Pete'n'Bob's Weblog- Archive#4

  • 'Thirty suicide fighters at large in US'
     (LondonEveningStandard)

  • GRAPHIC 9/11 VIDEO TO AIR NEXT MONTH (NYPOST)
    February 6, 2002 -- The most sought-after video of the World Trade Center attack - shot by two French filmmakers who exclusively captured the first hijacked plane crashing into the north tower - will be broadcast next month on CBS.

  • World scientists predict grim future (CNN)
    NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Scientists at this week's World Economic Forum have predicted a grim future replete with unprecedented biological threats, global warming and the possible takeover of humans by robots.
    "Extreme pessimism seems to me to be the only rational stance," said Sir Martin Rees, Britain's Astronomer Royal, at a session devoted to the future threats and opportunities presented by scientific advances.

  • Current NY Reservoir Levels


    This is what happens when you get rid of all the homeless from Central Park. And remember those who see the glass as 'half full' are always slow to get the next round in.

  • Yves St Laurent's final thoughts on the world of fashion as he bids adieu?

  • Fake profits are causing the stock market to descend. Could someone explain to me the meaningful difference between Enron and Amazon.com? One company recently reported fake profits of $5 million, while having billions in debt. Enron, well...no profits either, and billions in debt. So why is Amazon.com considered "promising"? Enron had a revenue stream too.... Prediction: Amazon.com's stock will be "revalued" sharply lower as people get lucid about real profits and as the accounting/profit scandals spread. (Metafilter via NYT)
    So much for the end of irony. It looks as if we weren't cynical enough in the naive 90's.

  • Sudden Adult Death Syndrome. (TelegraphUK)
    AN apparently healthy student who died as she chatted to her boyfriend on the telephone is thought to have been a victim of Sudden Adult Death Syndrome. According to Sads UK, victims often do not know they have the condition, which is usually triggered by an abnormality to the heart pattern. It can be activated by physical activity or emotional upset and can happen even during sleep.
    see also
    MORE than 20 healthy young people are dying each week from a mysterious adult version of cot death syndrome, according to new research. (UKTelegraph)

  • Discovery of 'Methuselah gene' unlocks secret of long life
    Scientists have pinpointed the Methuselah gene - a stretch of DNA that confers healthy old age on men and women - raising the prospect that researchers may one day be able to create drugs that extend human life.

  • PyramidMatrix.com.
     Carl Munck, archaeocryptographer, introduces an ancient Pyramid Matrix, in which monuments - across the globe - encode their exact position with respect to latitude and longitude. The science of decoding these monuments is called archaeocryptography. For latitude, ancient monuments were referenced to the same (modern) equator. For longitude, these monuments were referenced to a former Giza, Egypt Prime Meridian - discovered by Munck - that ran from pole to pole across the Great Pyramid. This Web site provides introductory examples of ancient monuments, how they encode their position in the Matrix, and resources for deeper study (and verification).
    The huge question here is why would they bother? Is this guy not just seeing a math trick?

  • Domino's Pizza Founder's Pet Project

  • An Astronomer's Magnetic Theory of Astrology:
    -How Planetary Motion Orchestrates Solar Activity and Geomagnetism
    Since the dawn of human history, stargazers have sought to discover the forces by which the planets influence life on Earth. Now, as we enter the 21st century, the long search for a physical mechanism that explains how astrology works may at last be nearing an end. Apropos to these times, which many astrologers believe to be a Neo-Renaissance period for astrology, an English astronomer named Percy Seymour has formulated a scientific theory of astral influences that describes the solar system as an intricate web of planetary fields and resonances. The Sun, Moon, and planets telegraph their effects to us via magnetic signals, says Seymour, an astrophysicist and respected authority in the field of cosmic magnetism. Omnipresent throughout the universe, magnetism is known to affect the biological cycles of numerous creatures here on Earth, including humans. In sum, Seymour's multi-link theory proposes that the planets raise tides in the gases of the Sun, creating sunspots and their particle emissions, which then travel across interplanetary space to strike Earth's magnetosphere, ringing it like a bell. These planetary magnetic signals are then perceived by the neural network of the fetus inside the mother's womb, heralding the child's birth.

  • As Sharon faces war crimes charges-Star witness killed by car bomb (WorkersWorld)
    Handiwork or just plain handy?

  • Tehran planning attacks on Israel from Jordan, says paper (London daily Al-Sharq al-Awsat)
    There is an Iranian plot afoot to conduct terror operations against Israel from within Jordan, Jordan's King Abdullah told U.S. President George W. Bush during his recent visit to Washington, according to the London daily Al-Sharq al-Awsat.
    Abdullah also told the Americans that Jordan has prevented 70 terror attacks against Israel from within its territory, the paper said. "Our American friends know we have saved many Israeli lives by foiling these attacks," it quoted the king as saying.

  • "No question" al-Qaeda are in Iran: Rumsfeld (MelbourneAge)

  • Bin Laden fled to Iran, cook says (CSMonitor)
    He goes on to criticize bin Laden - although he mentions that bin Laden once sent him to Detroit, Mich., for medical treatment - and expresses hope that the US will do better by Afghanistan than bin Laden did. "One mistake that Osama made is that he only bought pickup trucks for the Taliban, and provided some rupees for their front lines. He was never seriously interested in the welfare of the Afghan people. Now that Al Qaeda is gone, the US should help the Afghans, the poor have suffered too much."

  • Ben Laden: La Verite Interdite ("Bin Laden: the Forbidden Truth") by Jean-Charles Brisard and Guillaume Dasquie is a well-researched piece of mainstream French journalism. It is not a scandal-mongering knockoff—in some places it is so well documented as to be tedious.
    The book does not say so, but it can be deduced that the WTC attack was a preemptive strike by bin Laden intended to make it impossible for the Taliban to betray him and cut a deal with the US for the pipeline.
    While there is no real evidence in this book for specific Bush foreknowledge of the 9/11 attacks, we can be sure that they were not as big a surprise as is claimed. Combined with other information about a hands-off FBI policy on domestic terrorism and the return of the entire bin Laden family to Saudi Arabia (without being questioned) at a time when most US airports were locked down, it still can reasonably be suspected that the Bush administration knew that it had something to hide, that it knew that some kind of attack was in the works, and that it was waiting for a pretext to go to war. (agha.com)

  • Arafat's 'duplicity' documented on video
    -Films reveal his pleas in Arabic contradict English diplomacy
     (WorldNetDaily)
    Please note that this is a from a news site with a strong pro-"end times" agenda.

  • Is the USAF conducting weather control experiments at Roswell?
     

  • More deaths raise fears Ebola still spreading in Africa (ANANOVA -4th feb)
    Health officials fear that Ebola might still be spreading in Republic of Congo after six people died in a remote northeastern district.
    The suspect fatalities were reported last week in Kelle, a district that borders Mbomo, where the outbreak began in October.
    The latest victims came from two villages and were believed to have eaten monkey meat. They had developed symptoms of the disease, and officials were still waiting for laboratory confirmation, said Dr Ebata Mongo, head of the government's campaign against Ebola.

  • Did the Hindus Help Write the Bible and Give the Ancient Mexicans Their Religious Traditions? (Viewzone)
    If you have read the Jewish or Christian bible, can you guess who Satyavarman, Shem, Sham, and Jyapeti were? Were Satyavarman and his sons our Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japhet? The Old Testament tells us that Satyavarman (Noah) got drunk by imbibing wine made from his vines in what is now Armenia, near Mt. Ararat. But I'm absolutely sure that my Hindu readers would know from where this story originated.
    The pre-Aztec Toltecs were also called Nahoa and Nahua. Nahua tribes did, and still do, extend even into South America. Since the Toltecs could not pronounce "V," I ask myself whether the words Nahoa and Nahua derive from the Sanskrit Nava, meaning "Ship; Boat."

  • The Evidence for Ancient Atomic Warfare (NexusMagazine)
    Religious texts and geological evidence suggest that several parts of the world have experienced destructive atomic blasts in ages past.
    EXCERPT 1:Evidence of a lost civilisation in Death Valley came in a bizarre report of caves and mummies in the Hot Citizen, a Nevada paper, on August 5, 1947. The story ran as follows:
    EXPEDITION REPORTS NINE-FOOT SKELETONS
    A band of amateur archaeologists announced today they have discovered a lost civilization of men nine feet tall in Californian caverns. Howard E. Hill, spokesman for the expedition, said the civilization may be "the fabled lost continent of Atlantis".
    The caves contain mummies of men and animals and implements of a culture 80,000 years old but "in some respects more advanced than ours," Hill said. He said the 32 caves covered a 180-square-mile area in California's Death Valley and southern Nevada.
    ARCHAEOLOGISTS SKEPTICAL
    "This discovery may be more important than the unveiling of King Tut's tomb," he said.
    Professional archaeologists were skeptical of Hill's story. Los Angeles County Museum scientists pointed out that dinosaurs and tigers which Hill said lay side by side in the caves appeared on Earth 10,000,000 to 13,000,000 years apart.
    Hill said the caves were discovered in 1931 by Dr F. Bruce Russell, Beverly Hills physician, who literally fell in while sinking a shaft for a mining claim.
    "He tried for years to interest people in them," Hill said, "but nobody believed him."
    Russell and several hobbyists incorporated after the war as Amazing Explorations, Inc. and started digging. Several caverns contained mummified remains of "a race of men eight to nine feet tall," Hill said. "They apparently wore a prehistoric zoot suit--a hair garment of medium length, jacket and knee-length trousers."
    CAVERN TEMPLE FOUND
    Another cavern contained their ritual hall with devices and markings similar to the Masonic order, he said.
    "A long tunnel from this temple took the party into a room where," Hill said, "well-preserved remains of dinosaurs, saber-toothed tigers, imperial elephants and other extinct beasts were paired off in niches as if on display.
    "Some catastrophe apparently drove the people into the caves," he said.
    "All of the implements of their civilization were found," he said, "including household utensils and stoves which apparently cooked by radio waves."
    "I know," he said, "that you won't believe that."
    While of doubtful authenticity, this is an interesting story, to say the least. The last comment about cooking food with radio waves being unbelievable is ironic. That is the one thing that modern readers of the story could certainly believe was true, considering the widespread use of microwave ovens today. Who had heard of them in 1947?
    EXCERPT 2:
    Consider these verses from the ancient Mahabharata:

    ...(it was) a single projectile
    Charged with all the power of the Universe.
    An incandescent column of smoke and flame
    As bright as the thousand suns
    Rose in all its splendour...

