POWER OF ONE

'Goodbye America': Anti-war mother ends protest

Cindy Sheehan, the bereaved mother who became a figurehead for the US anti-war movement, is abandoning her fight after growing disenchanted with the campaign.

Ms Sheehan has camped outside President George W Bush's ranch since 2005, demanding a meeting over the 2004 death of her son, Casey, in Iraq.Bush has refused to 'meet with' her.never

But announcing the end of her campaign in a blog post titled "Good Riddance Attention Whore", she has also hit out at Democrats and anti-war campaigners who put "personal egos above peace and human life".

"The most devastating conclusion that I reached this morning ... was that Casey did indeed die for nothing," she said."I have tried every [day] since he died to make his sacrifice meaningful.

"Casey died for a country which cares more about who will be the next American Idol than how many people will be killed in the next few months, while Democrats and Republicans play politics with human lives."

TRY TRIPOLE

Ferrite torus

My Moebius coil is NOT levitating itself, in the picture this is only the copper wire which maintains the coil. I have used this setup for testing the "eventual" thrust generated.
The interesting thing is that the Moebius coil is ALWAYS attracted by a grad-B field when the current flow, even if I change the current flow direction. Thus the Moebius coil can interact with the Earth magnetic field.

Some other coils designs can be used for increasing the "spacetime distorsion effect".

[29mm diam ext., 18mm diam ext., 7 mm thick.]

Rant: "This coil setup can generates some interesting effects in spacetime flow by using the divergent magnetic lines and special configuration of the vector potential. So, it seems possible to tap electromagnetic energy directly from spacetime by unipolar spherical magnets/coils...."

ANTI SOCIAL

Airport security whistleblower faces court

Allan Robert Kessing faces jail for doing something for the 'public good' but against the 'State'.

A Sydney court has heard submissions about what punishment should be given to the former customs official Allan Robert Kessing.
The whistleblower was earlier found guilty of giving a report to the media which detailed drug trafficking operations and security breaches at Sydney Airport.
The leak prompted a massive airport security review, but now Kessing is facing up to two years in jail.

OUR SOLAR SYSTEM

Deep holes in Mars surface

[At its highest resolution of 25 centimeters per pixel, the HiRISE camera can see the detailed shape of the slightly scalloped edge of a hole on the flank of Mars' Arsia Mons (left), but no amount of image enhancement (right) can bring out any further details inside the hole. That means that the walls of the cave are overhanging -- the cave is larger below the ground than the entrance we can see at the surface -- and that it is very deep. Mars' dusty atmosphere produces enough scattered light that "skylight" would illuminate the floor of a shallow cavern well enough for HiRISE to detect it. Credit: NASA / JPL / U. Arizona]

COAL-MINE CANARIES

Cell Phones To Blame For Deserted Bee Colonies?

A small study from Landau University in Germany suggests that the navigational capabilities of honeybees may be adversely affected by radiation from GSM cell phones.

The findings could provide an answer to the mystery of disappearing bee colonies across the Western world.

The cell phone study, conducted by Landau's Jochen Kuhn, focused on the effects of cell phone radiation on the neurological mechanisms that control learning and memory.

Placing handsets near hives, Kuhn observed that GSM cell phone radiation in the frequency range 900-1800MHz caused the bees to avoid the hive.

[Kuhn speculates that the "waggle" dance that bees perform on the honeycomb to communicate with others could be influenced by the radiation.]

COAL-MINE CANARIES

Pollinate or perish

A mystery disease dubbed 'Colony Collapse Disorder' has destroyed about a quarter of the United States 2.4 million hives in the space of six months.

That means big business for Australian exporters, who are busy as bees helping to restock empty American hives.

But few Australian apiarists are rejoicing because they fear that whatever is causing the disorder may soon spread here.

In fact, just this week the CSIRO has been examining a sample of Asian honey bees recently discovered in far north Queensland, to see if they carry a mite - that just might be the source of the problem.

BOGEY WOMAN

Stoned to death
The moment a teenage girl was stoned to death for loving the wrong boy.

A 17-year-old girl has been stoned to death in Iraq because she loved a teenage boy of the wrong religion.
Reports from Iraq said a local security force witnessed the incident, but did nothing to try to stop it. Now her boyfriend is in hiding in fear for his life.
Miss Aswad, a member of a minority Kurdish religious group called Yezidi, was condemned to death as an "honour killing" by other men in her family and hardline religious leaders because of her relationship with the Sunni Muslim boy.

