Media Smeared Paul For Racism, Ignored McCain's "Gook" Comments
Media malpractice: Popular support for Ron Paul, Mike Huckabee not news
Paul Rally In Minneapolis Draws Over 4K
Anti-War Candidates Are Top Recipients Of ‘08 Donations From U.S. Troops
Long Shot Ron Paul Finds A Hotbed of Support in Alaska - WSJ.com
Video: Ron Paul @ MTV Forum
Ron Paul Comes In Third In Maine
Paul Draws Big Denver Crowd
The Ron Paul Economy
YouTube - Ron Paul Critisizing The World Bank
YouTube - Ron Paul on CNN this morning 02/20/08
Paul increases campaign haul
Texas Ron Paul Rally Draws Over 4,000
Ron Paul: Bernanke Deliberately Destroying Dollar
YouTube - Ron Paul: One Chance
Press TV - Ron Paul back on election trail
Paul says he won't try to run as an independent
Ron Paul reactivates GOP candidacy, vows to fight this year and beyond
Consortiumnews.com
Delusional Hope: The Obama Rapture
The Ron Paulization of Obama
McCain fortune traced to organized crime
PressTV - Obama: Let 'me' defend Israel from Iran
Team Obama: Clinton had her 'red phone' moment: Developing...
French GM ban infuriates farmers, delights environmentalists
China premier predicts 'final victory' in weather war
US says missile shield antithesis of Cold War arms race
Follow the Money? God forbid.
Russia will 'always respond' to new 'arms race': Putin
NATO reviewing technical aspects of US missile shield: chief
Russia still open to dialogue on US missile plan: Gates
Bugged: British Prisons Spy On Lawyers, Visitors
NORTHCOM Ready To Implement Martial Law
Kucinich was visited by AIPAC
Police set to search for guns at homes
Britain kow tows to China as athletes are forced to sign no criticism contracts
Bush Administration Appeals Patriot Act Ruling
FBI spawns 'shoot-to-kill' citizens
US, Israel cut internet cables'
Exclusive! The FBI Deputizes Business
Globalisation splits rich and poor
Picture: Israeli Robot Crushes Suicide Bomber
FBI's Sought Approval for Custom Spyware in FISA Court
U.S. sees Russia, China, OPEC financial threat
Bush and Cheney in Hell for 935 Lies
Obama's False Hope: Why I will not Vote for Obama
neocon flowchart
Powell’s shame.
Vote, Dammit!
Law Would Ban Serving Obese Diners
WHY IS OBAMA GOOD FOR ISRAEL?
YouTube - govt. RETALIATION ON ME
New Operation to Put Heavily Armed Officers in Subways
US rivals try to woo youth vote
LewRockwell.com
Blog: Anderson Cooper's CIA Past
NYC subways adding dogs, armed officers
Behavior-Based Internet Advertising: Who Is Watching You?
Jury acquits Snipes of tax fraud
Pentagon Report: No More 'Death Rays'
State of the Nation
Bush Administration Hides More Data, Shuts Down Website Tracking
U.S. Economic Indicators
Big Brother Is Watching You
Russian Billionaire (And Putin Enemy) Found Dead
237 nuke handling deficiencies cited since 2001
Mustang finally lands at DIA
FEMA: Trains To Take You To The Camps
AlterNet:
'Marijuana Makes Your Teeth Fall Out'
New hi-tech weapon for US police
Senate Approves Telco Amnesty, Legalizes Bush's Secret Spy Program
Oops: White House spokesman admits telecoms spied
Defense Official Is Charged in Chinese Espionage Case
Cold War Redux: Navy Intercepts Russian Bombers
Berkeley Mayor To Marines: 'Don't Expect An Apology'
WWIV Watch,Chertoff Threataganda, China, FCS, + News
Panel Cites Drop in U.S. Attention to Nuclear Arsenal
Pakistan nuclear staff go missing
Secret Phone Slip Shows Telco Called for Spy Help
Skelton to Army: Release the Rand report.
Absurd Cop Video Warns Of 7 Signs Of Terrorism
What the DOD’s Formal Charges Don’t Tell Us About Anthrax
'Jericho's'world order
Osama Candy on Sale in China
Is the truth really out there?
Games Organizers Respond to Spielberg
Domestic Access to Spy Imagery Expands
Detention camps at undisclosed locations in the US? Rule by Fear or Rule by Law?
Is There More to 'Vantage Point' or Have We Seen It All?
An Examination of Jericho's New American Flag
A FEMA Camp Called Home
FEMA_Satellite Shootdown Plan Began in Jan.
VIDEO: Homeland Security commissions new human incapacitation device
Rigged Trials At Guantanamo
Would You Like To Be Bill Clinton’s Friend?
WeAreChange Vancouver welcomes Karl Rove
Obama Foreign Policy Advisor Sanctioned Creation And Support Of Militant Islam Tied To Al Qaeda
Debunking the Hemp Conspiracy Theory
Official Conspiracy Theory Called “dogma of political correctness”
Air Force Blocks Wired Blogs
The Cause of Effect Hijacking Humanity Sneak Preview
Analysis: Germany stops Big Brother law
NEW RED LIGHT CAMERA ON SE WASHINGTON AT 103RD
Gun that killed JFK assassin in pop culture auction
Comcast Blocking: First the Internet — Now the Public
FDIC Girds For Bank Failures
Conspiracy theories are actually laughable myths
New evidence challenges official picture of Kennedy shooting
Diebold Accidentally Leaks Results Of 2008 Election Early
US Interventions
Fox host: 'Rush to judgement' against American Airlines
Teens Losing Touch With Historical References
Narco Aggression: Russia accuses the U.S. military of involvement in drug trafficking out of Afghanistan
illinois national guard exercise 'heartland agressor'
Beyond Wikipedia: 19 References You Can't Do Without - Articles
140,000 US troops in Iraq by July
BNP Exposed
Bank of America Secretly Asking Congress for a Banking Industry Bailout
In Israel, Some See No Option but War
Conspiracies in the air
Alabama station drops broadcast of 60 Minutes expose on political prosecution scandal
'No oxygen' causes death on US flight
Paper: DA was part of JFK movie deal
Friday, February 29, 2008
media monarchy episode065
episode065 of media monarchy features cloudseeding, b2 crash, billboard liberation, 9/11 contradictions, proquad, prozac, dupont, doomsday, robotwars, saic, l-rad, nau, warships, watchlists & wargames, music by klaxons and tons more...
