Mediaboss Marketing

Print Create a hardcopy of this page Font Size: Default font size Larger font size

Posted: Tuesday, June 18, 2013 2:13 pm | Updated: 4:00 pm, Tue Jun 18, 2013.

A look at US-Taliban relations Associated Press |

Word that the Taliban and U.S. will hold formal talks to find a political solution to end nearly 12 years of war in Afghanistan comes after years of failed efforts at peace talks. A look at the evolution of U.S. relations with the Taliban:

1980s

_The Taliban, an Islamic fundamentalist movement, emerged from the Pakistani-trained mujahedeen, or holy warriors, who battled the Soviet Union's occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s with secret backing by the CIA.

1990s

_Civil war broke out when the pro-Soviet Afghan government collapsed following the departure of Moscow's troops. The U.S. took an arms-length position of neutrality as rival warlords shelled Kabul into ruins.

_The Taliban emerged as a united military and political force in 1994 and took control of Afghanistan in 1996. Led by Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Afghan Taliban sheltered Osama bin Laden in the years leading up to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. But the group was toppled shortly after the U.S. and allied invasion one month later.

2001

See the rest here:
A look at US-Taliban relations

Members of the Gov. Paul LePage administration will not speak to reporters for the Portland Press Herald, effective Tuesday.

Nor will they speak to employees of the Kennebec Journal and the Morning Sentinel, which are also owned by the Press Herald's parent company.

"We're not looking to aid them in the attacks on the governor," said Adrienne Bennett, director of communications for the LePage administration.

The communications office decided on Tuesday to allow Maine Today Media employees to get material from The Associated Press or news releases.

"If they want public information, they are entitled to that and they will get that information," Bennett said.

If an emergency situation occurs in a public safety matter, members of the administration will talk to Maine Today Media. But other than that, they will not, she said.

The executive editor of the Portland Press Herald and the Maine Sunday Telegram made a statement in response to the announcement.

"Our mission is to shine a light on how government impacts the lives of Mainers. No threats of gag orders from the LePage administration will stop us from doing probing journalism on behalf of citizens," Cliff Schechtman said.

Bennett cited a number of stories on Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Patricia Aho and the education commissioner as examples of daily attacks on the governor.

"They do not choose to use the information, which is provided by the governor's office in many cases, so what is the point?" she said.

See the article here:
LePage to Press Herald: Mum's the Word

At the 2012 Astrobiology Science Conference, Astrobiology Magazine hosted a plenary session titled: "Expanding the Habitable Zone: The Hunt for Exoplanets Now and Into the Future."

Originally formulated as part of our "Great Debate" series, this panel of exoplanet hunters and thinkers held a lively discussion about some of the most important issues facing the search for and understanding of alien worlds orbiting far-distant stars.

In the final installment of this 10-part "Hunting for Alien Worlds" series, the panelists and audience members give their thoughts on exoplanet science today.

Audience: Doug Archer, Johnson Space Center. I wanted to say two quick things. One, David in response to your question about names, I think like Dirk said, once we get to know a little bit more about the planets then I think the naming will kind of fall out of that. Especially once we can reach some level of certainty that theyre actually there. You know I can just imagine the conversation that I have with my three-and-a-half year old his favorite planet no longer exists because somebody did a different fast Fourier transform on the data. Once we know more about the planets and can confirm that they are actually there to some degree of certainty, then that will fall out of that and I think if we go through the IAU or the IAU resists, as the exoplanet community counts themselves and comes together and grants themselves the naming authority. Then that'll happen naturally. [Planets Large and Small Populate Our Galaxy (Infographic)]

David Grinspoon: I guess it will eventually, but we could be too too careful. I mean, I bet you more people know about the planet Nibiru that doesn't exist then know about Gliese 581 d.

