Buffy, this is Earth!

Date: Wed, 14 Dec 2005 22:45:13 +1100 (AUS Eastern Daylight Time) From: "Deborah Harmes, Ph.D." <dharmes1@optusnet.com.au>

Subject: Strange new object found at the edge of the solar system--Buffy???

14:05 13 December 2005 www.NewScientist.com news service

Maggie McKee

"Buffy" is one of the most tilted, or inclined, Kuiper Belt Objects (Image:CFEPS)

A top-down view shows the object's circular orbit (Image: CFEPS)

A large object has been found beyond Pluto travelling in an orbit tilted by47 degrees to most other bodies in the solar system.

Astronomers are at a loss to explain why the object's orbit is so off-kilter while being almost circular.

Researchers led by Lynne Allen at the University of British Columbia inVancouver, Canada, first spotted the object in observations made with theCanada-France-Hawaii Telescope in December 2004.

Since October 2005, they

have made follow-up observations that have revealed the object's perplexing

path.

Tentatively named 2004 XR190, the object appears to have a diameter ofbetween 500 and 1000 kilometres, making it somewhere between a fifth and nearly half as wide as Pluto.

It lies in a vast ring of icy bodies beyondNeptune called the Kuiper Belt, most of which orbit in nearly the same plane as Earth.

But at 47 degrees, 2004 XR190's orbit is one of the most tilted, or inclined Kuiper Belt Objects known. That suggests it was flung out of the solar system's main disc after a close encounter with another object - such as Neptune or perhaps a star that passed by the Sun billions of years ago.

Scatter effect

Neptune has been blamed for scattering many other KBOs into tilted paths.

But these tend to show other signs of a past interaction with the giant planet, such as moving in elliptical paths and having one part of their orbit pass near Neptune's at 30 astronomical units (AU) from the Sun (1 AU is the distance between the Earth and the Sun).

2004 XR190, however, follows a nearly circular path. And it is too distant to have come into direct contact with Neptune, travelling between 52 and 62AU from the Sun. Its orbit is also too circular - and too small - to have been tilted by a passing star, says Allen.

These traits make the object, nicknamed "Buffy" after the US television series about a vampire slayer, hard to explain.

"Maybe Buffy is going to be a bit of a theory slayer," Allen told New Scientist. But she suggests one theory that might account for the space rock's strange orbit. It involves a commonly held notion that early in the solar system, Neptune itself moved outward into its present orbit, from around Uranus's current location.

Gravitational kick

As it did so, its gravitational reach extended outwards, as well. This reach comes in the form of zones, or resonances, where an object's orbital period happens to be an integer multiple of Neptune's.

So when one of these outward-expanding resonances swept past 2004 XR190, it could have kicked the object out of a fairly circular, flat orbit into a more elongated, tilted one.

Then, over time, the orbit might have grown more circular as the tilt increased.

"These interactions can cause some Kuiper Belt Objects to circularise and tilt," says Allen. But she remains cautious: "We don't knowif Buffy's orbit really was created in this manner - because it could be too far away from a resonance or the resonance could not be strong enough - but this seems like the best shot."

Renu Malhotra, a planetary scientist at the University of Arizona in Tucson, US, says most resonances simply elongate an object's orbit. She says a few objects could "trade off" some of their elongation, or eccentricity, for a higher tilt, but the effect would be small.

"I find it hard to see how you would get a large inclination out of a modest eccentricity," Malhotra told New Scientist. "There's a limit on how much inclination you can trade off."

Hal Levison, a planetary scientist at the Southwest Research Institute inBoulder, Colorado, US, says he and others have produced objects like Buffy using models of such special resonances.

"However, I do have some problems with the idea," he admits.

Hidden objects

He points out that this object was found when it happened to be passing through the plane of the solar system - where it spends just 2% of its orbit. That suggests many more such objects remain undiscovered, tilted at orbits where most surveys do not search for them.

"I just don't think these mechanisms can deliver that much stuff," Levison told New Scientist.

He ventures another possible explanation - that the Sun had a twin and that both stars followed circular orbits around each other.

"That could excite inclinations without exciting the eccentricities," he says. "However, this idea creates more problems than it solves, by far."

Allen and her colleagues will continue to observe the new object to pin down its orbit more accurately.

And following the convention for naming bodies in the Kuiper Belt, they have suggested several Inuit names for the object to the International Astronomical Union.

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8455

Posted by Deborah Harmes, Ph.D.Psychologist and Writer

http://www.deborahharmes.com

http://thedreamkeeper.com

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Dreamkeeper/

I feel like I am being abit politically scatalogical, or nonlogical or something today. So I'm just going to post one nice picture, maybe two ... so we have a message from our REAL sponsor.

Enough said.

Buying Congress

The Washington Post has a graphic up that illustrates Abramoff's influence. And yes, it covers both Republican and Democratic congresscritters.

And makes you aware that Hey! maybe there is some claim to

Don Imus's remark

Who's gotten to YOU?!!

[You notice I publish on what is "happenin'" on the Internet news front often ... look what others are thinkin' - Lady B.]

Newspapers as non-profits?

Tyler Cowen

A newspaper company, like a public broadcaster, could be organized as a not-for-profit, tax-exempt corporation.

It could still sell papers and advertising, it could still develop new Internet revenues, it would still pay market wages and salaries (or maybe better), it could re-invest in improving its own staff and facilities and operations, it just couldn't make a profit. And it wouldn't pay taxes or dividends.

Here is _more_ (http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/columns/shoptalk_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001657297) .

As newspaper ads move to the web, draining a key source of revenue, I see a few options:

1. Subscription finance with high prices and few ads. A bit like the Financial Times. Of course this means fewer newspapers and fewer newspaper pages. On the plus side, fewer articles would continue on other, distant pages.

2. Sleazy tabloids. But the competition with the Internet remains.

3. Some clever newspaper coup to take over Web processing of commercial information and leapfrog over ebay and Craigslist.

4. Web products evolve into customized, print-on-demand newspapers. A some major newspapers survive by going the hybrid route, or by merging with their web competitors. "What is a newspaper?" becomes a question of degree and we needn't mourn the lack of pure newspapers.

5. Non-profits would take in revenue and also raise donations by selling access to social and political networks.

What would a date with Maureen Dowd go for?
6. Extremely partisan, low-cost "rag" newspapers, akin to 19th century U.S. experience, and paid for by subscription.

Advertisers seek to offend nobody, and thus exert a centrist influence over newspaper content.I place virtually no weight on option #3.

Comments are open.December 10, 2005 at 07:12 AM in _Economics_

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Handbook for Cyber-Dissidents

Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents

Reporters without Borders has put together a Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents explaining such things as how to blog anonymously. Contributors to the book include Arash Sigarchi, an Iranian blogger who was sentenced to 14 years in prison for criticizing the Iranian regime.Thanks to Carl Close for the pointer.
Posted by Alex Tabarrok on December 11, 2005 at 07:05 AM in Web/Tech Permalink
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Pay Go, No Go

Alex Tabarrok

It's not just GM, United Airlines and the Federal government who have made unsustainable promises to current and future retirees.

State and local governments have also been irresponsible, to the tune of perhaps a trillion dollars in _unfunded liabilities_

(http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/11/business/yourmoney/11retire.html) .

For years, governments have been promising generous medical benefits to millions of schoolteachers, firefighters and other employees when they retire, yet experts say that virtually none of these governments have kept track of the mounting price tag.

The usual practice is to budget for health care a year at a time, and to leave the rest for the future.

Off the government balance sheets - out of sight and out of mind - those obligations have been ballooning as health care costs have spiraled and as the baby-boom generation has approached retirement. ...most states and cities have set aside no money to pay for retiree medical benefits.

Instead, they use the pay-as-you-go system - paying for former employees out of current revenue.