    ..it was an unknown weapon,
    An iron thunderbolt,
    A gigantic messenger of death,
    Which reduced to ashes
    The entire race of the Vrishnis and the Andhakas.

    ..The corpses were so burned
    As to be unrecognisable.
    The hair and nails fell out;
    Pottery broke without apparent cause,
    And the birds turned white.

    After a few hours
    All foodstuffs were infected...
    ...to escape from this fire
    The soldiers threw themselves in streams
    To wash themselves and their equipment.24

    In the way we traditionally view ancient history, it seems absolutely incredible that there was an atomic war approximately 10,000 years ago.
    Incredible as it may seem, archaeologists have found evidence in India and Pakistan, indicating that some cities were destroyed in atomic explosions. When excavations of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro reached the street level, they discovered skeletons scattered about the cities, many holding hands and sprawling in the streets as if some instant, horrible doom had taken place. People were just lying, unburied, in the streets of the city. And these skeletons are thousands of years old, even by traditional archaeological standards. What could cause such a thing? Why did the bodies not decay or get eaten by wild animals? Furthermore, there is no apparent cause of a physically violent death.
    These skeletons are among the most radioactive ever found, on par with those at Nagasaki and Hiroshima. At one site, Soviet scholars found a skeleton which had a radioactive level 50 times greater than normal.26
    The Russian archaeologist A. Gorbovsky mentions the high incidence of radiation associated with the skeletons in his 1966 book, Riddles of Ancient History.27 Furthermore, thousands of fused lumps, christened "black stones", have been found at Mohenjo-Daro. These appear to be fragments of clay vessels that melted together in extreme heat.

  • Nostradamus On bin Laden-The most elusive man in our modern times was NOT so elusive to Nostradamus at all.
    (Rense)
    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. (BBC docudrama) (from Metafilter)
    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.


  • David Icke 'knew space was turquoise first' (Ananova)
    I always remember saying to the nurse 'they don't lock up david icke for his beliefs'; then they did

  • Recent UFO sightings (RENSE)
    INCLUDING:
    LONG ISLAND CITY -- On December 30, 2001, about midnight eight friends left a restaurant and stopped to look at the moon and stars. One witness reports, "What we were looking at started to dart and shoot all over the sky. There were so many! Some lined up in order and then just went off in their own direction; just to zip back and forth. Others looked like they were playing a game of cat and mouse. They were darting all over the sky for the longest time. They ran back into the restaurant and called the people to go out to see it. We were all in shock! Thanks to Peter Davenport Director NUFORC, www.ufocenter.com
    The Perseids? Lagging Leonids? Gunfight in Queens?

  • Virus-hit school may stay shut (BBCNEWS)
    Monday, 21 January, 2002, 06:45 GMT
    A Scottish primary school could be closed indefinitely after pupils were struck down with a viral infection.
    Public health officials will meet on Monday to discuss the outbreak, which saw 130 pupils at Forthill Primary in Dundee suffering bouts of vomiting and diarrhoea.
    Ninety youngsters signed in sick last Thursday, followed by a further 40 the following day.

  • Virus-hit hospital remains closed (BBCNEWS)
    Monday, 21 January, 2002, 08:44 GMT
    A Glasgow hospital remains closed to new admissions after more than 200 staff and patients were hit by a virus.
    No date has yet been given for the re-opening of the Victoria Infirmary.
    At the last count, 218 staff and patients had been hit by the "winter vomiting" bug, which causes sickness and diarrhoea.


  • GABON SEALED OFF TO CONTAIN EBOLA(NYpost)

  • Shoe-bomb flight -- a trial run?
    U.S., British officials fear similar attacks in the works
    London -- As investigators gather evidence about possible links between alleged airline shoe-bomber Richard Reid and the al Qaeda terrorist organization, intelligence officials on both sides of the Atlantic are floating a disturbing theory: that Reid's bombing attempt may have been a "trial run" for future, simultaneous attacks against passenger jets to be carried out by supporters of Osama bin Laden.
    U.S. and British intelligence officials believe that the British citizen on American Airlines Flight 63 from Paris to Miami on Dec. 22 was a "foot soldier" sent to check the destructive power of shoe bombs against civilian targets.
    One senior British intelligence official said there are indications that "more than a few, but less than a dozen" individuals may be preparing similar attacks in the near future.
    These officials cite similarities with a weapon developed by Ramzi Yousef, mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, who plotted a series of simultaneous attacks on U.S. airliners in the mid-1990s.
    "There is a definite pattern here with Yousef's past attacks that we would be foolish to ignore," said one highly placed intelligence official. "They have tried this before, and they are trying it again."
    During the flight, Reid allegedly tried to detonate explosives hidden in his shoes with a lighted match. Crew and passengers averted a disaster by jumping on the 28-year-old London-born suspect.
    "MOTHER OF SATAN" BOMBS
    Preliminary studies by the FBI indicate Reid's black suede basketball shoes contained between 8 and 10 ounces of the explosive triacetone triperoxide, or TATP -- called "The Mother of Satan" by Palestinian militants, because its inherent instability makes it dangerous to both the victims and bomb maker.
    The TATP in Reid's shoes was "blended" with an explosive called PETN, or pentaerythritol tetranitrate, which can be ignited with a normal cigarette lighter. PETN is a key ingredient of Semtex, the Czech-made military explosive used to down Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988.
    "These bombs are sophisticated devices," said the British intelligence official. "They would have been difficult and dangerous to produce. Reid could not have done this himself -- he would have trouble tying his own shoelaces. It seems we may have an expert bomb maker on the loose in Europe."
    LINKS TO 20TH HIJACKER
    Among the links being pursued by investigators are telephone conversations, known to British intelligence, between Reid and Zacarias Moussaoui, the so- called "20th hijacker" who was indicted on conspiracy charges in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks, and reports that the two worshiped at the same mosque in London. Moussaoui's attorney entered a plea of not guilty for his client in Virginia last week.
    Investigators are also probing the origins of the money used by Reid, who has no visible means of support, as he traveled to seven different countries last year.
    Among the cities Reid visited was Amsterdam. The Binnenlandse Veiligheids Dienst (BVD), the Dutch security service, is trying to reconstruct Reid's movements and to establish whether an al Qaeda cell there may be plotting attacks on passenger jets.
    Reid has told FBI agents that he contacted Dutch arms dealers via the Internet and paid $1,800 for the explosives. But intelligence sources speculate that Reid obtained them from an al Qaeda explosives expert in Amsterdam, who adapted the shoes in preparation for Reid's attack.
    FBI agents and British anti-terrorist officials, meanwhile, have concluded that the shoe-bomb plot originated with the ideas of Yousef, an early al Qaeda operative who suggested flying passenger jets into buildings.
    'PROJECT BOJINKA' SIMILARITIES
    After instigating the 1993 WTC bombing, which killed six people and injured more than 1,000, the British-educated extremist was on the run from the FBI for nearly two years before being captured. He is currently serving a life sentence plus 240 years.
    While on the lam in Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Far East, Yousef trained other bin Laden terrorists in the use of explosives and told them of a plan he code-named "Project Bojinka" -- "bojinka" means "explosion" in Serbo-Croat -- which used a form of shoe bomb.
    Designed as a terrorist "spectacular" that would instantly kill thousands of people and eclipse every other terrorist atrocity in history, Yousef planned to blow up 11 U.S. passenger jets scheduled to fly simultaneously over the Far East in January 1995 by using tiny, undetectable bombs.
    Yousef produced a stable, liquid form of nitroglycerine from an array of chemicals, including sulfuric acid and nitrobenzene, and fashioned them into devices undetectable by airport security devices, including X-ray machines. He converted a Casio digital watch into a timing switch, hid the liquid nitroglycerine in a contact lens case, with cotton wool as a stabilizer, and then used two 9-volt batteries to power light-bulb filaments to spark an explosion.
    Yousef hid the bomb components in the heels of his shoes, knowing most airport security systems do not scan the soles of feet.
    "The parallels are really chilling," said a senior FBI official, referring to the Reid case. The official added that security devices to detect explosives on passengers are still in the development stage.
    Another similarity noted by investigators was the placement of the shoe bomb components. Having obtained Boeing blueprints, Yousef calculated the most devastating place to detonate his bombs was in a seat above the center fuel tank, adjacent to the wing. The bomb alone would not destroy the plane, but it would detonate the fuel, ripping the jet apart. Reid, perhaps following Yousef's example, chose a window seat close to the Boeing 767-300's fuel tank.
    PHILIPPINES AIRLINE EXPLOSION
    The "Bojinka" plot was aborted after chemicals Yousef was mixing in a Manila kitchen caught fire and he had to flee to Pakistan, leaving behind details of the plan for police to discover. But Yousef did stage his own trial run. In December 1994, he assembled a bomb on a Philippines Airline flight, then left it under a seat before deplaning the Boeing 747.
    The resulting explosion on the next leg of the flight killed a Japanese passenger, injured five others and forced the pilot to make an emergency landing in Okinawa. Yousef would have needed only to increase slightly the size of the bomb to ensure the plane's destruction.
    Some investigators are so concerned about how far the parallels between Reid and Yousef go that they have suggested "a more rigorous" interrogation of Reid, designed to elicit any information he has about a possible second "Bojinka" plot.
    "There is significant concern about this guy," said the FBI official. "Does the failure of his mission mean his cell will now go on the run? Possibly. But in the past these groups have been very focused and do not easily turn from their target."
    Simon Reeve, a London-based investigative journalist and contributor to The Chronicle, is the author of "The New Jackals: Ramzi Yousef, Osama bin Laden and the Future of Terrorism."
    Let's hope Project Kerplunka never gets off the ground either

