IDENTITY HOLOCAUST

MoD computer hard drive missing

An investigation is under way into the disappearance of a computer hard drive which could contain the details of about 100,000 Armed Forces personnel.

The hard drive was being held by EDS, which is the Ministry of Defence's main IT contractor. The MoD said it was told the drive was missing on Wednesday following a priority audit carried out by EDS. It is thought to contain more than 1.5m pieces of information, including the details of 600,000 potential recruits.

There may also be some personal information including bank and driving licence details, passport numbers, addresses, dates of birth and telephone numbers.

CLIMATE CHANGE

Nature loss 'dwarfs bank crisis'

The global economy is losing more money from the disappearance of forests than through the current banking crisis, according to an EU-commissioned study.It puts the annual cost of forest loss at between $2 trillion and $5 trillion.The figure comes from adding the value of the various services that forests perform, such as providing clean water and absorbing carbon dioxide.The study, headed by a Deutsche Bank economist, parallels the Stern Review into the economics of climate change.

OUR SOLAR SYSTEM

Asteroid near-miss prompts calls for astronomy funding

Astronomers in Arizona reported seeing a tiny asteroid, which they described as a new but routine fast-moving object.
Scientists at the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center (MPC) in Massachusetts had calculated the object was likely to pass within one Earth's radius of the centre of the planet.
That means it would have struck the surface of the Earth if had been big enough.

WORDS OF GOD

The rival to the Bible

"When people ask me if the Bible is the word of God I answer 'which Bible?'" - Professor Bart Ehrman

For those who believe the Bible is the inerrant, unaltered word of God, there will be some very uncomfortable questions to answer. For 1500 years, the Codex Sinaiticus lay undisturbed in a Sinai monastery. It shows there have been thousands of alterations to today's bible.

The Codex contains two extra books in the New Testament. One is the little-known Shepherd of Hermas, written in Rome in the 2nd Century - the other, the Epistle of Barnabas. This goes out of its way to claim that it was the Jews, not the Romans, who killed Jesus, and is full of anti-Semitic kindling ready to be lit. "His blood be upon us," Barnabas has the Jews cry.

IGNOBLE LAUREATES

Spontaneous knotting ties up physics Ig Nobel prize

Physics, the Ig Nobels turned to US academics providing mathematical proof that hair, string, or anything else of the kind, will inevitably become tangled in knots - a process termed "spontaneous knotting of an agitated string".

VOICE OF REASON

Cannabis less harmful than drinking, smoking: report

Cannabis is less harmful than alcohol or tobacco, according to a report by a research charity Thursday, which called for a "serious rethink" of drug policy.

The Beckley Foundation, a charity which numbers senior experts and other academics among its advisors, said banning cannabis has no impact on supply and turns users into criminals.

"Although cannabis can have a negative impact on health, including mental health, in terms of relative harms it is considerably less harmful than alcohol or tobacco," says the report by the Foundation's Global Cannabis Commission.

The government is pressing for cannabis to be re-classified in law as a Class B drug compared with its current, less serious, Class C classification.

VOICE OR REASON

Is it time the world forgot about cannabis in its war against drugs?

A British think-tank has published a report for next year's United Nations Strategic Drug Policy Review, suggesting that a decriminalised, regulated market in cannabis would cause less harm than the prohibition of the drug currently in force across most of the world.

FREE MARKET

The dirty secret of the bailout

A critical - and radical - component of the bailout package proposed by the Bush administration and reserve chief Paulson is nothing short of outrageous. It includes no oversight of his own closed-door operations.
It merely gives congressional blessing and funding to what he has already been doing, ad hoc.

Section 8 of this legislation is just 32 words but it represents a significant consolidation of power and an abdication of oversight authority. It reads, in its entirety:

Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.

THOUGHT CRIME

Can a government remotely detect a terrorist's thoughts?

The US Department of Homeland Security is developing a system designed to detect "hostile thoughts" in people walking through border posts, airports and public places. The DHS says recent tests prove it works.

IMAGINE the scene. You arrive at New York's JFK airport, tired after a long flight, and trudge into line at passport control. As you wait, a battery of lasers, cameras, eye trackers and microphones begin secretly compiling a dossier of information about your body.
Project Hostile Intent as it was called aimed to help security staff choose who to pull over for a gently probing interview - or more. Last week, the DHS science unit gave an update on the project, now dubbed the less-hostile-sounding Future Attribute Screening Technologies (FAST) program.

The trial technology was installed in a trailer because it is planned to be easily transportable, so that FAST trucks can appear at any sports or music event as required. They look set to become as regular a sight at such events as mobile toilets and catering trucks.

HATE CAMPAIGN

Without wanting to condone irresponsible drink driving (which I discriminate from responsible drink driving) I have to say the South Australian Government's latest ad campaign is utterly vile.
Our noble leaders have been telling us since "9-11" that the world has changed ... and that it has changed because of unrestrained HATRED.
Keeping in mind that hatred of the Jews was Government policy in Nazi Germany, here we have the kernel of more of this toxic mentality.
Hatred is the enemy of society. For that reason I sadly (again) conclude that OUR ALIEN MASTERS are in fact a pack antisocial creeps.

POLICE STATE

Jury retrace Menezes' last steps

Jurors are due to retrace the final journey of Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes who was shot dead by police marksmen three years ago.
He was shot by two police officers who mistook him for failed suicide bomber Hussain Osman.
Taking the inquest jury through events leading up to the electrician's death, Sir Michael listed a number of occasions where officers were unclear whether or not they thought they were pursuing a bomber.
He said that as Mr de Menezes entered a Tube station at Stockwell, no member of the surveillance team had positively identified him as Osman - the man they were looking for.

Two marksmen had jointly fired nine rounds, seven of which entered the Brazilian's head at point blank range.

There have been five inquiries relating to the death and its aftermath, including a criminal trial. In 2007, an Old Bailey jury found the Metropolitan Police guilty of breaching health and safety laws, after hearing about the events leading up to Mr de Menezes being shot.

CLOAK AND DAGGER

Mysterious Activity at Marriott Hotel Islamabad by US Marines

After the blast, mysteriously fire was started at the fourth and fifth floors.

Those flours were housing the mysterious steel boxes under the heavy guard of United States marines and no one including the Pakistani security forces and the security men of the hotel were allowed to go near with the them. These boxes were shifted inside the hotel when the Admiral Mike Mullen met Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and others in Islamabad.

A member of parliament Mumtaz Alam who belongs to the PPP, the ruling party was an eye witness when the white truck of US embassy came to the gate of Marriot Hotel and US marines unloaded the steel boxes and shifted them to the fourth and fifth floors without passing through them the scanners at the entrance of the hotels.

When the truck was there, all the entrance and the exit passage way to the hotels were closed.

STONEHENGE ROCKS ON

Dig pinpoints Stonehenge origins

For centuries, archaeologists have marvelled at the construction of Stonehenge, which lies on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire.
Mineral analysis indicates that the original circle of bluestones was transported to the plain from a site 240km (150 miles) away, in the Preseli hills, South Wales.

