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Thursday, March 31, 2011

A List Of 28 Things That Will Make You Think That There Is Something Seriously Wrong With This Country

A List Of 28 Things That Will Make You Think That There Is Something Seriously Wrong With This Country: "The following is how many Americans actually plan their weeks....

Monday: Watch Dancing With The Stars

Tuesday: Watch The Dancing With The Stars Results Show

Wednesday: Watch American Idol

Thursday: Watch The American Idol Results Show

At this point, most people in this country cannot even intelligently discuss the pressing issues of our day.

In fact, 63 percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 cannot find Iraq on a map and 90 percent of Americans in that same age group cannot find Afghanistan on a map.

We've got a lot of work to do.

America is in sorry shape and it desperately needs some heroes.

The following is a list of 28 things that will make you really think that there is something seriously wrong with this country...."

Natural disasters will increase: British report -- Earth Changes -- Sott.net

Natural disasters will increase: British report -- Earth Changes -- Sott.net: "Major disasters like the Japanese earthquake and tsunami or Pakistan's floods are likely to become more frequent, and global governments must prepare for an uncertain future, according to a British report.

Paddy Ashdown, a member of the British House of Lords and ex-United Nations high representative to Bosnia and Herzegovina, said rich nations must help poorer countries to build up their defences against disasters.

In a government report published Monday, he said scientists believe recent natural disasters were not an aberration, but 'the beginnings of a new kind of future in which mega-disasters are going to be more frequent.'

'The scale, frequency and severity of rapid onset humanitarian disasters will continue to grow in the coming years, and at an accelerating pace,' said the report issued by the International Development ministry.

Ashdown said a lack of prior support for Haiti and Pakistan worsened the impact of recent events.

By 2015, the report predicts, roughly 375 million people will be affected by climate-related disasters every year, well above the 263 million believed to have been directly impacted by natural disasters in 2010."

Wal-Mart CEO Bill Simon expects inflation - USATODAY.com

Wal-Mart CEO Bill Simon expects inflation - USATODAY.com: "U.S. consumers face 'serious' inflation in the months ahead for clothing, food and other products, the head of Wal-Mart's U.S. operations warned Wednesday.

The nation's largest retailer needs to get back to its roots as the lowest priced one-stop shop for consumers, Walmart CEO Bill SImon said.

The world's largest retailer is working with suppliers to minimize the effect of cost increases and believes its low-cost business model will position it better than its competitors.
Still, inflation is 'going to be serious,' Wal-Mart U.S. CEO Bill Simon said during a meeting with USA TODAY's editorial board. 'We're seeing cost increases starting to come through at a pretty rapid rate.'"

European Parliament issues warnings on HAARP

European Parliament issues warnings on HAARP: "“HAARP is a project of which the public is almost completely unaware, and this needs to be remedied.”

Toronto, Canada – [ZNN] The daily lives of people seem blissfully unaffected by events about which they know little or nothing. Daily news reports unfold with no mention as to why and how the powerful operate behind the scenes. We pay our mortgages, book our vacations and school our children, as a corporate and government elite engage in projects beyond our wildest imaginations.

Conditioned to accept that ‘all is well’ or, that we are powerless to affect change in a world dis-integrating before our eyes – we conduct our lives until one day it affects us directly – unfortunately by then it’s far too late.

Ask the people of northern Japan how they feel about the last three sentences and the answers they now seek in the aftermath of unimaginable loss and yet another future generation desecrated and ravaged by nuclear radiation.

A European Parliament document may provide a few answers for the inquiring mind. This parliamentary document is not some conspiratorial rant but an official governmental perspective describing authentic concern that a terribly grave technology, which the document calls a weapon, has been unleashed over many years without any public knowledge."