  • Naked sex pair caught on 'badger watch' cameras
    A couple at a lakeland holiday park were caught naked on cameras meant to monitor the movements of badgers.
    The pair ventured into the snowy woods at the Oasis Village, near Penrith in Cumbria.
    Their romp was beamed into every hotel bedroom on a special channel trained on the badger set.
    The night-vision camera caught the couple in the early hours of the morning. The woman kept her bobble hat on, reports the UK News of the World. The pair stopped when they heard a sound and quickly put their clothes on before being chased by a security guard with a torch. The identity of the couple has not been revealed.

  • Does Mir Contain Mutant Bacteria? (Reuters)
    March 07, 2001 08:15 CDT
    What sounds worse? A piece of heavy Mir debris falling on your head? Or something you can't even see? Yuri Karash, an expert on the Russian space program, told Reuters on Tuesday that the latter - mutant fungi from the Mir - could be the real threat.
    Karash told Reuters there is a chance that micro-organisms - mutated over a span of 15 years aboard Mir - could present a threat if they survived the fall to Earth. Russia's space officials are making light of the threat, even though visitors to the station have found fungi hiding behind control panels, in air-conditioning units and on many other surfaces.

  • A mysterious marine animal has appeared in a New Zealand harbor.
    (Source:DailyGrail)

    "We come in peace"? Ever see The Blob?

  • Fiery Farewell for Mir
    March 23, 2001 08:00 CDT
    Mir space station plummeted into the Pacific Ocean early Friday morning, Australian officials said they believed Mir-which means both "peace" and "world" in Russian-ended up in an unpopulated part of the Pacific some 1,800 miles southwest of Britain's Pitcairn Islands.

  • 2001 World Temperature Second Highest on Record (Reuters)

  • Sudden Ice Age or World Drought Possible, Study Says (The Christian Science Monitor)
    If you're concerned about forecasts of long-term global warming, you might be worried about the wrong thing.
    The United States National Academy of Sciences warns that sudden, unexpected climate change—on a scale that could cause widespread drought or plunge Earth into a deep freeze—poses a more immediate danger.
    The evidence? Embedded in ancient tree rings and ice cores are signs that quick, drastic change is a fundamental characteristic of Earth's climate. These data show that the climate can switch abruptly from one mode—such as an ice age—to another, such as a milder interglacial period, climatologists say.
    Humans have no remembered experience of such sudden, far-reaching shifts. If one were to occur in the near future, human civilization could be vastly ill-equipped to adjust.
    The Academy's National Research Council (NRC) organized a study to assess this knowledge, which has come to a head over the past five years. The NRC report was distributed at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union held in early December in San Francisco. In a sense, the report notes, humanity has been living in the meteorological equivalent of a fool's paradise. Agriculture and other aspects of civilization have developed during a period of relatively benign climate.

  • Does a glacier hold the secret of how civilization began—and how it may end?
     (NewYorker)
    HIGHLIGHTS: Around fifteen thousand years ago, Greenland abruptly warmed by sixteen degrees in fifty years or less. In one particularly traumatic episode some twelve thousand years ago, the mean temperature in Greenland shot up by fifteen degrees in a single decade.
    No known external force, or even any that has been hypothesized, seems capable of yanking the temperature back and forth as violently, and as often, as these cores have shown to be the case. Somehow, the climate system—through some vast and terrible feedback loop—must, it is now assumed, be capable of generating its own instabilities. The most popular hypothesis is that the oceans are responsible. Currents like the Gulf Stream transfer heat in huge quantities from the tropics toward the poles, and if this circulation pattern could somehow be shut off—by, say, a sudden influx of freshwater—it would have a swift and dramatic impact. Computer modellers have tried to reproduce such a shutdown, with some success. But once the ocean circulation comes to a halt, modellers have had a hard time getting it to start up again. "We are in a state now where the more we know, the more it becomes clear how little we really understand about the system," the oceanographer Jochem Marotzke told me.
     For at least half a million years, and probably a lot longer, warm periods and ice ages have alternated according to a fairly regular, if punishing, pattern, based on oscillations in the earth's axis: ten thousand years of warmth, followed by ninety thousand years of cold. The current warm period, the Holocene, is now ten thousand years old, and, all things being equal—which is to say had we not interfered with the pattern by burning fossil fuels—we should now be heading toward another ice age.
    As a continuous temperature record, the Greenland ice gives out at about a hundred and fifteen thousand years ago, at a moment in the climate cycle roughly analogous to our own.
    One ice core seems to indicate that the period ended with a cataclysm even worse than the wild temperature swings that occurred at the end of the last ice age, 100,000 years ago. During this cold snap, temperatures appear to have plunged from warmer than they are today to the coldest levels of the ice age, all within a matter of a few decades, and then to have climbed back up again, equally dramatically, a century or so later.
    How is it that we happen to live in this, climatologically speaking, best of all possible times? On statistical grounds, it certainly seems improbable that the only period in the climate record as stable as our own is our own. And it seems, if anything, even more improbable that climatologists should make the discovery that we are living in this period of exceptional stability at the very moment when, by their own calculations, it is likely nearing an end.
    But to approach the problem in this way is to fail to realize the extent to which we are ourselves a product of the climate record.
    "Now you're able to put human evolution into a climatic framework. You can ask, Why did human beings not make civilization fifty thousand years ago? You know that they had just as big brains as we have today. When you put it in a climatic framework, you can say, Well, it was the ice age. And also this ice age was so climatically unstable that each time you had the beginning of a culture they had to move. Then comes the present interglacial—ten thousand years of very stable climate. The perfect conditions for agriculture. If you look at it, it's amazing. Civilizations in Persia, in China, and in India start at the same time, maybe six thousand years ago. They all developed writing and they all developed religion and they all built cities, all at the same time, because the climate was stable. I think that if the climate would have been stable fifty thousand years ago it would have started then. But they had no chance."
     He went on to explain that it would be wrong to think of global warming and a dramatic dive into another ice age as alternatives. It is entirely possible, if apparently paradoxical, that global warming could produce a precipitous cooling, at least in Europe and parts of North America, by, say, shutting down the Gulf Stream. It is also possible that it could push the climate into an unstable mode, leading, especially in the upper latitudes, to a period of wild temperature swings of the sort that characterized the end of the last ice age. Finally, it is possible that we have changed the atmosphere so much—carbon-dioxide levels are approaching those of the age of the dinosaurs—that we will enter a new climate phase altogether. During the Cretaceous period, there were no major ice sheets, or ice ages, and much of the planet was covered with steamy swamps. To the extent that the historical record is any guide, the result of any climate change is unlikely to be a happy one. Steffensen recited to me an old Danish saying, whose pertinence I didn't entirely understand, but which nevertheless stuck with me. He translated it as "Pissing in your pants will only keep you warm for so long."

  • The death of the dinosaurs wasn't unique. There have been 17 major extinctions of life during the past 600 million years. And, in most cases, an asteroid probably wasn't to blame. The answer may lie in great volcanic eruptions.
    (FirstScience.com)
    Giant eruptions
    The strongest association with extinctions- by far - comes with the third prospective extinction mechanism, as seen in the record of continental flood-basalt eruptions. These are vast outpourings of basaltic lava, similar to the eruptions responsible for the Hawaiian Island chain, but taking place entirely on land.
    Perhaps the best known is the series of eruptions that took place on the Indian subcontinent beginning at the very end of the Maastrichtian stage, 66.5-64.5 million years ago. They poured out over one million cubic kilometres of lava in just over one million years, forming the vast Deccan Traps. The eruption did not take place continuously over the entire million years, but episodically in massive lava flows that have no counterpart in human history.
    -sea-level change 7 out of 14
    -continental flood basalt eruptions (over the last 250 million years) 10 out of 10
    -asteroid impact 1 out of 17.

  • Minor mysteries of Universe explained (LondonTimes)
    The Discovery Channel has carried out research to identify the ten questions that most trouble the public. The missing baby pigeon riddle tops the list, followed by the enigma of why men have nipples, and why three buses turn up at once.

  • Index of Culture-Bound Syndromes By Culture (via Metafilter)
    EXAMPLE:East Asia
    China and Taiwan
    hsieh-ping: (Taiwan) a brief trance state during which one is possessed by an ancestral ghost, who often attempts to communicate to other family members. Symptoms include tremor, disorientation and delirium, and visual or auditory hallucinations. Similar to shin-byung (Korea).

