BUZZ LIGHTYEAR

Buzz not the first to walk on the Moon ... but not the second either?

BUZZ ALDRIN bravely wrote about his post-moonwalk nervous breakdown in a 1973 memoir, Return to Earth.
He is head of Starcraft Enterprise, a California firm that promotes his ideas for reinvigorating the space program -- some of them outlandish enough to have earned him the sobriquet "the Nutty Professor" in the halls of his ex-employers at NASA.

In 2005, while being interviewed for a documentary entitled "First on the Moon: The Untold Story," Aldrin told an interviewer that he and the crew of the Apollo 11 witnessed an unidentified flying object.
David Morrison, a NAI Senior Scientist, claimed Aldrin later tolld him the Apollo 11 crew ultimately concluded that they were probably seeing a detached panel from the spacecraft.

Where are other moon walkers now?

NEIL ARMSTRONG lives on a farm in Ohio and zealously guards his privacy, granting no interviews.

EDGAR MITCHELL said his experiences in space provoked a "blissful alteration of consciousness." Mitchell founded the Institute of Noetic Sciences in Sausalito, California, which pursues such topics as ESP and the mind.

JAMES IRWIN "felt the power of God as I'd never felt it before" while walking on the moon.

CHARLES DUKE said "I think it is absolutely amazing that 25 years later, we do not have a base up there with human beings exploring that weird place."

X FILES EXIT

The truth is out: X-Files go public

The public opening of the MoD archive will expose the once highly classified work of the intelligence branch DI55, whose mission was to investigate UFO reports and whose existence was denied by the government until recently.
Reports into about 7000 UFO sightings investigated by defence officials - every single claim lodged over the past 30 years - are included in the files, whose staged release will begin in spring.
Among the first tranche of UK cases will be the official government files into the famous Rendlesham incident, dubbed 'Britain's Roswell'.
In 1980 several witnesses reported a UFO apparently landing in Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk. Statements claimed the craft was covered in markings similar to Egyptian hieroglyphics and aliens emerged from it.

BUNCH OF TOSSERS

Masturbators to come together in Copenhagen

HOT on the heels of San Francisco and London, Copenhagen is to host a masturbate-a-thon in May which organisers hope will help break lingering taboos about self-love.
Pia Struck Madsen, a sexologist in the Danish capital, said her goal was to see men and women from all backgrounds join an event that promised "pleasure, relaxation and sexual self-discovery".
"Masturbation is positive, safe and an erotic alternative," she said ahead of the event on May 31, to take place at a yet to be decided venue with separate rooms for men, women and those who don't mind mingling.

FADED GENES

Glowing pig passes on fluorescence to offspring

The sow was one of three pigs who had fluorescent green protein injected into their embryos when they were bred in December 2006 by scientists in north-east China, Xinhua news agency says.
The pigs glow green when placed under an ultraviolet light.Liu Zhonghua, a professor at North-East Agricultural University in the city of Harbin, says after the sow mated with an ordinary pig, two of the resulting 11 piglets inherited the feature.

EYE IN THE SKY

Spinning phantom mak have link to drone reports

The ability of U.S. ground troops to safely navigate the gauntlet of the urban battlefield has been greatly enhanced through the development of the VeraTech Aero "Phantom Sentinel" line of Virtually Invisible VTOL UAV Surveillance platforms. The Phantom Series single blade rotorcraft has the ability to deliver close up, real time video intelligence within 75 feet of nearly any event and remain virtually undetectable to the human eye.

Based on the concept of persistence of vision, the Phantom's single rotor blade has a center of rotation outside of the UAVs' physical fuselage. As the aircraft spins, it disappears from vision. The Phantom has a uniquely minimal cross section allowing it to "slice" through even the most adverse weather conditions that would keep conventional UAV systems on the ground. The rotational inertia generated in flight allows the UAV to self level and maintain a very high degree of stability, even while hovering. Phantom is scalable from two to ten feet in length to accommodate a wide variety of flight times and payloads. The compact size and light weight make it easy to fold, field pack, and hand launch.

[New Scientist report: Invisible drones]

VIRAL MESSAGES

UFO Drone Video - video powered by Metacafe

DRONING ON

Drone Caught on Video

The drones arrived in the summer of 2007 and since then the "drone factor" certainly has rocked the UFO world with many reported sightings and in some cases photographic evidence has been brought forward to prove the existence of these bizarre objects.

But when you sit down and examine each alleged photograph taken of the drone you can't help but feel that the entire scenario is a little too good to be true.

[You Tube video]

WAY COOL

UFO CONTACTEE MEETS DEAD PHILOSOPHER ON SPACESHIP

Lars Norrigan has claimed ET contact for over three decades and in his latest book, Pilgrimage, relates experiences aboard ET space craft, the fabled UFO’s, where he allegedly had many meetings with the philosopher G.I. Gurdjieff- who died in 1949!

"My book concerns my experiences and I ask no one for belief. The first chapter of my book, Pilgrimage, goes into great detail how I envision the material in the book to be taken, and that is in short, not as a “reality” to be accepted but rather as the honest description of personal experience- whether I am mad, deluded, or whatever, the experiences related in my book are, as far as I could make them, an accurate recollection of events. I am not, and have never, wrapped up my experiences in only one colour, one theory so to speak…I know what happened I was there…butI only know the “half of it”, as they say.

Actually the book, at its fundamental note, is about multiple realities - the realty that I entered into with Mr. Gurdjieff aboard the spaceship is only my perception of a slice of a much deeper, or more complicated reality- and since it revolves around me, this particular “reality” may only be a function of my own personal universe, manifested outwards into the shared collective, for you see there were many witnesses to much of the phenomenon- though I was always alone when meeting with Mr. Gurdjieff on the spaceships."

FOURTH WAY

UFO CONTACTEE MEETS DEAD PHILOSOPHER ON SPACESHIP

Lars Norrigan has claimed ET contact for over three decades and in his latest book, Pilgrimage, relates experiences aboard space UFOs, where he allegedly had many meetings with the philosopher G.I. Gurdjieff - who died in 1949.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

US now in recession, top bank says

A top bank says the feared recession in the United States economy has arrived.

A report from Merrill Lynch, one of the world's leading financial management and advisory companies, says Friday's employment report confirmed that the US is in the first month of a recession.

The employment report sent shares tumbling worldwide.

BRAIN SCAN

Microsoft's Creepy Brain Scan Patent App

Microsoft's animated "Paperclip" helper will appear and say something like:
"It looks like you're having a nervous breakdown, and that's bad for production. Bob's pretty good at this kind of thing. I'll ask him to give you a hand."

The Paperclip is aware you're having trouble, according to the company's patent app, because it evaluates "one or more physiological or environmental sensors to detect at least one of heart rate, galvanic skin response, EMG, brain signals, respiration rate, body temperature, movement, facial movements, facial expressions, and blood pressure."

