THE QUICKENING

NASA: "Earth in Peril" - Several metre sea level rise this century

Sea levels will rise by several metres by the end of the century due to rapidly increasing greenhouse gas concentrations, according to research by a group of esteemed international scientists. Led by James Hansen from NASA's Goddard Institute, the group warns that the Earth is 'perilously' close to entering a new era of dangerous runaway climate change.

The peer-reviewed paper predicts that humans have less than ten years to make substantial reductions in global greenhouse gas emissions to avoid dangerous climate change. The West Antarctic ice sheet in particular is dangerously sensitive, with the potential to add over five metres to global sea levels within two centuries when collapsed.

"This paper spells devastation for Australia," said Matthew Wright, lead spokesman for Beyond Zero Emissions. "The impact of the predicted sea level rise will have cataclysmic effects for the millions of Australians in coastal communities around the nation. The events in New South Wales recently are just a small taste of what's to come."

DISAPPEARING ACT

30m deep Andes lake disappears

A two hectare glacial lake in Chile's southern Andes has disappeared -- and scientists want to know why.

Park rangers at Bernardo O'Higgins National Park said they found a 100-feet-deep crater in late May where the lake had been in March.

"The lake had simply disappeared," Juan Jose Romero, head of Chile's National Forest Service in the southernmost region of Magallanes, said. "No one knows what happened".

A group of geologists and other experts will be sent to the area 2000 km southeast of Santiago in the next few days to investigate, Romero said.

One theory is the water disappeared through cracks in the lake bottom into underground fissures.

But experts do not know why the cracks would have appeared because there have been no earthquakes reported in the area recently, Romero said.

[Water-powered UFOs responsible?]

FLASHBACK

Lake Peigneur: The Swirling Vortex of Doom

Early in the morning on November 21, 1980, twelve men decided to abandon their oil drilling rig on the suspicion that it was beginning to collapse beneath them. They had been probing for oil under the floor of Lake Peigneur when their drill suddenly seized up at about 1,230 feet below the muddy surface, and they were unable free it. In their attempts to work the drill loose, which is normally fairly easy at that shallow depth, the men heard a series of loud pops, just before the rig tilted precariously towards the water.

At the time, Lake Peigneur was an unremarkable body of water near New Iberia, Louisiana. Though the freshwater lake covered 1,300 acres of land, it was only eleven feet deep. A small island there was home to a beautiful botanical park, oil wells dotted the landscape, and far beneath the lake were miles of tunnels for the Diamond Crystal salt mine.

Concluding that something had gone terribly wrong, the men on the rig cut the attached barges loose, scrambled off the rig, and moved to the shore about 300 yards away. Shortly after they abandoned the $5 million Texaco drilling platform, the crew watched in amazement as the huge platform and derrick overturned, and disappeared into a lake that was supposed to be shallow.

Soon the water around that position began to turn. It was slow at first, but it steadily accelerated until it became a fast-moving whirlpool a quarter of a mile in diameter, with its center directly over the drill site.

[Watch a video of this event (includes short advert at start)]

VIRGIN BIRTH

Shark pregnancy baffles aquarium

Sharks only breed with sharks of the same species, and there were no male blacktip reef sharks at the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center in Virginia Beach.

Could the blacktip reef shark 'Tidbit' have defied nature, resulting in the first known shark hybrid? The other possibility was that Tidbit had conceived without needing a male at all.

A recent study had documented the first confirmed case of asexual reproduction, or parthenogenesis, among sharks: a pup born at a Nebraska zoo came from an egg that developed in a female shark without sperm from a male.

One of the scientists who worked on that study contacted the aquarium, which sent him tissue samples from Tidbit and her pup for testing.

If the pup's DNA turns out to contain no contribution from a male shark, this would be the second known case of shark parthenogenesis.

STATE SECRETS

Observers concerned by 'climate of secrecy'

Prominent Australian author and journalist David Marr says the silencing of public servants reflects a disturbing pattern in the last decade.

His thesis outlined in the latest 'Quarterly Essay' warns thuggish spin doctoring and punitive legislation like the 2005 sedition laws, have been used by all Australian governments to shut down criticism, and starve journalists of information the public has the right to know.

DAVID MARR, AUTHOR AND JOURNALIST: The rules of secrecy have been policed as they have never been before in Australia in peace time. There is a squad, the Australian Federal Police. They work tens of thousands of hours chasing down leaks to the press. That's their work. They prosecute. People are supposed to go to jail for telling the public things the public needs to know.

