Think the weather's bad where you are?

Well, you could be in my home province of Nova Scotia, where a recent winter storm has torn through the province leaving 30 cm of snow with winds of 100 km/h. Things are apparently so bad that this morning the government declared a provincial state of emergency.

A group comprising of 60 scientists, 20 of whom are Nobel Laureates, has issued a report today stating that the Bush administration has "deliberately and systematically distorted scientific fact in the service of policy goals on the environment, health, biomedical research and nuclear weaponry at home and abroad." The Union of Concerned Scientists, a group that focuses on technical issues around government science policy, has also released a report critisizing the administration for similar issues.

In a problem that I remember studying back in university, the BBC has published an article on the issues surrounding the traditional knowledge of First Nations people based on a report published by the United Nations University Institute for Advanced Studies. There have been many cases were a Western firm would discover a use for a plant from the indigenous peoples. They would then patent the plant and find the indigenous peoples in conflict with intellectual property rights. Kind of a nice scam, eh?

In other news:
- The temple where the Buddha is said to have found enlightenment is now a United Nations World Heritage Site.
- The judiciary in Iran has shut down two major reformist newspapers in preparation for the election tomorrow.
- Jewish groups are speaking out against what they see as a rise in anti-Semitism in Europe.
- In response to the same-sex marriages being conducted in San Francisco, President Bush has been quoted as saying "I'm troubled by what I have seen."
- A Christian Science Monitor article on a group of Indian Muslim clerics visiting the United States and their reaction.
- Apparently Australian men are having a 'crisis of masculinity.' At least according to the new Labour leader.
- Your local nightclub and cancer seem to have something in common now -- they both have bouncers.
- Scientists find a huge black hole devouring another star.