download/digg/stream/subscribe
media monarchy is originally broadcast on the portland radio authority every friday at 10am pacific/1pm eastern and can also be heard on the revere radio network every sunday at 4pm pacific/7pm eastern...plus, you can always get podcasts of previous episodes thanks to radio4all.net & archive.org
Thursday, February 28, 2008
warships, watchlists, kosovo kolony & shooter drills
US sends warships to eastern mediterranean
from ap: The U.S. Navy is sending three ships to the eastern Mediterranean Sea in a show of strength during a period of tensions with Syria and political uncertainty in Lebanon. Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters the deployment should not be viewed as threatening or in response to events in any single country in that volatile region.
US terror watch list surpasses 900,000 names
from threat level: The government's centralized terrorist watch list passed the 900,000 name mark this month, according to the ACLU, which estimated the new total by relying on Congressional testimony from the fall that the sprawling list was growing by 20,000 names a month. The report the ACLU relied on to create its Watch List Counter included the following chart demonstrating the clear growth trajectory of the nation's centralized watch lists over the last several years. The Terrorist Screening Center runs the list, accepting nominations of new names from a large range of government agencies.
washington gets a new colony in the balkans
from global research: In evaluating the recent "declaration of independence" by Kosovo, a province of Serbia, and its immediate recognition as a state by the U.S., Germany, Britain and France, it is important to know three things. First, Kosovo is not gaining independence or even minimal self-government. It will be run by an appointed High Representative and bodies appointed by the U.S., European Union and NATO... Second, Washington's immediate recognition of Kosovo confirms once again that U.S. Imperialism will break any and every treaty or international agreement it has ever signed... Thirdly, U.S. Imperialist domination does not benefit the occupied people.
armed-intruder drill terrifies university class
from charlotte observer: Last Friday, an intruder entered a classroom in Moore Hall at Elizabeth City State University and pointed what appeared to be a gun at assistant professor Jingbin Wang. The man ordered students in Wang's American foreign policy class to line up against a wall and threatened to kill the student with the lowest grade-point average. "I was prepared to die," Wang recalled this week. Ten minutes after the siege began, police stormed the class and subdued the intruder. His weapon, it turned out, was red and plastic - a fake. So was the entire incident.
from ap: The U.S. Navy is sending three ships to the eastern Mediterranean Sea in a show of strength during a period of tensions with Syria and political uncertainty in Lebanon. Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters the deployment should not be viewed as threatening or in response to events in any single country in that volatile region.US terror watch list surpasses 900,000 names
from threat level: The government's centralized terrorist watch list passed the 900,000 name mark this month, according to the ACLU, which estimated the new total by relying on Congressional testimony from the fall that the sprawling list was growing by 20,000 names a month. The report the ACLU relied on to create its Watch List Counter included the following chart demonstrating the clear growth trajectory of the nation's centralized watch lists over the last several years. The Terrorist Screening Center runs the list, accepting nominations of new names from a large range of government agencies.washington gets a new colony in the balkans
from global research: In evaluating the recent "declaration of independence" by Kosovo, a province of Serbia, and its immediate recognition as a state by the U.S., Germany, Britain and France, it is important to know three things. First, Kosovo is not gaining independence or even minimal self-government. It will be run by an appointed High Representative and bodies appointed by the U.S., European Union and NATO... Second, Washington's immediate recognition of Kosovo confirms once again that U.S. Imperialism will break any and every treaty or international agreement it has ever signed... Thirdly, U.S. Imperialist domination does not benefit the occupied people.armed-intruder drill terrifies university class
from charlotte observer: Last Friday, an intruder entered a classroom in Moore Hall at Elizabeth City State University and pointed what appeared to be a gun at assistant professor Jingbin Wang. The man ordered students in Wang's American foreign policy class to line up against a wall and threatened to kill the student with the lowest grade-point average. "I was prepared to die," Wang recalled this week. Ten minutes after the siege began, police stormed the class and subdued the intruder. His weapon, it turned out, was red and plastic - a fake. So was the entire incident.
china: one child, wargames & the pollution olympics
china may end the one-child limit
from press tv: China, worried about an ageing population, is considering how to waive the one-child policy while keeping family-planning policies altogether... The rules are privately detested by most Chinese, and have been criticised abroad.
US & china navies talk joint drills
from ap: The Chinese and U.S. navies may hold joint drills within the year as part of efforts to build stronger ties despite recent tensions and lingering mistrust... U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she raised the need for greater military transparency in a meeting Tuesday with Chinese Foreign Ministry Yang Jiechi in Beijing.
china in olympics pollution drive
from bbc: China has announced unprecedented measures to cut air pollution during this year's Olympic Games. Starting this weekend, a new standard for car emissions will come into force in Beijing. Some areas surrounding the capital have also joined in efforts to help reduce air pollution... China hopes such drastic measures can reassure foreign delegations that there will be no heavy pollution to harm their athletes.
uk director's olympic role unease
from bbc: Steven Spielberg's resignation from the Beijing Olympics because of China's policy in Sudan has put pressure on others associated with the event. British director Daryl Goodrich, who has just made a promotional film for the Olympics, admits he now questions his involvement in the games.
