June 27, 2005 In the News - Comments by Doug Bracewell

Armed with a camera fitted with high-speed infrared film and an ultraviolet filter, Constable set out to reveal these sky beings to the world. His photographs certainly show something. To the untrained eye they look like discolorations produced during the developing process. Thirty years on, even ufologists consider Constable a fringe character. But his spirit lives on in lesser phenomena such as "rods"

BRIGHT EYES: WHEN THE PRESIDENT TALKS TO GOD

SATIRE VIDEO THAT AIRED ON JAY LENO

ERRATUM: Little African girl saved from pursuers by lions-Disputed!

Vibrators spark bomb scare

The police bomb squad flew in by helicopter after the alarm was raised at Bluffton post office in South Carolina. Post office workers were worried after noticing a suspicious looking white package laying by itself in a loading area.

Bush Speech
President Bush addressed the nation last night saying it "was time to give Americans a clear strategy for our presence in Iraq." Um, shouldn't we have had that before we invaded?

Bush Speech II
President Bush insisted that our mission in Iraq is very difficult, but we must stay the course. Besides, there’s no way it’s tougher than trying change Social Security.

Bush Speech III
President Bush rejected calls that the U.S. send more troops to help put down the insurgency in Iraq; reminding everyone that with his approval ratings at an all-time low, he needs more soldiers here to defend the White House.

Bush Speech IV
President Bush summed up our strategy in Iraq by saying, “as the Iraqis stand up, we will stand down.” Which means we’ll be in Iraq for at least another 317 years.

Bush Speech V
Finally, President Bush insisted that our efforts in Iraq are “worth it”… especially since as long as we’re there, Republicans can always accuse their critics of jeopardizing the war effort.

“UNITED STATES”

"But we know that nothing of value is ever earned without sacrifice."

- Condoleezza Rice, addressing US soldiers, 19 March 2005

Internet Impact of Supreme Court Rulings
The Brand X decision will badly weaken the foundation of the Internet as an open marketplace for new ideas, competitive services, and the free flow of information.The Grokster case upholds the protection of technologies from secondary liability in copyright infringement, even as it rules against the peer-to-peer company -FreePress

Respect the decision of the Supreme Court?
Respect their decision? Your right to own anything - be it your money, your opinion, or your home - is gone -Tom Ambrose/WorldNetDaily

AUTHORITARIAN FLAMES ARE STOKED BY KANGAROO COURTS

US Supreme Court Rules, 'No Constitutional Right To Police Enforcement'

The ruling said Jessica Gonzales did not have a constitutional right to police enforcement of the court order against her husband. The 7-2 ruling Monday ended a lawsuit by a Colorado woman who claimed Castle Rock police did not do enough to prevent her estranged husband from killing their three young daughters.

THE JUST-US SYSTEM IN ITS FULL GLORY

US Supreme Court rules against file swapping

AFP: Majority of Americans believe Bush administration misled public on Iraq: poll

57 percent say the Bush administration "intentionally exaggerated its evidence that pre-war Iraq possessed nuclear, chemical or biological weapons," according to the poll.

Federal Funding for Mental Health Screening of Kids
On Friday Congress defeated an amendment I introduced that would have prevented the federal government from moving forward with mental health screening of kids in schools. Rep Ron Paul M.D.

ENFORCED MEDICATION BY ENFORCED DIAGNOSIS

Secret students major in spying

The young woman on the phone says she is proud to have won $50,000 in scholarships from the CIA.

US suspected of keeping secret prisoners on warships: UN official

United Nations has learned of "very, very serious" allegations that the United States is secretly detaining terrorism suspects in various locations around the world, and notably aboard prison ships, the UN's special rapporteur on terrorism said.

The USA: World's Biggest Prison

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. Of nine million people imprisoned in the whole world, more than two million (22% of the total) are behind American bars.

