April 4, 2002
(Cosmiverse)
The last two weeks of April and the first two weeks of May present a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see all of the planets in our solar system in one single evening!
Comet Hale-Bopp dazzled us for weeks. The Perseid meteor shower thrilled us for one night. But the world hasn't seen anything like the planetary traffic jam that's going to occur the last week of April and the first two weeks in May!
Inching across the sky like bumper-to-bumper commuters on their way to work, a rare planetary alignment will allow sky observers to see every planet in our solar system in a single evening!
"There will be other opportunities in the future to see the planets in different configurations," says Philip Sadler, Director of the Science Education Department at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) in Cambridge, MA, " but it won't be anything like this for at least another 70 years. This is truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience."
Even more amazing, two very special events will occur during this planetary line-up. On May 10, the planets Mars and Venus will appear to pass so close to one another that, to the naked eye, the Roman God of War and the Roman Goddess of Love will become one.
Earlier, on May 5, something even more spectacular will happen. The bright planets Mars, Saturn and Venus will group together to form a perfect equilateral triangle in the western sky. This dazzling configuration will be visible almost everywhere on Earth.
In the Middle East, this pyramid-shaped specter will hang directly above Bethlehem. Oddly enough, more than 2,000 years ago, this same grouping of planets may have caught the attention of the Biblical Magi.
On April 1, 2 B.C., the planets Mars, Saturn and Venus came together to form a perfect equilateral triangle over the city of Bethlehem. Now, in the 21st Century, amid the turmoil taking place in the Middle East, the ancient Roman gods of Love, War and Agriculture/Wisdom, are coming together to look down upon this war-ravaged landscape once again.
In the past, many different configurations of planetary alignments have been seen from Earth. They occur due to the random positions of the planets in their eccentric orbits around the Sun. In the early 1980s and in May of 2000, the planets stacked up directly behind the Sun. Many people thought the combined gravitational pull might create havoc here on Earth resulting in giant earthquakes, sweeping tidal waves or erupting volcanoes. But, the collective gravitational pull was so insignificant, nothing happened.
What was the reason? The other planets are simply too small or too far away in space to affect us back on Earth. To see just how insignificant the gravitational pull of the planets can be, let's do what many good, red-blooded Americans like to do. Let's go shopping!
Imagine if we stood in the produce section of a grocery store and held up a big yellow grapefruit representing the Sun. The planet Mercury would be the size of a small grain of salt orbiting around it 18 feet away. Venus would be somewhat larger, like a grain of sugar you get in those little brown packets at the coffee shops, 34 feet away. Earth, also a grain of sugar, would be located 50 feet away. Mars also would be the size of a grain of salt 75 feet away.
Left image: The last two weeks of April and the first two weeks of May present a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see all of the planets in our solar system in one single evening! Click image to enlarge.
As for the rest of the planets: Jupiter, a cherry-sized tomato, would be found at 240 feet; Saturn, the size of a green grape, at 420 feet; Uranus, a frozen green pea, at 300 yards; Neptune, also the size of a frozen pea, at 470 yards; and Pluto, represented by a speck of dust, would orbit our grapefruit-sized Sun at a distance of 475-600 yards.
As you've probably guessed, not much gravitational pull is exerted on the Earth by these grocery store lightweights! In late April and early May, when the planets line up, they will not be arranged behind one another or the Sun. Instead, they will present a beautiful line across the sky from horizon to near zenith.
For a period of a little more than three weeks, anyone looking west at sunset will be able to see the planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn and Jupiter. A few hours later at 4 A.M., armed with a large-size amateur telescope, they can continue their grand tour by observing Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, a few wandering asteroids and maybe even Comet Ikeya-Zhang in the east. Finally, by quickly glancing down at the ground, they will have completed their grand tour of the solar system.
"Seeing nine worlds in just one night is something few astronomers can say they've accomplished," waxes Sadler. " I can't wait to do it myself!" Looking at the planets spread out across the sky during this alignment also demonstrates, better than any book, how our solar system formed 4 billion years ago; something astronomers just recently have begun seeing around other distant stars in space.
Right image: April 14-18, 8:00 p.m. PDT: Mercury is visible with great difficulty at 7:40 p.m., but by 8:00 it is setting. The thin crescent moon is near Venus on the 14th, near Mars on the 15th, near Saturn on the 16th, and near Jupiter on the 18th. Click image to enlarge.
"Our solar system condensed out of a nebular dust cloud that flattened down into a giant disk that resembled a big pizza pan," says CfA astrophysicist David Wilner. "Utilizing instruments like the Hubble Space Telescope and data from the Infrared Astronomical Satellite, we are now witnessing the formation of new solar systems spread out into flattened discs of gas and dust. We are even detecting large lumps of materials in the dust disks that may be the signatures of planets in formation. Astronomers are now assembling snapshots of our own past frozen in time billions of years ago."
This pathway of planets, or the ecliptic as astronomers call it, is what remains after our dust cloud coalesced into planets. Tracing the path of this ancient dust ring across the sky is easy. Stand sideways facing south with your right hand extended and pointing to where the Sun recently set along the western horizon. Now, extend your arm up to point at the Moon or a bright planet overhead. Connecting these two points together, continue to sweep your arm in an arc until it reaches the opposite horizon. Bingo! You have just traced out the ecliptic. All the planets will be found along this line and nowhere else. And this is where the traffic jam will occur.
"Coincidentally," says Sadler, " have you ever wondered why the twelve signs of the zodiac were chosen? Why someone you know wasn't born under the sign of Hercules or Orion?" To the Greeks and Romans, the ecliptic was the Highway of the Gods or the path the planets and Moon moved across at night and the Sun traveled during the daytime.
Left image: April 23, 8:00 p.m.: Mercury has joined the other four naked-eye planets. Saturn, Mars, and the star Aldebaran form a small equilateral triangle. Click image to enlarge.
"Located directly behind this highway were the twelve special constellations the Gods passed by as they moved across the sky. They constituted the signs of the zodiac. This was the basis for astrology -- religious beliefs and basic sky observations mixed together. It should not be confused with the science of astronomy that emerged centuries later," says Sadler.
Today, it is widely held by many historians and planetarium directors that a conjunction of the planets, similar to the one on May 5, accounts for the Star of Bethlehem that sent the Magi on their way to seek the Christ child. Certainly the timing was right. An almost identical triangular alignment of Saturn, Mars and Venus did take place on April 1, 2 B.C. And the planets Jupiter, Saturn and Mars also formed a triangular conjunction in 6 B.C., in the constellation Pisces, the sign of the Christians.
However, renowned astronomical historian Prof. Owen Gingerich of the CfA disagrees. "The very, very short duration of a grouping of planets was not the Star of Bethlehem," he states. "A conjugation like this would have meant nothing to the Magi. It was not part of their astrological tradition. It really wasn't until Kepler became fascinated with the harmony of the planets in the 16th century that the idea of a planetary conjunction came about to try to attach a scientific explanation to this event. In fact, Kepler even went so far as to add an imaginary supernova to the conjunction of planets in 6 B.C. to try to make it even more spectacular to catch the Magi's attention."
Right image: May 13-15, 8:00 p.m.: The crescent moon joins the planets on the evenings of the 13th, when it is between Saturn and Mercury, on the 14th, when it is near Venus, and on the 15th, when it is near Jupiter. The moon is above Jupiter on the 16th. The five planets span 34°. Click image to enlarge.
Will this event be religiously significant or just an astronomical oddity? Is it the most dramatic way to visualize how our solar system formed? Or, is it an exciting challenge for amateur astronomers to conduct their only whirlwind tour of the solar system in just one evening? Answering yes to any or all of the above makes the alignment of late April and early May something not to be missed.
Nothing like it will occur again in our lifetime. At the very least, it presents a wonderful opportunity for friends and family to come together and share an experience beyond the daily routine. It also may be an opportunity to ponder our fragile existence on this tiny blue world racing around an ordinary yellow star with eight other planetary companions and maybe help us, just a little bit, bring our own world back into perspective.
Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) is a joint collaboration between the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and the Harvard College Observatory. CfA scientists organized into seven research divisions study the origin, evolution, and ultimate fate of the universe.
Source: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA); Sky and Telescope; Dirk Zachow; Griffith-Hobbs Observatory
The horrible war that is prepared by the West, The year following will come the pestilence. It will be terrible to the young, old ones and animales. Blood, fire. When Mercury, Mars, Jupiter [in conjunction] in France.
Clearly "pestilence" here referrs to a biological terror attack.
In Quatrain 37, Century 1, we read:
The conflict is started. A great people uncertain. Overcome, the sea port will not answer.
The "great people" are the people of USA who are uncertain of how long the present war will last. The "sea port" is New York city--totally devastated and depopulated because of a biological terror attack.