  • Inmate says he told FBI about danger to New York (OlandoSentinel)
    A jailed Seminole County man who had served time in a British prison with three suspected associates of Osama bin Laden claims the FBI ignored his warnings in August that terrorist attacks on New York City would occur "very soon."
    Walid Arkeh contends that, during a late-summer interview that federal officials acknowledge took place, FBI agents scoffed at his promise to exchange more details for freedom, asylum and protection.
    Arkeh said he learned of plots by terrorists led by bin Laden from the trio of fellow inmates while they served time together in a British prison from September 2000 to July 2001.
    "I told them there were these three men who were cronies of bin Laden's. I gave them some details but not everything. I thought they would be back in a few days," he said during a November interview.
    But the federal agents didn't return until Sept. 11 -- hours after the World Trade Center towers fell and the Pentagon was split open, killing close to 3,000 people in the worst terrorist attacks ever on U.S. soil.

  • Researchers: Round-Headed People Snore More(ABCNEWS)
    Jan 4 — Researchers have determined that people with round heads have a greater risk of sleep apnea and chronic snoring than those with thin faces. Using X-rays, they measured from teeth to esophagus, nose to nasal passage and cheek to jaw to create a "craniofacial risk index." A researcher who was unaware of the patients' snoring history was able to predict sleep apnea problems three out of four times using the index.
    I wonder what the "craniofacial risk index" is of going out drinking in Newcastle on a Saturday night?

  • Mars Calamity May Have Created Conditions for Life (Cosmiverse)
    Extreme volcanic activity deformed Mars throughout an early period of its history. However, according to researchers, it may also have created the warm and moist environment that is necessary to foster life.

  • Mystery Space Dust Brushes Past Earth- January 4, 2002 08:00 CDT (Source: NASA)
    O-oh, here comes "The Incredible Shrinking Planet"

  • A newly discovered near-Earth asteroid named 2001 YB5 will glide by our planet Monday, Jan. 7th, twice as far from Earth as the Moon. (NASA)

  • Cattle mutilations back-Top Stories -GreatFallsTribune.com
    "Predators won't eat it," said King, who ranches outside Valier, south of Lake Frances. "It should have been cleaned up and gone a long time ago."
    Ranchers reported four mutilations between June and August. Since then, there have been 11 more, and investigators are still searching for answers.
    The same bizarre circumstances haunted area ranchers and baffled law enforcement 20 years ago, sparking rumors about UFOs, cults and government conspiracies.

  • Truck, explosive material stolen in LA on eve of Bowl. (UPI)
    Police throughout the Los Angeles area were on alert Wednesday for a stolen flatbed truck and 500 pounds of potentially explosive nitric acid that remained unaccounted for less than 24 hours before the national college football championship game at the Rose Bowl.
    Ahmed Ressam, the Algerian national who was convicted of taking part in a foiled plot to bomb Los Angeles International Airport in 1999, was arrested north of Seattle with 100 pounds of urea fertilizer, which becomes a powerful explosive when mixed with nitric acid, hidden in his rental car.

  • New Thermal Liar Test Could Become Standard at Airports (Reuters)
    LONDON - Scientists have developed an instant lie detector technique which picks up mini hot flushes around the eyes and could lead to truth tests becoming standard at airport check-ins, the journal Nature reported on Wednesday.
    So what if you 'accidently' joined the Communist Party as a student or your mother packed your bag? Will you be instantly re-planed?

  • Focus Turns to the Threat of Airline Food Carts as Weapons (NYT)

  • Digital Images Will Verify Identity of Visitors to U.S. (LATimes)
    WASHINGTON -- In a high-tech strategy against terrorists, the government will soon begin comparing foreign travelers with digitized photographs and will consider plans to encode their travel documents with personal data that can be read electronically.
    Starting this month, the State Department will relay digital images of foreign travelers to U.S. ports of entry. For the first time, immigration officials will be assured that they are comparing the travelers who stand before them to authentic pictures taken when they applied to visit the United States.

  • NEAR-EARTH ASTEROID (Spaceweather.com)
    A newly-discovered near-Earth asteroid named 2001 YB5 will race past our planet this week only two times farther away than the Moon. During the days leading up to its closest approach on Jan. 7th, the 300 meter-wide space rock will brighten to 12th magnitude -- an easy target for backyard telescopes equipped with CCD cameras.

  • Scientists claim to grow artificial eye (Reuters)
    Japanese team reportedly crafts eyeballs from frog cells
    Well, these will be handy if Andrew Lloyd Webber ever loses an eye due to an errant cello stick accident

  • Mullah Omar 'flees on motorbike' (BBCNEWS)
    Is that safe? Considering he only has one eye? How can he judge distances correctly? I guess he could use the "three second rule".

  • Good news: Doomsday has been postponed (UKTelegraph)
    THE end is not as nigh as we thought. Scientists have found a mistake in the standard account of the future fate of the solar system and now believe that the Earth will not be destroyed when the Sun runs out of fuel.
    For decades, astronomy textbooks have insisted that the Earth will be engulfed in an inferno billions of years from now as the Sun burns up its nuclear fuel and swells to become a gigantic red star.
    It's now belived the Sun's weakened gravity will allow the Earth to escape with our planet settling down in an orbit about 25 per cent bigger than the one it now follows - well clear of the Sun's outer atmosphere.
    The new calculations suggest that the surface of the Earth will become too hot to sustain human life for a few million years about 5.7 billion years from now.
    This is about 200 million years later than previously thought - an extra period of grace that humans could use to develop technologies for living on a hotter Earth, such as building communities deep underground.
    Alternatively, the human race could move to another planet for a while.
    Excuse me if I don't start packing now.

  • BUCHANAN DECLARES: DEATH OF THE WEST (Drudgereport)
    In his ultracontroversial book, which will be banned and burned in many quarters, Brave Buchanan contends that the U.S. will be a Third World nation by the year 2050.
    Relying upon the most recent UN population studies, Buchanan declares:
    • By 2050, only 10% of the world's people will be of European descent. One third of Europe's people will be over 60, and one-in-ten over 80. Involuntary euthanasia has already come to Europe.
    • Between now and 2050, Asia, Africa, and Latin America will grow by three to four billion people -- 30 to 40 new Mexicos! -- as Europe will lose the equivalent of the entire population of Germany, Poland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland.
    • By 2050, 23 million Germans will have disappeared along with 16 million Italians and 30 million Russians.
    • Russia will lose Siberia and the far east to China and be pushed out of the Caucuses and Central Asia, where Islamic populations are exploding while Russia's is dying.
    • Either Europe must effect a radical cutback in pensions and health care for seniors, or Europe must import scores of millions of Arabs and Africans to care for the elderly and pay the taxes to sustain their welfare states.
    • The 4.2 million Palestinians in Israel and on the West Bank and Gaza will explode to 9 million by 2025, and 15 million by 2050, when Palestinians will outnumber Israel's Jewish population two-to-one.
    • America's "Dual Containment" policy in the Persian Gulf seems unsustainable. In less than 25 years, Iraq will have 42 million people and Iran 94 million people, more than any European nation except Russia.
    • The Islamic invasions of Spain and France in the eighth century, and of the Balkans and Central Europe from the 14th to the 17th centuries, will be reenacted in the lifetime of most of those now living. Islam has already surpassed Catholicism as the largest religion on earth.
    • It is the Christian nations -- Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox -- that have begun to die. In a chapter titled, "Where Have All the Children Gone?" Buchanan explains why, and why it is unlikely the West can solve the demographic crisis before it leads to The Death of the West.
    In his chapter La Reconquista, Buchanan contends that an invasion of the United States is taking place and that America now harbors a "nation within a nation."
    • There are 30 million foreign born in the U.S. today, and between 9 and 11 million illegal aliens, or as many undocumented aliens in the U.S. as there are people in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut.
    • Of the 10 states with the smallest share of immigrants, Bush won all 10.
    • European-Americans are a minority in America's most populous state, California, and by 2004, will be a minority in Texas.
    • The political agenda of California Hispanics includes race welfare for illegal aliens, racial preferences, bilingual education, open borders, dual citizenship, Cinqo de Mayo as a California holiday, and, in one case, replacing a statue of an American hero of the Mexican War with the Aztec god Quetzacoatl.
    • White Americans are fleeing California at the rate of 100,000 a year.
    • MeCHA, the student organization that claims chapters on hundreds of campuses has a program that reads like a Mexican version of the agenda of the white-supremacist Aryan Nation.
    • In 2001, an Office for Mexicans Abroad in Mexico was providing survival kits with everything from dried meat to anti-diarrhea pills to condoms to Mexicans setting off to break in to the United States .
    • As of 2000, there were 8.4 million foreign born in California, as many foreign born as there are people in New Jersey, a primary cause of the state energy and schools crisis.
    • Among Third World immigrants, poverty rates and incarceration rates are double and triple what they are among native-born Americans.
    Shooting up the flares and waving the flag, Buchanan argues that the 1960s "counter-culture" has become America's dominant culture, and the iconoclasts of that counter-culture are systematically demolishing America's history and heritage.
    • Under Political Correctness, America's greatest heroes -- soldiers, explorers and statesmen from Columbus to George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson -- are under savage attack as genocidal racists and exploiters of indigenous peoples.
    • The history books of American public schools are being rewritten with the old heroes ignored or trashed and Western civilization disparaged and demeaned.
    • When Mel Gibson's film, "The Patriot," came out in 2000, it was savagely attacked for presenting black Americans as fighting patriots in the Revolutionary War.
    • With the assault on Confederate books, symbols, flags, heroes, and holidays almost complete, the attack is now proceeding against the Puritan fathers, soldiers who fought in The Mexican War, and, in New Jersey, even against the Declaration of Independence itself.
    • In some school districts, Mark Twain, Flannery O'Connor, and any realistic portrayal of the America South, including Harper' Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, are now forbidden.
    • Even the great museums on America's Mall, to introduce school children to the greatness and glory of America's past, are being used to indoctrinate children in how wicked and evil our forefathers were.
    In his chapter, "The De-Christianization of America," Buchanan argues that the death of the Christian faith in Western countries is a primary cause of their dying populations. Whenever faith dies, the people die. A new atheistic civilization is arising, he argues, and is using its dominance of the culture and the courts to drive Christianity out of the temples of our civilization.
    • Secular Humanism, widely mocked and disparaged, a few decades ago, is now the dominant faith of the nation's cultural elites. The moral tenets of humanism are replacing those of Christianity in our public life.
    • Even Christian churches are rewriting their hymnals to make them acceptable to the dominant culture.
    • Anti-Catholic films and filthy and blasphemous anti-Christian art are the deliberate insults of a triumphant pagan and secularist faith.
    The book's publication was delayed after September terror.
    What a non-crypto-fascist. By the year 2001 there will be women in congress, blacks in the cabinet, italians, jews and irish running NYC. I predict in 2050 Buchanan there will be no statues of Buchanan. If this is what the far right is expunging in public what kind of final solutions are been discussed behind the true blue burkhas of the "Project for the New American Century"?!