from press tv: China, worried about an ageing population, is considering how to waive the one-child policy while keeping family-planning policies altogether... The rules are privately detested by most Chinese, and have been criticised abroad.US & china navies talk joint drills
from ap: The Chinese and U.S. navies may hold joint drills within the year as part of efforts to build stronger ties despite recent tensions and lingering mistrust... U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she raised the need for greater military transparency in a meeting Tuesday with Chinese Foreign Ministry Yang Jiechi in Beijing.china in olympics pollution drive
from bbc: China has announced unprecedented measures to cut air pollution during this year's Olympic Games. Starting this weekend, a new standard for car emissions will come into force in Beijing. Some areas surrounding the capital have also joined in efforts to help reduce air pollution... China hopes such drastic measures can reassure foreign delegations that there will be no heavy pollution to harm their athletes.uk director's olympic role unease
from bbc: Steven Spielberg's resignation from the Beijing Olympics because of China's policy in Sudan has put pressure on others associated with the event. British director Daryl Goodrich, who has just made a promotional film for the Olympics, admits he now questions his involvement in the games.
outside the box #142
here is the latest episode of "outside the box," hosted by alex ansary.
it was originally broadcast by portland community media on february 28, 2008.
from alex ansary: Alex talked again with Leon Legant about his predictions about a future war in the United States involving China and Russia. Leon shared his perspective on the light at the end of the tunnel.
9/11: contradiction, confrontation & documentation
alleged hijacker booked post-9/11 flights
from paul joseph watson: Astounding newly released FBI documents 
(3.98mb PDF) obtained via the Freedom Of Information Act show that alleged 9/11 hijacker Hamza Al-Ghamdi had booked future flights to San Francisco and Riyadh, suggesting that he was unaware of his eventual fate aboard United Airlines Flight 175, the plane that hit the World Trade Center's south tower.
9/11 redux: 1,000s of illegals in US flight schools
from abc: Thousands of foreign student pilots have been able to enroll and obtain pilot licenses from U.S. flight schools, despite tough laws passed in the wake of the 9/ll attacks, according to internal government documents obtained by ABC News. "Some of the very same conditions that allowed the 9-11 tragedy to happen in the first place are still very much in existence today," wrote (519kb PDF) one regional security official to his boss at the TSA, the Transportation Security Administration.
'lone gunmen' producer questions gov't on 9/11
from corbett report: Cast and crew of the X-Files attended "WonderCon 2008" in San Diego this weekend to discuss the upcoming X-Files movie. During the question and answer, one intrepid audience member asked Chris Carter, creator of X-Files and The Lone Gunmen, about the pilot episode of The Lone Gunmen, which eerily predicted the events of 9/11 that took place in New York mere months after the episode aired on tv. Carter, looking slightly flustered, turned the question over to the Lone Gunmen producer, Frank Spotnitz.
flight 93 memorial a tribute to terrorists?
from news blaze: The rewriting of 9/11 started almost before the fires stopped smoldering in New York, D.C., and Pennsylvania. It hasn't stopped. And nowhere is it more offensive than in the effort to build memorials to the victims of that horrific terrorist attack. The New York City memorial almost became not a tribute to heroes, but a "Freedom Center," tasked with showing how the United States brought 9/11 on itself, and how peace, love, and the hug-a-terrorist philosophy could avoid other such attacks in the future.
video: bill clinton confronted with 9/11 truth, again!
from blacklisted news: Bill Clinton Responded to an "Investigate 9/11" sign during an Austin Rally. As mobs of people in the crowd shouted for the sign to be put down - and still others tore the 9/11 sign away - Clinton told the crowd, "It's an honor to be heckled by people who are afraid of the truth." True doublespeak.
sick 9/11 workers rally in rainy dc for more help
from ny daily news: Chanting "$25 million isn't enough!" dozens of sick 9/11 first responders stood in the rain on Capitol Hill Tuesday and urged President Bush to restore funding to help pay their medical bills. Joseph Zadroga, whose son James died of lung disease after working 100 hours at the site for the NYPD, said the government needs to help those who helped the city get back on its feet after the towers fell.
video: "unter falscher flagge"
from 9/11 blogger: The German documentary, "Unter Falscher Flagge" has now been subtitled in English, and is streaming at the film-maker's website... It is filled with new interviews with German 9/11 skeptics Andreas von Bülow, Mathias Bröckers, Manfred Petrisch, Andreas Hauss, and Jochen Scholz. The film also briefly examines London's 7/7 and several possible False Flag incidents in post-9/11 Germany...
"9/11 may have been an insider's job"
from unique pakistan: In a significant observation many time UN contributor & international observer Professor Hans Koechler said “9/11 may have been an insider’s job” in response to a question from one of the delegates attending his lecture The 'Global War on Terror - Contradictions of an Imperial Strategy' last night at the Trades Hall in Auckland. “I am not a boy - I am 59. There are many inconsistencies and inaccuracies in the official version of events. Those who could not handle a Cessna pulled off 9/11,” he said.
from paul joseph watson: Astounding newly released FBI documents (3.98mb PDF) obtained via the Freedom Of Information Act show that alleged 9/11 hijacker Hamza Al-Ghamdi had booked future flights to San Francisco and Riyadh, suggesting that he was unaware of his eventual fate aboard United Airlines Flight 175, the plane that hit the World Trade Center's south tower.9/11 redux: 1,000s of illegals in US flight schools
from abc: Thousands of foreign student pilots have been able to enroll and obtain pilot licenses from U.S. flight schools, despite tough laws passed in the wake of the 9/ll attacks, according to internal government documents obtained by ABC News. "Some of the very same conditions that allowed the 9-11 tragedy to happen in the first place are still very much in existence today," wrote (519kb PDF) one regional security official to his boss at the TSA, the Transportation Security Administration.'lone gunmen' producer questions gov't on 9/11
from corbett report: Cast and crew of the X-Files attended "WonderCon 2008" in San Diego this weekend to discuss the upcoming X-Files movie. During the question and answer, one intrepid audience member asked Chris Carter, creator of X-Files and The Lone Gunmen, about the pilot episode of The Lone Gunmen, which eerily predicted the events of 9/11 that took place in New York mere months after the episode aired on tv. Carter, looking slightly flustered, turned the question over to the Lone Gunmen producer, Frank Spotnitz.