It is April 2002, and a smallpox outbreak occures in New York. 4 and a half months later and 60 million people across the planet are dead. Tonight, The BBC broadcast a fictional documentary as if it were filmed in 2005, looking back at the smallpox pandemic that swept the world in 2002 and killed 60 million people. Heavily rooted in fact, it was disturbing viewing, to put it mildly. Did anyone else in Europe see this?
Well there's a canary if I ever saw one.
THE HISTORY OF GOG AND MAGOG, MANY disputes have arisen among the learned respecting the origin of the city of London; and it has hitherto never been very satisfactorily explained, why the two colossal statues of Gog and Magog were placed in the Guild-hall of that famous capital. What has been denied to antiquarian research, has been happily revealed to me, for the express purpose of being related to the rising generation; in order that future ages may have no doubt regarding two points of knowledge, in which so much of the happiness and prosperity of the citizens of the British metropolis is so deeply involved.
04/16/2002
(The Weather Channel)
South
Tornado and severe thunderstorm watches were posted this evening for central Texas and southern Oklahoma as a very dangerous situation has unfolded. Tornadoes moved through the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex causing extensive damage. Fortunately, no fatalities have been reported so far. As an upper-level disturbance rotates through the region, expect the tornado and damaging wind threat to continue for the next several hours in northeast Texas and eastern Oklahoma. Severe thunderstorms are possible into south-central Texas. Drier conditions will prevail across the Lone Star State on Wednesday as temperatures return to the 80s and 90s. Isolated showers and thunderstorms popped up in Florida and north Georgia on Tuesday and may become more numerous on Wednesday. It was a mild day throughout the region with highs in the 80s. The warm temperatures will continue through the end of the week.
Northeast
The heat was on in the Northeast today. Widespread record high temperatures were reported from Vermont to Virginia. Central Park in New York City reached 92 degrees, as did Reagan National Airport in Washington, DC. With dew points reaching into the 60s, it felt more like July than April in the Megalopolis. More record heat is possible on Wednesday along the I-95 corridor where the mercury will soar above 90 once again. Clouds and showers will move across Ohio and western Pennsylvania on Wednesday, allowing for cooler temperatures in those areas. A relief from this atypical spring heat is expected across the entire region by Friday.
Midwest
It was another hot day in parts of the Midwest as well. High temperature records were set in Chicago (87) and St. Louis (90). But the cost of breaking this heat is coming at a stormy price. Severe thunderstorms broke out this evening from Minnesota into Kansas as a cold front pushed eastward. Folks in Minneapolis, Des Moines, Iowa, and Kansas City will want to keep an eye out for the potential of severe thunderstorms overnight. The cold front causing these storms will bring much cooler temperatures to the region on Wednesday. Expect highs in the 50s, 60s, and 70s from the Upper Midwest to the Central Plains. Cooler conditions will also prevail across the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley as clouds, showers, and thunderstorms move through these areas.
West
The coldest air in the country was in the West today. Below-average highs were felt from the Pacific Northwest into the Desert Southwest. Seattle topped out at only 47 degrees, while Las Vegas reached 75, 20 degrees cooler than Monday's high. Windy conditions, showers, and even some snow plagued parts of the West on Tuesday. Wind gusts in excess of 70 mph were reported in eastern Colorado. Showers fell from Washington into northern California and will continue into Wednesday. Winter storm warnings are posted for the Sierras in northern California, where over a foot of new snow is possible above 5000 feet. Cooler-than-average temperatures are in store for the region once again on Wednesday, with highs in the 30s and 40s in the Great Basin and 60s across the Four Corners region.
The Khazarian Russian pretenders who rule 'Israel' are not Jews. They are Ashkenazim converts from Russia who used religion for secular political ends. Their forefathers in Khazaria also converted in order to play off Byzantine neighbours with Muslim ones. Further complicating the issue is the fact that Muslim faith is really a sect of Roman Catholicism.
The wife of Mohammed was a Catholic plant. Whose seductive pillow talk engendered a messianic complex in the would be prophet. Thus creating a religion as corrupt in its inception as the papal system.
This is not so strange as it may first appear. For the cult of Vatican papalism, the cult of the inquisition (it laws still on Roman Catholic books) and the cult of Mary Worship are as blasphemous as that of Islam to correct biblical faith and Worship.
(NationalReview)
The concept would have struck many people as absurd the last time such a calf was born, in 1997, and probably makes most readers laugh today. Big mistake: Never underestimate the power of religious faith to shape events, especially in the Holy Land. Especially right now.
Our eschatological heifer story begins on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, where tens of millions of Jews, Muslims, and Christians believe the central events of each tradition's Last Days will play out. The site, the Biblical Mount Moriah, was the site of the Hebrews' First Temple, destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BC, and the Second Temple, which the Romans leveled in 70 AD. Muslims, believing the site to be the place from which the Prophet Mohammed ascended into Heaven atop a steed, began in 685 to build the Noble Sanctuary, a 35-acre site in Jerusalem's walled Old City, containing the Dome of the Rock shrine and the al Aqsa mosque.
To Jews who adhere to ancient tradition, whose number include religious Israeli nationalists, the long-awaited Messiah will return to become the king of Israel and high priest of a rebuilt Temple, which can only be on Temple Mount. For Christian fundamentalists, Jesus Christ's return at the height of the battle of Armageddon, in which forces of the Antichrist clash in Israel with a 200 million-man army from the East, will require a Third Temple from which the Lord will begin a millennial reign. And for Muslims, an Antichrist figure called the Dajal will be a Jew who will lead an all-encompassing war against Islam, which will culminate in the return of Jesus (as a Muslim prophet), the Kaaba, or Sacred Rock in Mecca, transporting itself to Jerusalem, and final judgment in the valley just below the Noble Sanctuary.
"What happens at that one spot, more than anywhere else, quickens expectations of the End in three religions. And at that spot, the danger of provoking catastrophe is greatest," writes Israeli journalist Gershom Gorenberg in The End of Days, his 2000 book about the apocalyptic struggle over the Temple Mount.
So how does the calf recently born in Israel figure into things? As Gorenberg explains, the ashes of a flawless red heifer — an extremely rare creature — were required by the ancient Hebrews to purify worshipers who went into the Temple to pray. In modern times, rabbinical law forbids Jews from setting foot on the Temple Mount, thus violating the site where the Holy of Holies dwelled, until and unless they are ritually purified. Without a perfect red heifer to sacrifice, the Third Temple cannot be built, and Moshiach — the Messiah — will not come. Writes Gorenberg, "[Israeli] government officials and military leaders could only regard the requirement for the missing heifer as a stroke of sheer good fortune preventing conflict over the Mount."
In 1996, thanks in part to a cattle-breeding program set up in Israel with the help of Texas ranchers who are fundamentalist Christians, a red heifer was born. There was immense excitement among messianists of the Israeli religious Right, and their American Christian counterparts. The world media covered it as a joke, but it wasn't funny to David Landau, columnist for the Israeli daily Haaretz. He called the red heifer "a four-legged bomb" that could "set the entire region on fire." Muslim leaders worried about the red heifer too, as they would see an attempt by Jews to take over the Temple Mount as a sign of the Islamic apocalypse.
As it turned out, during the three years of waiting for the heifer to reach the ritually mandated age of sacrifice, white hairs popped out on the tip of her tail. This bovine was, alas, not divine. But now there's a successor, and rabbis who have examined her have declared her ritually acceptable (though she will not be ready for sacrifice for three years). She arrives at a time when Israel is fighting a war for survival with the Palestinians, who are almost entirely Muslim, and a time in which Islam and the West appear to be girding for battle with each other, as Islamic tradition predicts will be the state of the world before the Final Judgment.
"These kinds of circumstances are exactly what people are waiting for," says Richard Landes, a Boston University history professor and director of its Center for Millenial Studies. "We could be starting a war. If this is a real red heifer, and strict Orthodox rabbis have declared her worthy of sacrifice, then a lot of Jews in Israel will take that as a sign that a new phase of history is about to begin. The Muslims are ready for jihad anyway, so if you have Jews up there doing sacrifices, talk about a red flag in front of a charging bull."
Landes says there is immense anger among Israelis, both religious and secular, at the ingratitude of Muslims, whom the conquering Israeli army allowed to occupy and control the Temple Mount in 1967. Add to this the fury of a nation under attack by Islamic suicide bombers, and, says Landes, "it's entirely conceivable that this [red heifer] could trigger a new round of attempts to blow up the Dome of the Rock."
This is something the Israeli security forces have long been vigilant against. But with their attentions drawn elsewhere by the war with the Palestinians, it's possible that a radical group could slip the net. And it's possible that religious extremists elements within the Israeli army could help them.
"This idea is nothing to laugh at," says novelist Robert Stone, whose novel Damascus Gate centers around a similar conspiracy. "There have been at least four actual plots to clear the space where the Temple had stood. Some of them went surprisingly high into the army and police."
Timothy Weber, dean of Northern Baptist Theological Seminary in Lombard, Ill., has written extensively about the worldview of apocalypse-minded American Protestants. He tells NRO that "Bible teachers are foaming at the mouth over what's happening now in Israel."