MORAL OVERLORDS

Suicide note targets 'bully boy' prosecutor

A voluntary euthanasia campaigner who was facing a jail term over a man's killing has used her suicide note to accuse New South Wales Crown prosecutor Mark Tedeschi QC of harassment. Caren Jenning's suicide note was read out by Exit International director Dr Philip Nitschke to a voluntary euthanasia conference in Sydney this morning after she took her life last Thursday.

Jenning was due to face a sentencing hearing next month for being an accessory to manslaughter after the fact. She had imported the drug from Mexico that was used in the 2006 death of former Qantas pilot Graeme Wylie, who she and his wife maintained wanted to die.

"During the trial, I felt persecuted and harassed by Crown prosecutor Mark Tedeschi," she wrote. "He is a bully boy."

STASI STATE

US schools pay classroom informants $1000

Under an incentive scheme at Scripps Ranch, a large San Diego high school, students can call a special "tip line" - 888-580-TIPS - to report suspicious activity on campus.Callers whose tips lead to arrests or charges can earn themselves rewards of up to $1000.

POLICE STATE

Secret' police to use fake IDs

POLICE will have the power to create false identity documents for undercover operatives under new laws to be introduced in South Australia.
And for the first time, the identities of the undercover police officers will remain secret during court processes to prevent reprisals from criminals they help to apprehend.
Attorney-General Michael Atkinson, who will introduce the legislation into Parliament this week, said the new laws would help police fight organised crime "from the inside".

BACK IN USSRA

USA transforming into USSRA

An economic analyst says by buying out investment giants, the USA had transformed into the USSRA (the United Socialist State Republic of America).

"This transformation of the USA into a country where there is socialism for the rich, the well connected and Wall Street (i.e. where profits are privatized and losses are socialized) continues today with the nationalization of AIG,” Nouriel Roubini said.

"This latest action on AIG follows a variety of many other policy actions that imply a massive - and often flawed - government intervention in the financial markets and the economy," Roubini added.

"the bailout of the Bear Stearns creditors; the bailout of Fannie and Freddie; the use of the Fed balance sheet (hundreds of billions of safe US Treasuries swapped for junk toxic illiquid private securities); the use of the other government sponsored enterprises GSEs (the Federal Home Loan Bank system) to provide hundreds of billions of dollars of "liquidity" to distressed, illiquid and insolvent mortgage lenders; the use of the Securities and Exchange Commission SEC to manipulate the stock market (restrictions on short sales); the use of the US Treasury to manipulate the mortgage market (Treasury will now for the first time outright buy mortgage-backed security agency to manipulate and prop up this market);…." Roubini elaborated.

GOD BOTHER

Sarah Palin’s links to the Christian Right

The religious background of Sarah Palin is not unrelated to her bid to take the nation’s second highest office. She herself has been extremely vague about that background. Given the details, it becomes clearer perhaps why.

Sarah Palin has spent more than two and a half decades of her life as a member of an Alaska church which is part of a fanatical Christian-named cult project that is sweeping across America.

Palin comes out of the most radical stream of US Born-Again Evangelism known as ‘Joel’s Army,’ an offshoot of what is called Dominionism and sometimes also called the Latter Rain cult or Manifest Sons of God. The movement deliberately attempts to remain below the radar screen.

Theocratic Sect Prays for Real Armageddon

Todd Bentley, the 32-year-old, heavily tattooed, body-pierced, shaved-head Canadian preacher has been leading a continuous "supernatural healing revival" in central Florida.

Tattooed across his sternum are military dog tags that read "Joel's Army." They're evidence of Bentley's generalship in a rapidly growing apocalyptic movement that's gone largely unnoticed by watchdogs of the theocratic right. According to Bentley and a handful of other "hyper-charismatic" preachers advancing the same agenda, Joel's Army is prophesied to become an Armageddon-ready military force of young people with a divine mandate to physically impose Christian "dominion" on non-believers.

GLOBAL WARRING

Russia threatens to seize swathe of Arctic

Vladimir Putin, now Russia's prime minister, has said global warming is good for Russia – melting its vast icy territories to reveal previously inaccessible oil and gas reserves.
President Dmitry Medvedev said that Russia should unilaterally claim part of the Arctic, stepping up the race for the disputed energy-rich region.

With oil production declining – and Russia's oil-fuelled power rising – it is keen to grab ever more.

NEW WORLD DICTIONARY

RECESSIONISTA: A person who manages to look fashionable despite being on a tight budget.

NUDE AND LEWD

Thousand of Balinese rally against anti-porn bill

About 1000 Balinese have rallied to protest against a controversial anti-pornography bill that critics say could hurt local cultural traditions.

The anti-smut bill contains provisions that could jail people for kissing in public and criminalise many forms of art or traditional culture that hinge on sensuality.

The bill has been in parliament for over three years because of criticism it would threaten Indonesia's tradition of tolerance.

But one Islamic party's lawmaker has said the bill's passing would be a Ramadan gift.

"We in Bali see the body as aesthetic, but the pornography bill sees the body as an object of sin," said Sugilanus, one of the protesters at the rally in Denpasar, capital of the predominantly Hindu island of Bali.

Nude sculptures and paintings are common in culturally-rich Bali, which earns most of its income from domestic and international tourists.

BIG BROTHER

Covert tagging and tracking

Earlier targeted operations, such as the attack on Al Jazeera in Kabul, depended on electronic monitoring of cell phones and satellite uplinks, while the Israelis have found their targets with the help of both electronic intercepts and spies on the ground.
The Pentagon's latest plans for CTTL go far beyond, and include everything from covertly tagging suspects with microscopic radio chips to tracking them by the way they walk and even they way they smell.

But beyond CTTL's wizardry, both real and imagined, the obvious question is no matter how brilliantly done, does targeted killing work in the long run against a popularly supported resistance to colonial rule?

NB. The Pentagon has explicitly committed itself to make its new tagging, targeting and locating technology available for use within its own borders.

INSANE IN THE MEMBRANE

The Army's Totally Serious Mind-Control Project

Soldiers barking orders at each other is so 20th Century.
That's why the U.S. Army has just awarded a $4 million contract to begin developing "thought helmets" that would harness silent brain waves for secure communication among troops.

Ultimately, the Army hopes the project will "lead to direct mental control of military systems by thought alone."

PRIMAL SCREAM

Counting RSA-integers

In the RSA cryptosystem integers of the form n=p.q with p and q primes of comparable size (`RSA-integers') play an important role.

It is a folklore result of cryptographers that C_r(x), the number of integers n<=x that are of the form n=pq with p and q primes such that p<q<rp, is for fixed r>1 asymptotically equal to c_r*x*log^{-2}x for some constant c_r>0.

Here we prove this and show that c_r=2log r.

About the logic of the prime number distribution

There are two basic number sequences which play a major role in the prime number distribution. The first Number Sequence SQ1 contains all prime numbers of the form 6n+5
and the second Number Sequence SQ2 contains all prime numbers of the form 6n+1.

All existing prime numbers seem to be contained in these two number sequences, except of the prime numbers 2 and 3.

