It's 3:30 am, I'm watching a live feed of a big protest by a coalition of opposition groups known as BERSIH, the Malay word for 'clean.' They're advocating for fair elections. A quote from their website, http://bersih.org/?page_id=352
Only when elections are clean and fair, can citizens be real masters of their own destiny and expect holders of public office to act accountably and effectively.

Twitter updates are reporting a lot of arrests, tear gas, water jets, and beatings by police. The leader of the movement, Ambiga Sreenevasan, was arrested about 1/2 hr ago and has been isolated from other supporters. Another coalition leader, Anwar Ibrahim, has been roughed up by police, i'm guessing he's been arrested by now too.

Live feed currently at http://wwitv.com/tv_channels/b5577.htm
Updates at http://www.facebook.com/pages/BERSIH-20-OF...


From http://leemn.wordpress.com/2010/07/06/msia... /


US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and first lady Michelle Obama present give away Secretary of State’s Award for International Women of Courage to Malaysia ‘s Ambiga Sreenevasan (Malaysian Bar Council) at the State Department in Washington



(source: http://globalvoicesonline.org/2011/07/07/m... /)

a friend posted this on her FB page. Don't know the source. If anyone knows, please post it here.

Does anyone know where this memorial is located?

so touching ....

Shell’s latest scenarios: energy planning in a volatile world

http://www.shelldialogues.com/scenarios


They're doing a live chat starting at 15 GMT
local times:
08:00 San Francisco, Los Angeles
11:00 New York, Washington DC
16:00 London
17:00 Brussels, Paris, Berlin
17:00 Cape Town

If you want to ask them questions, sign up at the above-mentioned webpage and submit your question. Currently following the chat for Europe/Asia. Quite interesting.

Ongoing political unrest in Egypt has animal shelters in the country struggling for survival, suggest multiple accounts from staff and volunteers associated with Egyptian animal rescue groups.

Even before the recent protests, animal shelters and related organizations were already experiencing financial difficulties and cutbacks due to the economic crisis affecting many Egyptians. The Society for the Protection of Animal Rights in Egypt, for example, recently announced that it could shelter no more than 20 cats and 15 dogs at a time.

Now, as many tourists and Egyptians attempt to flee the African country, cats and dogs are being abandoned, with some winding up on the streets as strays.

Today, Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director of Human Rights Watch, reported, "Many essential supplies are running low in Egypt. Gas stations throughout Cairo and Alexandria are closing because they are out of fuel. Food in shops is low, and many shops are rationing how much food people can buy."

More at http://news.discovery.com/animals/egyptian...


You can follow some of the urgent steps being taken to help the animals at
Egyptian Society for Mercy to Animals Facebook Page.

While browsing press releases at Eurekalert, I found this story:

Swiss democracy unexceptional compared to other countries
http://www.mediadesk.uzh.ch/articles/2011/...

Some Swiss and German social science researchers have developed a "barometer" to score the quality of democracy in a country based on ...inequality indicators: the protection of personal freedom from infringements by third parties, especially the state; the rule of law; an active citizenship; transparency; participation; representation; political competition; a system of checks and balances; and the ability to implement democratic decisions.

So ... you want to know where the US ranks?

Country comparison (average quality of democracy 1995-2005)

Country Quality of democracy
Denmark 88.3
Finland 87.7
Belgium 85.1
Iceland 83.5
Sweden 82.9
Norway 82.1
Canada 79.4
Netherlands 79.0
Luxembourg 75.2
USA 74.9
Germany 73.2
New Zealand 72.1
Slovenia 69.6
Switzerland 67.8
Ireland 67.0
Portugal 66.7
Spain 66.6
Australia 65.5
Hungary 63.2
Austria 63.1
Czech Republic 58.2
Italy 57.0
Cyprus 55.5
Malta 54.2
Japan 45.8
Great Britain 44.6
France 42.8
Poland 42.0
South Africa 39.8
Costa Rica 32.7

We're number 10!

I was surprised to see Australia and Great Britain ranked so low.

I've always been interested in snow crystals, and last year, discovered the work of Kenneth Libbrecht. WOW!

Some photos from his website, utterly breath-taking!
http://www.its.caltech.edu/~atomic/snowcry...





A meteorologist at the NWS in Buffalo, NY, has a cool facebook page for his snow crystal photography. I've been trying to get him to tell me his photo techniques, but he's been a bit coy about it -- guess he wants to keep it a trade secret, which is fine. All he's said is that his set-up is not as fancy as Libbrecht's.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mother-Natur...
or
http://www.buffaloflakes.com/index.html

Meanwhile, my pathetic attempts with a micro lens can be found here....
http://earthsky.org/earth/how-to-take-phot...

A lot of the arguments over Loughner's motivations seem to be hinged on his political leanings. From what we know so far, that's not very clear -- both the left and right can make their case by picking out portions of information from his You-Tube, MySpace and Facebook posts.

But two things are clear:
(1) he hates government,
(2) he's deeply irrational.

Therefore,

someone who pays attention to government can't help but be exposed to the toxic political environment of the far-right. We have talk radio and some television commentators to thanks for that. Giffords, being his member of Congress, and someone who regularly interacted with her constituents, became the focus of his anger.

Someone who is deeply irrational is susceptible to the influence of that toxicity even if he does not fully comprehend what it means. Why? Because it stirs our imagination--we're either attracted to, or repulsed, by it. The violent insinuations of phrases like "second amendment remedies" and images like Palin's cross-hairs map, amplified in the media echo chamber, could eventually take on a life of its own inside the mind of a person who cannot rationally sort through it all.

And that's why I think Sheriff Dupnik was right to implicate the poisonous right-wing rhetoric, that's been polluting our lives for so many years, in this shooting.

We have a unique vantage point here aboard the International Space Station. As I look out the window, I see a very beautiful planet that seems very inviting and peaceful. Unfortunately, it is not.

These days, we are constantly reminded of the unspeakable acts of violence and damage we can inflict upon one another, not just with our actions, but also with our irresponsible words.

We're better than this. We must do better.

- International Space Station Commander Scott Kelly

Video segment of that NASA feed at
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogaller...