6/20/05 - 6/26/05
China doesn’t currently have a political enemy. Why are they loading up? You have to wonder. The U.S. and China are on a cultural collision course. With the secularization of China and their massive population, they will increasingly need more resources which is currently dominated by the U.S. You have to think the U.S. feels threatened by China’s economic emergence even though publicly they claim to be “friendly” nations.
China Nuke Missile
Launch Is Major
Technological Leap
Items compiled from Tribune news services
6-23-5
WASHINGTON, CHINA -- China's military launched a long-range ballistic missile from a submarine in a test this month, marking an unexpected advance in technical capability, a U.S. defense official said Wednesday.
The missile, the JL-2, was launched at sea westward toward a test range inside China, the official said on condition of anonymity. The test took place about 10 days ago, the official said, confirming a report that appeared in The Washington Times.
The missile is believed to be able to carry a nuclear warhead for 6,000 miles, far greater than any sub-launched missile in China's inventory.
Last year, China launched the first submarine in a new class of nuclear vessels designed to fire these intercontinental ballistic missiles, officials said.
What a vague statement. I can be a meteorologist by saying there will be a 50% chance of rain on any given day. I believe the media puts this kind of thing out there for all to see just to scare the daylights out of the public. This puts the possibility in the back of everyone’s mind. You know they will do it when the time is right.
Experts: 50% risk of attack in next 5 years
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON - The world faces an estimated 50 percent chance of a nuclear, biological, chemical or radiological attack over the next five years, according to national security analysts surveyed for a congressional study released yesterday.
Using a poll of 85 nonproliferation and national security experts, the report also estimated the risk of attack by weapons of mass destruction at as high as 70 percent over the coming decade.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee surveyed analysts around the world in late 2004 and early this year to determine what they thought was the threat posed by weapons of mass destruction.
The study was commissioned by committee Chairman Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., whose nonproliferation efforts in Congress have been credited with helping the states of the former Soviet Union lessen their stockpiles of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.
Wow. There is a lot of news out there about this subject recently. I’m going to keep posting articles on this to see which direction this is headed. So far, the news on this is repetitious. It could happen, it might happen, it may happen, it looks like it’s happening. Someday, it WILL happen.
Report: Flu pandemic could kill half million in U.S.
Friday, June 24, 2005; Posted: 10:00 a.m. EDT (14:00 GMT)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Half a million Americans could die and more than 2 million could end up in the hospital with serious complications if an even moderately severe strain of a pandemic flu hits, a report predicted on Friday.
But the United States only has 965,256 staffed hospital beds, said the report from the Trust for America's Health.
The non-profit group's state-by-state analysis adds to a growing clamor of voices contending that the United States is not prepared for a large outbreak of disease, whether natural or brought on by war or terrorism.
"This is not a drill. This is not a planning exercise. This is for real," said the Trust's executive director, Shelley Hearne, in a statement.
In an average year, influenza kills an estimated 36,000 Americans and puts 200,000 into the hospital.
A more serious strain strikes every few years and a so-called pandemic strain emerges once every 27 years, on average. The more virulent strains sweep around the world within months.
Pandemics hit in 1918 -- killing up to 40 million people globally -- 1957 and 1968. Health experts all say the world is overdue for another and fear the avian flu in Asia may be it.
The World Health Organization says an H5N1 avian flu pandemic could kill up to 7.4 million people globally, because people lack immunity to it.
Avian flu has not yet acquired the ability to pass easily from person to person, but would spread rapidly if it does, experts say.
But even another strain of flu could wreak havoc if it has pandemic characteristics, according to the report.
"The U.S. has not adequately planned for the disruption a flu pandemic could cause to the economy, daily life, food and supply distributions, or homeland security," the Trust's report reads.
"The U.S. lags in pandemic preparations compared to Great Britain and Canada based on an examination of leadership, vaccine development, vaccine and antiviral planning, health care system surge capacity planning, coordination between public and private sectors, and emergency communications planning."
Health officials are aware of the warnings and say they are developing a plan. The heads of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institutes of Health and Health and Human Services Department are regularly called to hearings before Congress on the issue.
The Trust said more could be done to prepare now, including setting up plans to track an outbreak, stockpile antiviral drugs and other medical supplies and set up communications.
The study found that the United States has stockpiled 2.3 million courses of the best anti-influenza drug, oseltamivir, marketed by Gilead Sciences and Roche under the brand name Tamiflu.
It has placed orders for 3 million more courses of the drug, which does not cure influenza but can prevent infection if taken early enough and can reduce its severity.
Who says kids don’t like to read these days? The only books that are gaining any kind of popularity among the younger generation either have heavy occult undertones or deceptive theories that portray Jesus as a possible fraud. The impact that the “DaVinci Code” has had on the public’s collective consciousness has been tremendous in the past few years. There seems to be no signs of its momentum slowing down. The movie version will be released in 2006. The ground continues to be softened for this anti-christian viewpoint to be accepted as mainstream thought.
Kids love the ‘Code’
“The Da Vinci Code” tops Israeli high-schoolers’ lists of favorite books.
According to an Education Ministry study released this week, Dan Brown’s best-selling book, as well as Mark Haddon’s “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time,” are the books most read by Israeli 11th- and 12th-graders. In junior high schools, J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” won out.
The survey was commissioned as part of efforts to encourage reading among Israeli youth and offset the growing popularity of television and computer games
Hopefully this doesn’t become a serious problem during the cooler months. It certainly appears to be a possibility based on these reports. People are already dying in the far east because of this disease.