Australia's News Limited chief John Hartigan: Journalists today are thwarted pretty much everywhere they goin getting the most basic information. It means that we're living in astate and a country that's saturated by censorship and secrecy.

CASHLESSNESS

Cash machine inventor predicts its demise

The inventor of the ATM cash machine, John Shepherd-Barron, believes their use in future will be very different.

On the 40th anniversary of the instalation of the first machine, the inventor predicts people will no longer be using cash within a few years.

"Money costs money to transport. I am therefore predicting the demise of cash within three to five years."

He believes fervently that we will soon be swiping our mobile phones at till points, even for small transactions.

SAUDI OF THE SOUTH

Treasures of the Red Continent: Australia's Natural Resources Boom

The current natural resources boom is good news for Australia which has a plentiful supply of precious metals. Never before have mining corporations extracted so much iron ore, copper, gold or uranium and exported it worldwide, especially to China. But is Australia becoming dangerously dependent?

Many are already calling this region the "Saudi Arabia of the South". And that's not even exaggerated: The Gulf state controls more than 20pc of the world's oil reserves, but more than a third of all knownuranium reserves are located in Olympic Dam. It's the world's largesturanium deposit.

Australia provides the resources China needs so urgently for itseconomic miracle. In return, China provides Australia with all thecheap cooking pots, washing machines and cars it manufactures from themetal. "We would be crazy not to develop this relationship," saysAustralian Prime Minister John Howard.

Qualified workers are now in short supply. Many Australian corporations have to defer or even cancel business agreements. The lack of mechanics, architects or geologists is slowing the country's economic growth. Meanwhile, the price of housing has risen to astronomical levels. Economists warn that the real estate bubble could burst any time -- especially in the major cities, where most Australians live.

Many are concerned the economy is becoming dangerously one-sided and over-dependent on natural resources. Many people are already worried that Australia's mining companies are relying too heavily on China.

[Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and his Australian counterpart John Howard have signed an agreement that facilitates uranium exports from Australia. The Howard administration cites special clauses in the agreement that the Chinese have to observe - pledging to use the uranium for civilian purposes only.]

ESCHATOLOGICAL REASONING

The document reveals that Newton predicted the world will end in 2060

The world will end in 2060, according to Newton

His famously analytical mind worked out the laws of gravity and unravelled the motion of the planets.

And when it came to predicting the end of the world, Sir Isaac Newton was just as precise.

He believed the Apocalypse would come in 2060 – exactly 1260 years after the foundation of the Holy Roman Empire, according to a recently published letter.

THE QUICKENING

Rising sea level forecasts understated, say scientists

A group of climate scientists in the United States says a United Nations panel of experts has underestimated a predicted rise in sea levels this century.

The UN panel forecast that global warming would result in a rise of between 18cm and 59cm.

One of the scientists who believes this is well short of the mark is James Hansen of NASA, who believes the sea level will rise several metres by the end of this century.

Dr Hansen argues that the UN panel did not take into account melting ice sheets in Greenland and Antartica.

"That's beginning to lose mass and it is situated on bedrock which is below sea level, so it's potentially unstable and could give a very large sea-level rise," he said.

THE QUICKENING

The real world looks to be changing faster than the models predict

Arctic spring's 'rapid advance'

Spring in the Arctic is arriving "weeks earlier" than a decade ago, a team of Danish researchers have reported.
Ice in north-east Greenland is melting an average of 14.6 days earlier than in the mid-1990s, bringing forward the date plants flower and birds lay eggs.
The team warned that the observed changes could disrupt the region's ecosystems and food chain, affecting the long-term survival of some species.

HEART OF DARKNESS

White House denies prior knowledge of Abu Ghraib abuse

The top military investigator of the Abu Ghraib scandal, retired Army Major General Antonio Taguba says he described to former Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld what he termed the "torture" of "a naked detainee lying on the wet floor, handcuffed, with an interrogator shoving things up his rectum," the magazine reported.

The ex-general, who retired in January, spoke of other, undisclosed material on the Abu Ghraib abuse, including descriptions of the sexual humiliation of a father with his son, who were both detainees.

He also told the magazine he saw "a video of a male American soldier in uniform sodomising a female detainee," adding the video was never made public or mentioned in any court or in public.