December 12, 2005 at 07:10 AM in _Economics_

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Posted on The Multidimensionl News Portal@yahoogroups.com

Outrage at Arnold
Russell Roberts
I have not been following the Tookie Williams story, but evidently the Europeans have been paying attention. The _AP reports_

(http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/12/13/D8EFJ1Q84.html)
(ht: Drudge): Europeans Outraged at Schwarzenegger

The execution of convicted killer Stanley Tookie Williams sparked outrage Tuesday throughout Europe, which has a deep aversion to capital punishment sustained by the painful memory of state-organized murder during the Nazi era. The disappointment was particularly strong in Austria, native country of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, where many had hoped the former bodybuilder and film star would spare the 51-year-old Williams.

I love the phrase "Europe has a deep aversion" as if Europe were a person. Are all the Europeans outraged? Are there some Europeans holed up somewhere who think capital punishment is a good idea? If there are, they have not been contacted by the AP or made their presence known.But the really strange thing about this article is the invoking of the Holocaust as the reason for European outrage. Capital punishment is too close to state-organized murder? Executing a murderer is too close to trying to exterminate the Jews? Sorry, but I don't quite see the parallel.

If Europeans were really affected by state-organized murder, they'd let their citizens carry lots of guns and they'd make their governments less powerful.Evidently the Italians aversion to capital punishment goes back a little further: Rome's Colosseum, once the arena for deadly gladiator combat and executions, has become a symbol of Italy's anti-death penalty stance.

Since 1999, the monument has been bathed in golden light every time a death sentence is commuted somewhere in the world or a country abolishes capital punishment. "I hope there will be such an occasion soon," Rome Mayor Walter Veltroni said. "When it happens, we will do it with a special thought for Tookie."

I am not touched by Mayor Veltroni's sentiment, but I suspect many Italians find it touching or he would not have said it. I have a different theory for the aversion many Europeans feel for capital punishment.

I suspect most Europeans feel that every human being is basically good and therefore, any evil in the world is the result of bad circumstances beyond the individual's control. If you feel that way, then capital punishment is certainly barbaric. Thomas Sowell _has it figured out_

(http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0465081428/qid=1134511007/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-3805587-8967316?n=507846&s=books&v=glance/invisiblehear-20) .

Posted in _Crime_ (http://cafehayek.typepad.com/hayek/crime/index.html) _Permalink_ (http://cafehayek.typepad.com/hayek/2005/12/outrage_at_arno.html) _TrackBack (1)_ (http://cafehayek.typepad.com/hayek/2005/12/outrage_at_arno.html#trackback)

Property Rights Protect Trees

Don Boudreaux _
John Reader_ (http://www.penguin.co.uk/nf/Author/AuthorPage/0,,0_1000026740,00.html) writes the following in his 1997 book _Africa_ (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/067973869X/qid=1134331282/sr=2-2/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_2/102-5157387-269
2147?s=books&v=glance&n=283155) :

Trees are another important source of fodder for the cattle and it is remarkable that while firewood demands have stripped rural areas bare of trees throughout Africa, Ukara [an island in Lake Victoria] remains notably wooded.

Indeed, a visitor would be struck by the contrast. Mature trees up to fifteen and twenty meters high line the trackways (there are no made roads on Ukara) and offer refuges of deep shade beside streams and in the folds of the uplands; saplings flank cultivated plots; each homestead is surrounded by trees -- and all this living wood on a tiny, densely populated island where trees are a source of cattle fodder, building materials and firewood.

What is the explanation? The fact that every tree is privately owned ensures that the use of this indispensable resource is sustainable. Every tree is protected by vested interest. Indeed, the ownership of some trees is shared among as many as three individuals. Trees are rented for their leaf harvest. Building poles, timber, and firewood are bartered and sold [pp. 250-251; original emphasis]. Hat tip to Karol. Posted in _Property Rights_
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Original Article (English)
Eerie, Isn't It?
MIAMI: In his novel 1984, written in 1948, George Orwell evoked a rigorously controlled society, governed by a totalitarian power. A world divided into three permanently warring superstates, where words are instruments of submission.


In Oceania, the fictitious state where Orwell’s story takes place, the official language is referred to as "newspeak." Its main objective is to provide a form of communication that does not require thinking and in which the etymological meaning gets lost. Thus, contradictory mottoes like "war is peace" or "ignorance is strength" become universally accepted truths.

"Newspeak" also makes use of contractions and acronyms to label places and organizations, masking their true functions. A coercive labor camp is referred to as a "joycamp," making one less inclined to reflect upon its true meaning.

When he wrote his novel, Orwell was thinking in terms of the Soviet Union or Nazi Germany, but many of his ideas have an unexpected relevance today. In fact, a Newspeak Academy has been in existence for years, with the intention of discovering and defining such emerging euphemisms, like referring to soldiers killed by the mistakes of fellow soldiers as victims of "friendly fire," a term that obviously intends to portray the accident more favorably.

In the United States, politicians and military officials have widely adopted Orwell’s principles and many of their speeches are authentic paradigms of "newspeak." If there has ever been a moment in history that has forced the gatherers of "newspeak" to work overtime, this is it. From "weapons of mass destruction" to "enemy combatant," the triumvirate formed by George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and the Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, has incorporated true jewels of conceptual deception into "newspeak."

Such is the current situation that the newspaper, "The Nation" decided to compile and publish a "Dictionary of Republicanisms." Some of the definitions are impossible to translate, but others are not. Here are some examples:

Patriot Act: The pre-emptive strike on American freedoms to prevent the terrorists from destroying them first.
Bankruptcy: A punishable crime when committed by poor people, but not corporations.
Compassionate Conservatism: Poignant concern for the very wealthy.
Democracy: A product so extensively exported that the domestic supply is depleted.
God: Senior Presidential Adviser.
Class Warfare: Any attempt to raise the minimum wage.
Faith: The stubborn belief that God approves of Republican moral values despite the preponderance of textual evidence to the contrary.
Voter Fraud: Significant minority turnout.
Liberals: Followers of the Antichrist.
Free Markets: Halliburton no-bid contracts at taxpayer expense.
Laziness: When the poor are not working.
Leisure Time: When the wealthy are not working.
Senate: Exclusive club; entry fee $10 million to $30 million.
September 11th: Tragedy used to justify any administrative policy, especially if unrelated.

Alfred Nobel was interested in stopping standing armies ... now, in our life we have to worry about nuclear weapons, so this seems ever so appropriate for a peace prize, eh? Virginia

Peace laureate ElBaradei calls for world without nuclear weapons
12-10-2005, 18h09
OSLO (AFP)

Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency delivers a speech after being awarded with the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize at a ceremony in the City Hall in Oslo. ElBaradei called for a world free of atomic weapons, saying existing nuclear states should lead by example. (AFP)

The head of the UN nuclear watchdog agency Mohamed ElBaradei received the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize and called for a world free of atomic weapons, saying existing nuclear states should lead by example.

"If we hope to escape self-destruction, then nuclear weapons should have no place in our collective conscience, and no role in our security," ElBaradei said in his acceptance speech at a ceremony in Oslo's City Hall.

"We must ensure, absolutely, that no more countries acquire nuclear weapons: that nuclear weapon states take concrete steps towards nuclear disarmament; and we must put in place a security system that does not rely on nuclear deterrence," he added.

ElBaradei and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), represented by the chairman of its board of governors, Yukiya Amano, were jointly honored on Saturday for "their efforts to prevent nuclear energy from being used for military purposes".

They received their distinction from the chairman of the Nobel Committee Ole Mjoes 60 years after the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan on August 6 and 9, 1945, the world's only nuclear attacks.

"At a time when the threat of nuclear arms is again increasing, the Norwegian Nobel Committee wishes to underline that this threat must be met through the broadest possible international cooperation," Mjoes said.

In his acceptance speech, ElBaradei emphasized that the threat of nuclear proliferation was closely linked to inequalities in the world.

"In regions where conflicts have been left to fester for decades, countries continue to look for ways to offset their insecurities or project their power ... They may be tempted to seek their own weapons of mass destruction, like others who have preceded them," he said.

