HOW IT WORKS

The Common Good.
A public sector whose benefits and responsibilities are shared by all, and directed by the consent of the governed

FLASHBACK to Hurricane Katrina: The Perfect Storm

But as culpable, criminal and loathsome as the Bush Administration is, it is only the apotheosis of an overarching trend in American society that has been gathering force for decades: the destruction of the idea of a common good, a public sector whose benefits and responsibilities are shared by all, and directed by the consent of the governed.

For more than 30 years, the corporate Right has waged a relentless and highly focused campaign against the common good, seeking to atomize individuals into isolated "consumer units" whose political energies - kept deliberately underinformed by the ubiquitous corporate media - can be diverted into emotionalized "hot button" issues (gay marriage, school prayer, intelligent design, flag burning, welfare queens, drugs, porn, abortion, teen sex, commie subversion, terrorist threats, etc., etc.) that never threaten Big Money's bottom line.

SELF CENSORSHIP

Our own worst enemy - Sherry Jones

Self-censorship doesn’t just hurt writers. It hurts readers most of all, and it hurts our ability to grow and progress by limiting the exchange of ideas.
The same is true for The Cartoons That Shook the World. In it, Klausen makes a strong case that the controversial cartoons published by Jyllands-Posten in 2005 weren’t the real cause of the ensuing protests and riots, but were merely a tool used by governments and extremist groups to stir up anti-Western sentiment. As I read her book, which describes the 12 drawings, I yearned to see them. I wanted to decide for myself how offensive they were. I also wanted to see the uncontroversial artworks portraying Muhammad the author describes – evidence, Klausen states, that depicting the Prophet has never been taboo. Without a laptop by my side, I was cheated out of this educational opportunity by Yale University Press’s censors.

What’s also disturbing is the relative lack of attention paid to Yale’s censorious act. Are we becoming numb to these losses of our freedoms? When we read of the German publisher Droste Verlag’s recent cancellation of an honour-killing murder mystery, again out of fear of Islamist retaliation despite the absence of threats, do we still feel angry? Or do we shrug in resignation? Do we know about this latest incident at all? Several days after the story hit the German press, I saw no mention in the US media.

SECRETS AND LIES

Saving Private Manning

Private First Class Bradley Manning, is the person being held in detention at Quantico Marine Base in Virginia, for allegedly releasing 260,000 confidential US government cables to WikiLeaks.
Reports confirm that he is being held in solitary confinement; that he only has one hour outside his cell a day; is on suicide watch and has no access to news.

The problem with any US “investigation” - for which “witch hunt” may be a more accurate description - is the patterns of behaviour to be found in recent American history.

There is a record of secret support for less than salubrious regimes with undeclared involvement for example in the overthrow of Chilean president Allende, secret support for drug running Panamanian president General Noriega, the corrupt Marcos family in the Phillipines, Ngo Dinh Diem, General Thieu and Air Vice Marshall Ky in South Vietnam and more recently Karzai in Afghanistan.
A further quick sampling would highlight the McCarthy witch hunt of “communists” in the 1950s, the Gulf of Tonkin incident staged to justify the war in Vietnam, the invasion of Afghanistan that hinged on blaming the government for 9/11, and assertions about non-existent “weapons of mass destruction” to justify the invasion of Iraq.

SECRETS AND LIES

Saving Private Manning

Private First Class Bradley Manning, is the person being held in detention at Quantico Marine Base in Virginia, for allegedly releasing 260,000 confidential US government cables to WikiLeaks.
Reports confirm that he is being held in solitary confinement; that he only has one hour outside his cell a day; is on suicide watch and has no access to news.

The problem with any US “investigation” like this - for which “witch hunt” may be a more accurate description - is the patterns of behaviour to be found in recent American history.

There is a record of secret support for less than salubrious regimes with undeclared involvement for example in the overthrow of Chilean president Allende, secret support for drug running Panamanian president General Noriega, the corrupt Marcos family in the Phillipines, Ngo Dinh Diem, General Thieu and Air Vice Marshall Ky in South Vietnam and more recently Karzai in Afghanistan.
A further quick sampling would highlight the McCarthy witch hunt of “communists” in the 1950s, the Gulf of Tonkin incident staged to justify the war in Vietnam, the invasion of Afghanistan that hinged on blaming the government for 9/11, and assertions about non-existent “weapons of mass destruction” to justify the invasion of Iraq.

EARTH CHANGES

Golfballs the new hail
Georgia Shield holds several of the golf ball-size hailstones that fell at Logan, south of Brisbane, during a freak storm on the afternoon of December 15, 2010.

LEAKS & GEEKS

Who is Julian Assange?

The super-geek who is now staking a claim to being the world's most notorious leaker of secrets grew up on a small idyllic Queensland island with just 500 residents - a "Tom Sawyer" who fished and built rafts while his mother "lived in a bikini" and shot a taipan on his bed.

Born in July 1971 in Townsville on the Queensland coast, Julian Assange says he's never been a stranger to the nomadic way of life, moving 37 times by the time he was 14. His parents worked in theatre and were often on the road.

He and his half-brother did not receive formal education, with his mother Christine telling The New Yorker magazine in June: "I didn't want their spirits broken."

FIRST CASUALTY

 

T-shirt available from RedBubble

Don't shoot messenger for revealing uncomfortable truths

IN 1958 a young Rupert Murdoch, then owner and editor of Adelaide's The News, wrote: "In the race between secrecy and truth, it seems inevitable that truth will always win."

CLOAK AND DAGGER

Assange “rape” accuser has CIA ties

Julian Assange’s chief accuser in Sweden has a significant history of work with anti-Castro groups, at least one of which is US funded and openly supported by a former CIA (Quelle surprise, no?) agent convicted in the mass murder of seventy three Cubans on an airliner he was involved in blowing up.

WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange's rape case gets murkier

Are the sexual assault charges against Julian Assange really true or is he being framed? As more details surface, the case gets murkier by the minute. Assange is currently in a London jail cell awaiting deportation to Sweden on charges he sexually assaulted two women there in August.