FBI Investigates Secret Pentagon Death Squad

WAYNE MADSEN

“ISRAEL”

REAL INSIDERS THE NEW YORKER

At dinner that night with Steven Rosen, I mentioned a controversy that had enveloped AIPAC in 1992. David Steiner, a New Jersey real-estate developer who was then serving as AIPAC’s president, was caught on tape boasting that he had “cut a deal” with the Administration of George H. W. Bush to provide more aid to Israel. Steiner also said that he was “negotiating” with the incoming Clinton Administration over the appointment of a pro-Israel Secretary of State. “We have a dozen people in his”—Clinton’s—“headquarters . . . and they are all going to get big jobs,” Steiner said. Soon after the tape’s existence was disclosed, Steiner resigned his post. I asked Rosen if AIPAC suffered a loss of influence after the Steiner affair. A half smile appeared on his face, and he pushed a napkin across the table. “You see this napkin?” he said. “In twenty-four hours, we could have the signatures of seventy senators on this napkin.”

Syria Attacks Israel Soldiers on Golan Heights

FOOLS BELIEVE SERIAL LIARS

Tens of Thousands protest Israel's withdrawal from Gaza

Tens of thousands of orange-clad activists lined major highways yesterday in a nationwide protest against Israel's planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, disrupting traffic, shouting slogans, and drawing honks of support from motorists.

Israel accused of covering up murders

The Israeli human rights organisation, B'tselem, pointed out that since September 2000, the Israeli army killed as many as 1722 Palestinian civilians who played no part in the hostilities. Those killed included 536 children. B’tselem Report

“IRAN”

Top 5 Things that Have to Happen Before We Leave Iraq
5) Baghdad car insurance rates fall below $15,000 a month
4) Halliburton exceeds quarterly profit projections by 50%
3) Pentagon gets reasonable assurance that insurgents are in no way connected to the shark attacks in Florida
2) Bush administration declares war on someone else
1) We elect a president with a brain

Russia Wants to Build More Nuke Reactors for Iran
Russia wants to construct up to six new nuclear reactors for Iran, despite U.S. criticism of its assistance to the Islamic republic, Moscow's top nuclear boss was quoted as saying on Tuesday.

Press Conference: U.S. Policy Options for Iran and Regime Change

Iran Policy Committee suggests, on the grounds that Iran poses a threat to US National Security, the IPC advocates that the US should favor "regime change" through a process of "destabilization" and "coercive diplomacy", while keeping the full military option open.

RECALL: Iran Policy Committee: Pentagon mouthpiece, Israeli ally, MEK supporter
RECALL: Rep. Bob Filner, AIPAC, Iranian Exiles.... all connected....

RECALL: Bolton makes smooth with Iran's MEK A LISTED TERRORIST GROUP

RECALL: WHO IS MEK

RECALL: Iran's 'Terrorists' Helped Disclose Iranian Nuke Program

MEK IS ANOTHER “CURVEBALL”

The ayatollah's new reign
A case of self-fulfilling prophecy, Washington hardliners may now point at Iran's return to the militancy of the 1980s as a justification to steer the second Bush administration away from the multilateral track noticeable in recent months and toward a more bellicose approach vis-a-vis Tehran's ruling fundamentalists, especially if the Iran-European Union nuclear talks, already suffering, are either terminated or shrunk considerably as a result of Tehran's more rigid and less flexible new approach -Kaveh L Afrasiabi/Asia Times

A ‘FORTUNATE’ TURN OF EVENTS ..

UK fears return to the bad old days in Iran

Europe fears Iran nuke talks derailing

Solana sees no change in EU nuclear policy on Iran

“MIDDLE EAST”

“You smell that? Do you smell that? Napalm, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that.

I love the smell of napalm in the morning.

You know, one time we had a hill bombed, for twelve hours. When it was all over I walked up.

We didn't find one of 'em, not one stinkin' dink body. The smell, you know that gasoline smell, the whole hill.

Smelled like... victory.”

