Lunar
The State Department yesterday called on Israel to forswear nuclear weapons and accept international Atomic Energy Agency safeguards on all nuclear activities.
This is the second time in about two weeks that officials in the Bush administration are putting the nuclear weapons of Israel, India and Pakistan on a par.
The officials called on the three to act like Ukraine and South Africa, which in the last decade renounced their nuclear weapons.
The similar phrasing used by the officials refers to Israel's military nuclear capability, as distinct from "nuclear option," which is to be rolled back, although not necessarily in the "foreseeable future."
http://www.rense.com/general63/isnukes.htm
The power of Britain's multi-billion-pound drugs industry has turned this country into an over-medicalised society that believes in a pill for every ill, a Commons inquiry will claim this week.
The report will say that the billions of pounds poured into researching and promoting new drugs have fuelled an over-emphasis on medicinal cures at the expense of cheaper and better therapies, or simple prevention.
http://www.rense.com/general63/sdf.htm
[There are two things I don’t understand about this article. One is how you cna prosecute someone for sending a letter. And the other is why Russia’s cheif rabbi is badmouthing the lawmakers, when it says the lawmakers voted like 300 to 50 to condemn this letter. Huh?]
Over 5,000 known public activists and members of the clergy in Russia have sent a petition to the state prosecutor's office in which they demand to outlaw Jewish groups
....
Israel's Ambassador to Russia, Arkadi Milman, called the new affair severe and said that Israel will contact Russian authorities in an attempt to prosecute those responsible for the petition.
...
However, in a 306-58 vote that hewed to party lines, the State Duma adopted a declaration saying that the 'clear anti-Semitic intent' of the letter and other appeals for government actions targeting Jews 'prompts indignation and sharp condemnation.'
...
Russia's chief rabbi, Berel Lazar, said the lawmakers were either insane or 'quite sane but limitlessly cynical' and were hoping to win support 'by playing the anti-Semitic card.'
http://www.rense.com/general63/redn.htm
[Period of declining attacks? everything I have read says the attacks have been steady right along.]
Insurgents detonated car bombs and fired rocket propelled grenades at the Abu Ghraib prison, injuring 44 U.S. forces after a period of declining attacks that had raised hopes the insurgency might be weakening. Lawmakers cast votes for parliament speaker Sunday in a session aimed at ending a deadlock.
http://www.rense.com/general63/reddn.htm
Iraqi state television said Sunday an unspecified number of legislators have either pulled out or resigned from the National Assembly.
http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/20050403-050536-8413r.htm
Those critics say Japan's research whaling program differs little from commercial whaling because the whale meat is sold to Japanese supermarkets and restaurants. They also oppose the resumption of Japan's program because of the difficulty of enforcing catch quotas.
Tokyo says the meat sales ó worth about US$52 million (euro40.1 million) in 2003 ó help fund the program and limit the waste of ocean resources.
http://www.rense.com/general63/japan.htm
The Permian-Triassic mass extinction killed off about 95% of all marine species and about three-quarters of all land families.
It is the boundary at which the famous water-dwelling arthropods known as the trilobites were wiped out.
The Permian saw the creation of the Pangean supercontinent, and the geological evidence suggests this landmass experienced huge volcanic turmoil.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4398401.stm
For all their bravado, these are children who laugh one minute and burst into tears the next. Three-quarters suffer from anxiety and nightmares. Many suffer flashbacks of violent events. According to research by the Gaza Community Centre for Mental Health, 55 per cent of kids in 'hot' areas such as Rafah have acute post-traumatic stress disorder.
'These children become indifferent to death,' says Dr Fadel Abu Hein, associate professor of mental health and psychology at Al-Aqsa University. 'On the one hand, the Israeli soldiers make them feel insecure; on the other, they embrace death because in this society the martyr is celebrated.'
Worst affected are those who have seen relatives or friends killed in front of them, but children are also traumatised by shooting, night raids, demolitions and other people's stress. 'In the long term, the trauma will grow with the child and becomes part of the personality,' says Abu Hein. 'The disease matures with them.'
The result could be that some children never adjust to peace, growing instead into aggressive adults who vent their rage against their own families and society. 'Some may project their anger on to their own children, to observe their own suffering in their kids. Like a mirror,' says Abu Hein. Around a third of Gaza's children need deep treatment, cautions the psychologist, to guard against 'the creation of a soldier against Israel in the future'.
...
This is clear from the plays the children write and perform themselves. Lubna takes part in one. Four girls walk slowly across the room. Lubna falls to the ground - she has been shot at a checkpoint by the Israeli army. Her friends weep. They walk again. Another girl falls. When the two survivors go home, their mothers meet them: 'Where's Lubna? Where's Abir? Why are you carrying their bags?' The girls reply: 'They have become shahids [martyrs].' They all hug and cry.
'I was shocked when they started this,' says Qishta, whose own plays about picnics were scorned. 'It makes me cry because it's not like they're acting; it's like it's real. It is their reality.'
...
Research shows that exposure to long-term trauma could have detrimental physical effects on the brain. After adrenalin kicks in, the chemical cortisol is released into the bloodstream. In the short term, this 'fight or flight' mechanism is good for survival, says David Trickey, chartered clinical psychologist at the traumatic stress clinic at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London. But over longer periods 'cortisol becomes toxic and affects the brain, especially in children whose brains are still developing and therefore more malleable'.
...
During the intifada more than 630 Palestinian minors under 17 have been killed. According to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, another 3,700 have been wounded. Reeham is one. She is a beautiful seven-year-old with glossy hair. She takes out one of her eyes.
http://www.rense.com/general63/intiy.htm
Emails seen by The Observer reveal that employees of Blackwater Security were recently sent a message stating that 'actually it is "fun" to shoot some people.'
Dated 7 March and bearing the name of Blackwater's president, Gary Jackson, the electronic newsletter adds that terrorists 'need to get creamed, and it's fun, meaning satisfying, to do the shooting of such folk.'
....
There are thought to be as many as 20,000 private enterprise soldiers in Iraq, with the US military an advocate of their use. This system allows governments to save money on paying permanent soldiers, and offers the political bonus that it is unlikely to attract as much media attention as conventional troops.
http://www.rense.com/general63/fury.htm
There were 103 Taser stun gun-related deaths in the United States and Canada between June 2001 and March 2005, according to an Amnesty International report released Friday.
In the first three months of this year, there were 13 Taser-related deaths ó compared with six during the same period last year, the report said.
http://www.rense.com/general63/taserd.htm
A fatal disease that forced the slaughter and incineration of thousands of deer and elk in the Rocky Mountains and Midwest has moved to within striking distance of Maryland, capturing the attention of state wildlife officials.
