbo-capitalism is
happy to rely on us, the public, and our instrument, the state, when it
gets in trouble. Now we should demand a say the rest of the time, too.
Plenty of uber-capitalists are ready to concede that. The irony is, it's
capitalism's more recent converts, including our own prime minister, who
seem to find it so much harder.

HOW TO STIMULATE THE ECONOMY: PRINT MONEY FOR PUBLIC WORKS
http://prorev.com/sovreign.htm

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HEALTH & SCIENCE

PR WATCH - The pharmaceutical companies Merck and Schering-Plough, which
co-market the cholesterol drug Vytorin, "have gone into damage-control
mode, taking out newspaper ads." The PR campaign follows the companies'
reluctant publication of a study showing that neither of the drugs
present in Vytorin "reduced the buildup of fatty plaque in arteries."
The study "was completed in 2006, but Merck and Schering said they
didn't release it for nearly 21 months due to the complexity of the data
and their own scientific concerns." The drug companies' ads, which ran
in the New York Times and USA Today, refer to the damning study as "a
single study that has generated a lot of confusion." The ads stress that
the drugs "have been proven to lower LDL (bad) cholesterol," but what
the study showed was that Vytorin is not "any better than generic Zocor
in reducing the buildup of fatty plaque." Members of Congress have
called for an investigation into why the "massive advertisement campaign
for Vytorin was allowed to continue," after the study was belatedly made
public. (The drug makers pulled their Vytorin TV -- but not print -- ads
on January 22, reports Associated Press.) Class-action lawsuits are also
being filed, alleging that the drug companies "misrepresented and
withheld significant information" from the Food and Drug Administration
and the public.

http://adage.com/article?article_id=123259

INDEPENDENT, UK - Chief executives of big companies and public sector
organisations are coping with their stressful positions by drinking the
equivalent of almost three bottles of wine a week, new research shows.
Men holding the highest positions drink an average of almost 23 units a
week – more than 11 medium glasses of wine. Their consumption exceeds
the total recommended weekly limit for alcohol of 21 units and suggests
many businessmen and managers may suffer ill health as a result.
Doctors, lawyers, accountants and other professional men are also
knocking back above average amounts of alcohol – 20 units a week –
according to figures from the Office of National Statistics.

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-wellbeing/
health-news/the-more-successful-you-are-the-more-you-drink
-research-finds-772332.html


NEW SCIENTIST - Scott Kominers, a mathematician at Harvard University,
and his
colleagues derived a formula for the optimal time that you should wait
for a tardy bus at each stop en route before giving up and walking on.
"Many mathematicians probably ponder this on their way to work, but
never get round to working it out," he says. The team found that the
solution was surprisingly simple. When both options seem reasonably
attractive, the formula advises you to choose the "lazy" option: wait at
the first stop, no matter how frustrating. The formula does break down
in extreme cases, Kominers says, when the time interval between buses is
longer than an hour, for example, and your destination is only a
kilometer away. If you do choose to walk, you should make your decision
before you start waiting, he says. You will still reach your destination
later than the bus you'd have caught, but it will be much less
frustrating than waiting for a while and then watching the bus shoot by.
"

http://www.arxiv.org/abs/0801.0297

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FURTHERMORE. . .

TIMES, UK - A children's story based on the tale of the Three Little
Pigs was rejected for an award after judges became concerned that it
would offend Muslims. The animated virtual book for primary school
children, The Three Little Cowboy Builders, was also criticized for its
potential to offend builders. The row centered on the Bett awards, which
were supported by Becta, the Government's technology agency for schools.
The judges' remarks, reported on the education technology website Merlin
John Online, included: "Is it true that all builders are cowboys,
builders get their work blown down, and builders are like pigs? The idea
of taking a traditional tale and retelling a story is fine, but it
should not alienate parts of the workforce. Judges would not recommend
this product to the Muslim community in particular."

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/
books/children/article3241394.ece or http://tinyurl.com/2omkfx

SUNDAY SUN, UK - A North MP was left red-faced after accidentally giving
his support to National Fetish Day. Organizers revealed Ronnie Campbell
had promised to wear purple to support a day of awareness tomorrow. But
the MP for Blyth Valley, Northumberland, withdrew his backing after the
Sunday Sun explained the kinky connotations of the word "fetish" which
he was not aware of. Mr Campbell revealed he thought "fetish" was just
another word for "worry" instead of a description of people who get
their kicks in unusual ways. . . When we first spoke to Mr Campbell
about National Fetish Day he said: "I think my secretary must have
mentioned this." . . . We asked Mr Campbell if he had any fetishes and
he said: "I must have a thousand but, hand on my heart, I couldn't tell
which is the most important one. Probably the horses." Realising we were
speaking at cross-purposes we provided Ronnie with a definition of
fetish provided by the campaign.

http://icnewcastle.icnetwork.co.uk/sundaysun/news/2008/01/20/
north-mp-hot-under-collar-at-fetish-mistake-50081-20371306/


THIS IS LONDON - A military helicopter destroyed the conservatory of a
L1.75 million mansion when its pilot swooped too low to look at a
sunbathing au pair, a court heard . . .

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23417258-details/
Military+helicopter+crew+%27wrecked+conservatory+by+flying+down+to+ogle%


OUR GOOD MOVIE LIST HAS BEEN UPDATED
http://prorev.com/index.htm#movies

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