June 30, 2005

The Big Scoop Series #4: Shifting Sands for the US in a Fast Shifting Global Awareness

Hello everyone!

Another mighty-big compilation for your review with all kinds of amazing, disgusting, inspiring, horrifying and various other mind-boggling stuff.

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Jean Hudon
Earth Rainbow Network Coordinator

P.S. Don't miss the historic Live8 broadcast worldwide this coming Saturday!


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"The courage to love: When I first discovered that love was a force that went beyond the physical, I thought no longer does humankind have to leap off into a multitude of directions to find spirituality. That we could bring humankind together and turn swords into plowshares. That in objectively knowing we are all connected would bring us to the realization that we cannot hurt another without hurting ourselves. Realizing that we are so much more then a physical body, we could put a lot of subjectivity to rest therefore gaining a new focus of objective, rational thought in order to solve our world problems. Is it so hard to see because the ego blinds us to it? Is it something the status quo the higher authorities of the world already know and want to keep the masses blind? If just a few of us see and we point others in a direction were they can find it for themselves, we will then be on the way to transforming our world! So many are beginning to see, they are waiting to see how fast the world will realize this before they jump on the bandwagon. Just maybe the leap God wanted us to take was not a leap of faith, but a leap of Love and courage!"

- Larry O. Blevins larryoblevins874@comcast.net>


"Now you know why you are to continue. Hold the Light. We are so nearly through the density. Many of us want to leave the planet but we want more to ride this planet, this dear Earth, into Ascension and Light. That means we plant our intentions firmly in the area where we are (which is where we are needed and meant to be) and focus on lighting our own small area. This is our Gethsemane. Many feel the same way, but if we leave, if we become discouraged, what will happen to our dear Mother Earth and those other souls that are struggling to find and stay in their own Light? Stay put. Stay anchored. Stay faithful to your calling, to the greater plan. This chance will not come again on this planet. Don't bug out. Stay put and keep those messages coming through."

- Connie Jagodzinski Conniejago@aol.com > Milford, CT, 26 Jun 2005 - in response to material sent to the Focus Group list that included the "Seeds of Transformation" (see below) and Excerpt from Matthew's latest message


"Democracy is buying a big house you can't afford with money you don't have to impress people you wish were dead. And, unlike communism, democracy does not mean having just one ineffective political party; it means having two ineffective political parties. ...Democracy is welcoming people from other lands, and giving them something to hold onto -- usually a mop or a leaf blower. It means that with proper timing and scrupulous bookkeeping, anyone can die owing the government a huge amount of money. ... Democracy means free television, not good television, but free. ... And finally, democracy is the eagle on the back of a dollar bill, with 13 arrows in one claw, 13 leaves on a branch, 13 tail feathers, and 13 stars over its head -- this signifies that when the white man came to this country, it was bad luck for the Indians, bad luck for the trees, bad luck for the wildlife, and lights out for the American eagle."

- Johnny Carson - Sent by Katie ktr2567@bellsouth.net>


"We can assume that the order to use napalm (as well as the other, unidentified substances) came straight from the office of Donald Rumsfeld. No one else could have issued that order, nor would they have risked their career by unilaterally using banned weapons when their use was entirely gratuitous. Rumsfeld's directive is consistent with other decisions attributed to the Defense Secretary; like the authorizing of torture at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, the targeting of members of the press, and the rehiring of members of Saddam's Secret Police (the Mukhabarat) to carry out their brutal activities under new leadership. Rumsfeld's office has been the headwaters for most of the administration's treachery. Napalm simply adds depth to an already prodigious list of war crimes on Rumsfeld's resume'."

- Mike Whitney -- Taken from Incinerating Iraqis: the napalm cover up below


Worthy of Your Attention

Lots of articles on the US government corruption and criminal deceit
http://www.arcticbeacon.com/page/page/1518131.htm

The Whispering Campaign: Pass it on! (MUST SEE!)
http://psstpsstpsst.blogspot.com/2005/06/pass-it-on.html
The Whispering Campaign is your chance to help accelerate the spread of information from the blogosphere to the rest of the country. Our mission: Find the best short pieces on the net and make them available here, in a format suitable for easy printing and distribution. Your mission: Click on the links you see below, and print these pages. Copy them and leave them in public places, where others will find and read them. CLIP