  • Florida skywriter causes panic by writing 'God is Great'with Cropduster(Palmbeachpost.com)
    Our monotheistic deity is greater than your monotheisitc diety. May Allah bless America.

  • We Will Win Nuclear War, Says India (Times Of London)
    Where's the Indian Midge Ure singing "Dancing with tears in my eyes" as colorful powder explodes all around him?

  • Tourists pat feeding-frenzied great whites (Associated Press)
    From the back of a dead whale, tourists in Australia patted several great white sharks which were feeding on the carcass. Australia to create laws 'to protect people too stupid to protect themselves.'
    Could we not make that an international law?


  • Israel fears chemical attack by Hamas suicide bombers (LondonTimes)
    ISRAELI Intelligence chiefs believe that Palestinian bomb-makers are trying to acquire lethal toxins to use in future suicide attacks.
    It is believed that leaders of the military wing of Hamas, the radical Islamist group, living abroad in Qatar, Syria and Jordan have decided to include chemical weapons in their arsenal.
    On its website, Hamas has admitted that it has not used chemicals to more devestating effect because of the fear of Israeli reprisals, but with young militants gaining control of its terrorist cells in Gaza and the West Bank, the fear is that it may not be so reluctant in the future.
    The Lebanese-based Hezbollah militia sent 40 helium balloons across the border with Israel yesterday. The balloons, which carried large pictures of Mr Arafat and signs with Hezbollah slogans attached to them, landed in an open field after drifting about six miles into Israel.
    Police cordoned off the area and exploded the balloons to ensure that they did not contain chemicals or explosives.
    What happens to all the helium ballons you see floating up into the sky? They reach a level where the gas compresses due to the increasing cold and can no longer rise, although lacking sufficient gravity to fall back to earth they become trapped in a relatively stable region known as the balloonosphere. Once sufficient numbers of these balloons congegate it will possible to create a floating platform capable of sustaining small townships in suspension. It is there that I propose we exile the clowns.

  • 3 collaborators for the U.N. faced the trial being accused of the attempt to kill American ambassador in Kenya (Pravda)
    They were sending letters to the ambassador threatening him and the letters were signed Osama bin Laden.
    The litigation which is currently taking place in Kenya became a world sensation. 3 U.N. attendants imitated terrorist's actions in a very simple way. They asked a refugee to write letters in the Arab and English languages and put Osama bin Laden as a signature. The letters were sent by fax to American ambassador to Kenya Johnnie Carson and also to several other high-ranking U.N. attendants.
    For example the letter which was sent to a spokesman for the Commission for refugees in Nairobi said: "Your personal safety and the safety of your family is being threatened…if you do not leave our country at once….we know where your daughter studies… We will kidnap her".
    So is it possible there was no bin Laden at all? May be "terrorist number 1" is not a terrorist at all but just a figure which is being ruled like in the chess game? If it is going to be possible to prove that the U.N. officers imitated the activity which is being incriminated to bin Laden, where are the proofs that other actions of the facsimile terrorist did not imitate actions of the special services?
    Well, there's a prank gone wrong.

  • No-Push Childbirth (ABCNEWS.COM)
     A new study says that taking a break from pushing during childbirth can take some of the "labor" out of labor, and is perfectly safe for both mom and baby.
    This probably doesn't include popping outside for a fag.

  • A Computer That's Better Than Humans at Determining Gender(ABCNEWS)
    But can it pass the 'Bea Arthur Test'?

  • Man gets coat hanger stuck in throat as he tries to remove balloon
    A Kansas man got a wire coat hanger stuck in his throat as he tried to remove a cocaine-filled balloon he'd swallowed.
    He says someone put the balloon in his drink at a party and he accidentally swallowed it.
    He needed emergency surgery to remove both. Police say he could face possession charges.
    "I've been here for 23 years, and I've never seen anything like it," Sergeant Jeff Davis says.
    Staff at Via Christi Regional Medical Centre called police after the man, described as being in his 20s, arrived.
    A friend had driven him to the hospital.
    "He was in a lot of pain," Sgt Davis said. "He couldn't talk to us a whole lot."
    Doctors made a large incision in his throat to unhook the hanger, he added.
    His condition isn't life-threatening, The Wichita Eagle reports.

  • Source: Calls Discussing Bin Laden Intercepted(ABCNEWS)
    A senior military official told ABCNEWS the communications, intercepted over the past few days, used a code word for the accused terrorist mastermind, and suggested "you should keep [bin Laden] off of the television. He looks bad, he looks sick and it is demoralizing to his people."
    also
    Files on a pair of secondhand computers bought in Kabul reportedly include evidence of al Qaeda's role in the assassination of anti-Taliban leader Ahmed Shah Massood, and document the day-to-day operations of the terror network. The Wall Street Journal said today that one of its reporters bought the computers, which had been taken by a looter from a Kabul building used by al Qaeda as an office. According to the report, there was no evidence on the computers of any plotting related to the Sept. 11 attacks or any future attacks.
    I feel so bad for the heroic yet tragic Massood. I don't why but somehow I feel a bit culpable, that my ignorance of his existence until his death was somehow lax.

  • Magnetic Refrigerator Developed (Reuters)
    Battery powered, portable and quiet. You can stick 'em on your old one.

  • What Osama Bin Laden Doesn't Want YOU to Know About the Phoenicians and the Jews! (Viewzone-alt science)
    Khyber=Hebrew?

  • New UFO Wave Hits Belgium (Rense)

  • Cover-up of strange Giant skeletons found in New Mexico At Viewzone we receive many such reports from all over the globe. Ancient sites that appear to be very old are shut down or quickly buried by the host governments.Why?(Source:Viewzone)A friend of mine, in recent years, had a long talk with a New Zealand girl called Lisa Kerr. She'd done extensive traveling, like many young New Zealanders, who head out on their traditional OE (overseas excursion).
    Lisa, amongst several jobs she got around the world, worked for a while with the New Mexico Park's Department. During her term of employment there was a big "washout" in one of the Park regions and I'm assuming it was up in Pueblo country around Taos. The flash flood scoured out embankments and in doing so a large number of anomalous skeletons were exposed. Lisa and her colleagues were assigned the task of gathering up the remains and placing them into crates. Also in attendance at the site were Smithsonian Institute officials and FBI agents.
    Each day as Lisa and the other Park's Department employees went onto the site, they were searched for cameras. Similarly they were searched as they left the site each day to make sure they weren't removing artifacts. They were also obliged to sign "secrecy documents" ensuring that they would never divulge details of their participation in this undertaking. The reason for this degree of secrecy stems from the fact that the skeletons were of people who were about 8 feet tall. They had six fingers on each hand and six toes per foot. They also had a strange, double row arrangement of teeth.
    The crates containing the recovered remains, at the termination of work, were taken away by the Smithsonian officials and, undoubtedly, will never be seen again. Strangely enough, there is a report of two similar skulls having been found in New Zealand's far north around the beginning of the 20th century. Lisa later had official "hassles" when trying to come home to New Zealand and was severely grilled by US government functionaries as she attempted to depart from the US.


  • Changing places invention to avoid dinner bores
    LONDON, Dec 19 (Reuters) - Tired of boring Christmas lunch and dinner conversations? Interested in speaking to more people during round table business meetings?
    Swiss inventor Paolo Rais may have just the answer -- an 18-seater rectangular table with chairs that move so no one is trapped sitting opposite someone for too long.
    "An electric motor drives two hidden chains: one hauls the chairs around while the other, beneath the wooden tabletop, pulls around wooden trays on which you place your food or documents," New Scientist magazine said on Wednesday.
    The chairs move at a slow, steady speed of nine centimetres (3.5 inches) per minute so the diners do not feel like they are moving at all and can leave the table without any problems.
    "I've written to the British royal family, because such a table would be a great way for the queen to meet all her guests at banquets," said Rais, a civil engineer from Lugano.
    "But I have had no reply," he added.

  • Entertaining Princess Anne was 'a bore' (Ananova)
    Government officials nearly pulled the plug on a Valentine's Day dinner party for the Princess Royal when her host was heard moaning that it was "a bore" to have to entertain her.

