SCIENCE MATTERS

Experiment could help explain why we, and all things, exist

An new experiment involves shooting neutrinos underground between two sites 735km apart.
The neutrinos zip through Earth virtually unhindered because they’re largely immune to most of nature’s forces, including forces that make other particles bounce off each other rather than go through each other. In fact, trillions of naturally produced neutrinos pass harmlessly through you each second.
A detector at the mine site catches some of the neutrinos from the beam, though only about one in a billion, thanks to this same tendency of theirs to soar through things. The detector is built to analyze how the neutrinos have changed during their trip.
All this effort is supposed to help edge science toward an understanding of why material things in the universe, such as our bodies and all the stuff around us, exist.
Neutrinos are the only material particles that respond significantly to just one of the four known physical forces: the Weak force. The experiment might help solve a problem in accounting for matter’s existence.

The difficulty is that the universe contains both matter and a sort of mirror-image matter called antimatter. The two tend to merge and annihilate each other. So if the universe in its infancy contained equal amounts of each—as certain principles of physics suggest it should have—all the stuff would have long since disappeared.

[The project is called MINOS, for Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation Search.]

DARK ACCELERATORS

Mystery objects stump astronomers

The two bizarre objects in our galaxy - which appear to be light-years wide, spew powerful radiation, yet appear pitch black - were detected in a survey of sources within our galaxy of very high-energy gamma rays.
The newfound objects are distinct from another, well known type of gamma-ray source called gamma-ray bursts—momentary flashes of gamma rays, detected about once a day, which astronomers think may signal the birth of black holes as dead stars abruptly shrink out of existence.

[The objects are not black holes, which generally are smaller and which, despite their name, do seem to emit visible light, though that light actually comes from around them and not inside them. Astronomers have dubbed the mystery objects dark accelerators.]

POLICE STATE

Police efforts 'amaze' Baxter protesters

Protesters say they are amazed at what they say is the brutality displayed by police during protests outside the Baxter detention centre in South Australia's north.
Police in full riot gear confiscated a number of kites and had previously charged at a crowd of protesters, popping several dozen helium filled balloons.
A large huddle of protesters carrying a big bunch of balloons marched towards the centre. More officers dressed in full riot gear then charged at the crowd, using sharp tools to pop all of the protesters' balloons.
Ian Rintoul from the Refugee Action Coalition says the police behaviour has been over the top.
"It's hard to imagine a gentle, kinder natured protest than flying a kite and for people to be assaulted in the way they have been today by the STAR force officers is just beyond the pale," he said.


Baxter Detention Centre protesters forced us to act: police

Assistant Commissioner Burns says the officers were forced to act after protesters failed to heed police warnings about violating the restricted airspace around Baxter.
"They played a game of brinkmanship and provocation by continuing to fly kites after numerous requests not to," he said.

VOICE OF REASON

Media silence abets Ruddock's atrocities

One of Australia's leading barristers, Julian Burnside QC, has mounted a blistering attack on Australia's media, accusing it of refusing to report the government's escalating atrocities.
He can't even get publicity for his argument that Ruddock -- recently appointed Australia's first law officer without a murmour of protest from the mainstream media -- could be charged under Australian law with crimes against humanity. Apparently, according to one editor, that's not 'interesting'.

The Australian Criminal Code now recognises various acts as constituting crimes against humanity. Burnside QC has argued that Australia's system of mandatory, indefinite detention appears to satisfy each of the elements of the crime -- as outlined in the Rome statute by which the International Criminal Court was created -- and that careful analysis of the criminal code therefore suggests that Mr Ruddock and Mr Howard are guilty of crimes against humanity by virtue of their imprisonment of asylum seekers.

Tragically, it is unlikely that charges will be laid. The only person who can bring charges is the Attorney General: now that Mr Ruddock occupies that responsible office, there is not much cause to hope that he will investigate his own past misdeeds.

At the speech -- with Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone sitting metres away -- Burnside said “If moral arguments have no purchase, it remains the fact that our government is engaged in a continuing crime against humanity when assessed against its own legislative standards. I accuse Mr Howard and Mr Ruddock of that crime.
“I accuse Senator Vanstone of that crime. I expect that they will ignore this accusation, since the only person who can bring charges is the Attorney General of the Commonwealth.”
And, as predicted, Vanstone rose to her feet and spoke for a few minutes without once trying to rebut or defeat Burnside's claim.


