DNA puzzle of mother 'made of two women'
A mother-of-three has discovered she is not the biological parent of two of her naturally conceived sons and is in fact made up of two women.
Scientists came to the extraordinary conclusion that the 52-year-old was formed from two non-identical twin girl embryos which fused into a single person in her mother's womb.
Tests carried out on the woman - known as Jane - showed she had two distinct types of DNA in her body.
Sunday, November 30, 2003
Friday, November 28, 2003
WILL POWER
Mr Prahlad Jani under surveillance in hospital
Fasting fakir flummoxes physicians
Doctors and experts are baffled by an Indian hermit who claims not to have eaten or drunk anything for several decades - but is still in perfect health.
Prahlad Jani, a holy man, or fakir, who is over 70 years old, has just spent 10 days under constant observation in Sterling Hospital, in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad.
During that time, he did not consume anything and 'neither did he pass urine or stool', according to the hospital's deputy superintendent, Dr Dinesh Desai.
Yet he is in fine mental and physical fettle, say doctors.
Wednesday, November 26, 2003
THE MONOPOLY GAME
Superstores killing the community
A report published by the National Retail Planning Forum shows that the opening of a superstore costs, on average, a net 276 local jobs, as independent grocers, village shops, newsagents, milk rounds and pharmacists are closed down in droves.
Also, in November 2001, after an investigation by the Competition Commission had found, among other things, that the chains 'adversely affect the competitiveness of some of their suppliers with the result that the suppliers are likely to invest and spend less on new products and innovation, leading to lower quality and less consumer choice' a code of practice was introduced.
It turned out to have been watered down, from the draft version, by the Department of Trade and Industry after the government had consulted with the supermarkets but, according to England's National Farmers Union, 'virtually excluded' everyone else. In the opinion of the Soil Association, indeed, the code was so watered down 'it simply legitimises the worst practices of the supermarkets' ... more.
A report published by the National Retail Planning Forum shows that the opening of a superstore costs, on average, a net 276 local jobs, as independent grocers, village shops, newsagents, milk rounds and pharmacists are closed down in droves.
Also, in November 2001, after an investigation by the Competition Commission had found, among other things, that the chains 'adversely affect the competitiveness of some of their suppliers with the result that the suppliers are likely to invest and spend less on new products and innovation, leading to lower quality and less consumer choice' a code of practice was introduced.
It turned out to have been watered down, from the draft version, by the Department of Trade and Industry after the government had consulted with the supermarkets but, according to England's National Farmers Union, 'virtually excluded' everyone else. In the opinion of the Soil Association, indeed, the code was so watered down 'it simply legitimises the worst practices of the supermarkets' ... more.
MARK OF THE BEAST
When cash is only skin deep
A subdermal (under-the-skin) microchip -- that uses radio frequency signals to broadcast an identification number to a scanner -- could someday replace credit and debit cards.
Applied Digital Solutions CEO Scott Silverman said that rather than swiping a bank card to make purchases, micro-chipped customers would scan themselves using special readers.
Radio frequency identification, or RFID, are already commonplace in some areas.
ExxonMobil's Speedpass system already uses a scanner integrated into a fuel bowser: fuel purchases are charged to a credit card account within seconds.
Recently, McDonald's restaurants in Chicago started using the Speedpass system. And in an interview with USA Today, a senior MasterCard executive said the company was considering integrating its RFID technology into items, such as pens or earrings.
"Ultimately, it could be embedded in anything -- someday, maybe even under the skin," the executive said.
[Applied Digital has attracted scorn from some fundamentalist Christians, who believe that its VeriChip is the fabled "mark of the beast" of biblical lore. According to the book of Revelation (Ch 13), Satan will someday force people to "receive a mark" on their hands or foreheads in order to buy or sell.
Verse 16: "He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, 17so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name."]
A subdermal (under-the-skin) microchip -- that uses radio frequency signals to broadcast an identification number to a scanner -- could someday replace credit and debit cards.
Applied Digital Solutions CEO Scott Silverman said that rather than swiping a bank card to make purchases, micro-chipped customers would scan themselves using special readers.
Radio frequency identification, or RFID, are already commonplace in some areas.
ExxonMobil's Speedpass system already uses a scanner integrated into a fuel bowser: fuel purchases are charged to a credit card account within seconds.
Recently, McDonald's restaurants in Chicago started using the Speedpass system. And in an interview with USA Today, a senior MasterCard executive said the company was considering integrating its RFID technology into items, such as pens or earrings.
"Ultimately, it could be embedded in anything -- someday, maybe even under the skin," the executive said.
[Applied Digital has attracted scorn from some fundamentalist Christians, who believe that its VeriChip is the fabled "mark of the beast" of biblical lore. According to the book of Revelation (Ch 13), Satan will someday force people to "receive a mark" on their hands or foreheads in order to buy or sell.
Verse 16: "He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, 17so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name."]
PROPAGANDA CENTRAL
The type of image Americans are no longer permitted to see in mainstream media.
Curtains ordered for media coverage of returning coffins
Since the end of the Vietnam War, presidents have worried that their military actions would lose support once the public glimpsed the remains of U.S. soldiers arriving at air bases in flag-draped caskets.
To this problem, the Bush administration has found a simple solution: It has ended the public dissemination of such images by banning news coverage and photography of dead soldiers' homecomings on all military bases.
[Also: Reasons 'Dubya' has avoided attending a military funeral.]
Tuesday, November 25, 2003
THIS NON PHYSICAL LIFE
What I learned out of body
In this 21st Century, the Age of Technology, we are still plagued by religious beliefs that are a contributing cause toward terrorism, killings and wars between nations. Belief in a deity, who keeps causing catastrophes, punishes people, and created the universe out of nothingness as if by magic was brought about by hysteria and superstitions. This thought process needs to be reassessed and brought up to date. Open-minded people must use common sense to determine whether this so-called deity was incorrectly perceived, misinterpreted and misunderstood by the masses of a bygone era.
Some will say that my personal experience of oneness with a supreme spirit is nothing but a dream or a vivid imagination. It doesn't matter whether you accept or totally reject my story. What does matter is that we evolve to a point whereby we can encourage open-minded people to offer feedback on how our religious beliefs can be brought into the 21st century.
My concept is that God is a spiritual unity, a oneness, a structured government-like "Spiritual Collective"; the "Progressive and Accumulative Spiritual Intelligence" of the universe existing in the spiritual fourth dimension; a collective of the righteous souls who have passed into the spiritual realm; a spiritual continuity.
In this 21st Century, the Age of Technology, we are still plagued by religious beliefs that are a contributing cause toward terrorism, killings and wars between nations. Belief in a deity, who keeps causing catastrophes, punishes people, and created the universe out of nothingness as if by magic was brought about by hysteria and superstitions. This thought process needs to be reassessed and brought up to date. Open-minded people must use common sense to determine whether this so-called deity was incorrectly perceived, misinterpreted and misunderstood by the masses of a bygone era.
Some will say that my personal experience of oneness with a supreme spirit is nothing but a dream or a vivid imagination. It doesn't matter whether you accept or totally reject my story. What does matter is that we evolve to a point whereby we can encourage open-minded people to offer feedback on how our religious beliefs can be brought into the 21st century.
My concept is that God is a spiritual unity, a oneness, a structured government-like "Spiritual Collective"; the "Progressive and Accumulative Spiritual Intelligence" of the universe existing in the spiritual fourth dimension; a collective of the righteous souls who have passed into the spiritual realm; a spiritual continuity.
NEW WORLD ORDER
Specially trained Miami police have their say on free speech in the US: "Shut the fuck up or get shot".
A sad day for Miami ... and freedom
What I describe below is the experience of a middle-class woman, a wife and mother who is simply a citizen of the U.S. concerned about the state of her nation. I do not have a shaved-head, tattoos or multiple piercings, and have not been running around with a sling-shot (as has been rumored about the Free Trade Agreement protesters). I have never destroyed someone else’s personal or private property (nor do I ever intend to) but I do take my first amendment rights very seriously and that is why I am writing this.
Over 800 million people in the Western Hemisphere will be affected by the FTAA negotiations that are going on here in Miami and as I witnessed last night, there is a huge campaign of intimidation and coercion to keep people from expressing the powerful tool of many voices -- demonstrating in the streets as a form of protest.
NEW WORLD ORDER
Michael Jackson story is a plot
U.S. president George W. Bush and his posse, along with their pals in the boardrooms of Big Media, may have hatched a scheme to dumb down the nation so that they can inflict their will upon the world while American voters are transfixed on "Bachelor Bob" burning the beef on the barbecue.