PRIME SPIRAL

Prime Spiral

The prime spiral, also known as Ulam's spiral, is a plot in which the positive integers are arranged in a spiral with primes indicated in some way along the spiral.

This construction was first made by Polish-American mathematician Stanislaw Ulam (1909-1986) in 1963 while doodling during a boring talk at a scientific meeting.
While drawing a grid of lines, he decided to number the intersections according to a spiral pattern, and then began circling the numbers in the spiral that were primes.
Surprisingly, the circled primes appeared to fall along a number of diagonal straight lines or, in Ulam's slightly more formal prose, it "appears to exhibit a strongly nonrandom appearance" (Stein et al. 1964). The spiral appeared on the March 1964 cover of Scientific American magazine.

MATH MUSIC

"Geometrical Music Theory," by Rachel Wells Hall. Science, 18 April 2008, pages 328-329.
"The shape of Beethoven's Ninth," by Davide Castelvecchi. ScienceNews, 24 May 2008, page 13.

Math in the Media

Recent research by Clifton Callendar, Ian Quinn, and Dmitri Tymoczko---all three of whom work in academic music departments---shows a novel way of using geometry to map out a musical score.

Using mathematics, and even geometry, to study music is not new, but the three authors present a way to look at each moment in time in a musical score, like a vertical snapshot of the written music, as a point in n-space, where n is the number of "voices," or instrumental parts, in the piece.

Callendar’s work also demonstrates how the mathematical concept of equivalence classes---a group of objects sharing a single property---can be applied to music.

According to the reviewer, the new research may lead to new methods for teaching and visualizing music.

(The research article, "Generalized Voice-Leading Spaces," starts on page 346 of the same issue.)
At left: Musical orbifold, ordered pairs of pitch classes, courtesy of Rachel Wells Hall.--- Lisa DeKeukelaere.

POLICE STATE

The Pentagon’s alarming project: Avian Flu Biowar Vaccine

There is alarming evidence accumulated by serious scientific sources that the US Government is about to or already has ‘weaponized’ Avian Flu. If the reports are accurate, this could unleash a new pandemic on the planet that could be more devastating than the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic which killed an estimated 30 million people worldwide before it eventually died out. Pentagon and NIH experiments with remains in frozen state of the 1918 virus are the height of scientific folly. Is the United States about to unleash a new racially selective pandemic through the process of mandatory vaccination with an alleged vaccine "against" Avian Flu?

There is reason to believe that sections of the international pharmaceutical industry cartel are acting in concert with the US Government to develop a genetically modified H5N1 virus substance that could unleash a man-made pandemic, perhaps more deadly than the 1918 ‘Spanish Influenza’ pandemic claiming up to 30 million lives.

POLICE STATE

Cities Would be Locked Down, Quarantined Under Pandemic Flu Response Plan

How would an authoritarian regime implement a lock-down of its civilians ... break open a vial or two of one of their "military grade" superbugs.

The federal government would need to quarantine infected households and ban public gatherings to contain pandemic flu, according to a computer simulation study conducted by researchers from Virginia Tech and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"You wouldn't go out to the movies. You wouldn't congregate with people," said researcher Stephen Eubank. "You'd pretty much be staying home with the doors and windows battened down.
"The consensus among health experts is that a pandemic, or global epidemic, of influenza is inevitable. The last such pandemic, in 1918, killed between 40 and 100 million people.

CASHLESSNESS

Shoppers to use fingerprints or eye scans to pay for goods

A "contactless payment" technology, called OnePulse, allows customers to use everyday items they carry around with them - such as mobile phones, key fobs or even their eyes or fingerprints - to make payments. It means shoppers will no longer have to rely on cards.
Barclaycard, which is part of Barclays Bank, has already introduced a new-style cash machine in the United Arab Emirates enabling people to use their fingerprints to withdraw money and shoppers in the UK may soon be able to use the same technology.

STASI STATE

Eight-year-olds recruited by councils to spy on neighbours who drop litter

Children are being offered money by councils to spy on neighbours and report petty offences such as 'bin crimes' and dog-fouling.
The youngsters are among 5,000 residents encouraged to photograph or video neighbours in the act of 'environmental crimes'.
In some cases children as young as eight, are being bribed with rewards of £500 for passing on the names of neighbours or taking down their car registration numbers.

For a reminder of what the Stasi was, start here.

BIG BROTHER

Anti-terrorism laws used to spy on noisy children

three quarters of local authorities have used the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) 2000 over the past year.

The Act gives councils the right to place residents and businesses under surveillance, trace telephone and email accounts and even send staff on undercover missions.

The findings alarmed civil liberties campaigners. Shami Chakrabarti, the director of Liberty, said: "Councils do a grave disservice to professional policing by using serious surveillance against litterbugs instead of terrorists."

OUR ALIEN MASTERS

Hypocrisy of the Authoritarians

It appears that, when it comes to one of their own, the religious right can adjust, twist and fit anything into their set of values. If that fails, they just deny the facts and call them "a smear campaign". You would expect them to think Palin a "bad mom" for returning to work when her baby was only three days old, or for failing to instill the values she preaches into her daughter. But no, she is a "good mom" because she supports her daughter, and because abortion wasn't an option in their family. There are many other examples of such thinking. McCain had an affair with a lobbyist? Unsubstantiated rumors; this simply cannot be, and who cares anyway. George W. Bush used drugs and alcohol? He has found Jesus since then and is forgiven. Etc, etc.

These people, incidentally, are the ones claiming to have absolute moral values, unlike the "liberal" moral relativists.

RED MENACE

Russian Opposition Blogger Murdered by Police

The owner of a website opposing the Kremlin-backed leadership of Russia's troubled Ingushetia region—scene of a recently failed separatist uprising—was shot and killed by law enforcement officials there today. Magomed Yevloyev, who ran the site www.Ingushetiya.ru, had just touched down at the airport after a trip to Moscow when police took him into custody and drove away with him in a Volga. Inside the car, Yevloyev was shot in the temple. The authorities don't even deny it, coming up with an excuse that will be quite familiar to film fans.

Using the "Vincent Vega Defense" the Prosecutor General's Office in Moscow claims that the gun accidentally went off inside the car, and just happened to hit Yevloyev directly in his brain. Though that doesn't explain why, as his friend contends, the police tossed his body into the street near a local hospital and sped off. "It was in no way a mistake," says the friend.

BEES COOL MAN

Pesticide data may tell why bees die

A Bayer CropScience pesticide is at the center of a legal battle for research data that could help explain what's killing U.S. honeybees in large numbers.
The lawsuit, filed Monday in a Washington, D.C., federal court, accuses the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency of hiding the honeybee data.

The Natural Resources Defense Council sued after the EPA missed a deadline to respond to a Freedom of Information request the council submitted July 17.
It's not unheard of for federal regulators to take years to fulfill an FOIA request. But in the case of Bayer's pesticide chlothianidine, the Natural Resources Defense Council decided to push hard.

DEATH OF DEMOCRACY

Ohio Voting Machines Contained Programming Error That Dropped Votes

A voting system used in 34 states contains a critical programming error that can cause votes to be dropped while being electronically transferred from memory cards to a central tallying point, the manufacturer acknowledges.