[MS hasn't specifically referred to their annoying Paperclip character in this patent.]

QUANTUM ELECTRODYNAMICS

Permanent Magnets and Photons

Question
Do permanent magnets "exchange" photons? What would the wavelength of such a continuous wave photon be? All forces are mediated by certain "carriers" of the force in question.
Photons carry the electromagnetic force, other particles carry the strong and weak atomic forces. Gravity may eventually be shown to be "carried" by a Graviton, and Dark Matter may have an inverse analog to the Graviton. What particle carries the force that is observed between to permanent magnets?
If photons are responsible for this force, wouldn't they have a very long (infinite) wavelength? For example light consists of photons of a particular wavelength depending upon the color of the light. As we descend into the radio frequencies, the wavelength gets longer and longer. What happens between two continuous permanent magnets, essentially a DC (direct current).
The force between two permanent magnets is caused by the electronic properties of the material, so photons must be involved with the magnetic attraction between the two masses? Maybe I am confusing electromagnetic with magnetic?

Some answers
"Permanent" magnets are made of materials with several electrons in the outer shells which are un-paired with other electrons.  
Electrons carry "spin", either "up" or "down", which refers to their behaviour.
These unpaired spins exhibit a magnetic moment, its like a small current loop inside the material.  
They must attract others in similar materials, I would think via photons.

Photon is the quantisation of an electromagnetic field. Is it affected by other photons ?? Not much, hardly at all.
Magnetic fields actually consist of a flux of virtual photons, as far as i know.

Photons can only interact with charged particles, so a photon can only interact with a magnetic field (really, more photons) via virtual charged particle loops.
That is, the photon must induce a virtual charged particle-antiparticle pair to come out of the vacuum, the pair interacts with the background field and then something comes out or the photons scatter or something. These sorts of interactions are possible, but are highly suppressed.

Wait ... but a magnetic field is composed of virtual photons, not of a ray of real ones.
Hence the virtual needs to become real to be able to form a virtual particle-antiparticle pair out of vacuum ?

UFO FOTO

Aerial disc hovering above two ships on December 29, 2007,
between Swanpool and Maenporth, Cornwall, England.

Hovering disc-shaped object photographed over Cornwall, UK

The Sun newspaper reports in its January 5, 2008, edition that Kelvin Barbery photographed this metallic disc on December 29, 2007, with a Nikon D80 Digital SLR on automatic.
The location is the coast between Swanpool and Maenporth, England.

Mr. Barbery told The Sun that he did not see the aerial object at the time, but when he loaded the digital camera card on to his computer, “the round metallic ‘craft’ was in the centre of the shot, about two miles away.

When I got home, I couldn't believe what I had. I thought, ‘Wow, where did that come from?’ I'm not the sort to believe in UFOs - but now I'm not so sure.”

Nick Pope, formerly with the U. K. Ministry of Defence and now a UFO investigator, told The Sun: “The object looks structured, symmetrical and metallic. This man has caught something very interesting indeed.”

CROSS WORDS

'Perfect surge' of cliches mars 2007

A "surge" of overused words and phrases formed a "perfect storm" of "post-9/11" cliches in 2007, according to a US university's annual list of words and phrases that deserve to be banned.
Contributors gave first prize to the phrase "a perfect storm," saying it was numbingly applied to virtually any notable coincidence.
"Webinar" made the list as a tiresome non-word combining web and seminar that a contributor said "belongs in the same school of non-thought that brought us e-anything and i-anything."
Similarly, the list-makers complained about the absurd comparisons commonly phrased "x is the new y," as in "(age) 70 is the new 50" or "chocolate is the new sex."

"Fallacy is the new truth," commented one contributor.

DAVID V GOLIATH

David Hicks may be cleared, open to compensation

Several legal challenges to the validity of the Guantanamo Bay prison military commissions are already under way in the US.
Should they succeed, constitutional lawyer George Williams said David Hicks's guilty plea would be invalid. "That puts him in a very strong position," Professor Williams said.

Hicks may yet be cleared of his terror conviction, lawyers say, leaving the way open to sue for compensation for seven months in Yatala Labour Prison.

The Australian newspaper reports that government moves to block Hicks from profiting by selling his story could backfire by providing the trigger for him to appeal against his terrorism conviction in Australia.

TAX REVOLT

Trends point to imminent major recessionary effects

The economic collapse will begin with the demise of the US dollar.
Deceptive inflation statistics already ignore food and fuel. Two of the largest household expenses which are going up faster than most weekly budget items.
A revolt will begin at the grass roots level over property taxes and school taxes, which are based on property taxes regardless of whether the homeowner has school-age children.
These taxes are predicted to continue rising yet the real value of houses will decrease with the collapse of the "sub-prime" mortgage market.
A sign of the collapse's imminence will be the demise of a large bank or corporation.

HIGH STRANGENESS

Experiencers documentary illustrates disturbing facets of our reality

Sceptical or not, it is well worth watching this documentary on the work of the controversial Harvard psychiatrist, John E. Mack, who treated hundreds of patients who claimed to have been abducted by extra terrestrials.

Investigative journalist Stephane Allix draws on interviews he conducted with Dr Mack who caused a stir when he said that the "experiencers" who gave independent accounts of abduction in the US and elsewhere were "of sound mind, sincere and extremely disturbed by their experiences".

Dr Mack found consistency in their descriptions of aliens and "a robust kind of truth" to them. Allix interviewed Dr Mack in the year before his death in late 2004.
He shows footage of Dr Mack's mid-1990s visit to a school near Harare, Zimbabwe, where 60 primary students told how two small figures emerged from two UFOs that hovered over the playground and "came out as if floating (or) hopping towards us".

Allix spoke to others about their experience.
Though one woman says she felt safe and "surrounded by love", another was angered when she realised that the "small grey beings" that had come for her since she was a child, were now about to take her two young sons too.
She had become aware of the abductions at 19 and decided that "no matter where I went they could find me and nobody could help me".

DIVERSIONARY TACTICS

Make balls from paper plates and cups...

THOUGHT CRIME

UK geek faces 70 years in Guantanamo Bay

Gary McKinnon has been accused of committing the 'biggest military computer hack of all time', and if extradited to the US faces up to 70 years in jail. So how did this techno geek from north London end up cracking open the Pentagon and Nasa's systems?
McKinnon currently faces 20 charges in the US, including stealing computer files, obtaining secrets that might have been "useful to an enemy", intentionally causing damage to a protected computer, and interfering with maritime navigation equipment.
The prison sentence the US justice department is seeking - should Gary be successfully extradited - is up to 70 years. What Gary was hunting for, as he snooped around Nasa, and the Pentagon's network, was evidence of a UFO cover-up.