How else to explain last Thursday's orgy of Michael Jackson coverage on CNN — hours of choppercam shots of airport runways and police station parking lots — on the day that Bush was being trashed in effigy in London, 27 people were killed and 400 injured by truck bombs in Turkey, a U.S.-Canada task force report on the causes of August's massive blackout was released and who knows how many U.S. troops were becoming casualties in Iraq?
Was CNN merely pandering to the stupid for commercial reasons — or deliberately avoiding the news? Have the networks run so far from serious reportage on domestic, economic and international affairs that they no longer know how to do anything but scandal?
Or — and here comes my conspiracy theory — is there something else afoot, and people are too catatonic to recognize it?
U.S. president George W. Bush and his posse, along with their pals in the boardrooms of Big Media, may have hatched a scheme to dumb down the nation so that they can inflict their will upon the world while American voters are transfixed on "Bachelor Bob" burning the beef on the barbecue.
How else to explain last Thursday's orgy of Michael Jackson coverage on CNN — hours of choppercam shots of airport runways and police station parking lots — on the day that Bush was being trashed in effigy in London, 27 people were killed and 400 injured by truck bombs in Turkey, a U.S.-Canada task force report on the causes of August's massive blackout was released and who knows how many U.S. troops were becoming casualties in Iraq?
Was CNN merely pandering to the stupid for commercial reasons — or deliberately avoiding the news? Have the networks run so far from serious reportage on domestic, economic and international affairs that they no longer know how to do anything but scandal?
Or — and here comes my conspiracy theory — is there something else afoot, and people are too catatonic to recognize it?
COSMOLOGY
Astronomers find first 'dark galaxy'
Astronomers have found the first "dark galaxy" - a black cloud of hydrogen gas and exotic particles, devoid of stars - two million light years from Earth.
This pretty much solves the problem of where all the dark matter is - hanging out in invisible clumps.
Joshua Simon, Timothy Robishaw and Leo Blitz of the University of California, Berkeley, observed a cloud of hydrogen gas called HVC 127-41-330 using the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico.
It appears to be rotating so fast it would fall apart unless it contains a strong, hidden source of gravity. The researchers therefore argue that the cloud must be at least 80 per cent dark matter, the hypothetical invisible substance whose gravity is supposed to explain why many objects in the cosmos move as fast as they do.
[The Black Cloud by Fred Hoyle is a brilliant piece of science fiction written in the late 50's. Hoyle was a distinguished and controversial British astronomer, mathematician, popularizer of science, and novelist, who rejected the 'big bang' theory.]
Astronomers have found the first "dark galaxy" - a black cloud of hydrogen gas and exotic particles, devoid of stars - two million light years from Earth.
This pretty much solves the problem of where all the dark matter is - hanging out in invisible clumps.
Joshua Simon, Timothy Robishaw and Leo Blitz of the University of California, Berkeley, observed a cloud of hydrogen gas called HVC 127-41-330 using the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico.
It appears to be rotating so fast it would fall apart unless it contains a strong, hidden source of gravity. The researchers therefore argue that the cloud must be at least 80 per cent dark matter, the hypothetical invisible substance whose gravity is supposed to explain why many objects in the cosmos move as fast as they do.
[The Black Cloud by Fred Hoyle is a brilliant piece of science fiction written in the late 50's. Hoyle was a distinguished and controversial British astronomer, mathematician, popularizer of science, and novelist, who rejected the 'big bang' theory.]
SIMULACRA
Smiley face, left, and Hamlet's skull of Yorick
Are moths and butterflies becoming more like us?
Are moths and butterflies becoming more like us? Probably not, but these pictures of them sure do make you wonder.
A great collection of simulcra and other oddities of nature. For more on our friends in the lepidoptera kingdom, go here.
EARTH CHANGES
HAARP to play four times louder
Eham.net, the website for Ham Radio enthusiasts, is reporting that the controversial HAARP research facility in Alaska is set to quadruple in power over the next 3 years. Technical Specialist Richard Lampe said that "joint funding through DARPA will allow HAARP to quadruple in size from its current 960 kW output to 3.6 MW".
Ostensibly, the HAARP facility is simply aimed at studying the ionosphere. The HAARP (High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program) website outlines the function of the "research".
Some have charged that the HAARP facility is primarily a clandestine defense project, pursuing multiple goals. Chief among those is attempting to control weather patterns and natural phenomena such as earthquakes. Other alleged functions include blacking out communications networks as well as mind control.
Eham.net, the website for Ham Radio enthusiasts, is reporting that the controversial HAARP research facility in Alaska is set to quadruple in power over the next 3 years. Technical Specialist Richard Lampe said that "joint funding through DARPA will allow HAARP to quadruple in size from its current 960 kW output to 3.6 MW".
Ostensibly, the HAARP facility is simply aimed at studying the ionosphere. The HAARP (High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program) website outlines the function of the "research".
Some have charged that the HAARP facility is primarily a clandestine defense project, pursuing multiple goals. Chief among those is attempting to control weather patterns and natural phenomena such as earthquakes. Other alleged functions include blacking out communications networks as well as mind control.
OUR ALIEN MASTERS
What would Lincoln say to Bush?
'I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.'
[Abraham Lincoln in a letter to Col. William F. Elkins, November 21, 1864.]
'I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.'
[Abraham Lincoln in a letter to Col. William F. Elkins, November 21, 1864.]
Sunday, November 23, 2003
COSMOLOGY NOW
Dark matter telescope, also handy for detecting those pesky asteroids
The possibility of repeatedly surveying large portions of the sky to unprecedented depth opens a range of opportunities, from detecting Earth-threatening asteroids to probing the nature of dark energy.
By combining a huge collecting area and a wide field of view the LSST telescope will be 20 times more powerful than any observatory now operating or under construction. The Large-aperture Synoptic Survey Telescope, often called the Dark Matter Telescope, is a proposed 8.4 meter, 7 square-degree field survey instrument which will have an effective aperture of 6.9 meters.
MILITARY INTELLIGENCE
US detonates 'Mother of all bombs' in Florida test
The most powerful conventional bomb in the U.S. arsenal exploded in a huge, fiery cloud on a Florida test range on Friday after being dropped by an Air Force cargo plane in the last developmental step for the nearly 11-ton"mother of all bombs."
An MC-130E Combat Talon I dropped the 21,700-pound satellite-guided GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb, or MOAB, over the test range at Eglin Air Force Base in northwestern Florida, said base spokesman Jake Swinson.
A plume of smoke rose more than 10,000 feet in the air and was visible 40 miles away in Pensacola, Florida.
"It looked like a big mushroom cloud filled with flames as it grew and grew and grew," Swinson said after the afternoon test. "It was one of the most awesome spectacles I've seen."
Saturday, November 22, 2003
CLOAK AND DAGGER
David Kelly, the very secret service and the 'Rockingham cell'
David Kelly, giving evidence to the prime minister's intelligence and security committee in closed session on July 16 - the day before his suicide - made a comment the significance of which has so far been missed. He said: 'Within the defence intelligence services I liaise with the Rockingham cell.' Unfortunately nobody on the committee followed up this lead, which is a pity because the Rockingham reference may turn out to be very important indeed.
Chief weapons inspector in Iraq, Scott Ritter, distinguished himself in insisting before the Iraq war, and was almost alone in doing so, that almost all of Iraq's WMD had been destroyed as a result of inspections, and the rest either used or destroyed in the first Gulf war. In terms, therefore, of proven accuracy of judgment and weight of experience of the workings of western military intelligence, he is a highly reliable source.
In an interview in the Scottish Sunday Herald in June, Ritter said: "Operation Rockingham [a unit set up by defence intelligence staff within the MoD in 1991] cherry-picked intelligence. It received hard data, but had a preordained outcome in mind. It only put forward a small percentage of the facts when most were ambiguous or noted no WMD...
David Kelly, giving evidence to the prime minister's intelligence and security committee in closed session on July 16 - the day before his suicide - made a comment the significance of which has so far been missed. He said: 'Within the defence intelligence services I liaise with the Rockingham cell.' Unfortunately nobody on the committee followed up this lead, which is a pity because the Rockingham reference may turn out to be very important indeed.
Chief weapons inspector in Iraq, Scott Ritter, distinguished himself in insisting before the Iraq war, and was almost alone in doing so, that almost all of Iraq's WMD had been destroyed as a result of inspections, and the rest either used or destroyed in the first Gulf war. In terms, therefore, of proven accuracy of judgment and weight of experience of the workings of western military intelligence, he is a highly reliable source.
In an interview in the Scottish Sunday Herald in June, Ritter said: "Operation Rockingham [a unit set up by defence intelligence staff within the MoD in 1991] cherry-picked intelligence. It received hard data, but had a preordained outcome in mind. It only put forward a small percentage of the facts when most were ambiguous or noted no WMD...