- Robert Duvall, “Apocalypse Now” (1979)

Shiite member of Iraqi parliament killed by a suicide car bomb

The oldest member of the Iraqi parliament Shiite Dhari Ali al-Fayadh, 87, was: a member of the country's largest Shiite political party, the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq. Al-Fayadh was also a senior sheik from the al-Boamer tribe in the Mahmoudiya area, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) south of Baghdad and a hotbed of the Sunni-dominated insurgency. The attack appeared aimed at stoking tensions between minority Sunni Arabs and the country's Shiite majority.

Rumsfeld Acknowledges Pentagon Outreach To Iraqi Rebels
US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld confirmed on US television Sunday that Pentagon officials have taken part in contacts with Iraqi insurgents.

Islamic Law Controls the Streets of Basra in Iraq
Religion rules the streets of Basra in Iraq, a once cosmopolitan city, where women no longer dare go out uncovered. Unmarked cars cruise the streets, carrying armed, plain-clothed enforcers of Islamic law.

Blair: UK to stay in Iraq until 'job done'

“FOREIGN AFFAIRS”

Blair is 'unfit and drinking'

Lifestyle guru Carole Caplin has spoken candidly about her friendship with Tony and Cherie Blair to an undercover newspaper reporter posing as a wealthy sheik looking to set up a business deal.

Morality council may be set up in Russia

A Supreme Council on morals and morality may be set up in Russia, a spokesman for the Culture and Mass Communication Ministry said Monday. The spokesman said that the council could help fight for morality in the media.

JUST COINCIDENCE THAT THE USA IS DOING THE SAME THING

Russia invites NATO to fight drugs, terrorism in Central Asia

China to forge closer ties with Czechoslovakia

China, Denmark to bring bilateral ties to higher level

Germany is Russia’s leading trade partner

Trial unlikely for CIA Italian abduction suspects

But as a practical matter, experts said, it is almost inconceivable that the government will turn over agents who had carried out an operation authorized by the government and meant to combat terrorism.

"There is close to no probability that the United States is going to extradite any of these people to Italy, notwithstanding the letter of any treaty," Peter Spiro, who teaches international law at the University of Georgia, said Sunday.

Chavez Out to Prove World's Largest Oil Reserves
Venezuela has the largest proven oil deposits outside the Middle East. In addition it has an estimated 78 billion barrels in conventional reserves & 238 billion barrels of tar oil in the nation's so-called Orinoco Belt. The heavy crude from the eastern Orinoco region, which was marketed as boiler fuel called Orimulsion was designed to compete with coal - not oil. PDVSA has started mixing the cheap boiler fuel with lighter crude to make it marketable, and recognized as a part of Venezuela's total oil reserves, as a means of regaining negotiating power within OPEC. –NewsMax

Bolivian government orders troops to take 'control' of oilfields

For Mexico's Fox, A 'Revolution' Unfulfilled
even his critics say he has made government more honest and transparent, fortified the economy and championed democracy. But the idea of Fox as a revolutionary, a powerful figure who would energize and modernize a nation long strangled by corrupt and authoritarian government, has died.-Washington Post

Subcommander Marcos may lay down weapons MEXICO
The biggest puzzle in Mexico these days: whether Subcommander Marcos, the masked guerrilla leader who led the Indian-backed Zapatista insurrection in 1994, is about to give up armed struggle.Top Mexican law enforcement officials say privately that the Zapatista rebel army is in disarray, and that Subcommander Marcos -- a former Mexico City college professor named Rafael Sebastian Guillén -- is engaged in a bitter dispute with ultra hard-liners within his armed movement -Andreas Oppenheimer/Miami Herald

RECALL: Zapatistas Issue Enigmatic 'Red Alert' no reason & unusual army actions

Mexican government pledges won't attack rebels

THIS SITUATION IS REALLY ODD …

AS THOUGH SOME OTHER “INFLUENCE” IS AT WORK …

Influx of hired killers fuels border turf war

U.N.: Parts of Haiti worse than Darfur

Undersecretary-General Jean-Marie Guehenno said although thousands have been killed and displaced in Sudan, in some ways the living conditions are better there than in Haiti. The Caribbean nation was plunged into violence last year when armed rebel groups began taking over the country hoping to force President Jean-Bertrand Aristide form power.

