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This is the weblog of
Raymond Powers.
Here I will be sharing what I find of import, humor, concern, inspiration and on the transformational edge
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A Quote:
The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second best time, is today. --Chinese Proverb
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Raymond lives in Ojai, where the time now is:
09:51AM
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| Wednesday, June 4, 2003 |  |
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 4 Jun 2003 @ 09:39
Anti-Zionist Orthodox Jews Demonstrate at so-called Israel Day Parade
June 1, 2003
On Sunday, June 1, 2003 beginning at 11:15 am at 5th Ave. and 59th St. in Manhattan there will be a group of anti-Zionist Jews demonstrating against Zionism and the Zionist State that will be celebrated by marchers in their so-called Israel Day Parade.
The Anti-Zionist Orthodox Jews will proclaim their loyalty to pure Judaism and their opposition to Zionist heresy, which violates every principle of the Jewish religion. These people shall proclaim that the idolatrous Zionist ideology has no role in the life of an Orthodox Jew, and that Jews are obligated by Judaism to live in peace and harmony with every other people throughout the world, including of course, the native Palestinian People.
Pure Judaism proclaims that we are to accept the decree of Exile of G-d and live among the nations in every corner of the Earth, and are not to establish a State and attempt to end the divinely ordained Exile.
Pure Judaism forbids the uprooting of the indigenous people of the Holy Land, it proclaims its principles of humanity and justice that demands the total restoration of all human, civil, economic and political rights of the Palestinians, including the right of return of all Palestinians to their homes in historic Palestine, thereby enabling Palestine to be governed by its original native inhabitants.
These principles are essential ingredients of Judaism, and no amount of Zionism brainwashing of many Jews throughout the world and Zionist media propaganda can ever do away with these eternal principles. We declare to all non-Jews who believe that support for Zionist idolatry and ethnic cleansing demonstrates sympathy for the Jewish People that this is a grave error!!
We beseech all well-meaning non-Jews to understand the truth of what Judaism teaches, and we encourage our fellow Jews to resist the incessant hysterical and paranoia-filled propaganda of the Zionists, their heresy and their xenophobia, and learn the truth of what Judaism is and what Zionism is.
Those of us who oppose Zionism express true compassion for the Jewish People because we address the ROOT CAUSE of the suffering in the Holy Land inasmuch as Zionism is the cause of bloodshed in the Middle East and hatred of Jews throughout the world. More >
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| Tuesday, June 3, 2003 | |
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 3 Jun 2003 @ 23:54
LAWSUIT SEEKS TO BAN SALE OF OREOS TO CHILDREN
NABISCO Taken To Task Over Trans Fat's Effects
By Kim Severson
San Francisco Chronicle
Monday, May 12, 2003
Oreo cookies should be banned from sale to children in California, according to a lawsuit filed by a San Francisco attorney who claims that trans fat -- the stuff that makes the chocolate cookies crisp and their filling creamy -- is so dangerous children shouldn't eat it.
Stephen Joseph, who filed the suit against Nabisco last week in Marin County Superior Court, is a public interest lawyer who last battled the city to remove graffiti from traffic signs.
He took up the trans fat battle after reading about the dangerous artificial fat in several stories published by The Chronicle that showed how trans fat is hidden in many of the popular snack foods Americans eat. Joseph also believes his father's death from heart disease was caused in part by a lifelong diet of margarine and other foods made from trans fat.
The suit, the first of its kind in the country, asks for an injunction ordering Kraft Foods to desist from selling Nabisco Oreo Cookies to children in California, because the cookies are made with partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, also called trans fat.
Partially hydrogenated oil is in about 40 percent of the food on grocery store shelves, including most cookies, crackers and microwave popcorn, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
But doctors and government researchers believe it is linked to several debilitating diseases and might be one of the worst ingredients in the American diet -- in part because we eat so much of it without knowing.
The Institute of Medicine, a branch of the National Academy of Sciences, last summer confirmed that trans fat is directly associated with heart disease and increases in LDL cholesterol, the kind that can clog arteries. Because of that, the institute report said there is no safe amount of trans fat in the diet.
Prompted by those findings, and after being petitioned by health advocates, the Food and Drug Administration decided to force food manufacturers to list trans fat among the other fats and nutrients printed on the side of food packages. But the rule has been challenged by food manufacturers. A final version is pending.
As it stands, U.S. consumers have no idea how much trans fat is in food because it isn't required on nutrition labels. Even products marked "low in cholesterol" or "low in saturated fat" might have high levels of trans fat.
Providing information about trans fat on labels could prevent 7,600 to 17,100 cases of coronary heart disease and 2,500 to 5,600 deaths every year -- not only because people would be able to choose healthier foods but because manufacturers could choose to reduce trans fat amounts rather than list high levels on nutrition panels, the FDA has estimated.
The Oreo lawsuit differs from consumer lawsuits against tobacco, and more recently, fast-food giant McDonald's, Joseph said.
"Tobacco is well known as an unsafe product. Trans fat is not the same thing at all. Very few people know about it," he said.
Joseph said his suit is about the hidden nature of trans fat and the marketing to children.
That's what makes it different from a class-action suit filed earlier this year against McDonald's on behalf of an obese New York man. (That suit was thrown out in February.) Joseph's suit does not focus on obesity or on the choices adults make when they eat, he said.
Legally, Joseph is relying on a provision in California law that says companies aren't liable for a commonly used but unhealthy product if it is well-known in the community that the product is unsafe.
"But this product, trans fat, is not commonly known to be unsafe," he said. "That's why trans fat is a far stronger case than tobacco or McDonald's because people know those are dangerous."
In his suit, Joseph cites the Hanover, N.J., company's Nabiscoworld Web site, with its games for children.
In particular, he mentions a school-based program called the Oreo On-line Project, which involves stacking Oreos as high as possible without toppling the tower. In 2002, more than 326 schools and classes around the country participated, according to the Oreo Web site.
"This is a FUN way to teach your students math, measurement, working as a team and more," the Web site says.
Nabisco officials, who Joseph said will likely be served with the suit this week, weren't immediately available for comment. They will have 30 days from the May 5 filing date to respond.
State Sen. Debra Bowen, a leader in state nutrition-reform legislation, called Joseph's choice of the California product liability law to go after food makers who use trans fat a unique approach.
"Anything that brings people's attention to how dangerous and unhealthy trans fat can be is probably a good idea, because most people who go to the grocery store and see a bag of cookies or chips pitched as 'low fat' probably assume fat is fat," she said. "As the FDA confirmed last year, that's definitely not the case when it comes to trans fat."
Joseph, a former Washington, D.C., lobbyist who has been practicing law since 1980, has worked on several other business issues, including tax credits, aviation and energy and successfully sued ITT. He most recently formed S.F. Graffiti Busters and sued the Department of Parking and Traffic to try to get the agency to remove graffiti from its parking and traffic signs.
In addition to the Oreo suit, he has formed a nonprofit corporation called BanTransFats.com, Inc. and has printed T-shirts that read, "Don't Partially Hydrogenate Me." More >
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 3 Jun 2003 @ 23:36
Jefferson Was Right
By: Dr. Michael P. Byron - 05/24/03
Most Americans don’t know it but Thomas Jefferson, along with James Madison worked assiduously to have an 11th Amendment included into our nation’s original Bill of Rights. This proposed Amendment would have prohibited “monopolies in commerce.” The amendment would have made it illegal for corporations to own other corporations, or to give money to politicians, or to otherwise try to influence elections. Corporations would be chartered by the states for the primary purpose of “serving the public good.” Corporations would possess the legal status not of natural persons but rather of “artificial persons.” This means that they would have only those legal attributes which the state saw fit to grant to them. They would NOT; and indeed could NOT possess the same bundle of rights which actual flesh and blood persons enjoy. Under this proposed amendment neither the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution, nor any provision of that document would protect the artificial entities known of as corporations.
Jefferson and Madison were so insistent upon this amendment because the American Revolution was in substantial degree a revolt against the domination of colonial economic and political life by the greatest multinational corporation of its age: the British East India Company. After all who do you think owned the tea which Sam Adams and friends dumped overboard in Boston Harbor? Who was responsible for the taxes on commodities and restrictions on trade by the American colonists? It was the British East India Company, of course. In the end the amendment was not adopted because a majority in the first Congress believed that already existing state laws governing corporations were adequate for constraining corporate power. Jefferson worried about the growing influence of corporate power until his dying day in 1826. Even the more conservative founder John Adams came to harbor deep misgivings about unchecked corporate power.
A few years after Jefferson’s unsuccessful attempt to incorporate this amendment into the Bill of Rights, the fourth Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court, John Marshall, unilaterally asserted the Court’s right to judicial review in the seminal case of Marbury v. Madison in 1803. In practice this meant that the Supreme Court would have sole and unchecked power to determine what the Constitution meant. Jefferson was aghast. His fear lay in the knowledge that an unelected branch of government, one which is not subject to the will of the citizens, and is effectively immune from check by the two elected branches of government (Only one Supreme Court Justice has ever been impeached—none have ever been convicted and removed) was now solely responsible for determining the meaning of the Constitution. The meaning of the Constitution, and hence the very nature of our political system, was now in the hands of an un-elected and effectively uncontrollable body. “The Constitution has become a thing of wax to be molded as the Court sees fit” Jefferson lamented.
In 1886 Jefferson’s twin Constitutional nightmares collided in a train wreck which has effectively derailed true democracy in this nation and indeed across the globe as other nations have either copied our unfortunate example, or have fallen under the dominion of our multinational corporations—or both.. The precipitating event was the case of Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad. This case is cited to the present day as having conferred the status of “natural” as opposed to “artificial” personhood upon American corporations. In fact the Supreme Court declined to rule on the issue. J.C. Bancroft Davis, the Clerk of the Court, an attorney, who curiously was also a former railroad company PRESIDENT, used his position to simply write this conclusion into the head notes which summarized the case. Ever since this fateful event; this sleight-of-hand rewriting of the Constitution, corporations have had the status of “actual” persons whose rights are fully protected by the Constitution. It was a coup against democracy which succeeded because there were no real external checks and balances on the Court, and because the Court itself chose not to act to repudiate Davis’ rewriting of the Constitution. The thing stood. Precedent was established. Jefferson’s “thing of wax” nightmare had come to pass.
Consider the implications: Actual flesh and blood persons are indeed all roughly equal in overall attributes. But a corporation can possess MILLIONS of times greater resources than does any “natural” person, or even a group of such persons. Neither labor unions, nor any other category of “special interest” group possesses this attribute of personhood and so they too are fundamentally and intrinsically unable to compete against corporate “persons.”
To make a long and sad story short: The concentrated power of corporate persons has overwhelmed our democratic system. The unsound decisions of our unchecked and unbalanced Supreme Court have handed the “keys to the Kingdom” over to our corporate overlords. An analogy with an AIDS infection is instructive: After 1886, our democratic “immune system” resisted Davis’ corporate personhood infection of our national body politic by deploying the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, the Progressive Movement, the Labor Movement, and the New Deal. All of these bought time. But now, in the era of global mega-corporations, after a long struggle, our “democratic immune system” is finally being overwhelmed. Democracy, rule of, by, and for the people, is dying in America.
Contemporary America is a nation almost wholly under the dominion of plutocratically wealthy, corporate quarterly-profit über alles overlords. A seamless web of corporate power connects our multinational corporations with our mass media—now almost wholly owned by a handful of mega-corporations. This military-industrial-media complex largely determines which politicians will and will not get elected. Thus they control the government. They control access to money as well as determine how a candidate will be presented to the viewers. The very policies that our “elected” officials are “allowed” to espouse are rigorously circumscribed: Remember Clinton’s national healthcare proposals? Our media will never tell us that every other developed nation on Earth has universal health care for their citizens. Arguably, our corporate media has seen to it that the average American is as brainwashed as is say, the average citizen of North Korea. Our primary role in this atrocious system is simply to consume. We are consumers, corporate subjects, not citizens. Under this materialistic system our lives are devoid of deep meaning as we are conditioned to work ever harder and go ever deeper in debt to accumulate ever more useless junk as though if we just piled up enough of this crap we would somehow, magically, become happy.
What is to be done? Let’s open our eyes and admit that the emperor has no clothes. Let’s admit that our democratic, constitutional, system was derailed more than a century ago. Until we return power to the hands of flesh and blood citizens EXCLUSIVELY, until corporations are summarily striped of “personhood”, until this legal obscenity is abolished, we can have no real freedom, democracy cannot flourish. Furthermore, to ensure that the will of the people is respected and reigns supreme, all members of our federal judiciary must face periodic reelection by the citizens—just as is the case for our judiciary here in California. Until and unless these things come to pass we cannot be a free people. Because we are fundamentally NOT a free people, because our ability to act and to build freely upon our inspirations is constrained by corporate forces beyond our present control, we cannot live up to our full potentials as human beings. Once these goals are accomplished there shall be such an explosion of innovation in economic and political and scientific entrepreneurship as to make Periclean Athens seem timid. It’s up to each of us to act NOW. Freedom itself hangs in the balance.
Dr. Mike Byron, a contributing writer for Liberal Slant, teaches Political Science at CSU San Marcos, as well as at Palomar, Mira Costa, and Mesa Colleges. He was the Democratic Party’s write-in candidate for the 49th Congressional District last year. More >
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3 Jun 2003 @ 06:46
RFID Tags: Big Brother in Small Packages
By Declan McCullagh
January 13, 2003, 6:26 AM PT
Could we be constantly tracked through our clothes, shoes or even our cash in the future?
I'm not talking about having a microchip surgically implanted beneath your skin, which is what Applied Digital Systems of Palm Beach, Fla., would like to do. Nor am I talking about John Poindexter's creepy Total Information Awareness spy-veillance system, which I wrote about last week.
Instead, in the future, we could be tracked because we'll be wearing, eating and carrying objects that are carefully designed to do so.
The generic name for this technology is RFID, which stands for radio frequency identification. RFID tags are miniscule microchips, which already have shrunk to half the size of a grain of sand. They listen for a radio query and respond by transmitting their unique ID code. Most RFID tags have no batteries: They use the power from the initial radio signal to transmit their response.
You should become familiar with RFID technology because you'll be hearing much more about it soon. Retailers adore the concept, and CNET News.com's own Alorie Gilbert wrote last week about how Wal-Mart and the U.K.-based grocery chain Tesco are starting to install "smart shelves" with networked RFID readers. In what will become the largest test of the technology, consumer goods giant Gillette recently said it would purchase 500 million RFID tags from Alien Technology of Morgan Hill, Calif.
Alien Technology won't reveal how it charges for each tag, but industry estimates hover around 25 cents. The company does predict that in quantities of 1 billion, RFID tags will approach 10 cents each, and in lots of 10 billion, the industry's holy grail of 5 cents a tag.