H5N1 Spreading - May Be Becoming EasierTo Transmit
From Patricia Doyle, PhD
dr_p_doyle@hotmail.com
6-22-5
New H5N1 Clinical Presentation in Northern Vietnam
By Dr. Henry L. Niman, PhD
Recombinomics Commentary
7-22-5
Two more Vietnamese have contracted bird flu in the country's north, a state-run newspaper reported on Monday, as more than 6,000 chickens were slaughtered in the southern Mekong Delta following a fresh outbreak.
The two were among five people admitted to a hospital in Hanoi with sore throat or bronchitis, the Saigon Giai Phong daily quoted hospital officials as saying. <<
The above description may signal a new clinical presentation signaling efficient transmission of bird flu. A sore throat and bronchitis were not among the symptoms reported for 10 cases from last years outbreak, as reported in the New England Journal of Medicine. Similarly, a recent report on the autopsy of a patient who died of bird flu in Thailand last year also noted the absence of virus in the upper respiratory system.
The H5N1 from last season had a high case fatality rate, but was poorly transmitted. Sore throat and bronchitis are symptoms of human flu, which is efficiently passed from human to human. Th alarming increase of human cases in northern Vietnam has suggested the pandemic may be evolving into phase 6.
The sore throat and bronchitis in bird flu patients in northern Vietnam may reflect an improved ability of H5N1 to grow in the upper respiratory tract, leading to more efficient spread of the virus including human to human transmission.
http://www.recombinomics.com/News/062
10503/H5N1_Clinical_Northern_Vietnam.html
Avian Influenza - Autopsy Report
By Helen Branswell
Canadian Press
7-19-5
In a soon-to-be-released issue of a scientific journal, researchers from Thailand and Hong Kong will report the findings of an autopsy of a 6 year old Thai boy who died from avian influenza. Scheduled for publication in the July 2005 issue of Emerging Infectious Diseases http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/index.htm, their findings of an atypical pattern of infection -- deep in the lungs, away from the tracheal lining where virus could easily be coughed out at others -- may help explain why avian H5N1 influenza virus doesn't yet spread easily among people.
But the very fact that a paper containing autopsy data from a single case is still desirable to journal editors a year-a-half into the H5N1 avian influenza outbreak underscores a problem that has been plaguing the scientific world's pursuit of knowledge about this [potentially] dangerous strain of avian influenza virus. While at least 54 people have died from H5N1 infections since December 2003, autopsies have been performed on fewer than a handful of cases. For cultural and other reasons, body after body has been buried or cremated, robbing pathologists of the precious chance to chart the havoc the virus wreaks on its victims.
"That's one of the reasons why it's so difficult to understand what the virus does in the body," says Dr Klaus Stohr, who heads the World Health Organization's global influenza program. "Did it do more damage on the intestine? Is the heart affected? Encephalitis: Yes? No? What is the damage in the lung? That's why postmortems are so important. But ... there are less than 5 done, I think, so far. And all in Thailand." Thailand hasn't reported a human case in the most recent wave of infections, which began in December 2004. That means science has no autopsy data with which to try to explain the worrisome changes in infection patterns that have been observed over the last 6 months in Viet Nam, changes which flu experts fear mean the virus is becoming more transmissible and more likely to spark an influenza pandemic.
Without information that can only be gathered through autopsies, scientists devising treatment options and potential vaccines are working, if not in the dark, then in a dim light, experts say. "If we want to test vaccine or antiviral strategies for intervention, we would like to know what the disease looks like in humans," explains Ab Osterhaus, head of virology at the Eramus Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Drugs and vaccines are tested in animals before being administered to people. But without having a clear picture of what the disease does in humans, it's difficult to select the appropriate animal model, Osterhaus says. Animals used as models must experience a pattern of infection that closely mimics human disease in order for scientists to feel secure that what they are learning might apply to people. Determining which organs the virus is attacking is also crucial from an infection control point of view, because it helps identify possible modes of transmission. In some [avian] species, massive amounts of the H5N1 virus are excreted in feces, Osterhaus notes.
Excreted virus isn't a threat with human flu viruses. But if H5N1 replicates in the human gastrointestinal tract, patients who experience diarrhea could contaminate their environments in ways health care workers might not expect from a respiratory virus. "So that's very important information," Osterhaus says.
The autopsy on the Thai boy found viral replication in the intestine. Autopsies could also show whether the virus is being spread through the blood supply to other organs, says the Toronto pathologist who performed the 1st autopsy done on a SARS patient in Canada. "You want to see whether the cause is in the blood supply and therefore may be a systemic or body-wide problem, or if it's organ-specific," explains Dr Jagdish Butany, who insists autopsies provide a wealth of information for those who treat patients and those who study viruses. "The information we continue to get out of autopsies is totally unbelievable [sic!]," says Butany, a pathologist at the city's University Health Network. But he acknowledges that, in certain cultures and religions, getting permission from relatives to conduct autopsies is virtually impossible. And in steamy climates like that of Southeast Asia, prompt disposal of corpses is the norm.