EARTH CHANGES

Eiffel Tower shut and roads blocked by Paris snowfall

Heavy snow in Paris brought buses to a halt on Wednesday, suspended flights at Charles de Gaulle airport and prompted the closure of the Eiffel Tower.Motorways in the Paris region were described as impassable as snow that had already hit other areas of France spread to the capital.

Panama Canal shut by heavy rains

Traffic through the Panama Canal - which connects the Pacific and Atlantic oceans - has been temporarily suspended because of heavy rain.The canal authority said the rains had pushed water levels in lakes that form part of the canal to historic highs, potentially affecting shipping.It is the first time the canal has had to close since the US invasion of Panama in 1989.

TWINKLE TWINKLE

'Diamond exoplanet' idea boosted by telescope find

A US-British team of astronomers has discovered the first planet with ultra-high concentrations of carbon.

The researchers say their discovery supports the idea there may be carbon-rich, rocky planets whose terrains are made up of diamonds or graphite.
"You might see land masses and mountains made up of diamonds," the lead researcher Dr Nikku Madhusudhan told BBC News.
The study in Nature journal raises new questions about how planets are formed.

TWIN TROUBLE

Australian 29-year-old twin sisters were practising with small-calibre guns at the Family Shooting Centre outdoor shooting range south of Denver, Colorado, when they suddenly fell to the ground almost simultaneously from gunshots to the head.

Police Captain Perea said investigators are not sure who fired the gun or guns or whether the same bullet hit both sisters, who were in the same shooting lane.
One of the Victorian women died at the scene, the other was seriously wounded.

"Apparently the ladies were shot simultaneously or thereabouts," Mr Hamilton said."The how and the why, we really don't know."
Surveillance cameras show the women falling backwards out of their shooting stall.

NEURO LAW

Natural Born Killer

Dysfunction in a gene called MAOA, the so-called "warrior gene," can help express psychopathic behaviour.

The version of the gene that a person carries may determine or at least significantly influence whether a traumatic childhood experience of violence leads to psychopathy.   Wikipedia 

The gene inhibits serotonin reception in the impulse-control region of the brain.

Combined with exposure to abuse or trauma, studies show that the defect makes people highly susceptible to violent crime.

Because the MAOA gene gets passed down only on the X sex chromosome of mothers, more men than women are psychopaths.
For a man, only one X chromosome is inherited - the one from his mother, so, lacking an alternative, it gets expressed. A woman on the other hand gets an X from each parent, so that the normal MAOA gene usually inherited from her father can overrule a warrior one from her mother.

SOLAR RING

Enormous freaky ring developing on the Sun

Sunspot 1112, located in the southeast quadrant, has been the source of a giant filament that is currently stretching 400,000 km across the surface of the Sun.
However, today, there appears to be development of a enormous circular ring which looks to be linking with the huge magnetic filament of sunspot 1112.
Most of today’s various wavelength images of the Sun all show this feature over at the SDO (Solar Dynamics Observatory) – NASA website.

STRANGE HARVEST

Animal mutilations linked to UFOs says Walsall man

A Walsall man has told BBC WM that aliens and UFOs are responsible for a string of animal attacks in the UK.
Mike Freebury, a member of the Animal Pathology Field Unit, has investigated the mystery of 'cattle mutilations' for a number of years.
The phenomenon, first reported in America in the 1970s, involves the unexplained deaths of rural animals.
The bodies are often discovered with missing limbs and organs, removed with surgical precision.

"These injuries to the animals - the animals are invariably killed - are very specific. If you've seen some of the bodies that I've seen, it's just absolutely incredible," Mr Freebury said. "The flesh appears to have been cauterized indicating some sort of thermic lance or micro-sonic wand has been used. We're talking incredible technology. There is never any blood."

DISCLOSURE PART 2

UFOs eyed nukes, ex-Air Force personnel say

Seven former U.S. Air Force personnel gathered in Washington Monday to recount UFO sightings over nuclear weapons facilities in decades past – accounts that a UFO researcher says show extraterrestrial beings are interested in the world’s nuclear arms race and may be sending humans a message.

At a news conference at the National Press Club, the six former officers and one ex-enlisted man recalled either personal sightings or reports from subordinates and others of UFOs hovering over nuclear missile silos or nuclear weapons storage areas in the 1960s, '70s and '80s.

GALACTIC FEDERATION

UPDATE: This story, which made the news on the same day as the UFO-nuclear missile press conference, turned out to be fabricated. A strong scent of disinformation emanates.

Meet Mazlan Othman, the United Nations ambassador to extraterrestrials

Earth's United Nations has appointed Earth's ambassador should aliens touch down in the near future. Their selection? Malaysian astrophysicist Mazlan Othman, who heads the UN's Office for Outer Space Affairs. Othman will discuss her duties in Buckinghamshire, England.

CONSCIOUS CONNECTIONS

Psychic looking for child's body finds adult's torso

A psychic trying to help find missing girl Kiesha Abrahams has discovered a woman's torso in bushland in Sydney's west.

The dismembered body was found near the edge of Eastern Creek at Doonside about 6:30pm (AEST) yesterday.
It is not believed the remains belong to Kiesha, the six-year-old who went missing from her home in nearby Mount Druitt about a fortnight ago.

Police say the woman who found the torso was walking through the bush because she had a feeling there was a body there.

'FREE' MARKET

Broadband a "no regrets" investment: World Bank

In the face of renewed economic turmoil in Europe and uncertainty of the pace of recovery in North America, Dr Tim Kelly told Computerworld Australia it would be prudent economic policy to forge ahead with expensive infrastructure spending like that of Australia's broadband plan.

“In principle, yes,” Kelly said in an emailed response. “It would send the wrong signal to the markets to back track on existing commitments to stimulus expenditure.”

[This 'free market' doesn't sound too free.]

TALIBAN RULES

Internet prank kids warned they face years in jail and $10,000 fines.

Four youths accused of hijacking a fellow student’s Facebook page and posting indecent photographs have been formally charged by South Australian Police.
A 16-year-old and three 13-year-olds were reported for exhibiting indecent material. The incident is part of an ongoing school bullying issue.
The allegedly indecent material was reported by the registered user of the page, a 13-year-old boy.
Police warned teenagers who swapped indecent material, no matter the original intent.
“What kids might see as a prank are serious offences,” he said.
“You cannot take photographs of minors of a sexual nature, it’s regarded as child pornography.
“You cannot take photographs of people’s private parts. You commit an offence by taking and you then commit an offence by posting them on the net or even sending them via SMS.”
The maximum penalty for obtaining or exchanging child pornography is a $10,000 fine and up to six years jail.