Julian Burnside QC suggests citizens write to federal parliamentarians asking very simple, but hard, questions about the key aspects of refugee policy.

PANDEMIC PROPORTIONS

Man confirmed dead from bird flu

A 28-year-old man from Cambodia has died of bird flu at a hospital in the capital, the second victim of the deadly virus in the kingdom, the health minister said Thursday.
The victim came a village 20 kilometres away from the home of the first victim who died in January.

DEMOCRACY DEBATE

Jimmy Carter to chair Election Reform Commission

Former President Jimmy Carter will lead a bipartisan commission to examine problems with the U.S. election system, American University's Center for Democracy and Election Management said on Thursday.
Carter, a Democrat whose Carter Center has monitored more than 50 elections around the world, will co-chair the private commission with Republican James Baker, who served as Secretary of State under President George H. W. Bush.
Former Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, a Democrat who lost his seat in the 2004 election, will also participate.
'I am concerned about the state of our electoral system and believe we need to improve it,' Carter said in a statement. He said the group will assess 'issues of inclusion' in federal voting and propose recommendations to improve the process.

Disputes over recounts and voter eligibility marred the 2000 U.S. presidential election and concerns emerged in the November 2004 poll about exceedingly long lines that kept voters from the polls in several states including Ohio, whose 20 electoral college votes ultimately decided the election in President Bush's favor.

CLOAK AND DAGGER

Lawsuit filed to obtain flight 77 videos

On the morning of september 11th, 2001 the FBI visited at least two private businesses near the pentagon and confiscated several security camera video tapes.
Business #1 is the cigto gas station with several security cameras aimed in the direction of the pentagon. Flight 77 flew directly over the gas station at an altitude of roughly 50 feet, less than 3 seconds from impact.
Business #2 is the sheraton national hotel. It is known, based upon a prior FOIA report filed by CNN which requested the tapes - that the sheraton's security cameras DID capture the plane - however because of national security, the FBI won't release the video.

WEIRD SCIENCE

Underground Extra-terrestrial UFO bases all around the world

Geologists in the East and West coasts are busy understanding a new theory that shows possible underground UFO bases all around the world.
According to this theory the UFO bases are along the interface of the seven large and many small tectonic plates meet each other.
[Story fails to name a geologist.]

TALIBAN IN SUITS

Fundamentalism influences Government in Schiavo case

"The cynical use by the US Republican Party of the Terri Schiavo case repeats, whether deliberately or accidentally, the tactics of Muslim fundamentalists and theocrats in places like Egypt and Pakistan. These tactics involve a disturbing tendency to make private, intimate decisions matters of public interest and then to bring the courts and the legislature to bear on them. President George W. Bush and Republican congressional leaders like Tom Delay have taken us one step closer to theocracy on the Muslim Brotherhood model."

CLOAK AND DAGGER

Lebanon's Hariri assassinated to make way for US airbase

According to high-level Lebanese intelligence sources - Christian and Muslim - former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was reportedly assassinated in a bombing authorized by the Bush administration and Ariel Sharon's Likud government in Israel.
Hariri, a pan-Arabist and Lebanese nationalist, was known to adamantly oppose the construction of a major US air base in the north of Lebanon.
The United States wants Syrian troops completely out of Lebanon before construction of the base is initiated. Hariri's meetings with Hezbollah shortly before his death also angered Washington and Jerusalem, according to the Lebanese intelligence sources.
The Lebanese air base is reportedly to be used as a transit and logistics hub for US forces in Iraq ... In addition, the Lebanese base will be used to protect US oil pipelines in the region ... as well as to destabilize the Assad government in Syria.

A number of intelligence sources have reported that assassinations of foreign leaders are ultimately authorized by two key White House officials, Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove and Deputy National Security Adviser Elliot Abrams. In addition, Abrams is the key liaison between the White House and Sharon's office for such covert operations, including political assassinations.