New York health and environment officials Thursday confirmed a case of chronic wasting disease, or CWD, in a six-year-old white-tailed doe from a captive herd in Oneida County, about 30 miles east of Syracuse.
http://www.rense.com/general63/hhy.htm
Defence chiefs are planning to reduce the size of the British military force in Iraq from 9,000 to 3,500 troops within 12 months as part of a phased withdrawal from Iraq, The Telegraph can reveal.
In the first stage of Britain's "exit strategy", troops will be withdrawn from three of the Army's five military bases in southern Iraq by April 2006.
The move also fits in with a plan to increase British troop numbers in Afghanistan in a renewed attempt to hunt down Osama bin Laden and other senior al-Qa'eda figures who are believed to be hiding close to the country's border with Pakistan.
http://www.rense.com/general63/deff.htm
[I’ve never met this guy, but he sounds like an idiot.]
He said: "It is appalling deconstructionism from the liberal lobby which will spin even the remotest thing to turn it into a hint that Biblical figures are gay. It is so utterly preposterous to imply that Jesus's relationship with John was homo-erotic, but twisting the truth is the only way these people can get scriptural justification for their lifestyles. Can you imagine Calvin, Luther or Erasmus saying something like this? It is a wonder that thunder and lightning bolts don't strike Bishop Robinson down."
...
Bishop Robinson, who married his partner, Mark, said that he had come to reconcile his sexuality with his faith and could feel "God's light and God's life ooze over me like warm butter".
http://www.rense.com/general63/defdf.htm
Poor women cooking family meals in India are helping to melt the Arctic icecap, startling new studies show. Soot from their fires gets wafted into the atmosphere to fall out on the ice thousands of miles away, hastening its disappearance.
In a vivid demonstration of interconnectedness, Nasa scientists have found that one-third of the soot affecting the Arctic comes from South Asia. And Indian studies show that nearly half of the soot emitted in the region comes from cooking fires. Last November a major study by some 300 scientists found that the icecap had thinned by nearly half over the past 30 years. It is expected to disappear altogether by 2070, leaving open water all the way to the North Pole.
http://www.rense.com/general63/hmf.htm
Amid accusations of foul play, President Robert Mugabe's ruling party won a two-thirds majority in parliamentary elections, giving him enough seats to press ahead with plans to change Zimbabwe's constitution and strengthen his grip on power.
Final figures released show Zanu-PF had 77 seats, plus the 30 presidential deputies that Mr Mugabe can appoint in the 150-seat parliament. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which won 42 seats, has alleged massive fraud. There was one independent victory. Crucially, President Mugabe now has the two-thirds majority needed to amend Zimbabwe's constitution. The result enables him to install a successor without first calling elections as presently required.
http://www.rense.com/general63/wwf.htm
An alcoholic cousin of an aide to Ahmed Chalabi has emerged as the key source in the US rationale for going to war in Iraq.
According to a US presidential commission looking into pre-war intelligence failures, the basis for pivotal intelligence on Iraq's alleged biological weapons programmes and fleet of mobile labs was a spy described as 'crazy' by his intelligence handlers and a 'congenital liar' by his friends.
The defector, given the code-name Curveball by the CIA, has emerged as the central figure in the corruption of US intelligence estimates on Iraq. Despite considerable doubts over Curveball's credibility, his claims were included in the administration's case for war without caveat.
http://www.rense.com/general63/jst.htm
CWD has been detected in wild and captive deer and elk populations in 12 states in the West and Midwest.
Scientists don't know how the disease is transmitted among animals. Symptoms of the disease include weight loss, stumbling, tremors, lack of coordination and listlessness.
http://www.rense.com/general63/itdc.htm
Things have changed completely from as recently as five years ago," said Mark Bekoff, an expert in canine play behavior and professor of biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
Biologists suggest that nature apparently considers sounds of joy important enough to have conserved them during the evolutionary process.
"Neural circuits for laughter exist in very ancient regions of the brain," Panksepp said, "and ancestral forms of play and laughter existed in other animals eons before we humans came along."
http://www.rense.com/general63/annim.htm
[I’ll put this in herei n the interests of “blanace”.
Just two comments. As to this:
“they would rather show photo’s of what a few perverted malcontent soldiers have done in prisons in many cases never disclosing the circumstances surrounding the events”
I hope that the links on this page have shown that it was more than a few perverted malcontents.
Also the thing about cell phones, I am surprised the usage is that low, since they are essentially starting from a base of zero.]
DID YOU KNOW THIS?
Did you know that 47 countries have re-established their embassies in Iraq?
Did you know that the Iraqi government employs 1.2 million Iraqi people?
Did you know that 3100 schools have been renovated, 364 schools are under rehabilitation, 263 schools are now under construction and 38 new schools have been built in Iraq?
Did you know that Iraq’s higher educational structure consists of 20 Universities, 46 Institutes or colleges and 4 research centers?
Did you know that 25 Iraq students departed for the United States in January 2004 for the re-established Fulbright program?
Did you know that the Iraqi Navy is operational? They have 5- 100-foot patrol craft, 34 smaller vessels and a navel infantry regiment.
Did you know that Iraq’s Air Force consists of three operation squadrons, 9 reconnaissance and 3 US C-130 transport aircraft which operate day and night, and will soon add 16 UH-1 helicopters and 4 bell jet rangers?
Did you know that Iraq has a counter-terrorist unit and a Commando Battalion?
Did you know that the Iraqi Police Service has over 55,000 fully trained and equipped police officers?
Did you know that there are 5 Police Academies in Iraq that produce over 3500 new officers each 8 weeks?
Did you know there are more than 1100 building projects going on in Iraq? They include 364 schools, 67 public clinics, 15 hospitals, 83 railroad stations, 22 oil facilities, 93 water facilities and 69 electrical facilities.
Did you know that 96% of Iraqi children under the age of 5 have received the first 2 series of polio vaccinations?
Did you know that 4.3 million Iraqi children were enrolled in primary school by mid October?
Did you know that there are 1,192,000 cell phone subscribers in Iraq and phone use has gone up 158%?
Did you know that Iraq has an independent media that consist of 75 radio stations, 180 newspapers and 10 television stations?
Did you know that the Baghdad Stock Exchange opened in June of 2004?
Did you know that 2 candidates in the Iraqi presidential election had a recent televised debate recently?
OF COURSE WE DIDN’T KNOW!
WHY DIDN’T WE KNOW?—OUR MEDIA WOULDN’T TELL US!
Because a Bush- hating media and Democratic Party would rather see the world blow up than lose their power.
Instead of shouting these accomplishments from every rooftop, they would rather show photo’s of what a few perverted malcontent soldiers have done in prisons in many cases never disclosing the circumstances surrounding the events.