It becomes unnervingly easy to imagine a scenario where everything you buy that's more expensive than a Snickers will sport RFID tags, which typically include a 64-bit unique identifier yielding about 18 thousand trillion possible values. KSW-Microtec, a German company, has invented washable RFID tags designed to be sewn into clothing. And according to EE Times, the European central bank is considering embedding RFID tags into banknotes by 2005.
It becomes unnervingly easy to imagine a scenario where everything you buy that's more expensive than a Snickers will sport RFID tags.
That raises the disquieting possibility of being tracked though our personal possessions. Imagine: The Gap links your sweater's RFID tag with the credit card you used to buy it and recognizes you by name when you return. Grocery stores flash ads on wall-sized screens based on your spending patterns, just like in "Minority Report." Police gain a trendy method of constant, cradle-to-grave surveillance.
You can imagine nightmare legal scenarios that don't involve the cops. Future divorce cases could involve one party seeking a subpoena for RFID logs--to prove that a spouse was in a certain location at a certain time. Future burglars could canvass alleys with RFID detectors, looking for RFID tags on discarded packaging that indicates expensive electronic gear is nearby. In all of these scenarios, the ability to remain anonymous is eroded.
Don't get me wrong. RFID tags are, on the whole, a useful development and a compelling technology. They permit retailers to slim inventory levels and reduce theft, which one industry group estimates at $50 billion a year. With RFID tags providing economic efficiencies for businesses, consumers likely will end up with more choices and lower prices. Besides, wouldn't it be handy to grab a few items from store shelves and simply walk out, with the purchase automatically debited from your (hopefully secure) RFID'd credit card?
The privacy threat comes when RFID tags remain active once you leave a store. That's the scenario that should raise alarms--and currently the RFID industry seems to be giving mixed signals about whether the tags will be disabled or left enabled by default.
In an interview with News.com's Gilbert last week, Gillette Vice President Dick Cantwell said that its RFID tags would be disabled at the cash register only if the consumer chooses to "opt out" and asks for the tags to be turned off. "The protocol for the tag is that it has built in opt-out function for the retailer, manufacturer, consumer," Cantwell said.
Wal-Mart, on the other hand, says that's not the case. When asked if Wal-Mart will disable the RFID tags at checkout, company spokesman Bill Wertz told Gilbert: "My understanding is that we will."
Cantwell asserts that there's no reason to fret. "At this stage of the game, the tag is no good outside the store," he said. "At this point in time, the tag is useless beyond the store shelf. There is no value and no harm in the tag outside the distribution channel. There is no way it can be read or that (the) data would be at all meaningful to anyone." That's true as far as it goes, but it doesn't address what might happen if RFID tags and readers become widespread.
If the tags stay active after they leave the store, the biggest privacy worries depend on the range of the RFID readers. There's a big difference between tags that can be read from an inch away compared to dozens or hundreds of feet away.
The privacy threat comes when RFID tags remain active once you leave a store.
For its part, Alien Technology says its RFID tags can be read up to 15 feet away. "When we talk about the range of these tags being 3 to 5 meters, that's a range in free space," said Tom Pounds, a company vice president. "That's optimally oriented in front of a reader in free space. In fact if you put a tag up against your body or on a metal Rolex watch in free space, the read range drops to zero."
But what about a more powerful RFID reader, created by criminals or police who don't mind violating FCC regulations? Eric Blossom, a veteran radio engineer, said it would not be difficult to build a beefier transmitter and a more sensitive receiver that would make the range far greater. "I don't see any problem building a sensitive receiver," Blossom said. "It's well-known technology, particularly if it's a specialty item where you're willing to spend five times as much."
Privacy worries also depend on the size of the tags. Matrics of Columbia, Md., said it has claimed the record for the smallest RFID tag, a flat square measuring 550 microns a side with an antenna that varies between half an inch long to four inches by four inches, depending on the application. Without an antenna, the RFID tag is about the size of a flake of pepper.
Matrics CEO Piyush Sodha said the RFID industry is still in a state of experimentation. "All of the customers are participating in a phase of extensive field trials," Sodha said. "Then adoption and use in true business practices will happen...Those pilots are only going to start early this year."
To the credit of the people in the nascent RFID industry, these trials are allowing them to think through the privacy concerns. An MIT-affiliated standards group called the Auto-ID Center said in an e-mailed statement to News.com that they have "designed a kill feature to be built into every (RFID) tag. If consumers are concerned, the tags can be easily destroyed with an inexpensive reader. How this will be executed i.e. in the home or at point of sale is still being defined, and will be tested in the third phase of the field test."
If you care about privacy, now's your chance to let the industry know how you feel. (And, no, I'm not calling for new laws or regulations.) Tell them that RFID tags are perfectly acceptable inside stores to track pallets and crates, but that if retailers wish to use them on consumer goods, they should follow four voluntary guidelines.
First, consumers should be notified--a notice on a checkout receipt would work--when RFID tags are present in what they're buying. Second, RFID tags should be disabled by default at the checkout counter. Third, RFID tags should be placed on the product's packaging instead of on the product when possible. Fourth, RFID tags should be readily visible and easily removable.
Given RFID's potential for tracking your every move, is that too much to ask? More >
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 3 Jun 2003 @ 06:46
Veterans For Peace Calls for the Impeachment of George W. Bush
For Immediate Release
For further information contact: Wilson "Woody" Powell, National Administrator World Community Center
438 North Skinker St. Louis MO 63130
(314) 725-6005.
Articles of Impeachment for President George W. Bush, Vice President Richard B. Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld and Attorney General John David Ashcroft.
May 22, 2003. St Louis, MO. Pre-emptive war is a response to ongoing or imminent attacks. Since Iraq neither attacked the United States nor had the capabilities to attack the United States, the war with Iraq was not a pre-emptive attack. The war with Iraq was optional, elective and not in legitimate defense of our country. As this is the case, it represents a criminal misuse of the Armed Forces of the United States. The Bush Doctrine of pre-emptive war may be more clearly thought of as the Bush Doctrine of Preventive War. The United States by virtue of its superior might claims the right to attack any country that may be a potential challenge to it. The Bush Administration asserts that the United States of America may attack any nation or entity that it claims may someday represent a threat to the United States. Veterans For Peace recognizes both its moral obligation and legal responsibilities to openly speak out against such egregious violations of law and to unequivocally oppose the Bush Doctrine of Preventive War, a doctrine of criminal violence and aggression against the world community.
On February 13, 2003 and March 19, 2003, respectively, Veterans For Peace notified the top 15 generals and admirals in the United States Armed Forces and the United States House of Representatives and Senate of the illegality of this war.
"We believe the war against Iraq that the United States government is planning and preparing for is in violation of the Charter of the United Nations and customary international law. The judgment of the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg noted, "Resort to war of aggression is not merely illegal, but is criminal.
"The principle of renunciation of the use or threat of force is now one of the fundamental principles of international law and, as such, is stated with the utmost clarity in Article 2(4) of the United Nations Charter, which imposes definite obligations on states participating in international affairs. States are bound in their international relations to renounce "the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the purposes of the United Nations.
”The United States seeks to justify a pre-emptive strike on Iraq on the basis of self-defense. Article 51 of the United Nations Charter permits the use of force by a state to repel an armed attack or a substantial and immediate threat to the national security of the state until the Security Council exercises jurisdiction. A threat which permits the use of force must be an immediate, specific threat to United States national security and not a general threat to the Gulf region or a possible future threat. The legality of pre-emptive self-defense has been rejected on the basis that use of force to deter future use of force constitutes punitive rather than defensive action. Because the United States has failed to gain Security Council approval for war, the United States is bound by United Nations Article 51 and may not lawfully, unilaterally take military action.
"It is clear that the current massive attack on Iraq is not based upon self-defense. Iraq has not attacked the United States nor does Iraq constitute an immediate and specific threat to United States national security."
As the Bush Administration clearly chose to violate both Constitutional and International law, Veterans for Peace, having sworn once to uphold the Constitution of the United States, hereby calls for the immediate impeachment of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld for their recent commission of high crimes against peace in Iraq and the violation of the US Constitution.
Therefore be it resolved that:
In keeping with our Statement of Purpose, "to abolish war as an instrument of foreign/international policy" and "to restrain our government from intervening, overtly and covertly, in the internal affairs of other nations", Veterans For Peace, Inc. has found compelling arguments and evidence to support articles of Impeachment for President George W. Bush, Vice President Richard B. Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld and Attorney General John David Ashcroft.
To accomplish these objectives Veterans For Peace National will seek to find responsible representatives within the United States, who have full legal standing and the integrity bestowed upon them by both their office and their personal record of conduct, be fully capable of successfully completing such an undertaking. The Board will determine when and to whom Veterans For Peace will lend support to for the impeachment process.
In the interim Veterans For Peace is resolved to continue its educational program to inform and educate the American public and its representatives within the United States government of the real and criminal violations of this government. Therefore be it resolved that Veterans For Peace is officially and fully resolved to work for the restoration and implementation of Constitutional law and as provided for by constitutional law the impeachment of President George W. Bush and the named members of his administration. More >
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 3 Jun 2003 @ 06:46
I am really iirate about this ridiculous concept. Consumerism at it's worst.
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Disney, Send Disposable DVD Idea to the Dump
Contributed by Working Assets
Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Disney's home video division, has just announced a plan to begin marketing disposable, self-destructing rental DVDs this coming August. This illogical, wasteful, environmentally-harmful plan should be halted immediately.
Rental DVDs are currently reusable products that are viewed over and over again by different families, sometimes reused hundreds of times. Instead, Disney would be creating the same product but it would only be viewed by one family and then discarded. To ensure the DVD does not last, Disney is adding a special chemical that causes the DVD to self-destruct 48 hours after the viewer opens a special package containing the DVD.
In 2002, 891.4 million DVDs were rented. If just 10% of those had been disposable, that would have added more than 89 million DVDs to our landfills, in addition to wasting valuable energy resources to create millions more DVDs than are currently manufactured.
We already have enough disposable discs entering our waste stream, thanks to AOL's ubiquitous discs, and services already exist to allow easier return of rental DVDs, like Netflix's U.S. Mail return system. Video-on-demand services are another alternative option that would not generate the waste that this ill-conceived plan would generate.
Online Action Letter
Tell Disney to send their disposable DVD plan to the dump!
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3 Jun 2003 @ 06:46
Comments from a friend
let's see...
1) embed chips in the Euro.
2) tank the American economy (via shell-game economics using shill companies like Enron and MCI to grab pension funds, 401K funds, etc.)
3) brainwash/scare US citizens (and Mexican/Canadian citizens) into adopting a Pan-American currency - the Amero - while devaluating and eventually eliminating the dollar/canadian dollar/peso).
4) embed tracer chips in the colored money (new $20 bill is pink/orange tinted)
5) further develop the cashless society by developing more and more demand/requirements for ATM/debit/credit transactions
6) tank the amero and embed tracer chips in humans (vaccines anyone?) 7) mission accomplished
...oh my silly mind wanders
Radio ID Chips May Track Banknotes
By Winston Chai
Special to CNET News.com
May 22, 2003, 4:40 PM PT
Radio tags the size of a grain of sand could be embedded in the euro note if a reported deal between the European Central Bank (ECB) and Japanese electronics maker Hitachi is signed.
Japanese news agency Kyodo was reportedly told by Hitachi that the ECB has started talks with the company about the use of its radio chip in the banknote.
The ECB is deeply concerned about counterfeiting and money-laundering and is said to be looking at radio-tag technology.
Last year, Greek authorities were confronted with 2,411 counterfeiting cases and seized 4,776 counterfeit banknotes, while authorities in Poland nabbed a gang suspected of making more than a million fake euros and putting them into circulation.
To add to the problem, businesses also find it hard to judge a note's authenticity, as current equipment cannot tell between bogus currency and old notes with worn-out security marks. Among the security features in the current euro are threads visible under ultraviolet light.
"The main objective is to determine the authenticity of money and to stop counterfeits," Frost and Sullivan analyst Prianka Chopra said in a report published in March.
"RFID (radio frequency identification) tags also have the ability of recording information such as details of the transactions the paper note has been involved in. It would, therefore, also prevent money-laundering, make it possible to track illegal transactions and even prevent kidnappers demanding unmarked bills," Chopra said.
RFID tags are microchips half the size of a grain of sand. They listen for a radio query and respond by transmitting their unique ID code. Most RFID tags have no batteries: They use the power from the initial radio signal to transmit their response.
Besides acting as a digital watermark, the use of radio chips could speed up routine bank processes such as counting. With such tags, a stack of notes can be passed through a reader and the sum added in a split second, similar to how inventory is tracked in an RFID-based system.
The euro came into circulation on Jan.1 last year, with 12 countries adopting it as standard currency: Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal and Spain.
If the ECB-Hitachi deal comes about, the project could involve the use of tiny radio tags, a feat that Hitachi claims to have already achieved.
In February, the Japanese firm said it had successfully operated the world's smallest noncontact chip, which measured only one-third of a millimeter across.
Hitachi said its "mu-chip" is capable of wirelessly transmitting a 128-bit number when radio signals are beamed at it.
In a euro note, the number could contain a serial code, as well as details such as place of origin and denomination.
Data can only be written on the chip's ROM during production, and not after it is out "in the wild," according to Hitachi.
The minuscule chip has been selected for use in admission tickets for Japan's international expo, which will be held in the country's Aichi Prefecture in 2005.
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| Sunday, June 1, 2003 | |
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 1 Jun 2003 @ 21:29
Smart Morph
Morph a friend's photo to make funny effects and have fun with it. Morphed pictures can be animated, resized, and cropped. The program works with BMP, WMF, EMF, JPG, PNG, and PCX images, and outputs animated pictures in AVI, BMP, JPG, PNG, and PCX formats. It supports scanners and printers. The help file is small, so those not familiar with graphic formats might have trouble figuring out the program. I created an animation without the help file, but did refer to it for two minor points. The help file shows how to add the animated file to a Web page. I'd show you what I did, but I corrupted the file when I tried an experiment.
Thomas Edison did say, "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." More >
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 1 Jun 2003 @ 21:25
?Another symptom of a culture afraid of growing old?
Testosterone In A Tube
CBS News
May 19, 2003
Founders of a 3-year-old pharmaceutical company hope that for aging baby boomers, the Fountain of Youth will come in a tube.
Auxilium Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s first product is a gel called Testim, sold in small one-dose tubes and prescribed for men with low testosterone levels.
Patients rub it on their arms and shoulders to restore normal levels of the hormone and combat the sagging sex drive, low energy, depression and dwindling muscle mass and bone density a deficiency can cause.
The market for testosterone replacement therapies is growing fast as the population of older men increases.
"We are fortunate timing-wise, because men have taken a much more active role in the management of their own health," said Gerri Henwood, president and chief executive officer of Auxilium.
That's partly because they're aging, and partly sparked by Pfizer's introduction of the erectile dysfunction drug Viagra, with its five years of promotions featuring Bob Dole, racecar driver Mark Martin and other celebrities.