    15:20

  • Queen's Freudian Portrait Draws Criticism(AP)
    LONDON (AP)
    12-19-01
    - A portrait of Queen Elizabeth II by one of Britain's leading artists stirred outrage and indignation Friday, with aghast critics unsure if it made her look more like actor Jack Nicholson hamming it up or one of the royal dogs suffering a stroke.
    Pictures of the portrait by Lucian Freud were splashed across the front of British newspapers with most of her majesty's subjects taking a jaundiced view of the latest attempt to capture the royal likeness.
    In an editorial, The Daily Telegraph said that while her majesty ``is no longer the heartbreakingly beautiful young woman she was'' she is still ``easy on the eye'' and called the portrait ``extremely unflattering.''
    In the same paper, columnist Richard Morrison said: ``The chin has what can only be described as a six-o'clock shadow, and the neck would not disgrace a rugby prop forward'' - a reference to the huge muscular tackles in the game of rugby.
    Robert Simon, editor of the British Art Journal, said: ``It makes her look like one of the royal corgis who has suffered a stroke.''
    The Evening Standard said Freud has ``given the queen blackcurrant eyes and the sort of pursed lips last seen on Jack Nicholson when he played Batman's arch enemy, The Joker.''
    The newspaper added that it made her majesty look ``a little hazy round the edges'' and cited one royal observer declaring: ``She just won't like it.''
    Freud, the 79-year-old grandson of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, is one of Britain's greatest living painters. He formally presented the work to the queen Thursday and her reaction is unknown. It took six years of negotiation before the monarch agreed to sit for the work and that was followed by more than 70 sittings.
    Freud's characteristic uncompromising and unflattering wide brushstroke style shows the queen looking glum, her facial features jowly and severe, a large crown squatting on her head. The small oil painting, which will go on public display next year, is a gift from Freud to the country's Royal Collection, which is held in trust by the queen.
    Not all the reaction was pained.
    The collection's director, Sir Hugh Roberts, lauded the portrait, saying it was both ``remarkable'' and a ``wonderful addition'' to the series of royal portraits in the Royal Collection.
    The chief art critic of The Times, Richard Cork, praised the work, describing the image as ``painful, brave, honest, stoical and above all clear-sighted.''
    The Guardian newspaper quoted the director of the National Portrait Gallery, Charles Saumarez Smith, who said: ``This breaks the mold of royal portraits ... I really think both parties should be congratulated on what is really quite a brave thing to do.''
    There was relief that Freud did not approach the portrait in his usual manner. He often paints subjects naked, mercilessly detailing every last wrinkle and flaw.
    If she agreed to sit for LF she surely knew what she was getting. Quite frankly I think it's the media who are taking the piss.

  • Fizzy tipple sippers get tipsier quicker(NewScientist)
    (Reuters) - Champagne bubbles really do make people drunk more quickly, New Scientist magazine said on Wednesday.

  • Happy New Year To All!!

  • An ancient 3,200-year-old papyrus map has led to the discovery of pharoanic gold mines in Egypt's eastern desert that will give Egypt one of the top 10 gold reserves in the world. The original pharaonic map, which is the world's earliest surviving geological survey, was discovered in Luxor in 1820 and has since been on display in a Turin museum. (UK Times via Metafilter)

  • 50 things we'll be glad to see the back of in 2002 (UKGuardian)

  • SECRETS REVEALED: GENETICALLY MODIFIED CHILDREN EXIST(Pravda)
    As the world wakes up tomorrow morning to its genetically modified cereal at breakfast, eating bacon from transgenic pigs, toast made from GM soya flour and eggs from "total farming" batteries, people can be sure that the realm of genetically modified children no longer belongs to the annals of science fiction.
    The scientific review "Human Reproduction" has printed a feature describing the process used in the USA (Santa Barbara Medical Centre) in which no less than 15 babies in the last four years have been born, after genetic modifications were made in fertility treatment programmes.
    The babies have genes from three people, two mothers and one father. The head of the team, James Cohen, explained in the feature that the treatment involved the transfer of the ovocyte cytoplasm (the female germinal cell) from the donor of the egg to the host. The donor's cytoplasm is injected into the ovocyte of the host and it is then fertilised with the father's sperm, creating a transgenic child.
    The embryo thus receives genes from the host mother, the donor mother (through mitochondrial DNA) and the father. It is known that the mitochondria (genetic material which is not contained in the cells) can provoke genetically transmitted diseases, therefore this embryonic treatment poses a real threat to the child : creating an infertile baby for the infertile parent.
    Such manipulations of the laws of nature are bound to produce adverse effects, as Mother Earth will surely react to mankind's attempts to selfishly transgress the elementary and basic rules of science.

  • SHARON WANTS ME DEAD: PRINCETON JEWISH PROFESSOR(USAJewish.com)
    I can't exactly see Russel Crowe playing this guy. Surely if Sharon wanted him dead he wouldn't bother phoning him up to tell him about it.

  • Sharon wants extra million Jews In Israel(AssocForiegnPress)

  • Genetic sleuths in Israel are collecting thousands of blood samples from Jews of European origin
    JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Genetic sleuths in Israel are collecting thousands of blood samples from Jews of European origin in a race to uncover the genetic causes of diseases such as schizophrenia, asthma and Parkinson's disease.
    ``The population of Ashkenazi Jews is relatively homogenous which facilitates gene discovery,'' said Ariel Darvasi, IDgene's president and a geneticist at Jerusalem's Hebrew University.

  • The secret of Einstein's immense intellect may finally have been uncovered - one area of his brain was significantly different than most people's. (BBCNews)
    The researchers hope that the study will encourage the donation of brain specimens from other gifted individuals.
    Do they mean Michael Flatly?

  • Israel Denies Attempt at Cloning
    March 11, 2001
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    (AP) - The Health Ministry said Sunday that cloning human beings was illegal in Israel and dismissed reports that a reproduction team planned to begin the first cloning of a person in Israel within a year. ``The law legislated a year and a half ago prohibits (cloning),'' Health Ministry legal adviser Miriam Higher told Israel radio. ``The person who clones is guilty of a criminal offense.''
    A cloning team led by Panos Zavos, a reproduction researcher who recently resigned his post at the University of Kentucky, said Friday in Italy that it planned to produce the babies in a Mediterranean country, but did not say which one. The team includes Italian fertility doctor Severino Antinori, famous for helping women past menopause conceive. Antinori has said that a human would be cloned within a year.
    The Italian news agency ANSA quoted Antinori as saying it would ``very probably'' be Israel. The German newsmagazine Der Spiegel said Saturday the venue would be in Caesarea, an Israeli coastal resort. Israeli researcher Avi Ben-Abraham, who is also a member of the team, has said that Judaism is more favorable to cloning than Roman Catholicism.
     Experience with animals has shown that most clone pregnancies fail, or result in the offspring being delivered stillborn or deformed. But Antinori and Zavos believe the dangers have been overstated and claim to have the ability to screen out unsustainable pregnancies.


  • Sharon to Peres: "Don't worry about American pressure; we control America"(THE WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS-WRMEA.com-Anti-Zionist website)
     Occupied Jerusalem: 3 October, 2001 (IAP News)
    An acrimonious argument erupted during the Israeli cabinet weekly
    session last week between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and
    his foreign Minister Shimon Peres during which Sharon reportedly
    yelled at Peres, saying "don't worry about American pressure, we
    control America."
    According to Israel radio (in hebrew) Kol Yisrael, Peres warned
    Sharon Wednesday that refusing to heed incessant American
    requests for a cease-fire with the Palestinians would endanger
    Israeli interests and "turn the US against us."
    At this point, a furious Sharon reportedly turned toward Peres,
    saying "every time we do something you tell me Americans will do
    this and will do that. I want to tell you something very clear,
    don't worry about American pressure on Israel, we, the Jewish
    people control America, and the Americans know it."
    The radio said Peres and other cabinet ministers warned Sharon
    against saying what he said in public because "it would cause us
    a public relations disaster."

  • Doctors Fear Ebola is Spreading(AP December 29, 2001)

  • Taj Mahal covered to protect it from possible Pakistani air attack(Ananova)

  • Singapore terror plot on US carrier foiled(UPI)

  • FBI Probes Imply Wide Al Qaeda Presence
    (WASHPost)
    The FBI is conducting more than 150 separate investigations into groups and individuals in the United States with possible ties to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda organization, according to senior U.S. officials.
    The domestic targets include dozens of people who are under electronic surveillance through national security warrants, and others who are being watched by undercover agents attempting to learn more about their activities and associates, officials said.
    But some outside experts are skeptical, arguing that large numbers of criminal cases and detained immigrants provide little insight into whether the FBI and other agencies are effectively coping with terrorist threats.
    Vincent Cannistraro, a former counterterrorism official at the CIA, said U.S. officials still cannot say with certainty whether al Qaeda operatives are prevalent here, or whether they are centered overseas.
    "Out of all the people in custody, they've got one definite al Qaeda and are suspicious of a couple others, and they've got a lot of people under surveillance that they aren't sure about," Cannistraro said. "Insofar as an al Qaeda presence in the United States, they've made very little headway in uncovering it or peeling back the layers and penetrating it. . . . They don't know what they don't know."

  • The Pyramids built out of concrete?(Ananova)
    A new scientific study claims the Pyramids were probably built out of concrete blocks. French architects believe the Egyptians could have moulded the concrete to make it look like carved stone.