"She was abducted and brutally murdered in front of hundreds of men by her relatives -- who stripped her body, beat and kicked her, and killed her by crushing her body with rocks and concrete blocks. These brutal and inhuman acts were filmed by the participants on their mobile phones and many of them have been circulating on the internet and from phone to phone. They show the participation of the police in this disgusting communal murder and the murderous excitement of the crowd as the girl's uncle, brother and cousin comit the grisly murder” [Source]

BOGEY MAN

Bush asked yet again: Where's Osama?

President Bush was pressed about the failure to capture or kill Osama bin Laden.

He was asked what he would have thought five years ago, that the architect of the September 11 terrorist attacks would still be at large.

GEORGE W. BUSH: Why is he at large? Because we haven't got him yet, Jim. That's why. And he's hiding, and we're looking. And we will continue to look until we bring him to justice. We brought a lot of his buddies to justice, but not him. That's why he's still at large.He's not out there traipsing around, he's not leading many parades however. He's not out feeding the hungry.

MICHAEL ROWLAND: Critics say the war in Iraq has diverted resources from the continuing hunt for the elusive al-Qaeda leader.

WATER WARS

Obstacles to peace: Water

The Arab-Israeli dispute is a conflict about land - and maybe just as crucially the water which flows through that land.

The Six-Day War in 1967 arguably had its origins in a water dispute - moves to divert the River Jordan, Israel's main source of drinking water.

[Part of a series of articles about the attempts to achieve peace in the Middle East and the main obstacles.]

East African Water Clash Slams Nile Treaty

In a debate that may lead to confrontation between Egypt and eastern Africa nations over the River Nile, Kenya's members of parliament have voiced concern over the legality of an international treaty that bars the three countries from using water from Lake Victoria for irrigation.

WEB SCRUBBED

Peter Hayes, prominent Melbourne QC found naked and unconscious in an Adelaide hotel room, died four days later of a likely drug overdose.
Mystery surrounds prominent QC's death

Mr Hayes, 54, who had been entertaining two female escorts, was found naked and unconscious by his ex-bikie client Tony Sobey last Friday.
The lawyer was in Adelaide to represent Mr Sobey in a Federal Court case over a failed investment scheme.

WEB SCRUBBED:

Yesterday the Sydney Morning Herald story linked to the following Google Search result included a reference to a circa 2002 accusation of Hayes as being an "inveterate cocaine user".
The story said the bar association threw out the claim as "vexatious" and said that the solicitor was attempting to bring the profession into disrepute.
The story has scrubbed any mention of that episode.

Mystery surrounds prominent QC's death - National - smh.com.au
A spokeswoman for the Royal Adelaide Hospital would confirm only that Mr ... A solicitor once accused Mr Hayes of being an "inveterate cocaine user" but the ...
www.smh.com.au/news/national/mystery-surrounds-prominent-qcs-death/2007/05/22/1179601399958.html - 22 May 2007

OUR SOLAR SYSTEM

Professor James P. Kennett

Ice Age blast 'ravaged America'

A controversial new idea suggests that a large space rock exploded over North America 13,000 years ago.

The blast may have wiped out one of America's first Stone Age cultures as well as the continent's big mammals such as the mammoth and the mastodon.

The blast, from a comet or asteroid, caused a major bout of climatic cooling which may also have affected human cultures emerging in Europe and Asia.

[Scientists will outline their evidence - which comes from layers of sediment at more than 20 sites across North America - this week at a meeting in Mexico.]

SNOUTS IN TROUGHS

Opposition questions Government renovations

The Opposition may have tried in vain to use Senate Estimates Hearings for questions on the AWB kickbacks scandal, but it did get answers about some controversial Government spending measures, like the $25,000 spent replacing the wrong shade of carpet in the Cabinet suite.

Questions were also asked about $52,000 spent sound-proofing the doors to the Prime Minister's office and a $200,000 project to upgrade the Prime Minister's dining room.

[The $200,000 figure is a September 2005 "rough estimate" By late 2006 it was closer to half a million.]

PM scraps plan for $540,000 dining room

A Senate estimates committee today heard that the rough estimate for the building work alone had come in at $475,000 - enough to buy a house in most capital cities.
ut late today, a spokesman for Mr Howard said the work would not go ahead.

More than $65,000 has already been spent on architect and consultant fees for the extension, a Senate estimates committee heard today.

