Another coup today was of a physics origin in the world's largest scientific experiment. It does make me wonder just how much wisdom they are using as they struggle to gain knowledge. Hopefully, they are not putting the rest of the world in danger. Why worry about a rogue state with nukes when we have European scientists armed with black holes? :)
One story to make your blood boil is how insurance companies have been pouring over the health care law to find ways to not insure children with pre-existing conditions. Looks like they have finally backed off as lawmakers tighten the language. Amazing how greedy people can be and utterly cavalier with the lives of children.
And the funny of the day is Karl Rove running like a scalded dog from a book signing event because he was scared of a woman wielding handcuffs. She threatened to make a citizen's arrest for his war crimes. You will love this video.
Geneva atom smasher sets collision record: (NBC) The world's largest atom smasher set a record for high-energy collisions on Tuesday by crashing proton beams into each other at three times more force than ever before.
In a milestone in the $10 billion Large Hadron Collider's ambitious bid to reveal details about theoretical particles and microforces, scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, collided the beams and took measurements at a combined energy level of 7 trillion electron volts.
The collisions herald a new era for researchers working on the machine in a 17-mile (27-kilometer) tunnel below the Swiss-French border at Geneva...
In a control room, scientists erupted with applause when the first successful collisions were confirmed. Their colleagues from around the world were tuning in by remote links to witness the new record, which surpasses the 2.36 TeV CERN recorded last year.
Dubbed the world's largest scientific experiment, scientists hope the machine can approach on a tiny scale what happened in the first split seconds after the Big Bang, which they theorize was the creation of the universe some 14 billion years ago.
The extra energy in Geneva is expected to reveal even more about the unanswered questions of particle physics, such as the existence of antimatter and the search for the Higgs boson, a hypothetical particle that scientists theorize gives mass to other particles and thus to other objects and creatures in the universe...
Obama, Sarkozy urge sanctions on Iran: (NBC) Presidents take united stand against Tehran, condemn Israeli settlements. At the side of his French ally, President Barack Obama said Tuesday that the world is "more united than ever" on the need to keep Iran from becoming a nuclear-armed state.
"On this the United States and France are united," Obama said, opening a joint appearance before reporters that capped White House meetings with French President Nicolas Sarkozy. "Today, the international community is more united than ever on the need for Iran to uphold its obligations."
The United States is working with France and other allies to develop a new, tougher round of sanctions against Iran, which they accuse of continuing uranium enrichment in defiance of United Nations demands. Tehran says it seeks only nuclear power, not weapons.
Obama said he wants to see U.N. sanctions in place against Iran within weeks...
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And this would explain the long months of quiet from the administration and then suddenly President Obama quickly announcing the hard push on Iran for sanctions to dismantle their nuclear program. There are those times when the CIA gets it right. Congrats go out to those who risked their lives to accomplish the safety for this courageous man:
Iranian scientist defects to U.S.: (NBC) An Iranian nuclear scientist who had been reported missing since last summer has defected to the U.S. and is assisting the CIA in its efforts to undermine Iran's nuclear program, ABC News reported Tuesday.
The scientist, Shahram Amiri, has been resettled in the U.S., according to the report.
The CIA had no comment on the report, a spokesman said...
Amiri, who worked at Tehran's Malek Ashtar University, an institution closely connected to Iran's Revolutionary Guard, disappeared last June while in Saudi Arabia on a pilgrimage. While his disappearance led to speculation that he had defected and was assisting the West in its efforts to keep track of Iran's nuclear program, the foreign minister for Iran accused the U.S. of helping to kidnap him.
Citing people briefed on the intelligence operation, ABC News said Amiri's disappearance was part of a long-planned CIA operation to persuade him to defect. The CIA reportedly approached Amiri in Iran through an intermediary who made an offer of resettlement on behalf of the United States, ABC News said.
Amiri has been extensively debriefed since his defection, according to the report, and has helped to confirm U.S. intelligence assessments about the Iranian nuclear program.
Insurers agree to fix gap in sick kids’ coverage: (NBC) After battling President Barack Obama's health care overhaul the better part of a year, the insurance industry said Monday it won't try to block his efforts to fix a potentially embarrassing glitch in the new law.
In a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, the industry's top lobbyist said insurers will accept new regulations to dispel uncertainty over a much-publicized guarantee that children with medical problems can get coverage starting this year.
Quick resolution of the doubts was a win for Obama — and a sign that the industry has no stomach for another war of words with a president who deftly used double-digit rate hikes by the companies to revive his sweeping health care legislation from near collapse in Congress.
"Health plans recognize the significant hardship that a family faces when they are unable to obtain coverage for a child with a pre-existing condition," Karen Ignagni, president of America's Health Insurance Plans, said in a letter to Sebelius. Ignagni said that the industry will "fully comply" with the regulations, expected within weeks...
Issue of interpretation
The problem on the issue of covering kids was that the law could also be interpreted in a more limited way.
Narrowly read, it seemed to say that if an insurance company accepts a particular child, it cannot write a policy for a child that excludes coverage for a given condition. For example, if the child has asthma, the insurer cannot exclude inhalers and respiratory care from coverage, as sometimes happens now.
But that meant the company could still turn down the child altogether.
Indeed, House and Senate staffers on two committees that wrote the legislation said last week it stopped short of an ironclad guarantee. House leaders later issued a statement saying their intent in writing the legislation was to provide full protection...
This was funny how Karl Rove can't handle the heat when it comes his way. He ran from the book signing like the cowardly cur that he is. He was scared of a woman trying to make a citizen's arrest for his war crimes. You go, girl. Works for me. This guy belongs in jail for many life times.
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