Explore the world's sacred sites - Amazing pictures and excellent, detailed descriptions!
http://www.sacredsites.com/pages/explore.html
Stonehenge... Machu Picchu... The Pyramids... Jerusalem... Banaras... Mt. Fuji... Mecca... Since prehistoric times, sacred places have exerted a mysterious attraction on billions of people around the world. Ancient legends and modern day reports tell of extraordinary things that have happened to people while visiting these places. Different sacred sites have the power to heal the body, enlighten the mind, increase creativity, develop psychic abilities, and awaken the soul to a knowing of its true purpose in life. While contemporary science cannot explain - and therefore disregards - the seemingly miraculous phenomena which occurs at the holy places, they continue to be the most venerated and visited locations on planet earth. What is the key to the mystery of the sacred sites and how are we to explain their power? Explorer-anthropologist Martin Gray has spent twenty years as a wandering pilgrim visiting, studying and photographing over 1000 sacred sites in 80 countries around the world. CLIP

The Magical World of the Devas
http://www.earthtransitions.com/devas/dv_magical_world.htm
The devas are a parallel kingdom to humanity, and their development ranges over a wide spectrum of consciousness as does ours. The devic kingdom is hierarchical in nature and includes the elementals, fairies, gnomes, garden sprites and nature spirits among others. These are the devic forces who cooperate in the projects at places like Findhorn in Scotland, and Perelandra in Virginia. - Very interesting article! The topics covered are: TRAINING IN DEVIC COMMUNICATION - DEVIC ENSLAVEMENT DURING ATLANTIS - NEW RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DEVAS AND HUMANITY - THE BUDDHIC COLUMN - STABILIZING THE SAN ANDREAS FAULT - DEVAS MANIPULATE TIME AND WEATHER - THE DEVAS REQUEST ENERGY TOOLS - STEPS FOR CONSTRUCTING A STANDING BUDDHIC COLUMN. Check also in this same site: Earth Healing at http://www.earthtransitions.com/geomancy.htm


CONTENTS

1. A valid thought
2. Seeds of Transformation
3. LIVE8 - THE BIGGEST SPIRITUAL EVENT EVER - JOIN IN
4. Opinion: Live 8: The good, bad & ugly
5. G8 Gets Ultimatum on Climate Change
6. More On Bhagavan, Amma And GAF
7. Break Thru the Summer Daze With the Not In Our Name Statement
8. US caused more deaths in Iraq than Saddam, says anti-war tribunal
9. World Tribunal on Iraq - PRESS RELEASE about JURY STATEMENT
10. The Thing We Don't Talk About
11. Zimbabwe's Secret Famine
12. Incinerating Iraqis; the napalm cover up
13. Another world is possible ... without International Financial Institutions
14. Why withdrawal is possible
15. After Speech Poll


See also:

One in six countries facing food shortage (June 30, 2005)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,12374,1517831,00.html
One in six countries in the world face food shortages this year because of severe droughts that could become semi-permanent under climate change, UN scientists warned yesterday. In a stark message for world leaders who meet in Gleneagles next week to discuss global warming, Wulf Killman, chairman of the UN food and agriculture organisation's climate change group, said the droughts that have devastated crops across Africa, central America and south-east Asia in the past year are part of an emerging pattern. "Africa is our greatest worry," he said. "Many countries are already in difficulties ... and we see a pattern emerging. Southern Africa is definitely becoming drier and everyone agrees that the climate there is changing. We would expect areas which are already prone to drought to become drier with climate change." The food and agriculture organisation and the US government, both of which monitor global food shortages, agree that 34 countries are now experiencing droughts and food shortages and others could join them. Up to 30 million people will need assistance because of the droughts and other natural disasters such as the Asian tsunami. The worst affected countries include Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Eritrea and Zambia, a group of countries where at least 15 million people will go hungry without aid. The situation in Niger, Djibouti and Sudan is reported to be deteriorating rapidly. Many countries have had their worst harvests in more than 10 years and are experiencing their third or fourth severe drought in a few years, the UN said. (...) Severe droughts have also badly affected crops in Cuba, Cambodia, Australia, Afghanistan, Vietnam, Morocco, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. According to the UN's famine early warning system, 16 countries, including Peru, Ecuador and Lesotho, face "unfavourable prospects" with current crops. In Europe, one of the worst droughts on record has hit Spain and Portugal and halved some crop yields. Both countries have applied to the EU for food assistance. In Morocco the same regional drought has devastated farming and the government fears an influx of people into the cities. (...) The situation in Malawi and Zimbabwe is giving particular cause for concern. In Malawi, where a government report suggests more more than 430,000 tonnes of maize will be needed to avert the second food shortage in three years, one in three people are expected to need help by the end of the year following poor rains. Thousands of people died in 2002-03 in what became known as a "hidden famine", which affected the poorest and remotest people. "It's going to get rapidly worse and we will have to move substantial amounts of food very fast," said one non-governmental group working in the worst-hit southern region of Malawi. In Zimbabwe, where the effects of drought have been exacerbated by a deteriorating political situation, 4 million people may need help this year, the US government's famine early warning system showed. CLIP