NAKED AMBITION

Filthy rich fly into massive orgy

International elite, including aristocrats, politicians, civil servants and lawyers met for the first Fever Party orgy of 2005 last Saturday night.
Rich brokers from City institutions Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutschebank and Commerzbank indulged in a free-for-all with scientists, lawyers, corporate directors, a TV presenter, fashion models and an Olympic athlete.
The night of debauchery began at 9pm. Guests arrived in a fleet of limousines and stepped on to a purple carpet across the pavement outside the 24-bedroom former ambassadorial residence opposite BBC Radio One's offices in London's Portland Place. One Italian heiress was dressed in a £4,000 Dolce & Gabbana gown.
They were greeted by the party's organisers - the men behind Fever Parties are property tycoon Jonathan Friedman, 41, and married right-wing anti-Europe politician David Russell Walters, 44.
The owner of the £15million mansion, toff Edward Davenport, made a fortune organising debauched Gatecrasher Balls for public school teenagers in the 1980s but was later jailed for VAT fraud on tickets.

One party-goer who witnessed the scenes said: "These are some of the most wealthy and powerful people in Britain - the capital city's movers and shakers - and they were all writhing naked together on a bed as big as a suburban swimming pool."

PREPUCE CULT

Holy foreskins...

Then there was the abbey of Coulombos in the diocese of Chartres claiming that they were the owners of the True Foreskin.

Not all of Jesus’ body could have been actually transported up to Heaven. Jesus was, after all, a faithful Jew, and as such, he would have been circumcised like every other boy. So where was his foreskin? Whatever happened to that bit of divine flesh? And thus began a search for a very odd “Holy Grail” which resulted in not one, but up to a dozen different holy foreskins, each competing to be the genuine article.

TURD REICH

Capitol Hill blue: American Hitler

Call me a Bush-basher if you want. I don’t give a damn. If you still support this madman check yourself into the nearest psychiatric hospital for shock therapy. Somebody has to stand up against this American Hitler, this destroyer of freedom, this Devil with a drawl.

No President has done more to destroy freedom in America. His first Heinrich Himmler, the bible-thumping, tight-assed John Ashcroft, threw Americans in jail without cause and denied them due process while ignoring the Constitution with the rights-robbing USA Patriot Act.

Bush’s new Himmler, new attorney general Albertto Gonzales, promises to take jack-booted thuggery to new highs, prosecuting citizens for watching dirty movies and pushing for more spying on American citizens while calling the Constitution an “outdated document.”

Meanwhile, the brain-fried Republican lemmings who lick Dubya’s ass and boots and proclaim his mythical greatness apparently relish the destruction of America while wrapping themselves in faux-patriotism and claiming that anyone who doesn’t follow their madness in absolute lockstep is un-American and un-patriotic.

Horseshit. These people are the real traitors to America and should be treated as such. They have sold out their country in the name of political power and greed, willing to sacrifice what’s best for the nation in order to maintain control and push their narrow-minded, Puritanical agenda on a numb populace.

American Hitler, by Doug Thompson.

Doug Thompson realized the value of capturing history 46 years ago as a 10-year-old schoolboy in Farmville, Virginia, when the community, caught up in a fight over integration, closed the public schools and opened an all-white private school. Thompson wrote about his experiences and submitted his story and photos to The Farmville Herald,the local newspaper. His article and photos were picked up by other newspapers around he country. He developed other photo stories the paper and a journalism career was born.

THE HAVES

US Senate votes themselves 7 pay rises in 8 years but won't vote to increase workers' minimum wage

"Since 1997 members of Congress have raised their own pay seven times, but we can't vote to raise [the] minimum wage. Shame on the Senate."

-- Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) laments last week's pathetic failure to pass any kind of minimum wage increase.

OVERKILL

High school attack foiled: police

Three teenage boys have been charged with possession of explosives in what appears to have been a planned attack on Saint John High School.
Police said the students had what appeared to be black gunpowder and a lead pipe in their possession. The police also found lists of people and things the teens hated.
Police said the students planned their attack for April 20, which is Hitler's birthday – and the date of a deadly shooting by two students at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo. in 1999.