NEW WORLD ORDER
Gen. Tommy Franks moots Martial Law in the US
General Tommy Franks, who led U.S. forces in Iraq, says that an attack on U.S. soil with a weapon of mass destruction that causes large casualties will be likely to lead to an end to the U.S. Constitution in favor of a military-run government.
Franks says, "It means the potential of a weapon of mass destruction and a terrorist, massive, casualty- producing event somewhere in the Western world -- it may be in the United States of America -- that causes our population to question our own Constitution and to begin to militarize our country in order to avoid a repeat of another mass, casualty- producing event. Which in fact, then begins to unravel the fabric of our Constitution. Two steps, very, very important… [then] the Western world, the free world, loses what it cherishes most, and that is freedom and liberty we've seen for a couple of hundred years in this grand experiment that we call democracy."
[Foundations are in place for martial law in the US. From July 27, 2002.
Recent pronouncements from the Bush Administration and national security initiatives put in place in the Reagan era could see internment camps and martial law in the United States.
See also Continuity of Government Commission
The commission is an American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and Brookings Institution project headquartered at AEI. It is funded by the Carnegie, Hewlett, Packard, and MacArthur foundations. Presidents Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford are the honorary co-chairs of the commission and Lloyd Cutler and Alan Simpson are the chairmen. The commission includes members who have served in government at the highest levels.]
General Tommy Franks, who led U.S. forces in Iraq, says that an attack on U.S. soil with a weapon of mass destruction that causes large casualties will be likely to lead to an end to the U.S. Constitution in favor of a military-run government.
Franks says, "It means the potential of a weapon of mass destruction and a terrorist, massive, casualty- producing event somewhere in the Western world -- it may be in the United States of America -- that causes our population to question our own Constitution and to begin to militarize our country in order to avoid a repeat of another mass, casualty- producing event. Which in fact, then begins to unravel the fabric of our Constitution. Two steps, very, very important… [then] the Western world, the free world, loses what it cherishes most, and that is freedom and liberty we've seen for a couple of hundred years in this grand experiment that we call democracy."
[Foundations are in place for martial law in the US. From July 27, 2002.
Recent pronouncements from the Bush Administration and national security initiatives put in place in the Reagan era could see internment camps and martial law in the United States.
See also Continuity of Government Commission
The commission is an American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and Brookings Institution project headquartered at AEI. It is funded by the Carnegie, Hewlett, Packard, and MacArthur foundations. Presidents Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford are the honorary co-chairs of the commission and Lloyd Cutler and Alan Simpson are the chairmen. The commission includes members who have served in government at the highest levels.]
Thursday, November 20, 2003
OUR ALIEN MASTERS
Bush admits Iraq is a new front in endless war
Pledging no hasty withdrawal of American forces, Bush said, "We fully recognize that Iraq has become a new front in the war on terror" when he met with five Iraqi women recently.
Of course this is at odds with his previous stance that Iraq already was a major front in the war on terror....
During the media moment, he also blurted that 'they'll kill innocent people anywhere, anytime,' he said. 'That's just the way they are. They have no regard for human life.' However it is unclear whether he was referring to Al Queda or US forces.
Pledging no hasty withdrawal of American forces, Bush said, "We fully recognize that Iraq has become a new front in the war on terror" when he met with five Iraqi women recently.
Of course this is at odds with his previous stance that Iraq already was a major front in the war on terror....
During the media moment, he also blurted that 'they'll kill innocent people anywhere, anytime,' he said. 'That's just the way they are. They have no regard for human life.' However it is unclear whether he was referring to Al Queda or US forces.
Tuesday, November 18, 2003
MILITARY INTELLIGENCE
Hold on to your humanity
An open letter to GIs in Iraq:
When I started hearing about weapons of mass destruction that threatened the United States from Iraq, a shattered country that had endured almost a decade of trench war followed by an invasion and twelve years of sanctions, my first question was how in the hell can anyone believe that this suffering country presents a threat to the United States? But then I remembered how many people had believed Vietnam threatened the United States. Including me.
...
My son who is over there now has a baby. We visit with our grandson every chance we get. He is eleven months old now. Lots of you have children, so you know how easy it is to really love them, and love them so hard you just know your entire world would collapse if anything happened to them. Iraqis feel that way about their babies, too. And they are not going to forget that the United States government was largely responsible for the deaths of half a million kids.
So the lie that you would be welcomed as liberators was just that. A lie. A lie for people in the United States to get them to open their purse for this obscenity, and a lie for you to pump you up for a fight.
An open letter to GIs in Iraq:
When I started hearing about weapons of mass destruction that threatened the United States from Iraq, a shattered country that had endured almost a decade of trench war followed by an invasion and twelve years of sanctions, my first question was how in the hell can anyone believe that this suffering country presents a threat to the United States? But then I remembered how many people had believed Vietnam threatened the United States. Including me.
...
My son who is over there now has a baby. We visit with our grandson every chance we get. He is eleven months old now. Lots of you have children, so you know how easy it is to really love them, and love them so hard you just know your entire world would collapse if anything happened to them. Iraqis feel that way about their babies, too. And they are not going to forget that the United States government was largely responsible for the deaths of half a million kids.
So the lie that you would be welcomed as liberators was just that. A lie. A lie for people in the United States to get them to open their purse for this obscenity, and a lie for you to pump you up for a fight.
CLOAK AND DAGGER
Mossad target of Kirkouk bombing
A huge blast has caused extensive damage in a Mossad office building in Kirkouk in northern Iraq late on Monday killing and wounding an unspecified number of Mossad agents and civilian Kurds, the Middle East News Agency said yesterday.
US troops and rescue workers were rushed into the devastated building to remove the bodies and take the wounded to a hospital in Mousel, MENA said. The workers have arrived at the site during the night to remove the debris and evacuate the injured persons, the news agency added.
US troops prevented the people from getting closer to the building and imposed a news black out on the cause of the explosion, which occurred in the garage of the building, it said.
A huge blast has caused extensive damage in a Mossad office building in Kirkouk in northern Iraq late on Monday killing and wounding an unspecified number of Mossad agents and civilian Kurds, the Middle East News Agency said yesterday.
US troops and rescue workers were rushed into the devastated building to remove the bodies and take the wounded to a hospital in Mousel, MENA said. The workers have arrived at the site during the night to remove the debris and evacuate the injured persons, the news agency added.
US troops prevented the people from getting closer to the building and imposed a news black out on the cause of the explosion, which occurred in the garage of the building, it said.
LOOKING UP
OWL Astronomy's next big thing
The OWL (Overwhelmingly Large Telescope) is an awesome project which requires international effort to make it happen. If constructed, this huge telescope - with a main mirror more than 100 metres across - would have a predicted resolution 40 times better than the Hubble Space Telescope and a sensitivity several thousand times greater.
It would be sited – probably in Chile - at an altitude of 5000 metres and would be operated almost as a space observatory, with a base camp for the human operators nearby at a lower height of no more than 3000 metres.
The OWL (Overwhelmingly Large Telescope) is an awesome project which requires international effort to make it happen. If constructed, this huge telescope - with a main mirror more than 100 metres across - would have a predicted resolution 40 times better than the Hubble Space Telescope and a sensitivity several thousand times greater.
It would be sited – probably in Chile - at an altitude of 5000 metres and would be operated almost as a space observatory, with a base camp for the human operators nearby at a lower height of no more than 3000 metres.
EARTH CHANGES
US firm makes 'weather control powder'
A company in the United States claims it has invented a powder that can be used to remove clouds from the sky and even stop the development of hurricanes.
They say the new product could help many areas of the world that are subject to extreme weather conditions.
The Florida based company, Dyn-o-mat, used a military aircraft to drop four tonnes of its powder on to a developing storm cloud.
The cloud disappeared from radar screens, which were monitoring the experiment.
Officials from the company, which produces materials to absorb pollutants such as oil and acids, say they used a specially developed powder that absorbs large quantities of water.
A company in the United States claims it has invented a powder that can be used to remove clouds from the sky and even stop the development of hurricanes.
They say the new product could help many areas of the world that are subject to extreme weather conditions.
The Florida based company, Dyn-o-mat, used a military aircraft to drop four tonnes of its powder on to a developing storm cloud.
The cloud disappeared from radar screens, which were monitoring the experiment.
Officials from the company, which produces materials to absorb pollutants such as oil and acids, say they used a specially developed powder that absorbs large quantities of water.