flight 93 memorial a tribute to terrorists?
from news blaze: The rewriting of 9/11 started almost before the fires stopped smoldering in New York, D.C., and Pennsylvania. It hasn't stopped. And nowhere is it more offensive than in the effort to build memorials to the victims of that horrific terrorist attack. The New York City memorial almost became not a tribute to heroes, but a "Freedom Center," tasked with showing how the United States brought 9/11 on itself, and how peace, love, and the hug-a-terrorist philosophy could avoid other such attacks in the future.video: bill clinton confronted with 9/11 truth, again!
from blacklisted news: Bill Clinton Responded to an "Investigate 9/11" sign during an Austin Rally. As mobs of people in the crowd shouted for the sign to be put down - and still others tore the 9/11 sign away - Clinton told the crowd, "It's an honor to be heckled by people who are afraid of the truth." True doublespeak.
sick 9/11 workers rally in rainy dc for more help
from ny daily news: Chanting "$25 million isn't enough!" dozens of sick 9/11 first responders stood in the rain on Capitol Hill Tuesday and urged President Bush to restore funding to help pay their medical bills. Joseph Zadroga, whose son James died of lung disease after working 100 hours at the site for the NYPD, said the government needs to help those who helped the city get back on its feet after the towers fell. video: "unter falscher flagge"
from 9/11 blogger: The German documentary, "Unter Falscher Flagge" has now been subtitled in English, and is streaming at the film-maker's website... It is filled with new interviews with German 9/11 skeptics Andreas von Bülow, Mathias Bröckers, Manfred Petrisch, Andreas Hauss, and Jochen Scholz. The film also briefly examines London's 7/7 and several possible False Flag incidents in post-9/11 Germany...
"9/11 may have been an insider's job"
from unique pakistan: In a significant observation many time UN contributor & international observer Professor Hans Koechler said “9/11 may have been an insider’s job” in response to a question from one of the delegates attending his lecture The 'Global War on Terror - Contradictions of an Imperial Strategy' last night at the Trades Hall in Auckland. “I am not a boy - I am 59. There are many inconsistencies and inaccuracies in the official version of events. Those who could not handle a Cessna pulled off 9/11,” he said.
billboard liberation front touts at&t & nsa collaboration
from threat level: The Billboard Liberation Front has struck again - this time rewriting a billboard in San Francisco's Mission District that was hosting AT&T's latest ad campaign touting the breadth of its network coverage.The billboard now reads: "AT&T works in more places, like NSA Headquarters." Formerly the sign bragged of service in Chilondoscow.
BLF says it changed the sign on behalf of AT&T and the NSA, to "promote and celebrate the innovative collaboration of these two global communications giants."
I had no idea that Cillondoscow wasn't just a random suburb of San Francisco, but Flickr user Kidsturk explains it:
If you see the commercials that accompany this, you can see what they're trying to do - I work in Chicago, visit my parents in London, and shop for brides in Moscow. This is my life - I need a network that works in CHILONDOSCOW.For more fun, check the BLF archives. And remember kids, despite all the teasing you are giving AT&T, warrantless wiretapping is not a crime. Via Xeni Jardin at Boing Boing. Photo via BLF.
proquad, prozac, dupont, doomsday, eol & unsects
childhood vaccine linked to convulsions
from ap: Children suffered higher rates of fever-related convulsions when they got a Merck & Co. combination vaccine instead of two separate shots, according to a new study presented Wednesday. The results prompted a federal advisory panel on vaccines to water down their preference for the combo vaccine ProQuad, which protects against measles, mumps and rubella as well as chickenpox.
don't stop taking anti-depressants, doctors urge
from afp: Doctors urged patients to keep taking their anti-depressants Wednesday despite a scientific study showing that the drugs are little more effective than placebos in treating depression. Doctors are warning their patients not to suddenly stop taking the medication prescribed to them... "Given these results, there seems little reason to prescribe anti-depressant medication to any but the most severely depressed patients unless alternative treatments have failed to provide a benefit."
wv judge upholds $196m award against dupont
from examiner: A circuit judge has upheld a $196.2 million punitive damages award against DuPont in a class-action pollution case. Harrison County Circuit Court Chief Judge Thomas A. Bedell also adopted a nearly $130 million estimate for a medical monitoring plan, but ordered the Wilmington, Delaware-based chemical giant to pay for those costs as they occur. The jury in the case required DuPont to provide medical monitoring for 40 years to people who were exposed to arsenic, cadmium and lead from a former zinc-smelting plant in the small community of Spelter. DuPont said in a prepared statement Tuesday that it was disappointed by the ruling and plans to appeal to the West Virginia Supreme Court.
doomsday vault opens in bid to preserve seeds
from the herald: When the doomsday vault opens in the freezing Arctic archipelago of Svalbard this week, it will mark the latest attempt to preserve our natural resources in the face of climate change and other threats the planet faces... Cary Fowler, the man behind the doomsday vault, said the back-up crop seed bank had been constructed in the context of 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina and a recognition that contingency plans had to be made against natural or man-made disasters.
first look at vast 'book of life'
from bbc: The first 30,000 pages have been unveiled of a vast encyclopedia which aims to catalogue every one of our planet's 1.8 million species... The Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) - described as the "ultimate field guide" - is to encompass all six kingdoms of life, and even viruses - which many researchers do not consider to be living organisms... "The thing that makes the encyclopedia possible now, when it would not have been possible five years ago, is that there are many online resources that have been developed which we can draw upon," Dr James Edwards, executive director of the Encyclopedia of Life, told BBC News.