Instead of showing our love for our country, we get photos of flag burning incidents at Abu Ghraib and people throwing snowballs at presidential motorcades.
The lack of accentuating the positive in Iraq serves only one purpose. It undermines the world’s perception of the United States and our soldiers.
I AM ASHAMED OF MY FELLOW AMERICANS WHO WOULD RATHER SEE TERRORISM SUCCEED THAN A REPUBLICAN PRESIDENT.
This is verifiable on the Department of Defense website.
Pass it on! John K.
[Not sure if this is really proving what the author thinks it is or not.]
According to conventional theory, which determines the distance of a galaxy by its redshift, the cluster is 9 billion light years away. That means the light we see today was emitted 9 billion years ago, or only 5 billion years after the Big Bang, in which all matter and energy supposedly was created. Gravitational forces could not have generated such a cluster of galaxies in such an astronomically short time.
The ESO news release commented:
"The discovery of such a complex and mature structure so early in the history of the Universe is highly surprising. Indeed, until recently it would even have been deemed impossible."
Translation: This observation falsified the theory. To save the theory (upon which grants and reputations are established) an ad hoc patch must be found.
http://www.rense.com/general63/bbang.htm
"I think it's extremely high on the outrageous scale. This is a direct violation of a Supreme Court decision," said lawyer Rachel Meeropol of the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights.
The justices ruled last June that the government cannot hold an American citizen indefinitely in a US military jail without providing a chance to contest the case against him.
"The Supreme Court decided that an alleged enemy combatant who is an American citizen has the right to challenge the factual basis for his detention, and has the right to do that through counsel. This man has clearly been denied both opportunities," Meeropol said.
http://www.rense.com/general63/it.htm
THE BEST COMEBACK LINE EVER!
>
>Marine Corp's General Reinwald was interviewed on the
>radio the other day and you have to read his
>reply to the lady who interviewed him concerning guns and
>children.
>Regardless of how you feel about gun laws you gotta love
>this!!!!
>
>
>This is one of the best comeback lines of all time. It is
>a portion of National Public Radio (NPR) interview between
>a female broadcaster and US Marine Corps General Reinwald
>who was sponsoring a Boy Scout Troop he brought to his
>military base.
>
>
>FEMALE REPORTER: So, General Reinwald, what things are you
>going to teach these young boys
>while they're visiting your base?
>
>
>GENERAL REINWALD: We're going to teach them climbing,
>canoeing, and shooting.
>
>
>FEMALE REPORTER: Shooting! That's a bit irresponsible,
>isn't it?
>
>
>GENERAL REINWALD: Not at all, they'll be properly
>supervised on the rifle range.
>
>
>FEMALE REPORTER: Don't you admit that this is a terribly
>dangerous activity to be teaching children?
>
>
>GENERAL REINWALD: No we are very safety conscious and will
>be teaching them proper rifle discipline before they even
>touch a firearm.
>
>
>FEMALE REPORTER: But you're equipping them to become
>violent killers.
>
>
>GENERAL REINWALD: Well, Ma'am, you're equipped to be a
>prostitute, but you're not one, are you?
>
>
>The radio went silent and the interview ended.
>
>
>You gotta love the Marines!
[Montana sounds pretty good, except for its unfortunate distance from the ocean.]
HELENA - Montana lawmakers overwhelmingly passed what its sponsor called the nation's most strongly worded criticism of the federal Patriot Act on Friday, uniting politicians of all stripes.
The resolution, which already galloped through the Senate and passed the House 88-12 Friday, must survive a final vote before it officially passes.
Montana isn't the first state that passed a resolution, but this resolution is the strongest statement against the constitutional violations of the Patriot Act of any state and almost every city or county.
State Sen. Jim Elliott
D-Trout Creek
Also See:
Bill of Rights Defense Committee
Senate Joint Resolution 19, sponsored by Sen. Jim Elliott, D-Trout Creek, says that while the 2005 Legislature supports the federal government's fight against terrorism, the so-called Patriot Act of 2001 granted authorities sweeping powers that violate citizens' rights enshrined in both the U.S. and Montanan constitutions.
The resolution, which does not carry the weight of a law but expresses the Legislature's opinion, encourages Montana law enforcement agencies not to participate in investigations authorized under the Patriot Act that violate Montanans' constitutional rights. It requests all libraries in the state to post a sign warning citizens that under the Patriot Act, federal agents may force librarians to turn over a record of books a person has checked out and never inform that citizen of the request.
The resolution asks Montana's attorney general to review any state intelligence information and destroy it if is not tied directly to suspected criminals. It also asks the attorney general to find out how many Montanans have been arrested under the Patriot Act and how many people have been subject to so-called "sneak and peaks," or government searches of a person's property without the person's knowledge.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0402-02.htm
Mr. Jackson Diehl
The Washington Post
Washington DC USA
Mister Diehl:
It's impossible to believe that a journalist at a newspaper as important as the Washington Post is so badly informed as you appear to be in your article "Chavez's Censorship: Where Disrespect Can Land You in Jail," published March 28.
You can believe, if you wish, that Venezuela used to be "the most prosperous and stable democracy in Latin America" (with 80% of the population in extreme poverty, civil strife, and military uprisings), put you can't write, without lying, that in Venezuela, journalists are persecuted and the press is censored, because there isn't a single case that supports what you say.
You say the truth when you affirm that "some newspapers and television stations openly sided with attempts to oust the president via coup, strike or a national referendum." Before being Minister of Information and Communication, I worked as news director for RCTV, an important private TV station in Venezuela. Immediately after the coup of April 2002 against President Hugo Chavez, when hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets demanding the return of their elected president, RCTV and other private channels decided not to report on this civil uprising, preferring to broadcast cartoons and old movies. Since I couldn't bring myself to participate in this censorship, I resigned.
...
Instead of your incomplete, cartoonish, and malicious portrait of Venezuelan media and laws, I would have preferred to see, from a respectable "independent newspaper," a balanced analysis of our informative landscape. But I think that it's more likely that we'll find out, in the not-so-distant future, that you too, Mister Diehl, receive money from the State Department
http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=29153
A CON MAN and drug peddler who bilked a cancer survivor out of her business begged for a conditional sentence yesterday after saying he had converted to Judaism. Character witnesses, including Rabbi Mendel Kaplan and other congregation members and friends, praised Sandy Hutchens, 45, as a devout orthodox Jewish family man with three kids.
http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/TorontoSun/News/2005/04/02/979788-sun.html
Bomb-smothering trash cans in New York rail hubs don't work and could even make a terror blast more deadly by shredding you with shrapnel, say two whistleblowers who worked with the maker of the cans.
Hundreds of the supposedly bomb-busting bins are in place at Grand Central, Penn Station and Amtrak and Long Island Rail Road stations.