Even if more people were willing to authorize postmortems, there is another problem, notes Earl Brown, a virologist who specializes in influenza virulence at the University of Ottawa. H5N1 influenza isn't claiming its victims fast enough. "The problem is you have to wait for the people to die, and they're just not dying early enough," Brown explains. "They die after several weeks in intensive care, and all the (viral) tracks are gone. Getting people who die from rapid, fulminant disease early to look at when everything's sort of fresh is the trick."
http://www.canada.com/health/story.html?id=57
6770c7-9dcb-46b5-b186-a68966a98846
This article contains arguments for and against the value of autopsies in understanding disease processes following infection of humans by avian influenza viruses. As a virologist, the constraints expressed by Dr Earl Brown seem to me to have the most relevance. Others may come to different conclusions. - Mod.CP
Viet Nam - 2 More Avian Influenza Patients
7-21-5
(Reuters) 2 more Vietnamese residents have contracted avian influenza in the country's north, a state-run newspaper reported on Mon 20 Jun 2005, as more than 6000 chickens were slaughtered in the southern Mekong Delta following a fresh outbreak. The 2 [avian influenza patients] were among 5 people admitted to a hospital in Hanoi with sore throat or bronchitis, the Saigon Giai Phong daily quoted hospital officials as saying.
The latest cases took the number of Viet Nam's avian influenza patients since December 2004 to 64, 18 of whom have died. The disease has also killed 12 Thais and 4 Cambodians.
Health workers slaughtered and buried more than 6000 chickens last week [3rd week June 2005] at a farm in the province of Ben Tre in the Mekong Delta, after the birds were found to carry the H5 component of the bird flu virus, a state health official said. The tests were conducted after the farm owner reported that more 3000 of his chickens had died, Mai Van Hiep, director of the provincial animal health department, told Reuters. Ben Tre is one of the areas where the virus 1st emerged in late 2003 then spread to the northern region, where the virus appears to develop rapidly during the winter. "We do not exclude the possibility of an outbreak," Hiep said by telephone from the province, 85 km (55 miles) southwest of Ho Chi Minh City.
Scientists fear that avian flu, which is infectious in birds but does not spread easily among humans, could mutate into a form capable of generating a pandemic in which millions of people without immunity could die. Last week [3rd week June 2005], a Vietnamese doctor who treated bird flu patients tested positive for the virus. [A 2nd test failed to confirm the initial diagnosis. - Mod.CP]. But the Health Ministry insisted that there has so far been no evidence of human-to-human transmission of the virus.
Viet Nam - 2 More Avian Flu Cases In North
ABC News
7-21-5
2 more people from northern Viet Nam have contracted avian influenza, and thousands of chickens have dropped dead in the south, officials said on Mon 20 Jun 2005. The poultry outbreak is the country's 1st in 3 months.
The 2 new victims tested positive for the virus after being admitted to Bach Mai Hospital in Hanoi over the weekend, said hospital director Tran Quy. That brought the number of human cases to 13 over the past 2 weeks, he said, adding that the patients, all from the northern provinces, are in stable condition.
Bird flu began ravaging poultry farms across Viet Nam in late 2003, killing or forcing the cull of more than 45 million birds. The virus began jumping to humans at about the same time, and has killed 38 people in Viet Nam, 12 in Thailand and 4 in Cambodia.
Meanwhile, more than 4000 out of 6700 chickens on a farm in the southern province of Ben Tre died suddenly on 9 Jun 2005, said Mai Van Hiep, director of the provincial animal health bureau. The authorities killed the remaining chickens 2 days later, and tests showed they were infected with the H5N1 [serotype] of avian influenza, he said. Hiep said it was the 1st reported outbreak in the province since March 2005.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=863677
ProMED-mail promed@promedmail.org
It is not clear whether these cases of avian influenza have been confirmed by laboratory test or whether the information has been communicated to the World Health Organization. The 1st report fails to state that a 2nd test of the doctor in the Bach Mai Hospital did not confirm that he had contracted avian influenza (see: Avian influenza, human - East Asia (90): Viet Nam 20050617.1707). - Mod.CP
Severe Bird Flu Registered In China 25 km From Kazakhstan Border
By Nazym Shakhanova Kazinform
Kazach Information Agency
7-20-5
A large outbreak of bird flu among birds has been registered in the People's Republic of China, 25 km from the border with East Kazakhstan. According to WHO, 1042 ducks [they might mean geese, as also officially reported by the Chinese authorities; see item 2 and 20050608.1591. - Mod.AS] were detected with symptoms of bird flu, and 406 of them died. This has been said by the deputy health care minister, chief state sanitary inspector of Kazakhstan, Anatoliy Belonog.
According to the Chinese veterinary services, at one of the private farms of Chuguchak (Tacheng) in SUAR province, 13 000 birds have been destroyed. Other control measures include isolation and disinfection. In addition, emergency poultry vaccination was carried out at all neighboring fowl-farms.
According to the view of the Chinese experts, bird flu virus spread in western China is related to its carry-over by migrating birds from South Asia via Tibet and the Himalayas.
To date, 54 fatal cases of bird flu have been registered among the population of Viet Nam, Cambodia, and Thailand. Consequently, necessary measures are being undertaken by the Kazakh Ministry to prevent the introduction of disease into the territory of Kazakhstan. In all regions, stricter sanitary-quarantine control measures are undertaken at all crossing points along the border and at international airports with traffic to South Eastern Asia.
http://www.inform.kz/txt/showarticle.php?lang=eng&id=128025
Update On The Avian Influenza Situation
FAO AIDE News - Issue no.