Fifteen years after the Cold War came to an end, the IAEA chief lamented that "we may have torn down the walls between East and West, but we have yet to build the bridges between North and South, the rich and the poor."

To rid the world of the threat of nuclear weapons, "a good start would be if the nuclear weapons states reduced the strategic role given to these weapons," he said.

"Today, eight or nine countries possess nuclear weapons. Today we still have 27,000 warheads in existence. To me, this is 27,000 too many," he added.

The IAEA and its chief have most recently been instrumental in thorny nuclear negotiations with Iran, threatening to take the country before the UN Security Council for violating nuclear non-proliferation rules.

Iran has insisted that its nuclear program is merely designed to meet domestic energy needs, while the United States, Israel and others have charged it is a cover for a programme to develop an atom bomb.

On Saturday, ElBaradei said that to avoid such ambiguity, he planned to set up a "reserve fuel bank" under IAEA control.

"This assurance of supply will remove the incentive, and the justification, for each country to develop its own fuel cycle," he said.

Ending his speech on an upbeat note, ElBaradei asked the audience to "imagine what would happen if the nations of the world spent as much on development as on the machines of war."
"Imagine that the only nuclear weapons remaining are the relics in our museums. Imagine the legacy we could leave to our children. Imagine that such a world is actually within our grasp," he concluded.

The agency and its director received their award, consisting of a Nobel diploma, a gold medal and 10 million Swedish kronor (1.3 million dollars, 1.1 million euros) to be split between them, in a brightly decorated City Hall, decked with yellow orchids and carnations, and in the presence of Norway's King Harald.

At a separate ceremony on Saturday, the anniversary of the death of prize founder Alfred Nobel, the winners of this year's literature, medicine, physics, chemistry and economics prizes received their awards from King Carl XVI Gustaf in Stockholm's Concert Hall.
That ceremony was to be followed by a gala banquet at Stockholm's City Hall for 1,300 guests.

HELPFUL HINTS FOR THOSE ASPIRING TO BE REAL BARKING MOONBATS

It's quite simple, really. Just follow the rules.

Rule one: There are no rules.

Rule two: There is a rule that to be a BARKING Moonbat, you must take the high road and cite a bit of metaphysics in a website posting. Make sure it contains some convoluted scientific, but unprovable, theory so everyone can jump up and down and try to catch you in the tied-together legs of their pajama bottoms.

Rule three: You must break the most important rule which is to pay absolutely NO attention to Sun Turkeys and other strays, no matter how much they annoy, irritate, misrepresent, insult, flame, defame, use logical circles to "defend" their lack of a point or meaning or generally mouth-off in a meaningless and unclear manner.

aside: Other categories of offensive behaviour will also accepted as criteria for "blanking" invading low flyers -- with the anticipated due process entailed.

Remember: not all turkeys are turkeys no matter how low they fly.

Rule Four: You cannot attain BARKING Moonbathood by posting pictures of bats. You must be a certifiable BARKING Moonbat. You cannot claim to have gotten over attaining enlightenment to qualify; you must have already forgotten there was ever such a goal.

Rule Five: You must be really, REALLY irritated by those who waste their intelligence as well as their time.

Rule Six: While you may possess an actual physical body (and what bat, BARKING or otherwise, does not), your sonar and sailing must be confined to such satanic pursuits as problem solving, analysis, self actualization, mutation and progation of the species and true affirmation of one's BARKINGhood.

Rule Seven: It is imperative that your ideological bent of wing should have a gigantic label slapped to it, in DAY GLO paint, clearly visible at all times of night, stating that you are at least one of the following: a perverted progressive, liberal, Libertarian, socialist or commie, and far worse, that you can read an essay IN CONTEXT.

Rule Eight: Light refreshments are to be served in a juvenile, I mean, a jovial manner.

Rules of the Road: If you can't BARK loud enough, please find a designated overhang. Crashing BARKING Moonbats in mid air will not be tolerated.

When the going gets tough, the tough get BARKING mad.

If you can BARK loud enuf, please feel free to post additional requirements. No medals will be awarded for courage if you keep your fangs to yourselves.

if you go back down in the bowels of my archive, you can read my John Lennon eulogy written in October ... I did think that this is very good.

Virginia

------------
The War Is Not Over

Twenty-five years ago today
I sat in my living room
Listening to 'Double Fantasy'
And cried

John had said
That the war was over
If we wanted it to be
And now he was dead

John had said
That once he was the walrus
But now he was just John
And now John was dead

The irony was not lost on me
As I thought
Of the last words and acts
Of our great leaders and fallen idols
And the, sometimes, dark truths
Behind their fame

An assassinated Gandhi
Alienated from his sons
Guilty about his sexuality
Unable to bring his dream
To all Indians

An assassinated King
Adulterer, plagiarizer
An imperfect saint
Unable to reach the mountaintop
With his flock

John died for our sins
As did Gandhi
And King
And so many others

He thought
That he had
Gotten away
Clean
At the end

But
We wouldn't
Let him
Get off
That easy

Like Crazy Horse
We couldn't
Let him
Go in peace

He was our hero
He had said too much
He had bled too much
To stop bleeding
For us now

He had to bleed out
He had to hang
On the cross
Of our need
And our greed

No
The war is not over
And no one
Can declare it so
And no one
Can leave

There really is
Nowhere to run
And nowhere to hide

And what we see
Really is
What we get

John was wrong
To think
That he could exchange
The fantasies of the masses
For the fantasies
Of his own making

But he was right
To imagine
A better world

And we are right
To join
In that imagining

But not
As vampires
Demanding the blood
Of imaginary heroes

But as individuals
Who are willing
To pick up
Our own crosses
To follow
Our own paths
Together

The war is not over
And it may never be

But we can
Become
Better soldiers
For peace

We can
Stop
Following fantasies
And imaginary heroes

We can
Stop
Sacrificing
The best among us
On the alter
Of our need

And we can
Help the world
To truly live
As one

Jim Bush
Portland, Oregon

New Film About Peace Activism To End The U.S. War In Iraq

I’ve recently finished a new feature-length documentary, THE PEACE PATRIOTS, which presents an in-depth view of grassroots peace activists working to end the U.S. military occupation of Iraq. The film features narration by Air America Radio host Janeane Garofalo and music by 2005 Grammy Award winner Steve Earle, Ani DiFranco, Pete Seeger, Jonatha Brooke, Stephan Smith and John Sheldon. (For more information and to watch excerpts of the film, visit:
http://www.ThePeacePatriots.com
or
http://www.turningtide.com/peacepatriots.htm
Please spread the word about this film among your friends, family, and colleagues! robbie@turningtide.com

Robbie Leppzer

NY TIMES
December 10, 2005

U.S., Under Fire, Eases Its Stance in Climate Talks

By ANDREW C. REVKIN
MONTREAL, Saturday, Dec. 10 -
The United States dropped its opposition early Saturday morning to nonbinding talks on addressing global warming after a few words were adjusted in the text of statements that, 24 hours earlier, prompted a top American official to walk out on negotiations.At the same time, other industrialized nations that have signed on to the Kyoto Protocol, a treaty binding them to curb emissions of greenhouse gases, agreed to start meeting to set new deadlines once the existing pact's terms expire in 2012.
Such is the nature of progress in the 17-years-and-counting effort by the world's nations to act in the face of scientists' conclusions that emissions from burning essential fuels like coal and oil are raising temperatures and could potentially disrupt climate patterns and inundate coasts.
The United States and China, the world's current and projected leaders in greenhouse gas emissions, still refused to agree to mandatory steps to curtail the emissions as the talks drew toward a close early Saturday.
But there was a growing sense that some longstanding barriers, particularly between developed and developing nations, were starting to erode under the weight of evidence that climate was shifting in potentially dangerous ways.
In a sign of its growing isolation on climate issues, the Bush administration had come under sharp criticism for walking out of informal discussions on finding new ways to reduce emissions under the United Nations' 1992 treaty on climate change.
The walkout, by Harlan L. Watson, the chief American negotiator here, came Friday, shortly after midnight, on what was to have been the last day of the talks, during which the administration has been repeatedly assailed by the leaders of other wealthy industrialized nations for refusing to negotiate to advance the goals of that treaty, and in which former President Bill Clinton chided both sides for lack of flexibility.
At a closed session of about 50 delegates, Dr. Watson objected to the proposed title of a statement calling for long-term international cooperation to carry out the 1992 climate treaty, participants said.