The insiders charge that Israeli security company Mistral fudged test results and misled the MTA and other agencies to sell its cans, which fetch up to $3,000 each.
"They painted a rosy picture," said security-equipment seller Grant Huber of upstate Spring Valley, who stopped selling Mistral's cans three years ago.
"If anybody ever put a real bomb in one of those cans, people are going to get hurt," said Bill Green, who built Mistral cans in Alabama until he fell out with the company, he claims.
The tests were done in 2002 with the Mobile, Ala., bomb squad.
The lid kept blowing off during tests with C4 explosives, Green said.
http://nypost.com/news/regionalnews/42062.htm
[What is Iran supposed to gain from this?]
PALESTINIAN fighters have revealed that Hezbollah, the militant Lebanese group backed by Iran, is offering to pay for attacks aimed at shattering the fragile truce with Israel.
Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister, has made it clear that one suicide bomber in Tel Aviv could prompt him to abandon negotiations with the Palestinian Authority, and may even delay Israel’s disengagement from Gaza, which is planned for July.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-1552439,00.html
[Why would anyone be afraid of Cuba for any reason? Even in the Cuban missile crisis all they were providing was the real estate.]
Bush critics in the Senate are hunting for evidence to derail or delay
confirmation of State Department official John Bolton as U.S. ambassador to
the United Nations. Foreign Relations Committee staffers are looking into
charges that Bolton attempted to intimidate or victimize two career
intelligence officials for what he viewed as their insufficiently alarmist
analyses of intel on purported Cuban biological weapons. Committee
investigators have contacted both the State Department and the intel community
seeking records and witnesses. But Bolton's opponents are unsure if they will
be able to make their case in time for Bolton's confirmation hearing Thursday.
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=109&STORY=/www/story/04-03-2005/0003319330&EDATE
Amazing Special Offers from the Barnes Review Magazine
Israel Boycotts Peace Conference; Mainstream Media Mum on Meeting
By Christopher Bollyn
Unreported in the corporate controlled press, the Israeli boycott of the recent international Middle East peace summit in London illustrates
why the Israel-Palestine conflict remains stuck in a quagmire after 57 years and who is ultimately responsible.
Although Israel stayed away, its hard-line government dictated the conference agenda and terms of discussion. Foreign ministers and high-level delegations from 23 nations and six international organizations convened in
London on March 1 to try and advance the “peace process” between the Palestinians and Israelis. The attendees included the newly elected Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan,Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the European Union’s (EU) foreign policy chief Javier Solana and World Bank president James D. Wolfensohn.
Representatives from the UN, EU, the United States and Russia—the “Quartet” members who drafted the current peace plan known as the “road map”—were also present for the one-day conference at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Center.
Despite the presence of so many high-level delegations, the international gathering, which Blair had originally hoped would be, or lead to, a peace conference, was unable to advance the peace process even one step because the chief antagonist of the conflict in Palestine, the Israeli government, simply boycotted the conference.
This, however, went unreported in the U.S. mainstream media
http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/israel_boycotts_peace.html
The CyberBug is a scalable 2.6 to 12 pound unmanned aircraft, which can be deployed for total surveillance of an area. The CyberBug does not require extensive instruction, technical backup or pilot training.
Capable of rapid deployment, it can be assembled and launched by an individual from remote areas in 30 seconds, and easily recovered in winds up to 20 MPH. The basic unit includes an autopilot, data link with GPS overlay, a day/night camera, and offers options that include Infra Red view.
The CyberBug has two basic uses: short-term flights to operate surveillance in areas of concern using high powered day and night vision for dangerous situations, and long-term flights for the routine surveillance of patrol areas up to four hours. Suggested retail price starts at $8,500.
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/uav-05y.html
[Supporting the troops.]
The death toll from the highly toxic weapons component known as depleted
uranium (DU) has reached 11,000 soldiers and the growing scandal may be the reason behind Anthony Principi’s departure as secretary of the Veterans
Affairs Department.
This view was expressed by Arthur Bernklau, executive director of Veterans for Constitutional Law in New York, writing in Preventive Psychiatry E-Newsletter.
“The real reason for Mr. Principi’s departure was really never given,” Bernklau said. “However, a special report published by eminent scientist Leuren Moret naming depleted uranium as the definitive cause of ‘Gulf War Syndrome’ has fed a growing scandal about the continued use of uranium
munitions by the U.S. military.
http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/du_death_toll.html
A recent international scientific study on Russian soils raises concerns that acid rain may have serious implications for forest growth in the U.S., particularly in eastern areas such as the Adirondack and Catskill regions of New York according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
"We've known that acid rain acidifies surface waters, but this is the first time we've been able to compare and track tree growth in forests that include soil changes due to acid rain," said USGS scientist Greg Lawrence, who headed the study
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/pollution-05e.html
[The thing that gets me about the global warming issue is that so much of the information and analysis seems to be coming from American universities, and yet you hear essentially nothing about it in the actual United States.]
f the North Atlantic Ocean's circulation system is shut down - an apocalyptic global-warming scenario - the impact on the world's food supplies would be disastrous, a study said last Thursday.
The shutdown would cause global stocks of plankton, a vital early link in the food chain, to decline by a fifth while plankton stocks in the North Atlantic itself would shrink by more than half, it said.
"A massive decline of plankton stocks could have catastrophic effects on fisheries and human food supply in the affected regions," warned the research, authored by Andreas Schmittner of Oregon State University.
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/oceans-05b.html
Leading Japanese electronics maker Toshiba said Tuesday it has developed a light and thin prototype battery that recharges 80 percent of capacity in just a minute.
The development "makes long recharge times a thing of the past," the company said in a statement, noting one minute is roughly 60 times faster than typical lithium-ion batteries.
The new battery measures 62 millimeters (2.48 inches) by 35 and is 3.8 millimetres thick.
http://www.spacedaily.com/2005/050329064659.7m5c40my.html
Flamboyant British tycoon Richard Branson said Thursday his Virgin group's ambitious plans for commercial space flights are complete and the first fee-paying astronaut will fly with him into orbit in the next 30 months.
"The plan for the new spaceship is complete and work on the project will commence in the next three months, with the first commerical space flight to take off in two-and-half years," Branson told reporters in Bombay, India's financial hub.
http://www.spacedaily.com/2005/050331123218.43miug2s.html
Further, like the Lunar Prospector Mission itself, this book was written to expose to the American taxpayer the basic flaws of an ever increasingly incompetent NASA and its major aerospace contractors.
Though the Lunar Prospector Mission was a small, inexpensive, unmanned, orbital mapping mission, the reader will, via the author's experiences in conducting his mission, become intimately acquainted with the inefficient and self-serving activities of the entrenched NASA bureaucracy and the big aerospace companies.
