#78: Hunger!/Peace!/Ecology/Medicine: NeuRx Diaphragm:
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1) Hunger!
Severn Cullis-Suzuki: http://tinyurl.com/3dtqhz
: Wiki Jun19,08: A Child's Cry for the Hungry: http://tinyurl.com/2qd47o
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'Africa’s Unnatural Disaster' Sameer Dossani; Pub. Thursday, June 26, 2008 by Foreign Policy in Focus: http://tinyurl.com/67erqc
: " Many parts of Africa have an advantage in that they have never really lost their traditional relationships with the land. The problem has been that cheaper food from Europe and the United States is often dumped on African countries, undercutting the possibility for farmers to earn a living from their production. In the case of Africa, all that may be needed is a sensible trade policy to protect those who already grow enough food for all Africans.
Sameer Dossani, a Foreign Policy In Focus contributor, is the director of 50 Years is Enough and blogs at shirinandsameer.blogspot.com. This commentary is adapted from a longer paper soon to be published by Africa Action.
Copyright © 2008, Institute for Policy Studies ""
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http://tinyurl.com/57zgty
2) PEACE!
“SEEK PEACE AND PURSUE IT”
Psalms 34:14
Third Anniversary Of Commencement of Iraq War: Saturday, March 18th
Saturdays at Noon—One Hour silent vigil for Peace
U.S. Capitol, West Lawn
Our silent gathering has continued each week since October 15, 2002, as a witness to our concern for peace in Iraq, its neighbors, the Middle East, and around the world.
Our silent vigil and witness for peace and nonviolence was started by a Quaker from the Langley Hill Friends Meeting in McLean, Virginia but we come from many religions and beliefs.
Our message is a positive one. We are encouraging the Congress and the nation to seek peace and build peace. We believe that a reverence for life should guide our nation’s actions, and that our country’s great strength should further the ideal of an international community based on respect and law.
We see many positive opportunities for diplomacy, trade, aid, multilateral organization building and military restraint that will sow the seeds of peace rather than plant the seeds of war.
Our vigil takes place every Saturday at noon for one hour on or near the West lawn of the U.S. Capitol. All who are seeking peace are welcome to join us in silence for our time here. As is our custom we stand with our only banner with the quote from Psalms 34:14, “Seek peace and pursue it.”
During our time here we are grateful for the support of our fellow citizens and foreign visitors who are also seeking peace in their own way. In our silence we are praying for all those affected by war, service people and civilians.
If you would like to join us for only a minute, or for the entire hour, that would be most welcome. Together we can hold your loved ones and the concern for peace in The Light. We welcome all peace-seekers, of any belief, race, or nationality, to gather with us in this silent witness.
For more information about the vigil, or to be on our list serve: garvey73@erols.com
“We have grasped the mystery of the atom, and rejected the Sermon on the Mount. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living.”
---General Omar Bradley
“No one is so foolish as to prefer to peace, war, in which, instead of sons burying their fathers, fathers bury their sons.”
---Croesus, King of Lydia, in Herodotus’ The Persian Wars
“If you want to make peace, you don’t talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies.”
---Moshe Dayan
“When will our consciences grow so tender that we will act to prevent human misery rather than avenge it.”
---Eleanor Roosevelt
“Very few people chose war. They chose selfishness and the result was war. Each of us, individually and nationally, must choose: total love, or total war.”
---David Dellinger
“Ever gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.”
---Dwight Eisenhower
“I hope…that mankind will at length, as they call themselves reasonable creatures, have reason and sense enough to settle their differences without cutting throats; for in my opinion there never was a good war, or a bad peace.”
---Benjamin Franklin
“I do not want the peace which passeth understanding, I want the understanding which bringeth peace.”
---Helen Keller
“Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.”
---Martin Luther King, Jr.
“We cannot have peace if we are only concerned with peace. War is not an accident. It is the logical outcome of a certain way of life. If we want to attack war, we have to attack the way of life.”
---A.J. Muste
“We must be prepared to make heroic sacrifices for the cause of peace that we make ungrudgingly for the cause of war. There is no task that is more important or closer to my heart.”
---Albert Einstein
“If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner.”
---Nelson Mandela
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http://tinyurl.com/3lcyng
War on Iraq
'Jeremy Scahill: Blackwater is Still in Charge, Deadly, Above the Law and Out of Control' Antonia Juhasz, AlterNet. Posted June 19, 2008.
: Think Blackwater's days are numbered? Think again. Jeremy Scahill explains why its slaughter of Iraqis has not stopped the notorious mercenary firm. bwpaperback
: On June 3, Jeremy Scahill's bestselling Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army was released in fully revised and updated paperback form. The new edition includes reporting on the now-famous Nisour Square massacre on Sept. 16 of last year, in which Blackwater mercenaries opened fire in a Baghdad neighborhood, brutally murdering 17 Iraqi civilians. The killing spree, which the U.S. Army would label a "criminal event," would reveal the extent of the lawlessnewss enjoyed by private contractors abroad and the lengths the Bush administration will go to protect its private army of choice.
Antonia Juhasz caught up with Scahill on the phone the day the new edition was released. A fellow at Oil Change International and author of The Bush Agenda, Juhasz is also the author of the forthcoming book The Tyranny of Oil: The World's Most Powerful Industry, and What We Must Do to Stop It. Juhasz and Scahill discussed, among other topics, the story behind Blackwater, congressional inaction, radical privatization, Barack Obama, corporate vs. independent media, GI resistance in the age of private mercenaries, getting real about challenging corporations and the power of dissent.
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USA's Iraq: http://tinyurl.com/4nusda
'Deals With Iraq Are Set to Bring Oil Giants Back' Andrew E. Kramer: Published on Thursday, June 19, 2008 by The New York Times:
: "" BAGHDAD - Four Western oil companies are in the final stages of negotiations this month on contracts that will return them to Iraq, 36 years after losing their oil concession to nationalization as Saddam Hussein rose to power.0619 02 1
Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total and BP - the original partners in the Iraq Petroleum Company - along with Chevron and a number of smaller oil companies, are in talks with Iraq’s Oil Ministry for no-bid contracts to service Iraq’s largest fields, according to ministry officials, oil company officials and an American diplomat.
The deals, expected to be announced on June 30, will lay the foundation for the first commercial work for the major companies in Iraq since the American invasion, and open a new and potentially lucrative country for their operations. "
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GSA=Georgia Strait Alliance, BC, Canada: http://www.georgiastrait.org/ GSA 2008
: "" Coastal Culture RaffleGeorgia Strait Alliance is the only citizens' group focused on protecting the marine environment in and around the whole Strait of Georgia – Canada's most at-risk natural environment, and the place where 70% of British Columbians live, work and play. We are committed to a future for our region that includes clean water and air, healthy wild salmon runs, rich marine life and natural areas, and sustainable communities. LEARN MORE ABOUT WHO WE ARE >
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'Electric Muscle Stimulation with NeuRx Diaphragm Pacer: More Natural Breathing Without a Ventilator' medGadget: Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Filed under: Rehab , Surgery
: "" The FDA has given clearance to Synapse Biomedical, Inc. (Cleveland, Ohio) to market their NeuRx Diaphragm Pacing Stimulation system for people with spinal cord injury. The device, that is typically implanted through minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery, is indicated for patients with diaphragm dysfunction.
The new device, already approved in Europe last year, uses electrodes attached directly to the diaphragm to electrically stimulate its movement. The result is more natural breathing, and, hopefully, reduced potential to develop pulmonary complications.
From the press release:
In the clinical trial, NeuRx DPS™ provided 98% of SCI patients who had been dependent on mechanical ventilation via a tracheostomy with an alternative that allowed them to breathe normally and live more active lives. To date, over 50% were able to be completely eliminate their need for mechanical ventilation. Patients may be able to transfer from ventilator wards to home or assisted living, and even travel. Speech patterns, often laborious and strained in ventilatordependent patients, return to normal. The senses of taste and smell, severely diminished in ventilatordependent patients, return.
Controlled through a fourchannel battery powered external pulse generator, the NeuRx DPS™ eliminates the need for a source of electricity and the concern for power outages. Patients and caregivers are easily trained in the use of the NeuRx DPS™ reducing the need for external medical supervision. Elimination and reduction of the use of a mechanical ventilator also greatly reduces the patient’s risk of a serious complication: Ventilator Acquired Pneumonia (VAP). In a peer review 2007 report in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Clinical of North America by Stephen P. Burns MD, the incidence of SCI pneumonia for initial admitted patients was reported to be as high as 50 percent. The associated mortality from pneumonia was reported as 28% in the first year.
Company video explaining the workings of the system...
Press release: Synapse Biomedical Receives FDA Approval of NeuRx Diaphragm Pacing System (DPS)™ For Spinal Cord Injury Breathing Applications
Product page: NeuRx Diaphragm Pacing Stimulation (DPS)™ System ...
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posted by bbcweb @ 6/19/2008 09:38:00 AM 0 comments
Saturday, June 14, 2008
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'Saving More Lives by Building a Better Scanner:
A new body scanner captures tumors, blood clots and leaky arteries in action'
By Michael Rosenwald; Posted Jun.20.2008 at 2:45 pm 0 Comments http://tinyurl.com/4ey7yh
The ONE Scanner: Photo by Toshiba
: "" To grasp the power of Toshiba’s new Aquilion ONE computed-tomography (CT) scanner, imagine facing a picturesque beach. Your camera doesn’t have a panoramic function, so you take snapshots pointing to the left, the center, and the right. You tape the photographs together and it looks gorgeous, sure, but you’re missing the action of the waves crashing on the sand.
Now imagine that you’re facing that same beach with a widescreen high-definition video recorder. The whole shoreline is in your lens, and you’re recording it all—the diameter of every grain of sand, the movement of every wave—in an image that can later be viewed from any angle you choose. That’s what the ONE does when taking pictures of your innards.
The machine, which took 10 years and $500 million to develop, could change the way doctors diagnose and treat such illnesses as stroke and heart attack, making many standard tests unnecessary. Take heart attacks. A guy walks into the ER with a crushing pain in his chest. Before the ONE, doctors might have ordered an EKG, a CT scan, a nuclear study and perhaps even an invasive catheterization. The tests would take days and cost thousands.
The ONE does nearly everything—filming, in high-resolution, dynamic volume imagery, how organs function—in 20 minutes or less, for under $1,000 and with 80 percent fewer x-rays than other CT scanners.
The Doctor Will See You Now: From left to right: A 3-D heart, captured in between beats; a detailed scan of the lungs; and an image of blood vessels in the brain can help doctors pinpoint strokes. Photo by Toshiba
Why the vast difference? A current CT machine takes pictures of organs by the slice, and the picture is stitched together. Although this method is great for spotting changes and tumors on organs, it doesn’t convey how the organ is functioning. The ONE, using 320 ultra-high-resolution x-ray detectors, each half a millimeter wide, rotates once around an organ and shows not just what it looks like but its blood flow too.
In the U.S., Toshiba has sold the $2.8-million machines to select hospitals in Baltimore, Boston and Las Vegas. The ONE costs about twice as much as a traditional multi-slice CT scanner, but company officials say it will end up saving money and physicians’ time because so many auxiliary tests won’t be needed. Toshiba expects to sell at least 200 of the scanners worldwide by next April. Says Doug Ryan, the senior director of its CT business unit, “This is a huge technology leap for us.” ""
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#77: Arts/做台灣主人TaiwanColony/Japan: Tsai Intang. 許世楷. 1) Beetles. 2) Bob Dylan. 3) ROC Genocide of Taiwan Leaders. 08.6.14=6 - 6.19=4 11pm.
#77: Arts/做台灣主人TaiwanColony/Japan: Tsai Intang. 許世楷. 1) Beetles. 2) Bob Dylan. 3) ROC Genocide of Taiwan Leaders:--------------------------------
Stogie Kenyatta’s One-Man Show 'The World is My Home-The Life & Times of Paul Robeson' & the Young Women’s Drumming Empowerment Project Friday, June 20, 2008 7:00 PM Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater, Washington DC Jewish Community Center 1529 16th Street NW, Washington DC 20036 (4 blocks from Dupont Circle, 16th & Q Streets) a benefit for Youth Leadership Support Network, www.worldyouth.org
Stogie Kenyatta brings a unique interpretation to the stage,where he majestically captures the essence of Paul Robeson. Portraying 10 characters he chronologically takes us thru the life of history's 1ST Black renaissance man & one of America's most complex, brilliant citizens.
Magnificently performed without intermission, with props, several wardrobe changes & an inspiring finger-snapping Jazz, Bebop,Gospel, Big band soundtrack. The play opens as Robeson's father, a 15 year old runaway slave, rides the underground railroad to freedom. As laugh -out loud funny & entertaining as it is educational, Kenyatta ages from a 5 year old Paul, to the 70 yr old, world weary warrior that the blacklisted Robeson had become.
Tickets $20 For more info: (202) 316-4403 info@worldyouth.org
Youth Leadership Support Network is a violence prevention, arts, education, media and training network based in Washington, D.C. Its mission is to empower youth to express themselves and have a voice in society through intergenerational and diverse leadership opportunities and civic engagement. Now in it’s 10th year, YLSN has worked with nearly twenty thousand youth, hundreds of musicians and artists, dozens of media mentors and networked with sister organizations around the block and around the world.
Help Sponsor this gala event, please email us by Thursday, June 19th so we can include you in the program.