"Viagra has had a role in that there are areas that are much more open for discussion between men and their physicians," Henwood said.
Testosterone treatments are in the spotlight, said Dr. Alvin M. Matsumoto, a gerontologist at the University of Washington and the Veterans Administration Puget Sound Health Care System in Seattle.
Testosterone replacement therapy has been done for years using injections, but levels can fluctuate from above normal just after the shot to below normal before the next shot about two weeks later.
Some patients don't feel the roller coaster effect, but others run out of energy before the next injection, Matsumoto said.
Testosterone patches also have been used but tend to result in lower levels of the hormone and sometimes can cause rashes and skin irritation, he said.
Testosterone levels normally decline gradually in men over 30, and researchers are looking at whether testosterone replacement should be used only for those with levels far below normal, who experience severe symptoms, or should be given to counteract the normal decline.
That became a focus since a report last year that hormone replacement therapy frequently prescribed for women actually increased the risk of heart attacks, strokes and breast cancer, leading most doctors to recommend it only for short-term treatment of menopausal symptoms.
Henwood and Jane Hollingsworth, a vice president in a clinical trials company Henwood had previously launched, founded Auxilium shortly after that company was sold in 1998.
"Jane and I started brainstorming about where were there therapeutic opportunities for small companies to enter the market," Henwood said.
They settled on products to help people continue to function normally as they age. Auxilium is Latin for "assistance."
Testim is only the second testosterone gel to get Food and Drug Administration approval.
IMS Health, which tracks prescription drug sales, has said the market for testosterone products in general jumped from $49 million in 1997 to $216 million last year.
The first testosterone gel on the market, Androgel, launched by the Belgian pharmaceutical company Solvay S.A. in 2000, posted about $196 million in U.S. sales last year, a 52 percent jump from 2001. More >
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 1 Jun 2003 @ 21:07
Earth Probe Plan Would Blast A Path To The Core
National Geographic News
May 14, 2003
A scientist proposes sending a grapefruit-size communication device into the heart of the Earth by blasting a crack in the surface and pouring in a huge quantity of molten iron. The weight of the liquid metal would crack the Earth for more than 1,800 miles (3,000 kilometers), carrying the probe to the planet's core in about a week.
The probe would measure temperature, electrical conductivity, and chemical composition, and would beam back data as encoded sound waves to a surface detector.
David J. Stevenson of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena outlines the plan in the May 16 issue of the scientific journal Nature.
"Planetary missions have enhanced our understanding of the solar system and how planets work, but no comparable exploratory effort has been directed towards the Earth's interior, where equally fascinating scientific issues are waiting to be investigated," Stevenson said in his paper. "I propose a scheme for a mission to the Earth's core, in which a small communication probe would be conveyed in a huge volume of liquid-iron alloy migrating down to the core along a crack that is propagating under the action of gravity."
The proposal might sound ambitious, but it's modest in comparison with the demands of space exploration, Stevenson said.
"We live on the Earth's surface, which divides what is above from what is below. The part above us, the rest of the universe, is mostly empty, mostly unknownSThe part below is crammed with interesting stuff and is also mostly unknown, despite its much greater proximity to us."
Stevenson calculated that the energy required to create the crack to launch the probe would be equivalent to a few megatons of TNT, an earthquake of magnitude 7 on the Richter scale, or a nuclear device such as those already possessed by many nations.
It may also be feasible to make use of existing favorable stress environments in the Earth and to avoid the use of nuclear devices, Stevenson said in his paper. "The technological challenge of initiating the crack should be less than that posed by the Manhattan Project," he said, referring to the code name for America's first atomic bomb.
Proven Technologies
According to Stevenson's calculations, it should be possible to send a probe all the way to Earth's core by combining several proven technologies with a few well-grounded scientific assumptions about the workings of the planet.
"We've spent more than [U.S.] $10 billion in unmanned missions to the planets," said Stevenson, who is the Van Osdol Professor of Planetary Science at Caltech. "But we've only been down about ten kilometers [6 miles] into our own planet."
The benefits to science would be significant, Stevenson said, because so little has been directly observed about the inner workings of the Earth. Scientists do not know, for example, the exact composition or even the temperature of the core, and what they do know is based on inferences about seismic data accumulated during earthquakes.
Stevenson said his proposal should be attractive to the scientific community because it is of the same scale, price-wise, as planetary exploration. To date, NASA has flown unmanned missions past all the planets except Pluto, has made a few highly successful soft landings on Mars, has probed the clouds of Jupiter, is getting ready to probe the atmosphere of Titan, and has sent four spacecraft into interstellar space. Sending something into the Earth, Stevenson believes, will have comparable payoffs in the quest for knowledge.
"When we fly to other worlds, we are often surprised by what we find, and I think the same will be the case if we go down."
A Million Tons of Molten Iron
According to Stevenson, the crack that will have to be blasted into the Earth's surface to launch the probe will need to be several hundred meters in depth, and about a foot (30 centimeters) wide, to accommodate a volume of about 100,000 to several million tons of molten iron.
The instant the crack opens, the entire volume of iron will be dropped in, completely filling the open space, he said. Through the sheer force of its weight, the iron will create a continuing crack that will open all the way to the planet's core 3,000 kilometers (1,800 miles) below. Anything on a smaller scale may not work; anything larger will be even more expensive, so Stevenson thinks a crack of those dimensions is about right.
"Once you set that condition up, the crack is self-perpetuating," Stevenson said. "It's fundamentally different from drilling, where it gets harder and harder -- and eventually futile -- the farther you go down."
The iron will continue to fall due to gravity because it is about twice the density of the surrounding material. Riding along in the mass of liquid iron will be one or more probes made of a material robust enough to withstand the heat and pressure. The probe will perhaps be the size of a grapefruit but definitely small enough to ride easily inside the 12-inch (30-centimeter) crack without getting wedged, Stevenson said.
Inside the probe will be instrumentation for data collection, which will be relayed through low-intensity mechanical waves of some sort. Because radio waves cannot propagate through Earth, this is the only way to get the data transferred, Stevenson said.
Based on the rate the molten iron would fall due to gravity, the ball would move downward into Earth at roughly human running pace (about 10 miles/16 kilometers per hour), Stevenson said.
"Each of the principles involved is based on sound knowledge of crack propagation, fluid dynamics, mechanical-wave propagation, and 'stress states,'" Stevenson said. "If these things didn't already work in nature, we would have no volcanoes and poorly performing bathroom plumbing, but little to fear from a pebble shattering our windshields."
The biggest question should not be the cost, but whether we should pursue the goal of exploring Earth's interior, he said. "That said, I'd suggest we do it if we can keep the cost under [U.S.] $10 billion."
This proposal is modest compared with the space program, Stevenson said, and may seem unrealistic only because so little effort has been devoted to it. "The time has come for action." More >
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 1 Jun 2003 @ 20:47
Orgoborgs, GEborgs, Cyborgs, Symborgs & Technoborgs
Scientists Consider Posthuman Possibilities and Radical Scenarios for Humanity's Evolution
Better Humans 5-25-03
Popular culture is abuzz with new terminology. Genetic engineering. Cyborgs. Artificial intelligence. Consciousness uploading. Singularity. Posthumanism.
The term " posthuman " in particular seems to be gaining more and more currency with each passing year -- especially in the media and academia, and among the techno-intelligentsia.
Futurists such as Alvin Toffler suggest that the world is moving fast towards a "fourth wave" in which humans will transition themselves into posthumans, thanks to multiple and simultaneous advances of technology. Such a change has been described by some experts as analogous to when apes evolved into humans.
Yet, as futurists make these grand prognostications -- as we casually toss the term "posthuman" back and forth -- do we really know what's in store for Homo sapiens? Just how will we "improve" ourselves? What do we really mean when we refer to the posthuman physical condition? Just what, exactly, is the grand potential for intelligent life? What does advanced intelligence look like?
Speculations On Posthuman Organisms
As we begin to ride the wave into human redesign, the destination is still largely unknown. But despite all the unanswered questions, we have a number of clues that can help us speculate as to what we truly mean by the posthuman organism -- including the striking acknowledgement that in all likelihood not just one type of posthuman awaits us, but several.
We will re-engineer our biological constitutions, and introduce silicon, steel and microchips into ourselves. Some may choose to reside in computers as conscious wave patterns, while others will convert themselves into durable robots and venture out into space.
Simultaneously, we will create entirely new forms of life, including artificial intelligence and perhaps even a global consciousness.
Humanity's monopoly as the only advanced sentient life-form on the planet will soon come to an end, supplemented by a number of posthuman incarnations. Moreover, how we re-engineer ourselves could fundamentally change the ways in which our society functions, and raise crucial questions about our identities and moral status as human beings.
Advancing Technologies, Advancing Possibilities
New developments in science and technology are occurring so fast that some might begin to overwhelm our capacities to adapt to change. Personal computers did not exist 30 years ago, cell phones did not exist 20 years ago and the World Wide Web did not exist 10 years ago.
In the biological sciences, similar achievements have been made since the discovery of DNA's structure in 1953, including new medicines, bioengineering and cloning technologies.
Additionally, in 2002, a living creature -- the polio virus -- was assembled piece by piece with several biochemicals by scientists at New York State University. We built life in the lab.
With the mapping of the human genome, cloning, and the creation of life in a laboratory now crossed off biologists' to-do lists, we are beginning to ponder future possibilities. Today, such things as nanotechnology and cryonics seem more plausible than ever.
The pace of change is not only very fast but it also accelerating. Some experts such as Ray Kurzweil speculate about a coming " singularity ," in which artificial intelligence and artificial life-forms will overtake human intelligence and human life. Slow biological evolution seems to be fast approaching a dead end: Our species will continue changing not through old and slow biological evolution, but through new, fast and directed technological evolution.
Already today many boundaries are blurring. Boundaries between birth and death, between virtual and real, between morality and immorality, between truth and falsity, between inner and outer worlds, between me and "non" me, between life and "non" life, even between natural and "non" natural. What is life? What is death? What is "non" life? What is natural life? What is "non" natural life? What is artificial life?
These are all deep questions for the new and profound world of transhumanism and subsequent posthumanism. The answers are complicated. And they might be as difficult for us to comprehend as many of our current problems might seem to monkeys, or even to ants.
From Transhuman To Posthuman
As the possibility for conscious human redesign has emerged, so too has a philosophical movement that considers the implications. This approach to future-oriented thinking, known as transhumanism, works on the premise that the human species does not represent the end of human evolution but, rather, its beginning. Its proponents believe that what is required to manage the process is an interdisciplinary approach to assist us in understanding and evaluating the possibilities for overcoming biological limitations through scientific progress.
Ultimately, transhumanists hope to see technological opportunities expanded for people, so that they may live longer and healthier lives and enhance their intellectual, physical and emotional capacities.
Transhumanism emphasizes that we have the potential not just to "be" but to "become." Not only can we use rational means to improve the human condition and the external world, but we can also use them to improve ourselves, namely the human organism. And we are not limited only to the methods, such as education, which humanism (its philosophical precursor) normally espouses.
Rather, transhumanists argue, we will have the means that will eventually enable us to move beyond what most would describe as human. Transhumanists believe that, through the accelerating pace of technological development and scientific understanding, we are entering a whole new stage in human history. Advances in artificial intelligence, robotics, bioengineering, cloning, cryonics, nanotechnology, new energies, mind uploading , dietary interventions, "designer babies," cyborgs , molecular chemistry, telecommunications, space exploration, immortality and virtual reality will lead to substantial physical and mental augmentation, possibly converging at a "singularity" point.
Still, the historical human desire to transcend bodily and mental limitations is deeply intertwined with a human fascination with new knowledge, which might be both inspiring and frightening. How these technologies are used could fundamentally change the character of our society, and irrevocably alter the definitions of ourselves and how we have assessed our place in the larger scheme of things.
Emerging Species
If we believe that biological evolution has reached a limit, what will come next?
Finnish engineer Pentti Malaska tried to answer this question in 1997 during a speech in Brisbane, Australia, while he was president of the World Futures Studies Federation. Malaska speculates about several bioengineered nonhuman generations in the pipeline of evolution. Specifically, he describes the emergence of what he calls Bio-orgs, Cyborgs, Silorgs, Symborgs and the Global Brain.
Bio-orgs, namely Homo sapiens, are protein-coded bio-organisms whose earthly infrastructure is their "natural" surrounding. Cyborgs, short for "cybernetic organisms," are biological and mechanical hybrids that in addition to traditional environments use the "near space."
Silicon organisms are also likely to emerge, known as Silorgs. This species, claims Malaska, will be humanlike nonhumans, fashioned by coding artificial DNA onto silicon compounds with ammonium as a solvent and intended basically for living in outer space.
Symborgs, a "symbolic organism," will be self-reflective, self-reproducing, self-conscious, "living programs" living within the Internet as their "natural" infrastructure and using advanced interfaces to function with other species. Also known as avatars, these organisms may essentially reside in supercomputers as uploaded consciousnesses.
Finally, speculated Malaska, there will be the "Grandparent Internet" -- a global mind with superior intelligence and wisdom. Such an intellect could very well be a Quantum Global Brain.
Australian economist Paul Wildman, also an active member of the WFSF and of the Millennium Project (of the American Council for the United Nations University), further talks about alternate Forms Of Life. Wildman uses the concept "borg" in its historical and generic sense to identify a Bionic "ORGanism," and defines five such terrestrial borgs: Orgoborgs, GEborgs, Cyborgs, Symborgs and Technoborgs.
Wildman describes Orgoborgs as organic Forms Of Life, including Humborgs (humans) and new and hybrid bioengineered Bioborgs. GEborgs are genetically engineered organisms, while Cyborgs, Siliborgs, and Symborgs are essentially as Malaska describes them. Wildman also described the Technoborg, a Form Of Life with an external skeleton, much like an insect.
According to Wildman, some of these new life-forms already exist in a technical sense, since 12% of the current USA population could be considered incipient "cyborgs" that use electronic pacemakers, artificial joints, drug implant systems, implanted corneal lenses and artificial skin. All the Forms Of Life are our creations and will be populating our world and remaking us genetically and mechanically and thereby changing our consciousness forever.
Moral Implications
While humanity will undoubtedly express itself in a number of different incarnations, it will subsequently give birth to an entirely new form of life: Artificial intelligence. The future will be populated by several different forms of intelligent life, and humanity is already attempting to reconcile the implications, particularly those in the moral realm.
The word "robot" was created in 1921 by the Czech playwright Karel Capek in his book RUR (Rossum's Universal Robots). It was immortalized in 1950 by Isaac Asimov in his book I, Robot.
Throughout his fiction, Asimov addressed the integration of robots into society. To this end, he developed the famous Three Laws of Robotics:
1. A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. 2. A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. 3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
Asimov eventually improved his system and extrapolated the Zeroth Law: A robot may not injure humanity or, through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm. He also modified the other Three Laws accordingly.
