Mr Obama is coming out into a prominant place in the democratic side of the presidential campaign. I am not a partcularly interested in the bloody US politics as it sucks. But I have to make a comment here as I found a little bit of news which I think is important when you think of the whole world.
"Obama is not, however, the product of the civil rights struggles against racial oppression, nor is he associated with any popular movement from below. His career has far more in common with those of Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell, individuals selected and groomed by the American ruling class to carry out its policies. Like them, he is being used to put a new face on fundamentally reactionary policies and institutions."
And
"While the American people will cast ballots on November 4, the real decisions are made long before then, in the selection of candidates and framing of the election by the media and the corporate bosses and billionaires who finance and politically screen the candidates."
I wonder whether people in US realise this. Well even UK it looks like the same thing is happening; except I haven't any proof of it, as in written internet archives. Help appreciated if you know any articles of proof in your walk-arounds in the internet world.
Then
"The Times editorial says Obama “electrifies young voters ... because he embodies the desire to move to the next chapter of the American story.” It praises his early opposition to the war in Iraq, while noting approvingly his “understanding that some liberal orthodoxies developed during the last 40 years have been overtaken by history.” This last indicates that Obama has reassured the ruling elite that there will be no return to policies of liberal reform or expensive government social programs.
Then comes the meat of the argument: “An Obama presidency would present, as a distinctly American face, a man of African descent, born in the nation’s youngest state [Hawaii], with a childhood spent partly in Asia, among Muslims. No public relations campaign could do more than Obama’s mere presence in the White House to defuse anti-American passion around the world...”"
Mind this article is from "Socialist" side of politics.
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Monday, February 04, 2008
Saturday, February 02, 2008
Israel is No 1 threat to peace, says EU poll
Israel is No 1 threat to peace, says EU poll
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in Brussels
Last Updated: 11:49pm GMT 03/11/2003
Europeans view Israel as the No 1 threat to world peace, ahead of Iran and North Korea, according to a European Commission survey yesterday.
The results prompted a furious reaction from the Israeli government, which has already accused the European Union of turning a blind eye to rising anti-Semitism.
The Eurobarometer poll of 7,500 EU residents found that 59 per cent deemed Israel "a threat to peace in the world", with the figures rising to 60 per cent in Britain, 65 in Germany, 69 in Austria and 74 in Holland.
advertisementFranco Frattini, Italy's foreign minister, apologised for the results on behalf of the EU, saying they sent "a false signal" and would not shape Middle East policy.
The Simon Wiesenthal Centre said the poll was proof that Europe has swallowed the media's vilification of Israel "hook, line and sinker". The EU has long been accused by hardliners in America and Israel of tilting to the Arab side.
The list of 15 countries that might be a threat to peace was put together by a low-level EU unit in concert with Belgian members of EOS Gallup Europe. It was not cleared by foreign policy experts working for Chris Patten, the external relations commissioner. "We had nothing to do with it," said his spokesman.
In a twist that left analysts scratching their heads, the poll suggested that the British have turned against Washington even more sharply than the French or Germans. Asked if America posed a threat to peace, the "yes" response was 55 per cent in Britain, 52 in France and 45 in Germany.
In Greece, the figure reached 88 per cent, with 96 per cent calling the Iraq war "unjustified". But the EU itself is deemed a threat to peace by 18 per cent in Britain compared with eight per cent for the whole union. Only Denmark continues to back the Iraq war.
In Britain, a comfortable majority still thinks that the Government should keep troops in Iraq now that the country is committed. While the Dutch were the most worried about Israel, they were also alarmed by America, North Korea, Pakistan and China.
"This is the strangest poll I've ever seen. The Dutch have always been very pro-Israel and so I ask myself how can this possibly be?" said Ben Van Der Velde, European editor for the Rotterdam-based newspaper Handelsblad.
The poll was part of a regular series by the commission's press service and was intended to investigate views on the Iraq crisis.
Gallup questioned 500 people in each EU state - the same for 82 million Germans and 350,000 in Luxembourg - although the final results were "weighted".
The Israeli embassy in Brussels blamed the anti-Israel mood on reckless reporting by the European media, saying: "We are not only sad but outraged. Not at European citizens but at those who are responsible for forming public opinion."
The World Jewish Congress said Europe's elites had been playing with fire by routinely treating Israel as the Middle East villain.
In a recent case, Gretta Duisenberg, the wife of the departing president of the European Central Bank, called the Israeli occupation of Gaza and the West Bank worse than Nazi rule in Holland. Almost all of Holland's 100,000 Jews were exterminated by the Germans.
Information appearing on telegraph.co.uk is the copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited and must not be reproduced in any medium without licence. For the full copyright statement see Copyright
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By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in Brussels
Last Updated: 11:49pm GMT 03/11/2003
Europeans view Israel as the No 1 threat to world peace, ahead of Iran and North Korea, according to a European Commission survey yesterday.
The results prompted a furious reaction from the Israeli government, which has already accused the European Union of turning a blind eye to rising anti-Semitism.
The Eurobarometer poll of 7,500 EU residents found that 59 per cent deemed Israel "a threat to peace in the world", with the figures rising to 60 per cent in Britain, 65 in Germany, 69 in Austria and 74 in Holland.
advertisementFranco Frattini, Italy's foreign minister, apologised for the results on behalf of the EU, saying they sent "a false signal" and would not shape Middle East policy.
The Simon Wiesenthal Centre said the poll was proof that Europe has swallowed the media's vilification of Israel "hook, line and sinker". The EU has long been accused by hardliners in America and Israel of tilting to the Arab side.
The list of 15 countries that might be a threat to peace was put together by a low-level EU unit in concert with Belgian members of EOS Gallup Europe. It was not cleared by foreign policy experts working for Chris Patten, the external relations commissioner. "We had nothing to do with it," said his spokesman.
In a twist that left analysts scratching their heads, the poll suggested that the British have turned against Washington even more sharply than the French or Germans. Asked if America posed a threat to peace, the "yes" response was 55 per cent in Britain, 52 in France and 45 in Germany.
In Greece, the figure reached 88 per cent, with 96 per cent calling the Iraq war "unjustified". But the EU itself is deemed a threat to peace by 18 per cent in Britain compared with eight per cent for the whole union. Only Denmark continues to back the Iraq war.
In Britain, a comfortable majority still thinks that the Government should keep troops in Iraq now that the country is committed. While the Dutch were the most worried about Israel, they were also alarmed by America, North Korea, Pakistan and China.
"This is the strangest poll I've ever seen. The Dutch have always been very pro-Israel and so I ask myself how can this possibly be?" said Ben Van Der Velde, European editor for the Rotterdam-based newspaper Handelsblad.
The poll was part of a regular series by the commission's press service and was intended to investigate views on the Iraq crisis.
Gallup questioned 500 people in each EU state - the same for 82 million Germans and 350,000 in Luxembourg - although the final results were "weighted".
The Israeli embassy in Brussels blamed the anti-Israel mood on reckless reporting by the European media, saying: "We are not only sad but outraged. Not at European citizens but at those who are responsible for forming public opinion."
The World Jewish Congress said Europe's elites had been playing with fire by routinely treating Israel as the Middle East villain.
In a recent case, Gretta Duisenberg, the wife of the departing president of the European Central Bank, called the Israeli occupation of Gaza and the West Bank worse than Nazi rule in Holland. Almost all of Holland's 100,000 Jews were exterminated by the Germans.
Information appearing on telegraph.co.uk is the copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited and must not be reproduced in any medium without licence. For the full copyright statement see Copyright
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Profits of Oil Companies
"Oil giant makes corporate history by booking $11.7 billion in quarterly profit; earns $1,300 a second in 2007."
From Exxon shatters profit records
"Chevron Corp., the second-largest U.S. oil company, said fourth-quarter profit rose 29 percent as crude prices climbed to a record on their way to topping $100 a barrel last month."
FRom Chevron 4th-Quarter Profit Rises on Record Oil Prices
"Royal Dutch Shell, the world's second-largest publicly traded oil company, today reported net income up 60 percent last quarter to a record $8.47 billion, thanks to the same rising crude oil prices that most observers expect will lift the profits of Exxon Mobil and Chevron tomorrow to nearly historic levels."
From Shell Rakes in $8.5 Billion in Three Months
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From Exxon shatters profit records
"Chevron Corp., the second-largest U.S. oil company, said fourth-quarter profit rose 29 percent as crude prices climbed to a record on their way to topping $100 a barrel last month."
FRom Chevron 4th-Quarter Profit Rises on Record Oil Prices
"Royal Dutch Shell, the world's second-largest publicly traded oil company, today reported net income up 60 percent last quarter to a record $8.47 billion, thanks to the same rising crude oil prices that most observers expect will lift the profits of Exxon Mobil and Chevron tomorrow to nearly historic levels."
From Shell Rakes in $8.5 Billion in Three Months
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Friday, February 01, 2008
The Houseing lark
Now my serious friends (do you know friends means fri (fry) ends meaning just that) this is going back to the good old days of 80's where we had a lot of good times in the 'squats' (occupy (a dwelling) illegally ). Now the times are back in the near future. I know the landlords had a very fine time due to the laws passed by the Thatcher gov and promised to get rid of by the Blair gov but didn't; but the landlords will not have enough doss to make their illegal play.
"Vacant homes attract vandals and depress property values," explained Douglas Robinson, spokesman for NeighborWorks America, a nonprofit created by Congress to offer financial and technical support and training for community-based revitalization. "This negatively affects existing owners and reduces local property tax revenues. But very few homeowners walk away, although those who do believe that is their best option. Of course, trying to get a loan modification so that the payments are affordable is their best option.""
Don't tell me I am heartless but due regards to those who saved money and bought houses and rented them to likes of me; this is just action in the Newtons 2nd law. Hmmmm equal forces and all that....
And then again I see a different view. I remember the council members of this fine city of Bristol letting the best sites in the city be taken over by the homeless (me mates were them) and getting the homeless to damage the premises to such an extent the value of property in the whole area goes down; so that one of the councilors' cronies can buy it at a cheaper rate and develope them.
In this article it...... you will understand:
"According to the county prosecutor, the 31-year-old Snyder allegedly offered to pay a neighbor $5,000 to help her burn down her house and make it look like a botched rape attempt - all in order to claim $80,000 in insurance money. Snyder wanted the neighbor to bind her hands in duct tape, write "whore" on her shirt, and then help her escape once the blaze was set, the prosecutor says. The neighbor demurred, instead reporting Snyder to police."
"Homeowners have crunched the numbers and decided their houses are worth less than their mortgages."
Good I cannot wait until it hits the social scene here. The frigging landlords had a very good time in the past taking money for nothing from people who can least afford it; or you are homeless. I lived in a house where the landlord did not do any paint and decorating for 7 years but frigging cunt raised the rent from £400 to £750 per month.
Back to the article
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Iraq
"More than one million Iraqis have died because of the war in Iraq since the US-led invasion of the country in 2003, according to a study published Wednesday.
A fifth of Iraqi households lost at least one family member between March 2003 and August 2007 due to the conflict, said data compiled by London-based Opinion Research Business (ORB) and its research partner in Iraq, the Independent Institute for Administration and Civil Society Studies (IIACSS).
The study based its findings on survey work involving the face-to-face questioning of 2,414 Iraqi adults aged 18 or above, and the last complete census in Iraq in 1997, which indicated a total of 4.05 million households.
Respondents were asked how many members of their household, if any, had died as a result of the violence in the country since 2003, and not because of natural causes.
"We now estimate that the death toll between March 2003 and August 2007 is likely to have been in the order of 1,033,000," ORB said in a statement.
The margin of error for the survey was 1.7 percent, making the estimated range between 946,000 and 1.12 million fatalities."