Youth Leadership Support Network requests your sponsorship for our upcoming programs. YLSN is a non-profit 501(c)3 corporation. Your support will help produce the show and provide free tickets to area youth.
http://tinyurl.com/55s32y ==================================== ------------------------------------ '許世楷' 维基百科 Jun17,08 http://tinyurl.com/4sd2cp : "" 許世楷（1934年7月7日－），政治及歷史學者、台灣獨立運動的重要領袖之一、「台灣共和國憲法草案」的執筆人、2004年起則被任命為中華民國駐日本代表，在2008年5月19日提出辭呈，2008年6月捲入中日釣魚台主權紛爭之中，並被外交部下令返台。 " - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - '台湾は日本の生命線！' melma! Posted Jun15,08 http://tinyurl.com/4t2wb6 '「尖閣に軍艦を！」と叫んだ台北県知事―すべて中国の思惑通りだ' Jun12,08 http://tinyurl.com/3eugnu ----------------------------------- =================================== '520台灣民眾大會 - 做台灣主人' May20,08 http://www.taup.org.tw/ 台灣教授協會會長的話 關於「有情的心美好的仗」一書 - 2008-05-28 10:40 =================================== 1) 'Join the Beatles on our Magical Memory Tour' Telegraph.co.uk Jun10,08 http://tinyurl.com/5qw6tz Music is one of the most powerful stimuli for the key memories that make us who we are, says Roger Highfield - and we need you to tell us yours ----------------------------------- 2) 'Another side of Bob Dylan' The Independent Jun10,08 http://tinyurl.com/3qp49h Pied piper, poet and now painter, his artworks are the subject of a much-anticipated exhibition. But are they any good? Michael Glover offers his verdict : " some time between about 1989 and 1992, Bob Dylan took up drawing again. He'd drawn in the past, a great deal in the 1960s. In fact, after that mysterious motorcycle accident of his, he even spent some time in the bowels of Carnegie Hall being tutored in art by a Russian professor of painting. We'd seen his artwork on the sleeves of his albums, too – that strange, startled moon face that stares out at us from Self Portrait, for example, or that bristling sheaf of stark faces on the cover of Planet Waves. " -------------------------------------- 3) Taiwan Foundation:----------------- 'Hollywood Goes Taiwanese: Major Motion Picture Formosa Stars James Van Der Beek' http://tinyurl.com/3ly5rr : " the little known events of the White Terror period " : The systematic murders of a generation of the Taiwanese leadership, by the Chiang KMT ROC enlaving colonial terror rule of Taiwan, through the genocide of Taiwan leaders, supported by the USA in its "Cold War".
posted by bbcweb @ 6/14/2008 11:13:00 AM 0 comments
Friday, June 13, 2008
#76: Politics/US: DD. Seccession. Anarchism. US. Sirhan. 0) Fundamentalists. 1) "Pyrrhic Victory" French then American. 08.6.14=6 - 6.18=3 7pm.
#76: Politics:----------------------------- DD: Direct Democracies:----------------- '
Urban Action Camp 2008 http://tinyurl.com/6x3enu
Join us for the first No War No Warming Urban Action Camp! July 21-24 in Washington DC
"The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism" Naomi Klein: Sep18,07 http://tinyurl.com/5csr66 "" Editorial Reviews Amazon.ca Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine advances a truly unnerving argument: historically, while people were reeling from natural disasters, wars and economic upheavals, savvy politicians and industry leaders nefariously implemented policies that would never have passed during less muddled times. " ============================================== ---------------------------------------------- (-1) Seccession 'Oklahoma declares sovereignty'
Posted on June 15, 2008 by Lance http://tinyurl.com/5wco4v
"" I commend the state of Oklahoma for having the guts to stand up for the rights of the sovereign states. I am sure the Federal government is contemplating striking back. "
---------------------------------------------- (0) Anarchism: 'National-Anarchism: The Way of the Future' Flavio Goncalves http://tinyurl.com/6pmf79 Posted Jun15,08: "Home" to Arts? -------------------- 'National-Anarchism' Wikipedia Posted Jun15,08 http://tinyurl.com/5tsajp This article is specifically about the National-Anarchist movement. See Anarchism and nationalism for general information about fusions of nationalist and anarchist ideas. National-Anarchism is a syncretic political current that developed in the 1990s out of an attempt by former Third Positionists to reconcile anarchism with nationalism and in some cases voluntary racial separatism.[1] It has intellectual roots in the writings of Julius Evola and the neo-Spenglerian Francis Parker Yockey,[2] and includes Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Mikhail Bakunin, Peter Kropotkin, Leo Tolstoy, Murray Bookchin and Max Stirner among its influences.[2] Used in this sense, the term was coined simultaneously by Troy Southgate (England), Peter Töpfer (Germany) and Hans Cany (France), and was used by the now defunct National Revolutionary Faction to describe its ideology.[3] ================================== ================================== USA:------------------------------ 'Fantasies, Fables No Longer Enough For Fragile World' Caroline Arnold; Pub. Jun15,08 by CommonDreams.org http://tinyurl.com/58xgov ---------------------------------- (1) Presidency: 'Telling the Truth' Jun14,08 http://www.lewrockwell.com/reese/reese465.html : " The concept of an imperial president took root in the post-Eisenhower years. Before that, Harry Truman was fond of taking walks in downtown Washington. "E. warned against Military-Congressional-Industrial Complex which has took over and twisted further the USA. (2) 'Shot heard round the world' Stephen Kinzer, guardian.co.uk: Jun13,08 http://tinyurl.com/4hl6w4 It is now clear that Robert Kennedy's assassination 40 years ago was in fact an eminently political act : " Sirhan cried out as he was arrested. "I did it for my country!" " " born in 1944 to a Christian family in Jerusalem. " " Later his family moved to California, ... Israel seized East Jerusalem and other Arab territories in the Six-Day War of 1967. " " Sirhan timed his attack on Kennedy to coincide with the first anniversary of the opening of the Six-Day War. " " Foreign interventions and entanglements often produce unpredictable, even unimaginable long-term consequences. " =================================== 0) Fundamentalists:---------------- ' Worse Than Fascists: Christian Political Group 'The Family' Openly Reveres Hitler ' Lindsay Beyerstein, AlterNet. Posted Jun12,08 http://tinyurl.com/5bgjt4 In his new book, The Family, author Jeff Sharlet reveals sordid details about this power-hungry, inside-the-Beltway fundamentalist group. : "" Did you know that the National Prayer Breakfast is sponsored by a shadowy cabal of elite Christian fundamentalists? Jeff Sharlet's new book, "The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power," offers a rare glimpse of this remarkable network, which is known variously as the Family, the Fellowship and the International Foundation. The Family was founded 70 years ago by Abraham Vereide, a Norwegian immigrant evangelist based in Seattle. In 1935, Vereide said, God appeared to him in a vision and revealed where Christianity had gone wrong: preoccupation with the poor, the weak and the suffering. " --------------------------------------- 'Secrets of a powerful Family' Ian Munro, New York: theage.com.au: Jun14,08: http://tinyurl.com/3or2fd ======================================== 1) "Pyrrhic Victory" French then American: 'Pyrrhic Victory' William S. Lind: Jun13,08 http://tinyurl.com/5mw7nr : "" Robert Doughty's Pyrrhic Victory: French Strategy and Operations in the Great War, published in 2005, completes his trilogy on the French Army from 1914 to 1940. Both of his other books, The Seeds of Disaster, which is the definitive history of French Army doctrinal development between the wars, and The Breaking Point, the story of the French defeat at Sedan in 1940 when the Second and Third Generations of modern war met head-on, are in the canon. For those new to 4GW literature, the canon is the list of seven books which, read in the correct order, take the reader from the First Generation into the Fourth. It can be found as an appendix to FMFM 1-A, Fourth Generation War, on the d-n-i- website. " 2) 'Geopolitical Weekly: The U.S. Air Force and the Next War' George Friedman Jun11,08 attribution to www.stratfor.com http://tinyurl.com/4mfdo6 : " Fourth-generation warfare is warfare carried out by nonstate actors using small, decentralized units and individuals to strike at enemy forces and, more important, create political support among the population. " " unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are one of the keys to defeating the substate actor. " " The combination of space-based reconnaissance and the unmanned cruise missile — in particular, next-generation systems able to move at hypersonic speeds (in excess of five times the speed of sound) " "
posted by bbcweb @ 6/13/2008 08:20:00 PM 0 comments
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
#75: Philosophy: 0) Korea Symbols. 1) Capitalist Decivilization. 2) Ayn Rand. 3) Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) 08.6.11=3 - 6,19=4 11pm.
#75: Philosophy: 0) Korea Symbols. 1) Capitalist Decivilization. 2) Ayn Rand. 3) Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) ----------------------------------------------- 0) South Korean Symbols: Posted Jun15k08 http://tinyurl.com/6ozymd East: Heaven=geon: Spring: Virtue West: Earth==gon:: Summer: Justice South:Sun====n:::: Autumn: Courtesy North:Moon===gam:: Winter: Wisdom http://tinyurl.com/3qs7vl http://tinyurl.com/3sjmko http://tinyurl.com/3rkpfq ------------------------------ 1) Capitalist Decivilization 'A Civilizing Port in a Storm' Jun14,08 http://tinyurl.com/5ffn3n : "" The website LewRockwell.com has as its slogan "Anti-State, Anti-war, Pro-Market" with the explanation given that its founder "is an opponent of the state, its wars and its socialism." Given the founder’s association with the Mises Institute, the site has come to be known as a "libertarian" website. " " we can continue to drink ancient Portuguese fortified wines today is testament to Portugal’s maintenance of civilization over the centuries (not coincidentally, Portugal managed to avoid the two World Wars.) " ------------------------------- ------------------------------- 2) Ayn Rand:---------------------- 'Religion and Libertarianism'Walter Block Jun19,08 http://tinyurl.com/6nsswn : "" The relationship of libertarianism and religion is a long and stormy one.
It cannot be denied that Ayn Rand has had a long, strong and deep relationship with libertarianism. Although she dismissed us as "hippies of the right" (pronounced "ippes of de racht") many of our number are still enthralled by her, inspired by her, and in debt to her for first introducing us to the moral case for free enterprise. I certainly include myself in this category.
One of the strongest influences she has had on the libertarian movement is her belligerent atheism. For many adherents of the freedom philosophy, an aggressive rejection of God and all things religious might as well be the basic axiom of their world-view. I confess that this too was roughly my own belief on the subject, for many years. It is also the perspective of a rich potential donor to the Mises Institute who would have contributed heavily were that organization to change its viewpoint on this matter and take a principled stand against all religion. Happily, Lew Rockwell refused to pervert the mission of his Institute in this regard. Although a believer himself, Rockwell stuck to his guns: the Mises Institute would continue to involve itself in the study of economics and liberty, and not directly with religion at all. "
" It is time, it is long past time, that the Austro-libertarian movement reject the virulent Randian opposition to religion. Yes, Ayn Rand has made contributions to our efforts. We must not throw out the baby with the bathwater. But, surely, anti-religious sentiment belongs in the latter category, not the former.
The views expressed above are consistent with the perspective of my long time mentor, Murray Rothbard. This scholar, who was often called "Mr. Libertarian," was very pro-religion, especially pro-Catholic. He ascribed the concepts of individualism and liberty to Christianity (and almost everything else good in Western civilization), and argued strongly that as long as libertarians made hatred of religion a basic or organizing principle, they would go nowhere, since the vast majority of people in all times and places have always been religious.
Walter Block would like to thank William Barnett II and Guido Hülsmann for helpful suggestions regarding an earlier draft of this essay. All errors, omissions and other infelicities are his own responsibility, of course.
June 19, 2008
Dr. Block [send him mail] is a professor of economics at Loyola University New Orleans, and a senior fellow of the Ludwig von Mises Institute. He is the author of Defending the Undefendable and the newly-released Labor Economics From A Free Market Perspective. ""
------------------------------- ------------------------------- 3) Hannah Arendt (1906-1975), Majid Yar, Lancaster University, UK 2006 http://tinyurl.com/556bcd -----The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy:----- 1. Chronology of Life and Works 2. Arendt's Thought: Context and Influences 3. On Totalitarianism 4. The Human Condition 5. On Revolution 6. Eichmann and the 'Banality of Evil' 7. Thinking and Judging 8. Influence 9. Criticisms and Controversies 10. Bibliography
posted by bbcweb @ 6/11/2008 10:42:00 AM 0 comments
Monday, June 09, 2008
#74: Ages: 1) The Sumerian Civilization. 08.6.9=1 11pm.
#74: Ages: 1) The Sumerian Civilization:------ 'The Sumerian Civilization..' Jun9,08 http://tinyurl.com/3evhvk 'The Sumerian Civilization: Part 2' Jun9,08 http://tinyurl.com/45xxxb : or http://groups.yahoo.com/group/A_Political_Debate_/message/21509
posted by bbcweb @ 6/09/2008 10:55:00 PM 0 comments
#73: Life/Brain: Origin, Evolution, and Complexity. 08.6.9=1 - 6.20=5 11am.
#73: Life/Brain: Origin, Evolution, and Complexity: Design Principles. --------------------------- 'Race and intelligence' Wikipedia Jun19,08 http://tinyurl.com/chk5r --------------------------- ' How biological 'alchemy' can change a cell's destiny ' Peter Aldhous, "NewScientist" 2661: Jun18,08 http://tinyurl.com/4jpnen < src="file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/TSAISH%7E1/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot-1.jpg" alt="">
EDITOR'S CHOICE
Rowan Hooper
Rowan Hooper, online news editor
: "" CALL it biological alchemy: specialist pancreatic cells that secrete digestive enzymes have been converted directly into insulin-producing beta cells. Meanwhile, epithelial cells from the back of the eye have been coaxed into becoming a versatile, new type of stem cell.
Both advances, reported last week in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at the annual meeting of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR), may take us closer to a "regenerative" approach to repairing damaged tissue. And both are products of a wave of enthusiasm that has built since Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University in Japan showed that it is possible to "reprogram" adult cells back to an embryonic state. It's "Shinya-mania", jokes George Daley of the Children's Hospital Boston.