Police said issues that could constitute criminal activities included the practice in some sporting clubs of girls flashing their breasts and youths taking photographs of their genitalia “because they think it’s a joke”.

SECURITY BREACH

Aerial Disc Beam Penetrated Nuclear Weapons At Whiteman AFB

“I had climbed up on the nuclear weapons igloo looking at this bluish-red light that was coming straight down. Then the light started to do a grid pattern! And I was like, ‘This is not happening!’ Just like a grid, it went to one corner and then started going about every three inches backand forth doing a grid. And when it got to me, the light actually stopped because I put my hand into it.”
- Dale Hogan, Former USAF Airman 1st Class.

LOVE NOT WAR

Ecstasy may help traumatised veterans

United States scientists say the drug ecstasy may help war veterans suffering from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

The trial study, published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, found that the drug seems to improve the effects of therapy in military veterans.

The researchers, led by Dr Rick Doblin of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies in California, say ecstasy could help reduce a patient's fear, enabling them to get more out of their therapy sessions.

The trial only studied 20 patients but the researchers have gained approval to complete a larger study.

SOFT IN THE HEAD

Expert won't rule out Octopus Paul's psychic ability

PETA is calling for him to be released back into the Mediterranean. I hope they achieve their aim. Paul has earned freedom for his dotage. Most octopuses only live to be one to three years old, and Paul is already two-and-a-half.

Some other interesting squiddy facts

One species impersonates poisonous black and white sea snakes by putting six arms down a hole and waving the other two around like a writhing sea snake
It can also impersonate poisonous lionfish with "barbs" sticking out on its body.

An animal 1m across could squeeze through a 30mm hole. They squeeze their eyes out of shape and pull their soft brains through the middle of these holes.
They're very, very fast growing creatures - a lot of them only live one year and then die of old age, they're very different to say deep sea fish.

Their nervous system is fundamentally different from that of vertebrates.
Cuttlefish, squid and octopuses are considered the most intelligent invertebrates and show an important example of advanced cognitive evolution in animals.

BAD, SAD MAC

Death by Gadget in Congo  by Nicholas d. kristof

An ugly paradox of the 21st century is that some of our elegant symbols of modernity — smartphones, laptops and digital cameras — are built from minerals that seem to be fueling mass slaughter and rape in Congo.
With throngs waiting in lines in the last few days to buy the latest iPhone, I’m thinking: What if we could harness that desperation for new technologies to the desperate need to curb the killing in central Africa?
In Congo, I’ve seen women who have been mutilated, children who have been forced to eat their parents’ flesh, girls who have been subjected to rapes that destroyed their insides. Warlords finance their predations in part through the sale of mineral ore containing tantalum, tungsten, tin and gold. For example, tantalum from Congo is used to make electrical capacitors that go into phones, computers and gaming devices.

Electronics manufacturers have tried to hush all this up. They want you to look at a gadget and think “sleek,” not “blood.”

I'm a Mac ... And I've Got a Dirty Secret

MARKET FORCES

Journalist and filmmaker Marie-Monique Robin.
(Photo: Razak / Ségolène Royal)

Monsanto, Big Brother of the New World Agricultural Order. Discuss

Award-winning French journalist and filmmaker Marie-Monique Robin is the author of "The World According to Monsanto: Pollution, Corruption and the Control of Our Food Supply" (The New Press) and the creator of the film by the same name.

In a review of these two projects, Leslie Thatcher writes:
"What Marie-Monique Robin most effectively documents are the perverse effects - the moral, social, technological, economic and market failures - of Western society's economic organization, most specifically with respect to science and the products of science and, ultimately, with respect to the preservation of the public commons and human life on the planet."

SOME LIKE IT COLD

X-Rays of Marilyn Monroe's Chest Sold for $45,000

A set of X-rays of Marilyn Monroe's chest was sold for $45,000 at an auction. The X-rays, which were taken during a 1954 hospital visit, were sold at a movie memorabilia auction. The pre-sale estimate was $3000.
A chair from the star's final photo shoot was purchased for $35,000.

Monroe died in 1962 at the age of 36. Her movies included Some Like It Hot and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

PREMONITION

Seven Australians injured in boat crash in Thailand

ONE of seven young Australians injured in a horror boat crash in Thailand almost didn't board the vessel because she had "a bad feeling" that something might happen.

Hairdresser Chloe Bucknell said yesterday she was lucky to be alive after the 40-seat speedboat she was in collided head-on with a similar vessel off the resort island of Koh Phangan on Saturday night.

The 21-year-old, from Bayview on Sydney's northern beaches, was on her way with three friends to a full moon party on the island as part of a two-week Thai trip. Up to 40 people, including Ms Bucknell, her three friends and three other Australians, were injured in the crash.

From her bed in Bandon International Hospital in Samui, Ms Bucknell said: "We all had a bad feeling about it but thought `We're here now, we might as well go'."

ET PHONE HOME

ET asks: do you want us to make ourselves known globally?

The main proposition in a letter purportedly from humanity's extraterestrial cousins is that the mass appearance of ET in the skies may help us clear away the veils of illusion and deceits, help settle many existential issues and dilemmas and provide an “attractor” to help pull positive mentalities out of the social death-vortex, enable us to refocus the next stage in evolution.

The main assertion in the letter is that human civilization is now in an uncontrollable free-fall implosion which cannot be “fixed” from within existing social systems.
The implosion is causing a major rupture in all human orders. There is a dark road down toward the use of technology to rapidly enslave human populations in a badly degraded and unhealthy environment.
Those who are defining this path, many of them unintentionally, have the greater advantage of power over resources and may gain the upper hand during the coming rupture.
There are many who would take a liberating path, they could gain the upper hand if they lose their fear, sense of isolation, and ignorance about the true state of affairs and understand their choice.