From this.
And
"An Iraqi MP preferred to remain anonymous told the newspaper that highly confidential negotiations took place by representatives from American oil companies, offering $5 million to each MP who votes in favor of the Oil and Gas law.
The amount that could be paid to pass the votes do not exceed $150 million dollars in the case of $5 million to each MP, pointing out that the Oil law requires 138 votes to pass, which the Americans want to guarantee in many ways, including vote-buying, intimidation and threats!
Focusing on the heads of parliamentary blocs and influential figures in the parliament to ensure the votes, the Americans guaranteed the Kurdish votes in advance but they are seeking enough votes to pass and approve the law as soon as possible."
From this.
"The High Court today lifted a gagging order stopping the media reporting allegations of torture and brutality by British troops in Iraq.
Soldiers are said to have captured 31 Iraqis following an ambush in May 2004 before killing 22 and leaving only nine injured survivors after detaining them at military headquarters in Abu Naji.
However reporting restrictions imposed earlier on by the court have now been lifted following a petition by several national newspapers and the BBC.
It has been claimed the men were seized by the British Army following a firefight on the road from Amara to Basra, near Majar al-Kabir in south-east Iraq.
Iraqi families and survivors are seeking compensation and a ruling at a High Court hearing, due to start in the near future, that the Government is legally obliged to set up an independent inquiry into the incident.
Death certificates to go before the court are said to state that corpses of Iraqis rounded up showed signs of "mutilation" and "torture"."
From this.
And lastly:
"I'm 32 and I am a trained psychopathic murderer. The only things I can do are to sell youths the idea of joining the marines and kill. I am not able to keep a job. For me civilians are despicable people, mentally retarded and weak persons, a flock of sheep. I am their sheepdog. I am a predator. In the army they used to call me Jimmy, the Shark".
From this.
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A fifth of Iraqi households lost at least one family member between March 2003 and August 2007 due to the conflict, said data compiled by London-based Opinion Research Business (ORB) and its research partner in Iraq, the Independent Institute for Administration and Civil Society Studies (IIACSS).
The study based its findings on survey work involving the face-to-face questioning of 2,414 Iraqi adults aged 18 or above, and the last complete census in Iraq in 1997, which indicated a total of 4.05 million households.
Respondents were asked how many members of their household, if any, had died as a result of the violence in the country since 2003, and not because of natural causes.
"We now estimate that the death toll between March 2003 and August 2007 is likely to have been in the order of 1,033,000," ORB said in a statement.
The margin of error for the survey was 1.7 percent, making the estimated range between 946,000 and 1.12 million fatalities."
From this.
And
"An Iraqi MP preferred to remain anonymous told the newspaper that highly confidential negotiations took place by representatives from American oil companies, offering $5 million to each MP who votes in favor of the Oil and Gas law.
The amount that could be paid to pass the votes do not exceed $150 million dollars in the case of $5 million to each MP, pointing out that the Oil law requires 138 votes to pass, which the Americans want to guarantee in many ways, including vote-buying, intimidation and threats!
Focusing on the heads of parliamentary blocs and influential figures in the parliament to ensure the votes, the Americans guaranteed the Kurdish votes in advance but they are seeking enough votes to pass and approve the law as soon as possible."
From this.
"The High Court today lifted a gagging order stopping the media reporting allegations of torture and brutality by British troops in Iraq.
Soldiers are said to have captured 31 Iraqis following an ambush in May 2004 before killing 22 and leaving only nine injured survivors after detaining them at military headquarters in Abu Naji.
However reporting restrictions imposed earlier on by the court have now been lifted following a petition by several national newspapers and the BBC.
It has been claimed the men were seized by the British Army following a firefight on the road from Amara to Basra, near Majar al-Kabir in south-east Iraq.
Iraqi families and survivors are seeking compensation and a ruling at a High Court hearing, due to start in the near future, that the Government is legally obliged to set up an independent inquiry into the incident.
Death certificates to go before the court are said to state that corpses of Iraqis rounded up showed signs of "mutilation" and "torture"."
From this.
And lastly:
"I'm 32 and I am a trained psychopathic murderer. The only things I can do are to sell youths the idea of joining the marines and kill. I am not able to keep a job. For me civilians are despicable people, mentally retarded and weak persons, a flock of sheep. I am their sheepdog. I am a predator. In the army they used to call me Jimmy, the Shark".
From this.
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Thursday, January 31, 2008
dRUNKENESS
oK CAN YOU UN(shit I took the caps off( stand when you are drunk. Tonite I am going to write as we get drunk. Dont ask me who is present with me as I see lots an they do not want to press charges. Police is not my forte.
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Wednesday, January 30, 2008
1990's
I lived in Chelsea Park Off Chelsea Road in them days in 1990's. I was going to UWE doing a course in Electronics. I got to know lots of people and one of them was Cathy. She became a Police Officer and still is. I met her today. I spoke to her told her that I will give her my Mobile number so that we can meet and have a cup of tea later as I was given a lift; and in a hurry and I just wanted to see her later than in the foyer of a electrical wholesalers;old friends and all. Hmmmm.... She said, "Hmmm sorry I will rather not as it is not ....". Shite what the frigging hell she thinks she frigging is? Frigging queen? I was very angry and told her " In that case I will see you.... a... around." That is very uncool for a frigging copper. OK may be she is a Seargeant or a frigging Inspector or a Commander. Still she got a past just like me in the same frigging space and time. I will like her to lose her coolmmission I tell you. Hope she reads this undercover and all. Frigging shite past, I do love some of it. Good thing is ..... never mind.
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Monday, January 28, 2008
New inventions
No matter how you look at it the difference is there. Those who "wants to make money without thinking about the future" and the those "who care"? Now we got to loOk at this spectrum of people who care. They are the people who have no research done in to the subject but they got this gut feeling. But then take the other side: they alreadY done the research into the subject and they know what to say in the debate AND WIN WITHOUT A DUE PROCESS AND THEY KNOW IT.
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Sunday, January 27, 2008
War On Terror
"Political analyst Azhar al-Teengane says the only Iraqis who support the occupation are those benefiting directly from it.
"The occupation is good for politicians who have made money, militiamen, contractors and opportunists," Teengane said. "These form not more than 5 percent of Iraqi people."
Self-rule could help lower anti-U.S. sentiment, said resident Jalal al-Taee. "In order to improve the situation, the U.S. army should let the people of this city run it." "
This comes from an article in ICH.
Well to make it very simple there are a minority in US, Israel and the west who has major shares in the Military Industrial Complex. There are loads of people in these countries who work for the MIC. So it is very hard for the polititians to get the policies which support war out. You have to have a war. That is the bottom line; ask any major polititian.
Think about it; the General in US army will lobby for war otherwise his job is not going to be there; the workers in the MIC will lobby the polititians otherwise their jobs will not be there; the shareholders will lobby the polititians otherwise they will not get filthy rich. These has to be realised by the root people of the world and willed into the policies by the people so that the corrupt polititians will not be able to twist the words.
Even if the self rule is given to these countries they will be corrupted by the MIC. Only way out is gradually cut the MIC to a smaller size in US to start with and then the rest of the world.
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"The occupation is good for politicians who have made money, militiamen, contractors and opportunists," Teengane said. "These form not more than 5 percent of Iraqi people."
Self-rule could help lower anti-U.S. sentiment, said resident Jalal al-Taee. "In order to improve the situation, the U.S. army should let the people of this city run it." "
This comes from an article in ICH.
Well to make it very simple there are a minority in US, Israel and the west who has major shares in the Military Industrial Complex. There are loads of people in these countries who work for the MIC. So it is very hard for the polititians to get the policies which support war out. You have to have a war. That is the bottom line; ask any major polititian.
Think about it; the General in US army will lobby for war otherwise his job is not going to be there; the workers in the MIC will lobby the polititians otherwise their jobs will not be there; the shareholders will lobby the polititians otherwise they will not get filthy rich. These has to be realised by the root people of the world and willed into the policies by the people so that the corrupt polititians will not be able to twist the words.
Even if the self rule is given to these countries they will be corrupted by the MIC. Only way out is gradually cut the MIC to a smaller size in US to start with and then the rest of the world.
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Saturday, January 26, 2008
Allah on the Holodeck
This is bloody good. Congragulations US, I say. The article explains what digital morphing is in a rudimentary way and gives the examples of ideas what can be done. Bin Laden's video could be one of them some say.
"Allah on the Holodeck
Pentagon planners started to discuss digital morphing after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990. Covert operators kicked around the idea of creating a computer-faked videotape of Saddam Hussein crying or showing other such manly weaknesses, or in some sexually compromising situation. The nascent plan was for the tapes to be flooded into Iraq and the Arab world.
The tape war never proceeded, killed, participants say, by bureaucratic fights over jurisdiction, skepticism over the technology, and concerns raised by Arab coalition partners.
But the "strategic" PSYOPS scheming didn't die. What if the U.S. projected a holographic image of Allah floating over Baghdad urging the Iraqi people and Army to rise up against Saddam, a senior Air Force officer asked in 1990?
According to a military physicist given the task of looking into the hologram idea, the feasibility had been established of projecting large, three-dimensional objects that appeared to float in the air.
But doing so over the skies of Iraq? To project such a hologram over Baghdad on the order of several hundred feet, they calculated, would take a mirror more than a mile square in space, as well as huge projectors and power sources.
And besides, investigators came back, what does Allah look like?"
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"Allah on the Holodeck
Pentagon planners started to discuss digital morphing after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990. Covert operators kicked around the idea of creating a computer-faked videotape of Saddam Hussein crying or showing other such manly weaknesses, or in some sexually compromising situation. The nascent plan was for the tapes to be flooded into Iraq and the Arab world.
The tape war never proceeded, killed, participants say, by bureaucratic fights over jurisdiction, skepticism over the technology, and concerns raised by Arab coalition partners.
But the "strategic" PSYOPS scheming didn't die. What if the U.S. projected a holographic image of Allah floating over Baghdad urging the Iraqi people and Army to rise up against Saddam, a senior Air Force officer asked in 1990?
According to a military physicist given the task of looking into the hologram idea, the feasibility had been established of projecting large, three-dimensional objects that appeared to float in the air.
But doing so over the skies of Iraq? To project such a hologram over Baghdad on the order of several hundred feet, they calculated, would take a mirror more than a mile square in space, as well as huge projectors and power sources.
And besides, investigators came back, what does Allah look like?"
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Thursday, January 24, 2008
Quotes, PTSD
"A few may take their own lives. In 2006, suicide rates for soldiers leapt to a 26-year high with 99 deaths, one-fourth of them by troops diagnosed with PTSD, according to the Defense Department. Statistically, male veterans commit suicide at twice the rate of their nonveteran peers.
Defense Department research shows one-third of Iraq war veterans have sought help for mental health issues, and officials estimate 150,000 troops have suffered concussions — mild traumatic brain injuries — since the war in Iraq began."
Read this if you get a bit of time. I shed a few tears on this. I don't expect everyone to cry but it is moving I tell you.
Analysing the past
Formulating the future
I missed the present horribly
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Defense Department research shows one-third of Iraq war veterans have sought help for mental health issues, and officials estimate 150,000 troops have suffered concussions — mild traumatic brain injuries — since the war in Iraq began."
Read this if you get a bit of time. I shed a few tears on this. I don't expect everyone to cry but it is moving I tell you.
Analysing the past
Formulating the future
I missed the present horribly
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Blacker Than Black
Ahhhh ha..... no one can call anyone black if you can see the bugger, says the boffins at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y..