Yamanaka infected skin cells with retroviruses carrying the genes for four transcription factors - proteins that regulate the activity of other genes by binding to DNA. The viruses inserted themselves ... "
--------------------------- --------------------------- Asymmetrical 'Viral DNA imaged inside shell' KurzweilAI.net, Jun18,08 : "" UC San Diego researchers and colleagues used electron microscopy and 3D computer reconstruction to find and image the structure of an asymmetrical virus at 8 Angstroms (.8 nanometer) resolution. Tightly wound viral DNA in a bacteriophage (UCSD) Previously, only symmetrical spherical viruses had been imaged with this resolution. The image will help to unravel how the virus locks onto its host and infects the cells by injecting its DNA. University of California San Diego News Release "" --------------------------- --------------------------- 'Contact: Charlotte Webber charlotte.webber@biomedcentral.com 44-020-763-19980 BioMed Central Computer predicts anti-cancer molecules http://tinyurl.com/4usgty 'Change Lifestyle, Change Genes: 3 Months on Ornish Diet Changes 500 Genes, Many With Anticancer Effects' Daniel J. DeNoon; WebMD Health News; Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD June 16, 2008 http://tinyurl.com/6jdqgs : " The small molecules that are naturally produced in cells are called metabolites. Enzymes, the biological catalysts that produce and consume these metabolites are created according to a cell's genetic blueprints. Importantly, however, the metabolites can also affect the expression of genes. According to the authors "By comparing the gene expression levels of cancer cells relative to normal cells and converting that information into the enzymes that produce metabolites, CoMet predicts metabolites that have lower concentrations in cancer relative to normal cells". The research proves that by adding such putatively depleted metabolites to cancer cells, they exhibit anticancer properties. In this case, growth of leukemia cells was slowed by all nine of the metabolites suggested by CoMet. " - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 'Magnetic Genes' Jun18,08 http://tinyurl.com/3gssej : "" Using a gene from a magnetically sensitive bacterium, scientists have genetically engineered mammalian cells to produce magnetic nanoparticles. The finding, by a team of Emory University researchers, ... The gene comes from a species of pond-dwelling bacteria that uses it to make tiny particles that function as a kind of biological compass needle. The researchers found that inserting the gene into the DNA of mouse cells caused the cells to produce their own magnetic nanoparticles. When the researchers then injected cells expressing the geneinto the brains of live mice, individual cells could be clearly seen with an MRI as a dark blob surrounded by paler normal tissue. " " the fact that a single bacterial gene could get a wide variety of cells to make their own magnets opens up a wide range of possibilities " ---------------------------------------------- 'Trio of super-Earths found around Milky Way star' Jun16,08: NewScientist.com news service: http://tinyurl.com/4znpa4 'Spacewalking microbes may reveal life's origins' Hazel muil NewScientist.com news service Apr15,08 http://tinyurl.com/4yfkgs : "" By sticking microbes to the outside of the International Space Station, Japanese researchers aim to test the "panspermia" theory that comets and asteroids can spread life between planets. The Japanese experiment is called Tanpopo, Japanese for "dandelion", after the plant's fluffy seeds, which travel long distances on the wind. The Tanpopo experiment should begin in 2011 after the bugs arrive at the Space Station. " 0-0-0) 'Genetic building blocks may have formed in space' Rachel Courtland; NewScientist.com news service: Jun13,08: Journal reference: Earth and Planetary Science Letters (vol 270, p 130) http://tinyurl.com/5vdk96 The Murchison meteorite contains the building blocks of DNA and RNA, which may have an extraterrestrial origin (Copyright: Chip Clark/Smithsonian Institution/www.si.edu) "" Some fundamental building blocks of our genetic code might have come from outer space, according to a controversial new meteorite study. The study suggests that some organic compounds associated with genetic material might have formed in a meteorite called Murchison before it landed in Australia in 1969. The chemicals are two kinds of nucleobases, ring-like carbon molecules that are essential for the creation of nucleic acids like DNA and RNA. The find might bolster claims that meteorites delivered some of the chemicals needed to create life. "It boosts the idea that the origin of life on Earth may have had an important contribution from an extraterrestrial object," says lead author Zita Martins, a chemist at Imperial College London in the UK. But it may be too early to conclude these nucleobases formed beyond the Earth, says Sandra Pizzarello, a chemist at Arizona State University in Tempe, US. The study "raises a very interesting question that was raised a very long time ago, but I don't think it solves it", she told New Scientist. No one knows how life got its start. Primitive Earth conditions might not have been favourable for the chemistry needed to create life's building blocks. Meteorite impacts Instead, researchers have argued that frequent bombardments by meteorites 3.8 billion years ago – when life is suspected to have first emerged – could have delivered the material to Earth, where it might have helped further the development of life. Studies of meteorites, as well as astronomical observations of interstellar dust and gas, have turned up a number of organic compounds, including sugars and phosphates. But nucleobases are also needed to make a nucleic acid like DNA or RNA. Such chemicals have been found in a number of meteorites, but no one was sure whether they were extraterrestrial in origin or the result of earthly contamination. Noisy signal To study the origins of these nucleobases, Martins and colleagues studied the mass of organic chemicals isolated from the meteorite. The team looked at two different isotopes of carbon in the chemicals, which included the nucleobases uracil and xanthine. The lighter version, carbon-12, is present on Earth in large amounts. Carbon-13 is more common in sweeping clouds of cold, interstellar gas. Large amounts of the stuff usually indicate the material did not form on Earth. The ratio of carbon-13 to carbon-12 was unusually high in the two nucleobases, leading the team to conclude the materials likely formed in the meteorite itself rather than on Earth. But Pizzarello says too many other chemicals were present in the samples to clearly distinguish the carbon ratio. "Analytically, it's not convincing," Pizzarello told New Scientist. Astrobiology - Learn more in our out-of-this-world special report. "" ------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------ 0-0-1) 'Scientists Close to Reconstructing First Living Cell' Nikhil Swaminathan: Scietific American, Jun10,08 http://tinyurl.com/6f3gln "" Researchers get genetic material to copy itself in a recreation of a simple protocell that could have existed eons ago "" "" Modern cells are like microscopic cities: They have power plants (mitochondria), trash dumps (lysosomes), local government (the nucleus, with DNA serving as the legal charter), and many other activities going on inside their boundaries. They also have a border patrol in the form of a double-layered membrane that uses a series of protein-powered pumps, pores and channels to let nutrients in and keep other chemicals and substances out. But, cells were very different when life began 3.5 billion to four billion years ago. Rather than small metropolises, they were more like a purse that carried instructions—consisting of just a membrane with genetic information inside. They lacked the structures and proteins that now make them tick. The question is: How then were they able to take in the nutrients necessary to survive and reproduce? Harvard Medical School researchers report in Nature that they have built a model of what they believe the very first living cell may have looked like, which contains a strip of genetic material surrounded by a fatty membrane. The membranes of modern cells consist of a double layer of fatty acids known as phospholipids. But in designing a membrane for their cell, scientists worked with much simpler fatty acids that they believe existed on a primeval Earth, when the first cell likely formed. The key, says study co-author Jack Szostak, a Harvard geneticist, was to develop one porous enough to let in needed nutrients (such as nucleotides, the units that make up genetic material, or DNA) but strong enough to protect the genetic material inside and keep it from slipping out after replicating. In an attempt to duplicate an early cell, scientists put fatty acids (that were likely membrane candidates) and a strip of DNA into a test tube of water. While in there, the fatty acids formed into a ring, or membrane, around the genetic segment. The researchers then added nucleotides—units of genetic material—to the test tube to determine whether they would penetrate the membrane and copy the DNA inside it. Their findings: the nucleotides did enter the cell, latch onto and replicate the DNA over 24 hours. What scientists now must figure out, Szostak says, is how the original and copycat DNA strands separated and this early cell divided or reproduced. "We're trying to solve a whole series of problems, step by step," he says, "and build up to replicating an evolving system." David Deamer, a biomolecular engineer at the University of California, Santa Cruz, says he believes the team is on its way to making a prototype of a primitive cell that has "essentially all the basic properties of life." "" --------------------------------------- 0-1) 'Bacteria make major evolutionary shift in the lab' NewScientist.com news service; Bob Holmes: Jun9,08 http://tinyurl.com/3r6jr2 : "" A major evolutionary innovation has unfurled right in front of researchers' eyes. It's the first time evolution has been caught in the act of making such a rare and complex new trait. " " ...have been able to replay history to show how this evolutionary novelty grew from the accumulation of unpredictable, chance events. Twenty years ago, evolutionary biologist Richard Lenski of Michigan State University in East Lansing, US, took a single Escherichia coli bacterium and used its descendants to found 12 laboratory populations. The 12 have been growing ever since, gradually accumulating mutations and evolving for more than 44,000 generations, while Lenski watches what happens. Profound change Mostly, the patterns Lenski saw were similar in each separate population. All 12 evolved larger cells, for example, as well as faster growth rates on the glucose they were fed, and lower peak population densities. But sometime around the 31,500th generation, something dramatic happened in just one of the populations – the bacteria suddenly acquired the ability to metabolise citrate, a second nutrient in their culture medium that E. coli normally cannot use. Indeed, the inability to use citrate is one of the traits by which bacteriologists distinguish E. coli from other species. The citrate-using mutants increased in population size and diversity. " " Rare mutation? By this time, Lenski calculated, enough bacterial cells had lived and died that all simple mutations must already have occurred several times over. That meant the "citrate-plus" trait must have been something special – either it was a single mutation of an unusually improbable sort, a rare chromosome inversion, say, or else gaining the ability to use citrate required the accumulation of several mutations in sequence. To find out which, Lenski turned to his freezer, where he had saved samples of each population every 500 generations. These allowed him to replay history from any starting point he chose, by reviving the bacteria and letting evolution "replay" again. " " Evidence of evolution The replays showed that even when he looked at trillions of cells, only the original population re-evolved Cit+ – and only when he started the replay from generation 20,000 or greater. Something, he concluded, must have happened around generation 20,000 that laid the groundwork for Cit+ to later evolve. Lenski and his colleagues are now working to identify just what that earlier change was, and how it made the Cit+ mutation possible more than 10,000 generations later. In the meantime, the experiment stands as proof that evolution does not always lead to the best possible outcome. Instead, a chance event can sometimes open evolutionary doors for one population that remain forever closed to other populations with different histories. " " ...it says you can get these complex traits evolving by a combination of unlikely events... " " Journal reference: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0803151105) Read our Evolution: 24 myths and misconceptions special report. Evolution - Learn more about the struggle to survive in our comprehensive special report. "" --------------------------------------- 0-2) 'Bacterial Chemical Sensors on the Horizon?' medGadget Jun13,08 http://tinyurl.com/3mtoy5 "" New research out of MIT has deciphered part of the bacterial communication network that has long frustrated scientists. The multitude of communication pathways in bacteria share common enzymes, yet they are still able to communicate without any interference or "crosstalk." The MIT scientists were able solve this problem, and even program their own bacterial communication pathways, by finding pairs of amino acid co-evolution. " " "If an organism has tons of this class of signaling pathway, why do we not get a lot of crosstalk?" said Laub. "How does the kinase pick out the right target?" Based on earlier studies, the MIT researchers theorized that the specificity of the interaction is determined by a subset of amino acids on the histidine kinase and a corresponding subset of amino acids on the response regulator. To confirm their theory, they looked for patterns of amino acid co-evolution in pairs of histidine kinases and their target response regulators. Co-evolution occurs when a mutation in one of the two proteins is followed by a secondary mutation in the corresponding amino acid on the other protein, allowing the protein pair to maintain their interaction. After searching a vast database of nearly 1,300 protein pairs, they identified a small set of co-evolved amino acids. They then confirmed that these amino acids govern signaling specificity by successfully rewiring five of the pathways by mutating the target amino acids. " --------------------------------------- 0-3) 'Thinking ahead: Bacteria anticipate coming changes in their environment' Jun9,08 http://tinyurl.com/6qpgkn A new study by Princeton University researchers shows for the first time that bacteria don't just react to changes in their surroundings -- they anticipate and prepare for them. The findings, reported in the June 6 issue of Science, challenge the prevailing notion that only organisms with complex nervous systems have this ability. "" "What we have found is the first evidence that bacteria can use sensed cues from their environment to infer future events," said Saeed Tavazoie, an associate professor of molecular biology, who conducted the study along with graduate student Ilias Tagkopoulos and postdoctoral researcher Yir-Chung Liu. The research team, which included biologists and engineers, used lab experiments to demonstrate this phenomenon in common bacteria. They also turned to computer simulations to explain how a microbe species' internal network of genes and proteins could evolve over time to produce such complex behavior. "The two lines of investigation came together nicely to show how simple biochemical networks can perform sophisticated computational tasks," said Tavazoie. In addition to shedding light on deep questions in biology, the findings could have many practical implications. They could help scientists understand how bacteria mutate to develop resistance to antibiotics. They also may help in developing specialized bacteria to perform useful tasks such as cleaning up environmental contamination. In one part of the study, the researchers studied the behavior of E. coli, the ubiquitous bacterium that travels back and forth between the environment and the gut of warm-blooded vertebrates. They wanted to explain a long-standing question about the bug: How do its genes respond to the temperature and oxygen changes that occur when the bacterium enters the gut? " " ...aerobic (oxygen) to anaerobic (oxygen-less) respiration... " " ...An increase in temperature had nearly the same effect on the bacterium's genes as a decrease in oxygen level. Indeed, upon transition to a higher temperature, many of the genes essential for aerobic respiration were practically turned off. " " ...grew the bacteria in a biologically flipped environment where oxygen levels rose following an increase in temperature. Remarkably, within a few hundred generations the bugs partially adapted to this new regime, and no longer turned off the genes for aerobic respiration when the temperature rose. "This reprogramming clearly indicates that shutting down aerobic respiration following a temperature increase is not essential to E. coli's survival," said Tavazoie. "On the contrary, it appears that the bacterium has "learned" this response by associating specific temperatures with specific oxygen levels over the course of its evolution." " " ..."Their biochemical networks were filled with seemingly unnecessary components," said Tagkopoulos. "That is not how an engineer would design logic-solving networks." Pared down to their essential elements, however, the networks revealed a simple and elegant structure. The researchers could now trace the different sequences of gene and protein interactions organisms used in order to respond to cues and anticipate mealtimes. "It gave us insights into how simple organisms such as bacteria can process information from the environment to anticipate future events," said Tagkopoulos. The researchers said that their findings open up many exciting avenues of research. They are planning to use similar methods to study how bacteria exchange genes with one another (horizontal gene transfer), how tissues and organs develop (morphogenesis), how viral infections spread and other core problems in biology. "What is really exciting about our discovery is that it brings together and establishes deep connections between the traditionally separate fields of microbial ecology, network evolution and behavior," said Tavazoie. Source: Princeton University "" --------------------------------------- 1) 'Origins of the brain: Complex synapses drove brain evolution' Jun8,08 http://tinyurl.com/6ghmwn One of the great scientific challenges is to understand the design principles and origins of the human brain. New research has shed light on the evolutionary origins of the brain and how it evolved into the remarkably complex structure found in humans. "" The research suggests that it is not size alone that gives more brain power, but that, during evolution, increasingly sophisticated molecular processing of nerve impulses allowed development of animals with more complex behaviours. The study shows that two waves of increased sophistication in the structure of nerve junctions could have been the force that allowed complex brains - including our own - to evolve. The big building blocks evolved before big brains. " " the protein components of nerve connections - called synapses " " Professor Seth Grant, Head of the Genes to Cognition Programme at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and leader of the project. "... We found dramatic differences in the numbers of proteins in the neuron connections between different species". "We studied around 600 proteins that are found in mammalian synapses and were surprised to find that only 50 percent of these are also found in invertebrate synapses, and about 25 percent are in single-cell animals, which obviously don't have a brain." Synapses are the junctions between nerves where electrical signals from one cell are transferred through a series of biochemical switches to the next. However, synapses are not simply soldered joints, but mini-processors that give the nervous systems the property of learning and memory. Remarkably, the study shows that some of the proteins involved in synapse signalling and learning and memory are found in yeast, where they act to respond to signals from their environment, such as stress due to limited food or temperature change. "The set of proteins found in single-cell animals represents the ancient or 'protosynapse' involved with simple behaviours," continues Professor Grant. "This set of proteins was embellished by addition of new proteins with the evolution of invertebrates and vertebrates and this has contributed to the more complex behaviours of these animals. "The number and complexity of proteins in the synapse first exploded when muticellular animals emerged, some billion years ago. A second wave occurred with the appearance of vertebrates, perhaps 500 million years ago" " " Most important for understanding of human thought, they found the expansion in proteins that occurred in vertebrates provided a pool of proteins that were used for making different parts of the brain into the specialised regions such as cortex, cerebellum and spinal cord. Since the evolution of molecularly complex, 'big' synapses occurred before the emergence of large brains, it may be that these molecular evolutionary events were necessary to allow evolution of big brains found in humans, primates and other vertebrates. Behavioural studies in animals in which mutations have disrupted synapse genes support the conclusion that the synapse proteins that evolved in vertebrates give rise to a wider range of behaviours including those involved with the highest mental functions. For example, one of the 'vertebrate innovation' genes called SAP102 is necessary for a mouse to use the correct learning strategy when solving mazes, and when this gene is defective in human it results in a form of mental disability. "The molecular evolution of the synapse is like the evolution of computer chips - the increasing complexity has given them more power and those animals with the most powerful chips can do the most," continues Professor Grant. Simple invertebrate species have a set of simple forms of learning powered by molecularly simple synapses, and the complex mammalian species show a wider range of types of learning powered by molecularly very complex synapses. "It is amazing how a process of Darwinian evolution by tinkering and improvement has generated, from a collection of sensory proteins in yeast, the complex synapse of mammals associated with learning and cognition," said Dr Richard Emes, Lecturer in Bioinformatics at Keele University, and joint first author on the paper. " " Professor Grant's team have identified recently evolved genes involved in impaired human cognition and modelled those deficits in the mouse. "This work leads to a new and simple model for understanding the origins and diversity of brains and behaviour in all species" says Professor Grant, adding that "we are one step closer to understanding the logic behind the complexity of human brains" Citation: Emes RD, Pocklington AJ, Anderson CNG, Bayes A, Collins MO, Vickers CA, Croning MDR, Malik BR, Choudhary JS, Armstrong JD and Grant SGN (2008), Evolutionary expansion and anatomical specialization of synapse proteome complexity. Nature Neuroscience published online Sunday 8 June 2008 ; http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nn.2135 Source: Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute "" --------------------------------------- 2) 'Researchers show how the brain can protect against cancer' Jun9,08 http://tinyurl.com/4k5flj Scientists have been aware for many years that if cancer patients are not able to deal with the stress associated with being sick, the cancer will progress faster than in calmer patients. To counteract this phenomenon, physicians encourage treatments that help cancer patients handle their stress. Scientists theorized that the stress relief may have come as a result of increased beta-endorphin peptide (BEP), the "feel good" hormones in the brain that are released during exercise, a good conversation, and many other aspects of life that give humans pleasure. "" Researchers at Rutgers hypothesized that BEP producing neurons do not just make us feel good, but also play roles in regulating the stress response and immune functions to control tumor growth and progression. In a paper published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, Dr. Dipak K. Sarkar and his colleagues demonstrate the physical mechanisms that support their hypothesis. " " Previous research has shown that too few, or inactive, BEP neurons are associated with various diseases. ...depression and schizophrenia. ...obese patients. In both these cases ...higher levels of infection and more incidence of cancer. " " Source: Rutgers University ""
posted by bbcweb @ 6/09/2008 07:52:00 PM 0 comments
#72: World Politics/US/EU: -1) Japan, Israel, UK. 0) Mideast. 1) Latin America. 08.6.9=1 - 6.19=4 11am.