CANADIAN AND US TROOPS UNDEMOCRATIZED HAITI AT GUNPOINT

CLINTON PASSES THROUGH CHILE
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton spoke Friday to a crowd of more than 2,000 business leaders at a World Leadership forum in Santiago.Clinton’s 26-hour visit to Chile was the third of in a tour of Latin American nations that included Mexico, Brazil and Colombia. International press reports suggest that the former U.S. president is also angling for a high profile position at the United Nations or some other international organization -Santiago Times CL

CLINTON HAS BEEN VISITING A LOT OF INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE LATELY

RECALL: Billy Graham was introduced by Bill Clinton at his New York revival Sunday.

RECALL: Ex-presidents Bush, Clinton pal around on golf course

Zimbabwe's Secret Famine

Zimbabwe is in the grip of a hidden famine and as a United Nations envoy begins a tour of the country today, The Independent can reveal a deadly nexus of Aids, starvation and depopulation of the cities that is sending tens of thousands to a silent death in rural areas.

Internet crashes in Pakistan

An undersea cable carrying data between Pakistan and the outside world has developed a serious fault, virtually crippling data feeds, including the Internet, telecommunications officials said.

WRH COMMENTS: For decades the US has used submarines to plant tapping equipment on undersea cables of other nations. One such unit is on display in a Moscow museum. There have been cases where the taps interfered with the cables, leading to their discovery.

“MILITARY / INTELLIGENCE / SECURITY”

Battle Re-Enacted
English and French tall ships staged a re-enactment of the Battle of Trafalgar last night to mark the 200th anniversary of the historic clash. What made the skirmish so historic was the fact that it was the last time the French put up a decent fight.

DD(X) Team Flies Long-Range Land-Attack Projectile to Record Range

LRLAP is a 155mm GPS-(global positioning system) guided gun-launched projectile capable of precision fire support at ranges up to 83 nautical miles for our fleet

U.S. moves to supply Egypt air defense units

25 Avenger air defense systems plus related equipment valued at up to $126 million. It also would enhance "potential interoperability" with U.S. forces, the agency said

Walkers World: 4th generation wars

a modern form of insurgency which seeks to convince the enemy's political leaders that their strategic goals are either unreachable or too costly for the perceived benefit. Such fourth generation wars are based on the idea that superior political will can defeat greater economic and military power. Winning, however, requires coherent, patient action that encompasses the full range of political, economic, social, and military activities.

Mao pioneered modern insurgency

"Mao started this form of war…" Marine Corps. Col. Thomas X. Hammes writes in his widely acclaimed book on modern insurgency warfare, "The Sling and the Stone." "The anti-coalition forces in Iraq, the Taliban, the Chechnyans and the al-Qaeda network are simply the latest to use the tactics and techniques that have been developing for decades."

China Activates Bomb Shelters
Intelligence sources suspect reopening shelters to the public to allow people to cool off during a heat wave is part of China's strategic deception.-WorldNetDaily

BUSH ALSO NOTES THREAT FROM MUTANT NINJA TURTLE NURSERIES

“ECONOMICS”

Central banks fear slump as oil soars near $61
The world's central banks expressed concern amid signs that the near-40% jump in the cost of oil since the start of the year has started to weaken demand, the Bank for International Settlements, the Swiss organisation that acts as the central bank for central banks, warned against the assumption that prices would quickly fall back to their previous levels -Guardian UK

World Oil Prices May Double Say UK Experts

Simulated oil meltdown shows U.S. economy's vulnerability

This year the world is consuming about 84M barrels of oil a day (US alone 21M barrels a day). Experts think oil-producers have only 1.5M barrels a day of unused production capacity. A disruption anywhere in production, delivery or refining could cause market panic and spiking prices.