He then got up from the table and departed. Environmentalists here called his actions the capstone of two weeks of American efforts to prevent any fresh initiatives from being discussed. "This shows just how willing the U.S. administration is to walk away from a healthy planet and its responsibilities to its own people," said Jennifer Morgan, director of the climate change project at the World Wildlife Fund.
In the end, though, some adjustments of wording - including a shift from "mechanisms" to the softer word "opportunities" in one statement - ended the dispute.In Washington, Adam Ereli, a State Department spokesman, said the administration was determined to achieve greenhouse-gas reductions not through binding limits but through long-term work to develop cleaner technologies."If you want to talk about global consciousness," he said, "I'd say there's one country that is focused on action, that is focused on dialogue, that is focused on cooperation, and that is focused on helping the developing world, and that's the United States."
There were still a few more details involving Russia that were being worked on, but delegates and participants among the 9,000 people in the halls were confident the overall deal would hold. The amount of progress is still achingly slow, many environmentalist say. The world's major sources of greenhouse emissions - the United States, big developing countries like China and India, and a bloc led by Europe and Japan - remain divided over how to proceed under both the 1992 treaty and the Kyoto Protocol, an addendum that took effect this year.

The original treaty - since ratified by 189 nations, including the United States - has no binding restrictions. The Kyoto pact does impose mandatory limits on industrialized nations, but they do not apply to developing nations, including China and India. The United States and Australia have rejected that pact.
On Friday, countries bound by the Kyoto Protocol were close to agreeing on a plan to negotiate a new set of targets and timetables for cutting emissions after its terms expire. But under pressure from some countries already having trouble meeting Kyoto targets, the language included no specific year for ending talks on next steps, instead indicating that parties would "aim to complete" work "as soon as possible.
"Early in the afternoon, Mr. Clinton gave a hastily arranged speech to the thousands of delegates in which he sketched a route around the impasse that included gentle rebukes of those seeking concrete targets and also of the Bush administration.
Mr. Clinton said that, given the impasse over global targets for emissions, countries might do better to consider specific, smaller initiatives to advance and disseminate technologies that could greatly reduce emissions in both rich and poor countries."If you can't agree on a target, agree on a set of projects so everyone has something to do when they get up in the morning," he said.
In a comment clearly directed at the Bush administration, he declared to waves of applause that just as the United States had taken a precautionary approach in its fight against terrorism, "there is no more important place in the world to apply the principle of precaution than the area of climate change."
"I think it's crazy for us to play games with our children's future," Mr. Clinton said. "We know what's happening to the climate, we have a highly predictable set of consequences if we continue to pour greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, and we know we have an alternative that will lead us to greater prosperity."

The Montreal talks have yielded significant new signs that developing countries are beginning to consider ways to promote economic growth without increasing emissions. Papua New Guinea, Costa Rica and Brazil all proposed ways to add incentives for reducing destruction of rain forests to the climate agreements. China agreed to additional discussions under both the 1992 and Kyoto treaties about ways to involve big developing countries in projects that could curb the heat-trapping pollution - as long as they did not involve binding limits.But even if new talks under the Kyoto treaty lead to new targets for industrial nations, some scientists said Friday that they would not be enough to stem harmful warming without broader actions by the biggest and fastest-growing polluters.
In a statement from London, Lord Martin Rees, the new president of Britain's Royal Society, an independent national scientific academy, said the disputes among wealthy nations over how to reduce emissions were distracting them from carrying out steps to make the cuts.Environmental campaigners insisted that the Kyoto process would eventually force other countries, particularly the United States, to act.
These advocates predicted a growing market for "cap and trade" credits, in which businesses acquire credits by reducing their greenhouse gas emissions below a required level, then sell those credits to other businesses or even other countries, which can then increase their output of emissions above the target level.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/10/international/americas/10climate.html?th=&emc=th&pagewanted=print

The Mayan Calendar: Mystic Key to a New World

In early Autumn 2002, Carlos Barrios journeyed North from his home in Guatemala to the Eastern edge of the Four Corners.

In Santa Fe, NM, at the tail of the Rocky Mountains, Mr. Barrios spoke in a knowledgeable manner about the Mayan tradition and the fabled Mayan calendars.

The Mayan calendar is an object of intense interest for many thousands of people right now, because they focus upon the watershed date of Dec. 21, 2012.

Everything changes by then, it is said.

With a cultural heritage including thousands of pyramids and temples, and a calendar that has proven itself to be astronomically accurate over millions of years, the Maya tradition is widely considered to be a mystic key to the soul of Turtle Island (North America).

In public talks and in a private interview, Mr. Barrios laid out his account of the history and future of the Americas, and the larger world, based on his understanding of the Mayan tradition as both an anthropologist and an initiate.

He spoke also about the path he sees ahead from now until the Winter Solstice of 2012. The range of teachings and insights offered by Mr. Barrios must be considered in the context of the realpolitik of his American homeland.

The Maya of Guatemala, their pyramids, and their calendar have endured - not in a new-age Shambhala of love and light - but in a milieu of treachery, beatings, torture, rape, and mass murder.**

THE WORLD WILL NOT END

Messages from the Mayan Mileuby


Steven McFadden Earthcode International Network

Carlos Barrios was born into a Spanish family on El Altiplano, the highlands of Guatemala. His home was in Huehuetenango, also the dwelling place of the Maya Mam tribe. With other Maya and other indigenous tradition keepers, the Mam carry part of the old ways on Turtle Island (North America). They are keepers of time, authorities on remarkable calendars that are ancient, elegant and relevant.

Mr. Barrios is a historian, an anthropologist and investigator. After studying with traditional elders for 25 years since the age of 19, he has also became a Mayan Ajq'ij, a ceremonial priest and spiritual guide, Eagle Clan.

Years ago, along with his brother, Gerardo, Carlos initiated an investigation into the different Mayan calendars. He studied with many teachers. He says his brother Gerardo interviewed nearly 600 traditional Mayan elders to widen their scope of knowledge.

"Anthropologists visit the temple sites," Mr. Barrios says, "and read the stelas and inscriptions and make up stories about the Maya, but they do not read the signs correctly. It's just their imagination...Other people write about prophecy in the name of the Maya. They say that the world will end in December 2012. The Mayan elders are angry with this. The world will not end. It will be transformed. The indigenous have the calendars, and know how to accurately interpret it, not others."

The Calendars

Mayan comprehension of time, seasons, and cycles has proven itself to be vast and sophisticated. The Maya understand 17 different calendars, some of them charting time accurately over a span of more than ten million years.

The calendar that has steadily drawn global attention since 1987 is called the Tzolk'in or Cholq'ij. Devised ages ago and based on the cycle of the Pleiades, it is still held as sacred.

With the indigenous calendars, native people have kept track of important turning points in history. For example, the daykeepers who study the calendars identified an important day in the year One Reed, Ce Acatal, as it was called by the Mexica. That was the day when an important ancestor was prophesied to return, "coming like a butterfly."

In the western calendar, the One Reed date correlates to Easter Sunday, April 21, 1519 - the day that Hernando Cortez and his fleet of 11 Spanish galleons arrived from the East at what is today called Vera Cruz, Mexico. When the Spanish ships came toward shore, native people were waiting and watching to see how it would go. The billowing sails of the ships did indeed remind the scouts of butterflies skimming the ocean surface.

In this manner was a new era initiated, an era they had anticipated through their calendars. The Maya termed the new era the Nine Bolomtikus, or Nine Hells of 52 years each. As the nine cycles unfolded, land and freedom were taken from the native people. Disease and disrespect dominated.