#72: World Politics/USA:------------ EU? 'The Problem With Europe' Jun17,08 http://tinyurl.com/3g9o8g USA: 'Ron Paul to End Campaign, Launches New Effort: Supporters Plot Shadow Convention, More Revolution' Z. BYRON WOLF: Jun12,08 http://tinyurl.com/6aoua4 : "" Rep. Ron Paul's presidential campaign, a pugnacious, ideological crusade against big government and interventionist leanings in the Republican party, will officially end Thursday at a rally outside the Texas GOP's convention, ABC News has learned. " ==================================== ------------------------------------ 'Gore Vidal’s Article of Impeachment' Gore Vidal: Jun12,08 http://tinyurl.com/4kzxaw : "" On June 9,2008, a counterrevolution began on the floor of the House of Representatives against the gas and oil crooks who had seized control of the federal government. This counterrevolution began in the exact place which had slumbered during the all-out assault on our liberties and the Constitution itself. I wish to draw the attention of the blog world to Rep. Dennis Kucinich’s articles of impeachment presented to the House in order that two faithless public servants be removed from office for crimes against the American people. As I listened to Rep. Kucinich invoke the great engine of impeachment — he listed some 35 crimes by these two faithless officials — we heard, like great bells tolling, the voice of the Constitution itself speak out ringingly against those who had tried to destroy it. " - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 'House Waves Off Impeachment Measure Against Bush' Laurie Kellman: jun12,08 http://tinyurl.com/3lg7ra : "" The House has voted to send articles of impeachment against President Bush to a committee that is not likely to hold hearings before the end of his term. By 251-166, House members dispatched the measure to a committee on Wednesday - a procedure often used to kill legislation. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi long ago declared the prospects for impeachment proceedings “off the table.” " - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 'It’s Conyers’s Time to Act on Impeachment' Pub. Jun15,08 by The Progressive, Matthew Rothschild editor: http://tinyurl.com/4flwpj : " Dennis Kucinich is saying exactly what you were saying before you became chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. " ==================================== ------------------------------------ -1) Japan, Israel, UK: ------------- (1) Japan & S. Korea, even S. Sakhalin: Sakhalin Online, posted Jun17,08 http://online.sakh.com/en/ ------------------------------------ ------------------------------------ ' 「白樺」の主権強調 ガス田合意で中国' The Sankei Shimbun & Sankei Digital Jun17,08 http://tinyurl.com/62fvuo
2008.6.17 23:24
東シナ海の天然ガス田「白樺」（中国名・春暁）＝０５年９月、海上自衛隊のＰ３Ｃ哨戒機から東シナ海の天然ガス田「白樺」（中国名・春暁）＝０５年９月、海上自衛隊のＰ３Ｃ哨戒機から
中国外務省の姜瑜副報道局長は１７日の定例記者会見で、日中両政府が近く正式合意、発表する見通しの東シナ海ガス田共同開発について「中国の立場と主張は一貫している。春暁（日本名・白樺）ガス田は中国主権の範囲内にある」と述べ、日中両国が共同開発対象とした「白樺」ガス田の主権はあくまで中国側にあるとの立場を強調した。
姜副局長は、同ガス田の主権問題と「共同開発問題とは無関係」と主張。中国側が単独開発してきた「白樺」の共同開発に応じても、原則論をめぐっては日本に譲歩していないことをアピールした。
日本が中国との排他的経済水域（ＥＥＺ）の境界線と位置付けている日中中間線についても「認めない立場に変わりはない」と述べた。
一方で副局長は「（日中ガス田協議の）結果は双方にとって利益があるものになるだろう」とも強調。共同開発の早期実施に期待感を示した。（共同）
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
'尖閣問題で日本の対応批判 中国' The Sankei Shimbun & Sankei Digital Jun17,08 http://tinyurl.com/5mn8a8
【北京＝野口東秀】中国外務省の姜瑜報道官は１７日、定例記者会見で、「日本政府に釣魚島付近の海域での違法活動を停止し、類似事件の再発防止を要求する」と日本の対応を改めて批判、台湾擁護の姿勢を示した。
１７日付の中国共産党機関紙「人民日報」（海外版）は、この問題で「台湾民衆が強く日本を責めている」とする記事を掲載。「悪意ある衝突」「厳正な抗議」「共同で同島を守る」などといった見出しをつけている。
インターネットでは、中台が連携して対処すべきだとの声が多く、「先祖の遺志を継いで日本鬼子（日本人への蔑称（べつしよう））を追い出せ」「中国海軍を派遣せよ」「国共合作。台湾を孤立させるな」などといった書き込みが目立つ。
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - '釣魚台群島：駐日美軍演習場' Jun16,08 http://tinyurl.com/5r9kpm : " 我們是在爭「釣魚島」，還是「釣魚台群島」？參考：http://blog.yam.com/dili/article/5442557 : " 政治鬥爭，也要注重研發時時更新，不要把民眾當傻瓜，白白詐取財物（稅金）。釣魚台群島（的赤尾嶼與黃尾嶼），是駐日美軍（海空軍）的演習場。這是源自戰後美軍對於沖繩的佔領，並於1951年9月8日每日簽署的第一版〈美日安保條約〉之授權，以及1972年「沖繩返還」之再確認所獲得之權力。 " '管内 在日アメリカ合衆国軍 海上訓練区域一覧表' Aug,07=平成１９年８月現在 http://tinyurl.com/5q6k7c 〈聯合國國際海洋公約〉「第三節 領海的無害通過」（II）' Jun16,08 http://tinyurl.com/5qf92j ==================================== ------------------------------------ 0) Middle East: '“HUMAN CARGO”: BINYAM MOHAMED AND THE RENDITION FREQUENT FLIER PROGRAMME' Jun10,08 http://tinyurl.com/6dvnzp : " From Goldhawk Road to Guantánamo Bay: Binyam Mohamed’s Torture Odyssey " - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ' Ghost ships: America's 'floating prisons' are not only illegal, but evidence of the limitless scale of US detention policy ' Shayana Kadidal, guardian.co.uk: Jun5,08 http://tinyurl.com/6nd8r7 : "" This week the Guardian broke the news that an upcoming report from Reprieve – our counterparts across the pond in the Guantánamo litigation – documents the use of as many as 17 American warships as floating prisons to hold detainees in the "war on terror". The report apparently documents not only descriptions of detentions at sea from released Guantánamo detainees, most of whom presumably were held in the early days of the "war on terror", but also more recent detentions on US warships, particularly in the Horn of Africa, a current hot spot for disappearances carried out by the US military and intelligence agencies. The report also claims that in the last two years there have been several hundred renditions – another practice thought to have ceased after President Bush declared an end to it in 2006. " ' War Crimes Committed and Justice Denied' Major General Antonio Taguba, USA (Ret.) Pub. Jun18,08 by Physicians for Human Rights http://tinyurl.com/43ghoc
The fllowing is the preface written for the report, Broken Laws, Broken Lives ------------------------------------ 'Bush Pledges on Iraq Bases Pact Were a Ruse' Jun13,08 http://tinyurl.com/5jkd4n ------------------------------------ '‘Hotline to Iran’ Aims to Head Off War' Jun11,08 http://tinyurl.com/42885p : "" WASHINGTON - Members of Congress joined religious and civil society leaders today in an urgent call to stop the “drumbeat of war” with Iran and open up diplomatic talks to resolve growing tensions between Washington and Tehran. " -------------------------------------- 'Incident Foreshadows Future Attacks in Pakistan' Jun12,08 http://tinyurl.com/4fow45 'A Line Not To Be Crossed: American-led War on Terror Cannot be Allowed to Spread Into Pakistan’s Pashtun Tribal Area' Eric Margolis, The Toronto Sun: Jun15,08 http://tinyurl.com/6c6l7w "" The killing of 11 Pakistani soldiers by U.S. air and artillery strikes last week shows just how quickly the American-led war in Afghanistan is spreading into neighbouring Pakistan. Pakistan’s military branded the air attack “unprovoked and cowardly.” There was outrage across Pakistan. However, the unstable government in Islamabad, which depends on large infusions of U.S. aid, later softened its protests. The U.S., which used a B-1 heavy bomber and F-15 strike aircraft in the attacks, called its action, “self-defence.” This latest U.S. attack on Pakistan could not come at a worse time. Supreme Court justices ousted by the Pervez Musharraf dictatorship staged national protests this week, underscoring the illegality of Musharraf’s continuing presidency and its unseemly support by the U.S., Britain, Canada and France. Asif Zardari, head of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party, shamefully joined Musharraf in opposing restoration of the justice system out of fear the reinstated judges would reopen long-festering corruption charges against him Attacks by U.S. aircraft, Predator hunter-killer drones, U.S. Special Forces and CIA teams have been rising steadily inside Pakistan’s autonomous Pashtun tribal area known by the acronym, FATA. The Pashtun, who make up half Afghanistan’s population and 15% of Pakistan’s, straddle the border, which they reject as a leftover of Imperial Britain’s divide and rule policies. Instead of intimidating the pro-Taliban Pakistani Pashtun, U.S. air and artillery strikes have ignited a firestorm of anti-western fury among FATA’s warlike tribesmen and increased their support for the Taliban. The U.S. is emulating Britain’s colonial divide and rule tactics by offering up to $500,000 to local Pashtun tribal leaders to get them to fight pro-Taliban elements, causing more chaos in the already turbulent region, and stoking tribal rivalries. The U.S. is using this same tactic in Iraq and Afghanistan. This week’s deadly U.S. attacks again illustrate the fact that the 60,000 U.S. and NATO ground troops in Afghanistan are incapable of holding off the Taliban and its allies, even though the Afghan resistance has nothing but small arms to battle the West’s hi-tech arsenal. U.S. air power is almost always called in when there are clashes. In fact, the main function for U.S. and NATO infantries is to draw the Taliban into battle so the Afghan “mujahidin” can be bombed from the air. Without 24/7 U.S. airpower, which can respond in minutes, western forces in Afghanistan would be quickly isolated, cut off from supplies, and defeated. But these air strikes, as we saw this week, are blunt instruments in spite of all the remarkable skill of the U.S. Air Force and Navy pilots. They kill more civilians than Taliban fighters. Mighty U.S. B-1 bombers are not going to win the hearts and minds of Afghans. Each bombed village and massacred caravan wins new recruits to the Taliban and its allies. OPEN WARFARE The U.S. and its allies are edging into open warfare against Pakistan. The western occupation army in Afghanistan is unable to defeat Taliban fighters due to its lack of combat troops. The outgoing supreme commander, U.S. Gen. Dan McNeill, recently admitted he would need 400,000 soldiers to pacify Afghanistan. Unable to win in Afghanistan, the frustrated western powers are turning on Pakistan, a nation of 165 million. Pakistanis are bitterly opposed to the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan and their nation’s subjugation to U.S. policy under dictator Musharraf. “We just need to occupy Pakistan’s tribal territory,” insists the Pentagon, “to stop its Pashtun tribes from supporting and sheltering Taliban.” But a U.S.-led invasion of FATA simply will push pro-Taliban Pashtun militants deeper into Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier province, drawing western troops ever deeper into Pakistan. Already overextended, western forces will be stretched even thinner and clashes with Pakistan’s tough regular army may be inevitable. Widening the Afghan War into Pakistan is military stupidity on a grand scale, and political madness. But Washington and its obedient allies seem hell-bent on charging into a wider regional war that no number of heavy bombers will win. Eric Margolis is a columnist for The Toronto Sun. "" -------------------------------------- 1) Latin America: 'Losing Latin America: What Will the Obama Doctrine Be Like?' Greg Grandin Jun9,08 http://tinyurl.com/5p7p2k : ... " Latin America, in fact, has been indispensable in the evolution of U.S. diplomacy. The region is often referred to as America’s “backyard,” but a better metaphor might be Washington’s “strategic reserve,” the place where ascendant foreign-policy coalitions regroup and redraw the outlines of U.S. power, following moments of global crisis. " " We are once again at a historic crossroads. An ebbing of U.S. power — this time caused, in part, by military overreach — faces a mobilized Latin America; and, on the eve of regime change at home, with George W. Bush’s neoconservative coalition in ruins after eight years of disastrous rule, would-be foreign policy makers are once again looking south. Goodbye to All That “The era of the United States as the dominant influence in Latin America is over,” says the Council on Foreign Relations, in a new report filled with sober policy suggestions for ways the U.S. can recoup its waning influence in a region it has long claimed as its own. Latin America is now mostly governed by left or center-left governments that differ in policy and style — from the populism of Hugo Chávez in Venezuela to the reformism of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Brazil and Michelle Bachelet in Chile. Yet all share a common goal: asserting greater autonomy from the United States. Latin Americans are now courting investment from China, opening markets in Europe, dissenting from Bush’s War on Terror, stalling the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas, and sidelining the International Monetary Fund which, over the last couple of decades, has served as a stalking horse for Wall Street and the Treasury Department. And they are electing presidents like Ecuador’s Rafael Correa, who recently announced that his government would not renew the soon-to-expire lease on Manta Air Field, the most prominent U.S. military base in South America. Correa had previously suggested that, if Ecuador could set up its own base in Florida, he would consider extending the lease. When Washington balked, he offered Manta to a Chinese concession, suggesting that the airfield be turned into “China’s gateway to Latin America.” " " But things have changed. “Latin America is not Washington’s to lose,” the Council on Foreign Relations report says, “nor is it Washington’s to save.” The Monroe Doctrine, it declares, is “obsolete.” Good news for Latin America, one would think. But the last time someone from the Council on Foreign Relations, which since its founding in 1921 has represented mainstream foreign-policy opinion, declared the Monroe Doctrine defunct, the result was genocide. Enter the Liberal Establishment That would be Sol Linowitz who, in 1975, as chair of the Commission on United States-Latin American Relations, said that the Monroe Doctrine was “inappropriate and irrelevant to the changed realities and trends of the future.” The little-remembered Linowitz Commission was made up of respected scholars and businessmen from what was then called the “liberal establishment.” It was but one part of a broader attempt by America’s foreign-policy elite to respond to the cascading crises of the 1970s — defeat in Vietnam, rising third-world nationalism, Asian and European competition, skyrocketing energy prices, a falling dollar, the Watergate scandal, and domestic dissent. Confronted with a precipitous collapse of America’s global legitimacy, the Council on Foreign Relations, along with other mainline think tanks like the Brookings Institute and the newly formed Trilateral Commission, offered a series of proposals that might help the U.S. stabilize its authority, while allowing for “a smooth and peaceful evolution of the global system.” There was widespread consensus among the intellectuals and corporate leaders affiliated with these institutions that the kind of anticommunist zeal that had marched the U.S. into the disaster in Vietnam needed to be tamped down, and that “new forms of common management” between Washington, Europe, and Japan had to be worked out. Advocates for a calmer world order came from the same corporate bloc that underwrote the Democratic Party and the Rockefeller-wing of the Republican Party. " " At that moment throughout Latin America, leftists