Former CIA chief Woolsey described as "relatively mild" some of the scenarios studied by the National Commission on Energy Policy and the advocacy group Securing America's Future Energy "It was striking that by taking such small amounts off the market, you could have such dramatic impact" on world oil prices, said Robbie Diamond, the president of Securing America's Future Energy. Richard Haass (top adviser to Powell) learned how little influence policy-makers would have in reversing an oil shock wave.

The Saudi oil bombshell

The world's expected requirement for petroleum is projected to jump from 77 million barrels per day in 2001 to 121 million barrels by 2025, a net increase of 44 million barrels. But over one-fourth of this additional oil - some 12.3 million barrels per day - will have to come from Saudi Arabia.

To suggest that other producers could also make up for the shortfall in Saudi production stretches credulity to the breaking point. Doubt about the Saudi capacity to boost its future oil output were first aired in a front-page story by Jeff Gerth in the New York Times on February 25, 2004. DoE oil experts always come back to the same point: Saudi oil managers "are confident in their ability to increase production", but, in no instance have they provided independent verification of this capacity.

Simmons' argument boils down to four major points: 1) Most of Saudi Arabia's oil output is generated by a few giant fields, of which Ghawar - the world's largest - is the most prolific. 2) These giant fields were first developed 40 to 50 years ago, and have since given up much of their easily extracted petroleum. 3) To maintain high levels of production in these fields, the Saudis have come to rely increasingly on the use of water injection and other secondary recovery methods to compensate for the drop in natural field pressure. 4) As time goes on, the ratio of water to oil in these underground fields rises to the point where further oil extraction becomes difficult, if not impossible. To top it all off, there is very little reason to assume that future Saudi exploration will result in new fields to replace those now in decline.

Simmons shows that Ghawar and other large fields are rapidly approaching the end of their productive lives. When an underground reservoir is first developed, oil gushes out of the ground under its own pressure; as the field is drained, engineers force water into the ground to drive the remaining oil into the well. Ninety percent of all the oil that Saudi Arabia has ever produced has come from seven giant fields which still continue to provide around 90 percent of current Saudi oil output

It would be the height of folly to assume that the Saudis are capable of doubling their petroleum output in the years ahead, as projected by the DoE. Eventually, in the not-too-distant future, Saudi production will begin a sharp decline from which there is no escape. And when that happens, the world will face an energy crisis of unprecedented scale and the Petroleum Age as we know it will draw to a close.

Transportation, and everything it effects will be much, much more costly. The cost of food will rise (for tilling, fertilizer, harvesting, pest protection, processing and delivery). Many other products made with petroleum - paints, plastics, lubricants, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and so forth will also prove far more costly.

BOOK: Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy.

US to import 50 million tons of crude oil from Russia a year

Our Very Own Enron?

The private finance initiative (PFI) is the scheme allowing private corporations to build and run our public services and lease them back to the government. This is pretty normal for a PFI scheme: in one case I’ve studied, hospital beds fell by 20%, while costs rose by 1100%. On Wednesday, the government admitted that PFI projects for council house repairs had been a costly disaster. On June 17th, Scottish ministers decided it was cheaper to spend £25m buying out the private financiers who built the Inverness airport terminal than to let them carry on.

SIX MORE DISASTERS LISTED

Even With No Bubble, Housing Could Be in Trouble
"The reality is, you do not need home prices to go down – all you need is for housing prices to stop going up," said David Rosenberg, chief North American economist for Merrill Lynch. He calculates a flattening of housing prices could trim U.S. economic growth, currently running about 3.5 percent a year, by a full percentage point.-MSNBC

RECALL: The global housing boom - In come the waves THE ECONOMIST

Even a mere levelling-off of house prices can trigger a sharp slowdown in consumer spending, although Alan Greenspan denies this. Goldman Sachs estimates that total housing-equity withdrawal rose to 7.4% of personal disposable income in 2004. If prices stop rising, this “income” from capital gains will vanish. But, the late 1990s, the Dutch had both house prices and household credit rising at double-digit rates. Then from 2000 – 2003, their house-price inflation slowed from 20% to nearly zero by with no drop in house prices (a perfect “soft-landing”). When prices levelled off, the removal of this equity spending pushed the economy into recession, from which it has still not recovered. The same has happened in Britain and Australia, denting household spending.

