The troll has stopped trying to arm "moderate" rebels in Syria.

This program was a joke, since it ended up arming jihadis that were more of a threat to the US than Assad is.

Amnesty International says Cameroon is torturing prisoners accused of supporting Boko Haram.

US and French officials may be participating in the interrogation of these prisoners.

Ralph Nader: we can all avoid the actions that give abusive leaders a clear path to tear our society apart.

I have to point out that the word "consume", when applied to publications of any sort, discourages critical thinking about them. Please join me in shunning that usage.

Humans reached Australia at least 65,000 years ago, and probably over 70,000 years ago.

This could imply that modern humans first migrated out of Africa earlier than the usual estimate of 75,000 years ago. But not necessarily. A few thousand years could have been long enough for humans to spread across Asia.

Plastic Pollution Risks "Near Permanent Contamination of Natural Environment".

I suppose most of the plastic objects will be filtered out of the ocean in a few millennia, as various animals swallow them, and later die and fall to the bottom and become part of sediment. But that is a long time.

Local campaigns aim to persuade stores to use less plastic packaging, but for real effect we need laws.