The problem was identified after complaints from Ohio elections officials following the March primary there, but the logic error that is the root of the problem has been part of the software for 10 years, said Chris Riggall, a spokesman for Premier Election Solutions, formerly known as Diebold.

THE QUICKENING

At top of Greenland, new worrisome cracks in ice

In northern Greenland, a part of the Arctic that had seemed immune from global warming, new satellite images show a growing giant crack and an 11-square-mile chunk of ice hemorrhaging off a major glacier, scientists said Thursday.
And that's led the university professor who spotted the wounds in the massive Petermann glacier to predict disintegration of a major portion of the Northern Hemisphere's largest floating glacier within the year.
If it does worsen and other northern Greenland glaciers melt faster, then it could speed up sea level rise, already increasing because of melt in sourthern Greenland.

GREEN BROWN

UFO HOT SPOT

Buyer keen on caravan park UFO hot spot

A potential buyer has been found for a caravan park in central Australia reportedly ranked fifth in the world for reportings of UFO sightings.
The owners say a buyer from Adelaide is interested in the roadhouse and camp ground at Wycliffe Well, despite fears of alien invasion.

Maintenance worker Russell Redding says there is nothing to fear from the numerous 'visitors' who do not arrive with cars and caravans. Mr Redding says sightings have happened as recently as this week.

"I saw a black line in the sky. A huge amount of lights came on. Then all of a sudden the lights closed like a building closing down, but it was parallel and it closed right down to one light and it lifted off and it went on an angle then that light turned off," he said.

FLEXIBLE VOWS

Russia's leader Vlad (the Impaler) Putin dumped his wife for Alina Kabaeva ...
When you're the leader of the not so free world you need something to take the stress out of a hard day.

IRONY FIST

Makers of War On Terror game in street protest

THE makers of board game War On Terror will today take to the streets after it was banned by a High Street giant.
Co-creator of the game, Cambridge web designer Andrew Sheerin, has decided to hit back asking why it is shops will sell games which depict violence - but will not sell his tongue-in-cheek creation.

A Zavvi spokesman claimed "poor sales" lay behind the same-day recall.

OUR COSMOS

Cosmic magnetism revealed

Japanese physicists may have solved a longstanding mystery in cosmology -- how the large-scale magnetic fields found in today's galaxies and galaxy clusters were initially created. Kiyotomo Ichiki at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan and colleagues suggest that these fields originated in the very early universe from interactions between photons and electrons before the first atoms had time to form. The fields produced may have been strong enough to affect the formation of early stars, says the team (Sciencexpress 1120690).

Scientists are still unsure about where the substantial magnetic fields in the present-day universe came from.

COOL RUNNINGS

Flat-panel fridge set for debut

A new approach to refrigeration and cooling works by repeatedly applying an electric field to long molecules called polar polymers.
Advocates of the method say it will achieve a ten-fold increase of efficiency over conventional cooling.
The new method instead takes its cooling power from the ordering and disordering of the polymers, which are distributed in a thin film just a millionth of a metre thick.
In an electric field, the molecules spontaneously line up, creating heat. Removing the field causes the polymers to cool down again as a result of the electrocaloric effect.

A similar idea called magnetic refrigeration has existed for years, employing certain materials with "magnetic dipoles" that act like tiny compass needles. Cycling the materials through a magnetic field performs a similar order/disorder dance that can remove heat.

THE QUICKENING

Arctic sea ice melt 'even faster'

Arctic sea ice is melting even faster than last year, despite a cold winter.
Data from the US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) shows that the year began with ice covering a larger area than at the beginning of 2007.
But now it is down to levels seen last June, at the beginning of a summer that broke records for sea ice loss.
Scientists on the project say much of the ice is so thin as to melt easily, and the Arctic seas may be ice-free in summer within five to 10 years.

UGLY TRUTH

Cute 'rising star' Lin Miaoke, left, and the 'ugly' singer Yang Peiyi, 7.

Olympic child singing star revealed as fake

The little girl who starred at the Olympic opening ceremony was miming and only put on stage because the real singer was not considered attractive enough, the show's musical director has revealed.

Pigtailed Lin Miaoke was selected to appear because of her cute appearance and did not sing a note, Chen Qigang, the general music designer of the ceremony, said in an interview with a state broadcaster aired Tuesday.
Photographs of Lin in a bright red party dress were published in newspapers and websites all over the world and the official China Daily hailed her as a rising star on Tuesday.
But Chen said the girl whose voice was actually heard by the 91,000 capacity crowd at the Olympic stadium during the spectacular ceremony was in fact seven-year-old Yang Peiyi, who has a chubby face and uneven teeth.

"The reason why little Yang was not chosen to appear was because we wanted to project the right image, we were thinking about what was best for the nation," Chen said in an interview that appeared briefly on the news website Sina.com before it was apparently wiped from the Internet in China.

CASPIAN OIL

Russian Scientist: Government Knows About UFO Bases

According to Fuad Gasimov, academician and head of the Seismological Department of the National Aerospace Agency the often-sighted space craft have bases deep in the Caspian, one off the north part of the Absheron Peninsula, the other in the north sector of the Caspian Sea.

"I had been associated with the Institute of Earth Physics of the Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R. during the Soviet era," Gasimov told the Baku Sun. "Since then we have information on the existence UFO bases around Baku. But it was strongly kept as a military secret."

MEN DA CITY

Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Qin Gang
Former Deputy Director-General, Information Department

From the horse's ... mouth:
The Chinese government puts people first, and is dedicated to maintaining and promoting its citizens' basic rights and freedom. Chinese citizens have freedom of religion.

Mendaciousness, dissemblement, obscurantism. Call it what you like. Just don't call it lying.

CASPIAN OIL

US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice was speaking in Georgia in June 2008 when a prescient message scrolled across the screen: Bear takes to prowling streets.

28 May, 2006
Terror alert as Caspian oil pipeline opens
In the foothills of the Caucasus mountains, a long line of broken mud cuts across the meadows. If you go anywhere near it, camouflaged guards carrying automatic weapons emerge from the forest beyond.
These guards in the Borjomi region of Georgia - trained by US army and SAS veterans - are pawns in a new great game gripping Central Asia: their job is to protect the oil pipeline buried 10ft below.
The $4bn Baku Tbilisi Ceyhan pipeline, on stream from today, is key in American plans to reduce dependency on Opec oil producers in the turbulent Middle East. Pumping oil 1,000 miles from the Caspian sea to the Mediterranean through Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, it will avoid Russia - increasingly seen by the US as a resurgent superpower prepared to use control of energy resources as a political weapon.

Since coming to power in 2004 Georgia's president, Mikhail Saakashvili has steered his country away from Russia towards co-operation with the US. 'Georgia will be America's partner in spreading democracy around the world,' Bush told rapturous crowds during the first visit of a US president to the country last year.

10 July 2008
Russia, US Swap Warnings as Condoleezza Rice Visits Georgia
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Tbilisi as the US and Russia accused each other of stoking unrest in Georgia while US troops began exercises with regional armies near Russia's borders.
Her trip came a day after she signed a deal allowing Washington to base part of a new US missile defense system in the Czech Republic, prompting a stark warning from Moscow that it would respond militarily.