Senate President Paul Calvert had refused to table the document outlining the estimated cost, accusing Labor senators John Faulkner and Penny Wong of wanting to make a “cheap headline”.

“There's nothing cheap about this headline, I'll tell you. This is $475,000 plus consultants' fees of $65,000, plus the furniture and refurbishment. That's no cheap headline Senator Calvert,” Senator Faulkner said.

THE QUICKENING

BULLETIN #070520: It's happening faster than we thought

All the ominous predictions we heard about climate changes are now showing data indicating the effects are faster or more marked. And check out what's happening to the bees too.

EARTH CHANGES

Polar ocean 'soaking up less CO2'

One of Earth's most important absorbers of carbon dioxide (CO2) is failing to soak up as much of the greenhouse gas as it was expected to, scientists say.

The decline of Antarctica's Southern Ocean carbon "sink" - or reservoir - means that atmospheric CO2 levels may be higher in future than predicted.

These carbon sinks are vital; they mop up excess CO2 from the atmosphere, slowing down global warming.

[The study, by an international team, is published in the journal Science.]

BIBLE BASHING

Bible accused of obscenity in Hong Kong

A Hong Kong decency watchdog had been flooded with obscenity complaints about the Bible.

The Television and Entertainments Licensing Authority (TELA), which oversees the publishing industry, said it had received 208 complaints that text within the holy book was indecent.

TELA refused to divulge details of the complaints, but local media reported that they referred to acts of violence, rape and cannibalism reputedly contained in the Old and New  Testaments.

[Reports speculated that the sudden flurry of messages sent to TELA was sparked by a Chinese-language website which had exhorted readers to pressure TELA to reclassify the Bible as an indecent publication.]

COLD CALLING

© abk.

IRONY CLAD

Zimbabwe to lead UN commission on Sustainable Development


Western countries have expressed disappointment at the decision to elect Zimbabwe to lead the United Nations (UN) Commission on Sustainable Development.

The German representative, Sigmar Gabriel, said on behalf of the European Union that because of Zimbabwe's poor human rights record and its chronic economic decline, the result would have a negative impact on the commission's credibility.
United States diplomats agree the whole credibility of one of the commissions is now in question.

EARTH CHANGES

Charity warns of migration crisis

The effects of climate change could make at least one billion people homeless between now and 2050, says a charity body.

In a report to mark the start of Christian Aid week, the charity says that forced migration is now the most urgent threat facing poor people in the developing world.

Billions face climate change risk

Billions of people face shortages of food and water and increased risk of flooding, experts at a major climate change conference have warned.

L RON HOOVER

Scientologists stalk BBC investigator

"Rosemary", who is an ordinary mum and lives in England. She had two children and one died. Her surviving daughter was also her best friend.

Then her daughter joined Scientology and her mother saw less and less of her.

Almost two years ago she received a "disconnect" - a letter cutting her mother out of her life totally.
Rosemary received no Christmas cards, no birthday cards, no Mother's Day cards.
Rosemary said Scientology was a cult. It was one of the most moving and shocking interviews I have ever done.
Out of the blue, three hours after we left, her daughter came round for the first time in almost two years seeking a reconciliation. The next day she begged her mum not to use the interview. So we won't.

[Did they send the daughter round, specifically to kill the interview?]


Scientology is a pay-as-you-go religion - which is one of the reasons why the Charity Commission in Britain does not class it as a religion.
When you have paid as much as £100,000, you get to Operating Thetan Level Three and learn about "The Incident".
L Ron wrote that 75 million years ago an intergalactic space alien lord called Xenu kidnapped Thetans to earth, dumped them in volcanoes and blew them up with atomic bombs.
Ex-Scientologists have insisted to me that Xenu is part of Scientology. If so, it is a religion that requires its followers not to tell others about its core belief, which is very odd.
Critics say that if we all knew about Xenu, then Scientology could not charge people as much as £100,000 to find out about him.

SEA CHANGE

© abk.

The Guardian (early Oct 2005)

FEEL GOOD

Uploaded by KiWiTa [http://flickr.com/photos/kiwita/]

MUTANT RACE

Emergency GM law slammed

New emergency powers that allow Australian authorities to fast-track the release of genetically modified (GM) organisms, could pose unacceptable risks, say critics.

According to a Bill passed by the Senate this week, the Federal Health Minister could hypothetically order the rapid approval of a GM vaccine to fend off a possible bird flu pandemic, or a GM bacterium to 'eat' an oil spill threatening the environment.