Thursday, November 13, 2003
BLOOD AND GORE
Vidal pops a verbal cap in Bush's ass
It's lucky for George W. Bush that he wasn’t born in an earlier time and somehow stumbled into America’s Constitutional Convention. A man with his views, so depreciative of democratic rule, would have certainly been quickly exiled from the freshly liberated United States by the gaggle of incensed Founders. So muses one of our most controversial social critics and prolific writers, Gore Vidal.
On the war in Iraq, Vidal says: "I think we will go down the tubes right with it. With each action Bush ever more enrages the Muslims. And there are a billion of them. And sooner or later they will have a Saladin who will pull them together, and they will come after us. And it won’t be pretty.
Nobody has ever wrecked the Bill of Rights as he has. Other presidents have dodged around it, but no president before this one has so put the Bill of Rights at risk. No one has proposed preemptive war before. And two countries in a row that have done no harm to us have been bombed."
It's lucky for George W. Bush that he wasn’t born in an earlier time and somehow stumbled into America’s Constitutional Convention. A man with his views, so depreciative of democratic rule, would have certainly been quickly exiled from the freshly liberated United States by the gaggle of incensed Founders. So muses one of our most controversial social critics and prolific writers, Gore Vidal.
On the war in Iraq, Vidal says: "I think we will go down the tubes right with it. With each action Bush ever more enrages the Muslims. And there are a billion of them. And sooner or later they will have a Saladin who will pull them together, and they will come after us. And it won’t be pretty.
Nobody has ever wrecked the Bill of Rights as he has. Other presidents have dodged around it, but no president before this one has so put the Bill of Rights at risk. No one has proposed preemptive war before. And two countries in a row that have done no harm to us have been bombed."
Wednesday, November 12, 2003
RISE OF THE MACHINES
Email stress: are we expecting too much?
A survey by the Australian Psychological Society has found that about 70 per cent of managers were stressed by the number of emails they received and the speed at which they were expected to deal with them. Researcher, Dr Amanda Gordon, was not surprised by the results and says they match a growing body of anecdotal evidence.
Survey respondents said "they were receiving between about 20 to 50 emails a day with which they had to deal, that email has become the prime form of communication both within organisations and between organisations, that there seemed to be an extra workload created by the ease with which you can actually make requests of someone through email".
A survey by the Australian Psychological Society has found that about 70 per cent of managers were stressed by the number of emails they received and the speed at which they were expected to deal with them. Researcher, Dr Amanda Gordon, was not surprised by the results and says they match a growing body of anecdotal evidence.
Survey respondents said "they were receiving between about 20 to 50 emails a day with which they had to deal, that email has become the prime form of communication both within organisations and between organisations, that there seemed to be an extra workload created by the ease with which you can actually make requests of someone through email".
Tuesday, November 11, 2003
FAMILY TREE
What did we do to wipe out Neanderthals?
Why did the Neanderthals die out? This is one of the biggest mysteries of human evolution.
These were people who flourished in Europe and the Near East for more than 100,000 years, yet vanished from their last stronghold in Europe about 30,000 years ago — at roughly the same time that modern humans arrived.
Why did the Neanderthals die out? This is one of the biggest mysteries of human evolution.
These were people who flourished in Europe and the Near East for more than 100,000 years, yet vanished from their last stronghold in Europe about 30,000 years ago — at roughly the same time that modern humans arrived.
COSMIC WIERDNESS
'Preposterous universe' still perplexes experts
One major sign of the universe's messiness is its makeup. The list of its ingredients turns out to be a recipe for disaster. Only about 3 percent of the total mass-energy mixture is in the form of ordinary matter, the sort that planets and people and stars are made of. About 26 percent is some exotic sort of matter, a species not yet identified (and almost surely a species that has not yet been discovered). And the 70 percent remaining is even more mysterious – it's an unknown form of energy that took command of the universe a few billion years ago, forcing space to expand at an accelerating rate. Hence the disaster – the universe seems to be blowing itself up.
One major sign of the universe's messiness is its makeup. The list of its ingredients turns out to be a recipe for disaster. Only about 3 percent of the total mass-energy mixture is in the form of ordinary matter, the sort that planets and people and stars are made of. About 26 percent is some exotic sort of matter, a species not yet identified (and almost surely a species that has not yet been discovered). And the 70 percent remaining is even more mysterious – it's an unknown form of energy that took command of the universe a few billion years ago, forcing space to expand at an accelerating rate. Hence the disaster – the universe seems to be blowing itself up.
NEW WORLD ORDER
Gore denounces Bush administration's attack on civil liberties
Former US Vice President Al Gore accused President Bush on Sunday of failing to make the country safer after the Sept. 11 attacks and using the war against terrorism as a pretext to consolidate power.
'They have taken us much farther down the road toward an intrusive, 'big brother'-style government - toward the dangers prophesied by George Orwell in his book '1984' - than anyone ever thought would be possible in the United States of America,' Gore charged.
Former US Vice President Al Gore accused President Bush on Sunday of failing to make the country safer after the Sept. 11 attacks and using the war against terrorism as a pretext to consolidate power.
'They have taken us much farther down the road toward an intrusive, 'big brother'-style government - toward the dangers prophesied by George Orwell in his book '1984' - than anyone ever thought would be possible in the United States of America,' Gore charged.
MILITARY INTELLIGENCE
LEFT: Fearful women and children are bound by US soldiers. RIGHT: A child, about 6, watches nervously as she is handcuffed.
Shocking images of US soldiers tying up children
A series of shocking pictures revealing US soldiers tying up Iraqi women and children in their own home has provoked international outrage.
"This kind of image increases resentment of American troops in Iraq and can also play a major part in demoralising troops who are having to tie up small children. We are seeking to raise this issue further in the appropriate arena," said Washington CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper."
A spokesman for the London-based Islamic Observation Centre said the pictures showed a "complete disregard for the human rights of the Iraqi people". He added: "A normal human being should be repulsed by the very idea of tying up children. You have to question the mental state of soldiers who are being forced to do this."
EARTH CHANGES
Oceans in deep trouble
The oceans remain a mystery, but increasingly, the deep sea is coming under intense scrutiny. The US Congress would like to locate, size and claim untapped sources of fuel beneath the sea floor, their Department of Energy is exploring the potential for forestalling global warming by injecting captured carbon dioxide into the seabed or deep in ocean waters, and the US Navy is hoping to employ low frequency sonar throughout vast swaths of ocean to detect stealth submarines.
But for all the possibilities inherent in the poorly explored and understood deep seas, major risks and uncertainties lie in the ocean depths as well. The science surrounding these proposals for incursions into the sea is not fully developed. Aggressive efforts to exploit ocean resources threaten to alter, perhaps irrevocably, the finely-tuned chemical balances of the deep sea, with grave peril to animal and plant populations that dwell within it.
The oceans remain a mystery, but increasingly, the deep sea is coming under intense scrutiny. The US Congress would like to locate, size and claim untapped sources of fuel beneath the sea floor, their Department of Energy is exploring the potential for forestalling global warming by injecting captured carbon dioxide into the seabed or deep in ocean waters, and the US Navy is hoping to employ low frequency sonar throughout vast swaths of ocean to detect stealth submarines.
But for all the possibilities inherent in the poorly explored and understood deep seas, major risks and uncertainties lie in the ocean depths as well. The science surrounding these proposals for incursions into the sea is not fully developed. Aggressive efforts to exploit ocean resources threaten to alter, perhaps irrevocably, the finely-tuned chemical balances of the deep sea, with grave peril to animal and plant populations that dwell within it.
MIND AND BODY
Spot the fake smile
This experiment is designed to test whether you can spot the difference between a fake smile and a real one. It has 20 questions and should take you 10 minutes.
This experiment is designed to test whether you can spot the difference between a fake smile and a real one. It has 20 questions and should take you 10 minutes.
OUR ALIEN MASTERS
Arrested oil tycoon passed shares to banker
Control of Mikhail Khodorkovsky's shares in the Russian oil giant Yukos have passed to renowned banker Jacob Rothschild, under a deal they concluded prior to Mr. Khodorkovsky's arrest, the Sunday Times reported.
Voting rights to the shares passed to Mr. Rothschild, 67, under a "previously unknown arrangement" designed to take effect in the event that Mr. Khodorkovsky could no longer "act as a beneficiary" of the shares, it said.
Mr. Khodorkovsky, 40, whom Russian authorities arrested at gunpoint and jailed pending further investigation last week, was said by the Sunday Times to have made the arrangement with Mr. Rothschild when he realized he was facing arrest.
Mr. Rothschild -- the British head of one of Europe's most wealthy and influential families who runs his own investment empire -- now controls the voting rights on a stake in Yukos worth almost $13.5 billion, the newspaper said in a dispatch from Moscow.