"All materials reflect some light. Ordinary black paint reflects 5 to 10 percent. The darkest manmade material, prior to the Lin group’s discovery, reflected just under a fifth of a percent, Lin said. The new material has a total reflective index of less than a twentieth of a percent—in total, 0.045 percent, he said.
Its unique properties are due to “the loosely-packed forest of carbon nanotubes, which is full of nanoscale [roughly atomic-sized] gaps and holes to collect and trap light,” Lin said. “Such a nanotube array not only reflects light weakly, but also absorbs light strongly. These combined features make it an ideal candidate for one day realizing a super-black object.”"
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"All materials reflect some light. Ordinary black paint reflects 5 to 10 percent. The darkest manmade material, prior to the Lin group’s discovery, reflected just under a fifth of a percent, Lin said. The new material has a total reflective index of less than a twentieth of a percent—in total, 0.045 percent, he said.
Its unique properties are due to “the loosely-packed forest of carbon nanotubes, which is full of nanoscale [roughly atomic-sized] gaps and holes to collect and trap light,” Lin said. “Such a nanotube array not only reflects light weakly, but also absorbs light strongly. These combined features make it an ideal candidate for one day realizing a super-black object.”"
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Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Global Warming and Farting, Frogs with Teflon coating & Robotic Snot
Did you know that.....?
"There are 1.4 billion cows worldwide, each producing 500 litres of methane a day and accounting for 14% of all emissions of the gas.
Carbon dioxide is by far the biggest contributor to climate change, but methane has 23 times the warming potential of CO2 so reducing its emission is also considered important."
Of course you did....
Did you know kangaroo farts are environmentally friendly?
Ha ha you did not!
"Scientists already know that kangaroo stomachs are more than just green. Instead of methane, they produce acetate, a chemical that improves digestion. Feed laced with kangaroo bacteria could give rise to livestock that is not only greener, but also faster-growing and more fertile.
Methane-busting feed supplements could be available commercially in as little as three years, but some scientists point to a more direct solution – instead of slapping a hunk of beef or lamb on the barbie, why not kangaroo meat? This would help cap the marsupial population, which has reached plague proportions in parts of Australia, and connoisseurs say the meat is good. " It is also low in fat, high in protein and kangaroos are the ultimate free-range animal," says Peter Ampt of the University of New South Wales."
Next time you go to the local butcher ask...... no.... no.... demand for a pound of best kanga roast. By the way if you want to know more about farts go here.
Did you know that the scientists at the University of Michigan, created non-stick frog cells? Why? Leave the frogs alone they are becoming extinct!
There is something called antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) which are the first line of defence against bacterial infection in all animals from insects to frogs to humans. Boffins found the best form of AMPs called pexiganan in the skin of Xenopus laevis frog.
AMPs attack viruses, fungi and even cancer cells, so drugs designed to mimic them could have widespread medical applications. But there is a problem..... There is a protein-degrading enzymes called proteases, which is secreted by the bacteria and naturally present in the body. This stuff breaks the AMPs down before they can do any thing to the horrid bacteria. So the boffins increased the doze of AMPs but then the sticky part of the AMPs started attacking the host's cell membranes creating toxic effects eg kill the red blood cells.
In the meantime the Teflon is non stick. How? Teflon is fluorinated polymers, plastic-like compounds composed of chains of carbon atoms completely surrounded by fluorine atoms. Fluorine makes the surface slippery and inert to all chemicals.
So Neil Marsh biological chemist at the University of Michigan, "replaced certain amino acids in pexiganan with fluorinated alternatives, and called the new, non-stick peptide fluorogainin-1".
Did you know snot makes you smell better..... hang on you don't smell better with snot....... let us start again.....
Did you know snot enhances your sense of smell?
Mmmmm tricky this. I got a big nose because I used to dig me nose and eat the snot . Tasty!
First it is the itchyness in the nose which makes me dig it. Then as we all kids do taste it, does not matter what it is. As a baby we all did it, taste it. The salty taste is nice and daring so I kept on doing it when no one is watching me.
Right back to smell business. Here it is.
"Mucus, it turns out, separates the myriad chemical compounds that make up the smell of, say, frying onions. These compounds travel through the mucus at different speeds, hitting our scent receptors at different times. By dissecting and separating smells in this way, mucus allows our brains to identify scents more quickly and accurately.
It was with this in mind that, in April, Professor Julian Gardner of the University of Warwick started to improve his electronic noses, which have been used (without mucus) for years, in everything from the production of artificial fragrances to quality control in crisp factories.
"We built a polymer that replicates the function of snot," says Gardner. "It's not green but it has the same consistency as human snot and, applied to our sensors, means our artificial noses are at least five times better than those without snot.""
If you cannot find the links in this blog, I have majority of them filed, Email me!
"There are 1.4 billion cows worldwide, each producing 500 litres of methane a day and accounting for 14% of all emissions of the gas.
Carbon dioxide is by far the biggest contributor to climate change, but methane has 23 times the warming potential of CO2 so reducing its emission is also considered important."
Of course you did....
Did you know kangaroo farts are environmentally friendly?
Ha ha you did not!
"Scientists already know that kangaroo stomachs are more than just green. Instead of methane, they produce acetate, a chemical that improves digestion. Feed laced with kangaroo bacteria could give rise to livestock that is not only greener, but also faster-growing and more fertile.
Methane-busting feed supplements could be available commercially in as little as three years, but some scientists point to a more direct solution – instead of slapping a hunk of beef or lamb on the barbie, why not kangaroo meat? This would help cap the marsupial population, which has reached plague proportions in parts of Australia, and connoisseurs say the meat is good. " It is also low in fat, high in protein and kangaroos are the ultimate free-range animal," says Peter Ampt of the University of New South Wales."
Next time you go to the local butcher ask...... no.... no.... demand for a pound of best kanga roast. By the way if you want to know more about farts go here.
Did you know that the scientists at the University of Michigan, created non-stick frog cells? Why? Leave the frogs alone they are becoming extinct!
There is something called antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) which are the first line of defence against bacterial infection in all animals from insects to frogs to humans. Boffins found the best form of AMPs called pexiganan in the skin of Xenopus laevis frog.
AMPs attack viruses, fungi and even cancer cells, so drugs designed to mimic them could have widespread medical applications. But there is a problem..... There is a protein-degrading enzymes called proteases, which is secreted by the bacteria and naturally present in the body. This stuff breaks the AMPs down before they can do any thing to the horrid bacteria. So the boffins increased the doze of AMPs but then the sticky part of the AMPs started attacking the host's cell membranes creating toxic effects eg kill the red blood cells.
In the meantime the Teflon is non stick. How? Teflon is fluorinated polymers, plastic-like compounds composed of chains of carbon atoms completely surrounded by fluorine atoms. Fluorine makes the surface slippery and inert to all chemicals.
So Neil Marsh biological chemist at the University of Michigan, "replaced certain amino acids in pexiganan with fluorinated alternatives, and called the new, non-stick peptide fluorogainin-1".
Did you know snot makes you smell better..... hang on you don't smell better with snot....... let us start again.....
Did you know snot enhances your sense of smell?
Mmmmm tricky this. I got a big nose because I used to dig me nose and eat the snot . Tasty!
First it is the itchyness in the nose which makes me dig it. Then as we all kids do taste it, does not matter what it is. As a baby we all did it, taste it. The salty taste is nice and daring so I kept on doing it when no one is watching me.
Right back to smell business. Here it is.
"Mucus, it turns out, separates the myriad chemical compounds that make up the smell of, say, frying onions. These compounds travel through the mucus at different speeds, hitting our scent receptors at different times. By dissecting and separating smells in this way, mucus allows our brains to identify scents more quickly and accurately.
It was with this in mind that, in April, Professor Julian Gardner of the University of Warwick started to improve his electronic noses, which have been used (without mucus) for years, in everything from the production of artificial fragrances to quality control in crisp factories.
"We built a polymer that replicates the function of snot," says Gardner. "It's not green but it has the same consistency as human snot and, applied to our sensors, means our artificial noses are at least five times better than those without snot.""
If you cannot find the links in this blog, I have majority of them filed, Email me!
Put Option On America
I started reading this artcle called "Put Option On America ". Well I am going to site some excerpts from it and exoplain about it.
This is something I never had any idea about. Who is Francesco Cossiga? He was the Italian Prime Minister in 1979-1980 (Christian Democrat). Then he was the president of Italy from 1992 to 1999. The article says:
"Meanwhile, regarding CIA/Mossad...former Italian President and Prime Minister Francesco Cossiga fired a truth missile (12-05-07) with the declaration that the attacks of 9-11 were run by the CIA, and Mossad with Zionist aid, something he insists is commonly accepted by global intelligence agencies. (1) Cossiga was forced to resign in 1992 after admitting he helped set up the CIA’s Operation Gladio, where a group of neo-fascist paramilitary operatives carried out false flag operations across Europe from the 1960s through the 1980s that were blamed on leftists. An agent of Gladio, Vincenzo Vinciguerra, in the Italian parliamentary investigation of 2000 that revealed the attacks were being overseen by the U.S. intelligence apparatus, stated under oath: "You had to attack civilians, the people, women, children, innocent people, unknown people far removed from any political game. The reason was quite simple—to force...the public to turn to the state to ask for greater security." False flag terror has long been in the playbook of the CIA, as well as MOSSAD (Israel’s "CIA")."
Well finished reading the part 1 got only the above bit of news I was not aware of. And it is full of put options and call options in the stock market. Yawn Yawn.
Nothing in Part 2 but just about what we know of the Trade Centre saga. Then in part 3 I found this:
"Those cherished American icons, Hollywood, Disney—they are now Jewish. Production and distribution of films had been mostly Jewish-controlled since the early 20th century, then Walt Disney’s death in 1966 removed the last barrier to total control. Jews grabbed Walt’s company, and now call all the shots in the movie industry.
In 2003, 94% of American box-office receipts went to the Jewish companies: 20th Century Fox (News Corp.); Universal (NBC Universal); Warner Brothers; Disney; Columbia (Sony); Paramount (Viacom); Dreamworks."
The part 3 of the article is here. You can get the other two from there.
If you cannot find the links in this blog, I have majority of them filed, Email me!
This is something I never had any idea about. Who is Francesco Cossiga? He was the Italian Prime Minister in 1979-1980 (Christian Democrat). Then he was the president of Italy from 1992 to 1999. The article says:
"Meanwhile, regarding CIA/Mossad...former Italian President and Prime Minister Francesco Cossiga fired a truth missile (12-05-07) with the declaration that the attacks of 9-11 were run by the CIA, and Mossad with Zionist aid, something he insists is commonly accepted by global intelligence agencies. (1) Cossiga was forced to resign in 1992 after admitting he helped set up the CIA’s Operation Gladio, where a group of neo-fascist paramilitary operatives carried out false flag operations across Europe from the 1960s through the 1980s that were blamed on leftists. An agent of Gladio, Vincenzo Vinciguerra, in the Italian parliamentary investigation of 2000 that revealed the attacks were being overseen by the U.S. intelligence apparatus, stated under oath: "You had to attack civilians, the people, women, children, innocent people, unknown people far removed from any political game. The reason was quite simple—to force...the public to turn to the state to ask for greater security." False flag terror has long been in the playbook of the CIA, as well as MOSSAD (Israel’s "CIA")."
Well finished reading the part 1 got only the above bit of news I was not aware of. And it is full of put options and call options in the stock market. Yawn Yawn.
Nothing in Part 2 but just about what we know of the Trade Centre saga. Then in part 3 I found this:
"Those cherished American icons, Hollywood, Disney—they are now Jewish. Production and distribution of films had been mostly Jewish-controlled since the early 20th century, then Walt Disney’s death in 1966 removed the last barrier to total control. Jews grabbed Walt’s company, and now call all the shots in the movie industry.