11 August 2008
US, Russian ambassadors spar at UN over Georgia
U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad exchanged sharp words with the Russian ambassador on Sunday, accusing Moscow of seeking "regime change" in Georgia and resisting attempts to make peace after days of fighting have left hundreds of civilians dead.
Khalilzad disclosed during a U.N. Security Council session that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had told U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Sunday morning "that a democratically elected president of Georgia — and I quote — must go."

Bush, Cheney Increasingly Critical of Russia Over Aggression in Georgia
The White House stepped up its criticism of Russia for escalating the conflict in Georgia, with President Bush warning Monday that Russia's "disproportionate response" is unacceptable and Vice President Cheney adding that the crisis threatens long-term relations between Moscow and Washington.

Cheney was even more pointed, telling Saakashvili on Sunday afternoon that "Russian aggression must not go unanswered," according to his press secretary.

TECHNO BABBLE

‘Fakeproof’ e-passport is cloned in minutes

New microchipped passports designed to be foolproof against identity theft can be cloned and manipulated in minutes and accepted as genuine by the computer software recommended for use at international airports.
Tests exposed security flaws in the microchips introduced to protect against terrorism and organised crime.
The flaws also undermine claims that 3000 blank passports stolen last week were worthless because they could not be forged.

UFO FLAP

Tens of People Witnessed UFO in Kaliningrad

Kaliningrad witnessed an UFO. For nearly an hour the unknown silver object hung over the local Blue Lakes. According to the witnesses, the discus-shaped UFO attracted attention of the locals who had a rest at the lakes and they started waving their hands as a sign of greeting to the object. Some people started making shots of the object and shooting video with their mobile phones.

Despite the fact that tens of people witnessed the phenomenon, neither Baltic Navy nor the Ministry of Emergency Situations have officially commented the incident saying that they did not register any unknown flying objects that day.

BEYOND BELIEFS

Political writer Hirsi Ali discusses democracy and Islam

The word "apostate" has fallen into relative disuse in the West in the last couple of 100 years. The idea that leaving your religion, apostasy, should be punished, has largely died out since the Enlightenment. But Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who's been in Australia over the last few days, is in continuous fear for her life because she is an apostate from Islam.

In 2004, in the Netherlands, her friend, the filmmaker, Theo van Gogh, was stabbed to death for an anti-Islam film for which she wrote the script. A death threat against her was pinned to the corpse with a knife. In her subsequent book, Infidel, she stepped up her attack on global Islam. And in Australia she's been talking about the ideas of the Enlightenment.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali says the creed of Islam itself, rather than the way it's practised, is the problem, because the ideas of Mohammed are incompatible with the ideas of liberal democracy.

POLLUTED PLANET

Mars Lander finds toxic substance in soil

The Phoenix Mars Lander may have detected perchlorate, a potentially toxic substance used in rocket fuel, in soil samples taken from the red planet, NASA scientists say.
The space agency said further tests were required to confirm the presence of perchlorate in Martian dirt and rule out contamination from the spacecraft.
Phoenix is the latest NASA probe sent to discover whether water, a crucial ingredient for life, ever flowed on Mars and if life, even in the form of microbes, exists or ever existed there.
Last week, NASA said Phoenix had provided definitive proof that water exists on Mars after further tests on ice found by the lander in June.

A NASA spokeswoman declined to characterise perchlorate as detrimental to life.

Health Implications of Perchlorate Ingestion
Perchlorate a powerful oxidant used in solid rocket fuels by the military and aerospace industry has been detected in public drinking water supplies of over 11 million people at concentrations of at least 4 parts per billion (ppb). High doses of perchlorate can decrease thyroid hormone production by inhibiting the uptake of iodide by the thyroid. Thyroid hormones are critical for normal growth and development of the central nervous system of fetuses and infants.

BRAVE NEW WORLD

UK Terror detention plans 'muddled'

Plans to extend terror detention to 42 days could undermine the independence of judges and lead to the collapse of trials, peers have warned.
The Lords constitution committee said letting Parliament vote on whether to allow extensions in the pre-charge time limit beyond 28 days was "muddled".
This would create a "recipe for confusion", rather than a "system of checks and balances", it added.

The Home Office said the changes would protect people and civil liberties.

HELLO SUNSHINE

"Major Discovery" From MIT Primed to Unleash Solar Revolution

Inspired by the photosynthesis performed by plants, Nocera and Matthew Kanan, a postdoctoral fellow in Nocera's lab, have developed an unprecedented process that will allow the sun's energy to be used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen gases.
Later, the oxygen and hydrogen may be recombined inside a fuel cell, creating carbon-free electricity to power your house or your electric car, day or night.

THE BUZZ

All we are saying, is give bees a chance

There is increasing reason to believe that Gaucho and other members of a family of highly toxic chemicals - neonicotinoids - may be responsible for the deaths of billions of honeybees worldwide.
Something is killing the bees. Some scientists suspect a virus; others mites, even cellphones. (Bees are not known to use phones, though, having their own communications system - a dance called the "waggle.")

Rachel Carson was vilified by an industry smear nearly 50 years ago, after the release of her book, "Silent Spring." "If we were to follow the teachings of Miss Carson," said American Cyanamid, the maker of DDT, "we would return to the Dark Ages ... insects, vermin and disease would once again inherit the Earth."

But, as Carson so eloquently put it in a CBS documentary in 1964:
"Man's attitude toward nature is today critically important simply because we now have acquired a fateful power to alter and destroy nature. But man is part of nature, and his war is inevitably a war against himself."

PSYCHO TRAINING

'Beasting in army training'

There were these NBC (Nuclear Biological Chemical) kits we had to wear, they were really heavy and you can hardly breathe in them.
I was made to run in that and do press-ups. We ran with rifles over our heads in extreme heat.
This was a punishment if you were late for a parade, if you hadn't done your block jobs, if your locker wasn't up to scratch or if you started mouthing-off to the wrong person.
Psychologically you are messed up and you don't do it (the misdemeanour) again. Physically it leaves you shattered - and these beastings would go on for a long time, hours on end.
Anybody who's got a higher rank than you can order a beasting. This happened at Catterick, Tidworth and Germany. Tidworth and Germany were the worst.

KNIT WIT

Heil Knitler

Knitler should Have Been Stopped At Munich

Well there goes the semiotic neighborhood. Rachel Matthews, a "celebrity knitter," has kicked up quite a kerfuffle in the UK for writing a book on how to knit historical tyrants. She's got Idi Amin, Pol Pot, Saddam Hussein and—because to leave him out would have been unthinkable—Adolf Hitler.

POWER PLAY

Embedded Video

Around 9:30 on Friday night, a bicyclist pedaling down Seventh Avenue veered to the left, trying to avoid hitting a police officer who was in the middle of the street.
But the officer, Patrick Pogan, took a few quick steps toward the biker, Christopher Long, braced himself and drove his upper body into Mr. Long.
Officer Pogan, an all-star football player in high school, hit Mr. Long as if he were a halfback running along the sidelines, and sent him flying.
As of Tuesday evening, a videotape of the encounter had been viewed about 400,000 times on YouTube.
"I can't explain why it happened," Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said on Tuesday. "I have no understanding as to why that would happen."

