Is the EU behind anti-democratic moves in Italian politics?

Beppe Grillo has a new fight on his hands, and the EU may be behind moves to exclude his M5S popular party from Italian politics. UKIP take note.

@ukip @2tweetaboutit M5S Italian party run by Beppe Grillo had around 25% at election EU trying to get them banned. ansa.it/web/notizie/ru…

— John Payne (@Rosehaven69) May 21, 2013

@mcjwalsh @rogtallbloke @ukip @2tweetaboutit Previous Italian PM was unelected Mario Monti,he &his Cabinet was appointed by EU to run Italy.

— John Payne (@Rosehaven69) May 22, 2013

 

From Ansa.it

(ANSA) – Rome, May 21 – Beppe Grillo said Tuesday that there would be “an expansion of violence” if his anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) were shut out from politics by a proposed law. “If we disappear there will be an expansion of violence,” said the comic-turned-politician at a rally in Lodi, northern Italy. “We’re keeping democracy on its feet, and they want us to vanish with a law”.

The Elfstedentocht proxy

Some time ago I came across talk about a long distance ice skating race held in the Netherlands during deep winter when the ice on the canals is thick enough. Someone had noticed there is a possible match with solar activity. I happened to notice a file on disk here and twigged what it was. This makes an apt article given the recent paint drying excitement of the Alaskan Nenana river ice melt. On doing a quick web trawl something new turned up.

I don’t recall who or where this was raised, thank you whoever.

e-Petition against proposed 32% MP pay rise

Up to 23,000 overnight, please sign this if you are UK based. Forcing a debate on this matter will be delicious.

e-petition
No MP Salary Increase

Responsible department: Office of the Leader of the House of Commons

At a time when the country is in deep financial crisis, the ordinary working people of this country are still losing their jobs, have been, still are suffering wage freezes while living costs are spiralling, and the government cutting or capping benefit payments, is it right for MP’s to get ANY pay rise, let alone a 32% increase they have been reported as wanting.

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO “WE’RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER”

SAY NO TO ANY PAYRISE FOR MP’S.

Prof. Roger Pielke Jr: A Handy Bullshit Button on Disasters and Climate Change

Reposted in full (I hope Roger P doesn’t mind) from his excellent blog, a brief synopsis of the SREX section of the new IPCC report, which confirms that there is no proven link between extreme weather events and longer term temperature trends or co2 levels.

The full IPCC Special Report on Extremes is out today, and I have just gone through the sections in Chapter 4 that deal with disasters and climate change. Kudos to the IPCC — they have gotten the issue just about right, where “right” means that the report accurately reflects the academic literature on this topic. Over time good science will win out over the rest — sometimes it just takes a little while.

European Commissars: Bankrolling Pro-EU and Pro-Green Energy Groups

Guy Bentley at backbencher.co.uk explains how the EC is investing millions in pro-EU groups.

On Wednesday the Institute of Economic Affairs released a new report authored by Christopher Snowdon titled ‘Euro Puppets: The European Commission’s remaking of civil society’.

This report exposes the vast scale to which the European Commission uses taxpayers money to fund charities, think tanks and other lobby groups which campaign not only for closer European integration but a vast array of regulations and spending programs.

The groups the Commission decides to fund skew heavily to the left and a significant proportion of these groups would fail to exist if it were not for the taxpayer money the European Commission so freely hands out to its favoured groups.

Kepler is crippled: Positioning system broken

Coutesy NASA – click for BIG image

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) – NASA’s first telescope dispatched to hunt for Earth-like planets that may support life elsewhere in the universe has lost use of its positioning system, threatening its mission, officials said on Wednesday.

Launched in 2009, the Kepler space telescope revolutionized the study of so-called exoplanets, with discovery of 130 worlds orbiting distant stars and 2,700 potential planets still awaiting confirmation.

The telescope was designed to gaze at about 100,000 distant sun-like stars, searching for planets passing by, or transiting, relative to its line of sight. Detecting slight dips in the amount of light from a planet crossing the face of its parent star requires extremely precise pointing.

The telescope, the cornerstone of a $650 million mission, lost that ability on Tuesday when a second steadying spinning wheel stopped working.

Nenana Ice Classic 2013

FAIRBANKS – The ice went out at 3:41 p.m. in Nenana on Monday and there was only one winning ticket holder in what was the latest breakup on record in the 97-year-old Nenana Ice Classic.

The official winning time was 2:41 p.m. Alaska Standard Time because the contest uses standard, not daylight, time to determine the winner(s).

– KTVA

The date and time was 2013, May, 20th, 2:41 PM AST, day 139.612 day 140.362  [correction]

The existing record 1964, May 20th, 11:21 AM AST, day 140.487   140.104  [correction], 1964 was a leap year.

This is a repost of an existing article with updates.