Control of Mikhail Khodorkovsky's shares in the Russian oil giant Yukos have passed to renowned banker Jacob Rothschild, under a deal they concluded prior to Mr. Khodorkovsky's arrest, the Sunday Times reported.
Voting rights to the shares passed to Mr. Rothschild, 67, under a "previously unknown arrangement" designed to take effect in the event that Mr. Khodorkovsky could no longer "act as a beneficiary" of the shares, it said.
Mr. Khodorkovsky, 40, whom Russian authorities arrested at gunpoint and jailed pending further investigation last week, was said by the Sunday Times to have made the arrangement with Mr. Rothschild when he realized he was facing arrest.
Mr. Rothschild -- the British head of one of Europe's most wealthy and influential families who runs his own investment empire -- now controls the voting rights on a stake in Yukos worth almost $13.5 billion, the newspaper said in a dispatch from Moscow.
Monday, November 10, 2003
GUN CRAZY
Double barreled double standards
For years, John Lott has provided a vital scholarly basis to the pro-gun movement. But now his research and his integrity are drawing heavy fire.
If economist John R. Lott didn't exist, pro-gun advocates would have had to invent him. Probably the most visible scholarly figure in the U.S. gun debate, Lott's densely statistical work has given an immense boost to the arguments of the National Rifle Association. Lott's 1998 book More Guns, Less Crime -- which extolled the virtues of firearms for self-defense and has sold some 100,000 copies in two editions, quite an accomplishment for an academic book -- has served as a Bible for proponents of "right to carry" laws (also known as "shall issue" laws), which make it easier for citizens to carry concealed weapons. Were Lott to be discredited, an entire branch of pro-gun advocacy could lose its chief social scientific basis.
For years, John Lott has provided a vital scholarly basis to the pro-gun movement. But now his research and his integrity are drawing heavy fire.
If economist John R. Lott didn't exist, pro-gun advocates would have had to invent him. Probably the most visible scholarly figure in the U.S. gun debate, Lott's densely statistical work has given an immense boost to the arguments of the National Rifle Association. Lott's 1998 book More Guns, Less Crime -- which extolled the virtues of firearms for self-defense and has sold some 100,000 copies in two editions, quite an accomplishment for an academic book -- has served as a Bible for proponents of "right to carry" laws (also known as "shall issue" laws), which make it easier for citizens to carry concealed weapons. Were Lott to be discredited, an entire branch of pro-gun advocacy could lose its chief social scientific basis.
Thursday, November 06, 2003
INHUMANE SACRIFICE
Australian government rushes to 'excise' islands from migration zone
The federal government yesterday excised the islands after a boat carrying 14 asylum seekers landed at Melville Island, near Darwin.
The regulations, which are deemed to have come into effect from midnight yesterday, mean the asylum seekers could be processed in a overseas detention centre, instead of in Australia.
The HMAS Geelong picked up the passengers, who claimed to be Turkish Kurds, and four crew from the Tiwi Islands, 75 kilometers orth of Darwin, the capital of Northern Territory province, Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone said. She said the boat was towed away and the government was mulling what to do with the asylum seekers. She would not say where they were being taken.
Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio reported the asylum seekers were being taken to the remote Australian territory of Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean, 1800 kilometers from the west Australian mainland. The island has an immigration detention center.
Senator Vanstone played down reports some of the asylum seekers may have set foot on Melville Island, which some legal experts believe may effect their legal status.
[Local Milikapiti community management council chairman Gibson Farmer said he and three other islanders had spoken to the asylum-seekers, who were of Middle Eastern appearance, after their boat ran aground. Immigration officers have ordered islanders not to speak to the media.]
The federal government yesterday excised the islands after a boat carrying 14 asylum seekers landed at Melville Island, near Darwin.
The regulations, which are deemed to have come into effect from midnight yesterday, mean the asylum seekers could be processed in a overseas detention centre, instead of in Australia.
The HMAS Geelong picked up the passengers, who claimed to be Turkish Kurds, and four crew from the Tiwi Islands, 75 kilometers orth of Darwin, the capital of Northern Territory province, Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone said. She said the boat was towed away and the government was mulling what to do with the asylum seekers. She would not say where they were being taken.
Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio reported the asylum seekers were being taken to the remote Australian territory of Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean, 1800 kilometers from the west Australian mainland. The island has an immigration detention center.
Senator Vanstone played down reports some of the asylum seekers may have set foot on Melville Island, which some legal experts believe may effect their legal status.
[Local Milikapiti community management council chairman Gibson Farmer said he and three other islanders had spoken to the asylum-seekers, who were of Middle Eastern appearance, after their boat ran aground. Immigration officers have ordered islanders not to speak to the media.]
CAMBODIAN MOMENT
Senator draws parallels between Iraq and Vietnam
"The most ridiculous thing on the TV last night was to hear the President say foreigners are in Iraq killing our soldiers. Can you imagine us, thousands of miles away, talking about foreigners killing our soldiers? Come on. What happened was, Iraq did not have terrorists at the time we went in. They tried to connect al-Qaida to Iraq, but now the President himself has acknowledged you couldn't connect al-Qaida. They didn't have nuclear capability."
These are the comments made to the house by South Carolina Democrat Senator Fritz Hollings.
"I firmly believed that we should not march into Baghdad....To occupy Iraq would instantly shatter our coalition, turning the whole Arab world against us and make a broken tyrant into a latter day Arab hero...assigning young soldiers to a fruitless hunt for a securely entrenched dictator and condemning them to fight in what would be an unwinnable urban guerrilla war. ...
"We now have more terrorism than less terrorism. That is the fact. We have the entire world turned against us. When we cannot get Mexico and Canada to go along with us, we are in trouble."
"The most ridiculous thing on the TV last night was to hear the President say foreigners are in Iraq killing our soldiers. Can you imagine us, thousands of miles away, talking about foreigners killing our soldiers? Come on. What happened was, Iraq did not have terrorists at the time we went in. They tried to connect al-Qaida to Iraq, but now the President himself has acknowledged you couldn't connect al-Qaida. They didn't have nuclear capability."
These are the comments made to the house by South Carolina Democrat Senator Fritz Hollings.
"I firmly believed that we should not march into Baghdad....To occupy Iraq would instantly shatter our coalition, turning the whole Arab world against us and make a broken tyrant into a latter day Arab hero...assigning young soldiers to a fruitless hunt for a securely entrenched dictator and condemning them to fight in what would be an unwinnable urban guerrilla war. ...
"We now have more terrorism than less terrorism. That is the fact. We have the entire world turned against us. When we cannot get Mexico and Canada to go along with us, we are in trouble."
DATA SECURITY
Sensitive email backup tapes go AWOL
RUBBISH tips were searched by Telstra staff in a desperate attempt to recover classified government emails stored in a wheelie bin and accidentally dumped, a Senate committee has been told. ASIO, the Defence Signals Directorate and the Australian Federal Police remain on alert to establish whether encrypted data was reused.
The serious breach of security prompted Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet secretary Dr Peter Shergold to write to Telstra chief executive Ziggy Switkowski expressing 'extreme concern'.
Email back-up tapes from five government departments and agencies recording correspondence classified as protected were lost in the incident involving IT contractor, Telstra Enterprise Services. The Senate committee heard that Dr Shergold criticised the 'negligence of TES staff in the protection of this Commonwealth information'.
[Missing? Or intentionally destroyed?: Opposition Senator Kate Lundy said "The missing files are for the month of March 2003 — the month Australia committed troops to Iraq. This outrageous security blunder has exposed the Government's hypocrisy over security issues. Highly sensitive confidential emails have gone missing without adequate explanation, yet Telstra doesn't even get a slap on the wrist."]
RUBBISH tips were searched by Telstra staff in a desperate attempt to recover classified government emails stored in a wheelie bin and accidentally dumped, a Senate committee has been told. ASIO, the Defence Signals Directorate and the Australian Federal Police remain on alert to establish whether encrypted data was reused.
The serious breach of security prompted Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet secretary Dr Peter Shergold to write to Telstra chief executive Ziggy Switkowski expressing 'extreme concern'.
Email back-up tapes from five government departments and agencies recording correspondence classified as protected were lost in the incident involving IT contractor, Telstra Enterprise Services. The Senate committee heard that Dr Shergold criticised the 'negligence of TES staff in the protection of this Commonwealth information'.
[Missing? Or intentionally destroyed?: Opposition Senator Kate Lundy said "The missing files are for the month of March 2003 — the month Australia committed troops to Iraq. This outrageous security blunder has exposed the Government's hypocrisy over security issues. Highly sensitive confidential emails have gone missing without adequate explanation, yet Telstra doesn't even get a slap on the wrist."]
HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL
Ashrawi delivers message of hope
Apart from some minor scuffles between a handful of Palestinian supporters and pro-Jewish students before the lecture, Palestinian advocate Dr Hanan Ashrawi had a captive audience of almost 600 people.
The activist of more than four decades received a standing ovation as she entered the room and she acknowledged a bouquet of flowers from the group, Jews Against the Occupation.
Hanan Ashrawi, whose 2003 Sydney Peace Prize drew so much hostility in advance, was received warmly in Sydney last night, in what she called "this luminous instant in history".
During her speech she said the protests against her receiving a peace prize were the result of petty hatred. Dr Ashrawi said she was surprised by the hate stirred in Sydney but that she had received more positive than negative responses to her prize win.
She opposed a simplistic view which divided the world into stereotypes of good and evil, urging instead diversity and collective responsibility under international law. She held out the promise that a just solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict would unleash forces for good, democracy, regional integration and sustainable progress.
Wednesday, November 05, 2003
WAR RUMOURS
US warplanes overfly Scotland to ... ?
Since Saturday, people in the Highlands of Scotland have been witnessing large movements of US warplanes overhead. Experienced observers say the large numbers are reminiscent of those that preceded the bombing of Iraq in 1998 and military strikes on Libya in the1980's as well as the first Gulf War.
It is thought that the planes have flown on a route from the US over the north pole to bases in Europe and the Mediterranean. The size and scale of the movement suggests that the US may be preparing to strike at a country in the Middle East in the next week to ten days.
Peacewatchers at USAF’s Fairford and Welford bases in the UK report that warplanes were flying over at a rate of roughly one every 15 minutes at the weekend. As well as watching them from the ground the plane spotters have also been able to overhear pilots talking by listening to their radio frequencies.
[There were some strong reactions against the claims made above with some claiming it is purely anti-American rhetoric. However other comments on the portland.indymedia.org website included the following:
"I live near a major US AFB. The sorties overhead are unbelievable. ( Unprecedented. I have lived here for 20+ years). They fly one after the other day & NIGHT, no matter how late at night it is. They are up to something." and
"This afternoon I visited a friend who has a 20's-something son in the U.S. Air Force. The son has a job that is obviously one calling for security clearances, and the father & son have a pre-arranged code that is rather simple as they are aware that the son's phone calls are likely monitored. According to my friend, he got the coded message that something BIG is indeed about to take place. Something really big, and he got no clue as to what it is, just that our government is taking a lot of massive effort to gear up for it." and
"My daughter works at the Pentagon and she e-mails me daily with short note from her office during her lunch break. Today's message had this: 'Mom, how is Aunt Bertha?...Is Aunt Bertha getting any better?...Please give Aunt Bertha a hug 'n' kiss for me next time you see her...I've always dearly loved Aunt Bertha!' Sounds like innocent ramblings to most I'm sure. However, Aunt Bertha died 12 years ago, and this is our little code that something nasty is about to take place. Whenever the name Aunt Bertha comes up, and depending on the number of times it's used, then I'm given advance warning that something is going to happen. Last time I got one with four mentions of Aunt Bertha is the Friday before 9-11. So guess we'd better get ready, cause the BIG BERTHA is coming."
So, it could be some bored jokesters posting these messages, or indeed some conintel pros, or they could be real warning signs. Signs that the Bush Reich is preparing to shore up flagging support with another Reichstag fire similar to 9/11.]
Since Saturday, people in the Highlands of Scotland have been witnessing large movements of US warplanes overhead. Experienced observers say the large numbers are reminiscent of those that preceded the bombing of Iraq in 1998 and military strikes on Libya in the1980's as well as the first Gulf War.
It is thought that the planes have flown on a route from the US over the north pole to bases in Europe and the Mediterranean. The size and scale of the movement suggests that the US may be preparing to strike at a country in the Middle East in the next week to ten days.
Peacewatchers at USAF’s Fairford and Welford bases in the UK report that warplanes were flying over at a rate of roughly one every 15 minutes at the weekend. As well as watching them from the ground the plane spotters have also been able to overhear pilots talking by listening to their radio frequencies.
[There were some strong reactions against the claims made above with some claiming it is purely anti-American rhetoric. However other comments on the portland.indymedia.org website included the following:
"I live near a major US AFB. The sorties overhead are unbelievable. ( Unprecedented. I have lived here for 20+ years). They fly one after the other day & NIGHT, no matter how late at night it is. They are up to something." and
"This afternoon I visited a friend who has a 20's-something son in the U.S. Air Force. The son has a job that is obviously one calling for security clearances, and the father & son have a pre-arranged code that is rather simple as they are aware that the son's phone calls are likely monitored. According to my friend, he got the coded message that something BIG is indeed about to take place. Something really big, and he got no clue as to what it is, just that our government is taking a lot of massive effort to gear up for it." and
"My daughter works at the Pentagon and she e-mails me daily with short note from her office during her lunch break. Today's message had this: 'Mom, how is Aunt Bertha?...Is Aunt Bertha getting any better?...Please give Aunt Bertha a hug 'n' kiss for me next time you see her...I've always dearly loved Aunt Bertha!' Sounds like innocent ramblings to most I'm sure. However, Aunt Bertha died 12 years ago, and this is our little code that something nasty is about to take place. Whenever the name Aunt Bertha comes up, and depending on the number of times it's used, then I'm given advance warning that something is going to happen. Last time I got one with four mentions of Aunt Bertha is the Friday before 9-11. So guess we'd better get ready, cause the BIG BERTHA is coming."
So, it could be some bored jokesters posting these messages, or indeed some conintel pros, or they could be real warning signs. Signs that the Bush Reich is preparing to shore up flagging support with another Reichstag fire similar to 9/11.]
CANNON FODDER
Military draft always on the agenda in US
Some US citizens may labour onder the misapprehension that the draft is something to read about in history books.
The Selective Service System wants to hear from men and women in the community who might be willing to serve as members of a local draft board. If a military draft becomes necessary, approximately 2000 Local and Appeal Boards throughout America would decide which young men, who submit a claim, receive deferments, postponements or exemptions from military service.
If a draft is authorized, a lottery based on birthdays determines the order in which registered men are called up by Selective Service.
[Conscientious objectors take note: Beliefs which qualify a registrant for CO status may be religious in nature, but don't have to be. Beliefs may be moral or ethical; however, a man's reasons for not wanting to participate in a war must not be based on politics, expediency, or self-interest. In general, the man's lifestyle prior to making his claim must reflect his current claims.]
Some US citizens may labour onder the misapprehension that the draft is something to read about in history books.
The Selective Service System wants to hear from men and women in the community who might be willing to serve as members of a local draft board. If a military draft becomes necessary, approximately 2000 Local and Appeal Boards throughout America would decide which young men, who submit a claim, receive deferments, postponements or exemptions from military service.
If a draft is authorized, a lottery based on birthdays determines the order in which registered men are called up by Selective Service.
[Conscientious objectors take note: Beliefs which qualify a registrant for CO status may be religious in nature, but don't have to be. Beliefs may be moral or ethical; however, a man's reasons for not wanting to participate in a war must not be based on politics, expediency, or self-interest. In general, the man's lifestyle prior to making his claim must reflect his current claims.]
MORAL DECAY
Race to save new victims of child porn
Computer file sharing has sent paedophile demand for real-time images soaring. But police can often only watch as children grow older and continue to be abused.
Detectives rely on two methods of tracing location: electronic footprints left by the user while online and forensic analysis of the images to find clues pointing to the country of origin, such as telephone books in the background or the style of furnishings. In some cases, often where the child is being held prisoner and abused in a completely blank room, there are not enough leads for police to chase. One case being investigated involves a prepubescent girl who is being held prisoner in a room and repeatedly abused. International law enforcement agencies know only that she is in the United States and the FBI is trying to pinpoint her exactlocation. New images of the child are shared through KaZaA and other services but police have been unable to find her.
[EU elite are filthy pigs, says Bossi: Italy's reform minister, Umberto Bossi said the European Union's elite are "filthy pigs" who wanted to "make paedophilia as easy as possible".]
Computer file sharing has sent paedophile demand for real-time images soaring. But police can often only watch as children grow older and continue to be abused.
Detectives rely on two methods of tracing location: electronic footprints left by the user while online and forensic analysis of the images to find clues pointing to the country of origin, such as telephone books in the background or the style of furnishings. In some cases, often where the child is being held prisoner and abused in a completely blank room, there are not enough leads for police to chase. One case being investigated involves a prepubescent girl who is being held prisoner in a room and repeatedly abused. International law enforcement agencies know only that she is in the United States and the FBI is trying to pinpoint her exactlocation. New images of the child are shared through KaZaA and other services but police have been unable to find her.