Maj Gen Taguba says all high-level officials had avoided scrutiny while the jail keepers at Abu Ghraib were tried in courts-martial.

"From what I knew, troops just don't take it upon themselves to initiate what they did without any form of knowledge of the higher-ups," Maj Gen Taguba told the New Yorker, adding his orders were to investigate the military police only and not their superiors.

"These (military police) troops were not that creative," he said. "Somebody was giving them guidance, but I was legally prevented from further investigation into higher authority."

NAZISM RISING

Exposed underwear and low-slung trousers ... the height of style.

US town set to ban saggy trousers

A mayor in the US state of Louisiana says he will sign into law a proposal to make wearing saggy trousers an act of indecent exposure.

Delcambre town council unanimously passed the ordinance earlier this week making it a crime to wear trousers that show underwear.

"If you expose your private parts, you'll get a fine" of US$500 Mayor Carol Broussard said.

VOICE OF REASON

Guantanamo trials unfair: Nuremberg prosecutor

The US war crimes tribunals at Guantanamo have betrayed the principles of fairness that made the Nazi war crimes trials at Nuremberg a judicial landmark, one of the US Nuremberg prosecutors says.

"I think Robert Jackson, who's the architect of Nuremberg, would turn over in his grave if he knew what was going on at Guantanamo," Nuremberg prosecutor Henry King Jr said.

"It violates the Nuremberg principles, what they're doing, as well as the spirit of the Geneva Conventions of 1949."

King, 88, served under Jackson, the US Supreme Court justice who was the chief prosecutor at the trials created by the Allied powers to try Nazi military and political leaders after World War II in Nuremberg, Germany.

DARFUR NIGHTMARE

"One World, One Dream"

"One World, One Dream" is China's slogan for its 2008 Olympics. But there is one nightmare that China shouldn't be allowed to sweep under the rug.

That nightmare is Darfur, where more than 400,000 people have been killed and more than two-and-a-half million driven from flaming villages by the Chinese-backed government of Sudan.

That so many corporate sponsors want the world to look away from that atrocity during the games is bad enough. But equally disappointing is the decision of artists like director Steven Spielberg -- who quietly visited China this month as he prepares to help stage the Olympics.

The Wall Street Journal [Full article]

FLASHBACK

Powell denies Guantanamo beating claims :: 13/03/2004

US Secretary of State Colin Powell says he does not believe accusations by a recently freed British inmate of the Guantanamo Bay prison camp that he has been treated in an inhuman fashion.

Jamal al Harith, the first of five Britons to go free, said animals in the prison camp are given better treatment than inmates.But Mr Powell denies that the detainees have been treated badly.

Mr al Harith, who was held for two years without charge, claims he was beaten.

"I think that unlikely," said Mr Powell."We don't abuse people who are in our care. I think we have discharged all of our obligations under the Geneva Convention to treat people in our custody, our detainees, in a very humanitarian way."

HELL ON EARTH

Ghost Prisoners

Shackled, gagged and blindfolded, they are bundled on to spy planes, spirited to Third World capitals and dumped in prison hellholes. There they face repeated interrogations that typically include prolonged sessions of torture, crudely inflicted, unimaginably endured.

A few of these men, like Canada’s Maher Arar, whisked off the streets of New York to Syria, or Australia’s Mamdouh Habib, captured in Pakistan and delivered to Egypt’s intelligence service, eventually emerge to tell their chilling stories. Dozens remain unaccounted for.

TARNISHED MEDALS

Olympic firms 'abusing workers'

Some official merchandise for the 2008 Olympics in China has been made using child labour, forced overtime and low wages to boost profits, a report says.

Playfair - an alliance of world trade unions - has condemned "severe workers' rights violations" in four Chinese factories ahead of the Beijing games.

Beijing gets top marks from IOC

Beijing has been given a big thumbs up by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) after a three-day inspection.

OIL WARS

Iraq's Workers Strike to Keep Their Oil

The Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions, launched a limited strike to underline its call for keeping oil in public hands, and to force the government to live up to its economic promises.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki responded by calling out the army and surrounding the strikers at Sheiba, near Basra. Then he issued arrest warrants for the union's leaders.

MIND GAMES

Cliff Richard records rout funfair yobs

If you want to get rid of troublemaking youths, play them some Cliff Richard songs, a funfair has found.