American consumer spending will drop because homeowners have been cashing out their capital gains at a record pace. Over the past four years, consumer spending and residential construction have together accounted for 90% of the total growth in GDP. And over two-fifths of all private-sector jobs created since 2001 have been in housing-related sectors, such as construction, real estate and mortgage broking.

One of the best international studies of how house-price busts can hurt economies has been done by the International Monetary Fund. Analysing house prices in 14 countries during 1970-2001, all but one of those housing busts led to a recession, with GDP after three years falling to an average of 8% below its previous growth trend. And it is surely no coincidence that Japan and Germany, the two countries where house prices have fallen for most of the past decade, have had the weakest growth in consumer spending of all developed economies over that period.

“CANADA”

US, Canada, Mexico release blueprint for tight economic and security ties

DESTRUCTION OF THE NATION-STATE BY INTERNATIONAL INTEGRATION IMPOSED BY CO-OPTED LEADERS

MDs rash on private care
Federal Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh says he's "disappointed" with Canada's doctors -- and especially the head of their influential national association -- for planning a debate on the role of private health care in this country.

“ELECTIONS”

2 counties risk lawsuits for spurning touch-screen voting machines

At least two Florida counties are balking at paperless touch-screen voting machines — and risking lawsuits — as state and federal deadlines loom for buying equipment that allows disabled voters to cast ballots without assistance.

GOVERNOR IS .. JEB BUSH

“DEMOCRACY / FREEDOM”

Australia 'secret police' state says Former Prime Minister

FORMER prime minister Malcolm Fraser has criticised the federal Government's anti-terrorism policies, saying they have created a "secret police" and a culture of fear. Fraser said: "No other country has found it necessary to exert such powers, no European country, and the power is even greater than that that which formally exists in many parts of the US. You can be arrested because ASIO think you know something. Your defence is to prove that you don't know it. But how do you prove a negative? And how do you prove you don't know something which you didn't know in the first place?”

Second UK Indymedia server seized by police before G8

YESTERDAY, an Indymedia server in Bristol was seized by the police. An Indymedia volunter was also arrested during the raid, the organisation said. The seizure followed demands from the Ole Bill to hand over IP details of a posting on the independent media organisation's web site.

WTO AND G-8 ENGAGE IN RITUAL SERVER ABUSE

“SOCIETY”

Chinese Bishop
The newly appointed Roman Catholic Bishop of Shanghai is hoping to mend relations between China and the Vatican. His best chance of doing that is offering Rome low-cost, mass-produced cassocks and chalices.

The Tsunami Disaster: U.S. Issued Killer Wave Warning To Terror Ships

PRISON ships holding Osama bin Laden's most trusted lieutenants were given an hour's warning of the tsunami.

Bill Clinton's affair with Voodoo

As time would tell, Clinton paid more than a politician’s lip service to the practice of Voodoo. According to the Haiti Observateur, "During a March 31, 1995 visit to Haiti under Aristide’s restored rule, Clinton took part in a Voodoo initiative ceremony intended to keep him impervious to Republican attacks and to guarantee his re-election." (FrontPageMag.com, Feb. 20,. 2004). "Voodoo," Aristide professed in a speech to Congress attendees, "is one of the great religions in the world alongside Christianity, Islam and Judaism".

WholesomeWear

Is a modest line of clothing for “wherever.” Our WaterWear is the first to be introduced because the need for modesty in swimwear is greatest and the supply is almost non-existant. Swimwear that “highlights the face, rather than the body” includes an undergarment with bright colors at the neck and shoulders to draw the eye to the face.