[EU elite are filthy pigs, says Bossi: Italy's reform minister, Umberto Bossi said the European Union's elite are "filthy pigs" who wanted to "make paedophilia as easy as possible".]
OUR SOLAR SYSTEM
Space weather gone crazy: another historic flare
Just as solar scientists were ready to start breathing normally again, active region 10486 blasted off yet another mega-flare. This one saturated the X-ray detectors on the NOAA's GOES satellites; the jury is therefore out on the definitive classification of the flare, but from a subjective judgement of the data found on the NOAA SEC's space weather pages (and links therein, we estimate that it must have been well above 20.
This also happened once earlier in SOHO's history, on 4 April 2001. That flare was reclassified as an X20.
A very preliminary estimate based on just 3 images of the associated CME came out at about 2300 km/second. Although part of the CME is directed towards Earth, we will receive only a glancing blow, since the source region is right on the limb of the Sun as seen from Earth.
[See SOHO images. Recent stories: Solar flare hits Earth; light show in Perth and Massive solar flare may wreak havoc here.]
Just as solar scientists were ready to start breathing normally again, active region 10486 blasted off yet another mega-flare. This one saturated the X-ray detectors on the NOAA's GOES satellites; the jury is therefore out on the definitive classification of the flare, but from a subjective judgement of the data found on the NOAA SEC's space weather pages (and links therein, we estimate that it must have been well above 20.
This also happened once earlier in SOHO's history, on 4 April 2001. That flare was reclassified as an X20.
A very preliminary estimate based on just 3 images of the associated CME came out at about 2300 km/second. Although part of the CME is directed towards Earth, we will receive only a glancing blow, since the source region is right on the limb of the Sun as seen from Earth.
[See SOHO images. Recent stories: Solar flare hits Earth; light show in Perth and Massive solar flare may wreak havoc here.]
Tuesday, November 04, 2003
EARTH CHANGES
Mother Nature, the newest scapegoat, says Suzuki
As a result of tumultuous weather and geological events, thousands of people have been evacuated, hundreds have lost their homes, many have lost their jobs and a few have even lost their lives. So it's only natural for people to be looking for a scapegoat. Someone or something to point the finger at and say - you! It was your fault! Yet I was still quite taken aback when my local newspaper bizarrely chose to blame Mother Nature.
A lead editorial in the Vancouver Sun likens Mother Nature to Mommy Dearest, claims that 'our culture has a history of viewing nature as benign, as the wellspring from which all good things come,' and argues that 'it's time to relieve ourselves of the notion that everything natural is good.'
The intent of the editorial, it seems, is to remove any hint of human culpability from the disasters that have gripped the province. Never mind that the extreme weather events and insect infestations British Columbia has been experiencing are exactly what scientists have been telling us for years are the kind of thing we will be seeing more and more of if we don't stop pumping increasing amounts of heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere. Instead, the editorial seeks to frame the world as "nature vs humans" as though the two entities are fundamentally different and at odds. In such a world, whatever people do to shore up their defenses against the dangers of nature could be seen as justifiable.
As a result of tumultuous weather and geological events, thousands of people have been evacuated, hundreds have lost their homes, many have lost their jobs and a few have even lost their lives. So it's only natural for people to be looking for a scapegoat. Someone or something to point the finger at and say - you! It was your fault! Yet I was still quite taken aback when my local newspaper bizarrely chose to blame Mother Nature.
A lead editorial in the Vancouver Sun likens Mother Nature to Mommy Dearest, claims that 'our culture has a history of viewing nature as benign, as the wellspring from which all good things come,' and argues that 'it's time to relieve ourselves of the notion that everything natural is good.'
The intent of the editorial, it seems, is to remove any hint of human culpability from the disasters that have gripped the province. Never mind that the extreme weather events and insect infestations British Columbia has been experiencing are exactly what scientists have been telling us for years are the kind of thing we will be seeing more and more of if we don't stop pumping increasing amounts of heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere. Instead, the editorial seeks to frame the world as "nature vs humans" as though the two entities are fundamentally different and at odds. In such a world, whatever people do to shore up their defenses against the dangers of nature could be seen as justifiable.
OUR ALIEN MASTERS
Flag blunder embarrasses Pentagon
The US embassy in Bucharest had to apologise to the president of Romania, Ion Iliescu, for the Pentagon decorating his table with a Russian flag when he lunched with US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld earlier this week.
Romania's influential Evenimentul Zilei newspaper poked fun at the mistake. Alongside a photograph of the lunch, clearly showing Russian and US flags intertwined in the space between Mr Rumsfeld and Mr Iliescu, ran the headline "Memories are coming back to haunt me", the Associated Press reported.
[Yesterday Mr Rumsfeld answered a question from a journalist on warlords in Afghanistan by talking about Kurdish peshmerga fighters in Iraq until it was pointed out that that was a different country. "Oh, I'm sorry ... I was thinking of Iraq. No wonder I couldn't understand it," he explained.]
The US embassy in Bucharest had to apologise to the president of Romania, Ion Iliescu, for the Pentagon decorating his table with a Russian flag when he lunched with US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld earlier this week.
Romania's influential Evenimentul Zilei newspaper poked fun at the mistake. Alongside a photograph of the lunch, clearly showing Russian and US flags intertwined in the space between Mr Rumsfeld and Mr Iliescu, ran the headline "Memories are coming back to haunt me", the Associated Press reported.
[Yesterday Mr Rumsfeld answered a question from a journalist on warlords in Afghanistan by talking about Kurdish peshmerga fighters in Iraq until it was pointed out that that was a different country. "Oh, I'm sorry ... I was thinking of Iraq. No wonder I couldn't understand it," he explained.]
STATE BARBARISM
Sudanese boy faces double amputation after 'unfair' robbery trial
A Sudanese boy of 16 is to have his right hand and left foot amputated by a court order that human rights campaigners have denounced as barbaric.
Launching an urgent appeal on behalf of Mohamed Hassan Hamdan, Amnesty International said yesterday that the penalty, known as 'cross amputation' is tantamount to torture.
A Sudanese boy of 16 is to have his right hand and left foot amputated by a court order that human rights campaigners have denounced as barbaric.
Launching an urgent appeal on behalf of Mohamed Hassan Hamdan, Amnesty International said yesterday that the penalty, known as 'cross amputation' is tantamount to torture.
BLOOD SPORT
'Rich killers' stalk City of Lost Girls
Ciudad Juarez is known as 'the city of the dead girls'. In 10 years almost 400 women have been murdered in this city on the border between Mexico and El Paso, Texas, and the killings continue. Now a courageous Mexican-American journalist is alleging a group of six businessmen is behind the slaughter. Described as 'untouchables', their wealth puts them above the law. Their motive is said to be blood sport.
The rise of the cartel coincided with the feminicido, the female murders. The first victim was Angelica Luna Villalobos; her body was dumped in the Alta Vista neighbourhood in 1993.
Since then, 370 women have been killed. Some deaths may be attributed to domestic violence or random crime. But more than a third of the women were raped before death. Most victims are tortured and mutilated. Sometimes the killer leaves a signature; a breast or a nipple is sliced off. The bodies are then dumped in wasteland.
The average age of the victims is 16; all were poor. Their deaths, says Amnesty International, 'have no political cost to the authorities'. Many suspects are in custody, but the killings go on.
Ciudad Juarez is known as 'the city of the dead girls'. In 10 years almost 400 women have been murdered in this city on the border between Mexico and El Paso, Texas, and the killings continue. Now a courageous Mexican-American journalist is alleging a group of six businessmen is behind the slaughter. Described as 'untouchables', their wealth puts them above the law. Their motive is said to be blood sport.
The rise of the cartel coincided with the feminicido, the female murders. The first victim was Angelica Luna Villalobos; her body was dumped in the Alta Vista neighbourhood in 1993.
Since then, 370 women have been killed. Some deaths may be attributed to domestic violence or random crime. But more than a third of the women were raped before death. Most victims are tortured and mutilated. Sometimes the killer leaves a signature; a breast or a nipple is sliced off. The bodies are then dumped in wasteland.
The average age of the victims is 16; all were poor. Their deaths, says Amnesty International, 'have no political cost to the authorities'. Many suspects are in custody, but the killings go on.
MILITARY INTELLIGENCE
Flak again fired at Enola Gay, WWII exhibit
When Smithsonian Institution officials unveiled a home for the World War II bomber Enola Gay in August, they had hoped to avoid the kind of controversy that had plagued efforts to exhibit the airplane that carried the first atomic bomb.
Scholars, writers and activists have signed a petition criticizing the exhibit for labeling Enola Gay as 'the largest and most technologically advanced airplane for its time' without mentioning that it dropped the bomb on Hiroshima.