According to bosses from Carter's Steam Fair, playing tracks such as Living Doll by the 66-year-old pop veteran on all their rides was enough to scare off some "hoodies" and other troublemakers who had descended on the fair last Saturday in north London.

"Who needs ASBOs when we've got our Cliff Richard records?," said the fair's Seth Carter.

DAD'S DART CLUB APLICATION

© abk.

LOGO NO GO

Claims London Olympics logo ad causing epileptic fits

The widely ridiculed new logo for the 2012 London Olympics has become the centre of another controversy.

Animation for the logo has been dropped after complaints that it had caused some viewers to suffer epileptic fits. The short animated sequence of a diver plunging into a pool contains rapid flashes of colour.

One man says he blanked out after seeing the advertisement on tv.

[The cost of the logo sent many Brits into a fit too. It cost £400,000 to make.]

MUSHROOM SOUP

Australia's New Nuclear Ambitions

"Australians are left uninformed about what is really going on" concerning the Howard government's thinking about nuclear energy.

"But, for speculation, there are a number of indicative straws blowing in the wind", with possibilities including enhanced exports, nuclear waste imports, uranium enrichment, nuclear waste reprocessing, and even nuclear power generation.Broinowski concludes:

"Outlandish as it may seem to many Australians, the challenge may soon be to reassure Australia's neighbours, especially Indonesia, that Mr Howard has no plans to build nuclear weapons in Australia."

[Richard Broinowski, former diplomat and Adjunct Professor at theUniversity of Sydney,Austral Policy Forum 06-24A, 24 July 2006.]

THE QUICKENING

Warming hits 'tipping point'

In Siberia, 1 million square km of permafrost - the size of France and Germany combined - has started to melt for the first time since it formed 11,000 years ago at the end of the last ice age.

HEART OF DARKNESS

Tony Lagouranis with a photo of one of his Iraqi interrogation subjects.

The Tortured Lives of Interrogators

In Iraq, when Tony Lagouranis interrogated suspects, fear was his friend, his weapon. He saw it seep, dark and shameful, through the crotch of a man's pants as a dog closed in, barking. He smelled it in prisoners' sweat, a smoky odor, like a pot of lentils burning. He had touched fear, too, felt it in their fingers, their chilled skin trembling.

But on this evening, Lagouranis was back in Illinois, taking the train to a bar. His girlfriend thought he was a hero. His best friend hung out with him, watching reruns of "Hawaii Five-O." And yet he felt afraid.

"I tortured people," said Lagouranis, 37, who was a military intelligence specialist in Iraq from January 2004 until January 2005. "You have to twist your mind up so much to justify doing that."

[ABC Four Corners this week looks into the dark world of torture.]

EARTH CHANGES

China puts economy before climate

China says its first and overriding priority in tackling climate change is to maintain economic development.

The remarks come in China's first national plan on climate change.

WAR ON DRUGS

Graphic anti-smoking campaigns work

Mass media campaigns are one of the most effective means to reduce smoking.

Evaluation of Australia's famous 'Every cigarette is doing you damage' ad shows that after the first six months of the mass media campaign smoking rates in Australia dropped by 1.4 per cent, representing 190,000 fewer smokers.

An economic evaluation has shown that the campaign was excellent value for money and resulted in significant savings to the health system.

[Compare this to the enormously unsuccessful War on Drugs with its harsher penalties, longer jail terms and the inhumane zero-tolerance.]

TRADITIONAL MEDICINE

Arsenic may help treat cancer: research

Arsenic can significantly extend survival in patients with a rare form of leukemia, US researchers say.

"It's a much smaller dose than you would use to poison people," Dr Bayard Powell of Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Centre said.

Adding arsenic to standard treatment can extend patients' lives and prevent relapse, Dr Powell says.

The effect is so impressive that patients may some day be able to skip chemotherapy but that will take more testing.

"This study has redefined the standard of care," Dr Powell said, who presented results from the large, three-year study at a meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

Background

The patented laetrile is a partly synthetic (man-made) form of amygdalin, while the laetrile/amygdalin made in Mexico comes from crushed apricot pits."
Though it is sometimes sold as "Vitamin B17", it is not a vitamin. Amygdalin has been advocated by some as a "cure" or a "preventative" for cancer, but due to a lack of scientifically accepted evidence of its efficacy, it has not been approved for this use by the United States' Food and Drug Administration.

FRAME DRAG

© abk.