un conference promotes insect eating
from click2houston: Crickets, caterpillars and grubs are high in protein and minerals and could be an important food source during droughts and other emergencies, according to scientists. "I definitely think they can assist," said German biologist V.B. Meyer-Rochow, who regularly eats insects and wore a T-shirt with a Harlequin longhorn beetle to a U.N.-sponsored conference this month on promoting bugs as a food source.
from ap: Children suffered higher rates of fever-related convulsions when they got a Merck & Co. combination vaccine instead of two separate shots, according to a new study presented Wednesday. The results prompted a federal advisory panel on vaccines to water down their preference for the combo vaccine ProQuad, which protects against measles, mumps and rubella as well as chickenpox.don't stop taking anti-depressants, doctors urge
from afp: Doctors urged patients to keep taking their anti-depressants Wednesday despite a scientific study showing that the drugs are little more effective than placebos in treating depression. Doctors are warning their patients not to suddenly stop taking the medication prescribed to them... "Given these results, there seems little reason to prescribe anti-depressant medication to any but the most severely depressed patients unless alternative treatments have failed to provide a benefit."wv judge upholds $196m award against dupont
from examiner: A circuit judge has upheld a $196.2 million punitive damages award against DuPont in a class-action pollution case. Harrison County Circuit Court Chief Judge Thomas A. Bedell also adopted a nearly $130 million estimate for a medical monitoring plan, but ordered the Wilmington, Delaware-based chemical giant to pay for those costs as they occur. The jury in the case required DuPont to provide medical monitoring for 40 years to people who were exposed to arsenic, cadmium and lead from a former zinc-smelting plant in the small community of Spelter. DuPont said in a prepared statement Tuesday that it was disappointed by the ruling and plans to appeal to the West Virginia Supreme Court.doomsday vault opens in bid to preserve seeds
from the herald: When the doomsday vault opens in the freezing Arctic archipelago of Svalbard this week, it will mark the latest attempt to preserve our natural resources in the face of climate change and other threats the planet faces... Cary Fowler, the man behind the doomsday vault, said the back-up crop seed bank had been constructed in the context of 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina and a recognition that contingency plans had to be made against natural or man-made disasters.first look at vast 'book of life'
from bbc: The first 30,000 pages have been unveiled of a vast encyclopedia which aims to catalogue every one of our planet's 1.8 million species... The Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) - described as the "ultimate field guide" - is to encompass all six kingdoms of life, and even viruses - which many researchers do not consider to be living organisms... "The thing that makes the encyclopedia possible now, when it would not have been possible five years ago, is that there are many online resources that have been developed which we can draw upon," Dr James Edwards, executive director of the Encyclopedia of Life, told BBC News.un conference promotes insect eating
from click2houston: Crickets, caterpillars and grubs are high in protein and minerals and could be an important food source during droughts and other emergencies, according to scientists. "I definitely think they can assist," said German biologist V.B. Meyer-Rochow, who regularly eats insects and wore a T-shirt with a Harlequin longhorn beetle to a U.N.-sponsored conference this month on promoting bugs as a food source.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
75th anniversary of the (other) reichstag fire
from 9/11 blogger: 75 years ago today Hitler and the Nazis blamed the burning of the Reichstag (parliament building in Berlin) on (communist) terrorists, despite the lack of evidence, and less than a month later the Enabling Act was passed, giving Hitler dictatorial powers. It didn't take much longer after 9/11 for the Bush gang to get their Patriot Act. Anyone who refuses to see the parallels must be deaf, dumb and blind.
robotwars, saic, target cities, l-rad & vampire cams
automated killer robots 'threat to humanity'
from afp: Increasingly autonomous, gun-totting robots developed for warfare could easily fall into the hands of terrorists and may one day unleash a robot arms race, a top expert on artificial intelligence told AFP. "They pose a threat to humanity," said University of Sheffield professor Noel Sharkey ahead of a keynote address Wednesday before Britain's Royal United Services Institute.
saic gets urban warfare research work
from washington technology: Science Applications International Corp. will assist the Army in developing technology that will allow troops to see inside buildings during urban military operations under a $5.2 million contract, the Defense Department announced Feb. 19. Under the contract, SAIC will help the Army develop and test technology for the concept known as VisiBuilding.
billboard depicts fire cloud over houston
from click2houston: A billboard went up along the Southwest Freeway depicting the Bayou City as a terrorist target. It is a bright orange fire cloud over Houston. It's a campaign billboard for Brian Klock, a Republican candidate for U.S. Rep. District 22... "I used to read the threat. I knew what was going on locally right here in Houston. I believe it is a real threat," he said. The billboard depicts Houston's economic heart under attack - the ship channel, refineries and the skyline all seen through the scope of a gun. "It's a depiction of a worse case scenario I want people to know it's out there," Klock said.
san jose police get 'less-lethal' sound weapon
from nbc11: San Jose police have a new crime fighting tool. You might want to hear about it, but you won't want to hear it being used. They'll be using a dish-shaped, sonic weapon called a Long Range Acoustic Device - or L-RAD. Police say it will be used mostly as a high-grade sound system to amplify a police officer's order at great distances. But it can also be used as another of the department's "less-lethal" weapons. The ear-splitting device is growing in popularity around the globe and has been used by soldiers to flush suspected terrorists out of caves in Afghanistan.
uk cameras detect blood to catch carpool lane cheats
from daily mail: Motorists will be targeted by a new generation of road cameras which work out how many people are in a car by measuring the amount of bodily fluid it contains... The cameras work by sending an infrared beam through the windscreen of vehicles which detects the unique make-up of blood and water content in human skin.