Drought and famine in Niger (28 Jun 2005)
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/RMOI-6DT648?OpenDocument
Background: A growing food crisis is facing the nation of Niger, in West Africa. Last year’s poor rains and swarms of locusts decimated many of the crops and killed much of the livestock that the nation’s subsistence farmers depend upon for survival, and the harvest did not yield sufficient food to get the nation through the lean months of the spring and summer. This food crisis affects about 3.6 million people. Some hungry villagers have even been scavenging ant-hills, hoping to find grains of cereal left behind by the insects. Governments and aid agencies are responding to the most immediate needs with emergency food supplies, but more is needed. CLIP

Nearly 4 Million People In Niger Face Famine (24 June 2005)
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0506/S00419.htm
United Nations UN Expert Says Nearly 4 Million People In Niger Face Catastrophic Famine - With less than a quarter of the $16 million in requested emergency funds coming in for drought-stricken Niger, one-third of the population, or nearly 4 million people, face a catastrophic famine, according to the United Nations expert on the right to food Jean Ziegler.The persistent drought and the invasion by many thousands of locusts have destroyed an already fragile agriculture and despite the measures taken by the government in Niamey, "catastrophe is imminent," he said in a statement issued yesterday. He noted that the UN had appealed for $16 million for Niger but only $3.8 million had come in so far. Mr. Ziegler said Niger had a rapid response mechanism in place to help the population but needed funds to replenish it.

Former MI5 Agent Says 9/11 An Inside Job (June 27 2005)
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/june2005/270605insidejob.htm
Attack Was a 'Coup d'état,' Buildings Were Demolished By Controlled Demolitions - Former MI5 agent David Shayler, who previously blew the whistle on the British government paying Al Qaeda $200,000 to carry out political assassinations, has gone on the record with his conviction that 9/11 was an inside job meant to bring about a permanent state of emergency in America and pave the way for the invasions of Afghanistan, Iraq and ultimately Iran and Syria. (...) Shayler elaborated by saying the evidence suggests the attack was originally meant to be much wider in scope and was an attempt at a violent coup intended to decapitate the entire government as a pretext for martial law. "So you're looking at a situation in which you almost have a coup d'état because you've got to bear in mind that there were weapons discovered on planes that didn't take off on 9/11. Now people have obviously postulated that they were going perhaps to attack the White House, Capitol Hill. That looks to me like an attempt to destroy American government and declare a state of emergency, in fact a coup d'état, a violent coup d'état." CLIP

WTC Basement Blast And Injured Burn Victim Blows 'Official 9/11 Story' Sky High; Eye Witness Testimony Is Conclusive That North Tower Collapsed From Controlled Demolition (June 24, 2005)
http://www.arcticbeacon.com/articles/article/1518131/28031.htm
WTC janitor pulls burn victim to safety after basement explosion rocks north tower seconds before jetliner hit top floors. Also, two other men trapped and drowning in a basement elevator shaft, were also pulled to safety from underground explosion.

Former Asst. Sec. Of Treasury Under Reagan Doubts Official 9/11 Story; Claims Neo Con Agenda Is As 'Insane As Hitler And Nazi Party When They Invaded Russia In Dead Of Winter' (June 22, 2005)
http://www.arcticbeacon.com/articles/article/1518131/27928.htm
A former high-ranking Republican official, also a well-respected author, tells the American people to stop listening to Bush administration lies about Iraqi war and claims the mainstream media will not publish anything he writes against Bush or his policies.