"It really does play into the longstanding scenario that dispensationalists have believed would happen in the End: a growing disdain for Israel, Israel's isolation from the rest of the world, and mounting pressure on the Jewish state," Weber says. "This all leads up to the emergence of an Antichrist, who will step up and bring peace to the situation, and Israel and the world will welcome him as a solution to an apparently unsolvable problem."
The unshakable belief in particular prophetic visions — Jewish, Christian, or Islamic — makes the art of political compromise impossible when it comes to Jerusalem. Says Weber: "There's no way to negotiate these ideas. If you believe that this is in the prophetic cards, that this is history before it happens, that this is how God is going to manipulate events to bring about the final phase of human history, then you cannot negotiate land for peace, or anything else."
Put another way: You don't have to believe that a rust-colored calf could bring about the end of the world — or that 72 black-eyed virgins await the pious Islamic suicide bomber in paradise — but there are many people who do, and are prepared to act on that belief. This is a stubborn reality that eludes many of us in the modern, secular West, particularly those who work in the media, and who are therefore responsible for reporting and explaining the world to the masses.
"Sometimes you look at religion events and you want to laugh out loud, because they're so bizarre," says Terry Mattingly, a syndicated religion columnist and scholar of media and religion at Palm Beach Atlantic College. "If your worldview is essentially materialist, then to be 'real' something has to present itself in a form that makes sense in a laboratory, or on Wall Street, or in the New Hampshire primary, and anything that can't be explained within those templates doesn't count. Thus we can't seem to understand why people behave in ways that don't serve their self-interest."
Boston University's Landes agrees, saying that the American cultural elite tend to disdain religion, when in fact it is a major factor in modern history. "When 9/11 happened, one of the questions people asked were, 'Is it religious, or is it political?' People are more comfortable explaining it as politics. The very fact that people asked that question shows how little they understand," he says.
"Since September 11, we have all been brought to the point of recognizing the pervasive power of religions to shape all kinds of events," Weber adds. "We are dealing with ancient religious convictions and memories, and they are driving forces in the modern world. The secular press just doesn't get it, but it seems to me there's no other way to understand this."
The flip side of fame is notoriety, and in some cases, Red Bull's reputation has gotten it in trouble. The Irish prime minister recently called for an inquiry into Red Bull after a student who had been drinking the beverage at a sporting event suddenly died. Just this year, John Burroughs High School in Burbank, Calif., made news when the school banned energy drinks, including Red Bull, from its campus. Jay Gudzin, an assistant principal at the school, explained that two students became ill after ingesting an energy drink before football practice: "They became dizzy and disoriented. It was a very hot day, but these two weren't sweating at all. At first we were concerned that they may have been suffering from concussions, but practice hadn't started yet. When we took their pulse rates, one of the students had a pulse of 190."
The more rumors of Red Bull's potentially dangerous, overstimulating effects spread, the more the drink sells.
Scripture tells us that the leader of the angelic civilizations was a favored cherub, who later led the rebellion against God, for which the angelic civilizations were punished. These rebel angels were judged by a planetary cataclysm -- God destroyed "Rahab", the seat of the beautiful cherub's authority, the heart of the angelic civilization. This planet Rahab was the fifth out, where the asteroid belt is now located. Mars shows evidence of a great catastrophe on the scale of a planetary neighbor exploding.
The planet of the "Covering Cherub" is still evident within the debris, asteroids and comets, which are strewn throughout our solar system. Significantly, these chunks of the rebel cherub's planet, cosmic stones, have been used to mete out God's judgment throughout history. The rebel angels on Mars were judged with a blast of giant stones from Rahab , destroying the civilization at Cydonia that once gave glory to God. According to Mosaic law stoning was the prescribed means of execution for those guilty of idolatry, apostasy, blasphemy, divination, adultery, juvenile rebellion and infanticide. These sins are synonymous with the rebellion of Rahab.
God's judgment on the rebels continued, as the incomprehensibly violent and genetically unlikely dinosaurs, the very image of the dragon, "that old serpent" , were destroyed with another chunk of the rebel cherub's planet. This scan of a page from Drosnin's Bible Code confirms that "the dragon" and an "asteroid" from the planet "Rahab" were involved in the demise of the dinosaurs.
Note that the scholars working on the Bible Code came up with an independent theory, that Rahab must be the name of the "dragon", without knowledge of theories linking the Biblical Rahab to asteroids. (Michael Drosnin The Bible Code p. 149)
Scripture tells us God will use asteroids and/or comets -- chunks of the rebellious angels' planet -- in future judgment. A comet / asteroid impact will likely be the climax of the Gog / Magog War:
1) Mahmoud Salah and his friend while being arrested by Israeli soldiers.
2) They are being controlled by the Israeli soldiers.
3) His friend was released and they started shooting in the air to get eyewitnesses away.
4) Two soldiers are taking his clothes off while the others are ready to execute him.
5) He is executed.
6) They brought now the robot to fake the public that he is a suicide bomber.
Activists in Israel have confirmed that these images are real. The Israel Defence Forces have claimed that the detainee was carrying a bomb. The photos show otherwise.
Propaganda or real? If real, then why haven't you seen it in your newspaper or on CNN?
Thursday, April 18, 2002
(THE ASSOCIATED PRESS)
For the first time, doctors have documented a large-scale U.S. outbreak of antibiotic-resistant strep throat -- an episode involving at least 46 Pittsburgh schoolchildren.
The jump in resistance was detected early last year at a private school, where roughly half the strep throat cases were found to be untreatable with erythromycin. All the children were successfully treated with other drugs.
“It definitely went from one kid to another in the school, and it also spilled over into the community,” said lead researcher Dr. Judith M. Martin of Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh's Division of Allergy, Immunology and Infectious Disease. “Where it started, I don't know.”
Until now, antibiotics have easily killed group A streptococcus, the bacteria that cause strep throat and life-threatening septic infections, so doctors at the hospital were startled by its sudden, widespread resistance to widely used erythromycin. The drug is commonly prescribed for people allergic to penicillin. It may be given to other patients as well.
Doctors suspect the strep bacteria also are becoming resistant to other popular drugs in the same antibiotic family, the macrolides. Their use is growing because they require only one dose a day, compared with three for many other antibiotics.
The study was reported in today's New England Journal of Medicine.
Dr. Chris Van Beneden, an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the CDC will investigate.
“It may be occurring in other places across the country,” she added.
Dr. Lincoln P. Miller, head of the Newark infectious disease outpatient clinic at University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, said the findings show doctors should limit use of all macrolide drugs.
“This is an important article because it indicates the impact of our antibiotic use on the bacteria around us,” Miller said. “I would hazard a guess and say (this resistance is) fairly widespread.”
Doctors have long warned that overuse of antibiotics is making some germs immune. Antibiotic resistance has been growing in another type of streptococcus that causes pneumonia, but a recent survey of half the states found that fewer than 3 percent of group A streptococcus samples were resistant to erythromycin and closely related azithromycin.
In 1998, Martin began tracking group A streptococcus at the private elementary school, taking thousands of twice-a-month throat cultures from children. In January 2001, the doctors began seeing many samples of the same group A strain resistant to erythromycin -- in all, 48 percent over that winter. Forty-six of the students had the antibiotic-resistant form of strep throat.
In addition, a random check of samples from children treated for throat infections at Children's Hospital found 38 percent had the identical resistant strain.
In an editorial, Dr. Pentti Huovinen of Finland's National Public Health Institute wrote that prevalence of group A streptococcus that cannot be treated by macrolide drugs began increasing in 1990. When regulations limited their use, the resistance problem dropped sharply.
19 April 02
(NewScientist.com)
Parents who smoke produce fewer boys, according to research on Japanese couples. The researchers do not know the mechanism for the effect, but they say both the mother's and father's smoking habits are important.
Stress, temperature, birth order and even the number of wives in a man's harem are all known to influence the relative proportions of girls and boys at birth. But this is the first time birth sex ratio and smoking have been linked.
The researchers questioned over 5000 Japanese women on their smoking habits and those of their partner around the time they conceived their children. The 11,815 births reported were then split into groups based on parental smoking habits and the team compared the ratio of boys to girls in each category.
If neither parent smoked, boys made up about 55 per cent of births. But if both mum and dad were puffing over 20 cigarettes a day this dropped to 45 per cent.. Even if just the father was a light smoker, the proportion of boys was lower.
Weaker sperm
"We cannot say where the effect is," says research team member Anne Byskov at the University Hospital of Copenhagen, Denmark. But she speculates that Y bearing sperm or male foetuses or both are more sensitive to the effects of cigarette smoke.
Previous research has shown differences between X and Y carrying sperm, says Alexander Lerchl at the International University Bremen, Germany: "Y bearing sperm may be a bit faster swimming, but not as long lasting". This might suggest that Y carriers are less robust, but he warns the evidence is only weak.