from afp: Increasingly autonomous, gun-totting robots developed for warfare could easily fall into the hands of terrorists and may one day unleash a robot arms race, a top expert on artificial intelligence told AFP. "They pose a threat to humanity," said University of Sheffield professor Noel Sharkey ahead of a keynote address Wednesday before Britain's Royal United Services Institute.saic gets urban warfare research work
from washington technology: Science Applications International Corp. will assist the Army in developing technology that will allow troops to see inside buildings during urban military operations under a $5.2 million contract, the Defense Department announced Feb. 19. Under the contract, SAIC will help the Army develop and test technology for the concept known as VisiBuilding.billboard depicts fire cloud over houston
from click2houston: A billboard went up along the Southwest Freeway depicting the Bayou City as a terrorist target. It is a bright orange fire cloud over Houston. It's a campaign billboard for Brian Klock, a Republican candidate for U.S. Rep. District 22... "I used to read the threat. I knew what was going on locally right here in Houston. I believe it is a real threat," he said. The billboard depicts Houston's economic heart under attack - the ship channel, refineries and the skyline all seen through the scope of a gun. "It's a depiction of a worse case scenario I want people to know it's out there," Klock said.san jose police get 'less-lethal' sound weapon
from nbc11: San Jose police have a new crime fighting tool. You might want to hear about it, but you won't want to hear it being used. They'll be using a dish-shaped, sonic weapon called a Long Range Acoustic Device - or L-RAD. Police say it will be used mostly as a high-grade sound system to amplify a police officer's order at great distances. But it can also be used as another of the department's "less-lethal" weapons. The ear-splitting device is growing in popularity around the globe and has been used by soldiers to flush suspected terrorists out of caves in Afghanistan.uk cameras detect blood to catch carpool lane cheats
from daily mail: Motorists will be targeted by a new generation of road cameras which work out how many people are in a car by measuring the amount of bodily fluid it contains... The cameras work by sending an infrared beam through the windscreen of vehicles which detects the unique make-up of blood and water content in human skin.
white house torture advocate william haynes resigns
from thinkprogress: Defense Department General Counsel William Haynes, who was a “prime mover” in the Bush administration’s efforts to bypass the Geneva Convention, announced today that he “is returning to private life next month.” Already a controversial figure due to his torture advocacy, the negative spotlight on Haynes increased last week when former Gitmo prosecutor Col. Morris Davis told The Nation that Haynes had insisted that the administration “can’t have acquittals” at Guantanamo Bay. More on Haynes’ role in the Bush administration here.
skull & bones buckley dead at 82
from guardian: Author and conservative commentator William F Buckley Jr has died at age 82. His assistant Linda Bridges says Buckley died on Wednesday morning at his home in Stamford, Connecticut. She says he had been ill with emphysema and was found dead by his cook. Buckley became famous for his intellectual political writings in his magazine, the National Review, and his frequent television appearances, including on his own long-running "Firing Line".Tuesday, February 26, 2008
nuke standards slipping
from danger room: Last year, a B-52 mistakenly loaded with nuclear weapons took a trip across the United States, sparking concerns about the safety of U.S. nuclear arsenal. The important question, however, is whether this incident was an isolated snafu, or indicative of deeper problems in the nuclear world. Some are arguing it is indeed the latter; safety standards and procedures in the nuclear world have been eroding for years, reports Air Force Times, the same newspaper that broke the original bent spear incident..."Four Air Force generals who testified about the Minot incident and nuclear security before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Feb. 12 said the service has lost its focus on the nuclear mission... That sentiment was echoed in the Air Force’s most recent reviews of its nuclear program."The report referred to in the article was done by the Defense Science Board (the full report is available in PDF here
). The panel appears to place the blame on the declining role of nuclear weapons, relative to conventional ones...
15yrs ago: fbi had foreknowledge of 1st wtc attack
"After the bombing, Salem claimed that the FBI knew about the bombing plot, and agreed to foil it by supplying fake explosives to him. Salem taped his telephone conversations with FBI agents."
update: 1993 world trade center bomber seeks supreme court hearing
from iht: Fifteen years after the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, a Palestinian sentenced to more than 100 years in prison in the attack claims that a vengeful U.S. government has blocked him from appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court. Ahmad Mohammed Ajaj, who remains in extreme isolation in the most secure U.S. prison, filed a lawsuit last year in U.S. District Court in Manhattan against more than a dozen judges, federal court employees, Bureau of Prisons officials and his former defense lawyer Maranda Fritz.
update: a disaster relegated to 2nd place by 9/11
from nytimes: Had 9/11 not happened, 2/26 would have been the worst day of terrorism in New York’s modern history. And the 15th anniversary on Tuesday might have compelled the city to slow down a moment, to reflect on how miraculous it was that the World Trade Center survived the 1,500-pound bomb planted at its base, yet how dreadful it was that six people died and hundreds more were injured. But that was not how history played out.
update: 1993 world trade center bomber seeks supreme court hearing
from iht: Fifteen years after the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, a Palestinian sentenced to more than 100 years in prison in the attack claims that a vengeful U.S. government has blocked him from appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court. Ahmad Mohammed Ajaj, who remains in extreme isolation in the most secure U.S. prison, filed a lawsuit last year in U.S. District Court in Manhattan against more than a dozen judges, federal court employees, Bureau of Prisons officials and his former defense lawyer Maranda Fritz.update: a disaster relegated to 2nd place by 9/11
from nytimes: Had 9/11 not happened, 2/26 would have been the worst day of terrorism in New York’s modern history. And the 15th anniversary on Tuesday might have compelled the city to slow down a moment, to reflect on how miraculous it was that the World Trade Center survived the 1,500-pound bomb planted at its base, yet how dreadful it was that six people died and hundreds more were injured. But that was not how history played out.