What began with the arrival of Cortez, lasted until August 16, 1987 a date many people recall as Harmonic Convergence. Millions of people took advantage of that date to make ceremony in sacred sites, praying for a smooth transition to a new era, the World of the Fifth Sun.

From that 1987 date until now, Mr. Barrios says, we have been in a time when the right arm of the materialistic world is disappearing, slowly but inexorably. We are at the cusp of the era when peace begins, and people live in harmony with Mother Earth. We are no longer in the World of the Fourth Sun, but we are not yet in the World of the Fifth Sun. This is the time in-between, the time of transition.

As we pass through transition there is a colossal, global convergence of environmental destruction, social chaos, war, and ongoing Earth changes. All this, Mr. Barrios says, was foreseen via the simple, spiral mathematics of the Mayan calendars. "It will change," Mr. Barrios observes. "Everything will change." He said Mayan Daykeepers view the Dec. 21, 2012 date as a rebirth, the start of the World of the Fifth Sun.

It will be the start of a new era resulting from - and signified by - the solar meridian crossing the galactic equator, and the earth aligning itself with the center of the galaxy.

At sunrise on December 21, 2012 - for the first time in 26,000 years - the Sun rises to conjunct the intersection of the Milky Way and the plane of the ecliptic. This cosmic cross is considered to be an embodiment of the Sacred Tree, The Tree of Life - a tree remembered in all the world¹s spiritual traditions.

Some observers say this alignment with the heart of the galaxy in 2012 will open a channel for cosmic energy to flow through the earth, cleansing it and all that dwells upon it, raising all to a higher level of vibration. This process has already begun, Mr. Barrios suggested. "Change is accelerating now, and it will continue to accelerate."

If the people of the earth can get to this 2012 date in good shape, without having destroyed too much of the Earth, Mr. Barrios said, we will rise to a new, higher level. But to get there we must transform enormously powerful forces that seek to block the way.

A Picture of the Road Ahead

From his understanding of the Mayan tradition and the calendars, Mr. Barrios offered a picture of where we are at and what may lie on the road ahead:

 The date specified in the calendar - Winter Solstice in the year 2012 - does not mark the end of the world. Many outside people writing about the Mayan calendar sensationalize this date, but they do not know. The ones who know are the indigenous elders who are entrusted with keeping the tradition.
 "Humanity will continue," he contends, "but in a different way. Material structures will change. From this we will have the opportunity to be more human."  We are living in the most important era of the Mayan calendars and prophecies. All the prophecies of the world, all the traditions, are converging now. There is no time for games. The spiritual ideal of this era is action.
 Many powerful souls have reincarnated in this era, with a lot of power. This is true on both sides, the light and the dark. High magic is at work on both sides.
 Things will change, but it is up to the people how difficult or easy it is for the changes to come about.
 The economy now is a fiction. The first five-year stretch of transition - from August 1987 to August 1992 - was the beginning of the destruction of the material world. We have progressed ten years deeper into the transition phase by now, and many of the so-called sources of financial stability are in fact hollow.
 The banks are weak. This is a delicate moment for them. They could crash globally if we don¹t pay attention. One critical period is October and November 2002. If the banks crash in these months then we will be forced to rely on the land and our skills. The monetary systems will be in chaos, and we must then rely on our direct relationship with the Earth for our food and shelter.
 The North and South Poles are both breaking up. The level of the water in the oceans is going to rise. But at the same time land in the ocean, especially near Cuba, is also going to rise.

A Call for Fusion

As he met with audiences in Santa Fe, Mr. Barrios told a story about the most recent Mayan New Year ceremonies in Guatemala. He said that one respected Mam elder, who lives all year in a solitary mountain cave, journeyed to Chichicastenango to speak with the people at the ceremony.

The elder delivered a simple, direct message. He called for human beings to come together in support of life and light. Right now each person and group is going his or her own way.

The elder of the mountains said there is hope if the people of the light can come together and unite in some way. Reflecting on this, Mr. Barrios explained: "We live in a world of polarity: day and night, man and woman, positive and negative. Light and darkness need each other. They are a balance. Just now the dark side is very strong, and very clear about what they want. They have their vision and their priorities clearly held, and also their hierarchy. They are working in many ways so that we will be unable to connect with the spiral Fifth World in 2012."

"On the light side everyone thinks they are the most important, that their own understandings, or their group¹s understandings, are the key. There¹s a diversity of cultures and opinions, so there is competition, diffusion, and no single focus."

As Mr. Barrios sees it, the dark side works to block fusion through denial and materialism. It also works to destroy those who are working with the light to get the Earth to a higher level. They like the energy of the old, declining Fourth World, the materialism. They do not want it to change. They do not want fusion. They want to stay at this level, and are afraid of the next level.

The dark power of the declining Fourth World cannot be destroyed or overpowered. It's too strong and clear for that, and that is the wrong strategy. The dark can only be transformed when confronted with simplicity and open-heartedness. This is what leads to fusion, a key concept for the World of the Fifth Sun.

Mr. Barrios said the emerging era of the Fifth Sun will call attention to a much-overlooked element. Whereas the four traditional elements of earth, air, fire and water have dominated various epochs in the past, there will be a fifth element to reckon with in the time of the Fifth Sun: ether.

The dictionary defines ether as the rarefied element of the Heavens. Ether is a medium. It permeates all space and transmits waves of energy in a wide range of frequencies, from cell phones to human auras. What is "ethereal" is related to the regions beyond earth: the heavens.

Ether - the element of the Fifth Sun - is celestial and lacking in material substance, but is no less real than wood, stone or flesh.

"Within the context of ether there can be a fusion of the polarities," Mr. Barrios said. "No more darkness or light in the people, but an uplifted fusion. But right now the realm of darkness is not interested in this. They are organized to block it. They seek to unbalance the Earth and its environment so we will be unready for the alignment in 2012. We need to work together for peace, and balance with the other side. We need to take care of the Earth that feeds and shelters us. We need to put our entire mind and heart into pursuing unity and fusion now, to confront the other side and preserve life."

To be Ready for this Moment in History

Mr. Barrios told his audiences in Santa Fe that we are at a critical moment of world history. "We are disturbed," he said. "We can¹t play anymore. Our planet can be renewed or ravaged. Now is the time to awaken and take action."

"Everyone is needed. You are not here for no reason. Everyone who is here now has an important purpose. This is a hard, but a special time. We have the opportunity for growth, but we must be ready for this moment in history."

Mr. Barrios offered a number of suggestions to help people walk in balance through the years ahead. "The prophesized changes are going to happen," he said, "but our attitude and actions determine how harsh or mild they are."

 We need to act, to make changes, and to elect people to represent us who understand and who will take political action to respect the earth. Meditation and spiritual practice are good, but also action.
 It's very important to be clear about who you are, and also about your relation to the Earth.  Develop yourself according to your own tradition and the call of your heart. But remember to respect differences, and strive for unity.
 Eat wisely. A lot of food is corrupt in either subtle or gross ways. Pay attention to what you are taking into your body.
 Learn to preserve food, and to conserve energy.
 Learn some good breathing techniques, so you have mastery of your breath.
 Be clear. Follow a tradition with great roots. It is not important what tradition, your heart will tell you, but it must have great roots.
 We live in a world of energy. An important task at this time is to learn to sense or see the energy of everyone and everything: people, plants, animals. This becomes increasingly important as we draw close to the World of the Fifth Sun, for it is associated with the element ether the realm where energy lives and weaves.
 Go to the sacred places of the earth to pray for peace, and respect for the Earth which gives us our food, clothing, and shelter. We need to reactivate the energy of these sacred places. That is our work.
 According to Mr. Barrios' reading of the Mayan calendar, if war happens in November 2002 or after, then it¹s bad, but not catastrophic. But if it happens between April and November 2003, it will be catastrophic. Really bad. It could eventually result in the death of two-thirds of humanity. "So stay active," he said. "If we are active, we can transform the planet. The elders watch to see what happens."
 Many Mayan elders and knowledge keepers may be eliminated in the next few years. For the first half of the current Katun (20-year period) the dark side has a lot of power. But that will pass 3 to 4 years from now. The tide can turn. Amazing things are going to happen.
 One simple but effective prayer technique is to light a white or baby-blue colored candle. Think a moment in peace. Speak your intention to the flame and send the light of it on to the leaders who have the power to make war or peace.