CLOAK AND DAGGER

FLASHBACK: Crop circle experts dies in unusual circumstances

The body of crop circle investigator Paul Vigay was found on the Hampshire coast at Southsea. Paul Vigay, a mathematician and computer expert, became one of the leading lights of the crop circle world.

His body was found on the shore at Southsea, near Portsmouth, last Thursday – police say the circumstances surrounding his death are not suspicious.

Mr Vigay, 44, was well known in the fields of Wiltshire and renowned among crop circle devotees as an expert at decoding the hidden meanings in crop circle patterns. "Paul was one of the brightest stars in the crop circle universe," said circle photographer and researcher Lucy Pringle.

"A talented mathematician, computer technician and a maker of electronic gadgets, he was one of the first researchers into the crop circle phenomenon in the early 1990s, where his talents were quickly recognised.

"He had an exceptional gift for investigation and often led the field in deciphering the mathematical aspects found in certain crop circles. He was amazingly articulate and he had a rare knack of being able to explain technical details in the simplest language. He has made a major contribution to the subject and his place will not be easily filled," she added.

Mr Vigay's friend of 23 years Claire Diestler, 39, from Bedhampton, said she visited him for a cup of coffee last Tuesday. She said: "He was absolutely fine, that's why I am so shocked. There was absolutely no indication that anything was wrong. In fact he was quite jokey. We all feel a bit guilty having seen him.

Mrs Diestler added: "He was really popular and had a lot of friends. He was very funny and we always had some great laughs."

MEANWHILE: The crop circle community was left stunned by the loss of two of its leading lights within hours of each other. Dorset investigator and conference organiser David Kingston also died last week after a year-long battle with cancer.

OIL ADDICTION

The Oil Spill's Worst-Case Scenario?

The grim video feed of oil pouring into the Gulf of Mexico got even worse on Wednesday after BP had to remove the containment cap because a robotic submarine collided with a vent.

Even before this setback to contain the massive flow of oil into the gulf, online speculation has fueled fears that the leaks could be much greater than what's been shown.
According to these theories, such leaks at the bottom—that is, below the sea floor—could present a new “worst-case scenario” for the disaster.

CLOAK AND DAGGER

FLASHBACK: Crop circle experts dies in unusual circumstances

The crop circle community has been left stunned after two of its leading lights died within hours of each other. Dorset investigator and conference organiser David Kingston passed away last week after a year-long battle with cancer.

Meanwhile, the body of crop circle investigator Paul Vigay was found on the Hampshire coast at Southsea.

Paul Vigay, a mathematician and computer expert, became one of the leading lights of the crop circle world.

His body was found on the shore at Southsea, near Portsmouth, last Thursday – police say the circumstances surrounding his death are not suspicious.

Mr Vigay, 44, was well known in the fields of Wiltshire and renowned among crop circle devotees as an expert at decoding the hidden meanings in crop circle patterns. "Paul was one of the brightest stars in the crop circle universe," said circle photographer and researcher Lucy Pringle.

"A talented mathematician, computer technician and a maker of electronic gadgets, he was one of the first researchers into the crop circle phenomenon in the early 1990s, where his talents were quickly recognised.

"He had an exceptional gift for investigation and often led the field in deciphering the mathematical aspects found in certain crop circles. He was amazingly articulate and he had a rare knack of being able to explain technical details in the simplest language. He has made a major contribution to the subject and his place will not be easily filled," she added.

Mr Vigay's friend of 23 years Claire Diestler, 39, from Bedhampton, said she visited him for a cup of coffee last Tuesday. She said: "He was absolutely fine, that's why I am so shocked. There was absolutely no indication that anything was wrong. In fact he was quite jokey. We all feel a bit guilty having seen him.

"We are all worried we did not pick up on something.'

Mrs Diestler added: "He was really interested in UFOs and anything a bit unusual like crop circles.

"He used to go to Wiltshire quite a lot to take photographs of them. He was really popular and had a lot of friends. He was very funny and we always had some great laughs," she said.

HOWARD HUGHES II

Entrepreneurs Enter the Commercial Space Race

At the Bigelow Aerospace factory here, the full-size space station mockups sitting on the warehouse floor look somewhat like puffy white watermelons. The interiors offer a hint of what spacious living in space might look like.
“Every astronaut we have come in here just says, ‘Wow,’ ” said Robert T. Bigelow, the company founder. “They can’t believe the size of this thing.”

His space stations are not his only interest in space. “I’ve been a researcher and student of UFOs for many, many years,” Mr. Bigelow said.

“Anybody that does research, if people bother to do quality research, come away absolutely convinced. You don’t have to have personal encounters.”
He added: “People have been killed. People have been hurt. It’s more than observational kind of data.”

GADGET WAR

The iPed, left, and iPad, right.

The iPad Riped off with the iPed

According to this TBS news report, the iPed is on sale in Shenzhen, China, for a fifth of the price of the Apple iPad.
Shenzhen is the location of the largest Foxconn plant, where the iPhone and the iPad are manufactured.
The iPed comes packaged in a box that looks like the iPod.
While it is slightly heavier than the iPad, the device is powered by an Intel chip and runs on Google's open source operating system Android. But like the iPad, it is a multi-media device.

CROP CIRCLES

Typographical error in Euler crop glyph?

Transcrib the binary digits, each byte (8 bits) into its corresponding ASCII character, starting from the direction of the windmill and working clockwise around the circle and out from the centre. The result is: e^(hi)pi)1=0

In Google the top result was Euler's identity: e^iπ+1=0. "The most beautiful theorem in mathematics". Euler's formula demonstrates the deep relationship between the trigonometric functions and the complex exponential function.

An anomalous 'h' in the glyph and an absent '+'

Perhaps significantly, the 'h', with the adjacent 'i', reads 'hi' but 'h' could be a reference to the Planck constant, taking us from the world of maths into the world of physics.

Could the makers have left a 'Planck' in the design as a subtle joke on all the croppies who might pronounce this a 'genuine' crop circle as opposed to a circle made with a plank?

Maybe the circle-makers made a mistake. The binary encoding for 'h' - 01101000 is just one binary digit different to that for '(' - 00101000. The extra opening bracket would pair up with the otherwise unpaired closing bracket in the message to give us e^((i)pi)1=0.

But then, The ASCII code for right parentheses ')' differs by just one digit from '+' so that is possibly what was meant.