Monday, February 25, 2008
9/11: dna, warnings & the unravelling story
9/11 victims identified from new dna finds
from guardian: A fresh effort to identify victims of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centre is under way in New York following the discovery of fragments of human remains in the area around Ground Zero... "We've made numerous links to previously identified victims," said Adams. "We also have new IDs that have come out of this project. Once the DNA testing really comes full circle it will be fascinating to see how many new IDs we get."
who warned willie brown?
from 9/11 blogger: Prior to the attacks of September 11, 2001, Willie Brown, who was the incumbent mayor of San Francisco at the time, received a warning advising that Americans should be cautious about their air travel (San Francisco Chronicle 9/12/01). The warning, given to Brown eight hours before the onset of the 9/11 attacks, reportedly came from his “security people at the airport” as he tells it.
unraveling of the official 9/11 story continues
from people's voice: Today in America, we are witness to a great unraveling, the likes of which we have never seen before. There are no historical precedents. For many months now the official narrative about the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on America has been coming apart, and I mean: at the seams. The official story about that terrible day is disintegrating. The trend shows no sign of abating and in recent weeks it even appears to have accelerated. At the present rate, soon there will be nothing left of the official version of events but a discordant echo and a series of extremely rude after shocks. Is our nation prepared to face those rude shocks?
from guardian: A fresh effort to identify victims of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centre is under way in New York following the discovery of fragments of human remains in the area around Ground Zero... "We've made numerous links to previously identified victims," said Adams. "We also have new IDs that have come out of this project. Once the DNA testing really comes full circle it will be fascinating to see how many new IDs we get."
who warned willie brown?
from 9/11 blogger: Prior to the attacks of September 11, 2001, Willie Brown, who was the incumbent mayor of San Francisco at the time, received a warning advising that Americans should be cautious about their air travel (San Francisco Chronicle 9/12/01). The warning, given to Brown eight hours before the onset of the 9/11 attacks, reportedly came from his “security people at the airport” as he tells it.
unraveling of the official 9/11 story continues
from people's voice: Today in America, we are witness to a great unraveling, the likes of which we have never seen before. There are no historical precedents. For many months now the official narrative about the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on America has been coming apart, and I mean: at the seams. The official story about that terrible day is disintegrating. The trend shows no sign of abating and in recent weeks it even appears to have accelerated. At the present rate, soon there will be nothing left of the official version of events but a discordant echo and a series of extremely rude after shocks. Is our nation prepared to face those rude shocks?
Sunday, February 24, 2008
pakistan 'sparks youtube outage'
from bbc: Pakistan's attempts to block access to YouTube has been blamed for an almost global blackout of the video website for more than an hour on Sunday. BBC News has learned that the outage was almost certainly connected to Pakistan Telecom and Asian internet service provider PCCW. A leading net professional said the global outage was "probably a mistake". Pakistan ordered internet service providers to block the site because of content deemed offensive to Islam.update: details emerge on youtube block
from bbc: Pakistan has rejected claims that it was responsible for blocking global access to the YouTube video clip site. YouTube was hard to reach this week following action by Pakistan to block access inside its borders for its hosting of a "blasphemous" video clip.
Saturday, February 23, 2008
cloud seeding, quake, b2 crash, wargames & details
cloud seeding controversy
from kvii: Cloud seeding aims to maximize moisture in clouds and produce rainfall... Planes shoot flares of silver iodide into clouds in both the target area and the buffer zone...with only the goal of making it rain in the target area. Leading those in buffer zone to say...their rain is being stolen. "If the good Lord above decides I don't need a rain, I can handle that," said Cogdell. "But when it gets down to a man deciding who gets it in what amount and who doesn't...that's just plain ol' not right." The groundwater district sees it another way.
norway's biggest quake ever
from afp: Norway's biggest ever earthquake, measuring 6.2 on the Richter scale, shook the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard early Thursday, a Norwegian seismology institute said... Longyearbyen, one of the world's most northerly towns, is home to a new "doomsday vault" of samples of the most important seeds on Earth aimed at providing mankind with a reserve in the event of a global catastrophe. The vault is set to be inaugurated next Tuesday by European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, Nobel Peace Prize winning environmentalist Wangari Maathai and Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg.
stealth b2 bomber crashes in guam
from reuters: A U.S. B-2 stealth bomber crashed at Andersen Air Force Base in Guam just after taking off but the two pilots on board ejected safely, the U.S. Air Force said... The B-2 bombers have been used for missions in Afghanistan, Iraq and Serbia. Guam has had a U.S. military presence to varying degrees since 1898, when U.S. naval forces captured it from Spain
france, uae & qatar begin war games
from press tv: France, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates begin joint military exercises involving land, sea and air forces in the Persian Gulf region. The military war games began on Saturday and are to continue for several days, the official WAM news agency reported.
uk govt wants personal details of every traveller
from guardian: Passengers travelling between EU countries or taking domestic flights would have to hand over a mass of personal information, including their mobile phone numbers and credit card details, as part of a new package of security measures being demanded by the British government. The data would be stored for 13 years and used to "profile" suspects.
from kvii: Cloud seeding aims to maximize moisture in clouds and produce rainfall... Planes shoot flares of silver iodide into clouds in both the target area and the buffer zone...with only the goal of making it rain in the target area. Leading those in buffer zone to say...their rain is being stolen. "If the good Lord above decides I don't need a rain, I can handle that," said Cogdell. "But when it gets down to a man deciding who gets it in what amount and who doesn't...that's just plain ol' not right." The groundwater district sees it another way.
norway's biggest quake ever
from afp: Norway's biggest ever earthquake, measuring 6.2 on the Richter scale, shook the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard early Thursday, a Norwegian seismology institute said... Longyearbyen, one of the world's most northerly towns, is home to a new "doomsday vault" of samples of the most important seeds on Earth aimed at providing mankind with a reserve in the event of a global catastrophe. The vault is set to be inaugurated next Tuesday by European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, Nobel Peace Prize winning environmentalist Wangari Maathai and Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg.stealth b2 bomber crashes in guam
from reuters: A U.S. B-2 stealth bomber crashed at Andersen Air Force Base in Guam just after taking off but the two pilots on board ejected safely, the U.S. Air Force said... The B-2 bombers have been used for missions in Afghanistan, Iraq and Serbia. Guam has had a U.S. military presence to varying degrees since 1898, when U.S. naval forces captured it from Spain
france, uae & qatar begin war games
from press tv: France, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates begin joint military exercises involving land, sea and air forces in the Persian Gulf region. The military war games began on Saturday and are to continue for several days, the official WAM news agency reported.uk govt wants personal details of every traveller
from guardian: Passengers travelling between EU countries or taking domestic flights would have to hand over a mass of personal information, including their mobile phone numbers and credit card details, as part of a new package of security measures being demanded by the British government. The data would be stored for 13 years and used to "profile" suspects.