3 6-20-5
Country situation - China
The 519 wild bird deaths, including bar-headed geese, great black-headed gulls, brown-headed gulls, ruddy shelducks, and great cormorants, at the Qinghai Lake Nature Reserve in Gangcha County, Qinghai Province were confirmed by the National AI Reference Laboratory (Harbin) to be due to H5N1 avian influenza (AI) strain infection. The government's control measures included compulsory vaccination around the outbreak areas and along migration routes and the nearby regions. More than 3 million doses of vaccine against the H5N1 strain of the avian influenza virus were dispatched to Qinghai Province. Qinghai Province adopted a series of measures, such as sealing off the epidemic area, the use of disinfectants in the affected zones as well as the administration of vaccines. Death of migratory birds was 1st reported in Naisuoma Village in Gangcha County on 4 May 2005. The 0.27 square kilometre island where the dead birds were found is home to more than 100 000 birds, including rare species, such as swans, black-necked cranes, and brown-headed gulls. The Chinese government has temporarily banned visitors from nature reserves.
Another outbreak of HPAI H5N1 was reported on a farm in Tacheng city, Tacheng district, Xinjiang Province on 8 Jun 2005. The index farm had 2177 geese, and 1042 were positive for H5N1, and, as of 8 Jun 2005, 460 had died. More than 13 000 birds were culled in order to contain the new outbreak. Xinjiang authorities have adopted various control measures, including modified stamping out and vaccination.
From Joseph Domenech Chief, Animal Health Service Animal Production & Health Division Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations Rome _____
ProMED-mail
The concern of the Kazakh authorities is justified, since the spread of H5N1 into Tacheng means a significant leap of the virus into central Asia.
The 31st update of FAO AIDE (Avian Influenza Disease Emergency), from which the 2nd item above was derived, includes the following statement: "Overall numbers of outbreaks have decreased, a pattern sim ilar to that observed last year [2004]. This is a good opportunity for all the affected and at risk countries to review contingency plans and be prepared for possible outbreaks that might occur in the forthcoming cooler months." One cannot but agree. - Mod.AS
The storm clouds are moving in. If a pre-emptive strike can be made on Iraq for the possibility of possession of weapons of mass destruction, what would prevent the same scenario involving Iran? If that happens, you can be sure that this will be a much bigger conflict that sucks in other countries. Look out for Iran’s allies.
How Soon The Big War In The Middle East?
By Jack Manuelian
6-21-5
If you ask that question to Scott Ritter, a former US Marine and a UN weapons inspector in Iraq from 1991 to 1998, his answer would be soon...as he states in an article of his that was posted in Aljazeera.net on June 20, 2005. Scott Ritter's article "The US War With Iran Has Already Begun" was posted under the headline of OPINION, so it is one man's opinion.
After mentioning that "...the US war with Iran has already begun. As we speak, American over flights of Iranian soil are taking place, using pilot-less drones and other, more sophisticated, capabilities," Scott says: "To the north, in neighboring Azerbaijan, the US military is preparing a base of operations for a massive military presence that will foretell a major land-based campaign designed to capture Tehran."
Scott elaborates in some details: " In fact, US air power should be able to maintain a nearly 24-hour a day presence over Tehran airspace once military hostilities commence. No longer will the United States need to consider employment of Cold War-dated plans which called for moving on Tehran from the Persian Gulf cities of Chah Bahar and Bandar Abbas. US Marine Corps units will be able to secure these towns in order to protect the vital Straits of Hormuz, but the need to advance inland has been eliminated. A much shorter route to Tehran now exists - the coastal highway running along the Caspian Sea from Azerbaijan to Tehran. US military planners have already begun war games calling for the deployment of multi-divisional forces into Azerbaijan. Logistical planning is well advanced concerning the basing of US air and ground power in Azerbaijan."
On Mar 20, 2005, PanArmenian Network posted an article written by its analytical department by the title "American Military Bases in Azerbaijan?" in which it states: "The locations of the mobile [US military] forces are already fixed. The government of Azerbaijan suggested the following formerly Soviet bases: 'Galla' in Absherone, 'Bina' in Baku, 'Nasosny' in Sumgait, 'Salyan' in Garachala and airdromes in Kyurdamir, Lenkoran, Evlakhe, Gyanja and Nakhichevan. Researching the territories during a year, American experts have chosen 'Kyurdamir', 'Nasosny' and 'Galla'. All the three objects are situated in central Azerbaijan, far from Karabakh. The main base is going to be in Kyurdamir.
"STATFOR experts mention three most important tasks of the American military presence in Azerbaijan. The first one is the security of Baku - Tbilisi - Jeyhan pipeline, the second task is the creation of conditions IN CASE THERE IS A NEED TO ATTACK IRAN and the third one - to force Russia out from the region.
According to analysts of the American - Israeli center (Statfor), it is not planned to use mobile forces for 'peace keeping measures' in Karabakh." (source: Pan Armenian.net)
Rev. Samuel Doctorian, who sometimes is referred to as the Billy Graham of the Middle East, has been given a vision of the future from heaven, in 1998, concerning the Middle East, Rev. Doctorian describes that vision: "I saw Iran (Persia), Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, all of Asia Minor--full of blood. I saw blood all over these countries. And I saw fire; nuclear weapons used in many of those countries. Smoke rising from everywhere. Sudden destruction--men destroying one another...and the United Nations broken in pieces because of the crisis in the Middle East (The Vision of Five Angels)" http://biblelandmission.org
What the heck is this? There are some major geological changes going on in the past few weeks. As I posted earlier, there were 5 quakes in California within a span of a few days very recently. There was another report of a small quake in the Midwest a few days ago. Who ever heard of seismic activity in that part of the country? This crack in Texas is extremely unusual to say the least.
