Alfred Nobel's will, written in 1895, left funding for a prize to be awarded to "the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses."

The first such prize, awarded in 1901, went to Jean Henry Dunant and Frédéric Passy, two men who held and promoted peace congresses, two peace activists, two men who were not elected officials. Nor were they war makers who had exercised restraint in some instance or other. In 1902, again, the peace prize went to two peace activists. In 1903 the prize went to a member of the British Parliament, but one who had worked for peace and not for war. In 1904, the laureate was what we would now call an NGO, but one that had worked for peace and not for war. In 1905, a woman who had played a role in the creation of the prize, an author and a peace activist, someone who indeed held and promoted peace congresses, was the first female winner. And then came 1906.

Rock against the Machine at the Roccupy concert fundraiser on Friday, February 10! Featuring music by Connie Harris, Dan Dougan & nephew, Ukulele Man Tom Harker, Victoria "Queen Victrola" Parks, New Pollution, Kique Infante, the Chicken Hawk Bird Getters and Uncle John's State House Band. It all starts at 7pm at Kobo, 2590 North High Street. Donations welcome!

Are you devastated by yesterday's news that the Komen Foundation is severing its ties to Planned Parenthood? Tell the Komen Foundation that this is not the way to help women. The Komen Foundation has raised millions of dollars in funding for breast cancer marketing and research since its inception. Last year alone, they gave $680,000 of that money to Planned Parenthood to fund almost 170,000 clinical breast exams and more than 6,400 mammograms.

For many women in need, Planned Parenthood is the only available, affordable source of life-saving cancer screenings. To deny them this service because of baseless political pressure is not just irresponsible; for some women, it could be literally deadly. Join in the fight to save hundreds of thousands of women. Tell the Komen Foundation to get its priorities straight.

Danny Berchenko of 350.org Ohio said Speaker of the House, John Boehner is touting false numbers as part of his conflict-of-interest, due to his investments in big oil companies, and due to the $1 million the Republican Congressman has taken from the fossil fuel industry during his time in office. “He’s claiming 20,000 jobs will be created. Those numbers are from a biased study by the company that will build the pipeline if the permit is approved.” (See also EcoWatch Journal )

Berchenko said independent analyses show that building Keystone XL would create, at most, 5,000 temporary jobs and only 50 permanent jobs.

The best book I've read in a very long time is a new one: "The End of War" by John Horgan. Its conclusions will be vigorously resisted by many and yet, in a certain light, considered perfectly obvious to some others. The central conclusion -- that ending the institution of war is entirely up to us to choose -- was, arguably, reached by (among many others before and since) John Paul Sartre sitting in a café utilizing exactly no research.

Horgan is a writer for "Scientific American," and approaches the question of whether war can be ended as a scientist. It's all about research. He concludes that war can be ended, has in various times and places been ended, and is in the process (an entirely reversible process) of being ended on the earth right now.