In 2003, 94% of American box-office receipts went to the Jewish companies: 20th Century Fox (News Corp.); Universal (NBC Universal); Warner Brothers; Disney; Columbia (Sony); Paramount (Viacom); Dreamworks."
The part 3 of the article is here. You can get the other two from there.
If you cannot find the links in this blog, I have majority of them filed, Email me!
Monday, January 21, 2008
This Road is for Jews ONLY
This Road is for Jews ONLY.
Yes, There Is Apartheid in Israel
By Shlamit Aloni (Israeli human rights activist)
By Shlamit Aloni (Israeli human rights activist)
Jews-only By-Pass Road (one of many) on stolen Palestinian land toJews-only settlements on stolen Palestinian land. Palestinians are not allowed on these roads, at least partially subsidized by unwitting US taxpayers. Any Palestinian caught on these roads is subject to arrest, confiscation of his vehicle and he may even be shot at and killed. There are no signs that say it is for "Jews-only" because the Jewish state of Israel doesn't want Americans to know that Israel is an apartheid state. But OOPS! The cat is now out of the bag and it's not going back in.
"We Should Start Eating Insects"
Cricket pies, fried grasshoppers and mealworm quiche: Welcome to the new culinary delights. Or so hopes Arnold van Huis, an entomology professor in Wageningen, the Netherlands. Van Huis is working to bring a range of entomological appetizers to the market.
Marco Visscher: Why should we eat insects?
Arnold van Huis: While the world population is growing and our global wealth is advancing, meat consumption is rising dramatically. Currently, 70 percent of farmland is being used for meat production. If this trend continues, it will prove unsustainable. Moreover, livestock is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, including methane and nitrous oxide. Insects have a much lower environmental burden, while their nutritional value measures up to chicken or beef.
Visscher: Don't they taste awful?
van Huis: That depends on how you prepare the dish. I'm not so wild about cakes made using crushed flies from East Africa--a couple of which I have at home -- but sautéed crickets in a warm chocolate dip make a great snack."
Visscher: Isn't it primitive to eat insects?
van Huis: It's quite normal for most of the world. In tropical countries, people don't eat caterpillars, beetle larvae, grasshoppers and termites because they don't have a choice but because they taste good. Plus insects are high in protein and have essential fatty acids and important vitamins. Which is why food programs in developing countries should increase their focus on insects. Currently, vegetable consumption is emphasized, but it's much more efficient to get nutrients from animals. Because traditional meat is often too expensive, insects could be a very good alternative.
Visscher: Isn't the psychological barrier in the West simply too great?
van Huis: The first time you bite into a grasshopper might be a little 'hard to swallow.' But there are ways to handle this. Insects can be ground industrially so they're less recognizable, just as a filet doesn't really resemble a particular animal. There are some 1,400 edible insects, which can enrich and diversify our food supply.
*****
Four Recipes for an Insect-Rich Diet
Banana Worm BreadCompliments of Iowa State University Entomology Club
Ingredients:
1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup sugar
2 bananas, mashed
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped nuts
2 eggs
1/4 cup dry-roasted army worms
Directions:
Mix together all ingredients. Bake in greased loaf pan at 350 degrees for about 1 hour.
*******
Mealworm Fried RiceCompliments of Iowa State University Entomology Club
Ingredients:
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp. oil
3/4 c. water
1/4 c. chopped onions
4 tsp. soy sauce
1/8 tsp. garlic powder
1 c. minute rice
1 c. cooked mealworms
Directions:
Scramble egg in a saucepan, stirring to break egg into pieces. Add water, soy sauce, garlic and onions. Bring to a boil. Stir in rice. Cover; remove from heat and let stand five minutes.
*******
Rootworm Beetle DipCompliments of Iowa State University Entomology Club
Ingredients:
2 cup low-fat cottage cheese
1 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons skim milk
1/2 cup reduced calorie mayonnaise
1 tablespoon parsley, chopped
1 tablespoon onion, chopped
1 1/2 tsp. dill weed
1 1/2 tsp. Beau Monde
1 cup dry-roasted rootworm beetles
Directions:
Blend first 3 ingredients. Add remaining ingredients and chill.
*******
Ant Brood Tacos
Compliments of EatBug.com
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons butter or peanut oil
1/2 pound ant larvae and pupae
3 serrano chilies, raw, finely chopped
1 tomato, finely chopped
Pepper, to taste
Cumin, to taste
Oregano, to taste
1 handful cilantro, chopped
Taco shells, to serve
Directions:
Heat the butter or oil in a frying pan and fry the larvae or pupae. Add the chopped onions, chilies, and tomato, and season with salt. Sprinkle with ground pepper, cumin, and oregano, to taste. Serve in tacos and garnish with cilantro. (Not living in an area exceptionally prolific with ants, I have never been able to try this recipe. But it sounds perfectly delicious! I found it in 'Creepy Crawly Cuisine', an excellent recipe book.)
Well I am going to give my fish 'n chips and yummie........ And my friend this one makes it logical why we should eat mud and things like that init?
"What if I told you," Joel Weinstock said, "there were countries where the doctors had never seen hay fever?"
It is another piece of evidence, another "aha" moment in the global medical mystery that Weinstock - the chief of gastroenterology and hepatology at Tufts-New England Medical Center - has narrowed down to one chief suspect: the worms.
Weinstock, 59, specializes in studying why immunological diseases - everything from hay fever and asthma to diabetes and multiple sclerosis - are on the rise in developed countries but remain relatively uncommon in undeveloped countries. He believes these diseases, many of which were almost unheard of 100 years ago, are because of changes in our environment, a lack of exposure to something. And he thinks that something may be the worms.
"We realized that one thing people always had was intestinal worms," he said. "But in the mid-20th century we started deworming children in developed countries. So we've developed a theory that perhaps deworming was helping these diseases."
This theory - which is currently being tested in laboratory trials on how parasitic worms, known as helminths, regulate response to disease - has earned Weinstock the title of "Best and Brightest" from Esquire magazine, which honored him in its recent "Genius Issue." The magazine hailed his theory as a glimpse into a "brand-new scientific revolution, a paradigm shift in the way we think about the human body."
The crux of that scientific revolution is a bit of role reversal. The parasites that we have been told to avoid - such as hookworm and pinworm - may be the good guys, while excessive hygiene may be the bad guy.
"I get about 5,000 e-mails a year from patients all over the world asking what to do," he said. "People know that something isn't right. They keep their kids in the cleanest environments and they get asthma. We get all of these things that were rare becoming common. And a lot of it comes down to hygiene. Excessive hygiene can potentially lead to disease."
The "hygiene hypothesis," which was first proposed nearly two decades ago, argues that aspects of cleanliness prevent the immune system from programming itself to fight off disease.
"The big question is what are those aspects? We don't want to go back to the standards of the 1800s," Weinstock said. "Public hygiene and cleanliness are very good for us, but removing ourselves entirely from our natural environment is bad for us. We need to figure out the aspects of dirt and exposure that are good for us and hopefully we can find a balance."
Weinstock, who ran a center for digestive diseases at the University of Iowa before arriving at Tufts-NEMC in 2005, said that being a researcher has always come naturally to him.
"I grew up in the space race. When other kids went to play sports, I went to the library to read about rocket motors. My friends and I loved to tinker. Research was my hobby then, and it hasn't gone away," he said.
He said he hopes his research will soon lead to helminths-based drug therapies and vaccines.
"Will people be afraid to take a worm pill?" he asked, acknowledging an obvious squeamishness. "I don't think so."
And while he is cautious about advising any of his desperate e-mailers until all of the facts are in, he is comfortable telling parents one thing.
"When people ask me what to do, I tell them to let their kids play in the dirt," he said.
"And it's OK if they don't wash their hands every time."
Hometown: Grew up in Detroit; lives in Weston.
Education: Earned a Bachelor of Science in biology from the University of Michigan in 1969, and graduated from the Wayne State University School of Medicine in 1973.
Family: Wife, Alison, is a nurse; daughter, Lisa, 24, works in community services; son Jeff, 21, is a junior at UMass-Amherst; son Andrew, 16, is a student at Weston High School.
Hobbies: Weinstock enjoys gardening and traveling, but says his research is his hobby. "It's not work," he says. "It's play. I love what I do."
If you cannot find the links in this blog, I have majority of them filed, Email me!
Marco Visscher: Why should we eat insects?
Arnold van Huis: While the world population is growing and our global wealth is advancing, meat consumption is rising dramatically. Currently, 70 percent of farmland is being used for meat production. If this trend continues, it will prove unsustainable. Moreover, livestock is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, including methane and nitrous oxide. Insects have a much lower environmental burden, while their nutritional value measures up to chicken or beef.
Visscher: Don't they taste awful?
van Huis: That depends on how you prepare the dish. I'm not so wild about cakes made using crushed flies from East Africa--a couple of which I have at home -- but sautéed crickets in a warm chocolate dip make a great snack."
Visscher: Isn't it primitive to eat insects?
van Huis: It's quite normal for most of the world. In tropical countries, people don't eat caterpillars, beetle larvae, grasshoppers and termites because they don't have a choice but because they taste good. Plus insects are high in protein and have essential fatty acids and important vitamins. Which is why food programs in developing countries should increase their focus on insects. Currently, vegetable consumption is emphasized, but it's much more efficient to get nutrients from animals. Because traditional meat is often too expensive, insects could be a very good alternative.
Visscher: Isn't the psychological barrier in the West simply too great?
van Huis: The first time you bite into a grasshopper might be a little 'hard to swallow.' But there are ways to handle this. Insects can be ground industrially so they're less recognizable, just as a filet doesn't really resemble a particular animal. There are some 1,400 edible insects, which can enrich and diversify our food supply.
*****
Four Recipes for an Insect-Rich Diet
Banana Worm BreadCompliments of Iowa State University Entomology Club
Ingredients:
1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup sugar
2 bananas, mashed
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped nuts
2 eggs
1/4 cup dry-roasted army worms
Directions:
Mix together all ingredients. Bake in greased loaf pan at 350 degrees for about 1 hour.
*******
Mealworm Fried RiceCompliments of Iowa State University Entomology Club
Ingredients:
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp. oil
3/4 c. water
1/4 c. chopped onions
4 tsp. soy sauce
1/8 tsp. garlic powder
1 c. minute rice
1 c. cooked mealworms
Directions:
Scramble egg in a saucepan, stirring to break egg into pieces. Add water, soy sauce, garlic and onions. Bring to a boil. Stir in rice. Cover; remove from heat and let stand five minutes.
*******
Rootworm Beetle DipCompliments of Iowa State University Entomology Club
Ingredients:
2 cup low-fat cottage cheese
1 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons skim milk
1/2 cup reduced calorie mayonnaise
1 tablespoon parsley, chopped
1 tablespoon onion, chopped
1 1/2 tsp. dill weed
1 1/2 tsp. Beau Monde
1 cup dry-roasted rootworm beetles
Directions:
Blend first 3 ingredients. Add remaining ingredients and chill.
*******
Ant Brood Tacos
Compliments of EatBug.com
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons butter or peanut oil
1/2 pound ant larvae and pupae
3 serrano chilies, raw, finely chopped
1 tomato, finely chopped
Pepper, to taste
Cumin, to taste
Oregano, to taste
1 handful cilantro, chopped
Taco shells, to serve
Directions:
Heat the butter or oil in a frying pan and fry the larvae or pupae. Add the chopped onions, chilies, and tomato, and season with salt. Sprinkle with ground pepper, cumin, and oregano, to taste. Serve in tacos and garnish with cilantro. (Not living in an area exceptionally prolific with ants, I have never been able to try this recipe. But it sounds perfectly delicious! I found it in 'Creepy Crawly Cuisine', an excellent recipe book.)
