A brief history of chemical weapons

Several international agreements have sought to limit the use of chemical weapons in warfare, beginning with the 1675 Strasbourg Agreement that banned the use of poison bullets in conflict. More recently, a United Nations initiative led to the signing of the Chemical Weapons Convention in 1993. The convention, which has been signed by 182 states, enforces a comprehensive ban on developing, producing, stockpiling and using chemical weapons. Syria is not among the signatories to the Convention and thus is not legally bound by its prohibitions.

Chemical weapons include a wide variety of warfare agents developed specifically for military use, in addition to toxic industrial and commercial chemicals such as chlorine and phosgene and chemical toxins of biological origin such as ricin.

Here's a look at the ways chemical weapons have been used militarily in recent history:

World War I: Chlorine and phosgene gases were released on the battlefield. The first large scale attack with chlorine gas took place at Ieper in Belgium on April 22nd, 1915. Ninety thousand people were killed and over a million injured as a result of the use of chemical weapons in the war.

1980s: Iraq used chemical weapons against Iran in their 8-year war. Iraq also used chemical weapons against Kurdish Iraqis in Halabja in 1988.

2004: U.S. military used white phosphorus in Fallujah, Iraq. Use of white phosphorus is not banned but its use is restricted under an international agreement the U.S. has never accepted.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/brief-history-chemical-weapons-105710291.html

Voting Results 2012 pbs ron paul Cnn Electoral Map

Republicans block U.N. treaty to protect people with disabilities (reuters)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/268412477?client_source=feed&format=rss

jcp Sports Authority Hollister old navy walmart black friday walmart black friday Target Black Friday

Senate OKs Obama's choice for Afghan commander

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Senate has approved President Barack Obama's choice to be the top commander in Afghanistan.

By voice vote Monday, lawmakers cleared the way for Gen. Joseph Dunford, the assistant commandant of the Marine Corps, to take over as head of U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan.

Dunford would replace Gen. John Allen, the current commander who has been nominated to take charge in Europe. Allen's nomination is on hold as he's ensnared in the sex scandal that had led to the resignation of CIA director David Petraeus.

Dunford takes charge at a critical time for Obama and the military as they decide in the coming weeks the pace of drawing down the 66,000 U.S. combat troops in Afghanistan. Dunford has directed combat forces in Iraq.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-12-03-US-US-Afghanistan-Commander/id-69639994b1544628947cd2a43da5e9da

polar bear plunge lovelace antioch the grey review demi moore 911 call ipo jim rome

Japan's Property Market Makes a Comeback ? Real Estate Japan ...

The success of DiverCity has given investors confidence that Japan?s sluggish property market is improving. DiverCity Tokyo Plaza, a 2.2 million square-foot complex developed by Mitsui Fudosan, has attracted more than 4 million people in its first two months. The company is expecting 25 million visitors a year.

According to Mitsui Fudosan President, Masanobu Komoda, the success of DiverCity has made the recovery trend in land prices clearer, pulling investors back in the market. DiverCity has also lifted Mitsui Fudosan?s stock price to 53% this year. The company?s residential business was strong as well, earning 6.8 billion yen compared to the 790 million yen loss in the same period a year earlier.

All in all, profits of Mitsui Fudosan rose 62% in the first half of the fiscal year and real estate stocks are up 46% this year.

Other companies like Sumitomo Realty & Development and Tokyo Land, are also performing well on the Nikkei this year. Meanwhile, Mitsubishi Estate, reported triple earnings in the first half of the fiscal year with strong apartment sales and increasing office rents.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch analyst, Toshiyuki Anegawa says the average monthly rents in Tokyo?s central business district which were 22,900 yen per tsubo in 2008 are now 16,600 yen and won?t fall further in the coming years.

Other companies are taking advantage of lower rents to get more space in better neighborhoods like Morgan Stanley, a major tenant in a new Mitsubishi Estate building at Tokyo?s center, according to Keisuke Yanagimachi, head of Japan research in Toyko with Cushman & Wakefield.

Meanwhile, Bank of Japan plans to spend 30 billion yen in 2013 to boost its holdings in real estate investment trusts. This has helped Mori Building, Daiwa House and other developers with REITs refinance debt at record-low yields. Analysts also say that the December 16 election might give the property market a little push especially with the Liberal Democratic Party favored by the majority because of their strong urge to tackle deflation.

Photo Credits: wallyg via Flickr Creative Commons

Tokyo Apartments For Sale | Tokyo Apartments For Rent | Real Estate Japan

Source: http://www.realestate.co.jp/2012/12/04/japans-property-market-makes-a-comeback/

lemonade diet steve jobs action figure chris jericho rose bowl johnny weir quadrantid meteor shower osu football

Homeless couple calls Colombian sewer home

Albeiro Lopera / Reuters

Miguel Restrepo, 62, looks up from his sewer home in Medellin, Colombia, Dec. 4, 2012.

Albeiro Lopera, Reuters ? Former drug addict Miguel Restrepo, 62, has been living in an abandoned sewer with his wife and dog Blackie for 22 years. Their home, fitted with a kitchen, fan, television, chair and bed, is a 64.5-square-feet tunnel that leaks when it rains and requires a manhole cover.

