Advocates say it makes people think about the earth. Well wouldn’t it be better to think about it for more than one hour a year? If I was the earth I would be feeling a bit ripped off. New Zealand and Australia both get one whole day a year to them selves, and the whole earth only gets an hour? Shouldn’t it be earth week and we all get a one week holiday?

But wont switching off lights at least drop load at the power station and reduce emissions? No! The Power stations are on idle at night – they have to run at a minimum load. Switching off lights at night doesn’t make them generate any less electricity.  The power is there to use.  It’s the DAY time that they go flat-out.

So, if you DO want to reduce energy-produced carbon emissions by a MINISCULE amount by switching off lights, first connect to an electricity provider that isn’t already green, and then switch off lights during the day. But only if your electricity provider is not green already!

Q. What are the folk that do follow Earth Hour going to do in the dark?

A. Make carbon-emission producing kids, burn candles to produce light really inefficiently, or  go for a drive in their SUVs/Hummers to town to spend money on so stuff whose packaging is plastic and created by some filthy pollution generating Chinese factory.

SO, what CAN you do if you really want to make a difference to the earth at Earth Hour?

Take your kids on a family activity to kill your neighbours dog! By doing this you will be saving the earth from the massive emissions of dog food production, and canning processes,  AND the carbon dioxide and methane that the dog would have created from its consumption.

Your neighbour wont have to drive their dog to the park in their SUV anymore either. Win Win.

Brilliant.

Anyway, apparently having a burning object between your legs makes you a terrorist. Hmm… I’ll restrain from commenting further.

clipped from www.huffingtonpost.com Schuringa said he saw that Abdulmutallab had his pants open and he was holding a burning object between his legs.

What’s annoying is that the Japanese pretend that the hunting and killing of whales is for “scientific” purposes.

clipped from www.theage.com.au The new Sea Sheperd Conservation Society’s boat the Ady Gil in November. Photo: Peter Mathew Anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd’s stealth boat Ady Gil has been cut in half by a Japanese security vessel in the Antarctic today The $1.5 million high-tech vessel’s remains were sinking, but its six-man crew had been rescued and was uninjured Captain Watson said the Ady Gil was idling in waters near Commonwealth Bay when it was suddenly approached and rammed by the Japanese ship Shonan Maru, which has been detailed to provide security to the fleet. Earlier today, the fleet was contacted for the first time by the Ady Gil and Sea Shepherd’s surprise third vessel, the Bob Barker. “According to the Institute of Cetacean Research, the Ady Gil’s crew were launching projectiles at the Nisshin Maru and attempted to entangle its propellers with rope.” ICR video footage shows the vessel stalking the Japanese ship, towing ropes from its stern.

A 2002 report in the Southern Medical Journal showed found pathogens — including staphylococcus — on 94% of dollar bills tested. Paper money can reportedly carry more germs than a household toilet. And bills are a hospitable environment for gross microbes: viruses and bacteria can live on most surfaces for about 48 hours, but paper money can reportedly transport a live flu virus for up to 17 days. It’s enough to make you switch to credit.

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China, India, Egypt and Cuba were among the 29 developing countries that backed a Sri Lankan-proposed resolution describing the conflict as a “domestic matter that doesn’t warrant outside interference”. The resolution also supported Colombo’s insistence on allowing aid group access to 270,000 civilians detained in camps only “as may be appropriate”.

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Western diplomats and human rights officials were shocked by the outcome at the end of an acrimonious two-day special session to examine the humanitarian and human rights situation in Sri Lanka after the blitzkrieg of the final military offensive that wiped out the Tiger force.

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“The vote is extremely disappointing and is a low point for the Human Rights Council. It abandons hundreds of thousands of people in Sri Lanka to cynical political considerations,” Amnesty International said.

…The UN in Sri Lanka says that at least 7,000 civilians were killed in the first four months of the year alone, with the casualty rate sharply rising as the endgame approached. Many of those deaths are believed to have been caused by Sri Lankan army shelling. The Government denies that it caused a single civilian death, blaming all of them on the rebels.(emphasis added by NT)

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Western diplomats said that the result called into question the entire purpose of the Human Rights Council — where the 47 members sit as equals with no right of veto for any country. The United States only recently agreed to join it in the belief that the council had been reformed.

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Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, had called on Tuesday for an international war crimes inquiry, saying she believed that both sides might be guilty of war crimes. The Tigers are accused of using civilians as human shields and those who fled the war have testified that rebel commanders fired on them to stop them escaping, killing many.

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Aid agencies have been given only limited access to the sprawling camps and have been barred from bringing in vehicles for fear that Tiger cadres could use them to escape.

Sri Lanka has said that it will allow access to the camps in a month, after screening for former fighters is complete. On a military-led visit to the camps this week, though, officials admitted that no such screening was taking place and that captured fighters were taken to “rehabilitation camps” before they were registered there.

via Sri Lanka forces West to retreat over ‘war crimes’ with victory at UN – Times Online.