MARK OF THE BEAST

Wallets could soon be as quaint as hat pins


At the checkout, you place your finger on a small scanner. Instantly, you see a list of your payment accounts on a screen: checking account, credit or debit card. You select one of them using a familiar keypad, approve the amount of the purchase, and you're done. No cards, checks, or cash.

The wallet of the future may be nothing more than a fingerprint or a signature. Biometric technology, used in secure areas for some years, is just beginning to be applied to ordinary retail transactions.
"A lot of things have converged to make it something that many retailers are very interested in now," said Pay By Touch marketing director Shannon Riordan.

PROPAGANDA CENTRAL

Clearing the way for a police state

The recent rash of terror warnings shows just how shoddy mainstream journalism has really become. Every major news network in the country ran the very same story of the “alleged” communication between Osama bin Laden and terrorist mastermind Abu Musab al Zarqawi without producing a scintilla of corroborating evidence. They simply flooded the newswires, airwaves and TVs with unsubstantiated, Pentagon-inspired gibberish and left out any supporting facts. The clear intention was to give a boost to Bush’s flagging polling numbers, but the effort fell flat and the media’s credibility took another well-deserved hit.
... we’re getting a daily dosage of uncorroborated theory, innuendo and conjecture masquerading as news. Promoting the war has become a full time job for America’s media and they’re getting more desperate every day. While Bush’s numbers dither towards the abyss, the press keeps dredging up the overused images of fear and intimidation hoping for some relief. Fortunately, the strategy is failing, which suggests that more aggressive measures may be in the offing. If the media can’t manage public perceptions then Rumsfeld’s “private contractors” will probably lend a hand.

DEATH OF DEMOCRACY

Europe cool, aid groups dismayed over World Bank role for Wolfowitz

Britain's former international development secretary Clare Short denounced the nomination of Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz to be the next head of the World Bank.
US President George W. Bush's choice to name Wolfowitz was akin to showing "two fingers to the world", she said, referring to a vulgar gesture.
"This is really shocking. It's as though they (the Americans) are trying to wreck our international systems," she told Channel 4 news.
Ms Short referred to Wolfowitz as an arch-conservative seen as a key architect of the US-led war on Iraq. Aid groups voiced dismay and some puzzlement.

Supporting Ms Short's belief is President Bush's recent appointment of Undersecretary of State John R. Bolton as the next US ambassador to the United Nations, a surprise choice that would send an outspoken critic of the world body's effectiveness to its inner councils.

In January 2003 The UK's Observer reported: The number three at the State Department, John Bolton, even said: 'There is no such thing as the United Nations. There is only the international community, which can only be led by the only remaining superpower, which is the United States.'

OIL WAR

KBR spent millions to deliver $82,100 of fuel to Iraq

Iraq needed fuel. Halliburton Co. was ordered to get it there -- quick. So the contractor -- with close ties to US Vice President Dick Cheney -- charged the Pentagon $27.5 million to ship $82,100 worth of cooking and heating fuel across the border from Kuwait.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which had assigned Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root the job of getting fuel into Iraq, declined to comment on the substance of the audit report, noting that it contained confidential commercial information that had not been authorized for release outside government channels.
When Government Reform Committee staff indicated that they were considering issuing a subpoena for the audit reports, a Defense Department official replied that issuing a subpoena will not get the material released any faster.

The Bush administration made plans for war and for Iraq's oil before the 9/11 attacks sparking a policy battle between neo-cons and Big Oil, BBC's Newsnight has revealed.
Insiders told Newsnight that planning began "within weeks" of Bush's first taking office in 2001, long before the September 11th attack on the US.

POLITICAL GRIEF

Coming home: The American who came in from the warmth

"Why do they find so much pleasure in banishing compassion from their hearts? Why must so many people die in order for them to proclaim their right to be alive? What nightmares of a loveless life haunt their endless nights? Why do they blindly love the thing that hates them, abuses them, lies to them, and will see them in rags - their own government? How have they come to mistake the love of country for the love of a mere bureaucrat, say, a mere president? Who is driving them mad, perverting their natural love of country into a celebration of its opposite - the worship of a leader?"