Euler Identity - e^(i)pi+1=0
Crop ASCII - e^(hi)pi)1=0
Crop ASCII corrected - e^(hi)pi+1=0

wilton windmill crop circle may 2010

Going Around in (Crop) Circles

Over the past fortnight, legendary paranormal researcher Jacques Vallee has posted two guest-blogs on (the insanely popular website) Boing Boing, on the topic of crop circles. In the first, "In Search of Alien Glyphs", he details his own alternative theory for their construction (first set out in "Crop Circles: 'Signs from Above' or Human Artifacts?":

"In Sept. 1991, I published in a New Age magazine my own hypothesis about the Crop Circles phenomenon. I speculated they involved a military aerial device (not a space-based instrument) for generating such designs using focused microwave beams, such as a "maser." At the time nobody wanted to hear that the beautiful pictures in English corn fields might be crafted by a technical team inside some lab, bouncing signals from a hovering platform and using individual corn stalks as simple pixels to calibrate a lethal device. So my paper was met with dead silence."

More

WATCH THE SKIES

The truth is out there

An amazing number of high ranking military officers, government officials and generally sensible folk believe we are being visited by aliens from other planets. They have seen unidentified flying objects for themselves.

With the New Zealand Government soon to release previously classified material on UFO sightings, reporter Sarah Hall goes looking for the evidence.

YOGI BARE

Study on yogi Prahlad Jani’s fasting concludes

India’s Defense Institute of Physiology and Allied Sciences concluded its study of 82-year-old yogi Prahlad Jani Jani, a hermit from Ahmedabad who claims to have lived without food or water for the last 70 years, was under the close watch of three video cameras 24 hours a day.

Researchers conducted various medical tests on him. The research team, consisting of 35 scientists, could not find any evidence that Jani ate or drank anything during the 15 days.

Doctors have not found any adverse effects in his body from hunger or dehydration. They think that yoga exercises may have caused Jani’s body to undergo a biological transformation. The researchers said tests found that his brain is equivalent to that of a 25-year-old. The doctors said that after fasting for two weeks, Jani was healthier than the average 40-year-old.

Jani said he left home when he was 7 to live as a wandering monk, and was blessed by a goddess a year later. He claims that there is a hole in his palate through which his head drops nectar, giving him nutrition and enabling him to live without food or water.

MORE: Indian Man Lives Seven Decades Without Food or Water | Researchers Find Miracles in Yogi’s Fasting

WHALE RESEARCH

Carbon neutral: A sperm whale swims in the Southern Ocean, leaving a cloud of poo behind it. (Flinders University, Adelaide: Peter Gill)

Whale poo fights climate change: study

The fight to stop whaling has been boosted with new research showing the southern ocean sperm whale can remove large amounts of carbon from the atmosphere.
A study has found that instead of increasing carbon levels through respiration, the sperm whale offsets its emissions by defecating.Flinders University researcher Trish Lavery says the poo is rich in iron, which stimulates phytoplankton to grow, and that traps the carbon dioxide.

CASHLESSNESS

Human implant RFID chips

People around the world have been implanted with a computer-like device that allows them, with just a swipe of a hand to open a door or even activate a computer
It was in 2004 that microchips were first approved for human use in the United States. It's been marketed as a device linked to a medical records database so in an emergency a doctor can scan the chip and find out vital medical information.... like your credit card number.

FLASHBACK: Mesopotamia, waaay back.
"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 so 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. This calls for wisdom. If anyone has insight, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is man's number. His number is 666" (Rev. 13:16-18).

VI is 6 in Roman numerals. S was 6 in ancient Egypt. A was 6 in Sanskrit. VISA = 666. To travel for extended periods requires a "visa".

HORN OF AFRICA

GODS PARTICLES

US experiment hints at 'multiple God particles'

Despite decades trying, no-one, so far, has detected the theoretical Higgs boson. The elusive particle provides the method by which all other particles have mass.

Now, results from the Large Hadron Collider's US rival -- the DZero experiment at the Tevatron particle accelerator, operated by Fermilab in Illinois, US -- suggest physicists could be hunting five Higgs bosons particles, not one.

ALIEN PROBE

Damaged probe set for Woomera touchdown

AN extraordinary space adventure to find the origins of the solar system is about to end, with a pioneering spacecraft scheduled to parachute its precious cargo into the Woomera Prohibited Area after landing on a distant asteroid and scooping up samples of its primordial matter.
The Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa is hobbling home after a seven-year mission in which it travelled more than four billion kilometres, twice landed on the asteroid Itokawa, broke down, came back to life after two years, and headed home with failed or malfunctioning engines.

It will be the first time an unmanned spacecraft has rendezvoused with an asteroid, taken soil samples and returned to Earth. The 510kg Hayabusa - the size of a large fridge - was launched from Japan in May 2003 and, after travelling two billion km, landed on the 500m long Itokawa in November 2005.

FIRST DROPS

ABOVE: Jupiter compared with Earth. BELOW: Most recent impact
caused by meteor or comet. Note the impact size. A similar one on
Earth would likely mean the end of an era.


Aussie amateur astronomer catches second Jupiter impact on film

Amateur astronomers Anthony Wesley of Australia and Christopher Go of the Philippines have independently observed an impact event on Jupiter. The strike at 20:31 UT on June 3, produced a bright flash of light in the giant planet's cloudtops. Wesley, from the Broken Hill region in Western Australia, pinpointed the impact site at Jovian latitude minus 16.1deg, and central meridian longitudes CM1: 300deg, CM2: 33.8deg and CM3: 210.4deg.

FLASHBACK: Almost a year ago, Wesley captured a similar Jupiter impact:

[More.]

photographing Jupiter from his backyard observatory in Murrumbateman, Australia,

Christopher Go, made a 46mb video of the event. "I still can't believe that I caught a live impact on Jupiter," says

[46 MB video of this impact.]

BILLY MEIER'S BEGINNINGS

Eduard "Billy" Meier, farmer, states he has contacts with Pleiadians
(later renamed Plejarans) at least since 1942. His first extraterrestrial contacts
occurred with Sfath and Asket, from 1942 until 1964. In 1975, contacts resume
with the beautiful Semjase. The controversy has started.