and nationalists were — as they are now — demanding a more equitable distribution of global wealth. Lest radicalization spread, the Trilateral Commission’s executive director Zbignew Brzezinski, soon to be President Jimmy Carter’s national security advisor, argued that it would be “wise for the United States to make an explicit move to abandon the Monroe Doctrine.” The Linowitz Commission agreed and offered a series of recommendations to that effect — including the return of the Panama Canal to Panama and a decrease in U.S. military aid to the region — that would largely define Carter’s Latin American policy. Exit the Liberal Establishment Of course, it was not corporate liberalism but rather a resurgent and revanchist militarism from the Right that turned out to offer the most cohesive and, for a time, successful solution to the crises of the 1970s. Uniting a gathering coalition of old-school law-and-order anticommunists, first generation neoconservatives, and newly empowered evangelicals, the New Right organized an ever metastasizing set of committees, foundations, institutes, and magazines that focused on specific issues — the SALT II nuclear disarmament negotiations, the Panama Canal Treaty, and the proposed MX missile system, as well as U.S. policy in Cuba, South Africa, Rhodesia, Israel, Taiwan, Afghanistan, and Central America. All of them were broadly committed to avenging defeat in Vietnam (and the “stab in the back” by the liberal media and the public at home). They were also intent on restoring righteous purpose to American diplomacy. As had corporate liberals, so, now, neoconservative intellectuals looked to Latin America to hone their ideas. President Ronald Reagan’s ambassador to the UN, Jeane Kirkpatrick, for instance, focused mainly on Latin America in laying out the foundational principles of modern neoconservative thought. She was particularly hard on Linowitz, who, she said, represented the “disinterested internationalist spirit” of “appeasement” — a word back with us again. His report, she insisted, meant “abandoning the strategic perspective which has shaped U.S. policy from the Monroe Doctrine down to the eve of the Carter administration, at the center of which was a conception of the national interest and a belief in the moral legitimacy of its defense.” At first, Brookings, the Council on Foreign Affairs, and the Trilateral Commission, as well as the Business Roundtable, founded in 1972 by the crème de la CEO crème, opposed the push to remilitarize American society; but, by the late 1970s, it was clear that “normalization” had failed to solve the global economic crisis. Europe and Japan were not cooperating in stabilizing the dollar, and the economies of Eastern Europe, the USSR, and China were too anemic to absorb sufficient amounts of U.S. capital or serve as profitable trading partners. Throughout the 1970s, financial houses like the Rockefellers’ Chase Manhattan Bank had become engorged with petrodollars deposited by Saudi Arabia, Iran, Venezuela, and other oil-exporting nations. They needed to do something with all that money, yet the U.S. economy remained sluggish, and much of the Third World off limits. So, after Ronald Reagan’s 1980 presidential victory, mainstream policymakers and intellectuals, many of them self-described liberals, increasingly came to back the Reagan Revolution’s domestic and foreign agenda: gutting the welfare state, ramping up defense spending, opening up the Third World to U.S. capital, and jumpstarting the Cold War. A decade after the Linowitz Commission proclaimed the Monroe Doctrine no longer viable, Ronald Reagan invoked it to justify his administration’s patronage of murderous anti-communists in Nicaragua, Guatemala, and El Salvador. A few years after Jimmy Carter announced that the U.S. had broken “free of that inordinate fear of communism,” Reagan quoted John F. Kennedy saying, “Communist domination in this hemisphere can never be negotiated.” Reagan’s illegal patronage of the Contras — those murderers he hailed as the “moral equivalent of America’s founding fathers” and deployed to destabilize Nicaragua’s Sandinista government — and his administration’s funding of death squads in El Salvador and Guatemala brought together, for the first time, the New Right’s two main constituencies. Neoconservatives provided Reagan’s revival of the imperial presidency with legal and intellectual justification, while the religious Right backed up the new militarism with grassroots energy. This partnership was first built — just as it has more recently been continued in Iraq — on a mountain of mutilated corpses: 40,000 Nicaraguans and 70,000 El Salvadorans killed by U.S. allies; 200,000 Guatemalans, many of them Mayan peasants, victimized in a scorched-earth campaign the UN would rule to be genocidal. The End of the Neocon Holiday from History The recent Council on Foreign Relations report on Latin America, arriving as it does in another moment of imperial decline, seems once again to signal a new emerging consensus, one similar in tone to that of the post-Vietnam 1970s. In every dimension other than military, Newsweek editor Fareed Zacharia argues in his new book, The Post-American World, “the distribution of power is shifting, moving away from American dominance.” ..." " ...The fiasco in Iraq, the fall in the value of the dollar, the rise of India and China as new industrial and commercial powerhouses, and of Russia as an energy superpower, the failure to secure the Middle East, soaring oil and gas prices (as well as skyrocketing prices for other key raw materials and basic foodstuffs), and the consolidation of a prosperous Europe have all brought their dreams of global supremacy crashing down. Barack Obama is obviously the candidate best positioned to walk the U.S. back from the edge of irrelevance. ..." " Parag Khanna, an Obama advisor, recently argued that, by maximizing its cultural and technological advantage, the U.S. can, with a little luck, perhaps secure a position as third partner in a new tripartite global order in which Europe and Asia would have equal shares, a distinct echo of the trilateralist position of the 1970s. ... Spain’s Fernando VII or Britain’s Clement Richard Attlee, each of whom presided over his country’s imperial decline.) "? " Certainly, there are already plenty of feverish conservative think tanks, from the Hudson Institute to the Heritage Foundation, that would double down on Bush’s crusades as a way out of the current mess. ..." " The Right’s decay as an intellectual force is nowhere more evident than in the fits it throws in the face of the Left’s — or China’s — advances in Latin America. The self-confidant vitality with which Jeane Kirkpatrick used Latin America to skewer the Carter administration has been replaced with the tinny, desperate shrill of despair. “Who lost Latin America?” asks the Center for Security Policy’s Frank Gaffney — of pretty much everyone he meets. The region, he says, is now a “magnet for Islamist terrorists and a breeding ground for hostile political movements… The key leader is Chávez, the billionaire dictator of Venezuela who has declared a Latino jihad against the United States.” Scare-Quote Diplomacy But just because the Right is unlikely to unfurl its banner over Latin America again soon doesn’t mean that U.S. hemispheric diplomacy will be demilitarized. After all, it was Bill Clinton, not George W. Bush, who, at the behest of Lockheed Martin in 1997, reversed a Carter administration ban (based on Linowitz report recommendations) on the sale of high-tech weaponry to Latin America. That, in turn, kicked off a reckless and wasteful Southern Cone arms race. And it was Clinton, not Bush, who dramatically increased military aid to the murderous Colombian government and to corporate mercenaries like Blackwater and Dyncorp, further escalating the misguided U.S. “war on drugs” in Latin America. In fact, a quick comparison between the Linowitz report and the new Council on Foreign Relations study on Latin America provides a sobering way of measuring just how far right the “liberal establishment” has shifted over the last three decades. The Council does admirably advise Washington to normalize relations with Cuba and engage with Venezuela, while downplaying the possibility of “Islamic terrorists” using the area as a staging ground — a longstanding fantasy of the neocons. (Douglas Feith, former Pentagon undersecretary, suggested that, after 9/11, the U.S. hold off invading Afghanistan and instead bomb Paraguay, which has a large Shi’ite community, just to “surprise” the Sunni al-Qaeda.) " " ...Seven decades ago, Franklin Roosevelt supported the right of Latin American countries to nationalize U.S. interests, including Standard Oil holdings in Bolivia and Mexico, saying it was time for others in the hemisphere to get their “fair share.” Three decades ago, the Linowitz Commission recommended the establishment of a “code of conduct” defining the responsibilities of foreign corporations in the region and recognizing the right of governments to nationalize industries and resources. The Council, in contrast, sneers at Chávez’s far milder efforts to create joint ventures with oil multinationals, while offering nothing but pablum in its place. Its centerpiece recommendation — aimed at cultivating Brazil as a potential anchor of a post-Bush, post-Chávez hemispheric order — urges the abolition of subsidies and tariffs protecting U.S. agro-industry in order to advance a “Biofuel Partnership” with Brazil’s own behemoth agricultural sector. This would be an environmental disaster, pushing large, mechanized plantations ever deeper into the Amazon basin, while doing nothing to generate decent jobs or distribute wealth more fairly. Dominated by representatives from the finance sector of the U.S. economy, the Council recommends little beyond continuing the failed corporate “free trade” policies of the last twenty years — and, in this case, those scare quotes are justified because what they’re advocating is about as free as corporate “social justice” is just. An Obama Doctrine? So far, Barack Obama promises little better. A few weeks ago, he traveled to Miami and gave a major address on Latin America to the Cuban American National Foundation. It was hardly an auspicious venue for a speech that promised to “engage the people of the region with the respect owed to a partner.” Surely, the priorities for humane engagement would have been different had he been addressing not wealthy right-wing Cuban exiles but an audience, say, of the kinds of Latino migrants in Los Angeles who have revitalized the U.S. labor movement, or of Central American families in Postville, Iowa, where immigration and Justice Department authorities recently staged a massive raid on a meatpacking plant, arresting as many as 700 undocumented workers. Obama did call for comprehensive immigration reform and promised to fulfill Franklin Roosevelt’s 68 year-old Four Freedoms agenda, including the social-democratic “freedom from want.” Yet he spent much of his speech throwing red meat to his Cuban audience. Ignoring the not-exactly-radical advice of the Council on Foreign Relations, the candidate pledged to maintain the embargo on Cuba. And then he went further. Sounding a bit like Frank Gaffney, he all but accused the Bush administration of “losing Latin America” and allowing China, Europe, and “demagogues like Hugo Chávez” to step “into the vacuum.” He even raised the specter of Iranian influence in the region, pointing out that “just the other day Tehran and Caracas launched a joint bank with their windfall oil profits.” Whatever one’s opinion on Hugo Chávez, any diplomacy that claims to take Latin American opinion seriously has to acknowledge one thing: Most of the region’s leaders not only don’t see him as a “problem,” but have joined him on major economic and political initiatives like the Bank of the South, an alternative to the International Monetary Fund and the Union of South American Nations, modeled on the European Union, established just two weeks ago. And any U.S. president who is sincere in wanting to help Latin Americans liberate themselves from “want” will have to work with the Latin American left — in all its varieties. But more ominous than Obama’s posturing on Venezuela is his position on Colombia. Critics have long pointed out that the billions of dollars in military aid provided to the Colombian security forces to defeat the FARC insurgency and curtail cocaine production would discourage a negotiated end to the civil war in that country and potentially provoke its escalation into neighboring Andean lands. That’s exactly what happened last March, when Colombia’s president Alvaro Uribe ordered the bombing of a rebel camp located in Ecuador (possibly with U.S. logistical support supplied from Manta Air Force Base, which gives you an idea of why Correa wants to give it to China). To justify the raid, Uribe explicitly invoked the Bush Doctrine’s right of preemptive, unilateral action. In response, Ecuador and Venezuela began to mobilize troops along their border with Colombia, bringing the region to the precipice of war. Most interestingly, in that conflict, an overwhelming majority of Latin American and Caribbean countries sided with Venezuela and Ecuador, categorically condemning the Colombian raid and reaffirming the sovereignty of individual nations recognized by Franklin Roosevelt long ago. Not Obama, however. He essentially endorsed the Bush administration’s drive to transform Colombia’s relations with its Andean neighbors into the one Israel has with most of the Middle East. In his Miami speech, he swore that he would “support Colombia’s right to strike terrorists who seek safe-havens across its borders.” Equally troublesome has been Obama’s endorsement of the controversial Merida Initiative, which human rights groups like Amnesty International have condemned as an application of the “Colombian solution” to Mexico and Central America, providing their militaries and police with a massive infusion of money to combat drugs and gangs. Crime is indeed a serious problem in these countries, and deserves considered attention. It’s chilling, however, to have Colombia — where death-squads now have infiltrated every level of government, and where union and other political activists are executed on a regular basis — held up as a model for other parts of Latin America. Obama, however, not only supports the initiative, but wants to expand it beyond Mexico and Central America. “We must press further south as well,” he said in Miami. It seems that once again that, as in the 1970s, reports of the death of the Monroe Doctrine are greatly exaggerated. Greg Grandin teaches history at New York University. He is the author of Empire’s Workshop: Latin America, the United States, and the Rise of the New Imperialism and The Last Colonial Massacre: Latin America in the Cold War. ""
posted by bbcweb @ 6/09/2008 05:04:00 PM 0 comments
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
#71: Sciences/Computers: 0) Universes/Life. 1) Math. 2) Quantum Physics: Scientists find new 'quasiparticles' 08.6.3=2 - 6.18=3 11am.
