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California grossly miscalculated pollution levels in a scientific analysis used to toughen the state's clean air standards and scientists have spent the past several months revising data and planning a significant weakening of the landmark regulation, The Chronicle has found. The pollution estimate in question was too high - by 340 percent, according to the California Air Resources Board, the state agency charged with researching and adopting air quality standards. The estimate was a key part in the creation of a regulation adopted by the Air Resources Board in 2007, a rule that forces businesses to cut diesel emissions by...

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama's options for spurring job growth may be limited by out-of-control budget deficits, but he is warming to moves by his congressional allies for a jobs-boosting bill. Taking his defense of the economy on the road, the president scheduled appearances Friday in Pennsylvania to showcase innovative businesses following Thursday's White House jobs forum. That event combined cheerleading and brainstorming as Obama exhorted more than 100 CEOs, academics, small business and union leaders and local officials to focus on new ways to get businesses hiring again. At the forum, the president spoke favorably of an expanded program...

Thursday, September 24, 2009 September 24 2009: Fake, Freak and Pretend Ilargi: When President Obama was on Letterman earlier this week, one of the first things he said on the economy was something to the effect that 'most economists are now seeing a recovery'. But how can you not wonder these days who the economists are the president refers to, and what those same economists were saying a year ago or 2 years ago about the state of the economy? You would wonder about that because the number of economists who were even remotely close in their predictions back then...

On a sultry day in July 2008, Marine Sgt. David W. Budwah strode in his battle fatigues to the front of a picnic pavilion to tell three dozen young boys what he did during the war. With his clear gaze, rigid posture and muscled, tattooed arms, Budwah looked every inch the hero he claimed to be. He said he was on his second tour of duty in Afghanistan when a homemade grenade exploded, wounding his face and arm when he dove to shield a buddy from the blast.

Virtually every eyeball in China was on the launch of Chinese spacecraft Shenzhou VII, just as the Chinese regime wanted. But among those eyeballs were many observant ones—maybe too observant for the Chinese Communist Party’s liking.Chinese state-run media called the Shenzhou VII mission “a historic moment.” However, online bloggers have pointed out physics-defying phenomena in the news footage of its space walk that suggest the whole operation was filmed not in space, but under water. As soon as China Central Television (CCTV) broadcast “live” footage of astronauts conducting operations aboard Shenzhou VII on Sept.27, the broadcast was met with skepticism...

I have noticed that some recent video footage is being doctored to appear as if it is 20 or 30 years old. It seems choppy (as if it were film) and even in slow-motion. It is grainy. They want a retro look, obviously, and I think it's to give pictures of Obama some historical 'gravity'. I doubt I'm the first to notice or comment, maybe I am the first to express my dismay. Is this being discussed anywhere on the media blogs? This morning's video offering, some dull, unremarkable footage of Obama getting out of his limo and entering a...

~~~snip~~~ As numerous bloggers and readers hashed out the details, the questions piled up. ~~~snip~~~ I HAVE REPEATEDLY ATTEMPTED to reach people at the New Republic to ask them to comment on all this. Editor Franklin Foer hasn't returned my phone calls (I've left three messages over the last several days), nor has Editor-in-Chief Martin Peretz (I left him a message early Sunday evening). Staffers that I have been able to reach won't speak on the record. Foer has spoken with Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post, telling him that TNR is conducting an investigation, questioning the author and other...

   JONATHAN WELLS Science now knows that many of the pillars of Darwinian theory are either false or misleading. Yet biology texts continue to present them as factual evidence of evolution. What does this imply about their scientific standards? If you had asked me during my years studying science at Berkeley whether or not I believed what I read in my science textbooks, I would have responded much as any of my fellow students: puzzled that such a question would be asked in the first place. One might find tiny errors, of course, typos and misprints. And science is always...

http://www.aish.com/movies/PhotoFraud.asp

I have called this post, "the director's cut", as that is what it is. The narrative here is of how the combination of Hezbollah's media management and modern photo-journalism has turned the recording of a tragic event into theatre, in the best tradition of Michael Moore. As best we can, we have pieced together the jumble of evidence which surrounded the production of the iconic photographs which were published around the world, and put them in perspective. Many of the photographs have been used before, some are new to this site and others are video "grabs". But it is not...

If a U.S. attempt to kill Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda's second in command, was indeed a failure last week, it could prove a costly one. In human terms alone, the price was high. Local reports say 18 people, mostly women and children, were killed by the CIA-directed missile strike on the village of Damadola, close to Pakistan's northwest border. U.S. officials say al-Zawahiri was the intended target. DNA tests on the victims will determine whether al-Zawahiri was among the dead, but at week's end Pakistani officials were saying he had not even been in the village. An Arabic TV station, quoting...