HAVE A LOOK AT THIS

“HEALTH / SCIENCE / TECH”

“Journals have devolved into information laundering operations for the pharmaceutical industry”

- Richard Horton, editor of the Lancet, March 2004

Medications and Heat-Related Illness

If you are taking any of the medications listed below, you are at higher risk for heat-related illness, especially if you are doing lots of exercise or heavy work and are not drinking enough water. Antidepressants such as: Elavil ,Sinequan, Anafranil, Vivactil, Tofranil, Norpramin, Pamelor, Prozac, Luvox, Zoloft, Paxil

Boffins create zombie dogs

US scientists have succeeded in reviving the dogs after three hours of clinical death, paving the way for trials on humans within years. Subject's veins are drained of blood and filled with an ice-cold salt solution. The animals are considered scientifically dead, as they stop breathing and have no heartbeat or brain activity. But three hours later, their blood is replaced and the zombie dogs are brought back to life with an electric shock.

SENSATIONALIST HEADLINE – THIS IS JUST A COLD-STORAGE PROTOCOL

THEY DO A LESS DRASTIC FORM OF THIS IN SOME SURGERIES

Brain chip makes depressed happy

MAKES ME WANT TO GO GET CHIPPED

The hidden big business behind your doctor's diagnosis

The Seattle Times found that: Pharmaceutical firms have commandeered the process by which diseases are defined. Some diseases have been radically redefined without a strong basis in medical evidence. The drug industry has bolstered its position by marketing directly to the health-conscious consumer. The Times found that for a broad spectrum of diseases, the experts writing the treatment guidelines had drug-company ties ranging from research contracts to consultancies to stock ownership.

Medical Journals Are an Extension of the Marketing Arm of Pharmaceutical Companies

The most conspicuous example of medical journals' dependence on the pharmaceutical industry is the substantial income from advertising, but this is, I suggest, the least corrupting form of dependence. The much bigger problem lies with the original studies, particularly the clinical trials, published by journals. The quality of the journal will bless the quality of the drug. These trials rarely produce results that are unfavourable to the companies' products.

I VOUCH FOR VIEW THIS FROM PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

Bionic Man Moves Artificial Arm With Brain

Researchers have developed artificial arms that can be moved as it if they were real limbs, simply by thinking about making them move

$13 Billion Nuclear Fusion Site Gets Green Light
Six partners, the United States among them, have chosen France as the site for a $13 billion experimental nuclear fusion reactor that, if successful, would open the door to cleaner and abundant energy, the partners announced Tuesday.-MSNBC

RECALL: Coming in out of the cold: Cold fusion, for real size of breadbox; room temperature

BIGGER MUST BE BETTER

“INFECTIOUS - DISEASES”

World Health Organization says 5,000 birds killed by avian flu in China

Bird Flu Affects Nervous System in Duck Meat from Shandong
That was imported to Japan from Shandong, China in 2003. This virus was unique from other related viruses and was highly pathogenic to chickens as an aerosol, replicated well in the lungs of mice and spread to the brain.

This is similar to isolation of BIRD FLU in 2001 from duck meat imported into South Korea from Shanghai. In both instances several closely related BIRD FLU isolates were found during routine screening of imported duck meat.

Because illnesses were not reported in 2001 or 2003, it suggests that many versions of bird flu are circulating in throughout China. Even though the ducks had no symptoms of illness, this strain had many biological properties associated with disease in humans, including the ability to replicate in mice, as well as containing variants that could be isolated from mouse brain.

AN AEROSOL TRANSMITTED VIRUS WITH LUNG AND NERVOUS SYSTEM TARGETTING COULD BE DANGEROUS

Evolving BIRD FLU Bird Flu Alarms Experts
Unlike previous pandemics, where a virus underwent a major genetic overhaul all at once, the avian strain has been changing gradually since it was first identified in 1997. "We haven't done much to eliminate the source in Asia," said Osterholm, a former bioterrorism special adviser to the current Bush administration. He doubts the past will predict the virus' future. "there is a dynamic mutation laboratory over there. I see nothing to slow down the mutations." - - -

The W.H.O. has been relying on two basic views of influenza genetics, that virus changes are caused by shuffling the order of the genes and that small changes are caused by gene mutations. Unfortunately, this view ignores “viral sex” where a host (bird or pig) has two different infections at the same time. There may be swapping of genes between the two viruses which randomly combine features of the two strains and may even include human genes in the process.