McKinnon downloaded a program that searched for computers that used the Windows operating system, scanned addresses and pinpointed administrator user names that had no passwords. Basically, what Gary was looking for - and found time and again - were network administrators within high levels of the US government and military establishments who hadn't bothered to give themselves passwords. That's how he got in.
For seven years he sat in his girlfriend's aunt's house, a joint in the ashtray and a can of Foster's next to the mouse pad, and he snooped.
Once you're on the network, you can list all the connections to that machine. There were hackers from Denmark, Italy, Germany, Turkey, Thailand, he said.
"I found a list of officers' names," he claims, "under the heading 'Non-Terrestrial Officers'.
"I found a list of 'fleet-to-fleet transfers', and a list of ship names. I looked them up. They weren't US navy ships. What I saw made me believe they have some kind of spaceship, off-planet."
At the Johnson Space Centre he spied on photographs of cigar-shaped objects that might have been UFOs but - he says - were probably satellites. "You end up lusting after more and more complex security measures," he says.
"It was like a game. I loved computer games. I still do. It was like a real game. It was addictive. Hugely addictive."

What McKinnon is not, his friends and supporters reckon, is someone who deserves extradition and 70 years in an American jail. They've set up a Free Gary McKinnon website (spy.org.uk/freegary).

KECKING THEMSELVES

UFO evidence being searched for by NASA

Bill Bulebush, 82, says he knows what he saw, heard and smelled, despite the doubts of the government.

"I looked up and saw it flying overhead and it was sizzling," said Bulebush, a retired truck driver.

"I found it in the woods down there [in a valley] and I got to it 15 to 20 minutes after it landed. I saw it 10 to 15 feet away from behind a big tree -- because I was worried it might blow up -- and it smelled like sulfur or rotten eggs and was shaped like a huge acorn, about the size of a VW."

Other people said that shortly afterward, dozens of Army soldiers and three members of the Air Force showed up; later that night a flatbed military truck took the object away.

A recent settlement in a 4-year-long Freedom of Information Act court battle requires NASA to meticulously comb its files for documents about the Kecksburg incident.

According to a transcript federal Judge Emmet Sullivan, who had tried to move NASA along for more than three years, angrily referred to NASA's search efforts as a "ball of yarn" that never fully answers the request, adding: "I can sense the plaintiff's frustration because I'm frustrated."

NUCLEAR DAYS

The Coming Age of the Personal Nuclear Reactor

The 200 kilowatt Toshiba designed reactor is engineered to be fail-safe and totally automatic and will not overheat. Unlike traditional nuclear reactors the new micro reactor uses no control rods to initiate the reaction.
The new revolutionary technology uses reservoirs of liquid lithium-6, an isotope that is effective at absorbing neutrons. The Lithium-6 reservoirs are connected to a vertical tube that fits into the reactor core.
The whole whole process is self sustaining and can last for up to 40 years, producing electricity for only 5 cents per kilowatt hour, about half the cost of grid energy.

IMAM

Six imams ejected from US flight

Six Muslim imams were removed from a US Airways flight, bound to Phoenix from Minneapolis, after a passenger reported "suspicious activity" to cabin crew.
The men were told to disembark shortly after saying evening prayers. Three of the six had stood as they prayed.
The scholars, who were returning from a conference, allege they were handcuffed and "humiliated" during the ordeal. They were questioned by police, they said, for several hours.

A spokeswoman for US Airways said concerns about the group had been raised by a passenger, who had passed a note to a flight attendant.

POLICE STATE

AdelaideNow... Police guard their law breaches

POLICE are being accused of "excessive secrecy" for taking a year to release sparse details of individual cases of serious misconduct by officers.

Details of the 29 officers' cases, proved before the Police Disciplinary Tribunal, are contained in a written response to an Opposition question asked in November last year.

It reveals little extra detail to the brief summary provided in police annual reports, further intensifying pressure for greater scrutiny of police misconduct.

The data included officers found guilty on two occasions of "improperly obtaining benefit or advantage" and, in six instances, of breaching "confidentiality of information".

The 2005-06 details show misconduct charges were withdrawn against five officers because they either had resigned or had retired.

BROWN DWARF

Does the Nemesis Star really exist?

The Nemesis Star was suposed to be a distant companion of the Sun in a 26 million year orbit. It would perturb comets in the Oort Cloud and send thousands of them into the inner solar system where some would collide with Earth and produce mass extinctions.
It was proposed for non-astronomical reasons to explain the seemingly periodic extinction record every 26 million years.

EAT SHIT AND DIE

Toilet home 'may have traumatised' compost worms

A New Zealand inventor has been forced to defend the use of worms in a composting toilet he has developed after officials became concerned that the creatures might become traumatised by the procedure.

Coll Bell was told to get an expert's report on the mental impact on the tiger worms being used after an official became concerned during a site visit.

He says the official felt that the worms were being unfairly treated, being expected to deal with human faeces, and that it could affect them in a psychological way.

Mr Bell was told he had to get someone with the necessary qualifications to say the worms were happy.

A vermiculture consultant was called in and she has found the worms are in excellent health and breeding happily.

VOICE OF REASON

New Jersey abolishes death penalty

New Jersey became the first US state in four decades to vote to abolish the death penalty, in a move on Thursday hailed by human rights activists as a step towards ending capital punishment.
The Democratic-controlled state assembly passed the law by a vote of 44 to 36, assembly spokesperson Joe Donnelly told AFP, after an emotional three-hour debate.

SEPARATION OF POWERS

Dennis Hood apologises to Judge Marie Shaw

FAMILY First politician Dennis Hood has "unreservedly withdrawn" his call for a District Court judge to be sacked.
Mr Hood, a member of the state Legislative Council, last month called for Judge Marie Shaw to be dismissed after she imposed a suspended sentence upon a sex offender.

FRIEND IN DEED

Dogs may get bravery awards for saving toddler

The RSPCA says it is considering giving bravery awards to two dogs who saved a north Queensland toddler from drowning.
Police say the dogs followed the two-year-old boy when he wandered from the family home in Andergrove in Mackay yesterday morning and then dragged him to safety when he fell into a dam.

VOICE OF REASON

US House votes to outlaw CIA waterboarding

The Democrat-led US House of Representatives has voted to outlaw harsh interrogation methods that the CIA has used against suspected terrorists, such as the practice known as 'waterboarding'.

On a 222-199 vote, the House approved a measure to require intelligence agents to comply with the Army Field Manual, which meets the Geneva Conventions on the treatment of war prisoners and prohibits torture.

The measure passed amid a congressional probe into the recent disclosure that the CIA destroyed videotapes of Al Qaeda suspects undergoing waterboarding, a simulated drowning.