Well I am going to give my fish 'n chips and yummie........ And my friend this one makes it logical why we should eat mud and things like that init?
"What if I told you," Joel Weinstock said, "there were countries where the doctors had never seen hay fever?"
It is another piece of evidence, another "aha" moment in the global medical mystery that Weinstock - the chief of gastroenterology and hepatology at Tufts-New England Medical Center - has narrowed down to one chief suspect: the worms.
Weinstock, 59, specializes in studying why immunological diseases - everything from hay fever and asthma to diabetes and multiple sclerosis - are on the rise in developed countries but remain relatively uncommon in undeveloped countries. He believes these diseases, many of which were almost unheard of 100 years ago, are because of changes in our environment, a lack of exposure to something. And he thinks that something may be the worms.
"We realized that one thing people always had was intestinal worms," he said. "But in the mid-20th century we started deworming children in developed countries. So we've developed a theory that perhaps deworming was helping these diseases."
This theory - which is currently being tested in laboratory trials on how parasitic worms, known as helminths, regulate response to disease - has earned Weinstock the title of "Best and Brightest" from Esquire magazine, which honored him in its recent "Genius Issue." The magazine hailed his theory as a glimpse into a "brand-new scientific revolution, a paradigm shift in the way we think about the human body."
The crux of that scientific revolution is a bit of role reversal. The parasites that we have been told to avoid - such as hookworm and pinworm - may be the good guys, while excessive hygiene may be the bad guy.
"I get about 5,000 e-mails a year from patients all over the world asking what to do," he said. "People know that something isn't right. They keep their kids in the cleanest environments and they get asthma. We get all of these things that were rare becoming common. And a lot of it comes down to hygiene. Excessive hygiene can potentially lead to disease."
The "hygiene hypothesis," which was first proposed nearly two decades ago, argues that aspects of cleanliness prevent the immune system from programming itself to fight off disease.
"The big question is what are those aspects? We don't want to go back to the standards of the 1800s," Weinstock said. "Public hygiene and cleanliness are very good for us, but removing ourselves entirely from our natural environment is bad for us. We need to figure out the aspects of dirt and exposure that are good for us and hopefully we can find a balance."
Weinstock, who ran a center for digestive diseases at the University of Iowa before arriving at Tufts-NEMC in 2005, said that being a researcher has always come naturally to him.
"I grew up in the space race. When other kids went to play sports, I went to the library to read about rocket motors. My friends and I loved to tinker. Research was my hobby then, and it hasn't gone away," he said.
He said he hopes his research will soon lead to helminths-based drug therapies and vaccines.
"Will people be afraid to take a worm pill?" he asked, acknowledging an obvious squeamishness. "I don't think so."
And while he is cautious about advising any of his desperate e-mailers until all of the facts are in, he is comfortable telling parents one thing.
"When people ask me what to do, I tell them to let their kids play in the dirt," he said.
"And it's OK if they don't wash their hands every time."
Hometown: Grew up in Detroit; lives in Weston.
Education: Earned a Bachelor of Science in biology from the University of Michigan in 1969, and graduated from the Wayne State University School of Medicine in 1973.
Family: Wife, Alison, is a nurse; daughter, Lisa, 24, works in community services; son Jeff, 21, is a junior at UMass-Amherst; son Andrew, 16, is a student at Weston High School.
Hobbies: Weinstock enjoys gardening and traveling, but says his research is his hobby. "It's not work," he says. "It's play. I love what I do."
If you cannot find the links in this blog, I have majority of them filed, Email me!
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Money
What is money
Money is a man made unit of measurement to use as a payment for goods, for services or a debt. If you like a very complicated and detailed explanation about money check wikipedia.
Wonder how long ago we started to dance with this devil. Oi some people love the devil. According to A History of Money from Ancient Times to the Present Day by Glyn Davies, rev. ed. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1996. 716p. ISBN 0 7083 1351 5; chronologically it kind of happened in Mesapotamia in c. 3000 - c. 2000 BC, when they started a banking system which was used by the temples and palaces for the accounting and storage of initially grain but later other goods including cattle, agricultural implements, and precious metals.
Then in the Bronze age 3000 BC - 1500 BC there was a land called Cappadocia, which is present day Central Anatolia in Turkey. Yeah we are talking about a very old civilisation which branched out into lots of other civilisations. These are the Hatti's. But even before that, in 3000 BC, the writing was developed to aid the accounting system of the palaces and the temples of Mesapotamia. Then in 2500 to 1550 BC the rulers of Cappadocia made ingots of silver and gurenteed their weight. These were used in transaction of goods. Call them money I would but read on.
Now you must be thinking why the hell is this guy started on this boring subject. yes it is boring. But it is what keeps most of us going at a rat race. I am stuck in a very mundane place called benefit dependency. And the world financial system is going into a very nasty turn. I been listening to the boffins talking about it for about 5 years about this impending 'disaster'. But I could not understand the whole thing. Why because it is not exactly a straight forword thingy. OK. Do you know that the Chinese Government and other governments have been buying the national debt of US. Now who wants to buy some one else's debt?
Do you know? Please let me know if you know.
Now back to the scene of money and grit.
This is a bit more complicated than I thought. The boffins cannot agree on the subject of "History of Money"; so they devised another way of explaining the history called, "Numismatics (Latin: numisma, nomisma, "coin"; from the Greek: νομίζειν nomÃzein, "to use according to law"), is the scientific study of currency and its history in all its varied forms."
But it is to make it more complicated. If we remember there were lots of things used money in our past. So some of them were metal wooden coins or medals and things like credit cards then there are the paper money, and last the stocks and bonds. That is all it is about. No hassle, or when hassle crops up we will sort it out.
"Ochre was one of the first pigments to be used by human beings. Pieces of haematite, worn down as though they had been used as crayons, have been found at 300,000 year old Homo heidelbergensis sites in France and Czechoslovakia. Neandertal burial sites sometimes include ochre as a grave good. The oldest evidence of mining activity, at the "Lion Cave" in Swaziland, is a 43,000 year old ochre mine. In Germanic rune lore, red ochre was often used in place of blood to redden, or tint, the runes and thereby instilling the spirit of life into the rune, enabling it to be used for magical purposes."
Red Ochre has been used as money in the good old days. In Australia the Abosrigines used it as money. So people who lived near these places with good Red Ochre must have been like the Oil Man today init. Then some cultures were using seashels, strong beads, and ivory were used for money. As these cannot be counterfeited, easily storable and transportable, lots of similar pieces of equal size available, they were used for bridal money, implements etc. But all else was of barter system. But by then people started thinking about coincidence of various needs like rics and salt for mutual satisfaction. Other wise whats the use of all of us having rice to sell and none has salt. And they needed something, in place of salt or rice, to carry it around and which is equal to the rice at home to sell. Now we get the ugly head of real science of money coming out.
They came out with Commodity Money. So if I have rice and my neighbour has fruit and the two harvests different times we have a problem, unless we have something like copper, gold, coconuts - things which can be stored for years without going moldy - transacted according to a certain measurement.
The Economic Organization of a P.O.W. Camp by R.A. Radford is a bloody good read about how cigarettes become a commodity money in the WW3 POW camps. I think I will have to go back to the article one day to go through it with intent.
Out of all the commodities used by man the best is gold which has lasted many years upto date.
"The U.S. dollar was originally specified by the Coinage Act of 1792 to be a unit of weight (471.25 grains of troy silver (about 30.54 g of silver)) and not one of money as it is thought of today. The value of gold or silver contained in the dollar was then converted into relative value in the economy for the buying and selling of goods. This allowed the value of things to remain fairly constant over time, except for the influx and outflux of gold and silver in the nation's economy. According to an evaluation of data from the U.S. Department of Treasury, the cost of goods and services remained relatively consistent between 1635 and 1913, around a level of roughly 25 times the buying power of the U.S. dollar in 2006"
Says the Wikipedia.
"The origins of sterling lie in the reign of King Offa of Mercia, who introduced the silver penny. It copied the denarius of the new currency system of Charlemagne's Frankish Empire. As in the Carolingian system, 240 pennies weighed 1 pound (corresponding to Charlemagne's libra), with the shilling corresponding to Charlemagne's solidus and equal to 12 pence. At the time of the penny's introduction, it weighed 22.5 troy grains of fine silver (30 tower grains)(c. 1.5 g), indicating that the Mercian pound weighed 5400 troy grains (the Mercian pound became the basis of the Tower Pound, which weighed 5,400 Troy grains, equivalent to 7200 tower grains). At this time, the name sterling had yet to be acquired. The penny swiftly spread throughout the other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and became the standard coin of what was to become England."
About The British Pond Sterling.
"The franc was introduced by King John II in 1360. Its name comes from the inscription reading Johannes Dei Gratia Francorum Rex ("Jean by the grace of God King of the Franks") and its value was set as one livre tournois (a money of account). Francs were later minted under Charles V, Henri III and Henri IV.
Louis XIII of France stopped minting the franc in 1641 (replacing it with the Écu and Louis d'Or), but use of the name "franc" continued in accounting as a synonym for the livre tournois."
Lots of french words; it must be the French Franc.
"Before unification, the different German states issued a variety of different currencies, though most were linked to the Vereinsthaler, a silver coin containing 16⅔ grams of pure silver. Although the Mark was based on gold rather than silver, a fixed exchange rate between the Vereinsthaler and the Mark of 3 Mark = 1 Vereinsthaler was used for the conversion. Southern Germany had used the Gulden as the standard unit of account, which was worth 4⁄7 of a Vereinsthaler and, hence, became worth 1.71 (15⁄7) Mark in the new currency. Bremen had used a gold based Thaler which was converted directly to the Mark at a rate of 1 gold Thaler = 3.32 (39⁄28) Mark. Hamburg had used its own Mark prior to 1873. This was replaced by the Goldmark at a rate of 1 Hamburg Mark = 1.2 Goldmark.
From January 1, 1876 onwards, the Mark became the only legal tender. The name Goldmark was created later to distinguish it from the Papiermark (paper mark) which suffered a massive loss of value through hyperinflation following the First World War. The Goldmark was on a gold standard with 2790 Mark equal to 1 kilogram of pure gold."
The Germans have done badly either- I nearly typed Germen?
"After several earlier attempts the Austro-Hungarian Empire adopted the gold standard in 1892 according to the plan of Sándor Wekerle secretary of finance. This plan included the introduction of the new currency, the Krone. It consted of 100 Heller (Austria) or Fillér (Hungary). The value of the Krone was set at 2 Krone = 1 Gulden (Florin, or forint in Hungarian) of the previous silver-based currency. From 1900 onwards, Krone notes were the only legal banknotes of the Empire."
The countries who governed the money market 19th century can be seen by this statement.
"During the 19th and early 20th centuries, many other countries adopted the gold standard. As a consequence, conversion rates between different currencies could be determined simply from the respective gold standards. The pound sterling was equal to 4.886 U.S. dollars, 25.22 French francs (or equivalent currencies in the Latin Monetary Union), 20.43 German Marks or 24.02 Austro-Hungarian Krones. Discussions took place following the 1865 International Monetary Conference in Paris concerning the possibility of the UK joining the Latin Monetary Union and a Royal Commission on International Coinage examined the issues,[5] resulting in a decision against joining monetary union."
And people who live in UK note this:
"Prior to World War I, the United Kingdom had one of the world's strongest economies, holding 40% of the world's overseas investments. However, by the end of the war the country owed £850 million, mostly to the United States, with interest costing the country some 40% of all government spending."
Hai Karamba if you go to war you paay the price. Right now I sm interested about the financial state of the west and who is creating it?