Massive Crack Opens In Earth In Texas
By First Coast News Staff
CLAUDE, TX -- A massive crack in the earth opened up last week in Claude, Texas and its creating a stir among geologists.
Geologists said Tuesday the crack was a joint in the earth's crust. They believe the opening is the result of a weak point in the joint where one spot slips away from the other.
Some parts measure more than 30-feet deep and it drained what use to be a pond. Experts say earth cracks are common but the size of the crack in Claude is not.
We are seeing the development of the technology that the implanted microchip is based on, in front of our faces. As the technology gets cheaper and more prevalent, the momentum will pick up pretty fast. Remember the world without cell phones? How long did it take for that to take off? In just a few years, we went from a society where only some people had beepers to the cell phone being a necessity for pretty much everyone. It happened so fast that I can’t even remember the transition period. The microchip transition from an obscure concept to a common sight may be sooner than we think.
Deployments of RFID systems to grow rapidly
A recent Frost & Sullivan analysis projects that Radio frequency identification systems (RFID) are expected to be deployed globally by organizations such as Wal-Mart and the U.S. Department of Defense at a rapid pace, reports DDI parent company VNU.
Mandates by these companies will insist that suppliers support the technology, which will cause the market for RFID middleware to leap from $23 million in 2004 to $220 million in 2011.
The prices of RFID hardware, software and tags are expected to fall as a result.
"Efforts are underway to bring the price of the tags to as low as five cents, which has been set as a target by the industry," said Frost & Sullivan senior research analyst Soumilya Banerjee to VNU.
China is beefing up their military. The sleeping giant seems to be waking up. What would happen if they create some type of alliance with Iran? We’re looking at a very dangerous situation.
China advances missile program
By Bill Gertz
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
June 22, 2005
China has successfully flight-tested a submarine-launched missile that U.S. officials say marks a major advance in Beijing's long-range nuclear program.
"This is a significant milestone in their effort to develop strategic weapons," said a U.S. official familiar with reports of the test.
U.S. intelligence agencies monitored the flight test of a JL-2 missile about 10 days ago, officials said.
The missile was launched from a Chinese submarine near the port of Qingdao and was tracked to a desert impact point in western China several thousand miles away, the officials said.
The Air Force's National Air Intelligence Center reported that the JL-2 "will, for the first time, allow Chinese [missile submarines] to target portions of the United States from operating areas located near the Chinese coast."
The JL-2 is estimated to have a range of up to 6,000 miles, enough to hit targets in the United States.
A defense official said the missile test was a major step forward in China's strategic nuclear missile program and shows an improved capability to produce and launch submarine-launched missiles. "It was a successful test," this official said.
The JL-2 is a submarine version of the DF-31 land-based missile.
A flight test of the JL-2 last year failed, U.S. intelligence officials said.
In December, however, China launched the first of a new class of ballistic missile submarines known as the Type 094.
It was not known whether the JL-2 missile was launched from the new submarine or from another submarine modified for missile launch tests.
China previously has used a modified Russian-design submarine for missile tests.
How creepy is this? Sometimes I wonder where all of this bizarre technology is headed. With all of the cloning technology being developed, could the Robocop type of half human/half machine entity become a reality? This would be ethically questionable for obvious reasons but ethics is something that has been sacrificed for so-called progress for quite some time and I don’t see that changing anytime soon.
Photo in the News: Ultra-Lifelike Robot Debuts in Japan
June 10, 2005—Quick, which one is the robot?
Repliee Q1 (at left in both pictures) appeared yesterday at the 2005 World Expo in Japan, where she gestured, blinked, spoke, and even appeared to breathe. Shown with co-creator Hiroshi Ishiguru of Osaka University, the android is partially covered in skinlike silicone. Q1 is powered by a nearby air compressor, and has 31 points of articulation in its upper body.
Internal sensors allow the android to react "naturally." It can block an attempted slap, for example. But it's the little, "unconscious" movements that give the robot its eerie verisimilitude: the slight flutter of the eyelids, the subtle rising and falling of the chest, the constant, nearly imperceptible shifting so familiar to humans.
Surrounded by machines that draw portraits, swat fast-moving balls, and snake through debris, Q1 is only one of the showstoppers at the expo's Prototype Robot Exposition, which aims to showcase Japan's growing role in the robotics industry.
But given Q1's reported glitch-related "spasms" at the expo, it may be a while before androids are escorting tour groups or looking after children—which may be just as well. "When a robot looks too much like the real thing, it's creepy," Hiroshi told the Associated Press.
Can you believe this court decision? Whatever happened to PRIVATE PROPERTY? The local government can just evict me from my own property to build parking lots and shopping malls? It says here that the local officials know best how to help cities. News flash! Local officials are corrupt! The sky is blue!
Ultimately, the global elite wants to take away all private property from all individuals. Now they can start at the local level and work their way outwards towards their ultimate goal. The power has been given to them with this decision.
High court OKs personal property seizures
Majority: Local officials know how best to help cities
Thursday, June 23, 2005; Posted: 10:50 a.m. EDT (14:50 GMT)
WASHINGTON (AP) -- -- The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that local governments may seize people's homes and businesses -- even against their will -- for private economic development.
It was a decision fraught with huge implications for a country with many areas, particularly the rapidly growing urban and suburban areas, facing countervailing pressures of development and property ownership rights.
The 5-4 ruling represented a defeat for some Connecticut residents whose homes are slated for destruction to make room for an office complex. They argued that cities have no right to take their land except for projects with a clear public use, such as roads or schools, or to revitalize blighted areas.