Click to enlarge:

SMILE

BATTLE PLAYSTATIONS

Drone killings lead to 'Playstation mentality' 

A United Nations investigator has called for a halt to CIA-directed drone strikes on suspected Islamic militants in Pakistan and Afghanistan, warning that killings ordered far from the battlefield could lead to a video-game mentality.

Philip Alston, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, says missile strikes can be justified only when it is impossible to capture insurgents alive instead.
The United States is believed to control its fleet of drones from CIA headquarters in Virginia, coordinating with civilian pilots near hidden airfields in Afghanistan and Pakistan

SCHOOL OF THOUGHT

Westall 66: A Suburban Ufo Mystery

In suburban Melbourne in 1966, 200 Westall High School and Westall State School students, staff and local residents watched a strange object hover overhead for several minutes. It landed briefly at Grange Reserve before lifting off, pursued by five aircraft, and vanishing.
Witnesses were told by uniformed military they were just hallucinating and footage of inverviews of the witnesses by Channel 9 has gone missing.
A local documentary maker has interviewed the witnesses four decades later and they remain adamant that what they saw was a real event.

PUBLIC PRIVACY

Surveillance cameras target forest vandals

South Australian Forestry Minister Michael O’Brien has commended the establishment by ForestrySA of a surveillance network across its estate to reduce and control illegal activity in forest areas.
"ForestrySA has adopted a zero tolerance approach,” Mr O’Brien said.

“Surveillance cameras are very small, hard to find and can record video, still and infra-red images,” ForestrySA Ranger Green Triangle Mark Whan said.

Meanwhile ...

US Forest Service admits putting surveillance cameras on public lands

Last month, Herman Jacob took his daughter and her friend camping in the Francis Marion National Forest. While poking around for some firewood, Jacob noticed a wire. He pulled on it and followed it to a video camera and antenna.

The camera didn't have any markings identifying its owner, so Jacob took it home and called law enforcement agencies to find out if it was theirs, all the while wondering why someone would station a video camera in an isolated clearing in the woods.

He eventually received a call from Mark Heitzman of the U.S. Forest Service.

In a stiff voice, Heitzman ordered Jacob to turn it back over to his agency, explaining that it UShad been set up to monitor "illicit activities." Jacob returned the camera but felt uneasy.

Why, he wondered, would the Forest Service have secret cameras in a relatively remote camping area? What do they do with photos of bystanders?

How many hidden cameras are they using, and for what purposes? Is this surveillance in the forest an effective law enforcement tool? And what are our expectations of privacy when we camp on public land?

Officials with the Forest Service were hardly forthcoming with answers to these and other questions about their surveillance cameras. When contacted about the incident, Heitzman said "no comment," and referred other questions to Forest Service's public affairs, who he said, "won't know anything about it."

BLACK WATER

FLASHBACK:
BP Finds 'Giant' Oil Source Deep Under Gulf of Mexico

September 3, 2009: BP said Wednesday that it made a "giant" oil discovery in the Gulf of Mexico, and analysts said that the find deep below the sea floor raised hopes that further exploration in the region could help sustain U.S. offshore oil production.
BP spokesman Daren Beaudo said the company would not make any estimates on the amount of oil its find could yield, however the Thunder Horse field is producing as much as 300,000 barrels a day.

BP said that the well struck oil in "multiple reservoirs" in the Lower Tertiary geologic zone, a layer of the earth's crust dating back 38 million to 68 million years.
More than 10 discoveries have been made at that level in the Gulf, including BP's Kaskida find, which has estimated reserves -- about a third or less recoverable -- of 4 billion to 6 billion barrels.

"We view the Lower Tertiary as one of the next big waves of development in the Gulf of Mexico," Beaudo said.

Black Water Rising

In May 2000 a draft of an environmental analysis by the Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) stated that “the oil industry’s experience base in deep-water well control is limited” and that a massive spill “could easily turn out to be a potential show stopper for the [outer continental shelf] program if the industry and MMS do not come together as a whole to prevent such an incident.”

CALCULATION

Five billion barrels of oil at 0.15898729 cubic metres a barrel (42 US gallons a barrel).
equals 794,936,000 cubic metres of oil.
Each cubic metre, sliced into 1cm slabs of oil, would cover 100 sqm. The oil would therefore cover about 80,000,000,000 square metres.
There are a million square metres in a square kilometre so the oil slick, at 1cm depth could cover 80,000 square kilometres. Half the thickness of the slick means double the area.

EARTH CHANGES

Uganda's Rwenzori Mountains in 1987 on the left and in 2005 on the right

Uganda's highest ice cap splits on Mt Margherita

The ice cap on Uganda's highest peak has split because of global warming.
The glacier is located at an altitude of 5109m in the Rwenzori mountain range, near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Scientists say glaciers in the range could disappear within 20 years. According to researchers, the ice cap covered 6 sq km  50 years ago. It is now less than 1 sq km.

OUR COSMOS

M82 taken by the Spitzer Telescope. The hot plasma generated in supernova explosions has produced a hot wind which can be seen escaping from the nuclear region of M82 in the Spitzer telescope infra-red image of the galaxy where dust emission (coloured red) is detected. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Mystery object in Starburst Galaxy M82 possible micro-quasar

Radio astronomers at the University of Manchester's Jodrell Bank Observatory have discovered a strange new object in a nearby galaxy. The object, which appeared very suddenly in radio wavelengths and shows no signs of going away, does not appear to be like anything that has been seen in the Milky Way.
A change in position for the object over the first 50 days is equivalent to an apparent superluminal motion of over four times the speed of light.

[The object is close to, but not at centre of M82 -- far enough away that it would seem unlikely that it is associated with the central collapsed core of this galaxy.]

SILVER BULLET

Man Charged In Werewolf Murder

A man shot his brother-in-law through the heart with a silver bullet because he thought the man was a werewolf who had killed dozens of people - including his sister.

Thomas Masaryk has been charged with first-degree murder in the bizarre case, but he plans to plead innocent under a 500-year-old Transylvania law that says it’s not murder to kill a werewolf.