The study does not attempt to account for other factors such as diet and stress levels that might correlate with smoking. Lerchl says we know that smokers take more health risks and that these factors must be ruled out.
Oh really?!!
19 April, 2002
Calvi's body was found hanging under Blackfriars Bridge
Long-awaited forensic tests into the death of Vatican banker Roberto Calvi - found hanging from a bridge in London in 1982 - are reported to show he was murdered.
Several Italian newspapers are reporting leaked findings from a report written by Professor Bernd Brinkmann, from Munster University in Germany.
The report has not been formally published but Mr Calvi's son, Carlo, said he was convinced the newspaper reports were accurate.
Calvi's body was found hanging from scaffolding on Blackfriars Bridge in June 1982 and his family has always maintained his death was not suicide.
Calvi was head of Banco Ambrosiano - a private bank with close ties to the Vatican.
When he arrived in London, he was on the run, using a false passport.
His corrupt dealings had brought the bank to the verge of collapse with debts of more than $1bn.
Inquest verdicts
Calvi was a member of the secret right-wing P2 masonic lodge, and was also linked to the Sicilian mafia.
Two days after arriving in London, he was dead.
The coroner initially recorded a verdict of suicide but, under pressure from the family, a second inquest was called and an open verdict was recorded.
In recent years more evidence has come to light, suggesting Calvi was murdered by the mafia to stop him divulging damaging details about links between the mafia, the Vatican and P2.
Trio awaiting trial
Three men are awaiting trial in Rome accused of Calvi's murder.
Now Prof Brinkmann's report is understood to underline the case for murder, rather than suicide.
Calvi's son, Carlo, told BBC News Online the tests apparently showed there were no traces of paint, or other material such as zinc, from the scaffold on his father's shoes.
This lends credence to the theory that he was strangled and then simply hanged from the scaffold with his legs dangling.
If he had shinned up the scaffold to commit suicide the soles of his shoes would undoubtedly have come into contact with the scaffold, leaving a forensic trail.
Carlo Calvi, speaking from his home in Canada, told BBC News Online: "Professor Brinkmann has not found any evidence of neck damage, which adds weight to our case."
Prosecutors in Italy will now examine this new evidence and are expected to use it against the accused, Francesco Di Carlo - a confessed mafioso who lived in Surrey, UK - Flavio Carboni and Pippo Calo.
Carlo Calvi said the trial was still some way off but he was more hopeful of obtaining justice for his father.
(ABCNEWS)
Just like gentlemen, mosquitoes sometimes prefer blondes.
Oh, we can pay lip service to Thomas Jefferson's promise that we're all created equal. But, as you gather around the barbecue, face it. Some of us just get more attention. And in that regard, being blonde doesn't hurt. Or does it?
Professor Andrew Spielman, co-author of Mosquito (Hyperion) and one of the world's foremost experts on mosquitoes and the diseases they carry, says blondes and redheads might be more attractive to skeeters, for the same reason they tend turn heads at cocktail parties. That is, they stand out in a crowd.
"Mosquitoes are attracted to contrasts," says Spielman. "If you have one blonde person with long hair wearing bright colors at a picnic held in the shade, where the other people are dark-haired, you know who is going to get the attention."
But mosquitoes look for more than good hair when choosing a target. A variety of research has shown that ovulating women, people with smelly feet, and those who sweat a lot are also good eatin'.
"Some people are clearly more attractive to mosquitoes. The precise reasons are unknown. But various research has shown that skin temperature, contrasts of color, lactic acid, and other conditions make a difference."
While this difference shouldn't really prompt blondes to buy extra bug spray — or feel at greater risk for a mosquito-borne disease like West Nile virus, it says a lot about one of man's smallest, yet deadliest foes.
Book Has Good Buzz
Spielman's book, co-written with Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Michael D'Antonio of Newsday, takes a look at how the mosquito has shaped our lives, and to some extent, world history. This summer, as you gather 'round to roast weenies and the insects gather 'round you, keep a few things in mind:
The More You Swat, The More You Get Bitten: When you flail your arms to shoo away skeeters, you're probably just attracting them.
The sweat from your effort merely tickles the mosquito's antenna. Your movement catches her eye. The lactic acid from your overworked muscles whets her appetite. The heat of your skin tells her, "It's feeding time."
Humans Often Play a Role in Mosquito Sex: When it comes to biting humans, it's the females who do the dirty work. A pregnant mosquito will sink her pointy proboscis into your hide just before she lays her eggs.
Of course, there are some 2,500 varieties of these mini-vampires. Only a few feast on human blood. Still, a human often comes in handy in egg production. If you are scratching, itching and a little too red, just remember that you're helping someone's mother.
Insect Politics: The mosquito has made its presence felt. Through malaria, yellow fever, and other insect-borne diseases, our little winged foes have claimed the lives of Alexander the Great, Oliver Cromwell and various popes and world leaders. They've held back Roman legions, helped defeat the Spanish Armada, and thwarted Gengis Khan's attempt to conquer the world.
Think of the mosquito as a protector of the weak. When spears and guns won't stop a would-be band of plunderers, mosquito-borne illnesses will often do the trick. "In Africa and Asia, you'll find that explorers contracted malaria and other diseases that the locals were immune to," Spielman says.
Many historians believe Africans were able to rebel on the Amistad slave ship because the crew had been stricken by yellow fever. Not bad for a critter the size of a grape seed.
It wasn't until 1890 that scientists suspected the bug's role in the spread of many diseases. But even today, malaria kills more than 1 million annually, or one person every 12 seconds. And when you consider the international problems cause by West Nile virus and various strains of encephalitis, you realize that not much has changed.
That Sexy Buzz Does that buzzing sound turn you on? It drives male mosquitoes into a swarming frenzy. A female achieves an extremely high "C" note by flapping more than 500 times a minute. Spielman notes that a power station in Canada that made the same note began malfunctioning. Turns out, it was gummed up by tens of thousands of mosquitoes, all males, apparently sexually attracted to the hum of the machinery.
The Swarming Sex Party: When you walk through a swarm of mosquitoes, you're not just at risk of swallowing a bug, you're crashing a sex party.
The female is drawn to the swarming guys. But after this big buildup, the end might sound depressingly familiar to those of us who look to nature for inspiration.
Once a male and female pair off, it's over in seconds. The female usually ends up pregnant, never wanting to have sex again. And the male often flies away with his sex organ chopped off.
Bug Zappers Don't Work: Forget electronic bug zappers, They merely kill moths and draw more mosquitoes to your backyard than they kill. Ultrasonic sound repellents? They're unproven.
Spielman says at his outdoor events, he uses sprays and oils with DEET. "You should be careful when you apply it," he says. "There are a few reports of people who have gotten neurological damage by grossly overexposing themselves. It's rare."
Citronella candles and some other oils also work.
Do Bugs Bug a Bug Expert?: On a summer night, that annoying buzzing can drive Spielman out of bed with the warnings about West Nile disease running through his head. "I know as much as anyone, the chances of getting it are remote," says the 70-year-old. "But I hear the warnings, too."
Back at work at Harvard University, he's happy to stick his hand in a mosquito cage to let the little critters feed. "I'm immune to a few species," he says. "It doesn't really help when I go to the park, unfortunately — it's a different kind of mosquito there."
But not everyone thinks his job is so thrilling. "My granddaughter thinks what I do is gross," he says. "I tell her you can learn a lot from insects. I'm sure she will"
(Source:Toogoodreports-"the right stuff for the right thinkers")
This 57-cent stamp shows an eagle, which according to Al Martin is an exact copy of the symbol of the Nazi Waffin-SS. The USPS introduced it in February 2001 as the innocuous sounding "art deco" eagle but in light of Sept. 11, its symbolism is ominous.
Martin says this Nazi design will also be used for the triangular arm badges and hats given to participants in the new Neighborhood Watch program. A commercial with Ed McMahon, the new Department of Justice spokesman, suggests that you cooperate with the Neighborhood Watch Association. You will be told how to spot "suspicious" characters or even people you know well, who are suddenly acting "out of character."
Similarly, John Ashcroft christened another homeland security force the "Freedom Corps", evoking the "Freicorps," the German army's "irregulars" that cleared the way for Hitler by murdering social democrats and communists.
These allusions are sinister because the Third Reich was an early attempt at a "New World Order," and the Anglo American business elite was involved with that up to its ears. Are these fascist allusions coincidental? Or, is the elite coming out of the closet?
Economist Robert Brady defined the Nazi state as "a dictatorship of monopoly capitalism. Its 'fascism' is that of business enterprise organized on a monopoly basis, and in full command of all the military, police, legal and propaganda power of the state." (Richard Sasuly, "I.G. Farben," 1947, p. 128)
Nazi Germany was a capitalist paradise. There was a 60-hour workweek, low wages and no unions. Nazi expansionism represented the global ambitions of German cartels that started preparing for war long before they financed Hitler. As countries fell under the Nazi jackboot, they absorbed former competitors at fire sale prices. "For German big business, World War II was a chance to plunder on a scale without precedent in history," writes Sasuly (p.114).