On a separate front, futurist Phil McNally and Pakistani futurist Sohail Inayatullah wrote "The Rights of Robots" in 1987, and feminist Donna Haraway published "A Cyborg Manifesto" in 1984. Both are important documents that defend robots and cyborgs on their own right.
Robotics expert Hans Moravec authored two books addressing the rise of robots and the resultant implications on the future, Mind Children in 1988 and Robot in 1999. Moravec argues that robots will be our rightful descendants and he explains several ways to "upload" a mind into a robot.
Similarly, Marvin Minsky, one of the fathers of artificial intelligence at MIT, wrote his very famous 1994 article "Will robots inherit the Earth?" in Scientific American. Here, he concludes: "Yes, but they will be our children."
As these authors and thinkers suggest, we need to start preparing ourselves for the coming robot and artificial intelligence realities. To ease the transition into a posthuman condition, we must ready ourselves for the distinct possibility that Earth will be inherited by not one, but several forms of highly intelligent and sentient life-forms.
The Human Seed
The human body is a good beginning, but we can certainly improve it, upgrade it and transcend it.
Evolution through natural selection may be ending, but technological evolution has only started accelerating noticeably very recently. Technology, which started to exhibit some dominance over biological processes for the first time some 100,000 years ago, is finally overtaking biology as the science of life.
As fuzzy logic theorist Bart Kosko has said: "Biology is not destiny. It was never more than tendency. It was just nature's first quick and dirty way to compute with meat. Chips are destiny." (And photo-qubits might come soon after standard silicon-based chips, but even they are only an intermediate means for eternal intelligent life in the universe.)
In the way to becoming permanent rational "demiurge" of space and time, it is vital to be aware that even more important than to create is to not destroy. As US author David Zindell has written: "What is a human being, then? A seed. A seed? An acorn that is unafraid to destroy itself in growing into a tree."
José Cordeiro studied engineering at MIT, economics at Georgetown University and finance at INSEAD in France. He is president of the World Future Society (Venezuela) and cofounder of the Venezuelan Transhumanist Association. He has also worked for NASA and UNIDO, and has written several books about different aspects of the future of Latin America.
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 1 Jun 2003 @ 20:36
WELL CONNECTED: FCC AND INDUSTRY MAINTAIN COZY RELATIONSHIP ON MANY LEVELS
The Center for Public Integrity
May 22, 2003
WASHINGTON, DC, May 22, 2003 The three largest local phone companies control 83 percent of home telephone lines. The top two long distance carriers control 67 percent of that market. The four biggest cellular phone companies have 64 percent of the wireless market. The five largest cable companies pipe programming to 74 percent of the cable subscribers nationwide.
Those findings come from the Center for Public Integrity's unprecedented examination of the telecommunications industry, the centerpiece of which is a first-of-its-kind, 65,000 record, searchable database containing ownership information on virtually every radio station, television station, cable television system and telephone company in America.
The database reveals that broadcasting and cable behemoths such as Viacom, Clear Channel and Comcast already dominate many of the nation's media markets, even as the Federal Communications Commission moves to further relax media ownership rules at a meeting scheduled for June 2. To illustrate this trend, the Center analyzed current media ownership in the hometowns of the five FCC commissioners -- though any American can get similar information from the database about his or her hometown with a few simple key strokes.
The report also explores the close relationship between the FCC and the interests it regulates. FCC officials have taken more than 2,500 trips paid for by companies and trade groups from the telecommunications and broadcasting industries, and the agency increasingly relies on industry-generated data to justify sweeping deregulation proposals.
This report, entitled "Well-Connected," is the first phase of a three-year investigation of the telecommunications industry. The full report and database can be found on the Center's web site.
Media Concentration
The ownership study uses the hometowns of the five commissioners as examples of how local ownership of the media in the nation has dwindled since 1996 when the FCC most recently loosened its regulations on media ownership.
The ownership study in the five cities reveals:
- Of the 203 commercial radio stations in the five home towns, 48 are owned by four publicly traded, out-of-state radio conglomerates. Twenty-seven of those are owned by radio giant Clear Channel Communications.
- The cable systems in the five communities are controlled by four companies. AOL Time Warner owns systems in Charlotte, N.C., and Milwaukee; Birmingham's system is owned by Advance/Newhouse, which is also programmed by AOL Time Warner; Louisville's system is owned by Insight Communications Co., the nation's ninth-largest cable company. Only the Rapid City system is locally owned.
- Of the 20 network affiliates in the five cities, 15 are owned by out-of-state companies, including two each by News Corp. (Fox Entertainment Group) and Hearst-Argyle Television Inc. (a division of Hearst Corp.).
Frequent FCC fliers The Center examined travel records of FCC employees and entered that information into a searchable database, also accessible through the web site.
The report shows that FCC officials have taken 2,500 trips costing nearly $2.8 million over the past eight years, most of it from the telecommunications and broadcast industries the agency regulates. That was in addition to about $2 million a year in official travel funded by taxpayers. Among the other findings:
- FCC commissioners and agency staffers attended hundreds of conventions, conferences and other events in locations all over the world, including Paris, Hong Kong and Rio de Janeiro staying in such high-priced hotels as the Bellagio in Las Vegas.
- The top destination was Las Vegas, with 330 trips. Second was New Orleans with 173 trips and third was New York with 102 trips. Fourth on the list was London, which FCC officials visited 98 times. Other popular destinations included Orlando, San Francisco, Miami, Anchorage, Palm Springs, Buenos Aires and Beijing.
- The biggest industry sponsor of the trips was the National Association of Broadcasters, which paid $191,472 to bring 206 FCC officials to its events. NAB, which represents radio and television stations nationwide, has lobbied aggressively in recent months to keep the current FCC rules limiting media ownership in place.
Reliance on industry data
A third report came out of the Center's data gathering efforts, which revealed a disturbing dependence by the FCC on outside information providers.
The report finds that the FCC's reliance on non-government private data is so ingrained that when public interest groups asked for access to data underlying a series of media ownership reports last fall, the FCC relented only after issuing a quasi-judicial "protective order" meant to keep the information secret.
When the Center was constructing its database of media companies, researchers and reporters were repeatedly referred by FCC staff to private companies for basic information on ownership, audience reach and cable subscribers. Getting market share information, which is key when reviewing whether broadcasters are within existing FCC limits, was all but impossible without going outside the agency.
The study was funded by a grant from the Ford Foundation, with additional support from the Open Society Institute.
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WANT TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS?
SHOWDOWN AT THE FCC (5/5/2003): [link]
Media Challenge! Action 1 (essential):
+ Go to www.mediareform.net + Click to send your message to your Congressional Representatives and the FCC demanding they retain current media ownership rules. + The automatic message will also demand that Congress direct the FCC to extend its June 2 deadline and to release any proposed rule changes for public debate before acting on them. It will further ask Congress to conduct its own public hearings on any FCC rule changes.
Media Challenge! Action 2
Contact these members of the Senate Commerce Committee (essential, especially McCain):
+ Senator John McCain, Phone: (202) 224-2235; Fax: (202) 228-2862; + Senator Frtiz Hollings, Phone: (202) 224-6121; fax: 202.224.4293; + Senator Barbara Boxer, Phone: (202) 224-3553 or (415) 403-0100; fax: 415.956.6701;
Contact these FCC Commissioners: + Chairman Michael Powell, 202-418-1000, + Commissioner Kevin J. Martin: + Commissioner Kathleen Q. Abernathy:
Sample Letter or Comment to Congress folks and FCC:
Dear ___________(Senator or Commissioner):
Re: Upcoming FCC vote on media deregulation.
Further consolidation of the media in the name of "deregulation" must be halted. The media companies have failed in their public trust to provide unbiased information about most crucial issues, most notably the recent coverage of the war in Iraq. As an American concerned about our democracy, I call on you to challenge the media conglomerates, to open the broadcast spectrum to a diverse range of journalists and opinions, and to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine. Oppose media deregulation.
Media Challenge! Action 3 (helpful).
+ Call or write network news bosses (see contacts below). + Tell them you want prominent daily coverage of the upcoming FCC vote, the most important media question in a decade. + Challenge them to report on their network's efforts to influence Congress and the FCC via campaign donations.
ABC NEWS CHIEF David Westin. 212.456.6200. fax: 212.456.4292,
ABC NEWS DIRECTOR Mimi Gurbst. 212 456 4050 fax.212 456 2795
ABC SWITCHBOARD (ASK FOR NEWSROOM) 212.456-7777. NEWSROOM fax 212.456.2795
MSNBC NEWS CHIEF Mark Effron. 201.583.5101. fax: 201.583.5199, mark.effron@msnbc.com
MSNBC NEWS DIRECTOR Alison Hawley. 201 583 5155, fax. 201 583 5512
MSNBC SWITCHBOARD (ASK FOR NEWSROOM) 201.583.5000, fax: 201.583.5590
NBC NEWS CHIEF Neil Shapiro. 212.664.4773. fax: 212.664.2264, neal.shapiro@nbc.com
NBC NEWS DIRECTOR Thomas Ferraro 201 583 5231 fax 201 583 5222
NBC SWITCHBOARD (ASK FOR NEWSROOM) 212.664.4444. fax: 201.583.5453
CBS NEWS CHIEF Andrew Hayward. 212.975.7825. fax: 212.975.7429. mg3@cbsnews.com
NEWS DIRECTOR Marty Gill 212 975 6121 fax. 212 975 4114
CBS SWITCHBOARD (ASK FOR NEWSROOM) 212.975.4321 fax: 212.975.1893
CNN NEWS CHIEF Eason Jordan. 404.827.5111. fax: 404.827.4215. eason.jordan@cnn.com
CNN NEWS DIRECTOR Kim Bondy. 404 827 1500. fax. 404 827 1099
CNN NEWSROOM 404.827.1500 . 404.827.1500. cnnfutures@cnn.com,
PBS FACTUAL PROGRAMMING CHIEF Sandy Heberer 703.739.5036
PBS NEWS CHIEF, SANDY SOWERS 703-998-2150 newshour@pbs.org
PBS SWITCHBOARD (ASK FOR NEWSROOM) 703.998.2600.
FOX NEWS CHIEF: John Moody. 212.301.8560. fax: 212.398.8726 john.moody@foxnews.com
NEWS DIRECTOR Kathleen Ardleigh 212 3013186 fax. 212-301-5067
FOX SWITCHBOARD (ASK FOR NEWSROOM) 212.575.4670. fax: 212.301.8274
MEDIA CHALLENGE! is co-sponsored by: Projects4Peace, ICUJP (Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace), Neighbors for Peace and Justice, Coalition for World Peace, Global Guardianship Initiative, Code, Pink for Peace, Peace on the Beach, Peace Warriors, LA International A.N.S.W.E.R., Not in Our Name, Global Women1s Strike and Southern Cal. Americans for Democratic Action, Americans Against War With Iraq
For more information about Media Challenge! and what the news networks are not telling you go HERE and click on Media.
Feeling empowered? Wanna do more on this issue? GO HERE
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 1 Jun 2003 @ 20:20
Actual Signs In Non-English Speaking World . . .
(more funny sign photos)
Cocktail lounge, Norway:
LADIES ARE REQUESTED NOT TO HAVE CHILDREN IN THE BAR.
At a Budapest zoo:
PLEASE DO NOT FEED THE ANIMALS. IF YOU HAVE ANY SUITABLE FOOD, GIVE IT TO THE GUARD ON DUTY.
Doctors office, Rome:
SPECIALIST IN WOMEN AND OTHER DISEASES.
Hotel, Acapulco:
THE MANAGER HAS PERSONALLY PASSED ALL THE WATER SERVED HERE.
Information booklet about using a hotel air conditioner, Japan:
COOLS AND HEATS: IF YOU WANT JUST CONDITION OF WARM AIR IN YOUR ROOM, PLEASE CONTROL YOURSELF.
Car rental brochure, Tokyo:
WHEN PASSENGER OF FOOT HEAVE IN SIGHT, TOOTLE THE HORN. TRUMPET HIM MELODIOUSLY AT FIRST, BUT IF HE STILL OBSTACLES YOUR PASSAGE THEN TOOTLE HIM WITH VIGOR.
Dry cleaner's, Bangkok:
DROP YOUR TROUSERS HERE FOR THE BEST RESULTS.
In a Nairobi restaurant:
CUSTOMERS WHO FIND OUR WAITRESSES RUDE OUGHT TO SEE THE MANAGER.
On the grounds of a private school:
NO TRESPASSING WITHOUT PERMISSION.
On a Thai highway river crossing:
TAKE NOTICE: WHEN THIS SIGN IS UNDER WATER, THIS ROAD IS IMPASSABLE.
On a poster at Kencom:
ARE YOU AN ADULT THAT CANNOT READ? IF SO, WE CAN HELP.
In a City restaurant:
OPEN SEVEN DAYS A WEEK AND WEEKENDS.
A sign seen on a restroom automatic hand dryer:
DO NOT ACTIVATE WITH WET HANDS.
In a Pumwani maternity ward:
NO CHILDREN ALLOWED.
In a cemetery:
PERSONS ARE PROHIBITED FROM PICKING FLOWERS FROM ANY BUT THEIR OWN GRAVES.
Tokyo hotel's rules and regulations:
GUESTS ARE REQUESTED NOT TO SMOKE OR DO OTHER DISGUSTING BEHAVIORS IN BED.
Hotel notice, Tokyo:
IS FORBIDDEN TO STEAL HOTEL TOWELS PLEASE. IF YOU ARE NOT A PERSON TO DO SUCH A THING IS PLEASE NOT TO HAD NOTICE.
On the menu of a Swiss restaurant:
OUR WINES LEAVE YOU NOTHING TO HOPE FOR.
Hotel room notice, Chiang-Mai, Thailand:
PLEASE DO NOT BRING SOLICITORS INTO YOUR ROOM.
Hotel brochure, Italy:
THIS HOTEL IS RENOWNED FOR ITS PEACE AND SOLITUDE. IN FACT, CROWDS FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD FLOCK HERE TO ENJOY ITS SOLITUDE.
Hotel lobby, Bucharest:
THE LIFT IS BEING FIXED FOR THE NEXT DAY. DURING THAT TIME WE REGRET THAT YOU WILL BE UNBEARABLE.
Hotel elevator, Paris:
PLEASE LEAVE YOUR VALUES AT THE FRONT DESK.
Hotel, Yugoslavia:
THE FLATTENING OF UNDERWEAR WITH PLEASURE IS THE JOB OF THE CHAMBERMAID.
Hotel, Japan:
YOU ARE INVITED TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE CHAMBERMAID
In the lobby of a Moscow hotel across from a Russian Orthodox Monastery:
YOU ARE WELCOME TO VISIT THE CEMETERY WHERE FAMOUS RUSSIAN AND SOVIET COMPOSERS, ARTISTS, AND WRITERS ARE BURIED DAILY EXCEPT THURSDAY.