To Protect Patented Genes, DARPA Wants a Security System that Records Genomic Changes | Popular Science

To Protect Patented Genes, DARPA Wants a Security System that Records Genomic Changes | Popular Science: "Here at PopSci we love a good broad agency announcement from DARPA (that’s where they ask the private sector to do something technologically outrageous), but even next to the flying Humvees, the weather manipulation, the cyborg beetles, and the “hundred-year starships,” this one, we have to say, is WAY out there. DARPA wants a genetic security system that’s built into the genome that can monitor for and report on changes to an organism’s genetic makeup.
Or--to borrow Danger Room's metaphor--DARPA wants a “track changes” feature for genomes like the one that tracks edits in a Word document, a technology that will record and report any modification to a genome. They call it Chronicle of Lineage Indicative of Origins, or CLIO. We’re calling it ambitious."

DID ANCIENT BIOTECHNOLOGY CREATE "NEPHILIM"?

"The benei Elohim saw the daughters of Adam, that they were fit extensions" (Gen 6:2, Interlinear Hebrew Bible).

May 3, 2007 -- RaidersNewsNetwork.com -- In the study of the Old Testament Book of Genesis, beings of great stature called "giants" appear, which some scholars believe came into existence after powerful angels known as 'Watchers' descended to earth and used women (or their biological matter) to construct bodies of flesh, which they used to "extend" themselves into the material world.

The Apocryphal books of Enoch, 2 Esdras, Genesis Aprocryphon and Jasher support the Genesis story, adding that the sin of the angels grew to include genetic modification of animals as well as humans. The Book of Jasher, mentioned in the Bible in Joshua 10:13 and 2 Samuel 1:18, explains that after the fallen angels went into the daughters of men, "the sons of men taught the mixture of animals of one species with the other, in order to provoke the Lord"(4:18). This clear reference to the Genesis 6 record illustrates that "animals" were included in whatever cross-species experiments were being conducted, and that this activity resulted in judgment from God. The Book of Enoch also supports this record, saying that after the fallen angels merged their DNA with women, they "began to sin against birds, and beasts, and reptiles, and fish" (7:5,6). The Old Testament contains associated reference to genetic mutations, which developed among humans following this activity, including unusual size, physical strength, six fingers, six toes, animal appetite for blood and even lion-like features among men (2 Sam 21:20; 23:20).

What if, by corrupting the species barrier in which each creature was to recreate after its "own kind," Watchers had successfully mingled human-animal DNA and combined the hereditary traits of different species into a single new mutation? An entirely new being—Nephilim—might have suddenly possessed the combined intelligence and instincts (seeing, hearing, smelling, reacting to the environment) of several life forms and in ways unfamiliar to creation.

Will modern biotechnology resurrect Nephilim?

The Great Blackout of 1965: Was UFO Activity Responsible?

Phantoms and Monsters: Paranormal, UFOs, Cryptids and Unexplained Phenomena: "On November 9, 1965, the northeast power system broke up 4 seconds after the initial disturbance, and 30 million people were without electricity for as long as 13 hours. Later that day, President Lyndon Johnson wrote to the chairman of the Federal Power Commission:

'Today's failure is a dramatic reminder of the importance of the uninterrupted flow of power to the health, safety, and well being of our citizens and the defense of our country.

'This failure should be immediately and carefully investigated in order to prevent a recurrence.

'You are therefore directed to launch a thorough study of the cause of this failure. I am putting at your disposal full resources of the federal government and directing the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Defense and other agencies to support you in any way possible. You are to call upon the top experts in our nation in conducting the investigation."

Call for Papers: Expanding Human Boundaries: Cognitive Enhancement, AI and Mind Machine Mergers

Call for Papers: Expanding Human Boundaries: Cognitive Enhancement, AI and Mind Machine Mergers: "Can and should use we technology to overcome the limitations of the human brain and body? For example, Humanity Plus advocates often promote the use of technology to radically increase our lifespan, intelligence, happiness, and virtue. Currently, cognitive enhancement is progressing along three vectors.


One vector is cognitive enhancement using pharmaceuticals, genetic therapies and tissue engineering. Direct modification of the organic brain will allow human beings to increase our intelligence, expand our memory, sharpen our capacity for concentration, and eliminate cognitive and psychological disabilities.