The key to understanding the elite, and the direction of world events, is to understand the psychology of the cartel. Cartels by definition are a conspiracy. Their purpose is to defraud the public by keeping prices high. They do this by controlling competition, markets, raw materials and new technology. They are by definition meglo maniacal, anti-national, and anti social.
One of the earliest cartels was J. D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, which eliminated the competition by secretly fixing transportation costs with the railroads. While he professed Christianity, Rockefeller is famous for saying the only sin is competition.
The largest German cartel was the chemical, film and pharmaceutical giant I.G. Farben. Farben produced 85% of Germany's explosives in World War Two. In 1926, Farben and Standard Oil entered into a cartel agreement in which Farben stayed out of synthetic oil in return for Standard representing Farben in the US. The upshot of this agreement was that Standard Oil supplied the Nazis with petroleum in spite of shortages in the US. It supplied a rare lead additive without which the Luftwaffe could not fly. It suppressed the production of synthetic rubber in the US, which almost cost the Allies the war.
In turn, Rockefeller got a cut of Farben's other business, which included the many factories that employed slave labor from concentration camps like Auschwitz. (Farben-Rockefeller paid the SS for this labor at bargain rates.) Profits also derived from the poison gas that killed the laborers after their usefulness was expended. This is the real reason the rail lines to Auschwitz were not bombed. Allied bombers hit within 14 miles of Auschwitz but the factories and death camp were off limits. In fact, German industry moved there for this reason. After the war, the CIA established its German headquarters in the undamaged Farben skyscraper in Frankfurt.
The holocaust was very good business. Throughout the 1930's Wall Street investment banks participated in "aryanization" which meant getting Jewish owned breweries, banks, factories, department stores etc. for 30% of their true value. The gold from the teeth of holocaust victims ended up in their vaults. It is not an exaggeration to say that the Nazi war effort was financed by the Bank of England (which, for example, transferred the Czech gold reserves to the Nazis), Wall Street (Prescott Bush, W's grandfather was one of the leading Nazi financiers) and Jewish plunder. It was finessed by lawyer John Foster Dulles, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, who later became US Secretary of State.
After the war, Dillon Read banker General William Draper was put in charge of dismantling German industry and distributing it among the allies. Needless to say, this did not happen. His Wall Street cohorts owned too much of it. Nazis businessmen remained in positions of power, war criminals were transported to South America, or went to work for the CIA.
In contrast, during the war, the allies deliberately prevented Jews from escaping from Europe. If someone sets a house on fire, and someone else blocks the exits, don't they share equal blame?
On the first day of World War Two, His Majesty's ship "Lorna" fired on the limping overcrowded "Tiger Hill" as she approached Palestine with 1417 Jewish refugees. The first people killed by the British in WWII were not Germans but Jewish escapees from Germany. Other refugee ships (e.g. the "St. Louis") were sent back to Germany by the US or blown up with all souls on board by British MI-6 (the "Struma"). For the whole story, read The Holocaust Conspiracy (1989) by William R. Perl, a Lt. Colonel with the US Army Intelligence Service.
The list of US corporations that had the equivalent of $8 billion invested in Nazi Germany include Standard Oil, General Motors, IBM, Ford, the Chase and National City Banks, ITT and many others. As a result, the men of "We Were Soldiers" didn't know that ITT built the airplanes that dropped bombs on them. They didn't know that Ford and General Motors built the Nazi's trucks and tanks. They didn't know that ball bearings crucial to the Nazi war effort were manufactured in Philadelphia, yet were in short supply in the USA. This was all done with the knowledge and permission of the US government. For details, I recommend Charles Higham's Trading with the Enemy(1983). Christopher Simpson's The Splendid Blond Beast(1993) and Blowback (1988) are also useful.
This information is shocking if we assume that cartels owe an allegiance to their native country. This is not so. They live in a financial virtual reality, a spiritual limbo divorced from common sympathy with their fellow man. Their native countries are important only insofar as they provide patriots to die for the advancement of their financial interests.
If the elite backed the Nazis, why didn't the Nazis win? The elite also backed the Allies. It doesn't matter which version of NW0 the elite gets. The real money is in war and genocide itself. In addition, war degrades and demoralizes humanity so it will accept serfdom.
In conclusion, the Third Reich was an early attempt at the New World Order. The purpose of this kind of "globalization" is to institutionalize the political power of the cartels. This is the hidden agenda behind the current "war on terror," hence the fascist symbols and measures.
Most of our nation's leaders are hod carriers for the cartels, particularly oil. They are careerists who serve a class of people who have spiritually seceded from the human race. This class holds us in bondage while it amasses wealth that affords it neither peace nor joy.
I leave you with a famous quotation by US President Theodore Roosevelt. Uttered in 1906, it is relevant today because as long as cartels rule, the human race is stalled.
"Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible government, to befoul the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of today."
Well, loss of privacy is certainly one issue that scares the right as much as the left. Jeez I remember when New World Order were just a sad welsh band.
(SeattleTimes)
Feds might use Microsoft product for online ID
Forget about a national ID card. Instead, the federal government might use Microsoft's Passport technology to verify the online identity of America's citizens, federal employees and businesses, according to the White House technology czar.
On Sept. 30, the government plans to begin testing Web sites where businesses can pay taxes and citizens can learn about benefits and social services. It's also exploring how to verify the identity of users so the sites can share private information.
Microsoft's Passport is being considered as a way to authenticate users of the Web sites, said Mark Forman, associate director of information technology at the White House.
"They are involved in that discussion,'' he said, adding that the government has not yet selected which technology it will use.
Forman, who is overseeing the government's purchases of $100 billion worth of technology this year and next, was a featured speaker at the Microsoft Government Leaders Conference in Seattle this week.
Forman is a former Senate staffer who worked for IBM and Unisys before he joined the Bush administration.
Describing himself as the government's chief information officer, he said his priorities are to impose businesslike approaches for technology deployments and to monitor improvements they bring.
After the Sept. 11 attacks, some politicians and business leaders have called for a national identification card, but Forman said that's not in the works. "We don't have any plans for a national ID card," he said.
The White House is instead pursuing an "e-identification" initiative, an effort to develop ways to authenticate people and businesses online who already have government identification numbers such as Social Security, business-registration and employer-identification numbers.
At the government-leaders conference, attended by representatives of 75 countries, Microsoft presented a blueprint for its "e-government" strategy that suggests they use Passport to verify the identity of visitors to their Web sites. It also suggested that its bCentral business Web site could be used to process business tax payments and that citizens could use its MSN Web site to handle address changes and voter registration.
Governments have long been some of Microsoft's biggest customers. Its desktop software for office workers and back-end software running networks are widely by used by state and federal agencies, and the company has developed Internet portals for the United Kingdom, Mexico and other nations.
But getting the United States to use Passport to authenticate its 285 million citizens online would be a coup for the Redmond software company. It would also be a large step toward fulfilling Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates' stated goal of getting everyone on the Internet to use Passport as their sign-on tool.
Yesterday, appearing at the conference, Gates reiterated the goal, saying he expects governments in many countries will find it difficult getting to "critical mass" with authentication systems they develop on their own. He said some governments may opt to use companies such as Microsoft or America Online as "the bank" that registers people for online usage.
Passport was introduced in 1999 and is the keystone of an array of online services the company introduced a year ago, when Gates revealed his ambitions for the service.
After privacy advocates attacked the plan and a coalition of major corporations formed an alliance to develop standards for authentication systems that would work together, Microsoft toned down its approach. It now acknowledges that Passport will co-exist with other tools.
Forman said his team has also been contacted by the coalition, called the Liberty Alliance, and will meet with them at some point.
The current version of Passport requires little personal information other than an e-mail address, but a new, more secure version expected by mid-2003 may be used to store sensitive data on Microsoft's network.
Microsoft says it has 200 million people registered to use Passport, most of whom signed up because Microsoft told them it was needed to use other Microsoft services, such as its free Hotmail e-mail service or Windows XP operating system. According to Gartner, a research company based in Stamford, Conn., only 2 percent signed up because of the service's stated purpose: to avoid having to use multiple identifications and passwords at different Web sites.
Avivah Litan, vice president and research director at Gartner, said expanding Passport benefits Microsoft by drawing more Web traffic, making its sites more appealing to advertisers and enabling the company to charge "click through" fees for online sales executed using the service.
But the company may ultimately decide it's not worthwhile to boost the service from a tool of convenience for consumers to a verification service relied upon by businesses and government.
"Once you start vouching for identity, that makes you liable for fraud, that makes you liable for identity theft," Litan said.
Also at the conference, Microsoft announced plans to bring Internet access to government services to Mexico through a network of kiosks developed with the company's technology.
The barcode-chip hand implant '666watch' will be having coniptions over this.