#71: Sciences/Computers: 0) Universes/Life. 1) Math. 2) Physics: Top Supercomputers Jun18,08 http://tinyurl.com/4mn3j5 next-generation stream processor, the AMD FireStream 9250, specifically designed to accelerate critical algorithms in high-performance computing (HPC), mainstream and consumer applications. Jun16,08 http://tinyurl.com/6m5njy 0-1) Universes:---------- 'Before the beginning' Ron Cowen, ScenceNews WebEd Jun12,08 http://tinyurl.com/5w3wcw "" Theory suggests a pre-Big Bang universe "" " Caltech scientists have developed new models of the universe that account for the recent finding that temperature variations in the cosmic microwave background radiation over half the sky appear to be about 10 percent greater than the variations in the other half. " http://tinyurl.com/4y3nyk "" Some people are loath to take a lopsided view of the universe, but cosmologist Sean Carroll and his colleagues are positively reveling in it. Embracing a study that suggests the pattern of radiation left over from the Big Bang looks surprisingly different from one side of the sky to the other, Carroll and colleagues have come up with some mind-bending possibilities to explain the puzzle, described in a paper posted online June 3. In one scenario, the universe existed before inflation — the short-lived but enormous growth spurt associated with the Big Bang. In the other scenario, the universe is but a tiny part of a primordial structure now grown so big it exceeds the horizon of the observable universe. Either way, the explanations suggest “that something outside our observable universe or before the period of inflation left a relic, left some imprint on what we can observe today,” says Carroll, of Caltech. Inflation theory posits that during the first minuscule fractions of a second, the subatomic-sized universe swelled to something like the size of a grapefruit. The rapid stretching explains why widely separated parts of the universe appear so much alike. It also explains why the radiation generated during the Big Bang, known as the cosmic microwave background, is uniformly distributed across the sky. Tiny temperature differences in that radiation signify the primordial seeds that ultimately gave rise to galaxies and galaxy clusters, but according to the simplest model of inflation the magnitude of those tiny hot and cold spots ought to be about the same over different parts of the sky. However, that belief seems to be contradicted by a recent finding. An analysis of the cosmic radiation recorded by NASA’s Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe, or WMAP, shows that the temperature variations over half the sky appear to be about 10 percent greater than the variations in the other half, Hans Eriksen of the University of Oslo in Norway first reported in 2004. He says the asymmetry “looks quite significant, but one shouldn't throw everything else overboard quite yet.” WMAP theorist David Spergel of Princeton University says the finding is “certainly not at the level to make a convincing claim of an asymmetric sky.” But taken at face value, an asymmetric sky poses a problem for the simplest model of inflation, notes Carroll. That’s where he and his Caltech colleagues Marc Kamionkowski and lead author Adrienne Erickcek come into the story. Simply tweaking the theory doesn’t work, Carroll notes. But when his team added major modifications, the model reproduced the asymmetry seen by Eriksen. One of those revisions posits the existence of a “supermode” — a primordial fluctuation in density so much larger than the universe that the fluctuation appears to look uniform. As Carroll notes in a recent blog, it’s as if the cosmos were sampling such a tiny piece of a sine wave that the wave looks likes a straight line instead of oscillating. The neat thing about having a supermode, says Carroll, is that it must have originated before the period of inflation during which the tiny lumps were created that grew into galaxies. Either the supermode came from an even earlier period of inflation, or it preceded inflation entirely. Inflation’s stretch “usually provides a veil between us and the pre-inflationary and/or superhorizon universe,” says coauthor Kamionkowski. But if the asymmetry in the microwave background is confirmed “and if our interpretation is correct, then it provides a window toward regimes of the early universe that we hitherto thought observationally inaccessible.” The new work may also shed light on what sparked inflation in the first place. “What I'm happiest about with this new work are the prospects it opens up for learning more about the physics of inflation, how it got started and/or what happened before inflation,” Kamionkowski adds. The European Space Agency’s Planck mission, set for launch this fall, will look at variations in the cosmic microwave background on finer scales than WMAP and should determine whether or not the asymmetry is real, Eriksen says. Alan Guth of MIT, who first proposed the inflation theory nearly three decades ago, says he suspects “the reported lopsidedness will more likely turn out to be a fluke.” However, he adds, “the concept of inflation is really only the framework of a theory, and so far experiment has given us very little guidance in trying to fill in the details. The authors of this paper are doing just what is needed: they are taking a hint from the data and elaborating it into a theory.… It is only by pursuing such hints that … we will have a chance to find the right way to put meat on the inflationary skeleton.” - - - - - - - - - - - - ======================= 0-2) Life:------------- 'The Ordovician: Life's second big bang' James O'Donoghue, NewScietist 2660: Jun11,08 http://tinyurl.com/5l34pq "" JUST over half a billion years ago, evolution hit a purple patch. In the space of a few million years, once-empty seas were suddenly overrun by all manner of newfangled life forms. Animals had arrived on the scene and life on Earth never looked back. At least, that's what we originally thought the fossil record was telling us. It now turns out that this spectacular event - known as the Cambrian explosion - stuttered to a halt not long after it began. Around 515 million years ago, evolution ran out of steam and the increase in biodiversity went into reverse. For the march of progress to continue, life needed rebooting. It came in the form of a second explosion of life called the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event, a little-heard-of episode which has been the focus of intense scientific interest in recent years. Since discovering hints of it around 20 years ... "" ======================= ======================= 1) Math:--------------- 'Grand designs: Symmetry's hidden depths' Jun11,08 http://tinyurl.com/3glz2o * Marcus du Sautoy * Magazine issue 2660 OSLO, May 2008. King Harald of Norway presents mathematicians John Thompson and Jacques Tits with the Abel prize, one of the highest accolades in mathematics. There is a pleasing symmetry at the heart of this year's award. The winners are being honoured for ground-breaking work that led to the completion of a project started by Niels Abel, the 19th-century Norwegian mathematician after whom the prize is named. Appropriately enough, that project concerns mathematicians' attempts to answer the question: what is symmetry? 2) Physics:------------- ' Scientists find new 'quasiparticles' ' Jun2,08 http://tinyurl.com/59qjds : " Weizmann Institute physicists have demonstrated, for the first time, the existence of 'quasiparticles' with one quarter the charge of an electron. This finding could be a first step toward creating exotic types of quantum computers that might be powerful, yet highly stable. " ---------------------------- 'World's Largest Quantum Bell Test Spans Three Swiss Towns ' Lisa Zyga; PhysOrg.com. Jun16,08 http://tinyurl.com/5tsq7l In the Bell test two photons from an entangled pair were sent from Geneva to Satigny and Jussy two small towns located 18 km apart. This distance enabled the space-like separation necessary for finishing a quantum measurement in each town which requi ...
: "" In the Bell test, two photons from an entangled pair were sent from Geneva to Satigny and Jussy, two small towns located 18 km apart. This distance enabled the space-like separation necessary for finishing a quantum measurement in each town, which required a macroscopic mass to move. Detection of the mass’ movement was completed before information could have traveled between the two towns. Credit: D. Salart, et al. In an attempt to rule out any kind of communication between entangled particles, physicists from the University of Geneva have sent two entangled photons traveling to different towns located 18 km apart – the longest distance for this type of quantum measurement. The distance enabled the physicists to completely finish performing their quantum measurements at each detector before any information could have time to travel between the two towns. Many other experiments have observed quantum nonlocality – the “spooky interaction at a distance” that occurs between two entangled particles – and also known as a violation of Bell inequalities. " " Different interpretations of quantum mechanics lead to different answers. The most common view is that a quantum measurement is finished as soon as the photons are absorbed by detectors. Previous experiments have been set up to allow enough distance between particle detectors to prohibit communication under this view. But there are also other views of when the measurement is finished, including “when the result is secured in a classical system,” “when the information is in the environment,” or even that it is never over – a view that leads to the many worlds interpretation. The Swiss team followed a view proposed independently by Penrose and Diosi, which assumes a connection between quantum measurements and gravity, and requires a macroscopic mass to be moved. In this view, the measurement takes more time than it does for a photon to be absorbed by a detector. The significance of the Swiss test is that it is the first “space-like separated” Bell test under the Penrose-Diosi assumption. “There is quite a large community of physicists that speculates on possible connections between quantum gravity and the measurement problem,” coauthor Hugo Zbinden told PhysOrg.com. “The advantage of the Penrose-Diosi model is that it is testable using today's technology.” In the physicists’ experiment, the detection of each photon by a single-photon detector triggers a voltage to a piezoelectric actuator. The actuator expands, which in turn causes a tiny gold-surfaced mirror to move. By measuring the mirror displacement, the researchers could confirm by the gravity-quantum connection that the quantum measurement had been successfully finished. All of the steps – from photon detection to mirror movement – take about 7.1 microseconds, which is significantly less than the 60 microseconds it would take a photon to cover the 18 km between interferometers. So measurements made simultaneously at each of the interferometers could not be been influenced by anything traveling at – or even a few times more than – the speed of light. “The significance of our experiment lies entirely in achieving space-like separation, even under the assumption that a quantum measurement is only finished after a macroscopic mass has moved, as in the Penrose-Diosi model,” Zbinden explained. Altogether, the experiment serves to fill a loophole by ruling out any kind of communication between two entangled particles separated by a distance, provided the collapse happens only after a mass has moved. By spatially separating the entangled photons, the test once again confirms the nonlocal nature of quantum correlations. More information: Salart, D.; Baas, A.; van Houwelingen, J. A. W.; Gisin, N.; and Zbinden, H. “Spacelike Separation in a Bell Test Assuming Gravitationally Induced Collapses.” Physical Review Letters 100, 220404 (2008). ""
posted by bbcweb @ 6/03/2008 07:10:00 PM 0 comments
Sunday, May 25, 2008
#69黃虎印. 台籍老兵: 許昭榮 // Web. State. Ages // Religion. Universe. Life//Naked: Nukes&WW2// Future / Rome / Pol. ILSR // UDHR: TW. 08.5.25=6-6.13=5 9pm.