Masaryk doesn’t deny shooting Dumbrava Serghiescu, 42, on the lawn of his home on the outskirts of Satu Mare. In fact, he called on father Martin Batistei to witness the shooting that, he claims, took place just seconds after Serghiescu transformed himself in a werewolf.

Father Batistei told reporters, “It’s true. I heard the man threaten to kill Mr. Masaryk and saw him change before my eyes. Hair sprouted on his face and hands and fangs grew right out of his mouth. His eye glowed fiery red - and he began to grown and moan like a caged beast.”

Masaryk put a stop to the horrifying transformation with a single shot from a .38 caliber revolver. The bullet he used to kill Serghiescu had been made from a silver crucifix that reportedly had been blessed by the Pope.

MINER LASPSE

Opposition frontbencher defends purchase of mining shares.

Federal Opposition frontbencher Peter Dutton says he believes the Government's proposed super profits tax will damage the mining industry.
So why has he just bought shares in a mining giant?

RAISE CONCERNS

'Raise a glass' idea raises fuss in RSL

The state president, Doug Formby, said 13 RSL districts covering Queensland voted unanimously not to support the campaign. "We don't think it appropriate for the RSL badge and image to be associated with the promotion of alcohol. We are dealing with many hundreds of veterans who are affected by beer - directly, or as a result of consuming alcohol - because of service-related problems," Mr Formby said.

GUANTANAMERA

Guantanamo refugees were 'horse traded' with US

The Federal Opposition says it has no doubt the Government's decision to accept refugees from the US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay is linked to the Oceanic Viking stand-off.

PLANETARY BRAIN

Theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking with his first wife Jane in 1965, above,
and in a ballistic flight aircraft, below.


Hawking warns against contact with aliens

On the probability of alien life existing, he says: "To my mathematical brain, the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly rational," says British scientist Stephen Hawking.

"If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn't turn out well for the Native Americans," said the astrophysicist. "Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonise whatever planets they can reach," he warned.

The doomsday scenario is suggested in a series on the Discovery Channel. The programs depict alien life forms in huge spaceships on the hunt for resources after draining their own planet dry.

OLYMPIC-SIZED ENLARGEMENT

Olympic champion Merritt tests positive to penis enlargement drug
Olympic 400m champ LaShawn Merritt of the United States has been suspended after testing positive for taking an over-the-counter penis enlargement product. The 400m world champion said in he was "deeply sorry".
The 23-year-old, facing a two-year ban, said "to know that I've tested positive as a result of a product that I used for personal reasons is extremely difficult to wrap my hands around".

HOLY ORDERS

US man names Pope Benedict in Milwaukee abuse lawsuit

A man who says he was the victim of an American paedophile priest is bringing a lawsuit against the Pope and the Vatican in a US federal court.

TERROR IN THE SKIES

Ash fallout worse than 9/11: official

The closing of the skies over Europe caused by an Icelandic volcano spewing ash is having a greater impact on the air travel industry than 9/11, says an air authority official.

EXIT STRATEGY

Beating the filter: masterclass photos

Exit International-sponsored a "hacking masterclass", where the euthanasia advocacy group was to show how to use proxy servers and virtual networks so users could bypass the filter and find information on "safe suicide".
About 70 people attended the Melbourne masterclass, in which Australian Pirate Party member David Campbell, of Newcastle-based company Clear Computers, explained how web proxies and virtual private networks (VPNs) can be used to bypass the government's planned internet filter.
"As far as the Pirate Party is concerned, the filter is in place to make the government appear as though they're doing something. And because the filter is set to Refused Classification [RC] content, they could change the definition of RC at any point in the future," Campbell said.

SCANDAL IS SIN

Fresh allegations made against Pope

The AP newsagency says it has obtained a letter signed by the future Pope in 1985, when he was a senior Vatican official, in which he resisted appeals for the dismissal of an American priest who had sexually abused two boys at a school in California.

The Pope, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, pleaded for more time, asking the diocese to consider the good of the universal church.

Cardinal Ratzinger wrote in the letter that arguments to remove the priest were of "grave significance", but also worried about what "granting the dispensation can provoke with the community of Christ's faithful, particularly regarding the young age of the petitioner".

Irwin Zalkin, a lawyer representing victims of the priest in question, believes the church associated scandal with sin.

"Scandal was considered a sin and if evidence or information were to get out and become public about the depth and the breadth and the insidious nature of the problem of the priests and other religious committing these crimes, it would for sure provoke scandal," he said.

ALL TERRORISTS NOW

Government tinkers with sedition law

Australian Federal Attorney-General Robert McClelland has introduced a range of amendments to counter-terrorism laws, including one that renames the offence of sedition.

The changes also include giving police new powers to enter a place without a warrant if there is material that is a risk to public safety.

Mr McClelland says it is already an offence to urge force or violence against a group on the basis of race, religion, nationality or political opinion, if those actions would threaten national peace.

"The offence will also be expanded so that it applies to the urging of force or violence against an individual, not just a group," he said.

"It covers the urging of force or violence even where the use of the force or violence does not threaten the peace, order and good government of the Commonwealth," he said. 

[Despite the new laws specifying that they no longer target threats to the Commonwealth, he said the changes help ensure the right balance in national security.]

MANY OBAMAS

Make up your mind... he can't be all four!

RUDD FACES

Pardon the 'red-faced' pun but this idea has merit

A local GP has left the Prime Minister a little red-faced by suggesting he take a leaf out of Cuba's book when formulating the Federal Government's public health overhaul.

Kevin Rudd visited Queanbeyan Hospital in New South Wales today to announce that the Government will spend an extra $632 million over the next 10 years to train a record number of doctors.

But the so-called picture opportunity didn't quite go to plan, with Dr Jeannie Ellis, the GP in charge of the hospital's emergency department, telling Mr Rudd to look to Cuba for a solution to Australia's ailing health system.

"Maybe Australia should take a leaf out of the Cuban healthcare system's book where they have something like $20,000 less per capita and they have exactly the same healthcare indicators as Australia," she said.

"I've lived in Cuba for a long time and I can tell you that they run a very, very good healthcare system and they get a lot of bang for their buck over there." 

HONOUR BOUND

Teen girl buried alive by family members

An autopsy has found that a 16-year-old Turkish girl was buried alive in her family's garden.
She was reportedly killed by her family for having male friends.