General Admits to Secret Air War (26 June 2005)
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/062805C.shtml
The American general who commanded allied air forces during the Iraq war appears to have admitted in a briefing to American and British officers that coalition aircraft waged a secret air war against Iraq from the middle of 2002, nine months before the invasion began.

The US war with Iran has already begun http://www.uruknet.info/?p=12776&hd=0&size=1&l=x

Is This What They Call Democracy? (26 June 2005)
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/062705Z.shtml
Istanbul, Turkey - Today in Istanbul the jury was taken aback by witness testimony from Iraqi war victims and a US Air Force veteran. "Snipers hunt people in the streets. People attempting to go to health centers are shot at," testified Eman Kmammas, an Iraqi translator. "There are many crippled children. There are thousands of widows and orphans. There are no police for security and there are no courts. Even hospitals are occupied and bombed and burned." Former US Air Force combat veteran Tim Goodrich stunned the jury by revealing his role in the "softening up" of Iraq months before the US declaration of war. "We were dropping bombs then, and I saw bombing intensify," Goodrich explained to a hushed room. "All the documents coming out now, the Downing Street memo and others, confirm what I had witnessed in Iraq. The war had already begun while our leaders were telling us that they were going to try all diplomatic options first." This gripping but unsettling revelation came on the second day of proceedings at the World Tribunal on Iraq, held in Istanbul, Turkey, which is collecting evidence of war crimes in Iraq. Goodrich's testimony had just begun when a 75-foot banner prepared by the Iraqi delegation and composed of harrowing pictures of Iraqi child victims of the war was carried into the courtroom. In the presence of the father of one of the victims shown on the banner, Goodrich and others stood and a moment of silence spread through the room while the banner was carried through the hall. The teeming press contingent rushed to photograph the scene as some members of the audience cried. CLIP

U.S. Has Plans to Again Make Own Plutonium (June 27, 2005)
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/27/politics/27nuke.html
The Bush administration is planning the government's first production of plutonium 238 since the cold war, stirring debate over the risks and benefits of the deadly material. The substance, valued as a power source, is so radioactive that a speck can cause cancer.Federal officials say the program would produce a total of 330 pounds over 30 years at the Idaho National Laboratory, a sprawling site outside Idaho Falls some 100 miles to the west and upwind of Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. Officials say the program could cost $1.5 billion and generate more than 50,000 drums of hazardous and radioactive waste.Project managers say that most if not all of the new plutonium is intended for secret missions and they declined to divulge any details. But in the past, it has powered espionage devices."The real reason we're starting production is for national security," Timothy A. Frazier, head of radioisotope power systems at the Energy Department, said in a recent interview.He vigorously denied that any of the classified missions would involve nuclear arms, satellites or weapons in space. CLIP

The London Line : Iraq: The carve-up begins (23 June 2005)
http://www.thelondonline.co.uk/theline/article.php?articleID=437
As the costs of the Iraq occupation spiral, British and American oil companies meet in secret next week to carve up the country's oil reserves for themselves. Tom Burgis reports. In the driving seat: with so much clear profit at stake, the question of who owns Iraq's biggest natural resource is hotly contended. The Iraq war has so far cost America and Britain £105billion. But the financial clawback is gathering pace as British and American oil giants work out how to get their hands on the estimated £3trillion worth of oil.Executives from BP, Shell, Exxon Mobil and Halliburton, Dick Cheney's old firm, are expected to congregate at the Paddington Hilton for a two-day chinwag with top-level officials from Iraq's oil ministry. The gathering, sponsored by the British Government, is being described as the "premier event" for those with designs on Iraqi oil, and will go ahead despite opposition from Iraqi oil workers, who fear their livelihoods are being flogged to foreigners. CLIP

Castro warns of global energy crisis
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-06/29/content_3149987.htm
CARACAS, June 28 (Xinhuanet) -- Cuban leader Fidel Castro warned Tuesday that the world is close to an energy crisis due to "unbearable waste of energy" in the North. Upon arrival at the Venezuelan city of Puerto La Cruz, some 300km east of Caracas, Castro said the "plundering and destruction trends lead to a crisis for human survival." CLIP