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/lunar-05p.html
This is the second time in about two weeks that officials in the Bush administration are putting the nuclear weapons of Israel, India and Pakistan on a par.
The officials called on the three to act like Ukraine and South Africa, which in the last decade renounced their nuclear weapons.
The similar phrasing used by the officials refers to Israel's military nuclear capability, as distinct from "nuclear option," which is to be rolled back, although not necessarily in the "foreseeable future."
http://www.rense.com/general63/isnukes.htm
The power of Britain's multi-billion-pound drugs industry has turned this country into an over-medicalised society that believes in a pill for every ill, a Commons inquiry will claim this week.
The report will say that the billions of pounds poured into researching and promoting new drugs have fuelled an over-emphasis on medicinal cures at the expense of cheaper and better therapies, or simple prevention.
http://www.rense.com/general63/sdf.htm
[There are two things I don’t understand about this article. One is how you cna prosecute someone for sending a letter. And the other is why Russia’s cheif rabbi is badmouthing the lawmakers, when it says the lawmakers voted like 300 to 50 to condemn this letter. Huh?]
Over 5,000 known public activists and members of the clergy in Russia have sent a petition to the state prosecutor's office in which they demand to outlaw Jewish groups
....
Israel's Ambassador to Russia, Arkadi Milman, called the new affair severe and said that Israel will contact Russian authorities in an attempt to prosecute those responsible for the petition.
...
However, in a 306-58 vote that hewed to party lines, the State Duma adopted a declaration saying that the 'clear anti-Semitic intent' of the letter and other appeals for government actions targeting Jews 'prompts indignation and sharp condemnation.'
...
Russia's chief rabbi, Berel Lazar, said the lawmakers were either insane or 'quite sane but limitlessly cynical' and were hoping to win support 'by playing the anti-Semitic card.'
http://www.rense.com/general63/redn.htm
[Period of declining attacks? everything I have read says the attacks have been steady right along.]
Insurgents detonated car bombs and fired rocket propelled grenades at the Abu Ghraib prison, injuring 44 U.S. forces after a period of declining attacks that had raised hopes the insurgency might be weakening. Lawmakers cast votes for parliament speaker Sunday in a session aimed at ending a deadlock.
http://www.rense.com/general63/reddn.htm
Iraqi state television said Sunday an unspecified number of legislators have either pulled out or resigned from the National Assembly.
http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/20050403-050536-8413r.htm
Those critics say Japan's research whaling program differs little from commercial whaling because the whale meat is sold to Japanese supermarkets and restaurants. They also oppose the resumption of Japan's program because of the difficulty of enforcing catch quotas.
Tokyo says the meat sales ó worth about US$52 million (euro40.1 million) in 2003 ó help fund the program and limit the waste of ocean resources.
http://www.rense.com/general63/japan.htm
The Permian-Triassic mass extinction killed off about 95% of all marine species and about three-quarters of all land families.
It is the boundary at which the famous water-dwelling arthropods known as the trilobites were wiped out.
The Permian saw the creation of the Pangean supercontinent, and the geological evidence suggests this landmass experienced huge volcanic turmoil.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4398401.stm
For all their bravado, these are children who laugh one minute and burst into tears the next. Three-quarters suffer from anxiety and nightmares. Many suffer flashbacks of violent events. According to research by the Gaza Community Centre for Mental Health, 55 per cent of kids in 'hot' areas such as Rafah have acute post-traumatic stress disorder.
'These children become indifferent to death,' says Dr Fadel Abu Hein, associate professor of mental health and psychology at Al-Aqsa University. 'On the one hand, the Israeli soldiers make them feel insecure; on the other, they embrace death because in this society the martyr is celebrated.'
Worst affected are those who have seen relatives or friends killed in front of them, but children are also traumatised by shooting, night raids, demolitions and other people's stress. 'In the long term, the trauma will grow with the child and becomes part of the personality,' says Abu Hein. 'The disease matures with them.'
The result could be that some children never adjust to peace, growing instead into aggressive adults who vent their rage against their own families and society. 'Some may project their anger on to their own children, to observe their own suffering in their kids. Like a mirror,' says Abu Hein. Around a third of Gaza's children need deep treatment, cautions the psychologist, to guard against 'the creation of a soldier against Israel in the future'.
...
This is clear from the plays the children write and perform themselves. Lubna takes part in one. Four girls walk slowly across the room. Lubna falls to the ground - she has been shot at a checkpoint by the Israeli army. Her friends weep. They walk again. Another girl falls. When the two survivors go home, their mothers meet them: 'Where's Lubna? Where's Abir? Why are you carrying their bags?' The girls reply: 'They have become shahids [martyrs].' They all hug and cry.
'I was shocked when they started this,' says Qishta, whose own plays about picnics were scorned. 'It makes me cry because it's not like they're acting; it's like it's real. It is their reality.'
...
Research shows that exposure to long-term trauma could have detrimental physical effects on the brain. After adrenalin kicks in, the chemical cortisol is released into the bloodstream. In the short term, this 'fight or flight' mechanism is good for survival, says David Trickey, chartered clinical psychologist at the traumatic stress clinic at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London. But over longer periods 'cortisol becomes toxic and affects the brain, especially in children whose brains are still developing and therefore more malleable'.
...
During the intifada more than 630 Palestinian minors under 17 have been killed. According to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, another 3,700 have been wounded. Reeham is one. She is a beautiful seven-year-old with glossy hair. She takes out one of her eyes.
http://www.rense.com/general63/intiy.htm
Emails seen by The Observer reveal that employees of Blackwater Security were recently sent a message stating that 'actually it is "fun" to shoot some people.'
Dated 7 March and bearing the name of Blackwater's president, Gary Jackson, the electronic newsletter adds that terrorists 'need to get creamed, and it's fun, meaning satisfying, to do the shooting of such folk.'
....
There are thought to be as many as 20,000 private enterprise soldiers in Iraq, with the US military an advocate of their use. This system allows governments to save money on paying permanent soldiers, and offers the political bonus that it is unlikely to attract as much media attention as conventional troops.
http://www.rense.com/general63/fury.htm
There were 103 Taser stun gun-related deaths in the United States and Canada between June 2001 and March 2005, according to an Amnesty International report released Friday.
In the first three months of this year, there were 13 Taser-related deaths ó compared with six during the same period last year, the report said.
http://www.rense.com/general63/taserd.htm
A fatal disease that forced the slaughter and incineration of thousands of deer and elk in the Rocky Mountains and Midwest has moved to within striking distance of Maryland, capturing the attention of state wildlife officials.