There are currently no 2005 BIRD FLU sequences at GenBank

GENE SEQUENCES ARE CRITICAL IN BEING ABLE TO BOTH IDENTIFY AND TO TRACK WHAT THE VIRUS IS DOING. NOT HAVING THESE SEQUENCES IS LIKE LOOKING FOR A CRIMINAL WITHOUT HAVING A DESCRIPTION. THIS LACK OF BASIC SURVELLANCE IS WHAT CAUSES THE FOLLOWING REPORT...

Vietnam Confirms Evolving BIRD FLU Generates False Negatives

Media reports suggest that these changes set the stage for the explosion in admissions this month in northern Vietnam. These patients, which have a milder disease, also have sore throats, suggesting the new BIRD FLU can more efficiently infect the upper respiratory tract, which could result in more efficient human-to-human transmission. Thus, BIRD FLU evolves as WHO issues press releases indicating that the warnings revealed by the surveillance reports are just "research".

DENYING DATA IS PROMOTING PANDEMIC

“ENVIRONMENT / EARTH”

Reduced Salmon Season Is Felt at Wharf and Table

Allen Grover, a fisheries biologist with the California Department of Fish and Game, said large springtime kills of juvenile fish on the river in 2001 and 2002 have resulted in a paltry number of adult king salmon returning from the Pacific to spawn in the river. Though the Pacific Ocean is chock-full of king salmon from healthier rivers like the Sacramento, all salmon fishing is off limits because it is impossible to troll selectively and avoid snagging the fish that instinctively return to the Klamath.

Senator Aims to Kill Agency That Tracks Salmon

Angered by a federal court order that spills water over federal dams to save endangered salmon in the Pacific Northwest, Sen. Craig has inserted language into a Senate energy bill that would kill an agency that keeps score on the survival of fish as they swim through the heavily dammed Columbia and Snake rivers.

RECALL: 200,000 Salmon Go Missing In Washington State SEATTLE

Europe May Force Airlines to Pay for CO2 Emissions

“WEATHER”

Death of Environmentalism Essay Ignites Dissent
An April 20 Gallup poll showed only 1 percent of Americans believe the environment is the most important problem facing the nation today.

Central bank chief pushes for G8 to shift its focus to imbalances

Next week's Group of Eight summit should focus on the threat to global prosperity from economic imbalances rather than Africa and climate change, David Dodge, the governor of Canada's central bank, said yesterday.

FINE, AS LONG AS YOU CAN:

DRINK JAPANESE YEN, EAT BRITISH POUNDS AND BREATH US DOLLARS,

Insurers sound the alarm on climate change
The cost worldwide of storms, expected to become more frequent owing to climate change, is likely to rise by two-thirds to £15bn ($27bn, €22bn) a year in the next seven decades, the Association of British Insurers will warn on Wednesday.

Climate change 'to drown Britain'

Sea-level rise caused by climate change could turn Britain into a string of islands, a study published today suggests. Rises could drown the centre of London and leave many low-lying cities and coastal towns waterlogged

Climate warning holds unforseen threats to health

The flourish of vibrio bacteria in 2004 is an example of how climate change can spread infectious diseases, the Artic is “a reservoir for avian influenza viruses”. As it warms, new species of birds that have never migrated that far north before are expected to join the other 100 million (mostly) waterfowl that already gather in the Artic in the summertime.

BUSH COMPLAINS ABOUT RE-STAFFING MUTANT NINJA TURTLE NURSERIES

Heat wave alert for Europe

Governments in France, Portugal, Spain and Italy have rushed to put in place emergency measures to deal with the heat's worst effects

Blackouts threaten northern India as flood shuts down key power project

Seven dead in Albanian heatwave

You see things and say ‘why’?

But I dream of things that never were and I say: ‘why not’?

George Bernard Shaw, Back to Methuselah, Part 1, Act 1