POT AND KETTLE

Church fights Da Vinci Code novel

The Roman Catholic Church in Italy has spoken out against what it says are "shameful and unfounded lies" in the best-selling novel The Da Vinci Code.
Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Archbishop of Genoa, broke the church's official silence on the controversial book.
Its story about the Church suppressing the "truth" that Jesus had a child with Mary Magdalene has convinced many fans.

MIND GAMES

Former UK Guantanamo detainee accuses US of torture

A former British Guantanamo Bay detainee said Tuesday that inmates in the US detention camp in Cuba had been tortured by US military personnel who tried to make them "go crazy."
Martin Mubanga, who had been held at Guantanamo for three years as a terror suspect, told the BBC: "The main object of the Americans in their torture ...is to make you go crazy."
"There are a number of other detainees who have gone insane. I have seen beatings, I have seen humiliating treatment," said Mubanga who was released in January after being detained without charge.

OF MICE AND MEN

Mice receive human brain cells ... start acting irrationally

Stanford University scientists have injected human brain cells into mouse foetuses, creating a strain of mice that were approximately "1 per cent human".
Project head, molecular biologist Irving Weissman, is considering a follow-up that would produce mice whose brains are 100% human.

[Cue maniacal laughter ...]

EARTH CHANGES

End of the snow on Mount Kilimanjaro

The snow-capped summit of Mount Kilimanjaro has melted away to reveal the tip of the African peak for the first time in 11,000 years.
The glaciers and snow which kept the summit white have almost completely disappeared.
Although scientists had predicted the melt would happen, it is 15 years sooner than they had predicted.

The WWF warned Himalayan glaciers are receding at among the fastest rates in the world because of global warming. The environmental group warned that the melting could result in water shortages for millions of people who rely on rivers supplied by the glaciers in China, India and Nepal.

RULE OF LAW

Bush administration officials block prosecution of Sudanese war criminals

In early February, members of the Bush administration were sneaking around the UN in an effort to block the prosecution of Sudanese officials responsible for the continuing slaughter of innocent men, women and children in that country.
Why? Because these prosecutions would take place in the International Criminal Court and the Bushies don't want to legitimize that court.
Why? Because the Bushies are afraid that, because of their actions, they might be dragged in front of that court. Of course, they state that they're concerned about 'Americans being prosecuted,' but let's get real. The only 'Americans' they're trying to protect are themselves.

"Democracies have certain things in common. They have a rule of law, and protection of minorities, a free press, and a viable political opposition." – George W. Bush to Vlad Putin

PEACE HELL

Chechen separatist leader killed

Russian authorities say they have killed one of the most prominent leaders of Chechnya's separatist forces, Aslan Maskhadov, who has led a rebel group since he was ousted from the republic's presidency in the late 1990s.
Considered a terrorist by the Russian authorities, Maskhadov was regarded by Western analysts and Russian liberals as a moderate who had recently called a cease-fire in the troubled republic.
Russian authorities had also accused him of helping mastermind last year's school siege in Beslan and the hostage-taking at a Moscow theatre more than two years ago.
The Chechen rebel had always denied any involvement in those incidents, condemning attacks against civilians.

Russian officers helped terrorists seize Beslan school: commission

The Russian parliamentary commission investigating the Beslan school siege has passed over to law enforcement agencies evidence on two more officials suspected of helping the militants seize the school in early September 2004, the commission head was quoted as saying by Interfax on Thursday.
“A terrorist act on such a scale would have been impossible to commit without accomplices,” said Alexander Torshin, chairman of the commission and a deputy speaker of the Federation Council, the upper house of the Russian parliament.
While the accomplices identified so far have been local civilians, Mr Torshin said the duo being sought both held a military rank “higher than a major and a colonel”.

Prominent journalist reportedly poisoned on way to school siege

Politkovskaya rose to prominence as an outspoken liberal reporter and observer. She traveled extensively across Chechnya and is the author of several books about the war-torn province.
Another journalist, Radio Liberty’s Andrei Babitsky, also failed to complete a journey to the scene of the hostage crisis on Thursday. He was detained in Moscow’s Vnukovo airport for apparently being involved in a fight. The journalist claimed he was accused of carrying explosives.