As a result, cities have wide power to bulldoze residences for projects such as shopping malls and hotel complexes to generate tax revenue.
Local officials, not federal judges, know best in deciding whether a development project will benefit the community, justices said.
"The city has carefully formulated an economic development that it believes will provide appreciable benefits to the community, including -- but by no means limited to -- new jobs and increased tax revenue," Justice John Paul Stevens wrote for the majority.
He was joined by Justice Anthony Kennedy, David H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer.
At issue was the scope of the Fifth Amendment, which allows governments to take private property through eminent domain if the land is for "public use."
Susette Kelo and several other homeowners in a working-class neighborhood in New London, Connecticut, filed suit after city officials announced plans to raze their homes for a riverfront hotel, health club and offices.
New London officials countered that the private development plans served a public purpose of boosting economic growth that outweighed the homeowners' property rights, even if the area wasn't blighted.
Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who has been a key swing vote on many cases before the court, issued a stinging dissent. She argued that cities should not have unlimited authority to uproot families, even if they are provided compensation, simply to accommodate wealthy developers.
The lower courts had been divided on the issue, with many allowing a taking only if it eliminates blight.
"Any property may now be taken for the benefit of another private party, but the fallout from this decision will not be random," O'Connor wrote. "The beneficiaries are likely to be those citizens with disproportionate influence and power in the political process, including large corporations and development firms."
She was joined in her opinion by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, as well as Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.
Could a war with Iran be a foregone conclusion? Are we just waiting around for an official announcement? According to this article, that is exactly where we stand. Stay tuned as we wait for CNN to give us not-so-breaking news.
US War With Iran Has
Already Begun
By Scott Ritter
Aljazeera.net
6-20-5
Sunday 19 June 2005 - Americans, along with the rest of the world, are starting to wake up to the uncomfortable fact that President George Bush not only lied to them about the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq (the ostensible excuse for the March 2003 invasion and occupation of that country by US forces), but also about the very process that led to war.
On 16 October 2002, President Bush told the American people that "I have not ordered the use of force. I hope that the use of force will not become necessary."
We know now that this statement was itself a lie, that the president, by late August 2002, had, in fact, signed off on the 'execute' orders authorising the US military to begin active military operations inside Iraq, and that these orders were being implemented as early as September 2002, when the US Air Force, assisted by the British Royal Air Force, began expanding its bombardment of targets inside and outside the so-called no-fly zone in Iraq.
These operations were designed to degrade Iraqi air defence and command and control capabilities. They also paved the way for the insertion of US Special Operations units, who were conducting strategic reconnaissance, and later direct action, operations against specific targets inside Iraq, prior to the 19 March 2003 commencement of hostilities.
President Bush had signed a covert finding in late spring 2002, which authorised the CIA and US Special Operations forces to dispatch clandestine units into Iraq for the purpose of removing Saddam Hussein from power.
The fact is that the Iraq war had begun by the beginning of summer 2002, if not earlier.
This timeline of events has ramifications that go beyond historical trivia or political investigation into the events of the past.
It represents a record of precedent on the part of the Bush administration which must be acknowledged when considering the ongoing events regarding US-Iran relations. As was the case with Iraq pre-March 2003, the Bush administration today speaks of "diplomacy" and a desire for a "peaceful" resolution to the Iranian question.
But the facts speak of another agenda, that of war and the forceful removal of the theocratic regime, currently wielding the reigns of power in Tehran.
As with Iraq, the president has paved the way for the conditioning of the American public and an all-too-compliant media to accept at face value the merits of a regime change policy regarding Iran, linking the regime of the Mullah's to an "axis of evil" (together with the newly "liberated" Iraq and North Korea), and speaking of the absolute requirement for the spread of "democracy" to the Iranian people.
"Liberation" and the spread of "democracy" have become none-too-subtle code words within the neo-conservative cabal that formulates and executes American foreign policy today for militarism and war.
By the intensity of the "liberation/democracy" rhetoric alone, Americans should be put on notice that Iran is well-fixed in the cross-hairs as the next target for the illegal policy of regime change being implemented by the Bush administration.
But Americans, and indeed much of the rest of the world, continue to be lulled into a false sense of complacency by the fact that overt conventional military operations have not yet commenced between the United States and Iran.
As such, many hold out the false hope that an extension of the current insanity in Iraq can be postponed or prevented in the case of Iran. But this is a fool's dream.
The reality is that the US war with Iran has already begun. As we speak, American over flights of Iranian soil are taking place, using pilotless drones and other, more sophisticated, capabilities.
The violation of a sovereign nation's airspace is an act of war in and of itself. But the war with Iran has gone far beyond the intelligence-gathering phase.
President Bush has taken advantage of the sweeping powers granted to him in the aftermath of 11 September 2001, to wage a global war against terror and to initiate several covert offensive operations inside Iran.
The most visible of these is the CIA-backed actions recently undertaken by the Mujahadeen el-Khalq, or MEK, an Iranian opposition group, once run by Saddam Hussein's dreaded intelligence services, but now working exclusively for the CIA's Directorate of Operations.
It is bitter irony that the CIA is using a group still labelled as a terrorist organisation, a group trained in the art of explosive assassination by the same intelligence units of the former regime of Saddam Hussein, who are slaughtering American soldiers in Iraq today, to carry out remote bombings in Iran of the sort that the Bush administration condemns on a daily basis inside Iraq.