"黃虎印=Yellow Tiger Stamp=Taiwan Democratic Nation, 1895: National Flag. " '新編歷史歌仔戲—黃虎印' Jun12-15,08 雲集台灣頂尖一流劇場名星跨界演出風華桂冠小生－唐美雲 歌仔戲界女帝－許秀年／領銜演出 " ===================================== ' 我最敬愛的外公，寧願燒盡、不願銹壞；許昭榮與台籍老兵' Jun11,08 http://tinyurl.com/5mofhy : "" 1. 謝謝你讓大家知道哪些高雄議員的 腦殘,那吳大人唯一為台灣做對一 件事,捐出廢地一塊,可惜唯德不足 未出錢建設! 希望大家有志者來出力吧!用行動 來幫忙圓許老先生的夢! NCKU 2008-06-09 20:01:02 email 2. neo，昭榮伯的悲哀，我完全能夠理解，不管本省兵外省兵，他們都是時代的犧牲者。不容青史竟成灰，老人家唯一的心願，也只是留下歷史見證罷了。結果台灣民主聖地高雄，卻無容身之地，哀莫大於心死，陳菊市長這實在太令我們失望吧！往者已矣，勇者的身影在前，我們後輩不能退縮，請大家一人一信，為高雄發聲請命，為歷史請命，為昭榮伯爭尊嚴。 waterx92 2008-06-10 18:42:25 email 3. 阿榮大的孫..大哥給你講.希望你可以提供這部短片檔.不然你貼在youtube...這無名不好用..為何要這樣.因為貼片伺服器如果死了.這片也不會動.我們要在各地各點把聲音喊出去 慶離 2008-06-10 22:54:59 homepage 4. 老前輩安息！ 文仔 2008-06-11 10:43:53 email 5. 我把他轉載到我的部落格，希望你不介意。大地文教基金會的楊緒東董事長在5/9寫了一篇有關台籍老兵的書評--無國之奴今如是－台灣人真悲哀，這篇文章在5/16放上大地網站http: //www.taiwantt.org.tw/tw/index.php?option= com_content&task=view&id=138&Itemid=1 沒料到5/20就發生台籍老兵許榮昭先生自焚事件，除了佩服楊董事長的未卜先知以外，還是惋惜這篇文章來不及擋住許昭榮自焚的決心。 一切都是天意！ Amy 2008-06-11 11:54:34 homepage 6. 1. 不應說是歷史的犧牲或是天意, 明明是國民黨所做的惡事，苦苦的纏住台灣人。 2.如果可以，影片真的應該放到YUTOBE, 無名也是被YAHOO買走的啊。她們對中國的態度... Khai 2008-06-11 19:54:37 email homepage 7. 這是典型從戰敗國的國民搖身一變，成為戰勝國的被殖民之悲哀。從日本國民，日本兵去打中國奴，變成中華民國兵去打共匪。台灣人，你還在顧你的股票嗎？哪日要變成共產黨兵，不要緊嗎？ 昭榮兄，有氣魄！！ 思念你的爽朗笑聲，你下酒菜的手藝，以及非常執著敬業的精神！版主，謝謝剪接這個影片。我是你外公的清請好朋友，一起在多倫多曾有一段快樂無拘無束高談理想的好時光。你外公走得光榮，有氣魄，夠膽識，是值得學習的好台灣軍人。 Ajin 2008-06-11 20:01:10 email homepage 8. so touching steve 2008-06-12 00:40:08 9. I honor this "OLD WARRIER" at my highest respection. Ronny225 2008-06-12 08:27:40 email 10. 許老先生為台灣的尊嚴值得全世界敬意與懷念 李龍騰 2008-06-12 09:47:48 email 11. 敬愛的許昭榮老前輩,過去多年與您常在民主運動中相遇,520晚上從網路新聞得知您自焚殉道,內心深受衝擊,自此深層的愴痛不曾止息.每天向主禱告,願主保佑您安息主懷. 6月7日早上我從台北搭高鐵到鳳山市長老教會參加追思會,向您致上最高敬意.懷著無比傷痛,再一次接受您的教誨,感念您為台灣人的尊嚴所做的奉獻.您雖然已往生,您的身影親切猶如仍然陪伴我們身邊.時間越是流逝,您的身影越是精神昂然;您是台灣烈士,您是台灣的英雄巨人!您留給後代最珍貴的台灣文化資產- - 您為台籍老兵守護用血淚構織的歷史,您用生命守護旗津台灣兵無名戰士英靈紀念碑.敬愛的老前輩英靈,安息吧!旗津台灣兵無名戰士英靈紀念碑永遠矗立在許昭榮老前輩自焚殉道之處,這裡是台灣人世世代代榮耀的聖地,我們在這裡敬仰為台灣犧牲的先人,在這裡鍛鍊,學習,直到台灣國建立之時--在這裡舉杯與先人英靈一同歡慶! 願主保佑許昭榮老前輩和台灣兵無名英靈,安息主懷! 願主保佑遺族. 平安! 曾心儀寫於台北永和20080612 曾心儀 2008-06-12 10:21:53 email 12. 台灣萬歲!台灣人萬歲 2008-06-12 10:41:15 13. 願主看顧台籍老兵，許先生安息。無限哀思.. VIPsingjen 2008-06-12 10:57:00 email homepage 14. [收藏] 願主看顧 VIPsingjen 2008-06-12 10:59:01 "" ===================================== ------------------------------------- Web:--------------------------------- 'Bank to Help Build 'Thinking' Machines' May28,08 http://tinyurl.com/3hnctg 'Militarizing Your Cyberspace' Jun6,08 http://tinyurl.com/66a9x5 ===================================== ------------------------------------- State: ------------------------------ Armed & Free People: 'Machiavelli Was Right' Jun6,08 http://tinyurl.com/5v44rt 'Global Military Spending Soars 45 Percent in 10 Years' Jun9,08 http://tinyurl.com/4md526 'America's Democratic Collapse' Chris Hedges, Jun3,08 http://tinyurl.com/5kd8f7 : " keynote address on Wednesday, May 28, in Furman University's Younts " " I used to live in a country called America. " " Our state, our nation, has been hijacked by oligarchs, corporations and a narrow, selfish political elite, a small and privileged group which governs on behalf of moneyed interests. " " NAFTA...1994, had the curious effect of reversing every one of Clinton's rosy predictions. " " Clinton's welfare reform bill, which was signed on Aug. 22, 1996, obliterated the nation's social safety net. " " George Bush has also done more to dismantle our Constitution, ignore or revoke our statutes and reverse regulations that protected American citizens from corporate abuse than any other president in recent American history. " " There has been a Weimarization of the American working class. And the assault on the middle class is now under way...being outsourced " " We have watched over the past few decades the rise of a powerful web of interlocking corporate entities, a network of arrangements... " " The corporate state, begun under Ronald Reagan and pushed forward by every president since, " " as we saw in Italy and Germany... Antitrust laws...serve as bulwarks to protect democracy. And now that they are gone, " " I spent two years traveling the country to write a book on the Christian right called "American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America." In depressed former manufacturing towns from Ohio to Kentucky it was the same. " ------------------------ 'Bringing Bush to Court' Elizabeth de la Vega and Tom Engelhardt: Nov28,06 http://tinyurl.com/6ccfl2 "United States v. George W. Bush et al." Elizabeth de la Vega: Nov1,06 http://tinyurl.com/47bdq7 : Amazon.com: " Product Description In United States v. George W. Bush et al., former federal prosecutor Elizabeth de la Vega brings her twenty years of experience and her passion for justice to the most important case of her career. The defendants are George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice, and Colin Powell. The crime is tricking the nation into war, or, in legal terms, conspiracy to defraud the United States. Ms. de la Vega has reviewed the evidence, researched the law, drafted an indictment, and in this lively, accessible book, presented it to a grand jury. If the indictment and grand jury are both hypothetical, the facts are tragically real: Over half of all Americans believe the president misled the country into a war that has left over 2,500 American soldiers and countless Iraqis dead. The cost is $350 billion-and counting. " ------------------------------------- 'Kucinich Calls For Bush Impeachment' Jun10,08 http://tinyurl.com/4zvvq6 ------------------------------------- State:------------------------------- 'Obama Capitulates – to the Israel lobby' Jun6,08 http://tinyurl.com/55q4m6 'Will Obama Stand Up to the War Party? Don't bet the ranch on it' Jun4,08 http://tinyurl.com/68ppfl 'The Fed’s War on the Middle Class' Jun4,08 http://mises.org/story/2983 : " Multimillionaires like Hillary Clinton and Lou Dobbs butter their bread by defending middle-class Americans. " " All four problems stem from a common cause — the Federal Reserve. History tells us that we either root out this cause or face economic demise. " 'Wall Street, Banks, and American Foreign Policy' http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard-lib.html Murray N. Rothbard 1984 http://tinyurl.com/2xuttf Cmmercial bankers, engaged as they are in unsound fractional reserve credit, are, in the free market, always teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. Hence they are always reaching for government aid and bailout. Investment bankers do much of their business underwriting government bonds, in the United States and abroad. Therefore, they have a vested interest in promoting deficits and in forcing taxpayers to redeem government debt. Both sets of bankers, then, tend to be tied in with government policy, and try to influence and control government actions in domestic and foreign affairs. is a certain mentality that, no matter how convincing the evidence, would never even consider the argument put forward in Wall Street, Banks, and American Foreign Policy. " An Enemy of the State: The Life of Murray N. Rothbard" Justin Rainmondo ------------------------------------- 'Know the Enemy' May31,08 http://tinyurl.com/52ynod " Behind the State, and concealed by it, is the ultimate social force, the banking. The banks create money from nothing, and charge interest for it. Repayment is made possible by more lending. The State has been the biggest borrower, but as long as it pays interest, the principle need not be repaid: the state’s reward for legitimizing this abomination. There’s nothing new in this system, and we can learn from the past that it inevitably fails. " Now the chickens are coming home to roost. A system that cannot exist without continuous borrowing will fail when the cost of borrowing simply becomes too high. " ------------------------------------ ------------------------------------ ====================================== Ages: -------------------------------- 'Large methane release could cause abrupt climate change as happened 635 million years ago' May28,08 http://tinyurl.com/6o2gaa 'Huge Flying Reptiles Ate Dinosaurs' May27,08 http://www.livescience.com/animals/051201_dinosaur_history.html Age of Dinosaurs some 230 million to 65 million years ago " " pterosaurs " " fossils of a group of toothless pterosaurs called azhdarchids, which are much larger on average than other http://www.livescience.com/animals/080211-mini-pterodactyl.html : " For example, one of the largest azhdarchids, Quetzalcoatlus, weighed about 550 pounds (250 kilograms) with a wingspan of more than 30 feet (10 meters) and a height comparable to a giraffe. " " Back before they went extinct 65 million years ago during the event that also killed off non-avian dinosaurs, these pterosaurs could lunch on animals ranging from small bird-like Velicoraptors to babies to amphibians. " ------------------------------------- 'Vatican unveils restored pagan tomb: 2nd-century burial grounds were covered up by Emperor Constantine' May27,08 http://tinyurl.com/4dmh9n : " VATICAN CITY - The Vatican unveiled the largest and most luxurious of the pagan tombs in the necropolis under St. Peter’s Basilica on Tuesday after nearly a year of restoration work. " "Emperor Constantine, a convert to Christianity, had the pagan burial grounds covered up in the 4th century so the basilica could be built over the site holding St. Peter’s tomb. The Valeri tomb, made up of several rooms, is several hundred feet from the burial place of the Apostle Peter, venerated by Catholics as the first pope. Peter was martyred in Rome in the area near the Vatican known as Nero’s Circus during the first century persecution of Christians by the Romans. " " The mausoleum is considered a particularly fine example of the stucco work popular from that era, as well as for the bas reliefs and statues that adorn the tombs. The tomb tells the history of the family, particularly in bas reliefs, of a girl and a boy from the Caius Valerius Herma family. The children died young, possibly from plague. Such stuccoed objects as a quill pen and a skein of yarn tell the tale of daily life in the Valeri family. Reliefs of major gods and other pagan figures attest to their strong religious belief. " ======================== ======================== =================================== Religion:-------------------------- 'Religions of the World' May30,08 http://tinyurl.com/4xngpx 'A Comparison between Cesidianism and major Christian denominations' May30,08 http://tinyurl.com/5v7ajs 'Why Can’t All Cults Get a Fair Shake?'May28,08 http://tinyurl.com/3lla7q 'Religion is a product of evolution, software suggests' May27,08 http://tinyurl.com/6a2vrc : " James Dow, an evolutionary anthropologist...wrote the program – called Evogod " " "Sometime between 100,000 years ago to the point where writing was invented, maybe about 7000 BC, we begin to have records of people's supernatural beliefs," Dow says. " " The model looks at the reproductive success of the two sorts of people – those who pass on real information, and those who pass on unreal information. Under most scenarios, "believers in the unreal" went extinct. But when Dow included the assumption that non-believers would be attracted to religious people because of some clear, but arbitrary, signal, religion flourished. "Somehow the communicators of unreal information are attracting others to communicate real information to them," Dow says, speculating that perhaps the non-believers are touched by the faith of the religious. Ancient needs http://www.anth.uconn.edu/faculty/sosis/ Richard Sosis, an evolutionary anthropologist at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, US, says the model adds a new dimension to the debate over how religion could have evolved, which has previously relied on verbal arguments and speculation. But "these are baby steps", he cautions. Sosis previously found that in some populations – kibbutzim in Israel, for instance – more religious people receive more assistance from others than the less faithful. But he notes that the forces that maintain religion in modern humans could be very different from those that promoted its emergence, thousands of years ago. Palaeolithic humans were probably far more reliant than modern humans on the community they were born into, Sosis says. " ----------------------------- "The Devil's Delusion: Atheism and Its Scientific Pretensions" Apr1,08 http://tinyurl.com/5j57kx Amazon.com: " Product Description Militant atheism is on the rise. Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, and Christopher Hitchens have dominated bestseller lists with books denigrating religious belief as dangerous foolishness. And these authors are merely the leading edge of a far larger movement–one that now includes much of the scientific community. " ==================== ==================== ============================ Universe:------------------- 'Doughnut-shaped Universe: Astronomers say Universe is small and finite' May23,08 http://tinyurl.com/3vqr5s : " the probable size of the Universe: 56 billion light years across. " ============================= ----------------------------- Universe to Life:------------ 'Molecular brakes for nanotechnology machines' Jun4,08 http://tinyurl.com/4jhslb (Nanowerk Spotlight) ..." So far, the development of a practical braking system for nanomotors remains a challenge. Researchers in Taiwan now have reported development of a light-driven molecular brake that could provide on-demand stopping power for futuristic nanotechnology machines. " ..." Dr. Jye-Shane Yang " ... " a professor...at National Taiwan University (NTU), collaborated with scientists at NTU and the Institute of Chemistry, Academia Sinica in Taipei. ...in the May 3, 2008 online edition of Organic Letters, 10 (11), 2279–2282 ("A Pentiptycene-Derived Light-Driven Molecular Brake"). " 'Brown researchers work toward ending cartilage loss' Jun3,08 http://tinyurl.com/4gydgz " the tubes, due to their unique surface properties, work well for stimulating cartilage-forming cells, known scientifically as chondrocytes. The nanotube’s surface is rough; viewed under a microscope, it looks like a bumpy landscape. Yet that uneven surface closely resembles the contours of natural tissue, so cartilage cells see it as a natural environment to colonize. " "Ufos Over Africa" Cynthia Hind: Jun,97 http://tinyurl.com/6bksmd ============================= ----------------------------- Life:------------------------ 'Will We Recognize The Future?' Jun6,08 http://tinyurl.com/5bkjhs : " what happens when the rate of technological change becomes so fast that the fundamental nature of what it means to be human changes, too? In this segment, Ira talks with inventor, technologist and futurist Ray Kurzweil about the idea of 'the Singularity' -- what happens when technology advances so much that it's impossible to predict what happens next. Will artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, and biotechnology be able to completely reshape what it means to be human? " "The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology" Ray Kurzweil Sep22,05 http://tinyurl.com/5rf23g : " From Publishers Weekly ... Renowned inventor Kurzweil (The Age of Spiritual Machines) may be technology's most credibly hyperbolic optimist... here, his quarry is the future of consciousness and intelligence. Humankind, it runs, is at the threshold of an epoch ("the singularity," a reference to the theoretical limitlessness of exponential expansion) that will see the