Hotel catering to skiers, Austria:
NOT TO PERAMBULATE THE CORRIDORS IN THE HOURS OF REPOSE IN THE BOOTS OF ASCENSION.
Taken from a menu, Poland:
SALAD A FIRM'S OWN MAKE; LIMPID RED BEET SOUP WITH CHEESY DUMPLINGS IN THE FORM OF A FINGER; ROASTED DUCK LET LOOSE; BEEF RASHERS BEATEN IN THE COUNTRY PEOPLE'S FASHION.
Supermarket, Hong Kong:
FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE, WE RECOMMEND COURTEOUS, EFFICIENT SELF-SERVICE.
From the "Soviet Weekly":
THERE WILL BE A MOSCOW EXHIBITION OF ARTS BY 15,000 SOVIETS REPUBLIC PAINTERS AND SCULPTORS. THESE WERE EXECUTED OVER THE PAST TWO YEARS.
In an East African newspaper:
A NEW SWIMMING POOL IS RAPIDLY TAKING SHAPE SINCE THE CONTRACTORS HAVE THROWN IN THE BULK OF THEIR WORKERS.
Hotel, Vienna:
IN CASE OF FIRE, DO YOUR UTMOST TO ALARM THE HOTEL PORTER.
A sign posted in Germany's Black Forest:
IT IS STRICTLY FORBIDDEN ON OUR BLACK FOREST CAMPING SITE THAT PEOPLE OF DIFFERENT SEX, FOR INSTANCE, MEN AND WOMEN, LIVE TOGETHER IN ONE TENT UNLESS THEY ARE MARRIED WITH EACH OTHER FOR THIS PURPOSE.
Hotel, Zurich:
BECAUSE OF THE IMPROPRIETY OF ENTERTAINING GUESTS OF THE OPPOSITE SEX IN THE BEDROOM, IT IS SUGGESTED THAT THE LOBBY BE USED FOR THIS PURPOSE.
An advertisement by a Hong Kong dentist:
TEETH EXTRACTED BY THE LATEST METHODISTS.
Tourist agency, Czechoslovakia:
TAKE ONE OF OUR HORSE-DRIVEN CITY TOURS. WE GUARANTEE NO MISCARRIAGES.
Advertisement for donkey rides, Thailand:
WOULD YOU LIKE TO RIDE ON YOUR OWN ASS?
In the window on a Swedish furrier:
FUR COATS MADE FOR LADIES FROM THEIR OWN SKIN.
The box of a clockwork toy made in Hong Kong:
GUARANTEED TO WORK THROUGHOUT ITS USEFUL LIFE.
In a Swiss mountain inn:
SPECIAL TODAY - NO ICE CREAM.
Airline ticket office, Copenhagen:
WE TAKE YOUR BAGS AND SEND THEM IN ALL DIRECTIONS.
On the door of a Moscow hotel room:
IF THIS IS YOUR FIRST VISIT TO THE USSR, YOU ARE WELCOME TO IT.
A laundry in Rome:
LADIES, LEAVE YOUR CLOTHES HERE AND SPEND THE AFTERNOON HAVING A GOOD TIME.
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| Friday, May 30, 2003 | |
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 30 May 2003 @ 16:47
Hydrogen's Dirty Secret
President Bush promises that fuel-cell cars will be free of pollution. But if he has his way, the cars of tomorrow will run on hydrogen made from fossil fuels.
By Barry C. Lynn
Mother Jones
When President Bush unveiled his plans for a hydrogen-powered car in his State of the Union address in January, he proposed $1.2 billion in spending to develop a revolutionary automobile that will be "pollution-free." The new vehicle, he declared, will rely on "a simple chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen" to power a car "producing only water, not exhaust fumes." Within 20 years, the president vowed, fuel-cell cars will "make our air significantly cleaner, and our country much less dependent on foreign sources of oil."
By launching an ambitious program to develop what he calls the "Freedom Car," Bush seemed determined to realize the kind of future that hydrogen-car supporters have envisioned for years. Using existing technology, hydrogen can be easily and cleanly extracted from water. Electricity generated by solar panels and wind turbines is used to split the water's hydrogen atoms from its oxygen atoms. The hydrogen is then recombined with oxygen in fuel cells, where it releases electrons that drive an electric motor in a car. What Bush didn't reveal in his nationwide address, however, is that his administration has been working quietly to ensure that the system used to produce hydrogen will be as fossil fuel-dependent -- and potentially as dirty -- as the one that fuels today's SUVs. According to the administration's National Hydrogen Energy Roadmap, drafted last year in concert with the energy industry, up to 90 percent of all hydrogen will be refined from oil, natural gas, and other fossil fuels -- in a process using energy generated by burning oil, coal, and natural gas. The remaining 10 percent will be cracked from water using nuclear energy.
Such a system, experts say, would effectively eliminate most of the benefits offered by hydrogen. Although the fuel-cell cars themselves may emit nothing but water vapor, the process of producing the fuel cells from hydrocarbons will continue America's dependence on fossil fuels and leave behind carbon dioxide, the primary cause of global warming.
Mike Nicklas, chair of the American Solar Energy Society, was one of 224 energy experts invited by the Department of Energy to develop the government's Roadmap last spring. The sessions, environmentalists quickly discovered, were dominated by representatives from the oil, coal, and nuclear industries. "All the emphasis was on how the process would benefit traditional energy industries," recalls Nicklas, who sat on a committee chaired by an executive from ChevronTexaco. "The whole meeting had been staged to get a particular result, which was a plan to extract hydrogen from fossil fuels and not from renewables." The plan does not call for a single ounce of hydrogen to come from power generated by the sun or the wind, concluding that such technologies "need further development for hydrogen production to be more cost competitive."
But instead of investing in developing those sources, the budget that Bush submitted to Congress pays scant attention to renewable methods of producing hydrogen. More than half of all hydrogen funding is earmarked for automakers and the energy industry. Under the president's plan, more than $22 million of hydrogen research for 2004 will be devoted to coal, nuclear power, and natural gas, compared with $17 million for renewable sources. Overall funding for renewable research and energy conservation, meanwhile, will be slashed by more than $86 million. "Cutting R&D for renewable sources and replacing them with fossil and nuclear doesn't make for a sustainable approach," says Jason Mark, director of the clean vehicles program for the Union of Concerned Scientists.
The oil and chemical industries already produce 9 million tons of hydrogen each year, most of it from natural gas, and transport it through hundreds of miles of pipelines to fuel the space shuttle and to remove sulfur from petroleum refineries. The administration's plan lays the groundwork to expand that infrastructure -- guaranteeing that oil and gas companies will profit from any transition to hydrogen. Lauren Segal, general manager of hydrogen development for BP, puts it succinctly: "We view hydrogen as a way to really grow our natural-gas business."
To protect its fuel franchise, the energy industry has moved swiftly in recent years to shape government policy toward hydrogen. In 1999, oil companies and automakers began attending the meetings of an obscure group called the National Hydrogen Association. Founded in 1989 by scientists from government labs and universities, the association was a haven for many of the small companies -- fuel-cell designers, electrolyzer makers -- that were dabbling in hydrogen power. The group promoted the use of hydrogen but was careful not to take any position on who would make the fuel or how.
All that changed once the energy industry got involved. "All of a sudden Shell joined our board, and then the interest grew very quickly," says Karen Miller, the association's vice president. "Our chair last year was from BP; this year our chair is from ChevronTexaco." The companies quickly began to use the association as a platform to lobby for more federal funding for research, and to push the government to emphasize fossil fuels in the national energy plan for hydrogen. Along with the big automakers, energy companies also formed a consortium called the International Hydrogen Infrastructure Group to monitor federal officials charged with developing fuel cells. "Basically," says Neil Rossmeissl, a hydrogen standards expert at the Department of Energy, "what they do is look over our shoulder at doe to make sure we are doing what they think is the right thing."
As hydrogen gained momentum, the oil companies rushed to buy up interests in technology companies developing ways to refine and store the new fuel. Texaco has invested $82 million in a firm called Energy Conversion Devices, and Shell now owns half of Hydrogen Source. BP, Chevron-Texaco, ExxonMobil, Ford, and General Electric have also locked up the services of many of America's top energy scientists, devoting more than $270 million to hydrogen research at MIT, Princeton, and Stanford.
Such funding will help ensure that oil and gas producers continue to profit even if automakers manage to put millions of fuel-cell cars on the road. "The major energy companies have several hundred billions of dollars, at the least, invested in their businesses, and there is a real interest in keeping and utilizing that infrastructure in the future," says Frank Ingriselli, former president of Texaco Technology Ventures. "And these companies certainly have the balance sheets and wherewithal to make it happen."
The stakes in the current battle over hydrogen are high. Devoting the bulk of federal research funding to making hydrogen from fossil fuels rather than water will enable oil and gas companies to provide lower-priced hydrogen. That, in turn, means that pipelines built to transport hydrogen will stretch to, say, a BP gas field in Canada, rather than an independent wind farm in North Dakota. Even if the rest of the world switches to hydrogen manufactured from water, says Nicklas, "Americans may end up dependent on fossil fuels for generations."
The administration's plans to manufacture hydrogen from fossil fuels could also contribute to global warming by leaving behind carbon dioxide. Oil and coal companies insist they will be able to "sequester" the carbon permanently by pumping it deep into the ocean or underground. But the doe calls such approaches "very high risk," and no one knows how much that would cost, how much other environmental disruption that might cause, or whether that would actually work. "Which path we take will have a huge effect one way or the other on the total amount of carbon pumped into the atmosphere over the next century," says James MacKenzie, a physicist with the World Resources Institute.
Even if industry manages to safely contain the carbon left behind, the Bush administration's plan to extract hydrogen from fossil fuels will wind up wasting energy. John Heywood, director of MIT's Sloan Automotive Lab, says a system that extracts hydrogen from oil and natural gas and stores it in fuel cells would actually be no more energy efficient than America's present gasoline- based system.
"If the hydrogen does not come from renewable sources," Heywood says, "then it is simply not worth doing, environmentally or economically." More >
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| Thursday, May 29, 2003 | |
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 29 May 2003 @ 16:44
Mesopotamia: The Lost Secrets
The above link has an awesome gallery of images from archeological sites in Mesopotamia.
How much of this has been damaged or destroyed due to U.S. endeavors in this part of the world?
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 29 May 2003 @ 16:38
Hydrogen's Dirty Secret
President Bush promises that fuel-cell cars will be free of pollution. But if he has his way, the cars of tomorrow will run on hydrogen made from fossil fuels.
By Barry C. Lynn
Mother Jones
When President Bush unveiled his plans for a hydrogen-powered car in his State of the Union address in January, he proposed $1.2 billion in spending to develop a revolutionary automobile that will be "pollution-free." The new vehicle, he declared, will rely on "a simple chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen" to power a car "producing only water, not exhaust fumes." Within 20 years, the president vowed, fuel-cell cars will "make our air significantly cleaner, and our country much less dependent on foreign sources of oil."
By launching an ambitious program to develop what he calls the "Freedom Car," Bush seemed determined to realize the kind of future that hydrogen-car supporters have envisioned for years. Using existing technology, hydrogen can be easily and cleanly extracted from water. Electricity generated by solar panels and wind turbines is used to split the water's hydrogen atoms from its oxygen atoms. The hydrogen is then recombined with oxygen in fuel cells, where it releases electrons that drive an electric motor in a car. What Bush didn't reveal in his nationwide address, however, is that his administration has been working quietly to ensure that the system used to produce hydrogen will be as fossil fuel-dependent -- and potentially as dirty -- as the one that fuels today's SUVs. According to the administration's National Hydrogen Energy Roadmap, drafted last year in concert with the energy industry, up to 90 percent of all hydrogen will be refined from oil, natural gas, and other fossil fuels -- in a process using energy generated by burning oil, coal, and natural gas. The remaining 10 percent will be cracked from water using nuclear energy.
Such a system, experts say, would effectively eliminate most of the benefits offered by hydrogen. Although the fuel-cell cars themselves may emit nothing but water vapor, the process of producing the fuel cells from hydrocarbons will continue America's dependence on fossil fuels and leave behind carbon dioxide, the primary cause of global warming.
Mike Nicklas, chair of the American Solar Energy Society, was one of 224 energy experts invited by the Department of Energy to develop the government's Roadmap last spring. The sessions, environmentalists quickly discovered, were dominated by representatives from the oil, coal, and nuclear industries. "All the emphasis was on how the process would benefit traditional energy industries," recalls Nicklas, who sat on a committee chaired by an executive from ChevronTexaco. "The whole meeting had been staged to get a particular result, which was a plan to extract hydrogen from fossil fuels and not from renewables." The plan does not call for a single ounce of hydrogen to come from power generated by the sun or the wind, concluding that such technologies "need further development for hydrogen production to be more cost competitive."
But instead of investing in developing those sources, the budget that Bush submitted to Congress pays scant attention to renewable methods of producing hydrogen. More than half of all hydrogen funding is earmarked for automakers and the energy industry. Under the president's plan, more than $22 million of hydrogen research for 2004 will be devoted to coal, nuclear power, and natural gas, compared with $17 million for renewable sources. Overall funding for renewable research and energy conservation, meanwhile, will be slashed by more than $86 million. "Cutting R&D for renewable sources and replacing them with fossil and nuclear doesn't make for a sustainable approach," says Jason Mark, director of the clean vehicles program for the Union of Concerned Scientists.
The oil and chemical industries already produce 9 million tons of hydrogen each year, most of it from natural gas, and transport it through hundreds of miles of pipelines to fuel the space shuttle and to remove sulfur from petroleum refineries. The administration's plan lays the groundwork to expand that infrastructure -- guaranteeing that oil and gas companies will profit from any transition to hydrogen. Lauren Segal, general manager of hydrogen development for BP, puts it succinctly: "We view hydrogen as a way to really grow our natural-gas business."
To protect its fuel franchise, the energy industry has moved swiftly in recent years to shape government policy toward hydrogen. In 1999, oil companies and automakers began attending the meetings of an obscure group called the National Hydrogen Association. Founded in 1989 by scientists from government labs and universities, the association was a haven for many of the small companies -- fuel-cell designers, electrolyzer makers -- that were dabbling in hydrogen power. The group promoted the use of hydrogen but was careful not to take any position on who would make the fuel or how.
All that changed once the energy industry got involved. "All of a sudden Shell joined our board, and then the interest grew very quickly," says Karen Miller, the association's vice president. "Our chair last year was from BP; this year our chair is from ChevronTexaco." The companies quickly began to use the association as a platform to lobby for more federal funding for research, and to push the government to emphasize fossil fuels in the national energy plan for hydrogen. Along with the big automakers, energy companies also formed a consortium called the International Hydrogen Infrastructure Group to monitor federal officials charged with developing fuel cells. "Basically," says Neil Rossmeissl, a hydrogen standards expert at the Department of Energy, "what they do is look over our shoulder at doe to make sure we are doing what they think is the right thing."