(Right-wing NewsMax.com-'I've decided it makes Foxnews look liberal')
4-18-2
The Chinese army operates over 2,000 front companies inside the United States. Newly declassified documents from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) show that China United Airlines is a one such front company.
China United Airlines is a most curious business. A Chinese air force general heads China United. China United aircraft also double as troop transports for the People's Liberation Army.
Yet documents obtained from the Defense Intelligence Agency show that China United is allowed to do business inside the U.S. without question.
The newly declassified documents from the Defense Intelligence Agency had the names of DIA agents withheld for national security reasons. In addition, a series of Commerce Department computer inquiries into the DIA records on China United Airlines also had sections deleted to protect "personal information in law enforcement records."
What the declassified documents do show is that the Commerce Department was informed in 1994 that China United Airlines is actually owned by the People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF).
"China United Airlines (CUA) is a commercial entity of the PLA Air Force," states a 1994 report on the Chinese military issued by Lt. Col. Dennis Blasko, former U.S. defense attaché to Beijing. Blasko's report on Chinese military industries was obtained by a lawsuit against the Commerce Department in 1999.
"The major enterprise subordinate to the PLA Air Force is the China Lantian [Blue Sky] Industrial Corp," wrote Col. Blasko. "Also affiliated to Lantian is the Tian Ma [Sky Horse] Brand of vehicles and vehicle repair parts and facilities."
The newly declassified DIA documents noted that in 1995 the DIA listed China United Airlines as an enterprise "subordinate to the PLA Air Force." In addition, the DIA documents added Tianma Enterprises and China Anda Aviation as also being "subordinate to the PLA Air Force."
Selling Airplanes to the Chinese Air Force
Despite the clear lines of Chinese military ownership, the Clinton administration approved the sale of 10 American-made airliners to China United in 2000. The 10 Boeing 737 airliners are now officially listed as part of the People's Liberation Army Air Force. The Boeing jets are being used as troop transports, flying PLA officers into and out of remote military airbases in western China.
According to statements published by China United, the PLA Air Force-owned airline also operates a small fleet of Russian-made Ilyushin IL-76 jet transports. The IL-76 four-engine jet is the front-line PLAAF military transport, and the Chinese civil version is frequently armed with two 23 mm cannons located in a tail turret.
In 2000, the China United Airlines IL-76 transports dropped paratroopers, tanks and artillery directly onto the battlefield during the fall Chinese military exercises.
"Both Boeing and McDonnell Douglas aircraft were used to move a division of the 15th Airborne Army to Beijing for use in Tiananmen Square," said Richard Fisher, a senior fellow at the Jamestown Institute.
"If PLA commandos capture a Taiwan airfield, there will be scores of U.S.-made transports bringing in troops and weapons to make it secure," stated Fisher.
"There are several PRC airlines that are either owned or linked to the PLAAF [People's Liberation Army Air Force]," noted Fisher.
"They mostly fly Boeing craft, though some Russian airliners as well. I assume that most airliners in PRC airlines are subject to mobilization if necessary."
It is a fact that former President George Bush (Sr.) approved the sale of military transport aircraft to China, including several Lockheed C-130 heavy lift transport aircraft that were purchased by Air China, an airline 100 percent owned by the communist government. The C-130 Hercules is currently used by the U.S. Air Force as a heavy transport plane and has recently been used in Afghanistan as an aerial gunship.
Jiang Zemin's Airplane
The Clinton administration also approved the sale of a used Delta Airlines Boeing 767 to China United. The Boeing 767 was intended to become Chinese President Jiang Zemin's personal plane. The 767 was refitted at a Texas airport with sophisticated American-made electronics, including satellite communications and navigation systems.
Ironically, the aircraft was also fitted with a series of covert eavesdropping devices, including bugs placed inside President Jiang's airborne bedroom, bathroom and secure telephone systems.
The 767-bugging incident led to the arrest of China United head, Maj. Gen. Liu Taichi. Liu is the air force officer in charge of air travel for Chinese leaders and the chairman of China United Airlines, a military-owned commercial airline that buys the leadership's planes.
The youngest son of a revolutionary marshal, Gen. Liu is also the deputy head of the Chinese Army Air Force equipment department. Lui often traveled to the United States as a civilian, using his position at China United as a cover. He also became a familiar face inside U.S. aviation companies such as Boeing. During the Clinton years, Gen. Liu bought six Boeing planes for use as VIP aircraft.
"He [Gen. Liu] was one of Boeing's best customers," said a former business associate of the PLAAF commander in a recent article published by the Wall Street Journal.
The Washington Times reported that President Jiang suspected former Chinese Premier Li Peng was behind the bugging incident because of corruption charges against Li's wife and children. Later, during a press conference in Macao, Li Peng disputed reports that he was behind the bugging of Jiang's airplane.
Gen. Liu's arrest reinforced reports from intelligence sources that the U.S. had little if anything to do with the eavesdropping devices found on Jiang's airplane. Instead of publicly blaming the United States for the bugging incident, Chinese authorities have quietly tried to cover up the entire affair.
China United Spy Plane
Yet Gen. Liu's covert activities were not limited strictly to U.S.-made aircraft. For example, China United Airlines aircraft B-4138 is a Russian-made TU-154M three-engine airliner that flies under an international civilian number as a passenger plane.
The markings on B-4138 include large black block letters and the CUA symbol on its tail.
China United flight B-4138 is actually a Chinese spy plane. U.S. Defense analysts confirmed that the so-called civil aircraft is a Chinese air force spy plane equipped with sophisticated radar and communications equipment. The modified airliner is packed with military communications gear and has a huge radar dome on the bottom of the aircraft.
"The Tu-154M is indeed from China United," stated Richard Fisher.
"It is equipped with a new Synthetic Aperture Radar [SAR] system," noted Fisher, pointing out the characteristic tub-like radar dome that dominates the lower half of the Chinese spy plane.
"This Tu-154M is likely involved in research for the development of SAR systems that can be used in a similar fashion to the U.S. JSTARS, which provided unprecedented battlefield awareness to U.S. commanders in the Gulf War. For the PLA, this and future SAR aircraft will help to manage military operations over Taiwan and to find critical targets for air and missile strikes," concluded Fisher.
I presume these aren't all takeaway's and launderettes?
(ABCNEWS)
4/19/02
MILAN, Italy (Reuters) - Italian authorities searched for clues Friday why a small plane flown by a 67-year-old Swiss crashed into the country's tallest building, killing the pilot and two women and triggering fears of a new September 11.
Police said 29 others were hurt in Thursday's crash when the four-seater tourist aircraft inexplicably slammed into the upper stories of the 30-floor skyscraper that towers above Italy's financial capital.
All but one of the injured had been released from hospital by Friday morning, AGI news agency reported.
Early reports that it might have been a terror attack sent jittery financial markets around the world tumbling.
Investors' nerves were soothed, however, after officials said the crash was not a terror attack and the pilot, who had left from Locarno in nearby Switzerland, had spoken of problems with the plane's landing gear minutes before impact.
"This had nothing to do with the haunting images of the Twin Towers," Interior Minister Claudio Scajola said late on Thursday. "Sure, tragedy struck. But it could have been worse."
Although officials ruled out a terror attack, it was not clear why an experienced pilot would fly a plane straight into one of a handful of Milan's tall buildings on a sunny afternoon.
Authorities speculated the pilot, pensioner Luigi Fasulo, had become suddenly ill or a fire had broke out on board.
Roberto Formigoni, head of the regional Lombardy government, said Fasulo may have purposely flown the plane into the tower.
"Terrorism is ruled out but we can't exclude the possibility of a willful crash," Formigoni told reporters near the foot of the 400-foot tower.
"The pilot was very experienced, and there's every reason to believe it might have been suicide," Formigoni said, adding that the plane was flying very low and hit the building squarely.
But Fasulo's nephew told Italian state television there was no question of his uncle having committed suicide: "My uncle didn't have any financial problems and no health problems. Everyone who knew him would testify that he loved life."
GAPING HOLE IN LANDMARK
Fire crews worked through the night in the slender concrete and glass Pirelli Tower that stands beside Milan's fascist-era train station and symbolizes the nation's post-war economic boom.
The plane pierced its 26th floor, blowing holes in two sides and recalling images of the September 11 attacks in New York.
The 1950s building houses the local regional government, providing offices for 1,750 people, but the top five floors were nearly empty when the plane struck because they were being renovated.
Police said a woman lawyer had leapt to her death shortly after the crash as smoke billowed from the scarred block. The body of another woman lawyer was later recovered from inside the building.
The square, normally bustling with traffic and trams, was eerily quiet Friday morning as commuters wandered past, necks craned to see the damage. Broken glass, charred chairs, twisted pieces of metal and paper blown out of the tower littered the foot of the building. A dozen cars' windows were shattered.
Italy's leading newspaper, Corriere della Sera, quoted the transcript of the conversation just before the crash between Fasulo and the control tower at Linate airport on the outskirts of Milan.