New York health and environment officials Thursday confirmed a case of chronic wasting disease, or CWD, in a six-year-old white-tailed doe from a captive herd in Oneida County, about 30 miles east of Syracuse.
http://www.rense.com/general63/hhy.htm
Defence chiefs are planning to reduce the size of the British military force in Iraq from 9,000 to 3,500 troops within 12 months as part of a phased withdrawal from Iraq, The Telegraph can reveal.
In the first stage of Britain's "exit strategy", troops will be withdrawn from three of the Army's five military bases in southern Iraq by April 2006.
The move also fits in with a plan to increase British troop numbers in Afghanistan in a renewed attempt to hunt down Osama bin Laden and other senior al-Qa'eda figures who are believed to be hiding close to the country's border with Pakistan.
http://www.rense.com/general63/deff.htm
[I’ve never met this guy, but he sounds like an idiot.]
He said: "It is appalling deconstructionism from the liberal lobby which will spin even the remotest thing to turn it into a hint that Biblical figures are gay. It is so utterly preposterous to imply that Jesus's relationship with John was homo-erotic, but twisting the truth is the only way these people can get scriptural justification for their lifestyles. Can you imagine Calvin, Luther or Erasmus saying something like this? It is a wonder that thunder and lightning bolts don't strike Bishop Robinson down."
...
Bishop Robinson, who married his partner, Mark, said that he had come to reconcile his sexuality with his faith and could feel "God's light and God's life ooze over me like warm butter".
http://www.rense.com/general63/defdf.htm
Poor women cooking family meals in India are helping to melt the Arctic icecap, startling new studies show. Soot from their fires gets wafted into the atmosphere to fall out on the ice thousands of miles away, hastening its disappearance.
In a vivid demonstration of interconnectedness, Nasa scientists have found that one-third of the soot affecting the Arctic comes from South Asia. And Indian studies show that nearly half of the soot emitted in the region comes from cooking fires. Last November a major study by some 300 scientists found that the icecap had thinned by nearly half over the past 30 years. It is expected to disappear altogether by 2070, leaving open water all the way to the North Pole.
http://www.rense.com/general63/hmf.htm
Amid accusations of foul play, President Robert Mugabe's ruling party won a two-thirds majority in parliamentary elections, giving him enough seats to press ahead with plans to change Zimbabwe's constitution and strengthen his grip on power.
Final figures released show Zanu-PF had 77 seats, plus the 30 presidential deputies that Mr Mugabe can appoint in the 150-seat parliament. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which won 42 seats, has alleged massive fraud. There was one independent victory. Crucially, President Mugabe now has the two-thirds majority needed to amend Zimbabwe's constitution. The result enables him to install a successor without first calling elections as presently required.
http://www.rense.com/general63/wwf.htm
An alcoholic cousin of an aide to Ahmed Chalabi has emerged as the key source in the US rationale for going to war in Iraq.
According to a US presidential commission looking into pre-war intelligence failures, the basis for pivotal intelligence on Iraq's alleged biological weapons programmes and fleet of mobile labs was a spy described as 'crazy' by his intelligence handlers and a 'congenital liar' by his friends.
The defector, given the code-name Curveball by the CIA, has emerged as the central figure in the corruption of US intelligence estimates on Iraq. Despite considerable doubts over Curveball's credibility, his claims were included in the administration's case for war without caveat.
http://www.rense.com/general63/jst.htm
CWD has been detected in wild and captive deer and elk populations in 12 states in the West and Midwest.
Scientists don't know how the disease is transmitted among animals. Symptoms of the disease include weight loss, stumbling, tremors, lack of coordination and listlessness.
http://www.rense.com/general63/itdc.htm
Things have changed completely from as recently as five years ago," said Mark Bekoff, an expert in canine play behavior and professor of biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
Biologists suggest that nature apparently considers sounds of joy important enough to have conserved them during the evolutionary process.
"Neural circuits for laughter exist in very ancient regions of the brain," Panksepp said, "and ancestral forms of play and laughter existed in other animals eons before we humans came along."
http://www.rense.com/general63/annim.htm
[I’ll put this in herei n the interests of “blanace”.
Just two comments. As to this:
“they would rather show photo’s of what a few perverted malcontent soldiers have done in prisons in many cases never disclosing the circumstances surrounding the events”
I hope that the links on this page have shown that it was more than a few perverted malcontents.
Also the thing about cell phones, I am surprised the usage is that low, since they are essentially starting from a base of zero.]
DID YOU KNOW THIS?
Did you know that 47 countries have re-established their embassies in Iraq?
Did you know that the Iraqi government employs 1.2 million Iraqi people?
Did you know that 3100 schools have been renovated, 364 schools are under rehabilitation, 263 schools are now under construction and 38 new schools have been built in Iraq?
Did you know that Iraq’s higher educational structure consists of 20 Universities, 46 Institutes or colleges and 4 research centers?
Did you know that 25 Iraq students departed for the United States in January 2004 for the re-established Fulbright program?
Did you know that the Iraqi Navy is operational? They have 5- 100-foot patrol craft, 34 smaller vessels and a navel infantry regiment.
Did you know that Iraq’s Air Force consists of three operation squadrons, 9 reconnaissance and 3 US C-130 transport aircraft which operate day and night, and will soon add 16 UH-1 helicopters and 4 bell jet rangers?
Did you know that Iraq has a counter-terrorist unit and a Commando Battalion?
Did you know that the Iraqi Police Service has over 55,000 fully trained and equipped police officers?
Did you know that there are 5 Police Academies in Iraq that produce over 3500 new officers each 8 weeks?
Did you know there are more than 1100 building projects going on in Iraq? They include 364 schools, 67 public clinics, 15 hospitals, 83 railroad stations, 22 oil facilities, 93 water facilities and 69 electrical facilities.
Did you know that 96% of Iraqi children under the age of 5 have received the first 2 series of polio vaccinations?
Did you know that 4.3 million Iraqi children were enrolled in primary school by mid October?
Did you know that there are 1,192,000 cell phone subscribers in Iraq and phone use has gone up 158%?
Did you know that Iraq has an independent media that consist of 75 radio stations, 180 newspapers and 10 television stations?
Did you know that the Baghdad Stock Exchange opened in June of 2004?
Did you know that 2 candidates in the Iraqi presidential election had a recent televised debate recently?
OF COURSE WE DIDN’T KNOW!
WHY DIDN’T WE KNOW?—OUR MEDIA WOULDN’T TELL US!
Because a Bush- hating media and Democratic Party would rather see the world blow up than lose their power.
Instead of shouting these accomplishments from every rooftop, they would rather show photo’s of what a few perverted malcontent soldiers have done in prisons in many cases never disclosing the circumstances surrounding the events.
Instead of showing our love for our country, we get photos of flag burning incidents at Abu Ghraib and people throwing snowballs at presidential motorcades.