[Might it have something to do with psychopathic/authoritarian types attracted to the Police uniform as a way of exerting control over others? Who view anyone outside of their narrow world view of compliance and domination with hatred and disdain?]

CASHLESSNESS

Technologies That Don't Know They're Dead

Cash only exists by the grace of banks and the government, and it's a major hassle for both of them. Printing, maintaining, actually having to physically move the stuff around in order to charge you for doing so? Your bank has already made it clear that they'll charge you for whatever they feel like, so pretending to exchange that for an actual service is becoming kind of a drag.
The web has shown that virtual money can function perfectly well with the added advantage that they always know exactly what you criminal thieving unpatriots are doing with it. In the UK credit card spending has already overtaken cash.

If only there was some kind of widely accepted, eminently trackable ID that was already legally protected, which they could force everyone to use instead. (Hint: it's your credit card, and you can count yourself lucky they haven't already jammed your social security number on there and called it a day, citizen.)

SPACE RACE II

A rendering of Eve Branson as the “Galactic Girl” used on the ships.
Eve is Richard Branson's mother.

Virgin boss Richard Branson's new heights, reached with Eve

British tycoon Richard Branson unveiled a futuristic aircraft that will ferry tourists to the edge of the heavens as part of Virgin Galactic's much-anticipated space program.
The aircraft - WhiteKnightTwo - is a high-altitude aircraft, named Eve after Branson's mother, will act as the mothership for the spacecraft Spaceship Two, which in turn will launch in midair and send two crew and six passengers hurtling into space.

BACKWARD THINKING

Howard government warned on carbon scheme delay

THE Howard government was warned that delaying the start of a carbon trading scheme could force electricity prices up by 25 per cent, or $3.5 billion.

As the Coalition prepares for a fiery battle on climate change today, a confidential report by consultants ACIL Tasman appears to undermine a Liberal-National Party push to drag out the start-up date for the scheme.

And, as Brendan Nelson puts his leadership on the line at today's shadow Cabinet meeting, a new Galaxy poll suggests voters want firm action -- in line with Kevin Rudd's 2010 plan.

The poll, commissioned by environmental campaigners the Climate Institute, shows at least half of Australians support an emissions trading scheme starting in 2010.

FACING THE MUSIC

Plan for Customs officers to search iPods for pirated music

MUSIC fans might soon have their iPods searched by Customs officers at airport checks - and face jail if pirated music is found on them.
The push for the unprecedented searches of travellers’ laptops and MP3 players has been revealed in a leaked discussion paper relating to a treaty being negotiated by the Federal Government.

[How long will it be before your digital camera and phone are the subject of similar searches?]

TRUTH BE TOLD

Aliens exist, but NASA covers them up says astronaut

Dr Edgar Mitchell, said he was aware of several UFO visits during his career, but each one had been covered up.

The 77-year-old, who was a crew member of the Apollo 14 mission, said sources at the space agency had described aliens as resembling "little people who look strange to us".

"I happen to have been privileged enough to be in on the fact that we've been visited on this planet and the UFO phenomena is real.

"It's been well covered up by all our governments for the last 60 years or so, but slowly it's leaked out and some of us have been privileged to have been briefed on some of it.

"I've been in military and intelligence circles, who know that beneath the surface of what has been public knowledge, yes – we have been visited.

WATCH these videos - many of them taken by ordinary Australians and tourists - which claim to be UFO sightings over the Sydney region and the rest of the country then you decide: real or fake.

Embedded Video

UFO spotted in NSW&squo;s South Coast in past month claim

LIGHT MOLECULE

Does DNA Have Telepathic Properties?

DNA has been found to have a bizarre ability to put itself together, even at a distance, when according to known science it shouldn't be able to. Explanation: None, at least not yet.

Scientists are reporting evidence that contrary to our current beliefs about what is possible, intact double-stranded DNA has the “amazing” ability to recognize similarities in other DNA strands from a distance. Somehow they are able to identify one another, and the tiny bits of genetic material tend to congregate with similar DNA.

The recognition of similar sequences in DNA’s chemical subunits, occurs in a way unrecognized by science. There is no known reason why the DNA is able to combine the way it does, and from a current theoretical standpoint this feat should be chemically impossible.

DEEP SHIT

500 Billion Tons of Prehistoric Organic Matter May Massively Accelerate ‘Global Warming’

For thousands of years animal waste, and other organic matter left behind on the Arctic tundra, have been sealed off from the environment by permafrost.
Now climate change is melting the permafrost and freeing mass quantities of prehistoric “ooze” from its state of suspended animation.
Russian scientist, Sergei Zimov, after studying climate change in Russia's Arctic for 30 years now, is worried that "This will lead to a type of global warming which will be impossible to stop".

OUR ALIEN MASTERS

Court Confirms President's Dictatorial Powers

On July 15, the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled by 5 votes to 4 in the case of Al-Marri v. Pucciarelli [.pdf]
that the president can arrest U.S. citizens and legal residents inside
the United States and imprison them indefinitely, without charge or
trial, based solely on his assertion that they are "enemy combatants."
Have a little think about it, and you'll see that the Fourth Circuit
judges have just endorsed dictatorial powers.

DISSIDENT VOICE

Torture As Official US Policy

On December 28, 2001, Deputy Assistant Attorney Generals, Patrick Philbin and John Yoo, sent a Memorandum to General Counsel, Department of Defense, William Haynes II titled: “Possible Habeas Jurisdiction over Aliens Held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.” It said federal courts have no jurisdiction and cannot review Guantanamo detainee mistreatment or mistaken arrest cases. It further stated that international laws don’t apply in the “war on terror.” This laid the groundwork for abuses in all US torture prisons.

On January 18, 2002, Bush issued a “finding” stating that prisoners suspected of being al Qaeda or Taliban members are “enemy combatants” and unprotected by the Third Geneva Convention. They were to be denied all rights and treated “to the extent… consistent with military necessity.” Torture was thus authorized. The 2006 Military Commissions Act (aka the “torture authorization act”) later created the Geneva-superseded category of “unlawful enemy combatant” to deny them any chance for judicial fairness.

FEMME FATALE

Baby stolen from dead mum's womb

Pittsburgh woman Kia Johnson, 18, was bound and gagged and her near-full term baby cut from her stomach last week.
Andrea Curry-Demus, 38, had been charged with homicide, unlawful restraint and kidnapping, the Associated Press reported.

WAVE POWER

Wave-powered Boat Journeys from Japan to Hawaii

Ken-ichi Horie's travelled 7400km on a three-ton wave-powered boat.

Made from recycled aluminum alloy, the Suntory Mermaid II catamaran generated a “push-like” power to propel the boast forward.
The boat has  two adjacent fins beneath the bow, which  moved up and down with the waves. They generated thrust, absorbed the energy of the waves and gave the vessel stability and energy.