ACCESS ALL AREAS

The Access Card - Good for Your Health?

The Access Card will replace seventeen existing cards including Medicare and pensioner concession cards.

It will display your computer-linked number, photo and signature.

The new feature is inside the card - a microchip which will store a photo, your address, date of birth and details of your dependents.

There'll also be space to enter your own personal details and it's up to you what you put into it.

COMPUTERS TAKE-OVER

2001 paper shows Centrelink's error 'breaches' increasing

While Centrelink breaches have increased dramatically, so have appeals with nearly 35% of all breaches implemented by Centrelink for 1999-2000 revoked through an appeals process.

It has been extremely difficult to obtain data relating to young people and breaches as Centrelink has refused requests, including an FOI request stating the information is 'politically sensitive'.

In a society celebrating its centenary of federation, it may be worth asking not only, where welfare policies such as mutual obligation are heading, but also why access to information related to welfare policies is denied.

Welfare reform can only be debated and analyzed in a forum where access to data is available. The data that is available indicates very high rates of breaching that suggests that there ought to be further questioning about the effectiveness and justice of such policies for young people. And more importantly, why material relating to the breaches is denied to independent
researches.

MARK OF THE BEAST

Joe "Shrek" Hockey ... he only LOOKS like a socialist.

Show me your papers!

Part of the report to Government on it's proposed ID card runs under the heading, Reducing Opportunities for Fraud, before indicating that it may actually increase the incidence of widespread if the card security was breached.
Such a breech was carried out as part of a media stunt within minutes.

Then there is the case two compact discs full of personal details being lost.
The data on them includes name, address, date of birth, National Insurance number and, where relevant, bank details of 25 million people.

* Reducing Opportunities for Fraud: Having one Point of Issue (POI) would reduce opportunities for some fraud. However, this will also introduce a single point of failure. Failure of the smart card security would expose the system to a risk of widespread fraud. Increased security could instead be achieved by using existing identification means in the financial and telecommunications industries and strengthening those means.

"KPMG Access Card Business Case", KPMG, February 2006
Australian Government Smart Card Project

SATURN RETURNS

Saturn's rings (Nasa). The UVIS instrument sees the rings in the ultraviolet

Saturn's rings 'may live forever'

Saturn's iconic rings may be much older than we thought, scientists say.
New data from the Cassini probe shows these thin bands of orbiting particles were probably there billions years ago, and are likely to be very long-lived.
It means we are not in some special time -- the giant planet has most likely always provided a stunning view.

POLICE STATE

Police powers 'to protect ads, not Pope'

Commissioner Scipione says the legislation, passed by Parliament last week, does not give police any special security powers.
He says the power to search pilgrims and evict them from World Youth Day events next July are ordinary police powers, and other features of the legislation are designed to protect commercial sponsors.
"It's about restrictions on things like advertising and where billboards could be placed," he said. "That's about aerial advertising."

THE QUICKENING

Global warming causing record disasters: report

The International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) says global warming caused a record number of natural disasters across the world in 2007, up nearly 20 per cent from a year earlier.

"As of 10 October 2007, the Federation had already recorded 410 disasters, 56 per cent of which were weather-related, which is consistent with the trend of rising numbers of climate change-related disasters," the IFRC said in its World Disasters Report.

In 2006, the IFRC recorded 427 natural disasters, a rise of 70 per cent in the two years since 2004

MAMMOTH TUSK

Great beasts peppered from space

Startling evidence has been found which shows mammoth and other great beasts from the last ice age were blasted with material that came from space.

Eight tusks dating to some 35,000 years ago all show signs of having being peppered with meteorite fragments.

CHUCKLE, SERIOUSLY

Action-film star Chuck Norris, right, has found common ground with Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee.

Chuck Norris doesn't endorse candidates, he kicks them into the stratosphere

"Chuck Norris doesn't wear a watch, He decides what time it is."
"When the boogeyman goes to bed, he checks his closet for Chuck Norris."
"Chuck Norris' tears cure cancer. Too bad he's never cried. Ever."
"Chuck Norris does not sleep. He waits."
"There's no chin behind Chuck Norris' beard. This is only another fist."

JUSTICE CAN SEE

Judge in trial by media (and politicians) over 'soft' sentencing [PDF download]

News of Judge Sarah Bradley's "soft" sentences for nine Indigenous offenders who pleaded guilty to raping a 10-year-old girl has made its way around the world, from BBC News to Aljazeera.
Justice Bradley, a District Court Judge in the Cairns region, would know much of that problem. In February 2006, she presented a considered paper, "Applying restorative justice principles in the sentencing of indigenous offenders and children" at the Sentencing Principles, Perspectives and Possibilities Conference in Canberra.

Restorative Justice, she said, "involves an emphasis on reparation, rehabilitation and reconciliation rather than punishment, condemnation and retribution. It is about healing rather than hurting and usually involves some sort of community participation and involvement." In the speech, she talked of the need for judges to consult with Indigenous community representatives, noted that it was desirous for judges to get to know the community they were dealing with and underlined the problems of an underfunded justice system.

GOATSKIN SPACESUIT

Astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin took this Masonic flag to the moon on Apollo 11, landing July 20, 1969, and conducted a Masonic ritual.

Masonic ritual performed at historic moon landing

A number of the early astronauts were Masons, including Buzz Aldrin, who walked on the moon with Neil Armstrong.

Aldrin took the flag of the 33rd Degree Masonic Temple on 16th Street in Washington, DC, to the moon with him and carried out a brief Masonic ceremony on the moon and returned that flag from the moon’s surface to the 33rd Degree Masonic Scottish Rite Temple in Washington, DC, personally in September of 1969.

DEMOCRACY DYING

Democracy is: fighting with one hand tied behind our back

In September 1999 the Supreme Court, in an expanded panel of nine judges, unanimously repealed the former governmental guidelines regarding use of physical means during interrogations, which were previously criticized by this Committee. The Supreme Court stated that the ISA - the Israeli Security Agency (which is the English title for what was known as the General Security Service) has no authority under Israeli law to use physical force in its interrogations. As if to further heighten the dilemma, this ruling was given less than eighteen hours after two car bombs exploded in the heart of two northern cities - Haifa and Tiberias.

In the words of the court:
This is the destiny of democracy, as not all means are acceptable to it, and not all practices employed by its enemies are open before it. Although a democracy must often fight with one hand tied behind its back, it nonetheless has the upper hand. Preserving the Rule of Law and recognition of an individual's liberty constitutes an important component in its understanding of security. At the end of the day, they strengthen its spirit and its strength and allow it to overcome its difficulties.