The lack of accentuating the positive in Iraq serves only one purpose. It undermines the world’s perception of the United States and our soldiers.
I AM ASHAMED OF MY FELLOW AMERICANS WHO WOULD RATHER SEE TERRORISM SUCCEED THAN A REPUBLICAN PRESIDENT.
This is verifiable on the Department of Defense website.
Pass it on! John K.
[Not sure if this is really proving what the author thinks it is or not.]
According to conventional theory, which determines the distance of a galaxy by its redshift, the cluster is 9 billion light years away. That means the light we see today was emitted 9 billion years ago, or only 5 billion years after the Big Bang, in which all matter and energy supposedly was created. Gravitational forces could not have generated such a cluster of galaxies in such an astronomically short time.
The ESO news release commented:
"The discovery of such a complex and mature structure so early in the history of the Universe is highly surprising. Indeed, until recently it would even have been deemed impossible."
Translation: This observation falsified the theory. To save the theory (upon which grants and reputations are established) an ad hoc patch must be found.
http://www.rense.com/general63/bbang.htm
"I think it's extremely high on the outrageous scale. This is a direct violation of a Supreme Court decision," said lawyer Rachel Meeropol of the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights.
The justices ruled last June that the government cannot hold an American citizen indefinitely in a US military jail without providing a chance to contest the case against him.
"The Supreme Court decided that an alleged enemy combatant who is an American citizen has the right to challenge the factual basis for his detention, and has the right to do that through counsel. This man has clearly been denied both opportunities," Meeropol said.
http://www.rense.com/general63/it.htm
THE BEST COMEBACK LINE EVER!
>
>Marine Corp's General Reinwald was interviewed on the
>radio the other day and you have to read his
>reply to the lady who interviewed him concerning guns and
>children.
>Regardless of how you feel about gun laws you gotta love
>this!!!!
>
>
>This is one of the best comeback lines of all time. It is
>a portion of National Public Radio (NPR) interview between
>a female broadcaster and US Marine Corps General Reinwald
>who was sponsoring a Boy Scout Troop he brought to his
>military base.
>
>
>FEMALE REPORTER: So, General Reinwald, what things are you
>going to teach these young boys
>while they're visiting your base?
>
>
>GENERAL REINWALD: We're going to teach them climbing,
>canoeing, and shooting.
>
>
>FEMALE REPORTER: Shooting! That's a bit irresponsible,
>isn't it?
>
>
>GENERAL REINWALD: Not at all, they'll be properly
>supervised on the rifle range.
>
>
>FEMALE REPORTER: Don't you admit that this is a terribly
>dangerous activity to be teaching children?
>
>
>GENERAL REINWALD: No we are very safety conscious and will
>be teaching them proper rifle discipline before they even
>touch a firearm.
>
>
>FEMALE REPORTER: But you're equipping them to become
>violent killers.
>
>
>GENERAL REINWALD: Well, Ma'am, you're equipped to be a
>prostitute, but you're not one, are you?
>
>
>The radio went silent and the interview ended.
>
>
>You gotta love the Marines!
[Montana sounds pretty good, except for its unfortunate distance from the ocean.]
HELENA - Montana lawmakers overwhelmingly passed what its sponsor called the nation's most strongly worded criticism of the federal Patriot Act on Friday, uniting politicians of all stripes.
The resolution, which already galloped through the Senate and passed the House 88-12 Friday, must survive a final vote before it officially passes.
Montana isn't the first state that passed a resolution, but this resolution is the strongest statement against the constitutional violations of the Patriot Act of any state and almost every city or county.
State Sen. Jim Elliott
D-Trout Creek
Also See:
Bill of Rights Defense Committee
Senate Joint Resolution 19, sponsored by Sen. Jim Elliott, D-Trout Creek, says that while the 2005 Legislature supports the federal government's fight against terrorism, the so-called Patriot Act of 2001 granted authorities sweeping powers that violate citizens' rights enshrined in both the U.S. and Montanan constitutions.
The resolution, which does not carry the weight of a law but expresses the Legislature's opinion, encourages Montana law enforcement agencies not to participate in investigations authorized under the Patriot Act that violate Montanans' constitutional rights. It requests all libraries in the state to post a sign warning citizens that under the Patriot Act, federal agents may force librarians to turn over a record of books a person has checked out and never inform that citizen of the request.
The resolution asks Montana's attorney general to review any state intelligence information and destroy it if is not tied directly to suspected criminals. It also asks the attorney general to find out how many Montanans have been arrested under the Patriot Act and how many people have been subject to so-called "sneak and peaks," or government searches of a person's property without the person's knowledge.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0402-02.htm
Mr. Jackson Diehl
The Washington Post
Washington DC USA
Mister Diehl:
It's impossible to believe that a journalist at a newspaper as important as the Washington Post is so badly informed as you appear to be in your article "Chavez's Censorship: Where Disrespect Can Land You in Jail," published March 28.
You can believe, if you wish, that Venezuela used to be "the most prosperous and stable democracy in Latin America" (with 80% of the population in extreme poverty, civil strife, and military uprisings), put you can't write, without lying, that in Venezuela, journalists are persecuted and the press is censored, because there isn't a single case that supports what you say.
You say the truth when you affirm that "some newspapers and television stations openly sided with attempts to oust the president via coup, strike or a national referendum." Before being Minister of Information and Communication, I worked as news director for RCTV, an important private TV station in Venezuela. Immediately after the coup of April 2002 against President Hugo Chavez, when hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets demanding the return of their elected president, RCTV and other private channels decided not to report on this civil uprising, preferring to broadcast cartoons and old movies. Since I couldn't bring myself to participate in this censorship, I resigned.
...
Instead of your incomplete, cartoonish, and malicious portrait of Venezuelan media and laws, I would have preferred to see, from a respectable "independent newspaper," a balanced analysis of our informative landscape. But I think that it's more likely that we'll find out, in the not-so-distant future, that you too, Mister Diehl, receive money from the State Department
http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=29153
A CON MAN and drug peddler who bilked a cancer survivor out of her business begged for a conditional sentence yesterday after saying he had converted to Judaism. Character witnesses, including Rabbi Mendel Kaplan and other congregation members and friends, praised Sandy Hutchens, 45, as a devout orthodox Jewish family man with three kids.
http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/TorontoSun/News/2005/04/02/979788-sun.html
Bomb-smothering trash cans in New York rail hubs don't work and could even make a terror blast more deadly by shredding you with shrapnel, say two whistleblowers who worked with the maker of the cans.
Hundreds of the supposedly bomb-busting bins are in place at Grand Central, Penn Station and Amtrak and Long Island Rail Road stations.
The insiders charge that Israeli security company Mistral fudged test results and misled the MTA and other agencies to sell its cans, which fetch up to $3,000 each.