Bush shifts on African poverty (June 30, 2005)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uklatest/story/0,1271,-5108445,00.html
President George Bush is ready to channel more resources towards tackling poverty in Africa - provided the money is well spent, he has indicated. In a pre-G8 summit interview for The Times, the US leader also appeared to shift on climate change, the other major issue on the agenda for the Gleneagles gathering.Mr Bush said he was committed to finding new energy sources to replace fossil fuels and combat greenhouse gases.Speaking in The Oval Office at the White House in Washington, he said on Africa: "We will make some more commitments ... our contribution has been significant and there will be some more."Mr Bush is expected to announce a three-pronged package to fight malaria, fund schools and promote the empowerment of African women. He also said he wanted a partnership with African countries."That is different to the relationship of a cheque-writer. In other words, partnership means that we have got obligations and so do the people we are trying to help."He said Americans wanted assurances that their money is being well spent: "I can't, in all good faith, say, 'let's continue to be generous, but I can't guarantee the money is being spent properly.' It's not good stewardship of our own money, nor is it effective in helping the people."Although Mr Bush has often shied away from endorsing the science of global warming, he acknowledged that greenhouse gases were creating "a long-term problem".On Zimbabwe, he said that despite the behaviour of Robert Mugabe, he would not restrict US aid to the country. "I don't think you ought to punish the people of Africa because of the man who is in power. He has already done that."Mr Bush rejected suggestions that he had failed to return the support Tony Blair gave to him over Iraq.

Bush Says US Seeks to Eliminate Torture Worldwide (June 26, 2005)
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/062705F.shtml
In an Alice in Wonderland moment, George Bush claimed he is committed to the worldwide elimination of torture, and to the rule of law. As usual, Bush is in denial about the systematic torture carried out by his administration in Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantánamo Bay, and myriad secret CIA prisons around the world, in violation of both US and international law.

US Suspected of Keeping Secret Prisoners on Warships: UN Official http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/062905Z.shtml
The UN has learned of "very, very serious" allegations that the United States is secretly detaining terrorism suspects in various locations around the world, notably aboard prison ships, the UN's special rapporteur on terrorism said. While the accusations were rumours, rapporteur Manfred Nowak said the situation was sufficiently serious to merit an official inquiry. "There are very, very serious accusations that the United States is maintaining secret camps, notably on ships," the Austrian UN official told AFP, adding that the vessels were believed to be in the Indian Ocean region. (...) The use of prison ships would allow investigators to interrogate people secretly and in international waters out of the reach of US law, British security expert Francis Tusa said. "This opens the door to very tough interrogations on key prisoners before it even has been revealed that they have been captured," said Tusa, an editor for the British magazine Jane's Intelligence Review. Nowak said the prison ships would not be "floating Guantanamos" since "they are much smaller, holding less than a dozen detainees." Tusa said the Americans may also be using their island base of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean as a site for prisoners. CLIP

Terror Policies Draw Outrage at Home and Abroad (28 June 2005)
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0628-07.htm
United Nations - The George W. Bush administration's policies on indefinite detention and "extraordinary rendition" are coming under heavy fire from a number of institutions and organizations, including the United Nations, Amnesty International, and members of the US Congress itself. "The prohibition of torture is non-negotiable," said UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, held annually on Jun. 26. Without naming the United States, he added: "That includes an absolute ban on transferring anybody to another jurisdiction where there are reasonable grounds to believe that the person is at risk of torture." Currently, the US administration is pursuing a policy of what it calls "extraordinary rendition," which involves seizing suspects and taking them to a third country without court approval. Human rights groups have documented a number of cases in which US authorities secretly transferred individuals to countries where they were held without charge and routinely tortured. (...) The prosecution of CIA agents in Italy is the first-ever such action against US officials in connection with the "war on terrorism." Officials in both countries are tightlipped about the case, but human rights groups and prosecutors in Europe are growing increasingly angry over the US practice of renditions. They are also upset over Washington's refusal to let independent observers visit its military prisons. On Jun. 24 in a statement, Amnesty International demanded the United States open up all of its detention centers around the world to United Nations experts who specialize in monitoring prisoner abuse and torture. "Not only is the US failing to investigate itself fully," said the world's largest human rights group, "it's failing to allow external independent scrutiny by human rights experts." The group endorsed UN human rights experts' criticism of the United States last week for not letting them visit the US military-run prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where hundreds of people are behind bars on suspicion of having links to terrorist groups. "No country is above the law," said a team of UN experts on Jun. 23, as they tried to remind the US of its legal obligations under international human rights law. Annan said torture, in all its forms and contexts, is "unacceptable and cannot be tolerated." He emphasized Article 3 of the UN Convention Against Torture, which entails an absolute ban on transferring people to other jurisdictions where they could face torture. CLIP