Friday, February 22, 2008
hillary, hollowed-out book, nau, fraudsters & al-CIAda
dallas cop killed while escorting hillary
from cbs2: A Dallas police motorcycle officer who crashed and died Friday while escorting Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton's motorcade to a campaign rally has been identified, CBS station KTVT-TV, in Dallas reported. Senior Cpl. Victor Lozada, a 20-year veteran of the department, was killed in the accident. Sources say Lozada, 49, was relatively new to the motorcycle division.
tia passenger had boxcutter in hollowed-out book
from tampa tribune: A 21-year-old Clearwater man was arrested at Tampa International Airport this weekend after security personnel found a box cutter in a hollowed-out book, authorities said... When searching the backpack, a security officer found a book titled "Fear Itself." The book was hollowed out, and the box cutter was inside. Several sheets of paper in the backpack included rap lyrics that referred to police, narcotics, weapons and killing. Baines told officers he is a rapper who writes his own lyrics and that rap music writers need to "play the part," the report states.
US & canada agree to use each other's troops
from gazette: The United States and Canada have inked an agreement to help one another during civil emergencies... The Civil Assistance Plan allows the military from one nation to support the armed forces of the other nation. “This document is a unique, bilateral military plan to align our respective national military plans to respond quickly to the other nation’s requests for military support of civil authorities,” Renuart said in a statement. The agreement allows mutual assistance during floods, forest fires, hurricanes, earthquakes and effects of a terrorist attack... The plan facilitates the military-to-military support of civil authorities after government authorities agree on a response. NorthCom was established on Oct. 1, 2002. Canada Command was set up on Feb. 1, 2006.
4,000 uk company directors are listed as global terror suspects & fraudsters
from times online: The names of almost 4,000 directors of British companies appear on international watchlists of alleged fraudsters, money launderers, terror financiers and corrupt officials, The Times has learnt. A detailed study of the public register of directors held at Companies House uncovered people identified around the world as terrorist suspects, alleged drug traffickers and individuals convicted of offences ranging from illicit dealing in firearms to fraud... World-Check exposes terrorists, financial criminals and disqualified directors in UK Companies House Register (20k PDF)
ex-congressman daniel hamburg says US government created al-qaeda & was involved in 9/11
from paul joseph watson: A former Congressman says that the U.S. government created Al-Qaeda and was involved in bombing its own citizens on 9/11, telling a national radio show that elements of the Bush administration assisted the attacks on the WTC and the Pentagon. Daniel Hamburg is a former Democratic Congressman who was elected to the 1st Congressional District of California in 1992 and also subsequently ran for Governor of California, finishing in 3rd place.
from cbs2: A Dallas police motorcycle officer who crashed and died Friday while escorting Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton's motorcade to a campaign rally has been identified, CBS station KTVT-TV, in Dallas reported. Senior Cpl. Victor Lozada, a 20-year veteran of the department, was killed in the accident. Sources say Lozada, 49, was relatively new to the motorcycle division.
tia passenger had boxcutter in hollowed-out book
from tampa tribune: A 21-year-old Clearwater man was arrested at Tampa International Airport this weekend after security personnel found a box cutter in a hollowed-out book, authorities said... When searching the backpack, a security officer found a book titled "Fear Itself." The book was hollowed out, and the box cutter was inside. Several sheets of paper in the backpack included rap lyrics that referred to police, narcotics, weapons and killing. Baines told officers he is a rapper who writes his own lyrics and that rap music writers need to "play the part," the report states.US & canada agree to use each other's troops
from gazette: The United States and Canada have inked an agreement to help one another during civil emergencies... The Civil Assistance Plan allows the military from one nation to support the armed forces of the other nation. “This document is a unique, bilateral military plan to align our respective national military plans to respond quickly to the other nation’s requests for military support of civil authorities,” Renuart said in a statement. The agreement allows mutual assistance during floods, forest fires, hurricanes, earthquakes and effects of a terrorist attack... The plan facilitates the military-to-military support of civil authorities after government authorities agree on a response. NorthCom was established on Oct. 1, 2002. Canada Command was set up on Feb. 1, 2006.4,000 uk company directors are listed as global terror suspects & fraudsters
from times online: The names of almost 4,000 directors of British companies appear on international watchlists of alleged fraudsters, money launderers, terror financiers and corrupt officials, The Times has learnt. A detailed study of the public register of directors held at Companies House uncovered people identified around the world as terrorist suspects, alleged drug traffickers and individuals convicted of offences ranging from illicit dealing in firearms to fraud... World-Check exposes terrorists, financial criminals and disqualified directors in UK Companies House Register
(20k PDF)ex-congressman daniel hamburg says US government created al-qaeda & was involved in 9/11
from paul joseph watson: A former Congressman says that the U.S. government created Al-Qaeda and was involved in bombing its own citizens on 9/11, telling a national radio show that elements of the Bush administration assisted the attacks on the WTC and the Pentagon. Daniel Hamburg is a former Democratic Congressman who was elected to the 1st Congressional District of California in 1992 and also subsequently ran for Governor of California, finishing in 3rd place.