The Suntory Mermaid II is an eco-sailor's dream: electricity comes from eight solar panels that produce 560 watts (for the navigation lights) and it has a satellite phone, a PC and navigation light.
Small waves and opposing currents slowed the journey considerably, but Kenichi persevered and is now the first person to have traversed the Western Pacific on a boat powered by waves.

PALESTINE IN CRISIS

Tell-Tale Map

INFLATED EGOS

Enough to buy a sausage ... this week

This is the fourth set of high denomination notes to be issued this year, the first being in January when a 10 million dollar note was put into circulation. The next was on April 2 when a 50 million dollar note came into being before the 100 and 250 million dollar notes were introduced on May 2.
But how it can be useful?
We can't purchase even three packs of bread from it.

Zimbabwe has the worst inflation rate in the world. Almost 80% of the nation is unemployed. The Zimbabwean central bank has introduced $500 million bearer cheques (or currency notes) for the public, and $5 billion, $25 billion, $50 billion agro-cheques for farmers. Just last fortnight the nation had introduced $250 million bearer cheques.

A sausage sandwich sells for Zimbabwean $50 million. A 15-kg bag of potatoes cost Zimbabwean $260 million. But then, Zimbabwean $50 million is roughly equal to US$ 1!

PROOF READER

Now for some quite glorious proof that machines can’t be trusted with snubbing out errors ... This gem of an entry from the brilliant Regret the Error blog explains that the over-cautious chiefs over at OneNewsNow didn’t ever want to use the word ‘gay’ when referring to a homos-xual. How best to achieve this small detail? Simple: Use a machine to change it automatically! Genius! Genius, that is, until a rapid young chap named Tyson Gay won a race...

SUBPRIME PRIMER

THE QUICKENING

Wilkins ice shelf at risk of breaking from Antarctica

Scientists are growing increasingly concerned for the future of the huge Wilkins ice shelf that joins on to the Antarctic coast.

The latest satellite images suggest the ice shelf is disintegrating rapidly, and is now connected to the Antarctic mainland by a fairly small bridge of ice.

However, the images show that the bridge itself is about to go, with cracks appearing and ice floes breaking off.

LEGLESS DINOSAUR

Matora, or "bull eater




Colonel Rene van Lierde, above, was piloting his helicopter over the Katanga province of the Belgian Congo. Suddenly a gigantic snake reared up as if to attack his helicopter. He lifted up and took several photos of the snake and continued his journey.
His estimate of the size of the snake was about 40-50 feet, and that is the same estimation made by zoologists who later examined the photo.
Even still, the largest scientifically measured snake was a 32 foot long reticulated python killed in Indonesia as the world's longest snake. Until one of these magnificent creatures is brought in, dead or alive, the Sucuriju will always be known as a cryptid.

TORTURED TRUTH

Author Hitchens catches his breath after undergoing his first waterboarding session.

Believe Me, It's Torture:

What more can be added to the debate over U.S. interrogation methods, and whether waterboarding is torture?
Try firsthand experience. The author undergoes the controversial drowning technique, at the hands of men who once trained American soldiers to resist - not inflict - it.

GIRL SAYS

art porn. « debauchette

That is to say, in the beginning, which was not very long ago, the term ‘pornography’ referred to written (-graph) descriptions of prostitution (porno-) and all the dirty dirty acts that prostitution entails (the sucking of cock, the fucking of ass). Since I’m here, I should mention that the term and concept of pornography is a nineteenth-century invention, though what we now call pornographic is as old as sex itself.

Eventually ‘pornography’ came to refer to salacious written and visual material, or, if we follow the legal definition in obscenity statutes, pornography is devoid of artistic value and serves only to stimulate us sexually. Unfortunately, for some of us, it’s the artistic value that makes us wet.

Or hard.

THE QUICKENING

Perito Morena glacier colapses

Argentine TV has captured the spectacular collapse of part of the Perito Morena glacier, the landmark's first winter rupture since 1917.

BLOW UP

Photographed girl defends nude magazine cover

A girl who posed nude as a six-year-old is defending the use of the photograph on the front cover of an arts magazine.
Now 11 years old, Olympia Nelson says she has no problems with the photo her mother, Melbourne photographer Polixeni Papapetrou, took of her when she was six.
The photo is on the front cover of this month's Art Monthly magazine, and the New South Wales Government is referring the magazine to the Classification Board.

The picture has reignited public debate about the use of children in art, after controversy in May when artist Bill Henson's photographs of a naked prepubescent girl in a Sydney gallery were confiscated by police.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has said he cannot stand the picture and Federal Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson says he will ask the Federal Police to investigate.

But the model Olympia Nelson has taken umbrage at those comments.
"I think that the picture my mum took of me has nothing to do with being abused," she said.
"I'm really, really offended by what Kevin Rudd said about this picture."

ART ATTACK

Artists defend magazine's nude child cover

Australian artists are defending the controversial decision of Art Monthly magazine to run a photograph of a naked child on its front cover.

The front cover of the magazine features Melbourne photographer Polixeni Papapetrou's 2003 photo of her naked daughter, who was six at the time.
The Prime Minister has said he cannot stand the picture and federal Arts Minister Peter Garrett has said the magazine was being needlessly provocative.
"There's never been any study that suggests that there's a link between paedophilia and art," he said.
"Unfortunately we're working without any science; people are just making these assertions about protecting children, which is unarguable - I mean why would you not want to [protect them]?
"But no-one's really explained - protect them from what?"

LAWNCHAIR LARRY II

Armchair flier enjoys 400km of 'serenity'

A man from the US state of Oregon has succeeded on his third attempt to fly nearly 400 kilometres eastwards to Idaho in an armchair supported by helium-filled party balloons.
The man, Kent Couch, took an airgun and blowpipe with him, so that he could shoot some of the 150 large balloons to make sure he didn't fly too high.
Speaking before take-off, Mr Couch said he loves the peace up in the air.

Lawnchair Larry, the man who soared to 16,000 Feet attached to weather balloons

Mr Couch's adventure recreates that of Larry Walters who in In 1982 did pretty much the same thing.



The

COLD CHARITY

Give to beggars and cop jail time, says Indonesian city

Residents in one Indonesian city who give in to the tug of guilt could face three months in jail under a law which criminalises giving money to beggars and street children, the city's mayor said.
The new regulation approved last month by the legislative council in Makassar, South Sulawesi, is aimed at reducing the city's swelling population of beggars, Mayor Ilham Arif Sirajuddin said.

XTREME NERDS

Knights in the ring as chess boxers slug it out

Rarely do brains and brawn come together in this way. A Russian has been crowned world champion in the novelty sport of chess boxing that requires equal skill at moving pawns and throwing punches.
Mathematics student Nikolai Sazhin, 19, competing under the name "The President" knocked out 37-year-old German policeman, Frank Stoldt, who until recently was serving as a peacekeeper in Kosovo.
The loser said he was simply too punch drunk to fend off checkmate.

OUR SOLAR SYSTEM

Earth-sized planet predicted beyond Pluto

Japanese scientists believe another planet, up to two-thirds the size of Earth, is orbiting in the far reaches of the Solar System.
The researchers at Kobe University in western Japan said calculations using computer simulations led them to conclude it was only a matter of time before the mysterious, new "Planet X" was found.