TO HONOR AMERICAN VALUES ON INDEPENDENCE DAY COALITION CALLS FOR CLOSING OF GUANTANAMO DETENTION CENTER
http://www.ccr-ny.org/v2/gac/shut_down_guantanamo.asp
This July 4th, a diverse coalition including individuals and organizations ranging from Eve Ensler to The Center for Constitutional Rights, and The Culture Project (see full list at http://www.ccr-ny.org/v2/gac/) are asking people across the United States to join the call to shut down the Guantánamo prison camp and demand an immediate independent investigation into the widespread allegations of abuse taking place there. Guantánamo has become a world-wide symbol for the current Administration's arrogant disregard of basic human rights. In the past weeks, world leaders including Presidents Carter and Clinton have joined leading human rights groups in calling for the closing of Guantánamo and other illegal prison facilities around the globe. Countless others have joined the call for an immediate independent investigation and/or special prosecutor to be appointed to investigate the numerous allegations of torture and abuse taking place on Guantánamo. Torture is not the American way and we as concerned members of the community must take a stance to take back our country and the values it was founded upon over 200 years ago.This Independence Day, American flags declaring: "Torture Is Immoral and Unpatriotic, Shut down Guantánamo" will be distributed across the country and displayed in a show of support for the democratic values outlined in our United States Constitution. Ordinary citizens are mobilizing to read from testimonials of Guantánamo detainees, their families, and their lawyers this July 4th in a show of support for the laws under which this country was founded.Join us as we gather across the country to stage rallies, readings, and other activities in our communities. We will be gathering signatures for a petition to Congress, and following up on Tuesday, July 5th with a massive telephone and online campaign to members of our Congress to call for an end to torture and the closing of all offshore, illegal detention centers. CLIP

The USA: World's Biggest Prison (28 June 2005)
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/062805I.shtml
According to a report published on Monday from King's College, London, the United States continues to have the highest incarceration rate in the world. With 714 prisoners per 100,000 inhabitants, the United States remains the country with the highest incarceration rate in the world, ahead of Russia and Belarus, according to figures published by the London University King's College International Centre for Prison Studies. The United States has held first place in this ranking since 2000. "In 200 years, the United States has succeeded in creating two million prisoners," frets researcher Anton Shelupanov. "It's a very worrying rate of growth." Of nine million people imprisoned in the whole world, more than two million (22% of the total) are behind American bars. CLIP

Critics Blast Anthrax Vaccine Test (June 23 2005)
http://www.courant.com/news/health/hc-anthraxkids0623.artjun23,0,491226.story
NIH to Test Anthrax Vaccine on Children (...) Retired Air Force Col. John Richardson, who has independently researched the vaccine extensively, said that in 2003, there were 16,869 federal adverse reaction reports for all vaccines and of those, 1,068 were for the anthrax vaccine. The anthrax vaccine drew more than 6 percent of all vaccine complaints, said Richardson, even though anthrax vaccinations represented less than 1 percent of an estimated 100 million immunizations of all types> administered that year. For last year, he said, there were 15,488 federal adverse reaction reports> for all vaccines, and 806 for anthrax, or 5.2 percent of the total. CLIP