"They painted a rosy picture," said security-equipment seller Grant Huber of upstate Spring Valley, who stopped selling Mistral's cans three years ago.
"If anybody ever put a real bomb in one of those cans, people are going to get hurt," said Bill Green, who built Mistral cans in Alabama until he fell out with the company, he claims.
The tests were done in 2002 with the Mobile, Ala., bomb squad.
The lid kept blowing off during tests with C4 explosives, Green said.
http://nypost.com/news/regionalnews/42062.htm
[What is Iran supposed to gain from this?]
PALESTINIAN fighters have revealed that Hezbollah, the militant Lebanese group backed by Iran, is offering to pay for attacks aimed at shattering the fragile truce with Israel.
Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister, has made it clear that one suicide bomber in Tel Aviv could prompt him to abandon negotiations with the Palestinian Authority, and may even delay Israel’s disengagement from Gaza, which is planned for July.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-1552439,00.html
[Why would anyone be afraid of Cuba for any reason? Even in the Cuban missile crisis all they were providing was the real estate.]
Bush critics in the Senate are hunting for evidence to derail or delay
confirmation of State Department official John Bolton as U.S. ambassador to
the United Nations. Foreign Relations Committee staffers are looking into
charges that Bolton attempted to intimidate or victimize two career
intelligence officials for what he viewed as their insufficiently alarmist
analyses of intel on purported Cuban biological weapons. Committee
investigators have contacted both the State Department and the intel community
seeking records and witnesses. But Bolton's opponents are unsure if they will
be able to make their case in time for Bolton's confirmation hearing Thursday.
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=109&STORY=/www/story/04-03-2005/0003319330&EDATE
Amazing Special Offers from the Barnes Review Magazine
Israel Boycotts Peace Conference; Mainstream Media Mum on Meeting
By Christopher Bollyn
Unreported in the corporate controlled press, the Israeli boycott of the recent international Middle East peace summit in London illustrates
why the Israel-Palestine conflict remains stuck in a quagmire after 57 years and who is ultimately responsible.
Although Israel stayed away, its hard-line government dictated the conference agenda and terms of discussion. Foreign ministers and high-level delegations from 23 nations and six international organizations convened in
London on March 1 to try and advance the “peace process” between the Palestinians and Israelis. The attendees included the newly elected Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan,Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the European Union’s (EU) foreign policy chief Javier Solana and World Bank president James D. Wolfensohn.
Representatives from the UN, EU, the United States and Russia—the “Quartet” members who drafted the current peace plan known as the “road map”—were also present for the one-day conference at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Center.
Despite the presence of so many high-level delegations, the international gathering, which Blair had originally hoped would be, or lead to, a peace conference, was unable to advance the peace process even one step because the chief antagonist of the conflict in Palestine, the Israeli government, simply boycotted the conference.
This, however, went unreported in the U.S. mainstream media
http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/israel_boycotts_peace.html
The CyberBug is a scalable 2.6 to 12 pound unmanned aircraft, which can be deployed for total surveillance of an area. The CyberBug does not require extensive instruction, technical backup or pilot training.
Capable of rapid deployment, it can be assembled and launched by an individual from remote areas in 30 seconds, and easily recovered in winds up to 20 MPH. The basic unit includes an autopilot, data link with GPS overlay, a day/night camera, and offers options that include Infra Red view.
The CyberBug has two basic uses: short-term flights to operate surveillance in areas of concern using high powered day and night vision for dangerous situations, and long-term flights for the routine surveillance of patrol areas up to four hours. Suggested retail price starts at $8,500.
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/uav-05y.html
[Supporting the troops.]
The death toll from the highly toxic weapons component known as depleted
uranium (DU) has reached 11,000 soldiers and the growing scandal may be the reason behind Anthony Principi’s departure as secretary of the Veterans
Affairs Department.
This view was expressed by Arthur Bernklau, executive director of Veterans for Constitutional Law in New York, writing in Preventive Psychiatry E-Newsletter.
“The real reason for Mr. Principi’s departure was really never given,” Bernklau said. “However, a special report published by eminent scientist Leuren Moret naming depleted uranium as the definitive cause of ‘Gulf War Syndrome’ has fed a growing scandal about the continued use of uranium
munitions by the U.S. military.
http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/du_death_toll.html
A recent international scientific study on Russian soils raises concerns that acid rain may have serious implications for forest growth in the U.S., particularly in eastern areas such as the Adirondack and Catskill regions of New York according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
"We've known that acid rain acidifies surface waters, but this is the first time we've been able to compare and track tree growth in forests that include soil changes due to acid rain," said USGS scientist Greg Lawrence, who headed the study
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/pollution-05e.html
[The thing that gets me about the global warming issue is that so much of the information and analysis seems to be coming from American universities, and yet you hear essentially nothing about it in the actual United States.]
f the North Atlantic Ocean's circulation system is shut down - an apocalyptic global-warming scenario - the impact on the world's food supplies would be disastrous, a study said last Thursday.
The shutdown would cause global stocks of plankton, a vital early link in the food chain, to decline by a fifth while plankton stocks in the North Atlantic itself would shrink by more than half, it said.
"A massive decline of plankton stocks could have catastrophic effects on fisheries and human food supply in the affected regions," warned the research, authored by Andreas Schmittner of Oregon State University.
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/oceans-05b.html
Leading Japanese electronics maker Toshiba said Tuesday it has developed a light and thin prototype battery that recharges 80 percent of capacity in just a minute.
The development "makes long recharge times a thing of the past," the company said in a statement, noting one minute is roughly 60 times faster than typical lithium-ion batteries.
The new battery measures 62 millimeters (2.48 inches) by 35 and is 3.8 millimetres thick.
http://www.spacedaily.com/2005/050329064659.7m5c40my.html
Flamboyant British tycoon Richard Branson said Thursday his Virgin group's ambitious plans for commercial space flights are complete and the first fee-paying astronaut will fly with him into orbit in the next 30 months.
"The plan for the new spaceship is complete and work on the project will commence in the next three months, with the first commerical space flight to take off in two-and-half years," Branson told reporters in Bombay, India's financial hub.
http://www.spacedaily.com/2005/050331123218.43miug2s.html
Further, like the Lunar Prospector Mission itself, this book was written to expose to the American taxpayer the basic flaws of an ever increasingly incompetent NASA and its major aerospace contractors.
Though the Lunar Prospector Mission was a small, inexpensive, unmanned, orbital mapping mission, the reader will, via the author's experiences in conducting his mission, become intimately acquainted with the inefficient and self-serving activities of the entrenched NASA bureaucracy and the big aerospace companies.
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/lunar-05p.html
posted by abu nakba at 4/04/2005 07:05:00 PM
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