As hydrogen gained momentum, the oil companies rushed to buy up interests in technology companies developing ways to refine and store the new fuel. Texaco has invested $82 million in a firm called Energy Conversion Devices, and Shell now owns half of Hydrogen Source. BP, Chevron-Texaco, ExxonMobil, Ford, and General Electric have also locked up the services of many of America's top energy scientists, devoting more than $270 million to hydrogen research at MIT, Princeton, and Stanford.
Such funding will help ensure that oil and gas producers continue to profit even if automakers manage to put millions of fuel-cell cars on the road. "The major energy companies have several hundred billions of dollars, at the least, invested in their businesses, and there is a real interest in keeping and utilizing that infrastructure in the future," says Frank Ingriselli, former president of Texaco Technology Ventures. "And these companies certainly have the balance sheets and wherewithal to make it happen."
The stakes in the current battle over hydrogen are high. Devoting the bulk of federal research funding to making hydrogen from fossil fuels rather than water will enable oil and gas companies to provide lower-priced hydrogen. That, in turn, means that pipelines built to transport hydrogen will stretch to, say, a BP gas field in Canada, rather than an independent wind farm in North Dakota. Even if the rest of the world switches to hydrogen manufactured from water, says Nicklas, "Americans may end up dependent on fossil fuels for generations."
The administration's plans to manufacture hydrogen from fossil fuels could also contribute to global warming by leaving behind carbon dioxide. Oil and coal companies insist they will be able to "sequester" the carbon permanently by pumping it deep into the ocean or underground. But the doe calls such approaches "very high risk," and no one knows how much that would cost, how much other environmental disruption that might cause, or whether that would actually work. "Which path we take will have a huge effect one way or the other on the total amount of carbon pumped into the atmosphere over the next century," says James MacKenzie, a physicist with the World Resources Institute.
Even if industry manages to safely contain the carbon left behind, the Bush administration's plan to extract hydrogen from fossil fuels will wind up wasting energy. John Heywood, director of MIT's Sloan Automotive Lab, says a system that extracts hydrogen from oil and natural gas and stores it in fuel cells would actually be no more energy efficient than America's present gasoline- based system.
"If the hydrogen does not come from renewable sources," Heywood says, "then it is simply not worth doing, environmentally or economically." More >
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 29 May 2003 @ 16:34
ISM Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize - Letter of Nomination
To: The Norwegian Nobel Committee
Drammensveien 19
0255 Oslo Norway
Dear Committee Members,
AS a member of the House of Commons of Canada, and as the International Human Rights advocate for the New Democratic Party of Canada, it is my pleasure to nominate the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) for the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize.
The contribution of the ISM to advancing the cause of peace in the Middle East, to defending human rights, and to upholding international law is without parallel. This organization's selfless efforts to promote peace and protect the lives of innocent civilians in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict clearly merit international recognition.
Although this nomination is for the ISM as a whole, three young individuals merit particular recognition for the courage and resolve they displayed in their acts of non-violent civil disobedience in defence of peace and human rights in the Palestinian Occupied Territories.
These individuals are Brian Avery and Tom Hurndall, who miraculously survived sniper shots to the head by Israeli forces while they were defending Palestinian civilians from Israeli troops, and Rachel Corrie, who was crushed to death by an Israeli Defence Force bulldozer while attempting to prevent the demolition of the home of an innocent Palestinian family.
A Nobel Peace Prize for the ISM would be a fitting testament to the fortitude and principle exemplified by the members of this organization and these three individuals in particular.
Thank you for accepting this nomination.
Sincerely yours,
Svend J Robinson, MP
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| Wednesday, May 28, 2003 | |
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 28 May 2003 @ 21:41
Mars Anomaly Research
COLOSSAL WATERFALLS TURNED SOLID
Investigative Report #50
Joseph P. Skipper
May 6, 2003
As you can see in the above first image from MGS MOC strip M11-00111, this will no doubt be regarded as some of the most striking looking evidence to come from Mars. It is strange and fantastic looking but the real question is, what is it evidence of?
Full Article With Photos Here More >
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28 May 2003 @ 13:15
Melting of Earth's Ice Cover Reaches New High
Selected Examples of Ice Melt Around the World
A great chart and resource from [link] More >
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 28 May 2003 @ 12:53
Gas-Electric Hybrids: The New Breed
Increasingly, Americans are willing to give gas-electric hybrid vehicles a try, according to an automotive research firm.
In a study, J.D. Power and Associates said "desire" for the technology that mates a gasoline engine to an electric motor for a more fuel-efficient power plant rose from 20 percent to 29 percent in five years, ending in 2002.
By early in calendar 2003, as gasoline prices rose to record and near-record levels across the country, Honda's Civic Hybrid model posted record monthly sales in February and Toyota's Prius hybrid was at near-record sales levels.
"We're not surveying buyers, but our only guess is [Prius] sales are up because of gas price increases," said Toyota spokeswoman Holly Ferris.
Indeed, Power's research showed fuel efficiency was the No. 1 reason why buyers selected a hybrid. In an earlier study, Power found women a bit more interested in hybrids than were men.
Three Models Now
To be sure, even record sales of hybrid vehicles are small when compared with sales of more mainstream vehicles.
For example, the record Civic Hybrid sales totaled 2,274 in February 2003. Prius sales totaled a record 1,968 in February. In comparison, for every Civic Hybrid and Prius that were sold that month, more than six Ford Explorer SUVs were sold.
Currently, there are only three gas-electric hybrids are on the market and all come from Japan-based automakers.
The 2003 Honda Insight is the most frugal in its gasoline use, with a federal economy rating of 61 miles a gallon in city driving and 68 mpg on the highway, for a combined rating of 64 mpg. This is for a model with a manual transmission.
The 2003 Toyota Prius comes only with a continuously variable transmission and is rated at 52 mpg in the city and 45 mpg on the highway, for a combined rating of 48 mpg.
The 2003 Honda Civic Hybrid with a manual transmission also has a combined rating of 48 mpg. Specifically, it's rated at 46 mpg in the city and 51 mpg in highway driving.
Each of the three has a starting manufacturer's suggested retail price just under $20,000.
New hybrid models are coming. Among them: a larger, updated Prius which promises more performance and "zip" as well as greater fuel efficiency when it goes on sale late in calendar 2003, according to a Toyota official. The Lexus luxury brand plans a hybrid version of its popular RX 330 sport utility in 2004, and Ford's Escape Hybrid SUV will be available for consumers that same year.
Easy to Drive
Each of the hybrid models is driven just like a regular car. Owners fill the fuel tank with gasoline, just as they would any other car, albeit a bit less often because of the good gas mileage.
Despite having an electric motor on board, a hybrid driver doesn't ever plug the car in. The electric motor powers itself using energy from regenerative braking and other sources.
In fact, the Honda Civic Hybrid, in particular, looks most like a "normal" car on the outside, because it uses the same four-door Civic sedan body that other gasoline-only Civics use.
How Hybrids Work
Note that hybrids aren't necessarily identical in their operation. But in simplistic terms, their systems are similar. An internal combustion engine provides the basic propulsion for hybrid vehicles, but is aided by an onboard electric motor.
However, how and when the electric motor assists can differ.
In Honda's front-wheel-drive Insight and Civic, the electric motor provides the torque for the front wheels right at the start of acceleration from a standstill. As the car picks up speed, the internal combustion engine kicks in, and at top highway speeds, the gas engine alone provides the power.
More Hybrids Due
Civic, which ranks as the No. 1 small car nameplate in the U.S., won't be the last to use a mainstream, existing vehicle body to house a hybrid powerplant. Ford officials have indicated the upcoming Escape hybrid will use the same body as the current Escape SUV.
Even though the current three hybrid models all use four-cylinder engines, larger engines can be hybridized, too. For example, the hybrid RX 330 will have a V6.
"My dream is that buyers never mention fuel economy," said Robert Bienenfeld, senior manager of automobile product planning and alternate fuel vehicle sales and marketing at American Honda Motor Co. Inc. "This is, really, just another powertrain option for people . . . You know, the technology truly is transparent because drivers don't have to learn how to drive this car."
Meanwhile, General Motors Corp. plans to offer a hybrid version of its full-size trucks, the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra, late this year. These hybrids will have engines that turn themselves off at traffic lights when the vehicles are stopped, thus saving on fuel.
GM's Saturn division also is promised a gas-electric hybrid version of its VUE sport-utility vehicle, likely in 2005. Other automaker hybrids are due in 2006 and after.
There is at least one catch, though. At the outset, these environmentally friendly models are likely to cost more than comparable vehicles with internal combustion engines only.
For example, the 2003 Civic Hybrid carries a starting MSRP of $19,550. This was for a model with five-speed manual transmission. The Civic Hybrid with a continuously variable transmission (CVT) that operates like an automatic transmission is some $1,000 higher.
This compares with an MSRP of less than $16,000 for a 2003 Civic LX sedan that has many of the Hybrid's standard interior features, such as side airbags, cruise control, air conditioning and four-cylinder engine.
The reason for the higher prices? Automakers are seeking to recoup the costs of researching and developing the new technology.
Consumers seem to recognize the technology is likely to cost a bit more.
The J.D. Power study found that of the car buyers who said they'd consider a hybrid, nearly one-third said they'd buy one even if the savings from reduced fuel costs during their ownership period didn't offset the higher vehicle purchase price.
Improved Fuel Economy
Despite the differences, each hybrid reaps benefits over conventionally powered counterparts. Fuel economy is a top benefit.
The two-seat Insight hatchback has been the most fuel-efficient vehicle on America's roads since its debut in late calendar 1999, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The Civic Hybrid's estimated 48 mpg rating for combined city and highway travel compares with a maximum 33 mpg in the city and 39 mpg on the highway for a regular Civic with 1.7-liter four-cylinder gasoline engine mated to a five-speed manual.
Driving Performance
Ford Motor Co. officials say their first hybrid, the Escape SUV, will pair a four-cylinder engine with an electric motor.
The result, they say, will be improved performance of the four-cylinder-powered vehicle, so much so it is expected to match the performance of a V6-powered Escape.
Yet they expect the Escape hybrid to have a fuel economy rating of 35 mpg to 40 mpg per gallon in city driving and 30 mpg on the highway. This compares with a four-cylinder base-level Escape rated at 23 mpg in city driving and 28 mpg on the highway.
Ann Job is an automotive journalist and writer for T&A Ink media group. More >
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| Wednesday, May 21, 2003 | |
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21 May 2003 @ 22:27
Credit and Copyright: Sebastien Gauthier
Explanation: After watching this month's lunar eclipse, amateur astronomer Sebastien Gauthier carefully composed this montage of telescopic images of the Moon sliding through planet Earth's shadow. While the deepest part of the total eclipse corresponds to the central exposure, the play of light across the lunar surface nicely demonstrates that the planet's shadow is not uniformly dark as it extends into space. In fact, lunar maria and montes are still visible in the dimmed, reddened sunlight scattered into the cone-shaped shadow region, or umbra, by Earth's atmosphere. For this eclipse, the Moon's trajectory took it North of the umbra's darker core, seen here cast over the Moon's cratered southern highlands. Gauthier's telescope and camera equipment were set up near the Trois-Rivieres College Champlain Observatory in Quebec, Canada.
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21 May 2003 @ 18:39
UN Human rights expert slams Israel on violations of the right to housing
UNHCHR, Report, 17 May 2003
Ruins of the house of 'Adbul Karim Abu Mustafa which was destroyed by Israeli occupying forces during an incursion into Khan Yunis refugee camp
The Special Rapporteur on adequate housing of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, Mr. Miloon Kothari, has expressed concern over the sharp rise in the destruction of property and land in the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT) since the build-up to the war in Iraq.
In a report submitted to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, in connection with the consideration of the second periodic report of Israel, Mr. Kothari writes that the war against Iraq and current Israeli methods of occupation demonstrate a disturbing pattern of military conduct that targets civilian infrastructure as if it was a legitimate military objective.
The right to adequate housing, including access to civic services and infrastructure, has emerged as a common casualty of this abhorrent conduct, the report says.
The human rights situation over the past years in the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT) has deteriorated substantially. The international community has repeatedly condemned Israel’s illegal collective punishment against the Palestinian people in the OPT, its policy of demolition of Palestinian houses and civilian property, massive confiscation and destruction of Palestinian land, deprivation of livelihoods (through closures and curfews), killing of Palestinian civilians, and the deteriorating condition of the Palestinian infrastructure and economy.
These Israeli actions breach international human rights and humanitarian law, the human rights instruments Israel has ratified, the Geneva Conventions and Hague Resolutions as well as various binding UN resolutions. However, Israel has completely ignored the position of the international community and its laws concerning the behavior of States. The Special Rapporteur on adequate housing of the Commission on Human Rights is particularly concerned that these acts have left thousands of residents homeless and harmed the livelihood of thousands more.
In his reports (see E/CN.4/2003/5/Add.1) and statements (most recently at the Commission on Human Rights on 4 April, 2003), the Special Rapporteur has consistently reiterated the need for the international community strongly to condemn and seek remedy for these crimes in this region of the world. The latest resolutions passed by the Commission on Human Rights on 15 April 2005, also strongly condemned these Israeli actions (see Commission resolutions 2003/6 and 2003/7). To assist the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in its consideration of the second periodic report of Israel by the, the Special Rapporteur also submitted a report.
The Special Rapporteur has previously emphasized the tremendous difficulties being faced by the Palestinian population, including the women, children and elderly. Israeli targeting and demolishing of Palestinian homes and other civic infrastructure, including PNA buildings, medical facilities, schools, mosques, factories and workshops, farms, water channels and sanitation facilities, and electricity and communication networks, illegal implantation and expansion of settler colonies, and parallel incursions into Palestinian areas and imposition of curfews and closures and obstruction of humanitarian and development assistance have not only an immediate impact on the Palestinians, but also a severe long-term impact – physical, material, economic as well as psychological.
During the past few months when the international community’s attention had been diverted to the build-up to the war in Iraq, there had been repeated fears from various quarters that the state of Israel would use the opportunity to further perpetrate and escalate its international law and human rights violations in the OPT. Unfortunately, the fears have been proved only too right, as the Israeli activities increased exponentially during the build-up to, as well as during the forced war on Iraq.
The focus on the unnecessary war and consequences in Iraq has diverted donor attention away from the Palestine at a time when UNRWA has issued its most dire call for humanitarian assistance to date, the Special Rapporteur says.