We Have Work to Do

According to Mr. Barrios this is a crucially important moment for humanity, and for earth. Each person is important. If you have incarnated into this era, you have spiritual work to do balancing the planet. He said the elders have opened the doors so that other races can come to the Mayan world to receive the tradition. The Maya have long appreciated and respected that there are other colors, other races, and other spiritual systems. "They know," he said, "that the destiny of the Mayan world is related to the destiny of the whole world."

"The greatest wisdom is in simplicity," Mr. Barrios advised before leaving Santa Fe. "Love, respect, tolerance, sharing, gratitude, forgiveness. It's not complex or elaborate. The real knowledge is free. It's encoded in your DNA. All you need is within you. Great teachers have said that from the beginning. Find your heart, and you will find your way."

http://paulapeterson.com/Mayan_Calendar.html

AS WE REACH THE 90-DAY mark since Katrina hit, it's time we ended our national state of denial. Turns out House Speaker Dennis Hastert had it right all along, though his reasons were flawed. We should call it quits in New Orleans not because the city can't be made relatively safe from hurricanes. It can be. And not because to do so is more trouble than it's worth. It's not. But because the Bush Administration has already given New Orleans a quiet kiss of death now that the story has run its news cycle.
As someone who dearly loves New Orleans and has experienced many of her charms, it pains me immeasurably to call for this retreat. This is not a rhetorical stunt or a shock argument meant to invite compromise talks. I mean what I say: Shut the city down and board it up before thousands more lives are lost.
In the weeks after Katrina, the American media somehow portrayed the catastrophe as a matter of failed levees and flawed evacuation plans. The "What went wrong?" coverage involved autopsies of every breached dike and a witch hunt for those responsible for the Superdome and Convention Center fiascos. But these were just horrifying symptoms of a much larger disease.

The rest may be found at:
http://www.oriononline.org/pages/oo/sidebars/front/index_Tidwell.html

This wobegotton land
Posted by: peridot on Dec 6, 2005 1:34 AM
[
comments=report&cID=62773&sID=29113" target="_blank">Report this comment]
where the river had changed its course once in a time before the white men arrived, and had left an island in the old riverbed, elevated, a mound of the most fecund earth populated with every variety of berry and bush possible in the honey summers of the Minnesota river valley and one of those blessed herbs possessed the power to alliviate the minor miseries of old age and so it was when I was a young boy there in that place that after the harvest, in the golden autumn of the year our family or some member would visit the 'island' and harvest ground cherries and berries and walnuts and a few stalks of the female of hemp.
Jams, jellies, sugared nuts, and a green flour resulted.
These things were part and parcel of a place and a time when freedom had a distinct meaning. Not a tag line to some marketing bamboozle or the cleverly crafted slogan of some corporate lackey seeking public trust.
The boozed up brain of Richard Nixon produced the War On Drugs.
Now, nearly 40 years and hundreds of billions of dollars spent on this war and who has benefitted? Who is to blame? Just as the life of its citizens have been consumed, freedom itself has been consumed.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »]
Thank you, Mr. Keillor
Posted by: sabibabi on Dec 6, 2005 4:36 AM
[Report this comment]
Thank you for stating the Truth. The War of Drugs is as big a failure as the War on Iraq, and - in my opinion - has caused even more harm. With 2 million plus of our citizens in prison, the devastation caused to the prisoners extends to their family and friends...and ripples through our society. Innocent until proven guilty has become a fantasy - it is said that 98% of federal cases plead guilty - frequently because those charged know they have no chance in court. Just read Christian Parenti's LOCKDOWN AMERICA, or Google "wrongful convictions". The political and media "spin" around this issue has used the "fear" button to push through the changes in laws that you mentioned, as well as others.
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »]
Let's be consistent
Posted by: jimb on Dec 6, 2005 7:21 AM [
One of the biggest lies we Americans tell \nourselves is that alcohol isn't a drug. If your view is that adults can be responsible enough to have legal access to alcohol at whatever rate of consumption they see fit, then that's just fine. But, allow adults that same choice with marijuana. If it's your belief that marijuana is a mood altering drug and adults can't be trusted to make a decision for themselves whether to use it and how much to use, then how in God's name can you justify keeping it legal to sell and consume alcohol, the drug that is by far the leading cause of ruined lives, beaten spouses and kids, lost fortunes, destroyed property, homicides and slow suicides, well beyond that of any other recreational intoxicant?Make up your mind, America. Either adults can manage their own access to recreational drugs or they can't, but stop telling yourselves that alcohol isn't a drug. It makes no sense.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] This message needs more publicity!
Posted by: cbaker2001 on Dec 6, 2005 8:38 AM
[Report this comment] I agree with Mr. Keillor, I agree with sabibabi and with jimb -- the "war" on drugs needs to end before we sentence any more otherwise law-abiding citizens to ridiculous prison sentences while at the same time we condone alcohol. If America would only come to its senses and put a "sin" tax on marijuana the way they have on alcohol and tobacco, we could probably pay off the national debt AND the horrible deficit Bush has run up in the first year alone (okay, that may be overly optimistic, but you get my drift). When are the puritan minds in this country going to finally learn that you really can't legislate morality?

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] »
RE: This message needs more publicity!
Posted by: fullavit@hotmail.com
Drug War Casualty Posted by: bambic on Dec 6, 2005 11:17 AM
[Report this comment] I am a former ass't. press secretary for a Democratic Presidential candidate who recently spent 99 days in jail because I was given a $50,000 bond for a first probation revocation for possession of a marijuana pipe. I was in a hospital and missed a visit to my probation officer. The judge made no allowance for this and gave me the same bond as a major cocaine trafficker and a meth manufacturer. My use of marijuana was medicinal.As harmless as this drug is, it is the laws that are dangerous and I would advise all users to consider this---jail is not where you want to end up.
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »]
» RE: Drug War Casualty Posted by: fullavit@hotmail.com » RE: Drug War Casualty Posted by: doneman2000
RE: Drug War

Okay. My comment. I got kicked out of good old Minnesota to make a quota for the War on Drugs to make the INS/DEA look GOOD! The WAR on DRUGS is not a collosial failure on the part of the public to stand up to various "puritans" or because one can't tell one drug from another.

The War on Drugs was/is a way to ensure the rich maintain(ed) their control over the supply and profit of drugs. Pure, simple. The Feds are just the agents to maintain the rich and powerful's agenda. And it "works" too -- for them.

The cost to maintain the prisons and the judiciary "system", which is rife with lawyer/judge misconduct, payola to various administrators and the Federal officials necessary to perpetuate the insanity is astronomical. The point is: the real drug barons pay NOTHING for their enforcers. So sad, too bad, eh?

Not really, because the true COST is the broken people, their families, their friends and an increasingly startled public as to HOW this thing got so out of control.

I'll tell you why: When people like me stood up to the plate and told it like it REALLY is, they ran away and called me and us CRAZY. The system is CRAZY and crazy-making.

Haven't you heard about the coalition between Bush and Clinton to bring drugs into Arkansas?

Don't you realize that every GI is continually being thrown drugs to keep them KILLING? And when they return home to 1984, are offered drugs to keep them thinking about what they did, why they did it and what they can do about it ...

Are you aware that lawyers and other shysters just THRIVE financially off all the insanity and are going to do nothing to change the system?

Are you aware treatment centres profit on "failures" who come back for multiple returns? They have a vested INTEREST in keeping the "system" going. Why would they speak out in outrage. No skin off their backs, until it hits someone they KNOW.