FADED GENES

Spilled GM Canola Growing in Japan

Japan does not produce any GM crops. But because it imports GM canola from Canada, GM contamination has already occurred and is reportedly spreading to a wide area throughout the country and at a greater extent than was expected.

Surveys conducted since 2005 have found that GM canola has appeared around ports where canola is imported, and around factories where canola oil is extracted as well as along canola transportation routes. There were some cases where GM canola was found along residential areas. GM canola was also found growing in certain ports where animal feed factories are situated.

In this year's findings, GM canola found near to an oil extraction factory in Chiba prefecture was tolerant to both Roundup and Basta (the GM canola imported from Canada is all herbicide tolerant -- either to Monsanto's 'Roundup' or to Bayer CropScience's 'Basta'.) As there is no GM canola variety currently available which has transgenes for both types of herbicide tolerance, this GM canola must have been crossed at a seed or cultivation stage, or possibly at the spot where it was spilled.

These findings suggest that the danger of spillage of GMOs and subsequently the possibility of contamination through transfer of transgenes to non-GM crops are very real.

ORDINARY RENDITION

CIA 'wiped' interrogation tapes

The CIA has confirmed that it destroyed at least two video tapes showing the interrogation of terror suspects.

According to the intelligence agency, the tapes were destroyed to protect the identity of CIA agents and because they no longer had intelligence value.

But the New York Times says that they were wiped because they showed severe interrogation methods being used.

Officials feared the tapes could have raised doubts about the legality of the CIA's techniques, the newspaper says.

DOGS OF WAR

Boom times ahead for dogs of war

The British Association of Private Security Companies (BAPSC) was gathering for its annual conference in London - its second since the association was formed last year "to raise the standards of operation of its members and this emergent industry".

Even though huge sums of money are already being spent, many private contractors see it merely as a profitable foretaste of things to come.

BAPSC chief Andrew Bearpark said "the British military is more and more strapped. I think it is inevitable that in years to come, the private security companies will be asked to make up some of that shortfall."

One of the (unnamed) delegates at Tuesday's conference gave a good insight into why governments like to work with private security contractors:
"Private security companies are not subject to political considerations in the same way conventional armies are. Plus you don't have necessarily have to flag up money you spend on hiring mercenaries. It doesn't necessarily appear in the official defence budget.
"Most importantly, if a private security contractor is killed on active duty, you don't get any body bag pictures on the front pages. That means no bad publicity for the government."

MOON FOOD

Moonstruck flock to Arizona light collector

Financial adviser Jaron Ness stands in the cool desert air waiting for the clouds to clear and the moon to rise.

As the conditions come into alignment, he steps into the path of a cool blaze of blue-white light bounced off a wall of highly polished parabolic mirrors five stories high.
"It feels magnetic," he says, turning his hands slowly in the reflected glow of the light from the almost full moon.
The young professional from Colorado is among a growing number of curious people beating a path to this patch of scrub-strewn land out in the Arizona desert to bask in light from the world's first moonbeam collector.

Visitors enjoy the experience. Some say it is like swimming underwater, while others say it feels like standing in a warm breeze and leaves them feeling upbeat.
"When I got in the moonlight it was an instant and profound sense of euphoria ... it was very peaceful," said Eric Carr, a hypnotherapist from Tucson who has visited several times.
Aranka Toniatti, a cancer patient who has driven from Colorado twice to stand in the moonlight, said it is "a gorgeous feeling"."You feel almost like you are in heaven," she said.

CULTURE WARS

Santa sacked for saying ho ho ho

A 70-year-old man working as Santa Claus says he was sacked from a Cairns department store for saying "ho ho ho" and singing Christmas carols.In a case of political correctness seemingly gone mad, retired entertainer John Oakes says he was fired from his job at Myer for his rendition of Santa's famous laugh.

His employer, Westaff, last month sparked national outrage when it ordered its Santas to say "ha ha ha" instead of "ho ho ho" because it could be derogatory to women.

Urban Dictionary
Ho: A word Santa Clause says three times when he sees your wife, mother and sister together in the same room.

ILL WIND

Flatulence ban for club pensioner

A social club in Devon has banned a 77-year-old man from breaking wind while indoors.
Maurice Fox received a letter from Kirkham Street Sports and Social Club in Paignton asking him to consider his actions, which "disgusted" members.

Mr Fox, a club regular for 20 years, said: "I am happy to oblige them, there is no problem. I do get a bit windy - I am an old fart now.
"I think someone has complained about the noise. I am a loud farter, but there is no smell.
"I do not think it [the letter] is unreasonable, you get ladies in there."

BLEEDING OBVIOUS

It's not the economy, stupid

There is growing recognition that economic activity is a means to the end of human wellbeing rather than an end in itself. The economy should be the servant of society, rather than society the servant of the economy.
An opinion poll conducted since the election confirms those held before it which showed that more voters were concerned about health, education, workplace relations and climate change than about taxation, interest rates or prices.

MILITARY INTELLIGENCE

U.S. Officer Faces Court Martial For Suicide Attempt

In a nondescript conference room at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, 1st Lt. Elizabeth Whiteside listened last week as an Army prosecutor outlined the criminal case against her in a preliminary hearing.
The charges: attempting suicide and endangering the life of another soldier while serving in Iraq.Her hands trembled as Maj.
Stefan Wolfe, the prosecutor, argued that Whiteside, now a psychiatric outpatient at Walter Reed, should be court-martialed.
After seven years of exemplary service, the 25-year-old Army reservist faces the possibility of life in prison if she is tried and convicted.

Under military law, soldiers who attempt suicide can be prosecuted under the theory that it affects the order and discipline of a unit and brings discredit to the armed forces.

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DEATH OF DEMOCRACY

Harassment claims mar Russia poll

The United Russia party is portraying the poll as a referendum on Vladimir Putin's eight years in office.
And when he visited Krasnoyarsk early in the campaign, Mr Putin himself increased the stakes by saying a big majority would give him the "moral right" to continue to wield political influence even after he comes to the end of his term as president next spring.

All the 85 powerful regional governors now owe their loyalty to the Kremlin. Instead of being elected by the local population, they are directly appointed by Mr Putin.

Nikolai Petrov, an expert on Russian regional government at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Moscow, said "the goal for governors is to deliver as many votes as possible... it is an exam for them to prove their loyalty and efficiency".

"So I would say that fraud is inevitable and will be higher than ever." Mr Petrov said.

POLICE STATE

Gold Walkley winner hits out at AFP

This year's Gold Walkley winner Hedley Thomas has criticised the Australian Federal Police (AFP) for pursuing the lawyers who leaked the information that allowed him to write his award-winning articles.

Mr Thomas from The Australian won the country's top journalism prize for a series of stories about the government's handling of the Dr Mohamed Haneef case.

