Headlines below the fold

The US news seems to be full of hate speech by partisans claiming that hate speech caused the Arizona shooting.
And alas USA Today notes anti Semitism might have sparked the problem.

my take Here.It's the mental illness, stupid, and probably he just went for a nearby target... if it hadn't been the congress woman, it would have been his college or the neighbors...
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But in the meanwhile, some really important things are going on that aren't on "google news".

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The Sudan is having a referendum today. The South could split off, and this could cause a major war in the area.

This did get on today's CNNI news, probably because George Clooney was there talking. Of course, Clooney is an expert on Dafur, not Southern Sudan, but I guess that's close enough for cnn to consider him an "expert".

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Algerian violence over food prices. This could spread, especially if they start raising oil prices again (which increases food prices).

I hate to sound paranoid, but did they ever discover who manipulated that spike in oil prices that essentially set off the domino effect that lead to this depression? Just wondering...

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The most ignored story of the day: Half a million folks displaced in the Philippines from floods and landslides.
More HERE. and HERE.

This didn't even make headlines here in the Philippines, because these were in the poor areas of the Philippines, and mild flooding is common. Landslidesare often due to illegal logging that removes the trees from slopes, and in some area, primitive mining practices.

Right now, it's raining here in our area, but not enough to flood. The problem? It's "winter", the dry season, and cool enough that some folks may die from simple exposure.

This explains the estimated 1.7 million who attended the procession of the Black Nazarene this weekend.
Cardinal Rosales explains:“The image of the Black Nazarene is the image of suffering, struggling that is why people like Him... they see in the cross a picture of them,” the 78-year-old prelate said.
only 560 needed medical treatment in the procession this year, no one killed, which is a relief.

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Will China switch to Linux?or maybe not:too many Chinese like gaming. Check out post on Strategypage. They tell you what everyone here in Asia knows: most of the local software is pirated, and full of viruses, even when you pay "full price" for software.
Hmm...maybe they need to read THIS.

My new computer is US bought and paid for, so I'm legal... but when my old computer crashed, I opted for loading Ubuntu rather than use a pirated local version of windows.
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This glorious messy universe (podcast).
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But there is some good news out there. Remember that Gulf oil spill? Well, Nat Geo says the microbes ate up much of the methane.
which is good, since methane is a greenhouse gas