Perhaps the lack of imagination is primary problem here.

And most importantly are you aware:

Addiction is a spiritual maladay: a dis-ease of the soul. A restless to find a Higher Source that goes to the wrong address.

We are spiritual beings in a human body, not humans with a spiritual "side". We addicts are those who need to take our POWER back before all the mad addictive thinking destroys OurSelves and Our Planet.

The new DVD collection is finally completed! You can find it (and this week's animation) right here.-Mark---------Mark FioreJust in time for the holidays, get your new DVDs here!

This week, Pookie tells you why lethal injection and the violence of capital punishment are good things.

Demand your Representative take action
Colin Powell, John McCain and 89 additional Senators support the McCain Anti-Torture Amendment, which bans torture, cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment. Sadly, Vice President Cheney is lobbying furiously behind the scenes to stop the ban.
Torturing prisoners is inconsistent with American values - and it puts our troops at risk, undermines our relationships with our allies, and simply doesn't work.
Tell Your Senators and Representative to support the Anti-Torture Amendment - no exceptions.

December 10, 2005
Worldwide Electronic Mind Control via 'Cell Phone' Towers:

The day is now approaching in which government mind control technologies will be
directed at you, your neighbors, and your loved ones. Every single day,
equipment is being erected and installed in this country with the
hidden purpose of exerting mind control over the entire population.
Everywhere in this country (and overseas), ELF/microwave transmission
towers are being erected. The antennae usually look like four slightly
curved vertical plates about 2 feet in length and located in either 3
or 4 quadrants around the tower, two thirds up from the ground.

Do you really think that we need that much 'cell phone' transmission
capability, every few blocks? Do you realize how very little energy is
used by genuine cell phone usage? Yet these towers are capable of
putting out levels of power that exceed cell phone requirements by a
wide margin) These mind control technologies have been in place for a
long time. It's not an accident that the frequency band chosen for cell
phone use just happens to match the second order waves that Wilhelm
Reich discovered in the late1940's to effect thought transmission and
allow the mind to be manipulated without the victim realizing it.

Reich worked on this project secretly for the CIA for over 5 years, from
1947-1952, until he realized who the CIA was planning to use the mind
control on - the American people. He was outraged that he was deceived
and used for such a treasonous motive and swore never to cooperate with
the CIA, FDA, etc. again. Reich was covertly murdered in Federal prison
in 1957, just a few weeks before he was due to be released, having been
in prison for 2 years on a trumped up charge leading to a contempt of
court citation. He was reported to have had a 'heart attack'. He was
strong as an ox. He was murdered two weeks before his parole board
hearing. His last book, written in prison, was found to be 'missing'
after his death and never returned to his family.

Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

And Condi Rice convinced them to hold their horses ... You can run but you can't hide ....

Cloud cast over rendition flights
Richard Norton-Taylor
Friday December 9, 2005
The Guardian
A Boeing 737 BBJ with registrations N313P and N4476S, which may have carried terror suspects, has been seen at UK airports and is seen here at Palma, Majorca.

Photograph: Toni Marimon/Airliners.net

The ringing phrases in the law lords' judgment denouncing torture are in striking contrast to statements by President Bush and his legal advisers, notwithstanding more robust comments this week by his secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice.
In this respect, at least, yesterday's ruling has a bearing on the running dispute over the CIA practice of "rendition" - transfer of terrorist suspects to camps and interrogation centres where they are more likely than not to be subjected to torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment, banned by international conventions and declarations which were approvingly cited in yesterday's judgments.
The law lords also referred to judgments in American courts. They referred to the UN convention which says torture includes, for example, "any act by which severe suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted" - a lower threshold than that which has been used by the Bush administration.
Yesterday's ruling may serve to put more pressure on the British government to say what it knows about CIA "torture flights" or the practice of "rendering" detainees, and whether it has turned a blind eye to them.

Full coverage
CIA rendition flights

Case studies
06.12.2005:
Seized, held, tortured: six tell same tale

Special reports
United StatesGuantánamo BayTerrorism threat to UK
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1663284,00.html

By Guardian Unlimited / World news 10:51am

A dark cloud hangs over proceedings here in Montreal at the start of the last day of the UN climate change summit. The mood could not have changed more violently, writes Simon Retallack.

Just 24 hours ago, under a crystal clear blue sky, the atmosphere here was one of unexpected optimism – epitomised by the cheerfulness of the UK environment secretary, Margaret Beckett, in her meetings and interviews. The talks seemed to have reached an early breakthrough, with agreement said to be very close on a package that would see the launch of negotiations to deliver a second phase of the Kyoto protocol (with new emission cuts by industrialised countries) and the start of a process to engage a broader group of countries including developing ones in discussions on future action.

The mood improved still further with news that Bill Clinton would be gracing the summit, rock star-like, with a surprise appearance later today at the invitation of Canada’s prime minister, Paul Martin. There was even a report that a group of US students had moved members of the US negotiating team here in Montreal to tears following a plea for them to act on climate change. If that could happen, surely anything was possible. People even began contemplating an early exit home.

Then as temperatures were plunging outside, phones began ringing with news that the US delegation had destabilised the talks in dramatic fashion. The Canadian hosts were reported to have confirmed that the US had rejected a deal to start talks outside the Kyoto track between developed and developing countries to discuss future action on climate change, even though the already anodyne text sanctioning these talks had just been weakened further, now stating that whatever emerged would be entirely non-binding.

It’s possible that the result could be disastrous for the Montreal summit, preventing a green light being given to any new negotiations starting on global action to address climate change when the first phase of the Kyoto protocol runs out in 2012. If the US insists on rejecting even the discussion of future action by all countries, it could stop Japan and others from agreeing to develop a new round of emission cuts by industrialised countries, potentially killing off the prospects of Kyoto mark II.

Rumours have been circulating that any change in the US approach is the result of a direct intervention in the talks by the US vice-president, Dick Cheney, and that this was precisely the result he sought.

But with a day and possibly long night of negotiations still to go, much could yet change. In fact it could be that this apparent US tactic backfires, provoking other countries to move ahead without the US and agree a unified and probably more effective set of talks under the Kyoto protocol involving both industrialised and developing countries.

However, let’s face it, the overall implications are not good. When scientists tell us on a weekly basis that the problem of climate change is worse than we thought, when the damage that will be caused from inaction is so huge, and when the scale and urgency of the challenge ahead is so large, taking pot shots at the proposals on the table here in Montreal is tantamount to playing Russian roulette on a global scale. It’s a game that only the criminally insane could think we can afford to play and win.

Simon Retallack is senior research fellow on climate change policy at the Institute for Public Policy Research, Britain’s largest thinktank. He will be at Montreal until the end of the week; read his blog posts from yesterday, Wednesday, Tuesday and Monday.

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/news/archives/2005/12/09/playing_russian_roulette_with_the_world.html

Welcome · Seth Excerpts · Seth Books · Seth Links
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www.nirvikalpa.com/content.php?page=sethidea (quite many)
www.fortunecity.com/roswell/dowsing/620/opentoseth.htm
www.geocities.com/srh_online/sethquotes.html
www.spiritsvision.com/sethquotes.htm
www.secretoflife.com/mquote.html
www.ascordia.com/sethquotes.htm

Complete Indexes for The Early Sessions book 1 to 9 with page references
Greg Polson has “created these indexes [at www.users.tpg.com.au/polson_g/ESIndexes/index.html] to facilitate study of the material presented in the books. They are presented in page order and in alphabetical order, or you can simply search the page for the word you are looking for.”

Creating your own reality

A very interesting and in my view very astute observation regarding one of the best-known premises by Seth and others “Your thoughts create your reality” comes from Bob Scheinfeld, founder of The Invisible Path to Success. Bob’s basic insight after many years of teaching self-help skills with various well-known leaders in the field is, “There are no limitations to the results you can produce ... – except those imposed by the specifics of the life purpose you came here to fulfill.” More info at www.lifechangetips.com. Caveat: he seems to be quite a businessman ;-).

