Evolution at Sea: Long-Term Experiments Indicate Phytoplankton Can Adapt to Ocean Acidification

Fossil fuel derived carbon dioxide has a serious impact on global climate but also a disturbing effect on the oceans, know as the other CO₂problem. When CO₂ dissolves in seawater it forms carbonic acid and results in a drop in pH, the oceans acidify. A wealth of short-term experiments has shown that calcifying organisms, such as corals, clams and snails, but also micron size phytoplankton are affected by ocean acidification. The potential for organisms to cope with acidified oceanic conditions via evolutionary adaptations has so far been unresolved.

Scientists of the Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel (GEOMAR) have now for the first demonstrated the potential of the unicellular algaeEmiliania huxleyi to adapt to changing pH conditions and thereby at least partly to mitigate negative effects of ocean acidification. These results raised by the biologists Kai Lohbeck, Prof. Ulf Riebesell and Prof. Thorsten Reusch are published in the current issue of Nature Geoscience.

Experimental Emiliania huxleyistrains were isolated in Norwegian coastal waters and cultured in the laboratory under projected future ocean CO₂ conditions. After about one year, which translates into 500 generations in this rapidly reproducing species, the biologists detected adaptation to high CO₂ – adapted populations grew and calcified significantly better than non adapted control populations when tested under ocean acidification condition.

We Are Winning: How Pirate Parties Are Changing The World

Among all the bad laws being passed right now, change is coming. The Pirate Party’s plan for changing the world is proceeding much, much faster than expected. While the laws on the drawing board are still asinine, we’re at a tipping point where the net repressors are about to lose their influence on lawmaking.

After the Pirate Party’s political entry in the 2006 Swedish elections, we set out on a five-step plan to make sure that the offline civil liberties would carry over into the online world, against the wishes of the old guard. Each of these five steps would traditionally be impossible, and we’re done with the first two and are approaching the fourth:

How To Be a Crook - Pass It On!

Ever wanted to rob your fellow man? Learn the different methods you can use... and learn who is using them on YOU right now.

Pakistani president makes rare trip to India India’s prime minister accepts invitation to visit Pakistan

The leaders of India and Pakistan met Sunday, with both vowing to pursue better relations between the nuclear-armed nations, according to media reports.

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh spoke for nearly an hour in New Delhi, with Singh saying he would accept Zardari’s invitation to visit Pakistan by the end of the year.

Billed as private yet still important diplomatically, the meeting marked their first face-to-face meeting since 2009 and the first visit by a Pakistani head of state to India in seven years.

“We would like to have better relations with India. We have spoken on all topics that we could have spoken about and we are hoping to meet on Pakistani soil very soon,”

PM Cash for access and Syria -- Double Standards, Afshin Rattansi

The drinks listed in White House dinner are kept as a US state secret, we ask why? Did the accidental open microphone for Obama and Medvedev in Korea reveal something about Dominique Strauss-Kahn's prostitution scandal? We also talk to Ammar Waqqaf, from the Syrian Social Club in London about continuing attempts to destabilize the government of Syria. These and much more are all reviewed in this edition of Double Standards with Afshin Rattansi. Source

A New Era Of Freedom - RON PAUL REVOLUTION

Max interviews Max Keiser in Paris

Max Keiser does an interview with one of his favorite followers, "mini" Max Dickstein in the 3rd arrondisement of Paris. We talk about the state of the EU, democracy in the EU (or lack there of), the silver market, and 911. Source

Anonymous takes down UK Home Office website

Notorious hacktivist group Anonymous has taken down the UK Home Office website. The group owned up to the attack via Twitter, saying it was launched over “draconian surveillance proposals.”

The Home Office, whose website returned to normal around midnight GMT, confirmed the attack.

"We are aware of some reports that the Home Office website may be the subject of an online protest. We have put all potential measures in place and will be monitoring the situation very closely," the spokesperson said.

The group also claims it had launched a cyberattack on the websites of the British Prime Minister and the UK Ministry of Justice “for continued derogation of civil liberties."

America: A Government Out Of Control

Submitted by Tyler Durden: 

"A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have"

Thomas Jefferson

Something odd and not quite as planned happened as America grew from its "City on a Hill" origins, on its way to becoming the world's superpower: government grew. A lot. In fact, the government, which by definition does not create any wealth but merely reallocates it based on the whims of a select few, has transformed from a virtually invisible bystander in the economy, to the largest single employer, and a spending behemoth whose annual cash needs alone are nearly $4 trillion a year

CNN, Al-Jazeera and other Western Media Channels Caught Fabricating and Falsifying Evidence

Man With Nice Eyes Blown and Obama Urges Citizens To Hide Evidence Of Our Formerly Prosperous Lives From Nation's Young

Female voters can't help fawning over sexist GOP candidates, a homesick kid on a sleepover just needs to tough it the fuck out, and Neil DeGrasse Tyson lets it slip that he's been to Mars.

Gonzalo Lira: Spain will exit the eurozone first—precipitously and without warning

Unemployment in Spain is 24%. Youth unemployment (under 24 years old) is a shocking 53%. Both figures will rise during 2012 as the economy continues to contract. An unemployment of 30% by year’s end is within the realm of the possible. Hell, within the realm of the likely, even. 

Total government debt is projected to be 79.8% of GDP in 2012—that is, €800 billion. Much more troublingly, the debt last year was “only” €680 billion—but that was still 21% higher than in 2010. So at this rate—assuming the status quo remains unchanged, and without factoring in the contraction of GDP—in 2013 the projected Spanish government debt could well rise to 90% of GDP.