merging of our biology with the staggering achievements of "GNR" (genetics, nanotechnology and robotics) to create a species of unrecognizably high intelligence, durability, comprehension, memory and so on... argument is necessarily twofold: it's not enough to argue that there are virtually no constraints on our capacity; he must also convince readers that such developments are desirable. In essence, he conflates the wholesale transformation of the species with "immortality," for which read a repeal of human limit. In less capable hands, this phantasmagoria of speculative extrapolation, which incorporates a bewildering variety of charts, quotations, playful Socratic dialogues and sidebars, would be easier to dismiss. But Kurzweil is a true scientist—a large-minded one at that—and gives due space both to "the panoply of existential risks" as he sees them and the many presumed lines of attack others might bring to bear. What's arresting isn't the degree to which Kurzweil's heady and bracing vision fails to convince—given the scope of his projections, that's inevitable—but the degree to which it seems downright plausible. (Sept.) " 'Plastic Brain Outsmarts Experts' Jun5,08 http://tinyurl.com/574xh3 : " Fluid intelligence, an aspect of a person's IQ, allows people to solve unfamiliar problems by understanding relationships between various concepts independent of previous knowledge or skills. Research shows that training short-term, or working memory, can improve fluid intelligence, which was once thought to be extremely difficult. " 'Genesis of a Virus: Scientists witness the birth of an HIV particle as it happens. ' May28,08 http://tinyurl.com/5yvzv2 " By homing in on this outer membrane, and tagging one of the virus's major structural proteins, called Gag, with a fluorescent protein, the researchers were able to watch as the molecules aggregated to form a single virion. Visually, it showed up as little bright spots appearing and disappearing, "like little stars appearing in the sky," Simon says. "It was really beautiful." " 'Amyloids Have Have Potential as a Nanomaterials' May28,08 http://tinyurl.com/5pm592 'That gut feeling: How friendly bugs protect us' May28,08 http://tinyurl.com/5ffw7q : " The "good bacteria" that inhabit our guts just got even better. As well as crowding out undesirable or dangerous organisms, they may also release molecules that reduce inflammation and protect against colitis.Bacteroides fragilis is a common bacterium found in the human gut that produces a molecule called PSA, " 'Gene therapy increases survival for end-stage head and neck cancer' May29,08 http://tinyurl.com/4hrbqf : " A gene therapy that restores tumor-suppressor gene : " developed by University of Texas, has become the first gene therapy to succeed in a U.S. phase III clinical trial. The therapy uses a modified adenovirus that expresses the tumor-suppressing gene p53 for end-stage head and neck The p53 gene is inactivated in many types of.. Its normal role is to halt the division of a defective and then force the to kill itself. " 'Scientists Announce Top 10 New Species In Last Year' May26,08 http://tinyurl.com/6qt3z6 : " 16,969 new to were discovered and described in 2006. " ==================== ==================== =========================== Naked:--------------------- A Plea of Innocence and a Plea for Humanity' US Torture May29,08 http://tinyurl.com/4a68go Iraq War: 'A Whole School of Trout in the Milk' Jun6,08 http://tinyurl.com/4k8wkg 'Revealed: Secret Plan to Keep Iraq Under US Control: Bush wants 50 military bases, control of Iraqi airspace and legal immunity for all American soldiers and contractors' Jun5,08 http://tinyurl.com/67jmrj 'Iraq Lawmakers Want US Forces Out As Part of Deal' Jun5,08 http://tinyurl.com/3ovwdt 'US Issues Threat to Iraq’s $50bn Foreign Reserves in Military Deal' Jun6,08 http://tinyurl.com/5khqwx 'Treaty Tensions Mount as Iraq Tells the US It Wants All Troops Back in Barracks' Jun9,08 http://tinyurl.com/68lkp4 'US Seeking 58 Bases in Iraq, Shiite Lawmakers Say' Jun10,08 http://tinyurl.com/462xhn 'War Immemorial Day – No Peace for Militarized U.S.' May26,08 http://tinyurl.com/3qml6a 'I Rise to Speak – On This Memorial Day – In Refusal of Murder' May28,08 http://tinyurl.com/4d65q2 - - - - - - - - - - - - - 'John Bolton Escapes Citizen’s Arrest at Hay Festival' May28,08 http://tinyurl.com/5gfa46 'People Must Reclaim Power' Winter Soldier May28,08 http://tinyurl.com/6yg44p 'Stopping the War Machine: Military Recruiters Must Be Confronted' May28,08 'http://tinyurl.com/5yf933' : " Paralyzed from the chest down by Vietnam War wounds, and confined to a wheelchair for almost 40 years, Ron Kovic stands as a symbol of the brutality of war. He also exemplifies a man’s ability to transform such tragedy into a lifelong pursuit of peace—for himself and his country. " 'Half-Trillion Dollars for Nukes!' May29,08 http://tinyurl.com/5m7ak4 : " The Lieberman-Warner scheme is cloaked in a climate change bill " " Safe energy advocates are outraged by their scheme. " " “Taxpayers should not be asked to continue bankrolling a nuclear power industry that has never been financially or environmentally viable,” says Sandra Schubert " " “It’s so deceitful,” says Kay Drey of Beyond Nuclear, who is also incensed that the media have virtually made no mention of “this would-be half-trillion dollar nuclear bail-out.” " " major support in the Senate – especially from John McCain " " Price-Anderson Act... limits liability to $10 billion for a catastrophic accident " " like trying to treat heroin addiction with crack. Lieberman and Warner would have us pay for hundreds of billions of dollars for atomic crack. " Naked 'Israel Has ‘150 or More’ Nuclear Weapons: Carter' May2708 http://tinyurl.com/6xjgfx : " said: “The US has more than 12,000 nuclear weapons, the Soviet Union (sic) has about the same; Great Britain and France have several hundred, and Israel has 150 or more. ” “We have a phalanx of enormous weaponry, not only of enormous weaponry, but of rockets to deliver those missiles on a pinpoint accuracy target,” Naked 'Inconvenient Facts About World War II' May27,08 http://tinyurl.com/6qdwbw Naked: 'Was World War Two just as pointless and self-defeating as Iraq, asks Peter Hitchens' Apr19,08 http://tinyurl.com/3kg43a : "The Beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization" Nicholson Baker. : "Churchill, Hitler And The Unnecessary War" Patrick Buchanan May13,08. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - " Churchill, Hitler, and "The Unnecessary War": How Britain Lost Its Empire and the West Lost the World " Patrick J. Buchanan: May27,08 http://tinyurl.com/5x5nzy Amazon.com: "" Product Description Were World Wars I and II—which can now be seen as a thirty-year paroxysm of slaughter and destruction—inevitable? Were they necessary wars? Were the bloodiest and most devastating conflicts ever suffered by mankind fated by forces beyond men’s control? Or were they products of calamitous failures of judgment? In this monumental and provocative history, Patrick Buchanan makes the case that, if not for the blunders of British statesmen—Winston Churchill first among them—the horrors of two world wars and the Holocaust might have been avoided and the British Empire might never have collapsed into ruins. Half a century of murderous oppression of scores of millions under the iron boot of Communist tyranny might never have happened, and Europe’s central role in world affairs might have been sustained for many generations. " - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ' The 'Good War' and the Terrible Peace ' Patrick J. Buchanan http://tinyurl.com/4vsd8w : "" In attacking my book Churchill, Hitler and 'The Unnecessary War': How Britain Lost Its Empire and the West Lost the World, Victor Davis Hanson, the court historian of the neoconservatives, charges me with "rewriting ... facts" and showing "ingratitude" to American and British soldiers who fought World Wars I and II. " 'Man of the Century' Patrick J. Buchanan May29,08 http://tinyurl.com/4nbrzh 'Rethinking Churchil' Ralph Raico May31,08 : " Churchill was from first to last a Man of the State, of the welfare state and of the warfare state. " " selling out the Empire and everything else for the sake of total victory over Germany. " " with his stark Darwinian outlook, his elevation of war to the central place in human history, " " Early in the war, Churchill, declared: "I have only one aim in life, the defeat of Hitler, and this makes things very simple for me." " " Roosevelt's nauseating flattery of Stalin is easily matched by Churchill's. Just like Roosevelt, Churchill heaped fulsome praise on the Communist murderer, and was anxious for Stalin's personal friendship. " " Churchill's benign view of Stalin and Russia contrasts sharply with his view of Germany. Behind Hitler, Churchill discerned the old specter of Prussianism, which had caused, allegedly, not only the two world wars, but the Franco Prussian War as well. What he was battling now was "Nazi tyranny and Prussian militarism," the "two main elements in German life which must be absolutely destroyed." " " With the attack on the French fleet, Churchill confirmed his position as the prime subverter through two world wars of the system of rules of warfare that had evolved in the West over centuries. " " Churchill claimed that only military and industrial installations were targeted. In fact, the aim was to kill as many civilians as possible thus, "area" bombing, or "carpet" bombing and in this way to break the morale of the Germans and terrorize them into surrendering. " " Solzhenitsyn wrote, of Winston Churchill: He turned over to the Soviet command the Cossack corps of 90,000 men. Along with them he also handed over many wagonloads of old people, women, and children. . . . " " The "purge" of alleged collaborators in France was a blood-bath that claimed more victims than the Reign of Terror in the Great Revolution and not just among those who in one way or other had aided the Germans: included were any right-wingers the Communist resistance groups wished to liquidate. The massacres carried out by Churchill's protégé, Tito, must be added to this list: tens of thousands of Croats, not simply the Ustasha, but any "class-enemies," in classical Communist style. There was also the murder of some 20,000 Slovene anti-Communist fighters by Tito and his killing squads. When Tito's Partisans rampaged in Trieste, which he was attempting to grab in 1945, additional thousands of Italian anti-Communists were massacred. " " Having destroyed Germany as the natural balance to Russia on the continent, he was now forced to try to embroil the United States in yet another war, this time a Cold War, that would last 45 years, and change America fundamentally, and perhaps irrevocably. " " Winston Churchill was a Man of Blood and a politico without principle, whose apotheosis serves to corrupt every standard of honesty and morality in politics and history. " =============================== =============================== 'Conservatives over Reflections on Attending the 2008 Libertarian Party Convention in Denver' May31,08 http://tinyurl.com/3t3gtk : " Dr. Ron Paul, a prominent member of the GOP is more libertarian than the two standard bearers of the LP. " 'The Revolution, Phase II' Johnny Kramer May29,08 http://tinyurl.com/42phh3 : "Ron Paul: A Better Way" Johnny Kramer 08 'RON PAUL: THE LIBERTARIAN DARK HORSE STILL RIDES: An Exclusive Interview with Wajahat Ali' May27,08 http://tinyurl.com/5o37zb ======================================== 'The Future – According to nVidia' computer tech. etc.' May25,08 http://tinyurl.com/56y6as 'amsung unveils 'world's smallest' 256GB SSD drive' May26,08 http://tinyurl.com/4zo82x : "id state drive that is less than 10mm thick and 2.4 times faster than traditional hard drives." --------------------------------------------------------- Ancient Roman "Globalisation" May26,08 http://tinyurl.com/6prmhn 'Flamboyant archeologist believes he has identified Cleopatra's tomb' May25,08 http://tinyurl.com/3ukce9 --------------------------------------------------------- 'Re-mapping Latin America's Future' May26,08 http://tinyurl.com/6763oa 'Socialism and the Chinese Earthquake' May27,08 http://tinyurl.com/4nyome 'Who Is Being Reckless, Obama or McCain?' May27,08 Hysteric Campaign? ttp://tinyurl.com/5je7sf 'Peter Thiel Makes Down Payment on Libertarian Ocean Colonies' May19,08 http://tinyurl.com/3g2ccr 'Georgia rebels ready for war, hope for prosperity' Reuters May27,08 http://tinyurl.com/6cmrj2 : " Fifteen years after Abkhazia won a war to throw off Georgian rule, tensions over the region are close to spilling over again into an armed conflict. " Institute for Local Self-Reliance: http://www.ilsr.org/ : 'The New Rules Project': http://www.newrules.org/ ============================== 'Universal Declaration of Human Rights' UDHR Dec10,08=60th http://tinyurl.com/3h4hye 'Virtual Cantons: A New Path to Freedom?' Autumn 1993 issue of Formulations, published by the Libertarian Nation Foundation http://tinyurl.com/4tjbts 'Declaration of Taiwan Status: 新細明體;台灣地位宣言' http://tinyurl.com/6xejju : 新細明體;揭開台灣真正國際地位與人民權益" 林志昇, 何瑞元「保護臺灣大聯盟」政治研究組成員 ======================== 'Historical Development of the Legal Status of the Republic of China on Taiwan' http://tinyurl.com/489umf 新細明體; 揭開台灣國際地位: 林志昇精選集' 取材自林志昇與何瑞元文集 http://www.taiwanbasic.com/tw/ http://tinyurl.com/k56gw '蕭惟仁綜合法理論述: 如何掌握台灣的未來?' (取材自何瑞元和林志昇文集 http://www.taiwanbasic.com/tw/ 與自由時報的簡報資料) http://tinyurl.com/2rnybo But, also 'Taiwan is an inseparable part of Japanese national territory'? http://tinyurl.com/4xzkfv ---------------------------------- 美台週刊 US TAIWAN CESSION WEEKLY No.50 May25,08 http://www.taiwanus.net/roger/weekly_50.htm or http://tinyurl.com/4tscd2 :---- '台灣地位之謎（三）林志昇‧何瑞元, 台灣平民政府召集人 May5,08. 硫磺島生死決戰 2月19 日 晨 8:30 蝶衣 May24,08.
posted by bbcweb @ 5/25/2008 11:44:00 AM 0 comments
About Me
Name: bbcweb
Location: Fremont, Cascadia
Author of BBCWeb [[ Beyond Borders Communities website ]]: http://www.bbcweb.net/, asking all Taiwan's famous artist, Tsai Intang's relatives and friends to get together, to establish his online networks: http://tinyurl.com/gvfp6 /// Quote: ""We are a serious movement. Our goal is nothing less than the victory of liberty over the Leviathan state, and we shall not be deflected, we shall not be diverted, we shall not be suborned, from achieving that goal"", an American Libertarian.
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* #78: Hunger!/Peace!/Ecology/Medicine: NeuRx Diap...
* #77: Arts/做台灣主人TaiwanColony/Japan: Tsai Intang. ...
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* #75: Philosophy: 0) Korea Symbols. 1) Capitalist...
* #74: Ages: 1) The Sumerian Civilization. 08.6.9=1...
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* #72: World Politics/US/EU: -1) Japan, Israel, U...
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* #69黃虎印. 台籍老兵: 許昭榮 // Web. State. Ages // Religion...
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Please feel free to comment. bbcweb who is
working on:
1) Formosan fine artist, Tsai Intang, and
2) Promotion of Taiwan's art worlds:
http://groups.google.com/group/bbcweb
3) ACdd, Armed Citizens direct democracy for world peace,
4) Pushing for a free/sovereign FF, Formosan Federation, starting from
5)NTHAN, North Taiwan Hakka Autonomous Nation, based in Hsinbu, NTHAN, FF, home of Tsai Intang:
http://tinyurl.com/FreeFormosa