Citing numbers by NGO sources the Special Rapporteur points to the clear extent of escalation of Israeli destructive activities. Until the middle of March 2003, Israel had destroyed about 886 homes, 176 commercial and industrial facilities, damaged thousands of other houses and buildings, and razed about 1,458.5 dunums of agricultural land, and arrested hundreds of people. In Gaza, UNRWA reports that the Israeli army damaged 1,483 homes in 2002, of which 694 were refugee shelters. The total of Palestinian homes damaged there at end-2002 was at least 2,424. The number of Gaza homes that the army completely destroyed in 2002 totaled 704, leaving 23,122 people homeless, including a majority of children.
In the Northern Gaza governorate alone, the destructive pattern over the 1st 70 days of 2003 has involved:
Homes destroyed in 70 days – 439
Homes destroyed in the 1st two years of Intifada – 339
Commercial stores destroyed in 70 days – 13
Commercial stores destroyed in the 1st two years of Intifada –21
Industrial facilities destroyed in 70 days – 8
Industrial facilities destroyed in the1st two years of Intifada –21
Land razed in 70 days – 1200 dunums
Land razed in the 1st two years of Intifada – 6131 dunums
This represents a sharp 1,140% increase over the 2001–02 rate of destruction.
The most recent available figures on house demolitions and land confiscations confirm this sharp raise in violations. From 1 April to 7 May a total of 70 homes, 635 dunums of planted agricultural landed in the West Bank and the Gaza strip were destroyed.
The Special Rapporteur once again strongly condemns this long escalation of violations against the Palestinian people and reiterates his position that Israel has used the current crisis of the war against Iraq and its aftermath to consolidate its occupation of the OPT. The Special Rapporteur calls for an immediate cessation of the Israeli violations, as well as strongly posits the need for an end to the occupation and for the immediate deployment of an international protection force in the region. In the present era when the international community is striving to move toward a more just, civilized, orderly and peaceful world, it will be impossible to make progress toward this goal unless the Israeli occupation ends and all States behave responsibly under law.
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 21 May 2003 @ 18:30
Take water and potash, add electricity and get - a mystery
By Robert Matthews
Science Correspondent
news.telegraph.uk
(Filed: 18/05/2003)
British researchers believe that they have made a groundbreaking scientific discovery after apparently managing to "create" energy from hydrogen atoms.
In results independently verified at Bristol University, a team from Gardner Watts - an environmental technology company based in Dedham, Essex - show a "thermal energy cell" which appears to produce hundreds of times more energy than that put into it. If the findings are correct and can be reproduced on a commercial scale, the thermal energy cell could become a feature of every home, heating water for a fraction of the cost and cutting fuel bills by at least 90 per cent.
The makers of the cell, which passes an electric current through a liquid between two electrodes, admit that they cannot explain precisely how the invention works. They insist, however, that their cell is not just a repeat of the notorious "cold fusion" debacle of the late 1980s. Then two scientists claimed to have found a way of generating nuclear energy from a similar-looking device at room temperature. The findings were widely challenged and the scientists, Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons, accused of incompetence, fled America to set up labs in France.
"We are absolutely not saying this is cold fusion, or that we have found a way round the law of energy conservation," said Christopher Davies, the managing director of Gardner Watts.
"What we are saying is that the device seems to tap into another, previously unrecognised source of energy."
According to Mr Davies, the cell is the product of research into the fundamental properties of hydrogen, the most common element in the universe. He argues that calculations based on quantum theory, the laws of the sub-atomic world, suggest that hydrogen can exist in a so-called metastable state that harbours a potential source of extra energy.
This theory suggests that if electricity were passed into a mixture of water and a chemical catalyst, the extra energy would be released in the form of heat.
After some experimentation, the team found that a small amount of electricity passed through a mixture of water and potassium carbonate - potash - released an astonishing amount of energy.
"It generates a lot of heat in a very small volume," said Christopher Eccles, the chief scientist at Gardner Watts.
The findings of the Gardner Watts team were tested by Dr Jason Riley of Bristol University, who found energy gains of between three and 26 times what had been put in.
In a written report, Dr Riley concluded: "Using the apparatus supplied by Gardner Watts and the procedure of analysis suggested by the company, there appears to be an energy gain in the system."
In tests performed for The Telegraph, the cell heated water to near-boiling, apparently producing more than three times the amount of energy fed into it.
Scientists admit to being astonished by the sheer size of the energy increase produced by the cell. "I've never seen a claim like this before," said Prof Stephen Smith of the physics department at Essex University.
"In the case of cold fusion, people talked about getting a 10 per cent energy gain or so, which could be explained away quite easily but this is much too big for that."
Prof Smith said he was sceptical about the theory put forward by the company. He conceded, however, that scientists had also been baffled by the source of energy driving radioactivity, as the key equation involved - Einstein's famous E=MC2 - had yet to be discovered.
According to Prof Smith, if there is a flaw in the company's claims, it lies in the measurement of the amount of electrical energy pumped into the cell. It is possible that, as sparks pass between the electrodes, there is an energy surge which would not be picked up by the instruments measuring the electrical input.
Prof Smith said: "This needs to be very carefully checked, as there could be far more energy going in than the makers think."
Prof Smith's views were echoed by Dr Riley, who said: "There's no doubt that there was a heat rise but I'd like to see a more thorough investigation of the electrical energy supplied into the cell."
While many scientists are trying to solve the mystery of the thermal energy cell, its huge commercial potential has already caused interest.
Cambridge Consultants, one of Britain's most prestigious technology consultancies, has teamed up with Mr Davies and his colleagues to develop a working prototype. "We've had a multi-disciplinary team working on this, and we're perplexed," said Duncan Bishop, head of process development at Cambridge Consultants.
"We are offering to risk-share on it, as it will need about £200,000 to prove the principle behind it."
According to the Gardner Watts team, it will take about six months to carry out tests putting the reality of the effect beyond all doubt. The company then plans to develop a prototype capable of turning less than one kilowatt of electrical power into 10 kilowatts of heat.
Mr Davies said: "The technology could be licensed by a company making household boilers for the domestic market. " He added that the plan is to have the first thermal energy cell devices on the market within two years.
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 21 May 2003 @ 12:30
Radical Spy Plan Nearly In Sneaks Under The Radar
By ROBYN E. BLUMNER
Times Perspective Columnist
St. Petersburg Times
published May 11, 2003
It all happened behind closed doors, like government mischief typically does. The Bush administration and Republican leaders in Congress attempted to sneak through a provision in the intelligence authorization bill pending before Congress that would give the Central Intelligence Agency and the military the ability to investigate Americans.
Word of the pending amendment was brought to light last week through a leak to a public interest organization. (Thank you, whoever you are.) The amendment would allow the CIA and Pentagon to issue administrative subpoenas or national security letters to order businesses such as telephone and credit card companies and financial institutions to turn over their records on customers - all without court approval.
Up until passage of the USA Patriot Act in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, the FBI could use national security letters under highly circumscribed conditions: to obtain information for counterterrorism or counterespionage investigations only when there was reason to believe the person whose records were sought was a foreign agent or terrorist. But the Patriot Act wiped away those specificity and suspicion requirements. Now the FBI can demand whole databases of records on every customer without any individual suspicion as long as it is in the context of an authorized antiterrorism or intelligence probe. That means all our credit card data, Internet logs and other records are there for the taking upon the signature of the attorney general or his designee.
According to published reports of a private Senate Intelligence Committee meeting on May 1, when Democrats were alerted to the measure expanding this authority to the CIA and the military they objected and it was pulled from the bill.
Though the CIA now says it is no longer pursuing the power, the New York Times reported that Republican Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has indicated he doesn't intend to let the matter drop.
Giving law enforcement the ability to conduct a search of personal records without judicial oversight is problematic enough in the hands of the FBI. But the notion that it should be offered to two institutions that do not generally operate within constitutional constraints is so patently ignorant of the checks built into our system of limited government that it is hard to believe the proposal wasn't just a bad joke.
As flagrantly irresponsible as Bush and his inner circle have been relative to the separation of powers, they have to know it is sacrosanct to American liberty to keep both the CIA and the military from intelligence gathering on our soil. As Kate Martin, director of the Center for National Security Studies, says, "the whole point of the CIA is to operate outside the law." You remember, don't you? Assassination attempts, supporting military coups to protect overseas business interests and markets, a network of spies with no warrants required.
When the CIA was created in 1947 it was purposely given a wide berth to operate overseas, but as a safety valve for American freedom it was prohibited from engaging in internal security or law enforcement functions. Protections such as barring the CIA from exercising subpoena power were put in place in part because Harry S. Truman was concerned about creating another Gestapo.
Similarly, constraints on the military were established to keep it from becoming a tool of repression for the federal government. The armed forces have been explicitly prohibited from engaging in law enforcement since 1878 under the Reconstruction-era Posse Comitatus Act. Former Georgia congressman Bob Barr, a Republican and persistent opponent of mingling the military with police work, puts the reason bluntly: "When we send the Marines overseas we don't have them carry a copy of the Miranda rights."
The military seems to have absorbed this vital distinction. Ken McClellan, a Defense Department spokesman, said all domestic intelligence gathering is referred to the Justice Department. And as to giving the military access to national security letters, McClellan said as far as he knows "no one from here drafted that language."
It seems the desire for this additional authority came from the CIA and the administration. If so, it is an astounding admission that the CIA and the FBI are still not cooperating in a way that was demanded after Sept. 11.
Jim Dempsey, executive director of the Center for Democracy and Technology, notes that the CIA claims it needs this power because the FBI isn't acting quickly enough to get it information or isn't sharing information. "And yet that was one of the fundamental failings identified that contributed to 9/11, and one of the fundamental reforms was breaking down the wall (between the agencies.)"
Remarkably, says Dempsey, the response is not to fix the problem but to codify it. Giving the CIA the capacity to get its own information will virtually ensure that the turf-protective culture within each intelligence agency will be perpetuated - a response that clearly makes us less safe.
There is hope within the civil liberties community that we've seen the last of this untenable idea in the near term. But who knows what the other side is capable of? Our leaders almost unleashed the CIA and military on Americans during a closed-door meeting with no public debate. Thank goodness for the watchdogs and the brave members of Congress who forced a retreat. Where would we be without them?
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 21 May 2003 @ 12:21
Though I'm kind of sick of all the Bush bashing, this (if accurate) gives some indication of his character, loyalties and agenda. For me it's not so much about what's wrong or right but more about evaluating an individuals response-ability in times of crisis and challenge. We must look at ourselves with equal scrutiny as we do our leaders. We all have impact on our sphere of influence
This document analysis was complied and published by Kelly Kramer and is presented here under the Fair Use Act for educational purposes.
George W. Bush Resume
Past work experience:
·Ran for congress and lost.
·Produced a Hollywood slasher B movie.
·Bought an oil company, but couldn't find any oil in Texas, company went bankrupt.
·Bought the Texas Rangers baseball team in a sweetheart deal that took land using taxpayer money. Biggest move: Traded Sammy Sosa to the Chicago White Sox.
·With fathers help (and his name) was elected Governor of Texas.
Accomplishments: Changed pollution laws for power and oil companies and made Texas the most polluted state in the Union. Replaced Los Angeles with Houston as the most smog ridden city in America. Cut taxes and bankrupted the Texas government to the tune of billions in borrowed money. Set record for most executions by any Governor in American
history.
·Became president after losing the popular vote by over 500,000 votes, with the help of my fathers appointments to the Supreme Court.
Accomplishments as president:
·Attacked and took over two countries.
·Spent the surplus and bankrupted the treasury.
·Shattered record for biggest annual deficit in history.
·Set economic record for most private bankruptcies filed in any 12 month period.
·Set all-time record for biggest drop in the history of the stock market.
·First president in decades to execute a federal prisoner.
·First president in US history to enter office with a criminal record.
·First year in office set the all-time record for most days on vacation by any president in US history.
·After taking the entire month of August off for vacation, presided over the worst security failure in US history.
·Set the record for most campaign fundraising trips than any other president in US history.
·In my first two years in office over 2 million Americans lost their job.
·Cut unemployment benefits for more out of work Americans than any president in US history.
·Set the all-time record for most foreclosures in a 12 month period.
·Appointed more convicted criminals to administration positions than any president in US history.
·Set the record for the least amount of press conferences than any president since the advent of television.
·Signed more laws and executive orders amending the Constitution than any president in US history.
·Presided over the biggest energy crises in US history and refused to intervene when corruption was revealed.
·Presided over the highest gasoline prices in US history and refused to use the national reserves as past presidents have
·Cut healthcare benefits for war veterans.
·Set the all-time record for most people worldwide to simultaneously take to the streets to protest me (15 million people), shattering the record for protest against any person in the history of mankind.
http://www.hyperreal.org/~dana/marches
·Dissolved more international treaties than any president in US history.
·My presidency is the most secretive and unaccountable of any in US history.
·Members of my cabinet are the richest of any administration in US history. (The 'poorest' multimillionaire, Condoleezza Rice has a Chevron oil tanker named after her).
·First president in US history to have all 50 states of the Union simultaneously go bankrupt.
·Presided over the biggest corporate stock market fraud of any market in any country in the history of the world.
·First president in US history to order a US attack and military occupation of a sovereign nation.
·Created the largest government department bureaucracy in the history of the United States.
·Set the all-time record for biggest annual budget spending increases, more than any president in US history.
·First president in US history to have the United Nations remove the US from the human rights commission.
·First president in US history to have the United Nations remove the US from the elections monitoring board.
·Removed more checks and balances, and have the least amount of congressional oversight than any presidential administration in US history.
·Rendered the entire United Nations irrelevant.
·Withdrew from the World Court of Law.
·Refused to allow inspectors access to US prisoners of war and by default no longer abide by the Geneva Conventions.
·First president in US history to refuse United Nations election inspectors (during the 2002 US elections).
All-time US (and world) record holder for most corporate campaign donations.
·My biggest lifetime campaign contributor presided over one of the largest corporate bankruptcy frauds in world history (Kenneth Lay, former CEO of Enron Corporation).
·Spent more money on polls and focus groups than any president in US history.
·First president in US history to unilaterally attack a sovereign nation against the will of the United Nations and the world community.
·First president to run and hide when the US came under attack (and then lied saying the enemy had the code to Air Force 1)
·First US president to establish a secret shadow government.
·Took the biggest world sympathy for the US after 911, and in less than a year made the US the most resented country in the world (possibly the biggest diplomatic failure in US and world history).
·With a policy of 'disengagement' created the most hostile
Israeli-Palestine relations in at least 30 years.
·Fist US president in history to have a majority of the people of Europe (71%) view my presidency as the biggest threat to world peace and stability.
·First US president in history to have the people of South Korea more threatened by the US than their immediate neighbor, North Korea.
·Changed US policy to allow convicted criminals to be awarded
government contracts.
·Set all-time record for number of administration appointees who violated US law by not selling huge investments in corporations bidding for government contracts.
·Failed to fulfill my pledge to get Osama Bin Laden 'dead or alive.'
·Failed to capture the anthrax killer who tried to murder the leaders of our country at the United States Capitol building. After 18 months I have no leads and zero suspects.