"I've got a small problem with the landing gear," Fasulo was quoted as saying. The air traffic controller told him to circle the immediate area around Linate.
Then, according to the newspaper, Fasulo apparently misunderstood an order from the control tower that was directed at a helicopter telling it to fly away from the airport.
Instead of staying west of the airport, Fasulo headed north into the city, saying he was resolving the problem.
He lost radio contact and did not send a distress signal before ramming the skyscraper, the Italian civil aviation body ENAV said in a statement.
(Joe Vialls) January 2002
According to the mainstream media, at about 2300 hrs on 11 September 1994, Frank Eugene Corder stole a single-engine Cessna 150L plane from an airport north of Baltimore, then headed south to Washington, flying over the National Zoological Park and down to the Mall, probably using the Washington Monument as a beacon. As he neared the famed obelisk, he banked a tight U-turn over the Ellipse, came in low over the White House South Lawn, clipped a hedge, skidded across the green lawn that girds the South Portico and crashed into a wall two stories below the presidential bedroom.
Unfortunately, there are huge problems with this glib media account of what was, in reality, the first known deliberate air attack on a major building in America. Corder had no obvious motive for the crime, and although his wife had died some weeks before from cancer, Frank was getting on with life as best he could. He was building a small kit aircraft of his own at the same airport the Cessna 150L was stolen from, and frequently worked alone at night on his pet project, making him the perfect target of opportunity for anyone needing a pilot, dead or alive.
Immediately after the crash, intelligence sources concurred that the flight was most probably flown as a “Proof of Concept”, designed to thoroughly test Washington’s air defenses and expose possible flaws. If the Cessna 150L managed to strike the White House wall directly, the concept would be considered proven, perhaps paving the way for later attacks using heavier aircraft loaded with munitions. In this respect the flight was a complete success.
Although Corder’s badly mangled body was recovered from the wreckage, there was no forensic way of establishing whether he had died in the crash itself, or several hours earlier. No one witnessed Frank Corder board or steal the Cessna in Maryland, and at no time did he make radio contact with the control tower or anyone else. Frank Corder behaved in all respects like a ghost, and he may well have been dead before the Cessna left the ground in Maryland. How? By use of remote control.
Remote controlled aircraft have been around since the late fifties, and can be flown from the ground with absolute precision. All that is needed is a reliable radio link to the target aircraft, and if the target aircraft gets out of normal radio range, a “shepherd” aircraft to act as a radio relay, or as airborne flight director. It is now beyond reasonable doubt that the WTC attack aircraft of 11 September 2001 were controlled in a similar manner, in this case utilizing a counter-hijack system known as “Home Run”. Those not familiar with “Home Run” can read a comprehensive report here, or use the link at the bottom of this page.
Detailed technical information about aircraft remote control systems will be provided later in this report, but before getting into the heavy stuff, we should probably take a closer look at 15 year-old Charles Bishop. Bishop is alleged to have stolen a Cessna 172R in Florida, and then “committed suicide” by flying into the Bank of America building in downtown Tampa on 5 January 2002. Unfortunately, just like Frank Corder in 1994, no one witnessed Charles Bishop board or steal the Cessna in Florida, and at no time during the flight did Bishop communicate with the control tower or anyone else.
Spookily perhaps, there is at least one visual indicator that Bishop was probably dead long before his aircraft hit the Bank of America. A Coastguard helicopter patrolling in the local area actually flew alongside the Cessna in an attempt to force the pilot to land, but without success. In the words of the helicopter pilot: “He [Bishop] sat motionless at the controls. He would not look at the helicopter, nor would he respond to radio or hand signals telling him to land his aircraft”.
Think about it people, think about it! If this excitable 15 year-old was on a glorious suicide mission in support of his alleged “idol” Osama Bin Laden, the temptation to give the Coastguard helicopter crew the finger would have been almost irresistible. After all, what did he have to lose? On the other hand, what if Bishop’s aircraft had been hijacked by remote control without his knowledge or consent? If he was still alive and saw himself being steered unerringly towards the Bank of America, chances are he would have been clawing desperately at the aircraft window, trying to get the Coastguard to save him from imminent destruction.
"I would characterize it as a suicide," said Tampa Police Chief Bennie Holder. A suicide note, which was found in the wreckage of the plane, "clearly stated that he had acted alone, without any help from anyone else," Holder said. "He did, however, make statements expressing his sympathy for Osama bin Laden and the events which occurred September 11, 2001." News of the note police found stunned Bishop's fifth-period algebra teacher, who described him as a bright, disciplined student who was well-liked by his classmates. "I'm floored. Totally floored," said Rayette Bouldrick. "He always had a smile. He was always pleasant and respectful."
The suicide note “clearly stated that he had acted alone”? Sure it did… It is not hard to imagine a Kamikaze school kid thinking ahead to the time when his local Police Chief will have to explain what happened, and for political reasons will need to reassure the public that no one else was involved. Absolute Bulldust! If Police Chief Bennie Holder is incapable of recognizing deliberately planted evidence, he should quit his job and go fishing.
Many readers find the concept of remotely controlled aircraft difficult to grasp, and in the past I have received many emails critical of this aspect of my investigations. Accordingly I decided to post precise details from various sources. It is a fascinating subject little known to the public, and it all really began near a sleepy little village in Wales during the fifties.
Nestling beneath the stunning backdrop of the Snowdonia mountains on the mid-Wales coastline is the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA) station of Llanbedr, home to the most unusual collection of 'aircraft' in the UK. It is here that DERA provide remotely piloted Drone 'aircraft' for use as aerial targets by the RAF and other UK forces. Situated within reach of the sand dunes of Cardigan Bay, the site is clearly visible from the nearby tourist havens of Barmouth and Shell Island.
The airfield itself was constructed in 1939, however by 1950 Llanbedr had been used by the Army for Korean War training, but was refurbished in order to return it to aviation use by No.5 Civil Anti-Aircraft Co-operation Unit with its Mosquito target tugs and Meteor TT8 aircraft. However it was intended that an unmanned target aircraft should be used from Llanbedr, and plans were laid to procure a RPV called 'Jindivik' from Australia. However development delays led to a decision, taken in September 1951 to develop a number of surplus Royal Navy Fairey Firefly aircraft as a target drones, to bridge the inevitable gap.
The piston engined Firefly was a useful asset, but it was not long before the drone programme was authorised to use jet powered ex-RAF Meteor F4's and F8's, as they became available. In its drone guise the Meteor became known as the U.15. The first take-off under automatic control took place on 17 January 1955 with a human safety pilot on board. Llanbedr received the first Meteor U.l5 in January 1957 and the first Meteor drone sortie took place on l7 July 1958.
Telemetry as such was not available then, so a shepherd aircraft, usually another Meteor would escort the drone to the entrance to the Range, hold well clear and rejoin after the mission was concluded. As the Meteor F.8 became more available, surplus airframes were also converted into the more sophisticated Meteor U.l6, which made its first drone flight in the September of 1960, with over 200 of the type eventually being 'droned'. More details on RAF Llanbedr here.
Note carefully here, that although Llanbedr was nominally a Royal Air Force military base, development and effective control of the remotely controlled Fireflys and Meteors, lay in the hands of the civilian British Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA), which has close though discreet ties with the civilian American Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
Back in the seventies it was DARPA and two American multinationals who collaborated in order to manufacture the system now known as “Home Run”, a secret counter-hijacking system designed to recover hijacked aircraft to a friendly airport with minimum damage to surviving passengers and crew.
Similar systems used on the Meteors at Llanbedr were used on American aircraft, which improved enormously as the years went by. Nowadays the most sophisticated unmanned aircraft is probably the conversion of an F4 Phantom fighter to “QF4”, denoting full remote control capability. However, most of QF-4s retain a piloted capability. This is because test and training scenarios require a high degree of choreography to make them as realistic as possible, and so pilots have to fly the QF-4s through "dry runs" to ensure that all details are considered. The US Air Force refers to unpiloted flights using the acronym NULLO ("Not Utilizing Local Live Operator"), while the US Navy calls them NOLO ("No Onboard Live Operator").
Up to four QF-4s can be flown in formation during NULLO flights. The drones do not interact with each other, they are simply commanded to follow a specific moving point in space known as a "rabbit", with each aircraft maintaining a specific three-dimensional offset from the rabbit. The autopilot system on the QF-4 is very sophisticated. For example, the remote operator can land the aircraft simply by giving it a single command to land.
Although missiles used in air combat tests don't usually have combat warheads, once a QF-4 is used as actual target in exercises, its expected lifetime is no more than four missions. The QF-4 carries a self-destruct system to destroy itself if missile damage fails to shoot it down but causes it to become a potential threat. More details on the unmanned QF-4 are available here.