  • Sharon Joins Mideast 'Just Say No' Club By Jim Hoagland(WASHPost)

    Israeli ingenuity made the desert bloom and Arab armies collapse. Now Israel's politicians can claim another leap forward: They are gaining ground on their highly experienced neighbors in the art of evading unpleasant reality.
    It took the Arabs centuries to perfect the art of mental flight. Their apogee came in 1967 when they looked squarely at an Israel that had just seized Sinai, the Golan Heights, the West Bank and Gaza from them and proclaimed to the world that Israel did not _ and would not _ exist.
    No negotiations, no peace agreements, no recognition of Israel would ever happen, the Arab summit in Khartoum thundered. The three No's continued to shape policy until 1977, when Anwar Sadat traveled to a country that Arab cartographers were still forbidden to show on their maps.
    Admittedly, recent declarations by Ariel Sharon and his Cabinet that Yasser Arafat is irrelevant do not measure up to the towering standards of the Khartoum conference. Arafat helps his side stay ahead by questioning whether Jerusalem was ever the site of Solomon's temple and by claiming that he is already doing everything he can to halt terrorism _ whatever it is he happens to be doing or not doing at the time.
    But Sharon shows promise. He pounds the feeble institutions of Arafat's Palestinian Authority to dust, blames them for being weak and then says he would never interfere in Palestinian politics. His government gets Colin Powell to dispatch American diplomats to ask European leaders to shun Arafat on the diplomatic circuit, provoking the Europeans to decline to join a policy of wishing Arafat away.
    Sharon's leap forward in no-ness comes after only 34 years of Israeli occupation of Arab lands and eight years of the political intimacy mandated by the Oslo peace accords. Unfortunately, Oslo was supposed to work the other way: The Arabs were supposed to let Israel's democracy, respect for the rule of law and hard-headed pragmatism rub off on them. Israelis were not supposed to internalize the habit of mistaking wishes for reality.
    Oslo's failure has also been brought into sharp focus by the 15 months of violence that have followed Arafat's sinking of Camp David II and Sharon's ill-advised walkabout on the Temple Mount on Sept. 28, 2000. The implicit bargain made at Oslo was that Arafat's forces would take on the burden of protecting Israelis by preventing attacks mounted from the West Bank and Gaza.
    Arafat's existential task was to put Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the others out of the terrorist business on his territory. In return Israel granted him control, legitimacy and, yes, a relevance that he did not possess in 1993, when Shimon Peres and the late Yitzhak Rabin rescued Arafat and Company from what many thought was irreversible decline.
    In that sense, Sharon's attempt to remove by fiat Arafat's post-Oslo relevance _ as punishment for not keeping the Palestinian end of the bargain _ is understandable. But the Israeli prime minister tries to replace something with nothing. As the European rejection of the U.S. demarche to turn Arafat into the Invisible Man of world politics shows, the Palestinian leader is there until he isn't. Arafat is Oslo, Powell is said to have told several recent visitors in glum tones that seem to reflect a total lack of confidence in the Palestinian. That is, the United States is still committed to supporting the Oslo process, which gives Arafat legitimacy. Washington sees no viable alternatives now to it _ or to him.
    Sharon maneuvers to free Israel from the Oslo accord and blame its demise entirely on the Palestinians. Arafat's belated and modest strikes against the enablers of suicide bombing have not changed his mind on that. But even Sharon shrinks from trying to create or uncover an alternative Palestinian leadership that would accept the grants of highly constricted autonomy that he would present as the Sharon peace process.
    The operational upshot of this state of affairs is that no final peace settlement is attainable while either Sharon or Arafat remains in power. Mediators should aim for interim steps that halt bloodshed and reduce tensions rather than encourage full-blown negotiations on final status questions. And then wait.
    In the meantime the Arabs seem intent on reestablishing their margin of preeminence in the No League. Their foreign ministers gathered in Cairo the other day to call for a boycott on Sharon and to agree to cut already nonexistent ties with Israel. Perhaps Egypt will show the way by sending back its long-absent ambassador to Tel Aviv. He could then be withdrawn in a fresh moment of satisfying, supremely self-defeating glory.
    (Washington Post Writers Group)


  • India has military advantage over Pakistan: US think tank
    (WASHINGTON, Dec 30 AFP)
    India enjoys a strong numerical advantage over Pakistan in conventional and nuclear weapons, giving it an edge in the current confrontation with its perennial foe, according to data released by a leading US think tank.
    But a prominent US expert on South Asia also warned yesterday that the roughly two-to-one military advantage of the Indian armed forces makes it more likely that a cornered Islamabad could lash out with a nuclear strike.
    "If you had a full war between India and Pakistan, not just skirmishes on the border ... India would start winning," said former US ambassador Dennis Kux, who has served in both India and Pakistan.
    "And at a certain point Pakistan, rather than going under, would push the button," he said, appearing on CNN's The Capital Gang show.
    But US experts believe that even in an exchange of nuclear strikes, India, while suffering tremendous losses, could have an advantage.
    Although no reliable official data is available, it is estimated that New Delhi has 400 kilograms of weapons-usable plutonium, according to the CSIS report.
    Since it takes about six kilogram of plutonium to manufacture a nuclear bomb, the amount would be sufficient to produce some 65 bombs if old technologies are used, or 90 bombs employing more advanced methods.
    By contrast, Pakistan is believed to have more than 200 kilograms of weapons-grade uranium, which is enough to construct 15 to 25 nuclear weapons, the report said.

  • US missile shortage delays Iraq strike (UKTelegraph)
    A SHORTAGE of cruise missiles has thrown plans for a full-scale strike on Iraq into disarray.
    US strikes against Afghanistan, Sudan and in Kosovo have all but depleted ALCM stocks
    America's supply of the air launched version, one of the US air force's most sophisticated and deadly weapons, has become so depleted that military chiefs are pressing Boeing, the manufacturers, to speed up their production.
    Even so, the first of the new batch of missiles ordered last year is not expected for months, and it may take longer to rebuild stocks to a level that would make such an attack viable.
    Strikes against Afghanistan and Sudan in 1998 and Kosovo two years ago virtually exhausted the US supply. The number of conventional [non-nuclear] air launched cruise missiles left within the inventory is believed to be fewer than 30.

    Couldn't they just pick up the reportedly third of the ones they dropped on afghanistan that failed to explode, then drop them on Iraq?

  • I see Richard Reids in jail every day
    By Dr Theodore Dalrymple
     (UKTelgraph Opinion)
    EXCERPT:
    By converting to Islam, the prisoner is therefore expressing his enmity towards the society in which he lives and by which he believes himself to have been grossly maltreated.
    The criminal does not have to believe that he is wrongly imprisoned to believe that he is the victim of injustice. Indeed, the converts to whom I have spoken will freely admit - as most criminals do - that they have committed five to 15 times as many as they have ever been accused of. But they harbour within their breast a firm and unalterable belief that a much greater, indeed existential, injustice has been done them by society as a whole. They are not well-educated, of course, and are completely unable to distinguish between unfairness (the permanent, if regrettable, condition of human existence) and injustice, which is somebody's fault. Nor do they care to analyse the true source of their miseries, preferring instead to blame a large and amorphous entity such as society: for by doing so, they absolve themselves of all personal responsibility for their past, present and future actions.
    Moreover, they are so completely ignorant of either history or geography that they are unable to compare the difficulties they have experienced with those of anybody else, either in time or in space. Richard Reid's father - a man who spent 18 years in prison for having committed many crimes - said that he himself turned to Islam because he was tired of the racism of the society around him. No matter what he did, what crimes he committed, he preserved intact his strong sense of victimhood: and it would be a fair bet that when he converted, he knew nothing of the immemorial Islamic tradition of slaving in Africa, a tradition that in some parts continues, or indeed anything else about history.
    Conversion to Islam is therefore an expression of anger or rage: but contrary to the modern sentimental view, not all anger is justified or even sincere. Indeed, much of it is the product of dishonesty and bad faith combined with sheer ignorance. And far from assuaging this dishonest rage, liberal breast-beating fans it, sustains it and appears to justify it. Every time a multiculturalist speaks, therefore, and every time he asserts that all cultures are by definition equal except the West's (which is, of course, worse), he makes a convert to Islam and, perhaps, another Richard Reid.

  • Why should we be freely giving to Israeli corporations information (call records, CALEA information) that requires court orders to obtain in this country? (Cryptome)
     Such information is obviously sensitive, and the well-motivated efforts to strengthen and protect our national infrastructure should reasonably include mandating that such information not be routinely handled by any foreign entities...
    A more recent story indicates that the compromise was probably severe; criminals were escaping detection because of the compromise: (http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2001/12/18/224826.shtml -see below)
    This vindicates concerns many of us have expressed over the years about creating single points of failure in wiretapping systems (e.g. the vulnerability of key escrow, etc.). Of course, in this case the vulnerability was intentionally created, it seems, by giving critical capabilities to foreign entities...

  • In the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack, the FBI has stumbled on the largest espionage ring ever discovered inside the United States.(Newsmax-Anti-Clinton/Colin Powell right wing news site)
    The U.S. Justice Department is now holding nearly 100 Israeli citizens with direct ties to foreign military, criminal and intelligence services.
    The penetration of the U.S. wiretap system has led to a giant spy hunt across the globe by American intelligence agencies. U.S. intelligence officials now suspect the spy ring shared and sold information to other nations.
    "Why do you think Putin so nonchalantly and with such great fanfare announced the shutdown of the Lourdes listening post in Cuba?" noted Douglas Brown, president of Multilingual Data Solutions Inc. and program director at the Nathan Hale Institute.
    "Besides the PR benefit right before his visit here, the Russians don't need it anymore. They've scraped together a cheaper, more effective monitoring system. Is the Israeli company an element of that system? I don't know," stated Brown.
    "With all the whining and crying about Echelon and Carnivore, critics, domestic and foreign, of U.S. electronic eavesdropping vastly overestimate our abilities to process and disseminate the stuff," noted Brown.
    "On the other hand, the Europeans, including the Russians, have been much more focused on the nuts and bolts of practical systems to process the information they scoop up. The stories linking German intelligence and the L&H scandal got very little play here but were widely noted in the European software community," said Brown.
    The discovery of a major spy ring inside the United States is straining the already tense relations with Israel. Although, Israel denied any involvement with the penetration of the U.S. wiretap system, the CIA and FBI are investigating the direct government ties to the former Israeli military and intelligence officials now being held by the Justice Department.