·In the 18 months following the 911 attacks I have successfully prevented any public investigation into the biggest security failure in the history of the United States.
·Removed more freedoms and civil liberties for Americans than any other president in US history.
·In a little over two years created the most divided country in decades, possibly the most divided the US has ever been since the civil war.
·Entered office with the strongest economy in US history and in less than two years turned every single economic category heading straight down.
Records and References:
·At least one conviction for drunk driving in Maine (Texas driving record has been erased and is not available).
·AWOL from National Guard and Deserted the military during a time of war.
·Refuse to take drug test or even answer any questions about drug use.
·All records of my tenure as governor of Texas have been spirited away to my fathers library, sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public view.
·All records of any SEC investigations into my insider trading or bankrupt companies are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public view.
·All minutes of meetings for any public corporation I served on the board are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public view.
·Any records or minutes from meetings I (or my VP) attended regarding public energy policy are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public review.
·For personal references please speak to my daddy or Uncle James Baker (They can be reached at their offices of the Carlyle Group for war-profiteering.) More >
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 21 May 2003 @ 11:45
Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are among the world's five worst conflict zones in which to be a woman or a child, according to a new report issued by international non-governmental organisation Save the Children, ahead of Mothers' Day to on 11 May.
"Women and children in these countries endure terrible suffering as a result of armed conflict and insecurity," the NGO reported, naming the other three countries as Afghanistan, Angola and Sierra Leone.
According to Save the Children's report, titled State of the World's Mothers, some four million women and six million children under 15 years are "imperiled by war in these five countries alone".
The report featured a "conflict protection scorecard" that analysed 40 ongoing conflicts in the world, indicating where the safety and security of mothers and children were most at risk.
The scorecard addressed types of protection needed by women and children in war zones. These included protection from sexual violence, trafficking and prostitution, military recruitment of children, psychological trauma and family separation.
Among other recommendations, the report urged the United States Congress to pass, and President George Bush to sign into law, the Women and Children in Armed Conflict Protection Act of 2003, which the NGO said would set aside $45-million so that US government agencies that provided
humanitarian aid would include a women's and children's protection component "every time they give emergency help".
Read The State of the World's Mothers report here
Daily Mail & Guardian
Date: 08 May 2003 13:29
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 21 May 2003 @ 11:45
The 14 Defining Characteristics Of Fascism
Free Inquiry
Spring 2003
5-11-3
Dr. Lawrence Britt has examined the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia) and several Latin American regimes. Britt found 14 defining characteristics common to each:
1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism - Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.
2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights - Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of
prisoners, etc.
3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause -The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.
4. Supremacy of the Military - Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military
service are glamorized.
5. Rampant Sexism - The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Divorce, abortion and homosexuality are suppressed and the state is represented as the ultimate guardian of the
family institution.
6. Controlled Mass Media - Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.
7. Obsession with National Security - Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.
8. Religion and Government are Intertwined - Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposedto the government's policies or actions.
9. Corporate Power is Protected - The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.
10. Labor Power is Suppressed - Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed.
11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts - Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts and letters is openly attacked.
12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment - Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with
virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.
13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption - Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes
for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.
14. Fraudulent Elections - Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.
They Thought They Were Free
By Milton Mayer
"They Thought They Were Free: The Germans 1933-1945",
University of Chicago Press. Reissued in paperback, April, 1981.
As Harpers Magazine noted when the book was published in 1955 (U. of Chicago), Milton Mayerâsextraordinarily far-sighted book on the Germans is more timely today than ever•
This crucial book tells how and why 'decent men' became Nazis through short biographies of 10 law-abiding citizens. An American journalist of German/Jewish descent, Mr. Mayer provides a fascinating window into the lives, thoughts and emotions of a people caught up in the rush of the Nazi movement. It is a book that should make people pause and think -- not only about the Germans, but also about themselves. More >
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 21 May 2003 @ 11:27
Interesting comparison and chart of how "The Matrix" movie parallels the life of Jesus.
Here's the intoduction:
Please understand,...I'm not saying that The Matrix is THE Messiah Movie! But it is A Messiah Movie! And remember that The Matrix was released the weekend of Easter 1999 (and if you don't mind a rhetorical question,....What is it that is celebrated at Easter.....?). That release date turns out to be very significant! Please keep that in mind as you consider these points as parallels with the life story of Christ:
Here's the Compaative Chart More >
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 21 May 2003 @ 11:18
"Those who have the solutions more often than not create the problems in the first place" - anonymous
"It is better to look for what works before you focus on what's broken." - C.W. Metcalf
"The chief cause of problems is solutions." - anonymous
"Reality is what refuses to go away when I stop believing in it." - Philip K. Dick
"Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards." - Aldous Huxley
"It's not what you think, it's what you think about" - me
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 21 May 2003 @ 11:13
My friend Greg Hurley sent me this email and article. His editorial is something to think about.
"Let's see...hmmmmm...GPS tracking, banking records, medical records, criminal records, tax records...i.e. mark of the beast? - 'if you don't pay your taxes we'll shut you off'. Is this SECURITY? Does it PROTECT YOU? - hell NO!"
"Sacring you into compliance so that all your privacy is owned (tracked/recorded/managed) in a central database - effectively like cattle"
"This company has already come under scrutiny for initially calling this chip the 'digital angel', so they later changed it to verichip."
--------------------------------------------------------
From the Boston Globe
Barcoding Humans
The era of implanting people with identity chips is up on us
By Angela Swafford
Globe Correspondent
5/20/2003
The painless procedure barely lasted 15 minutes. In his South Florida office, Dr. Harvey Kleiner applied a local anesthetic above the tricep of my right arm, then he inserted a thick needle deep under the skin.
''First we locate a prime spot,'' he said. ''The next thing is to release the button that triggers the injection mechanism, and that's it, the cargo's been delivered.''
The ''cargo'' was a half-inch-long microchip inside a glass and silicone cylinder that carries my permanent identification number. For an instant, I remembered the famous scene in the movie ''Fantastic Voyage'' in which a miniaturized Raquel Welch and her companions are inserted, submarine and all, into the vein of a patient. In my case, the tiny chip inside me can transmit personal information to anyone with a special handheld scanner.
Theoretically, this VeriChip will allow doctors to call up my medical records even if I'm too badly hurt to answer questions. It is also supposed to allow me to get money from an automatic teller machine by flashing my arm instead of punching in my PIN number. Or reassure airport security that I am a journalist, not a terrorist.
And, though the VeriChip strikes critics as Orwellian, its makers think the surgically implanted IDs could be the Social Security numbers of the future in a nervous world.
''I believe the day will come when most of us will have something similar to the VeriChip under our skin,'' said Scott Silverman, president of Florida-based Applied Digital Solutions. ''People will regard that its benefits -- in terms of financial, security, and health care -- far outweigh the possibility of loss of privacy.''
Right now, I am part of a very small club, the 18th person in the world -- and the first journalist -- to get ''chipped.'' Most of the others are ADS employees along with one Florida family who have been jokingly dubbed ''the Chipsons'' in a play on the old Jetsons cartoon.
The idea of a system that gives emergency workers and others immediate access to potentially lifesaving information is exactly what drew the Jacobs family of Boca Raton to the VeriChip. At the request of their 14-year-old son, Derek, the Jacobses got chipped last year.
''My husband has cancer and we've experienced the frustrating delays of trying to provide urgent medical history information every time he is rushed into the emergency room,'' says Leslie Jacobs.
Since the attack on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, she continues, ''we know that our lives are increasingly vulnerable. If we want increased safety, security, and peace of mind, we need to take positive steps. We've decided that having a VeriChip is one way to do just that.''
But critics see surveillance technology like the VeriChip as a growing threat, giving potentially dangerous new power to businesses and government alike. In a report issued in January by the American Civil Liberties Union, Jay Stanley and Barry Steinhardt warned that an explosion of technology has already created a ''surveillance monster.''
''Scarcely a month goes by in which we don't read about some new high-tech way to invade people's privacy, from face recognition to implantable microchips, data mining, DNA chips, and even `brain wave fingerprinting,' '' they wrote. ''The fact is there are no longer any technical barriers to the Big Brother regime portrayed by George Orwell [in his novel `1984'].''
The VeriChip is similar to the more than 25 million chips already embedded in animals all over the world acting as ''pet passports,'' allowing customs officials to monitor those animals that do not need to go into quarantine, or to identify your stray dog.
But, at least for now, the VeriChip does much less: it's mainly for demonstration purposes, carrying only an identification number and the capacity for about three paragraphs of information. Only 10 hospitals and doctors in Florida have the scanner to read the chips. And the Food and Drug Administration has not yet approved the chips for use in health care, so they cannot be used to access medical records.
However, ADS officials say this is just the beginning. They want to build a chip that can store loads of information, or act as the key to a central database that stores information about the user. Ultimately, the company hopes to be able to track the movement of people with chips worldwide using global positioning satellites.
The company is field testing its Personal Locator Device, or PLD, which ADS says could help track lost children, sick elderly family members, mountain climbers who get lost, or kidnap victims. Company officials say they have been inundated with requests from private companies in Latin America, especially Mexico and Colombia.
The PLD is still years away from wide use, according to Keith Bolton, ADS's chief of technologies. The working prototype is rather large -- 2 1/2 inches in diameter -- and would require major surgery for implantation (though it appears some Israeli secret service agents already carry something similar). It is powered by a pacemaker battery, and, just like in a Tom Clancy book, it would let anyone with access to the PLD system follow the wearer anytime, anywhere in the world, at the click of a mouse.
''The PLD would also monitor the vital signs of the wearer, and the environmental conditions around that person, and it could be a great way to protect a family member with a disease such as Alzheimer's,'' says Bolton.
Businesses already use technology to track their products around the world, but we should stop and think about the implications before starting a human tracking system, cautions Mohan Tanniru, professor of information systems at the University of Arizona.
''I am not going to put a chip on my kid thinking that she could be kidnapped,'' he says, ''unless I know the chip will be activated only if I report that my kid is lost. But how do I know that the police are only going to activate it when I say so, and not when they feel like it? You can't just say that technology is bad just because it is there. So it is a matter of deciding what trusting agency should be given that responsibility.''
Tanniru actually thinks that human tracking might be welcome in certain cases, such as following criminals on probation or making sure foreign nationals don't overstay their visas. In fact, Pro Tech Monitoring of Tampa already makes an externally worn tracking device for parolees that alerts authorities if the wearer enters a forbidden area, such as a school zone.
For ADS's Silverman, both the VeriChip and its future GPS-based version are a matter of individual choice.
''No one is forcing you to have a VeriChip. If you want a chip in your right arm you are going to know it is there because you will see it injected. When you look at the events of 9/11 and the way people measure their own personal security today versus the way they did a few years ago, there is a much higher concern to make sure that family members are safe and sound, and some people now put that above privacy rights.''
So far, ADS's technology gamble has not translated into profits. In 2002, ADS lost $112 million on revenues of $96 million, though this loss is significantly lower that that of the previous year.
As far as I am concerned, having a chip with a code in it is not giving me the chills. I think it would be nice to use it to get cash or pay for gas, and I wouldn't mind paramedics having access to my health records in the blink of an eye. Besides, I know it would never get lost. I did, however, have a few questions about its health hazards. So I asked Dr. Kleiner.
''The VeriChip is extremely safe,'' he says. ''Pacemakers are hundreds of times larger and more complicated and nobody has problems with them. To prevent the chip from migrating to another part of the body there is a little polymer at one end of the capsule that will adhere to the skin and hold it in place.
At his office, my arm was like a barcoded product at a supermarket cash register: It beeped every time the scanner prodded the chip. It worked even through my clothes. Displayed on the screen was a long number with many zeroes. For good or bad, I thought, this chip may be quietly heralding a time when people will literally have technology under the skin. More >
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 21 May 2003 @ 11:03
Follow-up to human barcoding technology
Itsy Bitsy IC
Hitachi Ltd's prototype super-micro wireless automatic recognition IC chips, or "mu-chips", are shown on a fingertip in Tokyo.
The world's smallest class 0.4-mm IC chip, which can be incorporated into various materials -- even paper -- will make new business development possible in data management, authentication of luxury goods and currencies, and medical treatment, among other uses.
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 21 May 2003 @ 10:55
Ancient Nicaraguan Society Found
By Richard Black
BBC science correspondent
Archaeologists have discovered what they describe as a previously unknown ancient civilisation in Central America.
The site, near the Atlantic coast of Nicaragua, dates from before the Mayan era, and relics include what appears to be a centre for mass production of ceremonial columns.
Researchers have been working on the site at El Cascal de Flor de Pino, near the town of Kukra Hill for six years.
They've found evidence of an ancient town and several outlying villages, which developed around 2,700 years ago and lasted for a thousand years.
There are monuments, petroglyphs (rock carvings) and pottery, and most remarkably, an area where many huge columns were formed out of rock - columns which may have been used at burial sites.
Extends Range
"The pottery is similar to pre-classical pottery found at sites of similar age in Belize," Dr Ermengol Gassiot, of the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain, told BBC News Online.
"And the columns resemble those found at Mexican sites where they had ritual uses.
"The society had political centres. Kukra Hill, we believe, was a small town, and at least three villages lay around it and were dependent on it."
The newly discovered civilisation is similar to the societies that preceded the Mayan civilisation further to the north.
Independent experts say this shows that the process that led to the founding of the Mayan cities, such as Tikal, Palenque, or Copan (in Guatemala, Mexico, and Honduras respectively) covered a much larger geographical region than archaeologists have supposed up to now.
Time before
Much research remains to be done at El Cascal de Flor de Pino but it promises to reveal a vast amount about the various societies and customs which were eventually assimilated into the great culture of the Mayas.
Commenting on the discovery, Jeremy Sabloff, Williams Director of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, US, said: "This site sounds very exciting and full of potential.
"We're learning lots now about the pre-classical era - the groups which came before the Maya - and this discovery greatly extends the range of these pre-classical civilisations."
In addition to researchers from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), the Kukra Hill archaeological team includes members from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Nicaragua (UNAN-Managua), and the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC). More >
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 21 May 2003 @ 10:46
Google To "Fix" Blog Noise Problem
By Andrew Orlowski in San Francisco
Posted: 09/05/2003 at 01:04 GMT
Google is to create a search tool specifically for weblogs, most likely giving material generated by the self-publishing tools its own tab.
CEO Eric Schmidt made the announcement on Monday, at the JP Morgan Technology and Telecom conference. 'Soon the company will also offer a service for searching Web logs, known as "blogs,"' reported Reuters.
It isn't clear if weblogs will be removed from the main search results, but precedent suggests they will be. After Google acquired Usenet groups from Deja.com,it developed a unique user interface and a refined search engine, and removed the groups from the main index. After a sticky
start, Usenet veterans welcomed the new interface. Google recently acquired Blogger, and sources suggest this is the most likely option.
The Register, UK
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