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The language was apocalyptic. Last month, a leading climate scientist warned that Earth’s rising temperatures were poised to set off irreversible disasters if steps were not taken quickly to stop global warming. “The climate is nearing tipping points,” the NASA climate scientist James E. Hansen wrote in The Observer newspaper of London. “If we do not change course, we’ll hand our children a situation that is out of their control.” ... But the idea that the planet is nearing tipping points — thresholds at which change suddenly becomes unstoppable — has driven a wedge between scientists who otherwise share deep...

Central Bankers Warn of 'Tipping Point' By PAUL HANNON and NINA KOEPPEN July 1, 2008 BASEL, Switzerland -- The global economy may be close to a "tipping point" that could see it enter a slowdown so severe that it transforms the current period of rising inflation into a period of falling prices, the Bank for International Settlements said Monday. In its annual report, the central bank for central banks said the impact of rising food and energy prices on consumers' incomes, combined with heavy household debts and a pullback in bank lending, may lead to a slowdown in global growth...

~EXCERPT~ WASHINGTON—Al-Qaida's embrace of violence may be undermining the terrorist group's support in the Muslim world, the nation's top intelligence official said Thursday. "The question becomes, are we reaching a tipping point to witness the decline of this radical behavior?" said Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell at a House Intelligence Committee hearing. "We don't know but we are watching it very closely." Most victims of al-Qaida bombings and attacks are Muslims, McConnell said. In Iraq, the violence perpetrated against Iraqis by insurgents associated with al-Qaida pushed local tribes to turn against the group and has led to improved security,...

OSLO (Reuters) - Global warming this century could trigger a runaway thaw of Greenland's ice sheet and other abrupt shifts such as a dieback of the Amazon rainforest, scientists said on Monday. They urged governments to be more aware of "tipping points" in nature, tiny shifts that can bring big and almost always damaging changes such as a melt of Arctic summer sea ice or a collapse of the Indian monsoon. "Society may be lulled into a false sense of security by smooth projections of global change," the scientists at British, German and U.S. institutes wrote in a report saying...

Apple on Tuesday offered QuickTime 7.1.6, an update to its core multimedia software for Mac OS X and Windows. Among the issues adjusted in this release is a fix for an exploit in QuickTime for Java that first came to light at a security conference two weeks ago.QuickTime 7.1.6 addresses numerous bug fixes and includes support for Final Cut Studio 2, and timecode and closed captioning support in QuickTime Player. Apple recommends the update for all QuickTime 7 users. It is available for download from Apple’s Web site or from the Software Update system preference.“An implementation issue exists in QuickTime...

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - The U.S. ambassador to Zimbabwe said Tuesday that opposition to President Robert Mugabe has reached a tipping point because the people no longer fear the regime and believe they have nothing left to lose. Zimbabwe's government and party are in disarray and can no longer govern effectively, U.S. Ambassador Christopher Dell said in an interview with The Associated Press. Growing numbers within the regime and the party also want Mugabe to step down, he said. Dell stressed he was not advocating or predicting any violent overthrow of the government, but noted there was disaffection within the...

COPENHAGEN -- Former U.S. Vice-President Al Gore called on Tuesday for Kyoto countries to bring forward by two years the start date of a new global warming treaty, to 2010, given the urgency of the global warming problem. The Kyoto Protocol ties some 35 industrialised countries to 5 percent emissions cuts from 1990 levels by 2012, and the signatories to the pact are currently negotiating a successor. The United States pulled out of the pact on the basis of the possible costs and job losses, but climate change campaigner Al Gore said the next U.S. president, to be installed in...

The meta-message screams "Arabs/Muslims cannot be trusted," and even ultra-hawks don't think that's a smart idea. It isn't, of course; one of the most important abilities we need in this war is the ability to keep our cool and tell our friends from our enemies in the Muslim world. Here at Winds, we've talked repeatedly about the dangers of the slide from The Global War on Terror toward the Islamic War. A combination of spinelessness, half-measures, and opportunism is taking us step by step to exactly that destination, a road to hell paved with evasions, cowardice, and lack of seriousness...

Peril in Paris By SALIM MANSUR PARIS - During the Ides of March, the City of Light glows with anticipation of spring. But this year it is deceptively calm, and behind its gaiety lurks doubts and fear for the future. I am in Paris - a city I am always joyful to visit - attending a conference on European security in the post-9/11 world of radical Islamism and the war on terror. It has been a gathering of a few politicians, journalists, academics and community activists, and behind the formal presentations our informal discussions have invariably turned to the peril...

I've been trying to say this since 9-11 but you worry me. I wish you didn't. I wish when I walked down the streets of this country that I love, that your color and culture still blended with the beautiful human landscape we enjoy in this country. But you don't blend in anymore. I notice you, and it worries me. I notice you because I can't help it anymore. People from your homelands, professing to be Muslims, have been attacking and killing my fellow citizens and our friends for more than 20 years now. I don't fully understand their grievances...