If you cannot find the links in this blog, I have majority of them filed, Email me!
Money is a man made unit of measurement to use as a payment for goods, for services or a debt. If you like a very complicated and detailed explanation about money check wikipedia.
Wonder how long ago we started to dance with this devil. Oi some people love the devil. According to A History of Money from Ancient Times to the Present Day by Glyn Davies, rev. ed. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1996. 716p. ISBN 0 7083 1351 5; chronologically it kind of happened in Mesapotamia in c. 3000 - c. 2000 BC, when they started a banking system which was used by the temples and palaces for the accounting and storage of initially grain but later other goods including cattle, agricultural implements, and precious metals.
Then in the Bronze age 3000 BC - 1500 BC there was a land called Cappadocia, which is present day Central Anatolia in Turkey. Yeah we are talking about a very old civilisation which branched out into lots of other civilisations. These are the Hatti's. But even before that, in 3000 BC, the writing was developed to aid the accounting system of the palaces and the temples of Mesapotamia. Then in 2500 to 1550 BC the rulers of Cappadocia made ingots of silver and gurenteed their weight. These were used in transaction of goods. Call them money I would but read on.
Now you must be thinking why the hell is this guy started on this boring subject. yes it is boring. But it is what keeps most of us going at a rat race. I am stuck in a very mundane place called benefit dependency. And the world financial system is going into a very nasty turn. I been listening to the boffins talking about it for about 5 years about this impending 'disaster'. But I could not understand the whole thing. Why because it is not exactly a straight forword thingy. OK. Do you know that the Chinese Government and other governments have been buying the national debt of US. Now who wants to buy some one else's debt?
Do you know? Please let me know if you know.
Now back to the scene of money and grit.
This is a bit more complicated than I thought. The boffins cannot agree on the subject of "History of Money"; so they devised another way of explaining the history called, "Numismatics (Latin: numisma, nomisma, "coin"; from the Greek: νομίζειν nomÃzein, "to use according to law"), is the scientific study of currency and its history in all its varied forms."
But it is to make it more complicated. If we remember there were lots of things used money in our past. So some of them were metal wooden coins or medals and things like credit cards then there are the paper money, and last the stocks and bonds. That is all it is about. No hassle, or when hassle crops up we will sort it out.
"Ochre was one of the first pigments to be used by human beings. Pieces of haematite, worn down as though they had been used as crayons, have been found at 300,000 year old Homo heidelbergensis sites in France and Czechoslovakia. Neandertal burial sites sometimes include ochre as a grave good. The oldest evidence of mining activity, at the "Lion Cave" in Swaziland, is a 43,000 year old ochre mine. In Germanic rune lore, red ochre was often used in place of blood to redden, or tint, the runes and thereby instilling the spirit of life into the rune, enabling it to be used for magical purposes."
Red Ochre has been used as money in the good old days. In Australia the Abosrigines used it as money. So people who lived near these places with good Red Ochre must have been like the Oil Man today init. Then some cultures were using seashels, strong beads, and ivory were used for money. As these cannot be counterfeited, easily storable and transportable, lots of similar pieces of equal size available, they were used for bridal money, implements etc. But all else was of barter system. But by then people started thinking about coincidence of various needs like rics and salt for mutual satisfaction. Other wise whats the use of all of us having rice to sell and none has salt. And they needed something, in place of salt or rice, to carry it around and which is equal to the rice at home to sell. Now we get the ugly head of real science of money coming out.
They came out with Commodity Money. So if I have rice and my neighbour has fruit and the two harvests different times we have a problem, unless we have something like copper, gold, coconuts - things which can be stored for years without going moldy - transacted according to a certain measurement.
The Economic Organization of a P.O.W. Camp by R.A. Radford is a bloody good read about how cigarettes become a commodity money in the WW3 POW camps. I think I will have to go back to the article one day to go through it with intent.
Out of all the commodities used by man the best is gold which has lasted many years upto date.
"The U.S. dollar was originally specified by the Coinage Act of 1792 to be a unit of weight (471.25 grains of troy silver (about 30.54 g of silver)) and not one of money as it is thought of today. The value of gold or silver contained in the dollar was then converted into relative value in the economy for the buying and selling of goods. This allowed the value of things to remain fairly constant over time, except for the influx and outflux of gold and silver in the nation's economy. According to an evaluation of data from the U.S. Department of Treasury, the cost of goods and services remained relatively consistent between 1635 and 1913, around a level of roughly 25 times the buying power of the U.S. dollar in 2006"
Says the Wikipedia.
"The origins of sterling lie in the reign of King Offa of Mercia, who introduced the silver penny. It copied the denarius of the new currency system of Charlemagne's Frankish Empire. As in the Carolingian system, 240 pennies weighed 1 pound (corresponding to Charlemagne's libra), with the shilling corresponding to Charlemagne's solidus and equal to 12 pence. At the time of the penny's introduction, it weighed 22.5 troy grains of fine silver (30 tower grains)(c. 1.5 g), indicating that the Mercian pound weighed 5400 troy grains (the Mercian pound became the basis of the Tower Pound, which weighed 5,400 Troy grains, equivalent to 7200 tower grains). At this time, the name sterling had yet to be acquired. The penny swiftly spread throughout the other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and became the standard coin of what was to become England."
About The British Pond Sterling.
"The franc was introduced by King John II in 1360. Its name comes from the inscription reading Johannes Dei Gratia Francorum Rex ("Jean by the grace of God King of the Franks") and its value was set as one livre tournois (a money of account). Francs were later minted under Charles V, Henri III and Henri IV.
Louis XIII of France stopped minting the franc in 1641 (replacing it with the Écu and Louis d'Or), but use of the name "franc" continued in accounting as a synonym for the livre tournois."
Lots of french words; it must be the French Franc.
"Before unification, the different German states issued a variety of different currencies, though most were linked to the Vereinsthaler, a silver coin containing 16⅔ grams of pure silver. Although the Mark was based on gold rather than silver, a fixed exchange rate between the Vereinsthaler and the Mark of 3 Mark = 1 Vereinsthaler was used for the conversion. Southern Germany had used the Gulden as the standard unit of account, which was worth 4⁄7 of a Vereinsthaler and, hence, became worth 1.71 (15⁄7) Mark in the new currency. Bremen had used a gold based Thaler which was converted directly to the Mark at a rate of 1 gold Thaler = 3.32 (39⁄28) Mark. Hamburg had used its own Mark prior to 1873. This was replaced by the Goldmark at a rate of 1 Hamburg Mark = 1.2 Goldmark.
From January 1, 1876 onwards, the Mark became the only legal tender. The name Goldmark was created later to distinguish it from the Papiermark (paper mark) which suffered a massive loss of value through hyperinflation following the First World War. The Goldmark was on a gold standard with 2790 Mark equal to 1 kilogram of pure gold."
The Germans have done badly either- I nearly typed Germen?
"After several earlier attempts the Austro-Hungarian Empire adopted the gold standard in 1892 according to the plan of Sándor Wekerle secretary of finance. This plan included the introduction of the new currency, the Krone. It consted of 100 Heller (Austria) or Fillér (Hungary). The value of the Krone was set at 2 Krone = 1 Gulden (Florin, or forint in Hungarian) of the previous silver-based currency. From 1900 onwards, Krone notes were the only legal banknotes of the Empire."
The countries who governed the money market 19th century can be seen by this statement.
"During the 19th and early 20th centuries, many other countries adopted the gold standard. As a consequence, conversion rates between different currencies could be determined simply from the respective gold standards. The pound sterling was equal to 4.886 U.S. dollars, 25.22 French francs (or equivalent currencies in the Latin Monetary Union), 20.43 German Marks or 24.02 Austro-Hungarian Krones. Discussions took place following the 1865 International Monetary Conference in Paris concerning the possibility of the UK joining the Latin Monetary Union and a Royal Commission on International Coinage examined the issues,[5] resulting in a decision against joining monetary union."
And people who live in UK note this:
"Prior to World War I, the United Kingdom had one of the world's strongest economies, holding 40% of the world's overseas investments. However, by the end of the war the country owed £850 million, mostly to the United States, with interest costing the country some 40% of all government spending."
Hai Karamba if you go to war you paay the price. Right now I sm interested about the financial state of the west and who is creating it?
If you cannot find the links in this blog, I have majority of them filed, Email me!
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Rich People,
Damn and gas man I am writing lots today init? Hold on, that means I am reading lots more today. Yesterday I spent 10 hours doing this other blog of mine, and then realised that it was not saved. I tried to save it and the signal went from very low to no signal and that was that, 10 hours work down the drain. Hmmm grrrr.
Did you know that: "Economic figures show that in 2005, the wealthiest 0.1 percent of the country’s population had nearly as much income as all 150 million Americans who make up the lower economic half of the country. Of each dollar people earned in 2005, the top ten percent got 48.5 cents, the highest percentage since 1929, just before the Great Depression."
It is looking grim. 1929; a shiver went down me spine, though I was not alive that time that fuckup brought WW2 into the scene. I just read another article where the Scottish Equitable established in 1800's not allowing the customers to withdraw large amounts for 12 months. Reason there is not enough cash and if they withdraw the company has to sell its assets. That is what some of the companies are doing. Guess why Mr Brown is doing in China. US are not happy China buying US assets by China but does not mind the Saudis, Dubaians etc doing it. So Brown wants China to invest money in UK. Well buy the assets.
If you are as crazy as I am reading Merican stuff without really understanding them go here.
If you cannot find the links in this blog, I have majority of them filed, Email me!
Did you know that: "Economic figures show that in 2005, the wealthiest 0.1 percent of the country’s population had nearly as much income as all 150 million Americans who make up the lower economic half of the country. Of each dollar people earned in 2005, the top ten percent got 48.5 cents, the highest percentage since 1929, just before the Great Depression."
It is looking grim. 1929; a shiver went down me spine, though I was not alive that time that fuckup brought WW2 into the scene. I just read another article where the Scottish Equitable established in 1800's not allowing the customers to withdraw large amounts for 12 months. Reason there is not enough cash and if they withdraw the company has to sell its assets. That is what some of the companies are doing. Guess why Mr Brown is doing in China. US are not happy China buying US assets by China but does not mind the Saudis, Dubaians etc doing it. So Brown wants China to invest money in UK. Well buy the assets.
If you are as crazy as I am reading Merican stuff without really understanding them go here.
If you cannot find the links in this blog, I have majority of them filed, Email me!
Find the Truth About Bush's Wars
THE WARS ARE NOT ABOUT TERRORISM
The Bush Administration's Curious Behavior
Hours after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, President Bush told the world the United States would take the fight directly to the terrorists and the states that harbored them. Thus the Bush Administration's "War on Terror" was born.
Less than a month later, on October 7, Mr. Bush launched a savage aerial bombardment of Afghanistan. He had the support of a shocked American citizenry and a sympathetic world, all of whom expected justice to be delivered soon to the terrorist Osama bin Laden and the harboring state embodied in the Taliban.
The incursion into Afghanistan was sold as the first action in the "War on Terror." It was a brilliantly executed charade.
Flashback to October 12, 2000, a year earlier. The USS Cole, an American Navy destroyer in the Yemeni port of Aden, has suffered heavy damage from a terrorist attack, perpetrated by Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda.
Three weeks later officials of the Clinton Administration met with theTaliban in the Sheraton Hotel in Hamburg, Germany. To avoid a violent retaliation of furious bombing, the Taliban offered the unconditional surrender of Osama bin Laden.
Before the details of the transfer were completed, however, a Supreme Court ruling gave George W. Bush the White House, and the message was passed: the actual handover of bin Laden will be deferred until the Bush Administration is sworn in.