Energized prospects for a methane-hydrate industry (June 25, 2005)
http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20050625/bob9.asp
Energy on Ice: A vast, untapped source of natural gas comes in from the cold - In March 2002, an international team of scientists pumped hot water down a 1,200-meter well located at the edge of the Mackenzie River Delta in northwestern Canada. The water seeped into the pores of the perpetually frozen sediments, melting ice-like crystals along its path. These were no ordinary crystals, but frozen cages of water molecules filled with methane, the main constituent of natural gas. The structures had formed millennia ago and now reside in layers deep below the permafrost. As the crystals melted, the natural gas escaped and bubbled to the surface to fuel a flame rising high above the white Arctic landscape."It was a landmark effort," says Dendy Sloan of the Colorado School of Mines in Golden. It produced the first documented field demonstration that natural gas could be released from the crystalline substances known as methane hydrates.At first glance, this unconventional source of natural gas looks like ordinary ice. But place a match next to the ice and it burns. Over the past several decades, scientists have identified dozens of gas-hydrate accumulations around the world . Some say that worldwide there could be twice as much energy stored in hydrates as in all the other known energy resources combined, including coal, oil, and conventional natural gas deposits. As Timothy Kneafsey of the Lawrence Berkeley (Calif.) National Laboratory puts it, "Hydrates could be a giant source of energy in the future. It's something that's just waiting to happen."The catch is that hydrates are hard to harvest. They sit hundreds of meters below the permafrost in the northern latitudes and, in even greater abundance, in sediments beneath the ocean floor. What's more, the gas is locked in place under low temperatures and high pressures, which make this icy source of energy difficult to tap. In fact, until recently, no one knew whether it was technically possible to recover significant amounts of natural gas from hydrates, let alone do it in an economically feasible manner.The successful effort in the Mackenzie Delta, however, has energized the prospects for a methane-hydrate industry. Results from recent geological surveys of concentrated deposits of gas hydrates in Alaska and off the coast of Japan also suggest that methane hydrates are likely to become a viable future source of clean-burning natural gas."The volume of gas contained in gas hydrates is staggering," says Scott Dallimore of the Canadian Geological Survey in Sidney, British Columbia. "As a source of natural gas over the next several decades, [methane hydrates] now seem more possible." CLIP

"The Day After" by Uri Avnery
http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1119739475
(...) The forces are not equal. On the one side, there is a delirious minority in a trance, with an inspiring nationalist-messianic ideology and a strong, united leadership. This camp has a standing army and ample reserve forces that can be called up at a moment's notice. In the settlements there are some 200 thousand men and women, old people and children, a great may of whom (including children and even babies) are available for action at all times. Many of them are ex-soldiers, and most of them are armed to the teeth. In the "arrangement yeshivot", the Habad institutions and other religious seminaries, there is additional manpower, ready to be mobilized. A significant number of individuals are ready to rush to their help. On the other side, no organization and no leadership. People congregate and complain in their living rooms on Friday nights, they wallow in a warm and comfortable jacuzzi of despair. People like myself, who have spent years in a vain effort to get them into the streets, to organize demonstrations, to stiffen their spine and arouse their spirit, certainly entertain no exaggerated hopes. But a democratic public can surprise, as the rightist dictators found out in World War II. Ariel Sharon discovered this after the massacres of Sabra and Shatila, when hundreds of thousands of "apathetic" people streamed into the square in a storm of emotions. If this happens again, the democratic majority will win. The settlers' darkest nightmare will become reality: the call for the removal of the Gush Katif settlements will develop into a campaign for the evacuation of the settlements from the West Bank. Effective American pressure, too, could suddenly materialize. In such a whirlwind, Sharon's intentions and plans and tricks - and perhaps the man himself, too - will become irrelevant. The dynamism of the process will carry him along like a piece of driftwood before the tsunami. CLIP

How to Bury a Mad Cow (June 25, 2005)
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0625-20.htm
Late Friday, June 24, is a perfect time to bury bad news in Washington, DC. That's when Mike Johanns, the United States Secretary of Agriculture held a news conference. He announced that a beef cow suspected last November to be positive with mad cow disease, and finally properly tested, was indeed positive. Even now the USDA is keeping secret which state the cow was from, but Texas has long been mentioned in media articles. The initially-botched finding of a second mad cow in the United States emphasizes the failure of the United States Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration to protect Americans from the deadly dementia called mad cow disease, the subject of my 1997 book with Sheldon Rampton, Mad Cow USA.The so-called 'firewall feed ban' to prevent cattle from contracting the disease in the United States is a joke, and more like pouring gasoline on a fire. Hundreds of millions of pounds of cattle blood, cattle fat, and the meat, blood, fat and bone meal from pigs and chickens are legally fed to cattle each year on US farms and ranches and feedlots. American cattle are also being fed a million tons a year of chicken litter and feces contaminated with cattle meat and bone meal. These are practices that can spread mad cow disease and are banned in countries like England and Japan where there is a real firewall feed ban.The US mad cow testing system seems designed to cover up mad cow disease rather than find it. Other countries test most or all of their cattle before human consumption for food safety purposes. The United States tests a small percentage of the 36 million cattle a year slaughtered and put into the human and animal feed chain. Most animals infected with mad cow disease will look healthy and be slaughtered and put into the food system without testing. Only testing millions of US cattle a year will reveal how much mad cow disease there really is in the United States. CLIP