On March 3, Mohammed Taheri-azar, a 22-year-old graduate of the University of North Carolina, rented an SUV and drove it into "the Pit," an area between two libraries on the UNC campus in Chapel Hill where students congregate, injuring nine. Mr. Taheri-azar told police he made the attack "to avenge the deaths of Muslims around the world." Mr. Taheri-azar smiled and waved at his arraignment, and told reporters he was "thankful for the opportunity to spread the will of Allah." Attitudes and actions like those of Mr. Taheri-Azar explain why 46 percent of Americans expressed a negative view of Islam...

Is Islam compatible with a free society? This is the key strategic question of our day. In October, William Buckley wrote: The moment has not come, but it is around the corner, when non-Muslims will reasonably demand to have evidence that the Muslim faith can operate within boundaries in which Christians and Jews (and many non-believers) live and work without unconstitutional distraction. [h-t to a Belmont Club commenter] Buckley is correct that this is a question demanding an answer, but he misjudges the timing of its asking and answering. The truth is that assumed answers to this question have been...

The DUmmie implosion is proceeding apace as you can see in this THREAD titled, "The RoadMap to Impeachment: 'Violence' is The Answer." DUmmie author, Senator, placed "Violence" in quotes since he means the DUmmies should get "violent" not in the physical sense (which would get him arrested for publicly advocating it) but in the ANNOYING sense. Yes, DUmmie "genius" Senator wants the DUmmies to act incredibly ANNOYING in order to draw attention to their lost cause of impeachment. Ironically, by following DUmmie Senator's RoadMap advice, they are just harming their dopey cause even more since such tactics would only...

Tim Oren points me at a well-written comment over at the Belmont Club that ties – indirectly – to Chester’s excellent post of the other day. On wretchard’s great post on Blowback,commenter Wanda says: Going back to Geraghty's comments and Wretchard's followup, I think that if this shift in Western opinion is happening (and I think it is) much more than just the ports deal is dead. President Bush is in imminent danger of finding himself left behind by the American people, and he doesn't seem to realize it. He could soon be in the same position as the leaders...

Victory's tipping point Victory is the new Clintonian "is" word. As in, it depends on what your definition of "victory" is. Does victory in Iraq mean when every single insurgent is dead? Wait, no, we don't say "insurgent" anymore. The new preferred 'n' improved words are "Saddamist" and "rejectionist." So . when they're all dead? Or when every single adult Iraqi is a registered voter and participant in the democratic process? When Iraqi security forces have total control over every town and byway? Or does victory mean when the U.S. can claim to have kept her word to the Iraqi...

I was intending to write an article about how the ISS needs to be a key part of the Vision for Space Exploration. What I have learned recently, though, made me realize there is something much more important to talk about. There have been several discussions in the mass media of late about “tipping points” in history. Some say that the recent elections in Iraq are a major tipping point that will reshape the Middle East and the West’s relationship with it. While the elections in Iraq and the courage of the people braving threats to vote are by no...

OP-ED COLUMNIST this is the most powerful question in the world today: Why not here? People in Eastern Europe looked at people in Western Europe and asked, Why not here? People in Ukraine looked at people in Georgia and asked, Why not here? People around the Arab world look at voters in Iraq and ask, Why not here? Thomas Kuhn famously argued that science advances not gradually but in jolts, through a series of raw and jagged paradigm shifts. Somebody sees a problem differently, and suddenly everybody's vantage point changes. "Why not here?" is a Kuhnian question, and as you...

TIKRIT, Iraq (AP) -- A car bomb exploded near the police headquarters in the Iraqi city of Tikrit on Thursday, killing at least 10 people, witnesses said. Twenty cars were set ablaze after the massive blast, and at least 10 charred bodies could be scene in the street. Police Lt. Sha'alan Allawi said the bomber drove a vehicle into a parking lot park inside the police building and detonated it. Tikrit, located 80 miles north of the Iraqi capital, is former dictator Saddam Hussein's hometown.

Two Lebanese women weap as they visit the grave of Lebanon's slain former prime minister Rafik Hariri in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday Feb. 17, 2005. The family of slain former Lebanese premier Rafik Hariri called Thursday for an international commission to be formed to investigate his assassination. Thursday ends a three-day mourning period in Lebanon for Hariri, following his funeral Wednesday that drew large crowds.(AP Photo/Hussein Malla) A protester holds a banner reading 'Syrial Killer' as members of Paris-based Lebanese opposition movements shout slogans hostile to Syria during a gathering for an anti-Syrian protest near the Lebanese embassy in Paris, Monday,...

From LtCol Smith:(to his wife and her friends) Ladies, It is with an extremely heavy heart and with much pain that I report to you the deaths of the following two heroes: 1. LCpl Richard D. Warner, Fox Co, 2nd Bn, 24th Marines, USMC 2. PFC Brent T. Vroman, Fox Co, 2nd Bn, 24th Marines, USMC Both were killed when an improvised explosive device, planted inside a parked vehicle in the market area of Yusufiyah, was detonated on their foot patrol. An Iraqi citizen was killed in the blast, and several more severely injured. The very market where local people...