A second vector is through ‘cyborgization’ - the incorporation of devices, nanorobots and computers into the body. This trajectory may permit the augmentation of the senses with artificial hearing and sight superior to organic ears and eyes, the direct augmentation of cognition with brain prostheses, and connecting the brain wirelessly to the Internet. These technologies will likely converge with the growth of virtual worlds and augmented reality, blurring divisions between the “virtual” and the “real.”

The third vector of human enhancement is through the creation of ‘mind-children,’ computers and robots with, at least, human-level cognition, emotions and abilities. These machine minds may be created either through efforts to create artificial life and general intelligence, and/or by uploading human minds into machines. Once created these machine minds may be far more capable and powerful than organic humans."

Under Design: Human Blood Circuitry For Cyborgs

Under Design: Human Blood Circuitry For Cyborgs: "Could electronic components made from human blood be the key to creating cyborg interfaces? Circuitry that links human tissues and nerve cells directly to an electronic device, such as a robotic limb or artificial eye might one day be possible thanks to the development of biological components.

Writing in the International Journal of Medical Engineering and Informatics, a team in India describes how a 'memristor' can be made using human blood. Memristors were a theoretical electronic component first suggested in 1971 by Berkeley electrical engineer Leon Chua and finally developed in the laboratory by scientists at Hewlett Packard using titanium dioxide in 2008. A memristor is a passive device, like a resistor, with two terminals but rather than having a fixed electrical resistance, its ability to carry a current changes depending on the voltage applied previously; it retains a memory of the current, in other words."

Obama ‘authorizes’ CIA support for Libya rebels | The Raw Story

Obama ‘authorizes’ CIA support for Libya rebels | The Raw Story: "President Barack Obama has signed a presidential directive authorizing the Central Intelligence Agency to conduct secret operations to support rebels in Libya, according to government sources.

Government officials told Reuters on Wednesday that the president had signed a presidential 'finding' within the last two or three weeks. The order is a necessary legal step to conduct secret CIA operations, but does not mean that such operations will actually occur.

In response to the report, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney issued a statement saying he would not comment on intelligence matters."

I Have Proof Of Alien UFO Says, Command Sergeant Major James Norton |Latest UFO News

I Have Proof Of Alien UFO Says, Command Sergeant Major James Norton |Latest UFO News| UFO 2011 Sightings|Alien Pictures|2011 Solar Flares|Disclosure Project|Web Bot: "In September 1977, during the Joint Attack Weapons Systems Test (JAWS) at Fort Benning Georgia, the entire base witnessed a UFO invasion. As many as 1300 troops were involved in the event. Most were left with severe psychological trauma and 'missing time' gaps.

Command Sergeant Major James Norton, who is now stationed at Fort McClellan, Alabama. He was a buck sergeant (E-5) at the time when he witnessed an eerie encounter with UFOs and the military on September 14, 1977. He was sent to the range a little before midnight along with 1200 to 1300 troops to perform live fire with their new weapons systems called JAWS (Joint Attack Weapons System). The Secretary of the Army at the time was actually at the range."

Highly Contagious AIDS-Like Disease Spreading in China

Highly Contagious AIDS-Like Disease Spreading in China: "In a small hotel across from the Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention, a reporter from New Express Daily, dressed in an isolation suit, interviewed a dozen “unusual” patients from different areas of China. Their symptoms are painful and debilitating, and AIDS-like, but repeated tests for HIV have come up negative.

Lin Jun, one of the patients interviewed in the March 24 New Express Daily report , said he used to be pretty fat and quite chubby, but now he is skin and bones, and his joints have all deformed."