Albeiro Lopera / Reuters

Miguel Restrepo, 62, and wife Maria Garcia, left, prepare Christmas decorations outside their sewer home in Medellin, Colombia on Dec. 4

Albeiro Lopera / Reuters

Maria Garcia cooks in her sewer home in Medellin, Colombia, Dec. 4.

Raul Arboleda / AFP - Getty Images

Miguel Restrepo, left, rests with his wife Maria Garcia and their dog on a bed inside their sewer home in Medellin, Colombia, Dec. 4.

?Sign up for the NBCNews.com Photos Newsletter

Source: http://photoblog.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/04/15679612-homeless-couple-calls-colombian-sewer-home?lite

newt gingrich wife callista rick perry travis barker get back on board rob lowe peyton manning what is sopa

FedEx to offer buyouts with up to 2 years pay

NEW YORK (AP) ? FedEx will be offering some employees up to two years pay to leave the company next year.

The voluntary program is part of an effort by the second-biggest package delivery company to cut annual costs by $1.7 billion within three years.

Employees who volunteer for the program will receive four weeks of pay for every year of service, capped at two full years of base pay.

Those eligible will be notified in February, and have until April to apply. They'll be informed in May if they are accepted. The first wave of employees will leave on May 31, the last day of FedEx's fiscal year.

FedEx, which is based in Memphis, Tenn., is responding to a slow-growing global economy. It also plans shed aircraft and underused assets to cut costs.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-12-04-FedEx-Buyout%20Plan/id-8ee69b0c76054afbb8849fe7cf38a4ec

sweet caroline lottery winning numbers pro bowl roster quirky chrissy teigen chia seeds embers

Destructivist Epistemology? ? Back Towards the Locus

I am leery about the elision, in some quarters, of scepticism with Liberal politics. To be sure, I endorse people approaching their politics, whatever they might be, from a sceptical perspective. What is troubling is when ideology masquerades as something more objective. Rebecca Watson, a progressive commentator, gave a speech at a popular conference named Skepticon that smeared the field of evolutionary psychology. A gentleman named Edward Clint has taken it upon himself to thoroughly refute Ms. Watson?s errors and simplifications.

There is a great deal of legitimate criticism to be made of evolutionary psychology and its practionitioners, and still more to be made of the opportunistic media hacks who leap upon research that can be sensationalised. What make Watson such an obscurantist on the subject, then, is not the fact that she criticised the field but the manner in which she criticised it. She numerous errors of fact and logic, and several of them are revealing.

Watson name-dropped Stephen Jay Gould, who was disdainful of the claims of evolutionary psychologists. Ideologues of all stripes have particular scholars they will trot out to bolster the factual presumptions underpinning their ideas, and we must be careful that we reference people because we have reason to believe they are correct and not because we think their views agreeable. Liberals reference Stephen Jay Gould to dismiss inconveniently deterministic biological and psychological theories. Yet Professor Gould?s critiques were more respected in the popular press than academic circles. Indeed, it appears that he misunderstood and even misrepresented research he disliked. We can bring up arguments if we find them compelling but should take care not to invoke scientists like saints.

People like to laugh at academics, which is why the Sokal hoax is so renowned. It is hard to engage experts on their level, whether or not their ideas are sound, so we enjoy seeing them fall upon their bottoms. Sadly, though, scientific researchers are rarely mistaken in amusing ways, and, thus, there is a danger that the lulz that are had at their expense are on dubious premises. Watson, f0r example, described the success of neuroscientist V.S. Ramachandran in writing a bogus paper on the supposed male preference for blondes. ?He got it published,? she laughs. Clint observes, however, that it was not published in a psychological or even biological journal but a medical one, and a medical journal that explicitly welcomes ?novel, radical new ideas and speculations?which would be rejected by most conventional journals.? I don?t see why evolutionary psychologists should take the blame for this any more than Bloomsbury should take responsibility for Barry Trotter.

Some of Watson?s comments are, it seems, not merely wrong but defamatory. She speaks of a book by researchers who interviewed women as to what drives them to have sex. It does sound like the kind of thing that could be very, very bad but Watson?s treatment of it seems disgraceful. She claims the researchers ?bravely went and interviewed a thousand white, middle-class women?. The eye-rolling implication is that they were narrow-minded and incompetent at best and downright bigoted at worst. Her audience gave an appreciative chuckle. Well, I have the book open before me and it clearly states that ?the women identified?as American Indian, Asian, black, white (non-Hispanic), and Latino?. Almost half of them earned below $50,000. Unless Watson knows something that does not appear to be written she has propagated a lousy and libellous mistruth.

Watson, it seems, was not regarding politics from a sceptical perspective but science through the blinkers of ideology. Considering how broad and dense its fields are this cannot offer more than a slanted, narrow viewpoint. It is a lesson to would-be sceptics of every shade that no one political view monopolises rationality, and that the fact that something appeals to your heart does not mean it should be accepted by your head.

Like this:

Be the first to like this.

Source: http://bensix.wordpress.com/2012/12/03/destructivist-epistemology/

wake forest wake forest old dominion insync the duchess the duchess spice