In his acceptance speech, he thanked Dr Haneef's lawyers Peter Russo and Stephen Keim for risking their careers to expose vital facts about the case.

"They went out on a limb, Stephen Keim particularly, risked his career and livelihood to help me see the facts in this case and for that he is still being pursued by the Australian Federal Police who have lodged and have active a formal complaint against him," he said.

"And I believe that every journalist in this room should understand that the Australian Federal Police and its Commissioner Mr Mick Keelty is still trying to punish Steven Kime for bringing out the truth."

BIG BROTHER

UK's families put on fraud alert

Two computer discs holding the personal details of all families in the UK with a child under 16 have gone missing.
Alarm bells should be sounding in Canberra -- as well as in commercial, legal, law enforcement and policy-making circles -- following the news from Britain that data on 25 million people has been lost in the post.
Personal details of half the UK's population stored on two computer discs went missing while being couriered from HM Revenue and Customs, the UK tax office.
"It is inexcusable, I deeply regret it, I unreservedly apologise for what has happened," grovelled Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling.

TOE IN THE WATER

Garrett Lisi, 39, has a doctorate but no university affiliation and spends most of the year surfing.

Surfer dude stuns physicists with theory of everything

An impoverished surfer has drawn up a new theory of the universe, seen by some as the Holy Grail of physics, which has received rave reviews from scientists.
His proposal is remarkable because, by the arcane standards of particle physics, it does not require highly complex mathematics. Even better, it does not require more than one dimension of time and three of space.

The new theory reported today in New Scientist has been laid out in an online paper entitled "An Exceptionally Simple Theory of Everything" by Lisi, who completed his doctorate in theoretical physics in 1999 at the University of California, San Diego.

Lee Smolin at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, describes Lisi's work as "fabulous". "It is one of the most compelling unification models I've seen in many, many years," he says.

"Some incredibly beautiful stuff falls out of Lisi's theory," adds David Ritz Finkelstein at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta. "This must be more than coincidence and he really is touching on something profound."

OUR ALIEN MASTERS

Saudi court orders 200 lashes for rape victim

The United States has given only mild criticism of a Saudi court's order to double the number of lashings for a gang rape victim.

"This is a part of a judicial procedure overseas in the court of a sovereign country," US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said, when asked to comment on the case. Mr McCormack declined to directly criticise America's close ally, or the Saudi legal system, which has made a series of erratic verdicts in recent months.

The 19-year-old Shiite woman from the town of Qatif in the Eastern Province was raped by seven men in 2006.
A court had originally sentenced the woman to 90 lashes and the rapists to jail terms of between 10 months and five years.
But the victim's lawyer told Reuters last week the court had increased her sentence to 200 lashes and six months in prison.

He said the court had blamed the woman for being alone with unrelated men.

INNER SPACE

Professor proposes theory of unparticle physics

Howard Georgi, a physicist at Harvard University, has recently published a paper on so-called unparticle physics, which suggests the existence of “unparticle stuff” that cannot be accounted for by the standard model. Appearing in a recent edition of Physical Review Letters, the paper says that unparticle stuff would be very different than anything seen before.

Georgi – a pioneer in supersymmetry, quantum chromodynamics, and grand unified theories – explains that the low-energy physics of nontrivial scale-invariance cannot be described in terms of particles. In this initial investigation of the idea, he gives a quantitative scenario of the production of unparticle stuff, and predicts how it could be experimentally detected in the upcoming Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the most powerful particle accelerator that will open in early 2008.

In many ways, science is all about finding the meaning in the mysteries of math.

DOUBLE ENTENDRE

Dong sues over sex scene cuts

A CHINESE moviegoer is suing China's film watchdog in frustration with the censored version of Ang Lee's steamy World War Two drama Lust, Caution, Beijing media reported today.
The film was shown minus the on-screen sex and other scenes cut at the behest of local censors.
Mr Dong Yanbin had filed a suit against the nation's film censor for infringing upon his "consumer rights".

HIGH STRANGENESS

Global panel calls for new UFO probe

An international panel of two dozen former pilots and government officials has called on the US Government to reopen its generation-old UFO investigation as a matter of safety and security, given continuing reports about flying discs, glowing spheres and other strange sightings.
The panellists from seven countries, including former senior military officers, said they had each seen a UFO or conducted an official investigation into UFO phenomena.

"It's a question of who you going to believe: your lying eyes or the Government?" remarked John Callahan, a former Federal Aviation Administration investigator, who said the CIA in 1987 tried to hush up the sighting of a huge lighted ball four times the size of a jumbo jet in Alaska.

WORK ETHIC

Buster Martin blows out the candle of his cake at work

100-year-old told 'take day off'

A man has turned up for work despite being told to take the day off for his 100th birthday.
Buster Martin began cleaning vans for Pimlico Plumbers despite retiring as a market worker three years ago.
Buster Martin said he went back to work because he was bored.
Colleagues at the firm in Lambeth, south London, threw him a surprise party and were treating him to a tour of Chelsea FC's Stamford Bridge ground.
He joined the Army at 15 and served 35 years before joining the Navy.
Mr Martin said the last time he had a party he was in the desert "getting as drunk as a Lord when I was 21". (c. 1928)
He said the secret of his longevity could be due to a pint of bitter every day and daily press ups.

BRAVE NEW WORLD

Press freedom declining: audit

An independent audit by former New South Wales ombudsman Irene Moss has found a general "subtle shift" towards secrecy in Australia.The audit reviewed legislation and practices related to free speech issues affecting the media in Australia.

NERD UP

© abk.

New Scientist published a woman's breast in the June 2, 2007, issue. Compared with the inverted version, the printed image appears to be upside down.

ON THIS DAY

Mother jailed in dingo baby murder

Lindy Chamberlain has been found guilty of the murder of her nine-week-old daughter after a jury dismissed her claim that a dingo took the baby
The court was told that she cut the baby's throat and disposing of the body whilst at a campsite near Ayers Rock.
Four years later on 2 February, a matinee jacket worn by Azaria was found partially buried in a dingo's lair at Ayers Rock - this seemed to back up Lindy Chamberlain's version of events.
She was released five days later. The Northern Territory government said it was because she had "suffered enough". [29 Oct 1982]

Torun found that the ratio of the surface area of a sphere, to the surface area of an inscribed tetrahedron, the simplest platonic solid is 2.720699, almost exactly the constant "e", which is 2.718282. 2.720699 (e) / pi = Ö3/2 = 0.866
Cydonia 101: Page 8

OUR COSMOS

Hexagon Spied Around Saturn's Pole

A new image from NASA's Cassini spacecraft offers the first direct view of a six-sided feature that encircles Saturn's north pole. The 15,000-mile-wide (25,000-kilometer-wide) cloud formation was initially spied during the Voyager missions in the 1980s. But scientists remain baffled by the atmospheric forces driving the unusual feature.