Once in office, the new Administration asked the Taliban to delay the handover of Osama bin Laden at least until February. As winter faded into spring, and spring into summer, the Administration demurred twice more.
Then Osama bin Laden struck again, on September 11, 2001.
On September 15, Taliban officials were flown in U.S. Air Force C-130 aircraft to the Pakistani city of Quetta, where the deal was sweetened. The standing offer of surrendering Osama bin Laden was renewed, but now the Taliban would also oversee the closure of bin Laden's bases and training camps.
This time the White House simply rejected the offer out of hand. It did so again when the offer was repeated several weeks later, and days after that President Bush ordered the violence to begin.
The invasion of Afghanistan was something vastly different than a quest to apprehend a terrorist..
Sources for this section:
1. "Bush Rejects Taliban Offer to Hand bin Laden Over," Guardian Unlimited (UK), October 14, 2001.
2. "Bush Rejects Taliban Offer to Surrender bin Laden," Andrew Buncombe, The Independent (UK), October 15, 2001.
3. "Dreamers and Idiots: Britain and the US did everything to avoid a peaceful solution in Iraq and Afghanistan," George Monbiot, The Guardian (UK), November 11, 2003.
4. "How Bush Was Offered bin Laden and Blew It," Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair, CounterPunch, November 1, 2004.
5. "Did Bush try to stop bin Laden in his first eight months in office?" MSNBC Countdown, September 28, 2006.
The War in Afghanistan
The commitment to invade Afghanistan was made long before 9/11.
The Bush Administration wanted to secure for American energy companies-notably the Enron and Unocal Corporations-the strategic pipeline route across Afghanistan to the Caspian Basin. But the Taliban had signed a contract in 1996 with the Bridas Corporation of Argentina, preempting the route.
Scarcely settled in Washington in early 2001, the Bush Administration immediately pressed the Taliban to rescind the Bridas contract, and undertook planning for military intervention should negotiations fail. Administration officials and the Taliban met for talks three times throughout the spring and summer, in Washington D.C., Berlin, and Islamabad-but to no avail.
At the last session, in August, 2001 the Administration threatened a "carpet of bombs" if the Taliban did not comply. The Taliban would not. Soon thereafter-still weeks before September 11-President Bush notified Pakistan and India he would attack Afghanistan "before the end of October."
Then 9/11. Then two more refusals of Osama bin Laden's head. Then, on October 7, the Bush Administration looses the carpet of bombs.
Since then Afghanistan has been supplied with a puppet government, the Bridas contract is history, and the country is dotted today with permanent U.S. military bases in close proximity to the pipeline route. It was a war of conquest and occupation.
Counter-terrorism is scarcely visible. Osama bin Laden remains at large, the yield of "terrorists" to date consists of several hundred iconic and badly treated wretches in Guantanamo Bay, and terrorism in the Middle East has intensified, not diminished.
Sources for this section:
1. "Players on a rigged grand chessboard: Bridas, Unocal, and the Afghanistan pipeline," Larry Chin, Online Journal, March, 2002.
2. Crude Politics: How Bush's Oil Cronies Hijacked the War on Terrorism, Paul Sperry, WND Books, 2003.
3. Alexander's Gas and Oil Connections, February 23, 2003.
4. "A Timeline of Oil and Violence: Afghanistan", see the website, http://www.ringnebula.com/Oil/Timeline.htm
5. "Spy Agencies Say Iraq War Worsens Terrorism Threat," New York Times, September 24, 2006.
6. "From Afghanistan to Iraq: Connecting the Dots with Oil," Richard W. Behan, AlterNet, February 5, 2007.
THE WARS ARE ABOUT AMERICAN HEGEMONY-AND OIL
The War in Iraq
The template for the invasion of Iraq was crafted in 1992, in Richard Cheney's Defense Department during the first Bush Administration. It was a document advocating a U.S. posture of singular global dominance in economic, diplomatic, and military power. The authors were Paul Wolfowitz, Zalmay Khalilzad, and Lewis "Scooter" Libby. Their document spoke explicitly about the need to secure "...access to vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil," and Iraq was in the crosshairs.
In 1996, the Project for the New American Century was created, touting the term "global hegemony," and seeking to maintain America's status as the world's only superpower, using preemptive war if necessary. Among the founders of the PNAC were the earlier advocates of world dominion: Richard Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, Zalmay Khalilzad, and Lewis "Scooter" Libby. Donald Rumsfeld, and Jeb Bush were founding members as well.
In a 1998 letter to President Clinton the PNAC people once again sought the invasion of Iraq. Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Zalmay Khalilzad, and 15 others signed the letter.
In September of 2000 the Project for the New American Century once more advocated the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. Then four months later, Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Zalmay Khalilzad, Lewis "Scooter" Libby-and 24 others from the PNAC-moved into top positions in the Bush Administration.
The commitment to invade Iraq was made at the first meeting of President Bush's National Security Council in January of 2001.
The rationale was ideological, apparently: by means of a preemptive war, to take an initial step toward global hegemony. A more tangible objective would soon emerge.
Sources for this section:
1. "Empire Builders: Neoconservatives and their blueprint for U.S. Power," Christian Science Monitor , a series appearing June, 2005.
2. The website of the Project for the New American Century. See http://www.newamericancentury.org/
3. The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O'Neill, by Ron Suskind, Simon and Schuster, 2004.
4. "From Afghanistan to Iraq: Connecting the Dots with Oil," Richard W. Behan, AlterNet, February 5, 2007.
Regime Change
In December of 2002, 3 months before his country was invaded, Saddam Hussein invited the Bush Administration to send U.S. troops into Iraq to search for weapons of mass destruction, and he said he could prove Iraq was not involved in 9/11. His entreaty was turned aside by President Bush and Vice President Cheney. Two months later Hussein promised unlimited access to the FBI to search for WMD's, support for the US position on Israel and Palestine, and even some limited rights to Iraq's oil. All this was rejected. Finally, in desperation Saddam Hussein offered personally to depart Iraq for exile in Egypt or Saudi Arabia. Once again he was refused by the White House, and soon thereafter cruise missiles pounded Baghdad and U.S. tanks rolled across the border from Kuwait.
Regime change was not the objective: that could have been achieved bloodlessly with Saddam Hussein's exile. Combating terrorism couldn't possibly have been the objective, either: when President Bush invaded Iraq, there was no sign of al Qaeda in the country at all. There had to be some other purpose.
Sources for this section:
1. "Dreamers and Idiots: Britain and the US did everything to avoid a peaceful solution in Iraq and Afghanistan," George Monbiot, The Guardian (UK), November 11, 2003.
2. "Llego el momento de deshacerse de Saddam," El Pais (Spain), a transcript of a conversation between George Bush, Condoleezza Rice, and Jose Maria Anzar in Crawford, Texas, February 22, 2003. Published September 26, 2007.
Oil
Within weeks of taking office the Bush Administration was studying maps of the Iraqi oil fields, pipelines, refineries, tanker terminals, and undeveloped oil exploration blocks. A National Security Council document dated February 3, 2001 spoke of "actions regarding the capture of new and existing oil and gas fields." Later in the year the Bush State Department undertook the "Future of Iraq Project," in one element of which Administration bureaucrats and oil company representatives planned the postwar deconstruction of Iraq's nationalized oil industry. It would be replaced by a clever form of privatization, hugely favoring American and British oil companies. This planning was underway in October of 2001, exactly a year before Congress authorized military force in Iraq.
The State Department's plan was codified in a model "hydrocarbon law" drafted during Paul Bremer's Coalition Provisional Authority, with direct participation of the American and British oil companies. The law was not translated from English into Arabic until elections had been held; then Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's cabinet approved the law on February 15, 2007 and submitted it to Parliament for passage.
The hydrocarbon law when passed will grant immensely profitable access for international oil companies to an estimated 81% of Iraq's undeveloped crude oil reserves. The favored companies are Exxon/Mobil, Chevron/Texaco, Royal Dutch/Shell, and BP/Amoco.
Enactment of the hydrocarbon law was proposed as a mandatory "benchmark" by President Bush in a speech on January 10, 2007. The benchmark was made statutory when the Democratic Congress passed the Iraq Accountability Act a short time later.
The tangible objective for invading and occupying Iraq was suspected early by the war's opponents and it is now confirmed: to secure access to the country's immense oil and gas resources. Evidence of success is everywhere. Iraq now has a puppet government and five permanent American "mega-bases" to house 100,000 troops for 50 years. The American embassy in Baghdad is ten times larger than any other U.S. embassy in the world. And in November, President Bush and Prime Minister Maliki signed a document called The Declaration of Principles, to assure an "enduring relationship" between their governments.
Sources for this section:
1. For copies of the Iraqi oil field maps, see the website of Judicial Watch, at: http://www.judicialwatch.org/oil-field-maps
2. "Contract Sport," by Jane Mayer,The New Yorker, Issue 23, February 16, 2004.
3. Crude Designs: the Ripoff of Iraq's Oil Wealth, Gregg Mutitt, ed., the Platform Group, United Kingdom.
4. "Bush's Petro-Cartel Almost Has Iraq's Oil," by Joshua Holland, published on the AlterNet website, October 16, 2006.
5. "Slick Connections: U.S. Influence on Iraqi Oil," Erik Leaver and Greg Mutitt, Foreign Policy in Focus, July 18, 2007.
6. "Imperial Opportunities for U.S. Builders," Tom Engelhardt, Asia Times, November 6, 2007.
7. "An 'Enduring' Relationship for Security and Enduring an Occupation for Oil," Ann Wright, truthout website, December 5, 2007.
And so, Speaker Pelosi, here we are after six years of fraudulence, engaged in two wars of conquest and occupation the Bush Administration orchestrated in defiance of honesty, decency, morals, and law. Half a million lives and half a trillion dollars have been poured into the cesspool of their lies and deceit.
Truth and justice are the bedrocks of our existence as a nation. The Bush Administration has trampled truth. We cannot tolerate the withholding of justice as well. Madam Speaker, you must impeach.
Or can you refute this history?
Richard W. Behan lives and writes on Lopez Island, off the northwest coast of Washington state. He can be reached at rwbehan@rockisland.com .
If you cannot find the links in this blog, I have majority of them filed, Email me!
The Bush Administration's Curious Behavior
Hours after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, President Bush told the world the United States would take the fight directly to the terrorists and the states that harbored them. Thus the Bush Administration's "War on Terror" was born.
Less than a month later, on October 7, Mr. Bush launched a savage aerial bombardment of Afghanistan. He had the support of a shocked American citizenry and a sympathetic world, all of whom expected justice to be delivered soon to the terrorist Osama bin Laden and the harboring state embodied in the Taliban.
The incursion into Afghanistan was sold as the first action in the "War on Terror." It was a brilliantly executed charade.
Flashback to October 12, 2000, a year earlier. The USS Cole, an American Navy destroyer in the Yemeni port of Aden, has suffered heavy damage from a terrorist attack, perpetrated by Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda.
Three weeks later officials of the Clinton Administration met with theTaliban in the Sheraton Hotel in Hamburg, Germany. To avoid a violent retaliation of furious bombing, the Taliban offered the unconditional surrender of Osama bin Laden.
Before the details of the transfer were completed, however, a Supreme Court ruling gave George W. Bush the White House, and the message was passed: the actual handover of bin Laden will be deferred until the Bush Administration is sworn in.
Once in office, the new Administration asked the Taliban to delay the handover of Osama bin Laden at least until February. As winter faded into spring, and spring into summer, the Administration demurred twice more.
Then Osama bin Laden struck again, on September 11, 2001.
On September 15, Taliban officials were flown in U.S. Air Force C-130 aircraft to the Pakistani city of Quetta, where the deal was sweetened. The standing offer of surrendering Osama bin Laden was renewed, but now the Taliban would also oversee the closure of bin Laden's bases and training camps.