It does not take a rocket scientist to fit a basic remote control (plus rabbit), to a humble little Cessna standing unguarded at a remote civilian airfield. Once the pilot is on board – or placed on board, the basic system will fly the aircraft wherever the controller desires, including into the wall of the White House or the Bank of America building. Basically all he or she needs to do is “lead” the aircraft with the invisible rabbit, and the Cessna will follow as vigorously as a greyhound at a race track.
The reason for the attack on the White House on 11 September 1994 is still shrouded in mystery, but the logic of a “Proof of Concept” flight is compelling. We can safely leave that incident alone for the present, especially bearing in mind later events on 11 September 2001, which need no further explanation here.
Not so obvious is the use of young Charles Bishop against the Bank of America late on Saturday 5 January, so informed speculation will have to suffice. At the subliminal television level, the two words “Bank” and “America” certainly acted as powerful psychological reinforcers on the global viewing public. Everyone knows that the World Trade Center was America’s premier “banking” zone, and everyone knows “America” has been attacked by aircraft belonging to “American” Airlines. Whether intentional or not, the effect of the Cessna crash in Florida was to once again sensitize Americans and others to flying over, or even near, America.
Srill on the subject of psychological reinforcers, it cannot be denied that this particular crash served to highlight the utter futility of grounding crop spray planes to prevent "terrorists" from spreading "biological toxins". The simple reality here is that Bishop's small plane, or any of the other tens of thousand like it, could easily carry enough Anthrax spores to kill half the population of Florida, or any other state, simply by crashing into a tall city building..
An alternative motive, perhaps compelling for the American Administration, would be that of “reinforcing” the absolute fiction that a bunch of “Arab Hijackers” with basic Cessna training, managed to control three heavy jets moving at over 400 miles per hour, manipulate their descent, and then hit three target bullseyes in Washington and New York so small that success would tax the skills of highly experienced jet fighter pilots.
Vast numbers of American and others around the world are questioning the involvement of Osama Bin Laden in the events of 11 September, even more so now after the release of George W Bush’s blatantly forged “Osama Confession” video. Somehow this questioning must be stopped, and the public forced to believe the increasingly wild claims about the "hijackers".
What better way than to arrange for a 15 year-old boy with only six flying hours to mount an attack on the Bank of America building in Florida? Think about it. If 15 year-old Bishop could score a direct hit on Bank of America, then surely everyone must believe that the far more experienced and older Mohammed Atta (or whoever), with ten flying hours on a 4,000# Cessna, could obviously throw a 420,000# Boeing 767 airliner around New York’s restricted airspace like a giant kiddy toy.
But the show must go on. Though Osama Bin Laden and Afghanistan had absolutely nothing to do with the New York and Washington attacks, from the viewpoint of certain American institutions it is vital that American military operations in Afghanistan be allowed to continue unhindered, to their final and extremely profitable conclusion.
Put simply, the “War on Terror” in Afghanistan has nothing to do with terror, and absolutely nothing to do with Unocal plans for an oil pipeline running from the Caspian Sea, through Afghanistan, to a Pakistani port. Though plans were once drawn up for just such a pipeline, estimated infrastructure costs were so high that the project was permanently filed in the wastebasket.
Afghanistan is all about the drugs trade, which provided nearly 80% of the world's #4 100% pure opium through American cartels and the CIA, until the Taliban took control in 1996. For a while the Taliban stopped the trade altogether, then started it again when the heroin was required as “trade” for more weapons and ammo from China and Russia. The problem after 1996 was that Taliban heroin was no longer routed via the American cartels, which lost tens of billions of dollars as a direct result.
The “War on Terror” was launched to get rid of the Taliban, and their strangle- hold on the heroin reserves rightfully “owned” by the American cartels. That job is almost complete. As I write, all of the CIA’s old warlord “friends” have been restored to power, and the Afghan poppy fields have already been sowed with the 2002 crop. So courtesy of a thoughtful and caring American Administration, fresh supplies of lethal heroin for your children and their friends, should be arriving in your very own American town or city sometime soon.
Oh, how we laughed at the end of "Shadow Conspiracy" with Charlie Sheen and Donald Sutherland. When, while giving a speech at a toy factory, an attempt is made on the presidents life with a remote controlled toy apache helicopter firing real rounds of ammo. How little we knew.
Affectionately known as Project Shecky
Details That Point to a Coverup At Port Arthur
(from Tasmanians miffed at losing Gun Ownerships rights after the Tasmanian Surfer Dude Massacre of several years back)
(http://www.shootersnews.addr.com/)
Shortly after Wendy Scurr and others sensed something shonky about the massacre and started collecting evidence in 1997 a fellow by the name of JOE VIALLS appeared out of the blue on the scene claiming to be an independent investigative journalist and conned Wendy into handing over a great deal of the material that had been gathered. Joe quickly put it into a small book containing what evidence he wanted to use the thrust of which points to unknown international groups having perpetrated the massacre. The trouble with his book he has deliberately not used a great deal of the material.
He does not mention the morgue truck or anything else that points to locals being involved the massacre. Why is this one must ask when there is so much evidence ? It can be demonstrated he in fact has tried to discredit the reliability of key evidence - much of which is discussed on this website.
EXAMPLE: Joe's famous missing boat in the background claim. Many of you will have seen the picture where Joe claims the VIDEO OF THE GUNMAN AT THE VOLVO is a fake because of the halo at the edges and that this was "electronic pasting" of 2 videos together and the white fishing boat was not in the spot it appears in the video. This claim is false because that halo is in fact a light effect caused by the video camera having been on extreme zoom - the interface zone between the close objects and the nearest visible far out objects - it is caused largely by the angle of the camera and the fact it is above the level of the water in the bay. The boat was there but further out in the bay. The question must be asked why would someone want to discredit this video ? The answer must be this video contains something true that those behind the massacre don't want us to notice. This site believes that thing was the wig on the gunman - the hair length and the gap in the back. Those behind the massacre did not expect a tourist on the site would have been game to film the gunman in action and subsequently they have had to try and discredit the video's credibility.
If you look at Joe's picture you see the gunman standing there and the gap in the hair and most people would think the gap is where his face would be and its is a shaddow making the face not visible - this is what the editor of this site thought when he first saw it - but no, its the back of his head. Nowhere did Joe point this fact out because he was trying to say this video was a fake.
While Joe is entitled to his views and may not have enough technical expertise it raises questions about his agenda.
EXAMPLE # 2: Joe persists in sticking to the 90 SECONDS IN THE CAFE lie claiming only a professional anti-terrorist gunman could have done it and only those type of guys are in the Middle East. In recently published articles he cites an Isreali group. This is despite the fact Wendy who was there has told him it was not 90 seconds but 5 minutes yet Joe still pushes this line. This 90 second claim follows and supports the official government line.
Some of these claims of Joe have been reportedly exposed as false by several media groups but the question is did Joe intend they be in order to discredit the whole assertion that Martin Bryant did not plan and execute the massacre thereby destroying the whole "conspiracy theory" notion ?
Amongst these false claims Joe has mixed in some true facts like the running man video on Ray Martin's program. This type of approach - mix the good with the bad to discredit it - is one of the classic techniques used by those in the intelligence community to engage in disinformation to discredit a line of thought.
Joe has tried this same debunking with other suspect incidents - the London Libyian Embassy shooting of policewoman Yvonne Fletcher - so he has a history of this type of thing. Joe states he is a former British SAS Officer but fails to tell us the SAS is integrally linked to intelligence and law enforcement organizations like MI6 and the Special Branch - of whom have been caught out fabricating evidence and other forms of unacceptable behaviour in the past.
Apart from this Joe often doesn't respond to queries from people who have bought his book and has been quite evasive regards talking on the phone. His latest releases bleat about things indicated on this site but he offers no explanation for them or for evidence of his own claims of middle eastern gunmen.
Accordingly the question must be asked just who is Joe Vialls and what is he really putting out this material for ? Was Joe sent to discredit those who do not swallow the official line on this incident by putting out this type of material ? If you had done this massacre and people were on to you wouldn't you send someone to put out a red herring to put people onto the wrong trail ?
MORE INFO - Joe in fact has a large number of websites on the net - so many the its hard to keep track of them -and one must ask why. In one of those sites he says "...it is now time for the authorities to stop pussyfooting around, and get on with a serious counter-terrorist investigation.". This statement coupled with his claiming international terrorists were behind Port Arthur is in effect pushing a case for more investigative powers for the same people this website believes comitted the massacre - persons linked to ASIO and the Tasmanian Police Service. Followers of Joe Vialls need to wake up to where he is attempting to lead them. Everyone knows police in Australia cannot be trusted in investigating themselves. Port Arthur is in fact an example of where these govt. agencies have in fact criminally abused the powers they were given and not only does it justify not giving them anymore powers but removing most of the powers they already have.
I must admit the fact that he doesn't seem to be flogging any books makes him seem somewhat suspicious.
So in order to get the dems to vote for a bill the repubs are trying to bribe the Israeli lobby to help them. I don't think the environmentally minded dems will be that easily swayed? To think that Alaska was almost the Jewish state.
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