The BioPirates of Science: Genetic Engineering - Science or Hoax? | Farm Wars

The BioPirates of Science: Genetic Engineering - Science or Hoax? | Farm Wars: "Only in America can a beleaguered company with a checker past such as Monsanto’s, which includes a nasty little habit of poisoning entire towns with toxic waste, battle it’s way to the top of the dung heap to deliver a fatal blow to the people and planet with a deadly and insidious type of chemical and biological warfare via the genetic modification and patenting of transgenic seeds, as well as the coating of our farmland with toxic chemicals.
And to top it all off, the U.S. government, which is supposed to be financed by we the people, is actively promoting this biological warfare by stealthily allowing the rampant infection of approximately 85% of our processed food with unregulated transgenes that Monsanto executives admit will have unknown effects on the environment and life.
Did I mention that these transgenes also include a virus that is 70-90% identical to the HIV and Hep B viruses? "

Meet 'Future You.' Like What You See? New 'Virtual Reality' Techniques Could Help Solve The Age-Old Problem of Saving for Retirement

Want To Retire Wealthier? Start by Scanning Your Photo - WSJ.com: "Tessa Price, a 22-year-old college senior, is gazing into a mirror in a virtual-reality laboratory at Stanford University. Looking back at her is Tessa Price—at the age of 68.

Staring into a mirror today and seeing yourself as you will look in the year 2057 is unnerving. But that may be just what it takes to shock Americans into saving more. At Stanford and other universities, computer scientists, economists, neuroscientists and psychologists are teaming up to find innovative ways of turning impulsive spenders into patient savers."

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

More Dead Sealife Continues to Plague U.S. Beaches

More Dead Sealife Continues to Plague U.S. Beaches

ALABAMA— Months after the hundreds of birds fell dead from the sky and after thousands of dead fish, crabs, sardines, dolphins, and whales washed ashore worldwide, more dead fish washed ashore in Alabama, and a dead whale washed ashore in Virginia.

There's still no cause for the hundreds of dead fish that were found dead along the gulf shores over the weekend. They were also found along the gulf state pier Saturday morning. Park officials said it was unusual to see spade fish in that area this early in the year. The dead sigh spanned about three miles of shoreline.

Nanogenerators powered by your heartbeat could replace batteries in five years, say chemists

Nanogenerators powered by your heartbeat could replace batteries in five years, say chemists: "In a few years, you may never have to recharge your phone again. Today scientists announced the first viable 'nanogenerator,' a tiny computer chip that gets its power from body movements like snapping fingers or - eventually - your heartbeat.

This technology, long anticipated by futurists, could replace batteries for small devices like MP3 players and mobile phones within a few years. For now, they can generate enough electricity to power a liquid crystal display and an LED. A group of researchers led by Georgia Tech's Zhong Lin Wang announced their groundbreaking discovery today at a meeting of the American Chemical Society in California."

Fears for food supply as radioactive water pours from stricken reactor - Asia, World - The Independent

Fears for food supply as radioactive water pours from stricken reactor - Asia, World - The Independent: "Radioactive water was pouring from a damaged reactor at Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant last night, with officials warning it will soon reach the sea. The contaminated samples were found outside the reactor building for the first time, causing concern that soil and sea in the surrounding area will be poisoned.

Efforts to contain the crisis at the stricken complex, which was hit by a massive earthquake and towering tsunami earlier this month, have been hampered by repeated setbacks."

The Battle for Biodiversity: Monsanto and Farmers Clash - Anna Lappé - Life - The Atlantic

The Battle for Biodiversity: Monsanto and Farmers Clash - Anna Lappé - Life - The Atlantic: "Two weeks ago, Monsanto announced the latest genetically engineered crop it hopes to bring to market: a soybean rejiggered to resist the herbicide dicamba. The new product, says Monsanto, will aid in weed control and 'deliver peace of mind for growers.'"

Newsweek on the Apocalypse

WORLDmag.com | Community | Blog Archive | Newsweek on the Apocalypse: "Somebody had to say it. And it struck me as ironic that it was a heathen magazine like Newsweek that said it first. Except for the last line of copy, I should think this would make a fine cover for a Christian publication about now.

