The EU Court of First Instance, the EU's 2nd highest level appellate court, has struck down the EU designation of a significant Iranian opposition group, the People's Mujaheddin (OMPI) on the ground that OMPI didn't have a fair hearing before its assets were frozen. This is a further sign of the growing effort to require judicial oversight of national security designations made by national governments in the area of economic sanctions against terrorism.

Läs mer: Counterterrorism Blog: EU Strikes Down Terrorist Finance Designation of Iranian Opposition

Which presented an immediate quandary for NBC: If a viewer were somehow to acquire the license to use that Internet domain name, then put something inappropriate on the site, the network could potentially be held liable for appearing to promote it. In a pre-emptive strike inspired as much by the regulations of the Federal Communications Commission as by the laws of comedy, NBC bought the license to hornymanatee.com, for $159, after the taping of the Dec. 4 show but before it was broadcast.

Läs mer: So This Manatee Walks Into the Internet - New York Times

Most of Central and Eastern Europe's former Communist countries tried to purge their societies of the Soviet-era secret police and informers in the aftermath of communism's collapse. But the closer they were to Russia, the less effective their purges were.

Läs mer: Communists are gone but not the spies - Europe - International Herald Tribune

The practice of aborting female fetuses because of a preference for sons is becoming more widespread in India, a Unicef report revealed Tuesday, with an estimated 7,000 fewer girls born every day because of the spread of cheap, prenatal sex-determination technology.

Läs mer: More female fetuses being aborted in India, Unicef says - Asia - Pacific - International Herald Tribune

It was a marathon case, beginning 12 years ago, and, along with Mengistu, more than 70 other high-ranking suspects were found guilty of genocide. The trial, held in Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, was one of the rare instances of an African country trying its own former leader.

Läs mer: Ethiopian court convicts Mengistu Haile Mariam of genocide - Africa & Middle East - International Herald Tribune

Belgium: This year's vintage was good. The bottle from 1997 was even better, with the flavors coalescing into something special. But it was the 1970 edition that really opened eyes to what aging a bottle can do.

Läs mer: Some beers really do get better with age - Travel & Dining - International Herald Tribune

To make room for more high- rise buildings, investors are doing what was once left to philanthropists: giving slum dwellers free apartments.

Läs mer: Free apartments in Mumbai, but not everyone is happy - Business - International Herald Tribune

Shadowed by peril as we are, you would think we'd get pretty good at distinguishing the risks likeliest to do us in from the ones that are statistical long shots. But you would be wrong. We agonize over avian flu, which to date has killed precisely no one in the U.S., but have to be cajoled into getting vaccinated for the common flu, which contributes to the deaths of 36,000 Americans each year. We wring our hands over the mad cow pathogen that might be (but almost certainly isn't) in our hamburger and worry far less about the cholesterol that contributes to the heart disease that kills 700,000 of us annually.

Läs mer: TIME.com: Why We Worry About The Things We Shouldn't... ...And Ignore The Things We Should -- Dec. 4, 2006 -- Page 1

Discovering this basic neural circuitry turned out to be a key breakthrough in understanding anxiety. It showed that the anxiety response isn't necessarily caused by an external threat; rather, it may be traced to a breakdown in the mechanism that signals the brain to stop responding. Just as a car can go out of control due to either a stuck accelerator or failed brakes, it's not always clear which part of the brain is at fault. It may turn out that some anxiety disorders are caused by an overactive amygdala (the accelerator) while others are caused by an underactive prefrontal cortex (call it the brake).

Läs mer: TIME.com: The Science Of Anxiety -- Jun. 10, 2002 -- Page 3

Mass hysteria is typically called 'mass sociogenic illness' in the research literature and was the subject of a fascinating 2002 article by sociologist Robert Bartholomew and psychiatrist Simon Wessley. This article was published in the British Journal of Psychiatry and charts the history of mass sociogenic illness from the middle ages to the present day.

Läs mer: Mind Hacks: 'Mass hysteria' closes school

Nog har man hört mycket om det galna 60- och 70-talet men det här tar nog priset. Sverige hade ett mer eller mindre hemligt avtal med västmakterna om militärt bistånd i händelse av en attack från Sovjet och Warszawapakten. Jag minns från i alla fall 80-talet att det sades att detta avtal fanns, och det kändes lugnande. Det visat sig nu i en  ny bok av Robert Dalsjö på FOI att man avvecklade avtalet under tryck från den radikaliserade vänstern!

Robert Dalsjö beskriver utvecklingen så att man under 1950-talet kunde skriva om planerna på att begära hjälp västerifrån, att man på 60-talet kunde tala om dem, men att man under 70-talet inte ens fick tänka på saken.
Det ledde till att planläggningen bröts och förstördes på 80-talet.

Speciellt märkligt är följande ur artikeln i DN:

Stig Synnergrens efterträdare Lennart Ljung, som tillträdde 1978, gav klartecken till att planläggningen för västsamarbetet skulle förstöras, vilket skedde 1984 utan klara besked från regeringen eller försvarsministern Anders Thunborg.