Doug Archer: Yes. And then the last comment that I just want to say. I appreciate the efforts of one of the panelists that brings the small engineering model. And to be working on something like that, because I think that one thing in planetary science and space science in general that's just killing us is the growth and complexity of missions. So when you go from one instrument to two instruments, it doesn't double the cost, it squares the cost or it cubes the cost. So instead of saying to the American public or world at large, "This is really cool, please give us more money", we need to be figuring out ways that we can do this better, for the amount of money that we have. Because frankly 17 billion dollars a year is a lot of money. And as a scientist I look at that and I see how a lot of that is spent, and I'm not confident going to the American public and saying yes, every dollar that you are giving us is being well-spent. And so projects that you're working on, I think that's the future. We've got to figure out how to do it cheaper. And as scientists, we can really help do that. And once we go in that direction we will amazingly find this increase in capability as we start driving costs down. So I just wanted to say thank you for working on stuff like that and encourage everyone else to get involved with stuff like that.

Sara Seager: Thanks.

David Grinspoon: Over here. Yes?

Audience: Hi, my name is Sarah Rugheimer. I went to an event at MIT recently about standing up for science where it involved the media and how scientists can better talk with the media. And the question that I had at that conference, I'd like to pose to the panelists: Is there a problem we've had several maybe contentious press releases over the past year and a half? And when I talked to a lot of people who are non-scientists, I tend to find kind of two opposing attitudes. One where they completely trust some science. And the other one where they completely distrust some science. And you can see this in the case of maybe global warming, some medicine issues, stuff like that.

And so my question is, Do you think when we, because of wherever the miscommunication gap happened, it plays into a larger problem in our society where propagating distrust of science, and that might actually have big impacts in so far as people getting cancer treatment, or global warming, stuff like that?

View original post here:
Hunting for Alien Worlds (Part 10): The Last Word in Exoplanets

Shergar mediator reveals IRA informer knew secret code word

Monday, June 17, 2013

By Lynne Kelleher

The racing pundit who mediated with Shergars kidnappers has told how the IRA informer who claimed the horse was shot shortly after he was snatched knew secret codes used during the hostage talks.

Derek Thompson, who worked for ITVs racing team at the time, was one of three horseracing journalists who was asked by the IRA to conduct the hostage talks in Belfast.

A password he had never revealed was included in a book written by IRA supergrass Sen OCallaghan, who claimed the IRA organised the theft but had killed the horse within 36 hours when the stallion injured his leg.

In a new TV3 documentary, Mr Thompson says OCallaghan revealed a covert code word used in the phone negotiations in his book, The Informer.

Everything I remembered I put on to a tape recorder and the police were aware of this, and a number of code names I was using came out, but one or two didnt.

Then I was reading a book by this IRA man and one of the code names was there that hadnt become public. He used a code word that very, very few people knew.

He reveals how he was called in the middle of the night by the Press Association and told he had been requested to carry out the negotiations. He tells of how he entered the Europa Hotel surrounded by camera crews and was told to pick up a phone.

Link:
Shergar mediator reveals IRA informer knew secret code word

17 June 2013 Last updated at 09:44 ET

BBC Radio 4's Today programme has been censured by Ofcom over an interview with writer Lynda La Plante, during which she used the word "retard".

The Prime Suspect author was discussing her induction to the Forensic Science Society when she made the remark.

She used the word a further two times during the show, which aired in March.

Ofcom said although the first use was editorially justified, the second and third "had the potential to cause considerable and gratuitous offence".

During the interview, La Plante said she was frustrated at being misquoted in the press and pointed to an article published that day in which she was reported to have used the word to describe BBC commissioning editors.

Host Sarah Montague questioned the author further on her use of the language which reportedly "drew gasps" from those who heard it.

La Plante replied: "It was a Q&A, somebody said, 'How do and where do I send a script to?', and I said 'You do not send a script, full script, anywhere, you learn how to do a treatment, because you don't know if there's a retard at the end of that envelope reading it'.

"Suddenly I've called everybody at the BBC a 'retard'."

Changing the subject, Montague said: "...moving on from that use of language, do you feel that the BBC is not listening to you and not wanting to use your work..."

Read more:
Today censured over offensive term