Excerpts from other recommended channels in keeping with Seth

www.nirvikalpa.com/seth/abraham.htm
www.abraham-hicks.com

Abraham is a non-physical entity (or rather ”a group of spiritual teachers who call themselves Abraham”) speaking through Esther Hicks on Reality Creation, Law of Attraction, and more. A nice complement to the teachings of Seth.

www.matthewbooks.com

Although seemingly unconvincing at first glance (a mother channelling her deceased son), the Matthew material appears cogent and uplifting. Includes “Sethian” and quantum physics’ multidimensionality and probabilities.

“The Secret Doctrine” Unveiled: an “elephant” in a nutshell

Are you interested in what “the mother of Western spirituality”, H. P. Blavatsky, has to say on man’s spiritual evolution, universe, karma, reincarnation and many other basic concepts, but so far have been deterred by her writings’ volume and complexity? Here is the book that condenses the essence of The Secret Doctrine.

Portal site with many helpful links & info on the maker of this sitein case you are wondering where I am ;-)
www.paradisenow.net

http://dim.com/~marvm/seth/Exercises.html

Great exercises at above link, and

then -- you can join in, too at www.groups.yahoo.com/group/SethJaneRoberts.

Do you have a Seth-related site you personally recommend? Please let me know!
birdofparadisenow

Worthy of Your Attention

{I'll SAY!! Lady B. Remembers}
All the news on John Lennon's 25th anniversary commemorations

http://news.google.ca/news?hl=en&ned=ca&q=John+Lennon

Check also http://john-lennon.com/ -
http://strawberryfields.net/ -
http://johnlennonday.com/ -
http://www.john-lennon.com/lennonlivesforever.php
Many more related news on John Lennon through
http://www.lovearth.net/news.php

Who Authorized The Assassination Of John Lennon?
By Mark Elsis

(Hearth-wrenching, detailed description of Lennon's death and much much more!)
http://www.john-lennon.net/whoauthorizedtheassassinationofjohnlennon.htm

(...) The assassin was a brainwashed hit man carrying out someone else's contract, writes Bresler, "he is in many ways as much the victim of those who wanted to kill John Lennon, as Lennon himself."

The Manchurian MKULTRA candidate assassin dropped the gun and proceeded to take out a copy of J. D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye, and calmly started reading. The Dakota doorman, Jose Perdomo, shouted at the assassin, "Do you know what you've done?"

"I just shot John Lennon," he replied, accurately enough.

"He walked past me and then I heard in my head, 'Do it, do it, do it,' over and over again, saying 'Do it, do it, do it,' like that," recalled in a BBC documentary several years after going to prison.

"I don't remember aiming. I must have done, but I don't remember drawing a bead or whatever you call it. And I just pulled the trigger steady five times."

The assassin described his feeling at the time of the shooting as "no emotion, no anger dead silence in the brain." His unnatural tone sounded all-too-familiar for British lawyer and journalist Fenton Bresler, who wrote the book, Who Killed John Lennon? The assassin was a brainwashed hit man carrying out someone else's contract, writes Bresler, "he is in many ways as much the victim of those who wanted to kill John Lennon, as Lennon himself." (...)

At nearly three hundred pages, John Lennon's Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) file reveals that he was under "constant surveillance." His apartment was watched, he was followed, and his phone was tapped. The FBI did not keep a particularly low profile around the ex-Beatle, apparently attempting to harass him into silence or at least drive him nuts, similar to the tactic they had used on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., just a few short, but eventful years earlier.

In late 1972, when the "surveillance" was at its peak, John Lennon told humorist Paul Krassner, "Listen, if anything happens to Yoko and me, it was not an accident." (...)

Placing a person under "constant surveillance" and ordering that person executed are admittedly two very different things.

Nevertheless, Bresler's point is that the government did not consider John Lennon a harmless rock 'n' roller. John's political publicity stunts such as in his and Yoko's Montreal "Bed-In" and "War Is Over" were always capable of seizing the spotlight and speaking directly to tens of millions of young people who venerated him. With unfettered access to the world's media, his power truly was immense.

Because of this, in some circles he was correctly viewed as the most dangerous radical who needed to be stopped.

John Lennon was the most dangerous person in the world, to those whose interest is a world under corporate military rule. (...)

The forces that tried desperately to neutralize John Lennon for at least seven years lost power in November of 1976. The Lennon's government dossier ends in that year.

In 1980, as those forces were preparing to retake control of the government, "the most dangerous extremist" John Lennon emerged from retirement with the best selling album, Double Fantasy, and was promptly assassinated. CLIP

Google search with "All You Need Is Love" (572,000 results)

http://www.google.ca/search?hl=fr&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22All+you+need+is+love%22&meta= -
Beatles lyrics at http://www.allspirit.co.uk/allyouneed.html
Crying For John Lennon
http://john-lennon.com/Crying%20For%20John%20Lennon.mp3
Get Mobilized For December 10th - International Human Rights Day
http://www.aflcio.org/joinaunion/voiceatwork/d10.cfm
World Peace Experiment
http://www.openheart.com/peace/peace.html
Become a Catalyst for Peace - Join the World Peace Experiment
Imagine (Video) by John Lennon
http://www.gratefulchild.org/projects/gcweb/gc/html/imagine
This Modern World: You're a moonbat!
http://www.workingforchange.com/comic.cfm?itemid=20032
Earth Echo Galleries
http://www.earthecho.com/

From Steve (and thanks, but it's a tough pill ... John! Come back to us!)

The Ultimate Terror By Ken Adachi
<http://ca.f882.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=Editor@educate-yourself.org&YY=23008&order=down&sort=date&pos=0> (excerpt)
http://educate-yourself.org/mc/
Dr. Joseph Mengele of Auschwitz notoriety was the principle developer of the trauma-based Monarch Project and the CIA's MK Ultra mind control programs.
Mengele and approximately 5, 000 other high ranking Nazis were secretly moved into the United States and South America in the aftermath of World War II in an Operation designated Paperclip.
The Nazis continued their work in developing mind control and rocketry technologies in secret underground military bases.
The only thing we were told about was the rocketry work with former Nazi star celebrities like Warner Von Braun.
The killers, torturers, and mutilators of innocent human beings were kept discretely out of sight, but busy in U.S. underground military facilities which gradually became home to thousands upon thousands of kidnapped American children snatched off the streets (about one million per year) and placed into iron bar cages stacked from floor to ceiling as part of the 'training'.
These children would be used to further refine and perfect Mengele's mind control technologies. Certain selected children (at least the ones who survived the 'training') would become future mind controlled slaves who could be used for thousands of different jobs ranging anywhere from sexual slavery to assassinations.
A substantial portion of these children, who were considered expendable, were intentionally slaughtered in front of (and by) the other children in order to traumatize the selected trainee into total compliance and submission.
The lone gunman that we hear about in assassinations, assassination attempts, school shootings, etc. are mind controlled individuals who had been 'programmed' to carry out those missions. Ted Bundy, the 'Son of Sam' serial killer David Berkowitz, Oswald, Timothy McVeigh, the Columbine shooters, Chapman, Sirhan Sirhan, etc. were mind controlled individuals who were programmed to perform these killings.
Tens of thousands of young teenage boys were kidnapped and forced into the mind control training program called The Montauk Project starting around 1976.
Al Bielek, under mind control, was involved in many areas of the secret Montauk Project. After slowly recovering his memories beginning in the late 1980's, he came to realize that there were at least 250,000 mind controlled "Montauk Boys' produced at 25 different facilities similar to the underground base at Montauk, Long Island.
Many of these boys were to become 'sleepers' who are individuals who were programmed to go into action at a later date when properly "triggered" to engage in some sort of destructive or disruptive conduct.
Other Montauk Boys were woven into the fabric of mainstream American life as journalists, radio & TV personalities, businessmen, lawyers, medical professionals, judges, prosecutors, law enforcement, military men, etc.