Detta tycks innebära att det slutliga avvecklandet gjordes under en borgerlig regering. Med dess goda minne eller saknade de insyn i försvarsmakten?

Läs mer: DN - Nyheter - Nytt politiskt klimat stoppade Natosamarbete

The custom-built ink-jet printer, developed at Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Institute, can deposit and immobilize growth factors in virtually any design, pattern or concentration, laying down patterns on native extracellular matrix-coated slides (such as fibrin). These slides are then placed in culture dishes and topped with muscle-derived stem cells (MDSCs). Based on pattern, dose or factor printed by the ink-jet, the MDSCs can be directed to differentiate down various cell-fate differentiation pathways (e.g. bone- or muscle-like). "Previously, researchers have been limited to directing stem cells to differentiate toward multiple lineages in separate culture vessels. This is not how the body works: the body is one vessel in which multiple tissues are patterned and formed. The ink-jet printing technology allows us to precisely engineer multiple unique microenvironments by patterning bio-inks that could promote differentiation towards multiple lineages simultaneously," explained Phil Campbell, research professor at Carnegie Mellon's Institute for Complex Engineered Systems.

Läs mer: Team engineers muscle, bone cell differentiation with aid of ink-jet printer | Science Blog

Vad är det med Italien och dunkla affärer? I en artikel om den märklige Litvinekoanknutne Scaramella som påstår en massa saker om sig själv som inte är sant, fanns också en beskrivning av misstankar mot Romano Prodis samröre med terrorism i samband med kidnappnigen av italienska arbetsgivareföreningens chef Aldo Moro:

And Prodi does have an unusual tie to the Moro kidnapping: In 1978, he and other professors at the University of Bologna held a séance, in which a Ouija board spelled the word "Gradoli," which turned out to be the address of a Red Brigades safe house.

Varför får ett antal akademiker för sig att spela Ouija board? Lagom dunkelt?

Italien tillhör ett av de västeuropeiska länder som riskerade att falla till kommunismen efter andra världskriget. Andra exempel är Grekland och i viss utsträckning Frankrike. Öppenhet är nog en bra medicin.

The world's last documented case of smallpox killed photographer Janet Parker in 1978 after the virus escaped from a lab at the University of Birmingham in England.

Läs mer: 20 Things You Didn't Know About... Lab Accidents - - science news articles online technology magazine articles 20 Things You Didn't Know About... Lab Accidents

Research unveiled today is projecting that by the year 2050, all current fish and seafood species will collapse. The report is the work of 12 researchers worldwide and is published in this week's edition of the journal Science

Läs mer: No Fish by 2050 - - science news articles online technology magazine articles No Fish by 2050

There is evidence that cocaine use increases the chance of spontaneous miscarriage or a low-birth-weight baby. But any later deficits were caused not by crack but by lack of prenatal care, poverty, and malnutrition. Doctors argue that the stigma of being a crack baby does more damage than the crack exposure.

Läs mer: What Ever Happened to Crack Babies? - - science news articles online technology magazine articles What Ever Happened to Crack Babies?

Brain scans of a 23-year-old woman who, in a traffic accident, sustained head injuries so severe she met the clinical criteria for a vegetative state are forcing many doctors to reconsider what they know about such patients' awareness. In the experiment the woman was instructed to imagine playing tennis or walking around her house for 30 seconds when given the cues "tennis" or "house." Her brain activity proved identical to that of healthy subjects, suggesting that she carried out the commands.

Läs mer: Rethinking the Conscious Mind - - science news articles online technology magazine articles Rethinking the Conscious Mind

The discovery of a vast lake of liquid carbon dioxide beneath the ocean floor off Taiwan has startled earth scientists and raised hopes for a new strategy against carbon dioxide–related global warming. That such a lake can even exist lends empirical support to a seemingly blue-sky proposal: Inject excess atmospheric CO2 deep into the ocean, where the high pressure would trap the gas in a liquid form.

Läs mer: Global Warming Sinks - - science news articles online technology magazine articles Global Warming Sinks

De har ett intressant grepp som jag inte sett nån annanstans - en trenivå-struktur där den första nivån ger de basala grunderna på enkelt språk, den andra nivån ger detaljer och den tredje nivån består av själva "källdokumentet"; den rapport (eller liknande) de förklarar.

Påminner mycket om ett system som jag programmerade för ett projekt på Lunds Universitet i början på 90-talet, som hette Kuben. Det var designat att ge svar i tre nivåer för byggbranschen: Ett direkt svar på vad man skall göra, ett svar med alternativ, och ett svar med källamterial (om jag minns rätt).

Läs mer: vetenskapsnytt: En användarvänlig guide till komplex vetenskap

Scientists from Johns Hopkins and from the University of Milan have effectively proven that they can inhibit lethal human brain cancers in mice using a protein that selectively induces positive changes in the activity of cells that behave like cancer stem cells. The report is published this week in Nature.

Läs mer: Natural protein stops deadly human brain cancer in mice | Science Blog