  • Shoppers may think they have seen enough bargains this holiday season, but CDs at $9.99 may soon be a standard offer at music stores as retailers slash prices in bid to battle the scourge of online music piracy. (Reuters)



  • OSAMA BIN LADEN and his terrorist organisation were not only investigating the use of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons against the West, they had conducted preliminary experiments on animals. (LondonTimes)
    These unnerving revelations are the conclusion of detailed examination of documents discovered by The Times in abandoned al-Qaeda houses in Kabul last month.
    The documents, which have been translated in full, prove that among other atrocities, al-Qaeda was studying how to produce botulin poison in batches strong enough to kill 2,000 people.
    They observed that the documents showed that al-Qaeda had gone so far as to manufacture and test certain types of chemical weapons on rabbits, including cyanide gas, which was used by Saddam Hussein to kill hundreds of Kurds in Halabja in 1988.
    As disturbing as the substance of these findings is their context. The documents did not come from a single source of expertise. They included material produced by men of several nationalities at different stages of education, varying from recruit to degree level student and professor, and were being reproduced for wide distribution. They were the work of a variety of autonomous cells, who conducted their own experiments, without collusion.
    "Rather than being assured by al-Qaeda's diversity, in fact this proves a huge problem to the Western security forces," one intelligence expert said. "What we can see is the work of different, potentially self-replicating cells, united only by an ideal. They will be far more difficult to extinguish than a centrally organised terrorist force."
    Another source revealed that although the public in the West may be encouraged by the success of the war in Afghanistan, intelligence agencies estimate that as many as 70,000 recruits may have passed through al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan in the past six years before dispersing to countries that include the US, Canada, Britain, France, Germany and Russia.
    "Even were bin Laden to be killed or captured soon," the source added, "he is only a figurehead, and the worst may yet be far from over."

  • Feng shui, water buffalo, other cultural issues weighed for theme parks built abroad(AP)
    ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) When it opens in 2005, Hong Kong Disneyland may be the Most Harmonious Place on Earth.
    That's because the 310-acre park will be constructed according to the ancient principles of feng shui, the Chinese system of arranging buildings and furniture in harmony with natural elements.
    Doorways will be aligned so that no sharp objects point at them. Rocks and pools of water will be added to the park, which is being built to resemble Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif., dubbed by Disney the Happiest Place on Earth.
    U.S. theme park companies building abroad are finding they must strike a balance between authentic Americana and native sensibilities.
    "The Japanese told us from the beginning, `Don't Japanese us,"' said Marty Sklar, vice chairman and principle creative executive of Walt Disney Imagineering. "What they meant was that, `We came here for Disney. We came for America. Don't give us Japan because we know Japan."'
    Disneyland Paris, on the other hand, was quick to incorporate French elements, such as the restaurant Auberge de Cendrillon in Fantasyland.
    "The French say, `We are very important. Therefore, don't forget you have to pay attention to our culture,"' Sklar said.

  • Dmitry Litvinovich: What is going on in the republic of Ingushetia?(Pravda)
    "I have five children and only three blankets," says Koku Akhmedeva.

  • Uranus' Tiny 'Moon' Denied Universal Recognition
    What a shame, I'm sure it would have been doing victory rings around Uranus if it had been granted.

    Blog for 28th December 2001

  • NYC COPS TO CARRY NUKE SENSORS ON NEW YEAR'S EVE.(NYPOST)
    also
    They will also be on the lookout for chemical and biological threats.
    Chemical sensors will be in place to take air samples throughout the city. The samples will then be tested in a portable lab.

  • Israel Was Wary of Shoe-Bomb Suspect
    JERUSALEM (AP) - Shoe-bombing suspect Richard C. Reid underwent a rigorous body check and had to remove his shoes for special screening before boarding an El Al plane this past summer, Israel's national carrier said Friday.
    Even after no explosives were found, the airline considered Reid a top security risk and seated him next to an armed sky marshal in the second to last row, far from the cockpit, said an Israeli source.

     


  • Pop-ups, begone! How to kill those pesky ads(ZDnet)
    I'd definitely recommend the free'n'easyPop-up killer

  • WE'LL PAY THEM REPARATIONS LATERBy Ann Coulter (right-wing clomunist)
    New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman responded to this latest attack by summarily announcing that our only choices are to "become less open as a society" or simply "to live with much higher levels of risk."
    I think I have another solution. It's something I like to call "ethnic profiling." My logic is this: There is a common thread hidden within 20 years of relentless attacks on America by Muslim extremists: In every one of these attacks by Muslim extremists, there appears to be one or more Muslim extremists involved. This ought to help the airlines engage in more accurate risk assessment.
    This is why these attacks were so damnably hateful. They have bred such hate and suspicion in the land of the most free. That they have tarnished an entire faith and why it is then surprising that those tarnished condemn them outrightly so inaudibly. Or is it that the only voices that are free to be heard by the west are those of the dictators and the extremists. Of the partners in oppression and the disposessed and Edward Said.

  • Bin Laden is in Pakistan - northern Alliance Spokesman
    ``Osama himself is under the protection of Maulana Fazalur Rehman in Pakistan, but we don't know for sure in which part,'' Mohamad Habeel told Reuters.
    ``Attack is permissible on any country, be it Pakistan or any other which gives protection to Osama. We support that type of attack,'' he said.
    I know let's get America to attack Pakistan for us-India

  • Terrorists crossed 'Laxman Rekha': Advani (TimesOfIndia)
    EW DELHI: Asserting that Pakistani terrorists had crossed the 'Laxman Rekha' by attacking the Parliament House, Home Minister L K Advani on Friday said that the war against terrorism waged by India will be decisive irrespective of whether the international community joins it or not.
    He justified the diplomatic offensive launched by India against Pakistan, including denying its planes overflight rights and scaling down of mission staff, saying such steps become "necessary when the other nation continues to engage in inimical acts".
    "We have been suffering from terrorism for the last 15 years. But this time, the Pakistani terrorists by attacking the Parliament House have crossed the 'Laxman Rekha'," Advani said addressing the personnel of the CRPF on the occasion of the force's 62nd Raising Day.
    I don't what this means but it sounds like something from 'Dune' before the worms start rolling.

  • The Chinese government once again strongly objected to a report by the WASHINGTON TIMES's Bill Gertz -- a report which revealed China provided weapons to al-Qaida after the September 11 terror attacks! (DrudgeReport)
    So let's see we've got the Northern Alliance+Iran+Russia+India v Pakistan+Taleban+China = extremely radiactive pipeline. With the US as the ref and Al Quaeda as the hooligans. That Arab Osama is certainly one of the biggest shit-stirrers the world has ever seen.

  • Bin Laden Rallies Muslims While Alluding to His Demise

    ABCNEWS.COM
    December 27, 2001
    A gaunt and graying Osama bin Laden spoke to the Arab world in a 30-minute videotape broadcast on the Arab satellite channel Al Jazeera today, rallying Muslims to his side with anti-Western rhetoric.
    The Sept. 11 attacks on the United States that left nearly 3,200 dead should not be viewed as isolated acts, bin Laden said, but were in response to injustices perpetrated against Muslims by the United States and its allies around the world.
    "The events of Sept. 11, they are just a reaction to this continued injustice against our children in Iraq, Palestine, Somalia, southern Sudan, Kashmir and elsewhere."
    Bin Laden also called on Muslims to continue striking against America, especially against the U.S. economy — even while mentioning his own mortality.
    "God willing, America's end is near. And it doesn't depend on my continued existence.," he said. "Whether Osama is killed or not, the awakening has begun."
    Ohmigod, he speaks in the third person- just like hamlet (and elmo).

  • 'Backflow' water-line attack feared -Terrorists could reverse flow in system to introduce toxins(MSNBC via Fark)
    ACROSS THE COUNTRY, water utility officials are taking steps to prevent terrorists from reversing the flow of water into a home or business — which can be accomplished with a vacuum cleaner or bicycle pump — and using the resulting "backflow" to push poisons into a local water-distribution system. Such an attack would use utility pipes for the opposite of their intended purpose: Instead of carrying water out of a tap, the pipes would spread toxins to nearby homes or businesses.
    Most reservoirs hold between three million and 30 million gallons of water, which would dilute any poison so significantly that terrorists would have to release enormous quantities to do serious damage. And most poison would be destroyed when the water was purified at a treatment plant. A backflow attack, by contrast, could spread highly concentrated amounts of poison to a few thousand homes or businesses, making the toxin far more effective. Water utility officials say the backflow threat dominates their post-Sept. 11 discussions with law-enforcement personnel. Although utilities have posted extra guards to patrol reservoirs and treatment plants, officials say the biggest threat to the nation's water supply may be from the pipes that carry the water, not facilities that store or purify it.
    Still, experts have long feared that a terrorist would try an intentional attack. As Gay Porter DeNileon — a journalist who serves on the National Critical Infrastructure Protection Advisory Group, a water-industry organization — put it in the May issue of the journal of the American Water Works Association, "One sociopath who understands hydraulics and has access to a drum of toxic chemicals could inflict serious damage pretty quickly."

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