GUESS WHO

These interesting, dangerous times

He was a simpleton, some said, a cartoon character of a man who saw things in black-and-white terms and didn't have the intellect to understand the subtleties of running a nation in a complex and internationalist world. His coarse use of language - reflecting his political roots in a southernmost state - and his simplistic and often-inflammatory nationalistic rhetoric offended the aristocrats, foreign leaders, and the well-educated elite in the government and media. And, as a young man, he'd joined a secret society with an occult-sounding name and bizarre initiation rituals that involved skulls and human bones.

[Clue: sported a small moustache.]

THOUGHT CRIME

Student arrested for terroristic threatening says incident involves a work of fiction

'My story is based on fiction,' said William Poole, 18, who has been held for more than a week while facing a second-degree felony terrorist threatening charge. 'It's a fake story. I made it up. I've been working on one of my short stories, (and) the short story they found was about zombies. Yes, it did say a high school. It was about a high school over ran by zombies.
"Half the people at high school know me. They know I'm not that stupid, that crazy," he said.
Even so, police say the nature of the story makes it a felony. 'Anytime you make any threat or possess matter involving a school or
function it's a felony in the state of Kentucky,' said Winchester Police detective Steven Caudill.
Late last week, a judge raised Poole's bond from one to five thousand dollars after prosecutors requested it, citing the seriousness of the charge.

FOLLOW THE MONEY

Buffet shorts the greenback

Seventy-four-year-old Warren Buffet said Berkshire Hathaway now held $21.4 billion of foreign currency contracts spread among 12 currencies. A year earlier, Berkshire had $12 billion of contracts over five currencies.
Buffett is concerned that U.S. policies are causing trade and budget deficits to spiral higher and might cause non-U.S. investors to pull money out of the country. This, he said, will put downward pressure on the dollar, which already trades near lifetime or multi-year lows against several major currencies.
Last year, the U.S. trade deficit rose 24 percent to a record $617.7 billion. "

THE TERMINATOR

Pentagon prepares to build robot army

The Pentagon is spending 70 billion pounds on a programme to build heavily-armed robots for the battlefield in the hope that future wars will be fought without the loss of its soldiers' lives.
The scheme, known as Future Combat Systems, is the largest military contract in American history and will help to drive the defence budget up by almost 20 per cent to just over 265 billion pounds in five years' time.
Much of the cash will be spent computerising the military, but the ultimate aim is to take members of the armed forces out of harm's way. They would be replaced by robots capable of hunting and killing America's enemies.

In the far future it is hoped that the miniaturised robots will walk like humans, or hover like some birds. Others may look like insects.

PHAT ARSE IDEA

New solution to obesity epidemic -- bigger toilet

The Great John Toilet has been designed to answer many of the problems associated with the use of a standard toilet.
The Great John Toilet Company represents a group of people with years of experience in medical research and investigation fields ... as well as experience in the ceramic industry.

NEW WORLD ORDER

Rule change lets CIA freely send suspects abroad to jails

The Bush administration's secret program to transfer suspected terrorists to foreign countries for interrogation has been carried out by the Central Intelligence Agency under broad authority that has allowed it to act without case-by-case approval from the White House or the State or Justice Departments, according to current and former government officials.
The unusually expansive authority for the CIA to operate independently was provided by the White House under a still-classified directive signed by President Bush within days of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the officials said.

CLOAK AND DAGGER

I was US target, says Italian journalist

Giuliana Sgrena, wounded when the convoy taking her to safety was riddled with bullets by a US patrol near Baghdad airport on Friday, said she may have been a target because the US opposed negotiations with her kidnappers.
"Everyone knows that the Americans don't want hostages to be freed by negotiations, and for that reason, I don't see why I should rule out that I was their target," Sgrena told Sky Italia news channel on Sunday.

Sgrena said the driver began shouting that they were Italian, then "Nicola Calipari dove on top of me to protect me and immediately, and I mean immediately, I felt his last breath as he died on me."
Suddenly, she said, she remembered her captors’ words, when they warned her "to be careful because the Americans don’t want you to return".

Freed Italian Reporter Denies Car Was Speeding

The Italian journalist who was wounded by American troops in Baghdad shortly after she was released by her Iraqi captors denied US allegations that the car she was in was speeding, and described how the agent who had rescued her died protecting her.