Study: Wind Could Meet Global Energy Needs
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20050523/windmap.html
A new survey of wind power around the globe has found there's ample energy for all humanity blowing around us. By gathering together more than 8,000 wind records on every continent, researchers Christina Archer and Mark Jacobson of Stanford University in California have created a set of world wind-power resource maps that reveal a barely tapped 72 terawatts of power - 40 times the amount of electrical power used by all countries in the year 2000. If just 20 percent of the estimated 72 terawatts of wind power were tapped, said Archer, it would satisfy all the world's energy needs. A single terawatt is enough power to light up 10 billion 100-watt light bulbs. CLIP

Apollo Program' for hydrogen energy needed, Stanford researcher says (June 24)
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-06/su-pf062305.php
What if all the vehicles now on the road in the United States were suddenly powered by hydrogen fuel cells? Stanford researchers say in a June 24 article in the journal Science that such a conversion would improve air quality, health and climate--especially if wind were used to generate the electricity needed to split water and make hydrogen in a pollutionless process.Similarly to how gas is pumped into tanks, hydrogen would be pumped into fuel cells, which rely on chemistry, not combustion, to power vehicles. (As hydrogen flows through fuel-cell compartments, it reacts with oxygen to produce water and energy.) Associate Professor Mark Z. Jacobson and graduate student Whitney Goldsborough Colella (both in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department) and Consulting Professor David M. Golden (Mechanical Engineering Department) report that annually such a conversion could prevent millions of cases of respiratory illness and tens of thousands of hospitalizations and save more lives than were lost in the World Trade Center attacks. CLIP

Healing Words
http://spirituality.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1151542.cms
A few years ago, I was surprised to discover a single scientific study that strongly supported the power of prayer in getting well. Because I'd never heard of controlled experiments affirming prayer, I assumed this study stood alone. But did it? Somehow I could not let the matter rest, and I began to probe the scientific literature for further proof of prayer's efficacy. I found an enormous body of evidence: over one hundred experiments exhibiting the criteria of "good science," many conducted under stringent laboratory conditions, over half of which showed that prayer brings about significant changes in a variety of living beings. I was astonished. I had begun my search believing it would turn up little. After all, if scientific proof for the healing effects of prayer existed, surely it would be common knowledge among scientifically trained physicians. I came to realise the truth of what many historians of science have described: A body of knowledge that does not fit with prevailing ideas can be ignored as if it does not exist, no matter how scientifically valid it may be. Scientists, including physicians, can have blind spots in their vision. The power of prayer, it seemed, was an example. CLIP - Recommended by "Nelly Lewin" lewin.nelly@wanadoo.fr>

Google launches new search tool dubbed Google Earth (June 29, 2005)
http://www.axcessnews.com/technology_062905.shtml
Mountain View CA - Google announced the launch of Google Earth, its third new search tool to be brought online this year.Google's new satellite imagery-based mapping product combines 3D buildings and terrain with mapping capability and Google search. Based on Keyhole technology, the search engine described Google Earth as 'enabling users to fly from space to street level views to find geographic information and explore places around the world.'"Google Earth utilizes broadband streaming technology and 3D graphics, much like a videogame, enabling users to interactively explore the world - either their own neighborhood or the far corners of the globe," said John Hanke, general manager, Keyhole, Google Inc. "With many ways to access geographic information, Google provides a very rich local search experience for users worldwide."Among the features being offered to web search users are 3D views of buildings in major cities in the United States as well as 3D views of terrain showing mountains, valleys, and canyons around the world.Google stated that users could also integrate local search with Google Earth to access information on reastaurants, hotels, schools, parks and transportation.Google said that with Earth, users could tilt, rotate and activate 3D views of terraines for a different perspective on a location. CLIP To try Google Earth go at http://earth.google.com/ (not for Mac yet though)

Omega-News Collection 25. June 2005
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/793113/

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