Dozens of so-called honour killings take place every year in Turkey, despite efforts by the government to stamp out the practice.

BRAVE NEW WORLD

Forbes magazine appears to be on drugs

Forbes has declared Monsanto “Company of the Year,” calling criticism of the notorious company “vicious” attacks against a company that “has been working to make humanity better fed.”

What’s more, Forbes claims that the attacks come because Monsanto has close to a monopoly in some seed markets, which Forbes argues is because they are making “seeds that are too good.”

You read that right. Apparently, Monsanto’s decades-long attempt to control the seed market -- which has led it lawsuits against small farmers and genetically modified plants that never regerminate, forcing farmers to buy seeds year after year -- is apparently just a result of their being “too good.”

I encourage you all to BOYCOTT Forbes and cancel any subscription you may have.

CRYPTOZOOLOGY

Mysterious Segmenting Snake-Like Creature Reported On Pennsylvania Roadway

At about 3:45 pm, on a beautiful, clear and sunny afternoon a woman, her husband and child were in their car driving along the country road.
Suddenly, the woman seated behind her husband yelled out, “watch out for that snake.” The man slowed down as they focused on a black snake about four feet long that was slowly moving across the road ahead of them from right to left. The head of the reptile was in the center of the roadway. The fellow told me that while the creature looked like a snake, it did not slither like a snake, but instead, was “gliding real slow.”

Suddenly, something happened that the witnesses are still trying to explain. As the couple watched, the body of the snake broke apart into approximately eight individual creatures. The man related that this happened quickly, almost as if it exploded. Each creature was about four inches in length, but stretched up to approximately six inches as they moved. They were tubular shaped, with no tail, and charcoal black in color. The fellow said he was unsure if there was hair, but what might have been hair was of a “shiny wet” texture.

Each creature seemed to have four feet, two on each side of the body. The feet were hard to describe, since they were black, the same color as the body. They did not notice any eyes. The wife told her husband that she could see the mouth of one creature, which was wide open. The vehicle stopped about ten to twenty feet from the creatures, which were “moving individually, erratically, and extremely fast in the road.” The creatures moved like inch worms with the back hunched up and then stretching flat, growing at least two additional inches in length each time they moved.

NON-HUMAN PEOPLE

Scientists say dolphins should be treated as 'non-human persons'

Dolphins have been declared the world’s second most intelligent creatures after humans, with scientists suggesting they are so bright that they should be treated as “non-human persons”.

“The neuroanatomy suggests psychological continuity between humans and dolphins and has profound implications for the ethics of human-dolphin interactions,” said Lori Marino, a researcher and zoologist at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.

AUSTRALIA FIRST

 

Darwin revealed as world's biff capital

A Northern Territory surgeon says Darwin has the highest rate of broken jaws in the world and that can be attributed mostly to alcohol-related violence. Royal Darwin Hospital surgeon Mahiban Thomas says the hospital sees about 350 cases of broken jaws and noses every year.
"(This) puts us at about 17 per 10,000 population, which is well above anywhere else in the world," he said.
Dr Thomas says most assaults occur outside pubs and nightclubs on Thursday and Friday nights.

CLOAK AND DAGGER

Double agent's bait too good for CIA to refuse

The Jordanian double agent who killed seven CIA employees in an Afghan suicide attack had been working with Jordanian intelligence.

It is understood he had already been to the CIA base in Afghanistan half a dozen times, and on this last occasion, when he went through three layers of security, local guards were told not to search him.
Seven CIA employees, including the station chief and two men who were private contractors from the security company formerly known as Blackwater, died when he detonated his explosives.

The Outfit Formerly Known as Blackwater

Some of your employees are facing manslaughter charges. Your biggest customers just yanked your contracts. How do you repair your image and your reputation? Simple: change your name and cover your tracks.

The Outfit Formerly Known as Blackwater, the huge military contracting and consulting firm, made its bones and its less-than-salubrious name in Iraq. And now it wants to unmake its notoriety. It is changing its name to Xe (pronounced Zee). In a memo to employees, Blackwater/Xe president Gary Jackson says the switch "reflects the change in company focus away from the business of providing private security".

[To providing what now, exactly? Cupcakes?]

CODED DATA

The image of Color C Code on a CD cover decodes off-line as a 40 second music clip.

Color Code Technologies Targets Network Operators

Color Construct Code enables the transmission of large amounts of data and does not require an internet connection to decode and display digital formats such as such as text, images, music and video. A password and/or expiration logic may also be encoded in each code.

The code can be printed onto paper and stickers thereby reducing the costs of printing information. The code is also suitable for storing data, securing documents, preventing forgery, and managing products. The technology is completely compatible with Symbian systems, the current standard operating system for smartphones with an 85% market share of the world’s handset manufacturers.

THEY'RE HERE

Respected scientist says aliens are among us

A leading astrophysicist who has worked on space missions claims that he and his colleagues are in contact with extraterrestrials who are "living among us." And they don't like what they see.

"We sent (the aliens) 30 questions about global problems," said Filipov, who was vague about how he actually conveyed the queries. "And now we have some answers." The "answers" came in the form of pictograms in crop circles.

He said the aliens have told him SETI doesn't work, owing to a confusion about communication through "magnetic fields."
They also said there is some truth in the 2012 predictions, having something to do with volcanoes in Mexico.
Further, more prosaic revelations include that the aliens are angry about global warming, disagree with in-vitro fertilization and don't like cosmetics. Apparently, Filipov's aliens are grumpy Republicans.

SOLAR NEXUS

FLASHBACK: (December 2008)

Giant Breach in Earth's Magnetic Field

NASA's five THEMIS spacecraft have discovered a breach in Earth's magnetic field ten times larger than anything previously thought to exist.
Solar wind can flow in through the opening to "load up" the magnetosphere for powerful geomagnetic storms.
But the breach itself is not the biggest surprise. Researchers are even more amazed at the strange and unexpected way it forms, overturning long-held ideas of space physics.
"At first I didn't believe it," says THEMIS project scientist David Sibeck of the Goddard Space Flight Center.
"This finding fundamentally alters our understanding of the solar wind-magnetosphere interaction."