Saturn's North Pole Hexagon and Aurora

This nighttime view of Saturn's north pole by the visual and infrared mapping spectrometer on NASA's Cassini orbiter reveals a dynamic, active planet at least 75 kilometers (47 miles) below the normal cloud tops seen in visible light. Clearly revealed is the bizarre six-sided hexagon feature present at the north pole.

TRUTH BE TOLD

Debra Cagan, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Coalition Affairs to Defence Secretary Robert Gates.

I hate all Iranians, US aide tells MPs

Britsh MPs visiting the Pentagon to discuss America's stance on Iran and Iraq were shocked to be told by one of President Bush's senior women officials: "I hate all Iranians."
The all-party group of MPs say Debra Cagan, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Coalition Affairs to Defence Secretary Robert Gates, made the comments this month.

The Pentagon denied Ms Cagan said she "hated" Iranians.
"She doesn't speak that way," said an official.

But when The Mail on Sunday spoke to four of the six MPs, three confirmed privately that she made the remark and one declined to comment. The other two could not be contacted.

USED BATTERIES

OUR ALIEN MASTERS

Cheney, Howard 'did deal on Hicks'

A report, published in Harper's Magazine, cites an unnamed US military officer saying that a military staffer was present when Mr Cheney interfered directly to seal Hicks's plea bargain deal.
"He [Mr Cheney] did it, apparently, as part of a deal cut with [Australian Prime Minister] Howard," the unnamed source is quoted as saying."I kept thinking: this is the sort of thing that used to go on behind the Iron Curtain, not in America.
"And then it struck me how much this entire process had disintegrated into a political charade. It's demoralising for all of us."

DUCK AND COVER

Airmen punished for nuclear error

The US Air Force has relieved several officers of their commands after a B-52 bomber was mistakenly flown across the US loaded with nuclear-armed missiles.
The incident has been described as one of the worst known breaches of nuclear weapons procedures in decades.Six cruise missiles armed with nuclear warheads were mounted on the bomber's wings before it was flown to Louisiana.

BLACK BOX

Internet voting needed, says poll candidate

A candidate for Adelaide City Council says that internet voting is needed for local government elections, as a way to encourage more young people to vote.
At the halfway mark of the council voting period last week, only 20 per cent of registered voters had returned their ballot paper through the post.

Electronic voting

A fundamental challenge with any voting machine is assuring the votes were recorded as cast and tabulated as recorded. Non-document ballot voting systems can have a greater burden of proof. This is often solved with an independently auditable system, sometimes called an Independent Verification, that can also be used in recounts or audits. These systems can include the ability for voters to verify how their votes were cast or further to verify how their votes were tabulated.

OUR ALIEN MASTERS

Ruddock stands by counter-terrorism laws

The Federal Attorney General has backed the Commonwealth's counter-terrorism laws, after suggestions they may exacerbate terrorism.
A report from Monash University has found that Victorian police efforts to engage the community will help in the long term to build social cohesion and combat terrorism.
But the report found these efforts may be undermined by the Federal counter-terrorism laws.
Associate Professor Jude McCulloch, says the tough laws may help address short term threats, but could alienate sections of the community.

HI FIVE

Phone designers flip

A touch-sensitive screen but with the sensors on its back.
Using fingers behind the device allows a firmer grip and more accurate performance without obscuring the screen. [Video]

QUANTUM FUTURE

Material may lead to advances in quantum computing

A compound made from the elements potassium, niobium and oxygen, along with chromium ions -- could provide a technological breakthrough that leads to the development of new quantum computing technologies. Quantum computers would harness the power of atoms and molecules to perform memory and processing tasks on a scale far beyond those of current computers.

The research was recently published in Physical Review Letters.

BRAVE NEW WORLD

Genetically modified corn may harm ecostystem

A new study indicates that a popular type of genetically engineered corn--called Bt corn--may damage the ecology of streams draining Bt corn fields in ways that have not been previously considered by regulators.
This study provides the first evidence that toxins from Bt corn may travel long distances in streams and may harm stream insects that serve as food for fish. These results compound concerns about the ecological impacts of Bt corn raised by previous studies showing that corn-grown toxins harm beneficial insects living in the soil.
Licensed for use in 1996, Bt corn is engineered to produce a toxin that protects against pests, particularly the European corn borer. Bt corn now accounts for approximately 35 percent of corn acreage in the U.S., and its use is increasing.

The study, which was funded by the National Science Foundation, appears in the Oct. 8 edition of The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

LIES AND STATISTICS

LaThe Pirahã and us

The Pirahã language and culture seem to lack not only the words but also the concepts for numbers, using instead less precise terms like "small size", "large size" and "collection". And the Pirahã people themselves seem to be suprisingly uninterested in learning about numbers, and even actively resistant to doing so, despite the fact that in their frequent dealings with traders they have a practical need to evaluate and compare numerical expressions.

How could rational people resist learning to understand and use them? I don't know the answer. But I do know that we can investigate a strictly comparable case, equally puzzling to me, right here in the U.S. of A.

Until about 100 years ago, our language and culture lacked the words and ideas needed to deal with the evaluation and comparison of sampled properties of groups. Even today, only a minuscule proportion of the U.S. population understands even the simplest form of these concepts and terms. Out of the roughly 300 million Americans, I doubt that as many as 500 thousand grasp these ideas to any practical extent, and 50,000 might be a better estimate. The rest of the population is surprisingly uninterested in learning, and even actively resists the intermittent attempts to teach them, despite the fact that in their frequent dealings with social and biomedical scientists they have a practical need to evaluate and compare the numerical properties of representative samples.

PITTER PATTER

'4D ultrasounds' may test abortion laws

Ultrasounds that produce video-quality moving images of the foetus have changed the debate about late-term abortion, an Australian ethics expert says.
Senior law lecturer Dr Kristin Savell from the University of Sydney says so-called 4D ultrasound technology has "democratised foetal imagery" by giving the public direct visual access to realistic images.

SPIN CITY

Nanotechnology pioneers win 2007 physics Nobel 

France's Albert Fert and Germany's Peter Gruenberg have won the 2007 Nobel Prize for Physics, recognised the pair's discovery of giant magnetoresistance, which has helped revolutionise computer data storage and retrieval.

Harnessing these tiny magnetic changes - dubbed spintronics - made it possible to pack much more data onto hard disks and the development of handheld devices such as mobile phones or music players.

+++

The giant magnetoresistive effect (GMR) is a quantum mechanical effect observed in thin film structures composed of alternating ferromagnetic and nonmagnetic metal layers. The 2007 Nobel Prize in physics was awarded to Albert Fert and Peter Grünberg for the discovery of GMR.