But critics are concerned that emergency powers in The Gene Technology Amendment Bill 2007 could lead to inadequately tested GM organisms being released into the environment.

"There's a very real danger that the cure could be worse than the disease," said Australian Greens senator Rachel Siewert. "We do not want to create another cane toad."

SUFFER THE CHILDREN

Report: Iraq child mortality rate soars

The chance that an Iraqi child will live beyond age 5 has plummeted faster than anywhere else in the world since 1990, according to a report released Tuesday, which placed the country last in its child survival rankings.

One in eight Iraqi children died of disease or violence before reaching their fifth birthday in 2005, according to the report by Save the Children, which said Iraq ranked last because it had made the least progress toward improving child survival rates.

OUR COSMOS

Star dies in brightest supernova

A massive star around 150 times the size of the Sun has exploded in what is the brightest supernova ever seen, Nasa scientists have said.

The supernova star, called SN 2006gy, was originally discovered in September last year.

The explosion peaked for about 70 days, during which it is thought to have shone about five times more brightly than any supernova seen in the past.

"Of all exploding stars ever observed, this was the king," Alex Filippenko, one of the Nasa-backed astronomers observing the phenomenon, said.

[Supernovae occur when huge, mature stars effectively run out of fuel and collapse in on themselves.]

THINK TANK

© abk.

OIL WARS

Bush vetoes troop withdrawal Bill

AP - President Bush vetoed legislation to pull U.S. troops out of Iraq Tuesday night in a historic showdown with Congress over whether the unpopular and costly war should end or escalate.

CLOAK AND DAGGER

Senators wary of Bush's wiretap proposal

Citing FBI abuses and the attorney general's troubles, senators peppered top Justice and intelligence officials Tuesday with skeptical questions about their proposal to revise the rules for spying on Americans.

BIG END

Stakeholders reject Murdoch's Dow Jones bid

The family that owns a controlling stake in the publishers of the Wall Street Journal has rejected an unsolicited bid for the company by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.

Publishers and financial news wire service Dow Jones issued a statement saying that a majority of the Bancroft family was rejecting the offer.

Mr Murdoch's News Corporation has offered $60 a share for Dow Jones, which values the company at $6 billion.

Mr Murdoch said he was prepared to be patient. "It's a generous offer," he said.

Media analysts say News Corporation is looking to launch a 24-hour business news channel later this year.

CLIMATE CHANGE

Arctic melt faster than forecast

Arctic ice is melting faster than computer models of climate calculate, according to a group of US researchers.

The scientists suggest forecasts from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) may be too cautious.

The latest observations indicate that Arctic summers could be ice-free by the middle of the century.

"Somewhere in the second half of the century, it would happen," said Ted Scambos of the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) at the University of Colorado.

Dr Scambos co-authored the latest study, published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, with other scientists from NSIDC and from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), also in Boulder, Colorado.

They also calculate that about half, if not more, of the warming observed since 1979 originates in humanity's emissions of greenhouse gases.

POLICE STATE

Govt flags retroactive legislation to stop Hicks profits

The Federal Government says it is prepared to do everything in its power to prevent convicted terrorism supporter David Hicks from profiting from any book deal.

Some in the legal fraternity, including Melbourne civil liberties lawyer Robert Richter QC, say gaps in the Proceeds of Crime Act might allow Hicks to make a substantial amount of money from a book about his time as a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay.

But Attorney-General Philip Ruddock says the Government will bring in retrospective legislation if this is found to be the case.

"We're not trying to stop [anyone] from trying to sell their story but we are saying you can't profit from it.

"What we've seen is that there are some lawyers out there arguing that they may be able to find technical difficulties with the legislation," he said.

"We don't believe there are any and what I'm saying is, 'look, if it's necessary to put beyond doubt that this legislation has effect, we'll do it'."

CLOAK AND DAGGER

Pressure mounting for MI5 inquiry

The MI5 security service had been watching two of the London suicide bombers - ringleader Mohammad Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer - 15 months before they killed 52 people in London.

In a speech last November, the outgoing head of MI5 Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller provided a pre-emptive defence of her organisation against the criticism she knew was coming.
"I wish life were like (TV Drama) Spooks, where everything is (a) knowable, and (b) soluble by six people," she said. "We are faced by acute and very difficult choices of prioritisation.