This time the White House simply rejected the offer out of hand. It did so again when the offer was repeated several weeks later, and days after that President Bush ordered the violence to begin.
The invasion of Afghanistan was something vastly different than a quest to apprehend a terrorist..
Sources for this section:
1. "Bush Rejects Taliban Offer to Hand bin Laden Over," Guardian Unlimited (UK), October 14, 2001.
2. "Bush Rejects Taliban Offer to Surrender bin Laden," Andrew Buncombe, The Independent (UK), October 15, 2001.
3. "Dreamers and Idiots: Britain and the US did everything to avoid a peaceful solution in Iraq and Afghanistan," George Monbiot, The Guardian (UK), November 11, 2003.
4. "How Bush Was Offered bin Laden and Blew It," Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair, CounterPunch, November 1, 2004.
5. "Did Bush try to stop bin Laden in his first eight months in office?" MSNBC Countdown, September 28, 2006.
The War in Afghanistan
The commitment to invade Afghanistan was made long before 9/11.
The Bush Administration wanted to secure for American energy companies-notably the Enron and Unocal Corporations-the strategic pipeline route across Afghanistan to the Caspian Basin. But the Taliban had signed a contract in 1996 with the Bridas Corporation of Argentina, preempting the route.
Scarcely settled in Washington in early 2001, the Bush Administration immediately pressed the Taliban to rescind the Bridas contract, and undertook planning for military intervention should negotiations fail. Administration officials and the Taliban met for talks three times throughout the spring and summer, in Washington D.C., Berlin, and Islamabad-but to no avail.
At the last session, in August, 2001 the Administration threatened a "carpet of bombs" if the Taliban did not comply. The Taliban would not. Soon thereafter-still weeks before September 11-President Bush notified Pakistan and India he would attack Afghanistan "before the end of October."
Then 9/11. Then two more refusals of Osama bin Laden's head. Then, on October 7, the Bush Administration looses the carpet of bombs.
Since then Afghanistan has been supplied with a puppet government, the Bridas contract is history, and the country is dotted today with permanent U.S. military bases in close proximity to the pipeline route. It was a war of conquest and occupation.
Counter-terrorism is scarcely visible. Osama bin Laden remains at large, the yield of "terrorists" to date consists of several hundred iconic and badly treated wretches in Guantanamo Bay, and terrorism in the Middle East has intensified, not diminished.
Sources for this section:
1. "Players on a rigged grand chessboard: Bridas, Unocal, and the Afghanistan pipeline," Larry Chin, Online Journal, March, 2002.
2. Crude Politics: How Bush's Oil Cronies Hijacked the War on Terrorism, Paul Sperry, WND Books, 2003.
3. Alexander's Gas and Oil Connections, February 23, 2003.
4. "A Timeline of Oil and Violence: Afghanistan", see the website, http://www.ringnebula.com/Oil/Timeline.htm
5. "Spy Agencies Say Iraq War Worsens Terrorism Threat," New York Times, September 24, 2006.
6. "From Afghanistan to Iraq: Connecting the Dots with Oil," Richard W. Behan, AlterNet, February 5, 2007.
THE WARS ARE ABOUT AMERICAN HEGEMONY-AND OIL
The War in Iraq
The template for the invasion of Iraq was crafted in 1992, in Richard Cheney's Defense Department during the first Bush Administration. It was a document advocating a U.S. posture of singular global dominance in economic, diplomatic, and military power. The authors were Paul Wolfowitz, Zalmay Khalilzad, and Lewis "Scooter" Libby. Their document spoke explicitly about the need to secure "...access to vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil," and Iraq was in the crosshairs.
In 1996, the Project for the New American Century was created, touting the term "global hegemony," and seeking to maintain America's status as the world's only superpower, using preemptive war if necessary. Among the founders of the PNAC were the earlier advocates of world dominion: Richard Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, Zalmay Khalilzad, and Lewis "Scooter" Libby. Donald Rumsfeld, and Jeb Bush were founding members as well.
In a 1998 letter to President Clinton the PNAC people once again sought the invasion of Iraq. Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Zalmay Khalilzad, and 15 others signed the letter.
In September of 2000 the Project for the New American Century once more advocated the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. Then four months later, Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Zalmay Khalilzad, Lewis "Scooter" Libby-and 24 others from the PNAC-moved into top positions in the Bush Administration.
The commitment to invade Iraq was made at the first meeting of President Bush's National Security Council in January of 2001.
The rationale was ideological, apparently: by means of a preemptive war, to take an initial step toward global hegemony. A more tangible objective would soon emerge.
Sources for this section:
1. "Empire Builders: Neoconservatives and their blueprint for U.S. Power," Christian Science Monitor , a series appearing June, 2005.
2. The website of the Project for the New American Century. See http://www.newamericancentury.org/
3. The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O'Neill, by Ron Suskind, Simon and Schuster, 2004.
4. "From Afghanistan to Iraq: Connecting the Dots with Oil," Richard W. Behan, AlterNet, February 5, 2007.
Regime Change
In December of 2002, 3 months before his country was invaded, Saddam Hussein invited the Bush Administration to send U.S. troops into Iraq to search for weapons of mass destruction, and he said he could prove Iraq was not involved in 9/11. His entreaty was turned aside by President Bush and Vice President Cheney. Two months later Hussein promised unlimited access to the FBI to search for WMD's, support for the US position on Israel and Palestine, and even some limited rights to Iraq's oil. All this was rejected. Finally, in desperation Saddam Hussein offered personally to depart Iraq for exile in Egypt or Saudi Arabia. Once again he was refused by the White House, and soon thereafter cruise missiles pounded Baghdad and U.S. tanks rolled across the border from Kuwait.
Regime change was not the objective: that could have been achieved bloodlessly with Saddam Hussein's exile. Combating terrorism couldn't possibly have been the objective, either: when President Bush invaded Iraq, there was no sign of al Qaeda in the country at all. There had to be some other purpose.
Sources for this section:
1. "Dreamers and Idiots: Britain and the US did everything to avoid a peaceful solution in Iraq and Afghanistan," George Monbiot, The Guardian (UK), November 11, 2003.
2. "Llego el momento de deshacerse de Saddam," El Pais (Spain), a transcript of a conversation between George Bush, Condoleezza Rice, and Jose Maria Anzar in Crawford, Texas, February 22, 2003. Published September 26, 2007.
Oil
Within weeks of taking office the Bush Administration was studying maps of the Iraqi oil fields, pipelines, refineries, tanker terminals, and undeveloped oil exploration blocks. A National Security Council document dated February 3, 2001 spoke of "actions regarding the capture of new and existing oil and gas fields." Later in the year the Bush State Department undertook the "Future of Iraq Project," in one element of which Administration bureaucrats and oil company representatives planned the postwar deconstruction of Iraq's nationalized oil industry. It would be replaced by a clever form of privatization, hugely favoring American and British oil companies. This planning was underway in October of 2001, exactly a year before Congress authorized military force in Iraq.
The State Department's plan was codified in a model "hydrocarbon law" drafted during Paul Bremer's Coalition Provisional Authority, with direct participation of the American and British oil companies. The law was not translated from English into Arabic until elections had been held; then Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's cabinet approved the law on February 15, 2007 and submitted it to Parliament for passage.
The hydrocarbon law when passed will grant immensely profitable access for international oil companies to an estimated 81% of Iraq's undeveloped crude oil reserves. The favored companies are Exxon/Mobil, Chevron/Texaco, Royal Dutch/Shell, and BP/Amoco.
Enactment of the hydrocarbon law was proposed as a mandatory "benchmark" by President Bush in a speech on January 10, 2007. The benchmark was made statutory when the Democratic Congress passed the Iraq Accountability Act a short time later.
The tangible objective for invading and occupying Iraq was suspected early by the war's opponents and it is now confirmed: to secure access to the country's immense oil and gas resources. Evidence of success is everywhere. Iraq now has a puppet government and five permanent American "mega-bases" to house 100,000 troops for 50 years. The American embassy in Baghdad is ten times larger than any other U.S. embassy in the world. And in November, President Bush and Prime Minister Maliki signed a document called The Declaration of Principles, to assure an "enduring relationship" between their governments.
Sources for this section:
1. For copies of the Iraqi oil field maps, see the website of Judicial Watch, at: http://www.judicialwatch.org/oil-field-maps
2. "Contract Sport," by Jane Mayer,The New Yorker, Issue 23, February 16, 2004.
3. Crude Designs: the Ripoff of Iraq's Oil Wealth, Gregg Mutitt, ed., the Platform Group, United Kingdom.
4. "Bush's Petro-Cartel Almost Has Iraq's Oil," by Joshua Holland, published on the AlterNet website, October 16, 2006.
5. "Slick Connections: U.S. Influence on Iraqi Oil," Erik Leaver and Greg Mutitt, Foreign Policy in Focus, July 18, 2007.
6. "Imperial Opportunities for U.S. Builders," Tom Engelhardt, Asia Times, November 6, 2007.
7. "An 'Enduring' Relationship for Security and Enduring an Occupation for Oil," Ann Wright, truthout website, December 5, 2007.
And so, Speaker Pelosi, here we are after six years of fraudulence, engaged in two wars of conquest and occupation the Bush Administration orchestrated in defiance of honesty, decency, morals, and law. Half a million lives and half a trillion dollars have been poured into the cesspool of their lies and deceit.
Truth and justice are the bedrocks of our existence as a nation. The Bush Administration has trampled truth. We cannot tolerate the withholding of justice as well. Madam Speaker, you must impeach.
Or can you refute this history?
Richard W. Behan lives and writes on Lopez Island, off the northwest coast of Washington state. He can be reached at rwbehan@rockisland.com .
If you cannot find the links in this blog, I have majority of them filed, Email me!
"Al-Alam TV correspondent in Basra Ni'mah Abd-al-Razzaq)
Iran is backing the armed groups in southern Iraq. This accusation which the US and British forces of occupation have continuously and repeatedly made in the past few years has not been backed up with facts, according to the (Iraqi) field commanders in southern Iraq. The commander of Basra Police, Staff Maj-Gen Jalil Khalaf, described the US and British accusations against Iran as nothing more than a political game, saying that the Iraqi security services have not found any evidence which would point to an Iranian interference in southern Iraq.
(Staff Maj-Gen Khalaf - recording)
I tell you this in all honesty, when I find any evidence I will announce it openly, but so far I have not found any. In my capacity as field commander and as a professional, I tell you I have not found any evidence. As regards the countries (concerned), it is their problem and this is politics."
This is something we already had proof of but this is the first time it came from an army general. Blimey first its Pak generals now its Iraq generals. Wonder who be next.
If you cannot find the links in this blog, I have majority of them filed, Email me!
Iran is backing the armed groups in southern Iraq. This accusation which the US and British forces of occupation have continuously and repeatedly made in the past few years has not been backed up with facts, according to the (Iraqi) field commanders in southern Iraq. The commander of Basra Police, Staff Maj-Gen Jalil Khalaf, described the US and British accusations against Iran as nothing more than a political game, saying that the Iraqi security services have not found any evidence which would point to an Iranian interference in southern Iraq.
(Staff Maj-Gen Khalaf - recording)
I tell you this in all honesty, when I find any evidence I will announce it openly, but so far I have not found any. In my capacity as field commander and as a professional, I tell you I have not found any evidence. As regards the countries (concerned), it is their problem and this is politics."
This is something we already had proof of but this is the first time it came from an army general. Blimey first its Pak generals now its Iraq generals. Wonder who be next.
If you cannot find the links in this blog, I have majority of them filed, Email me!
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