Perhaps the adage of "one man's freedom fighter is another man's terrorist" has finally been embraced by the White House, exposing as utter hypocrisy the entire underlying notions governing the ongoing global war on terror.
But the CIA-backed campaign of MEK terror bombings in Iran are not the only action ongoing against Iran.
To the north, in neighbouring Azerbaijan, the US military is preparing a base of operations for a massive military presence that will foretell a major land-based campaign designed to capture Tehran.
Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld's interest in Azerbaijan may have escaped the blinkered Western media, but Russia and the Caucasus nations understand only too well that the die has been cast regarding Azerbaijan's role in the upcoming war with Iran.
The ethnic links between the Azeri of northern Iran and Azerbaijan were long exploited by the Soviet Union during the Cold War, and this vehicle for internal manipulation has been seized upon by CIA paramilitary operatives and US Special Operations units who are training with Azerbaijan forces to form special units capable of operating inside Iran for the purpose of intelligence gathering, direct action, and mobilising indigenous opposition to the Mullahs in Tehran.
But this is only one use the US has planned for Azerbaijan. American military aircraft, operating from forward bases in Azerbaijan, will have a much shorter distance to fly when striking targets in and around Tehran.
In fact, US air power should be able to maintain a nearly 24-hour a day presence over Tehran airspace once military hostilities commence.
No longer will the United States need to consider employment of Cold War-dated plans which called for moving on Tehran from the Persian Gulf cities of Chah Bahar and Bandar Abbas. US Marine Corps units will be able to secure these towns in order to protect the vital Straits of Hormuz, but the need to advance inland has been eliminated.
A much shorter route to Tehran now exists - the coastal highway running along the Caspian Sea from Azerbaijan to Tehran.
US military planners have already begun war games calling for the deployment of multi-divisional forces into Azerbaijan.
Logistical planning is well advanced concerning the basing of US air and ground power in Azerbaijan.
Given the fact that the bulk of the logistical support and command and control capability required to wage a war with Iran is already forward deployed in the region thanks to the massive US presence in Iraq, the build-up time for a war with Iran will be significantly reduced compared to even the accelerated time tables witnessed with Iraq in 2002-2003.
America and the Western nations continue to be fixated on the ongoing tragedy and debacle that is Iraq. Much needed debate on the reasoning behind the war with Iraq and the failed post-war occupation of Iraq is finally starting to spring up in the United States and elsewhere.
Normally, this would represent a good turn of events. But with everyone's heads rooted in the events of the past, many are missing out on the crime that is about to be repeated by the Bush administration in Iran - an illegal war of aggression, based on false premise, carried out with little regard to either the people of Iran or the United States.
Most Americans, together with the mainstream American media, are blind to the tell-tale signs of war, waiting, instead, for some formal declaration of hostility, a made-for-TV moment such as was witnessed on 19 March 2003.
We now know that the war had started much earlier. Likewise, history will show that the US-led war with Iran will not have begun once a similar formal statement is offered by the Bush administration, but, rather, had already been under way since June 2005, when the CIA began its programme of MEK-executed terror bombings in Iran.
Scott Ritter is a former UN weapons inspector in Iraq, 1991-1998, and author of Iraq Confidential: The Untold Story of America's Intelligence Conspiracy, to be published by I B Tauris in October 2005.
Henry Kissinger stated that this would happen around this time at last year’s secret Bilderberg meeting. The ultimate goal is to get prices high enough where it would cause serious economic hardship on the avg. consumer (which is practically everyone). It looks like things are going according to plan.
Oil Soars To Near $60 A Barrel
By Maryelle Demongeot
6-20-5
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil prices soared to a record high above $59 a barrel on Monday, extending last week's surge as a threat against Western consulates in OPEC-member Nigeria jolted traders already worried about tight supplies.
Oil climbed more than 9 percent, or nearly $5, last week, drawing buying interest from trend-following hedge funds as prices surpassed the previous early April high.
U.S. light crude for July delivery hit a front-month record $59.18 per barrel, before paring gains to stand up 59 cents at $59.06 at 0439 GMT.
The August contract rose 62 cents to $59.80 a barrel and contracts for the last four months of the year, when oil demand picks up in the northern hemisphere, were all trading above $60.
London Brent crude for August jumped 71 cents to $58.47 a barrel, also a front-month peak.
Market anxiety over oil exports from producer nations resurfaced on Friday after the United States, Britain and Germany closed their consulates in Nigeria's largest city Lagos due to a threat from foreign Islamic militants.
"The market continues to suspect there might be supply disruptions resulting from these issues in Nigeria," said Daniel Hynes, resource analyst at ANZ Institutional Banking.
"When you get that occurring during an extremely tight period of strong demand, then prices naturally are going to react very strongly."
Nigeria, the world's eighth-largest oil exporter and supplier of about 10 percent of U.S. crude imports, has been named a candidate for "liberation" by Osama bin Laden, who has also threatened Middle East oil installations.
POLITICAL RISK
An industry survey in Boston last week showed that more than half the respondents considered "political upheaval in a strategic country" as the most likely cause for disruption to oil supply.
In Iran, the world's fourth-biggest producer, hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made a surprisingly strong showing in presidential elections, pitting him against pragmatic cleric and former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani in Friday's run-off.
Reformists urged supporters to back Rafsanjani, while hard-liners called for conservatives to support the Tehran mayor. Both received about a fifth of the first-round vote.
Below-average U.S. inventories of distillates -- which includes diesel, heating oil and jet fuel -- coupled with robust consumption has heightened worries that refiners will not be able to keep up with demand in the second half of the year.