OUR SOLAR SYSTEM

An outer planet beyond pluto

Researchers from Kobe University propose that the orbital history of an outer planet can explain the trans-Neptunian belt orbital structure.
This massive body was likely scattered by one of the giant planets, which then stirred the primordial planetesimal disk to the levels observed at 40-50 AU and truncated it at about 48 AU before planet migration.
The outer planet later acquired an inclined stable orbit (≥100 AU; 20-40°) because of a resonant interaction with Neptune, guaranteeing the stability of the trans-Neptunian belt.
They say their model consistently reproduces the main features of each dynamical class with unprecedented detail; it also satisfies other constraints such as the current small total mass of the trans-Neptunian belt and Neptune's current orbit at 30.1 AU.
Observationally testable predictions are also proposed.

OZY AUSSIE

Olympic Underwear Relay

With this escort around him, the runner made his way through the streets all the way to the Sydney Town Hall. He bounded up the steps and handed the torch to the waiting mayor who graciously accepted it and turned to begin his prepared speech.
Then someone whispered in the mayor’s ear, “That’s not the torch.” Suddenly the mayor realized what he was holding. Held proudly in his hand was not the majestic Olympic flame.

Instead he was gripping a wooden chair leg topped by a plum pudding can inside of which a pair of kerosene-soaked underwear was burning with a greasy flame.

The mayor looked around for the runner, but the man had already disappeared, melting away into the surrounding crowd.

The identity of the rogue runner was only publicly revealed years later. It was Barry Larkin, a veterinary science student at Sydney University’s St. Johns College. He had dreamed up the prank in collusion with eight other students.
Their intention was to poke fun at the torch relay because they felt it was being treated with too much reverence considering the tradition’s dubious past. It traced its origins back to the 1936 Berlin games organized by the Nazis.

CRAZY TALK

Professor Plimer hits carbon dioxide doomsayers at Paydirt confab

The University of Adelaide Professor of Mining Geology said: "Humans have adapted to life on earth ranging from ice sheets to mountains to tropics and have survived far warmer and far colder climates than currently being experienced or forecast by the climate doomists.

[Survived as a species, perhaps, but the catastrophe that whittles our  numbers down will be painful.]

Professor urges icing on yellowcake for SA

SOUTH Australia could be the Saudi Arabia of the energy world with a "cradle-to-grave" uranium industry, a professor says.
Professor of mining geology at Adelaide University Ian Plimer said South Australia could do more than just export uranium. "I think it is an absolute no-brainer that we should look at a cradle-to-grave uranium industry," he said at a uranium conference in Adelaide.

[Saudi Arabia! Apart from images of despotic excess, it also absurdly implies that the  Saudis are taking back all the carbon resultant from their oil burning.]

SKY LIGHTS

Mysterious lights have been reported in the skies above WA this (Monday) morning.

Mystery lights seen over WA

“There’s been reports from white to green to yellow and they are all saying they are coming down from the sky,” the spokesman said. “It’s space junk probably or something like a meteorite.”
The spokesman said that the lights were not distress flares which were a distinctive bright red or pink colour and floated in sky for about 45 seconds before coming down.

FALLON HERO

Admiral William "Fox" Fallon: intelligent military.

Demise of a man who spoke his mind

Why would America's most senior military commander in the most volatile part of the world suddenly resign - well before his tour was over?

• In an Esquire article, titled The Man Between War and Peace, Admiral William "Fox" Fallon hardly comes across as a cheerleader of the Bush administration's policies in the region.
• In comments to Al-Jazeera (not the White House's favourite television station) last autumn, he said: "This constant drumbeat of conflict... is not helpful and not useful."
• Last September, the Washington Post reported sources saying that Adm Fallon believed the surge in Iraq "was not working".
• This February, the New York Times reported that Adm Fallon had spoken in favour of a "resumption" of US troop withdrawals in Iraq

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates claimed that their "differences" were more about "misperception" than reality or substance but was probably being more frank when he dismissed as "ridiculous" the suggestion in Esquire that Fallon's early departure would signal the build-up to war in Iran.

President George W Bush is a man who values loyalty above all else.
Admiral William "Fox" Fallon is a military man, apt to speak his mind.

Profile: William Fallon

As head of the US Central Command (CentCom), Adm Fallon oversaw US strategy in the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia. The 63-year-old admiral, known as Fox - his call sign when he was a Navy fighter pilot - is highly regarded as an astute commander.

MORE NEWDS

Miley Cyrus' topless controversy

Talking publicly about his daughter Miley Cyrus' Vanity Fair photo shoot for the first time, country music star Billy Ray Cyrus said he wasn’t there when the most controversial shot was taken.

"I didn't know they were gonna strip her down and wrap her in a blanket," Cyrus said, referring to the shot of his 15-year-old daughter taken by photographer Annie Leibovitz.

In the photo, the "Hannah Montana" star appeared to be topless, covered only by a sheet she clutched to her chest.

Though Cyrus doesn't approve of the photograph, which Leibovitz defended as "a simple, classic portrait, shot with very little makeup," he said that heeded his dad's advice on the situation.
"My dad always told me the more you stomp in poop, the more it stinks," Billy Ray said. "So I was just, 'OK, this happened. We got to deal with it'."

NUDE AND PRUDE

GET UP! GARNAUT

OUR ALIEN MASTERS

Your Government is your friend

According to secret and long-hidden documents, the Joint Chiefs of Staff drew up and approved plans for what may be the most corrupt plan ever created by the U.S. government - a fake terrorist attack on citizens.

Code named Operation Northwoods, the plan, which had the written approval of the Chairman and every member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called for innocent people to be shot on American streets; for boats carrying refugees fleeing Cuba to be sunk on the high seas; for a wave of violent terrorism to be launched in Washington, D.C., Miami, and elsewhere.

People would be framed for bombings they did not commit; planes would be hijacked.

Using phony evidence, all of it would be blamed on Castro, thus giving Lemnitzer and his cabal the excuse, as well as the public and international backing, they needed to launch their war.

PAPAL BULL

Police investigate WYD queer kiss-in

Gay groups say police are unnecessarily scrutinising them over activities planned for Sydney's World Youth Day, as civil libertarians rile at new police powers for this month's week-long event.

This week, it was revealed NSW Police had been given the power to arrest anyone who they believe causes annoyance or inconvenience to pilgrims during World Youth Day. Offenders risk fines of up to $5,500.
"What they did suggest that we do though is that anything we are proposing to do, such as slogans on a T-shirt or banners or posters or whatever, that we run it past them first so they can check it," he said.

COSMIC CONNECTION

Fire in the sky: Tunguska at 100

Some 80 million trees were flattened over an area of 2,000 square km (800 square miles) near the Tunguska River.
The blast was 1,000 times more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and generated a shock wave that knocked people to the ground 60km from the epicentre.
The cause was an asteroid or comet just a few tens of metres across which detonated 5-10km above the ground, 100 years ago today.