'You wouldn't display a slave ship solely as a model of technological advancement,' said David Nasaw, a cultural historian at the City University of New York Graduate Center and one of 100 petition signers. 'It would be offensive not to put it in context.'
The bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki announced that the US was henceforth the supreme armed power in the world. The attack of September 11 announced that this power was no longer guaranteed invulnerability on its home ground. The two events mark the beginning and end of a certain historical period. The attack on Hiroshima paved the way for September 11 and its aftermath.
[Previous story: Hiroshima bomber goes on show, without pesky "human' details..]
When Smithsonian Institution officials unveiled a home for the World War II bomber Enola Gay in August, they had hoped to avoid the kind of controversy that had plagued efforts to exhibit the airplane that carried the first atomic bomb.
Scholars, writers and activists have signed a petition criticizing the exhibit for labeling Enola Gay as 'the largest and most technologically advanced airplane for its time' without mentioning that it dropped the bomb on Hiroshima.
'You wouldn't display a slave ship solely as a model of technological advancement,' said David Nasaw, a cultural historian at the City University of New York Graduate Center and one of 100 petition signers. 'It would be offensive not to put it in context.'
The bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki announced that the US was henceforth the supreme armed power in the world. The attack of September 11 announced that this power was no longer guaranteed invulnerability on its home ground. The two events mark the beginning and end of a certain historical period. The attack on Hiroshima paved the way for September 11 and its aftermath.
[Previous story: Hiroshima bomber goes on show, without pesky "human' details..]
TRUTH NO DEFENCE
Man remanded on bail for US embassy slight
Bruce Hubbard has been remanded on bail for allegedly offending the United States Embassy. Hubbard appeared in the North Shore District Court today charged with misusing a telephone. Hubbard allegedly offended a US Embassy worker, Tessa Brown, by suggesting in an email that the United States had napalmed civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq, that the United States had invaded 72 countries since the end of WWII, and that there were similarities between the current US Bush Administration and Nazi Germany.
The Embassy subsequently made a complaint to the New Zealand Police, an investigation was initiated resulting in Hubbard’s arrest Thursday.
['The arrest of Auckland Peace activist Bruce Hubbard for sending an email to the United States Embassy is a chilling reminder that freedom of speech is being attacked by the new Counter-terrorism legislation. The email was in protest of the illegal invasion of Iraq' said Peace Action Wellington member Valerie Morse.]
Bruce Hubbard has been remanded on bail for allegedly offending the United States Embassy. Hubbard appeared in the North Shore District Court today charged with misusing a telephone. Hubbard allegedly offended a US Embassy worker, Tessa Brown, by suggesting in an email that the United States had napalmed civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq, that the United States had invaded 72 countries since the end of WWII, and that there were similarities between the current US Bush Administration and Nazi Germany.
The Embassy subsequently made a complaint to the New Zealand Police, an investigation was initiated resulting in Hubbard’s arrest Thursday.
['The arrest of Auckland Peace activist Bruce Hubbard for sending an email to the United States Embassy is a chilling reminder that freedom of speech is being attacked by the new Counter-terrorism legislation. The email was in protest of the illegal invasion of Iraq' said Peace Action Wellington member Valerie Morse.]
OUR ALIEN MASTERS
Thousands riot in China after vendor killed by government officials
Thousands of people in east China's Shandong province rioted last week, storming a government building and smashing equipment after an official vehicle ran over and killed a vendor, a human rights group and residents said.
The riot -- one of the largest in recent years -- occurred a day after a confrontation between officials and a man selling fresh pancakes from a roving stove-wagon in Zhoucheng city.
The previous day, the vendor was selling the popular egg and onion pancakes when some employees from the "city management" department confiscated his wagon and loaded it onto their vehicle, sources said. Shao -- seeing his source of livelihood being carted away -- blocked the vehicle's path. He was run over as a crowd watched, the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said.
Thousands of people in east China's Shandong province rioted last week, storming a government building and smashing equipment after an official vehicle ran over and killed a vendor, a human rights group and residents said.
The riot -- one of the largest in recent years -- occurred a day after a confrontation between officials and a man selling fresh pancakes from a roving stove-wagon in Zhoucheng city.
The previous day, the vendor was selling the popular egg and onion pancakes when some employees from the "city management" department confiscated his wagon and loaded it onto their vehicle, sources said. Shao -- seeing his source of livelihood being carted away -- blocked the vehicle's path. He was run over as a crowd watched, the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said.
EUROPEAN OVERDOSE
A tide of heroin floods through Tajikistan to the West
Hampered by poor resources, border guards in the impoverished former Soviet state of Tajikistan are losing the battle to stem the tide as heroin from Afghanistan pours through Central Asia on its way to Britain. More than 90 per cent of heroin sold in Britain comes from Afghanistan, according to the UN. Heroin is pouring through Tajikistan, the poorest country in the former Soviet Union, because anti-terrorism operations in southern Afghanistan make it difficult for smugglers to cross into Pakistan and Iran.
Drug control forces seized 4.4 tons of heroin - more than double their haul for the same period last year - but it is just one tenth of the total amount being smuggled, law enforcement officials believe.
Cultivation of opium poppies, the raw material for heroin, was banned in Afghanistan by the Taliban, but production has rocketed since the regime was driven from power.
Hampered by poor resources, border guards in the impoverished former Soviet state of Tajikistan are losing the battle to stem the tide as heroin from Afghanistan pours through Central Asia on its way to Britain. More than 90 per cent of heroin sold in Britain comes from Afghanistan, according to the UN. Heroin is pouring through Tajikistan, the poorest country in the former Soviet Union, because anti-terrorism operations in southern Afghanistan make it difficult for smugglers to cross into Pakistan and Iran.
Drug control forces seized 4.4 tons of heroin - more than double their haul for the same period last year - but it is just one tenth of the total amount being smuggled, law enforcement officials believe.
Cultivation of opium poppies, the raw material for heroin, was banned in Afghanistan by the Taliban, but production has rocketed since the regime was driven from power.
SECRET WEAPON
‘Something’ felled an M1A1 Abrams tank in Iraq – but what?
Shortly before dawn on Aug. 28, an M1A1 Abrams tank on routine patrol in Baghdad “was hit by something” that crippled the 69-ton behemoth. Army officials still are puzzling over what that “something” was.
According to an unclassified Army report, the mystery projectile punched through the vehicle’s skirt and drilled a pencil-sized hole through the hull. The hole was so small that “my little finger will not go into it,” the report’s author noted.
The “something” continued into the crew compartment, where it passed through the gunner’s seatback, grazed the kidney area of the gunner’s flak jacket and finally came to rest after boring a hole 1½ to 2 inches deep in the hull on the far side of the tank. As it passed through the interior, it hit enough critical components to knock the tank out of action.
Shortly before dawn on Aug. 28, an M1A1 Abrams tank on routine patrol in Baghdad “was hit by something” that crippled the 69-ton behemoth. Army officials still are puzzling over what that “something” was.
According to an unclassified Army report, the mystery projectile punched through the vehicle’s skirt and drilled a pencil-sized hole through the hull. The hole was so small that “my little finger will not go into it,” the report’s author noted.
The “something” continued into the crew compartment, where it passed through the gunner’s seatback, grazed the kidney area of the gunner’s flak jacket and finally came to rest after boring a hole 1½ to 2 inches deep in the hull on the far side of the tank. As it passed through the interior, it hit enough critical components to knock the tank out of action.
Monday, November 03, 2003
PROPAGANDA CENTRAL
The bigger the crisis, the bigger the lies
In his opening remarks Bush presented a view of events ludicrously at odds with reality. Citing America’s “continuing work in Afghanistan and Iraq,” the president declared: “The world is safer today because Saddam Hussein and the Taliban are gone.” This under conditions of a growing guerrilla war in Afghanistan and the single most bloody day of anti-US violence in Baghdad since the beginning of the American occupation.
[The contrast between rhetoric and reality reached new heights at the press conference held by President Bush October 28. It was Bush's first news conference since July 30 and only the second since early March, several weeks prior to the invasion of Iraq. ]
In his opening remarks Bush presented a view of events ludicrously at odds with reality. Citing America’s “continuing work in Afghanistan and Iraq,” the president declared: “The world is safer today because Saddam Hussein and the Taliban are gone.” This under conditions of a growing guerrilla war in Afghanistan and the single most bloody day of anti-US violence in Baghdad since the beginning of the American occupation.
[The contrast between rhetoric and reality reached new heights at the press conference held by President Bush October 28. It was Bush's first news conference since July 30 and only the second since early March, several weeks prior to the invasion of Iraq. ]
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