Prices are up 36 percent since January as speculative funds bet strong global economic growth will strain supplies, especially if there are any unexpected disruptions, such as last week's shutdown by Royal Dutch/Shell of a gasoline unit at it's Deer Park, Texas, refinery. The unit may be shut for up to two weeks.
DEMAND WORRIES
U.S. distillate demand over the past four weeks was 6.5 percent higher than a year earlier, more than twice the growth in gasoline, while Chinese demand should pick up soon as business owners fire up diesel-fueled generators to overcome a power crunch on regional grids.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) last week raised its production ceiling by 500,000 bpd and pledged to put another 500,000 bpd on the market soon if prices remained high, but officials admitted it was unlikely to help.
"The fundamental problems with the conditions of the market are related to refinery capacity," Iran's OPEC governor Hossein Kazempour Ardebili said on Saturday.
"Because the demand for jet fuel and gasoline has been spurred by the travel season, increasing the OPEC ceiling will not solve any problems."
Long time no see. We haven’t heard from this guy in a while huh? Right after 9/11, we couldn’t turn anywhere without seeing bin Laden. It was Osama this, Osama that and then around the time where the Iraq war started, the media just stopped focusing on him. He faded into oblivion. I guess it’s time to bring this guy back into the forefront because the NWO orchestrators have a need for a scapegoat again. Make no mistake. Bin Laden is a CIA asset and they use him when they need him. Maybe it’s time to enter a new phase on the “war on terror”.
CIA chief has 'excellent idea' where bin Laden is
Monday, June 20, 2005; Posted: 7:05 a.m. EDT (11:05 GMT)
CNN) -- CIA Director Porter Goss says he has an "excellent idea" where Osama bin Laden is hiding, but that the al Qaeda chief will not be caught until weak links in the war on terrorism are strengthened.
In an interview with TIME magazine published Sunday, Goss said part of the difficulty in capturing bin Laden was "sanctuaries in sovereign nations."
The magazine asked Goss when bin Laden would be captured.
"That is a question that goes far deeper than you know," he said. "In the chain that you need to successfully wrap up the war on terror, we have some weak links. And I find that until we strengthen all the links, we're probably not going to be able to bring Mr. bin Laden to justice.
"We are making very good progress on it. But when you go to the very difficult question of dealing with sanctuaries in sovereign states, you're dealing with a problem of our sense of international obligation, fair play.
"We have to find a way to work in a conventional world in unconventional ways that are acceptable to the international community.
Asked whether that meant he knew where bin Laden is, Goss responded: "I have an excellent idea where he is. What's the next question?"
Goss did not say where he thinks bin Laden is, nor did he name the country or countries he was referring to when he spoke of sanctuaries.
But intelligence experts have long said they believed bin Laden was probably hiding in the rugged mountainous border region of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Asked if al Qaeda could strike the United States again, Goss said: "Yes, it could. Certainly the intent is very high. And we are trying to stay ahead of their capability. And so far, I think we have done pretty well carrying the war to them, as it were. I think that's mattered."
On Friday, the Arabic language television network Al-Jazeera aired portions of a video by Ayman al-Zawahiri, the No. 2 man in al Qaeda -- his first message in four months.
In the message, bin Laden's top lieutenant urged Muslims to press on with their jihad against U.S. and Western interests in the "land of Islam," saying that Islamic nations must be allowed to run their own affairs without foreign interference. (Full story)
On Thursday, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan said he did not believe bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar were in the central Asian country. (Full story)
Zalmay Khalilzad's remarks came a day after a purported Taliban military commander told a Pakistani TV station that the two men were "alive and well." (Full story)
Goss also told the magazine the insurgency in Iraq was not quite in its last throes, but close to it.
In an interview on CNN's "Larry King Live" that aired last week, Cheney said he expected the war would end during Bush's second term, which ends in 2009.
"The level of activity that we see today from a military standpoint, I think, will clearly decline," Cheney said. "I think they're in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency." (Full story)
Asked if that was his read of the situation, Goss said: "I think they're not quite in the last throes, but I think they are very close to it. And I think that every day that goes by in Iraq where they have their own government and it's moving forward reinforces just how radical (the insurgents) are and how unwanted they are."
On Sunday, U.S. Sen. John McCain said he disagreed with Cheney's assessment that the insurgency was in its "last throes" and called on the Bush administration to stop telling Americans victory is around the corner.
"What I think we should do," the Arizona Republican told NBC's "Meet the Press," "is wait until we achieve the successes, then celebrate them, rather than predict them. Because too often that prediction is not proven to be true."
I found this on the web.
Wow. This really summarizes Satan’s copycat methods of deceiving all of the world hijacking the real plan for redemption of the world.
The Second Coming of Jesus Christ
- Christ arrives at the end of a great war - Armageddon
- The war will end in fire for the enemies of Israel (not literal)
- Christ comes with his holy ones. Resurrected faithful.
- Christ sets up an era of peace as ruler of the earth
- Christ builds the milennial tmple of Ezekiel 40
The Coming of Antichrist
- Anti-Christ arrives at the end of a great war - Gog and Magog
- The war will end in fire for the enemies of Israel (literal)
- Anti-Christ comes with his holy ones. Aliens in UFOs.
- Anti-Christ sets up an era of peace under global dictatorship
- Anti-Christ allows building of 3rd Jerusalem Temple
Remember the first one is fake! Don't be deceived.
posted by p_k @ 3:10 PM
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