The effect manifests itself as a significant decrease in resistance from the zero-field state, when the magnetization of adjacent ferromagnetic layers are antiparallel due to a weak anti-ferromagnetic coupling between layers, to a lower level of resistance when the magnetization of the adjacent layers align due to an applied external field. The spin of the electrons of the nonmagnetic metal align parallel or antiparallel with an applied magnetic field in equal numbers, and therefore suffer less magnetic scattering when the magnetizations of the ferromagnetic layers are parallel.

WHY DEMOCRACY

Think again

"I tend to resist romantic definitions that feature phrases like “noble ideal” and opt instead for something more analytic: democracy is a form of government that is not attached to any pre-given political or ideological ends, but allows ends to be chosen by the majority vote of free citizens." - Stanley Fish

HARD WOOD

Moving with the times
For the Supply and Delivery of Sawn Hardwood Railway Timber Sleepers
Issued by TransAdelaide
Request for Tender
Tender State: Current Tender
Tender Code: TRANS014948
Contract Number: 41/07
Category: Unassigned.

GUNN GUFF

Gunns contradicts itself over delays and hearings on pulp mill

Last week, Gunns CEO John Gay questioned the need for public hearings about the pulp mill and complained about so-called ‘delays’ in the assessment. In response, Premier Paul Lennon has reportedly promised to expedite the process on behalf of Gunns.
However, the pulpmill assessment timetable Gunns and Mr Lennon are complaining about is a timetable that was requested by Gunns itself, according to the Wilderness Society.
And the delays about which Gunns has complained are largely delays caused by Gunns itself.

TOP GUNNS

Gunns chief says mill conditions unfair

The head of timber company Gunns, John Gay, says the Federal Government's conditions placed on the Tasmanian pulp mill are unfair.
Meanwhile, Gunns shares surged around 11 per cent after Federal Environment Minister Mr Malcolm Turnbull's announcement.
The company has a record of sizeable donations to the Liberal and Labor parties.

PULP FACT

"Thank you ant-people ... and now here is where we are going to put it."



Most of the native forest that is logged in Tasmania is woodchipped by Gunns

Most of the native forest clearfell logged in Tasmania is woodchipped by a company called Gunns.
Gunns has four woodchip mills in Tasmania. Two of these woodchip mills are located at Bell Bay (north of Launceston), one is at Burnie, and the other is at Triabunna (East Coast). Gunns exports these woodchips, mostly to Japan.

BIG BROTHER

Interpol in rare sex abuse appeal

Interpol has launched an unprecedented global public appeal to help identify a man shown sexually abusing children in photographs posted on the internet.
The pictures had been manipulated to disguise the man's face with a swirl pattern, but computer specialists at Germany's federal police agency, the BKA, worked with Interpol's human trafficking team to produce identifiable images.

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BIG BROTHER

Video footage shows accused carrying woman's body

Neil Chamlers, 48, is accused of murdering of his partner Shirley Liang in February last year.
A Supreme Court jury was today shown surveillance camera footage of the accused carrying her body from the couple's Southbank apartment to a downstairs carpark.
Prosecutor Peter Rose SC said data taken from the global positioning system in Chalmers' car shows he drove to Tallarook then returned to Melbourne.

ZIG HEIL

NAZI bedspreads infuriate Indian Jews

A new line of bedspreads called the 'NAZI Collection' has provoked fury among India's Jewish community.
The makers say 'NAZI' stands for 'New Arrival Zone of India', while the swastika is also a commonly-used Hindu symbol.

US Navy to remodel 'swastika-shaped' barracks

The US Navy is to spend $US600,000 ($680,000) to remodel a set of barracks in Southern California that resemble a swastika when viewed from above, officials said.
From ground level the layout of the four L-shaped buildings at the US Navy base outside San Diego is unremarkable.

SENDING MESSAGES

Fined $US220,000 for sharing 24 tunes

Jammie Thomas, 30, was the first among more than 26,000 people sued by the world's most powerful recording companies to refuse a settlement after being slapped with a lawsuit by the Recording Industry of America and six major music labels.

MONKEY BUSINESS

Orangutan shows fetish for blondes with body art

Sibu the orangutan has miffed his Dutch keepers by refusing to mate with females and showing sexual interest only in tattooed human blondes.
Apenheul Primate Park hoped Sibu would become its breeding male when he arrived two years ago, but orangutans do not seem to be his type. "He chases them, or ignores them, but he doesn't do what he should do," said a spokeswoman for the park.
Instead, Sibu fancies his female keepers, especially blondes.
That, the spokeswoman says, is common for orangutans but Sibu has a fetish for tattoos, harking back to a heavily-tattooed keeper who reared him.

CAMPAIGN LAUNCH

Eve: "Apple Mac?"

MOURNING SUITS

Moving farewell for Tracey's brave Hannah

The funeral for Hannah Ciobo, attended by family and friends including husband Tom O'Driscoll (left) and mum Tracey Wickham (right).

THREE hours before she died of cancer in the early hours of Tuesday morning, Tracey Wickham's daughter Hannah's most fervent wish came true: she was married.

CORPORATE OVERKILL

Ms Thomas was the first person accused of illegal file-sharing who decided to fight the case in court.

Jury rules against woman in music downloading case

In the first US trial to challenge the illegal downloading of music on the Internet, a single mother from Minnesota has been ordered to pay more than $US220,000 for sharing 24 songs online.
Jammie Thomas, 30, is the first among more than 26,000 people sued by the world's most powerful recording companies to refuse a settlement after being slapped with a lawsuit by the Recording Industry of America and six major music labels.

About 26,000 lawsuits have been filed against alleged file-sharers, but most defendants settle privately by paying a fine amounting to a few thousand dollars. However, contesting the charge and losing will cost Jammie Thomas almost a quarter of a million dollars.
Her lawyer, Brian Toder said, "this is a girl that lives from paycheque to paycheque, and now all of a sudden she could get a quarter of her paycheque garnished for the rest of her life," he said.
The US record industry said people would understand the verdict.

ANAGRAM

October Sky' best offering of a still-young year

Set in 1957, "October Sky" is based on Homer Hickam, Jr.'s autobiography "Rocket Boys," in which he recounts his struggles as a young man to escape the small mining town where he was born, an escape that would allow him to literally reach for the stars.
Produced by Chuck Gordon, who also produced "Field Of Dreams," this film once again uses similar themes regarding hopes and dreams and the realization that we all have dreams -- they're just not always the same ones.
At times the film becomes a Norman Rockwell painting come to life and it does get a little too cute for its own good -- the later rocket launches actually have cheerleaders from the local high school shaking their pom-poms for the boys (this probably did happen in real life) -- plus, there is no doubt this film could have been made by the public relations office at NASA.