To be sure, the heathen media don’t mean a word of it. It’s OK for them to talk about the “Apocalypse” as long as they know that you know they just mean it metaphorically; they were winking when they wrote it. What Newsweek’s editors meant to say is that if they ever did believe in God, this sure would look like what the Bible says to expect. But they are educated, so they know there are reasonable explanations for why the world is going so crazy. Right?"

Could this be the biggest find since the Dead Sea Scrolls? Seventy metal books found in cave in Jordan could change our view of Biblical history

For scholars of faith and history, it is a treasure trove too precious for price.

This ancient collection of 70 tiny books, their lead pages bound with wire, could unlock some of the secrets of the earliest days of Christianity.

Academics are divided as to their authenticity but say that if verified, they could prove as pivotal as the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947.

Lines of inquiry: The metal tablets could change our understanding of the Bible

Lines of inquiry: The metal tablets could change our understanding of the Bible

On pages not much bigger than a credit card, are images, symbols and words that appear to refer to the Messiah and, possibly even, to the Crucifixion and Resurrection.

Adding to the intrigue, many of the books are sealed, prompting academics to speculate they are actually the lost collection of codices mentioned in the Bible’s Book Of Revelation.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1371290/Could-biggest-Dead-Sea-Scrolls-70-metal-books-cave-Jordan-change-view-Biblical-history.html#ixzz1I6VB23jm

Threats Claim Nuclear Bombs Hidden All Over U.S. « CBS Chicago

Threats Claim Nuclear Bombs Hidden All Over U.S. « CBS Chicago: "CHICAGO (CBS 2) – The threats came in the mail and to date, there have been 25 letters that warn of nuclear bombs destroying America. People who got them called the FBI and CBS 2′s Kristyn Hartman learned, the Bureau’s Chicago office is leading the investigation. FBI Special Agent Andre Zavala said, “Yes, they alarmed a lot of people.”"

19 Reasons Why The Federal Reserve Is At The Heart Of Our Economic Problems

19 Reasons Why The Federal Reserve Is At The Heart Of Our Economic Problems

Most Americans do not understand what the Federal Reserve is or why it is at the heart of our economic problems.  When Americans get into discussions about the economy, most of them still blame either the Democrats or the Republicans for inflation, for the housing crash, for our rampant unemployment and for the national debt.  But the truth is that the institution with the most power over our economic system is the Federal Reserve.  So exactly what is the Federal Reserve?  Most people would say that it is an agency of the federal government.  But that is absolutely not true.  In fact, the Federal Reserve itself has argued in court that it is not an agency of the federal government.  Rather, the Federal Reserve is a privately-owned banking cartel that has been given a perpetual monopoly over our monetary system by the U.S. Congress.  This privately-owned central bank has been destroying the value of the U.S. dollar for decades, it has run our economy into the ground and it has driven the U.S. government to the brink of bankruptcy.  The Federal Reserve operates in great secrecy, it has never been subjected to a comprehensive audit and it is not accountable to the American people.  Yet the decisions that the Federal Reserve makes have a dramatic impact on the lives of every single American citizen.

If you really want to understand what is causing our economic problems, it is absolutely crucial that you understand exactly what the Federal Reserve system is and how it is systematically destroying our economy.  Once you understand the truth about the Federal Reserve, you will view economic issues a whole lot differently.

The following are 19 reasons why the Federal Reserve is at the very heart of our economic problems....

A Stealth Downsizing, as Shoppers Pay More for Less Food - NYTimes.com

A Stealth Downsizing, as Shoppers Pay More for Less Food - NYTimes.com: "Chips are disappearing from bags, candy from boxes and vegetables from cans.

Nabisco's Fresh Stacks package of saltines, top, contains about 15 percent fewer crackers than the old package.

Lisa Stauber of Houston keeps careful records of grocery prices. Her 1-year-old daughter, Alianna, is one of nine children.

As an expected increase in the cost of raw materials looms for late summer, consumers are beginning to encounter shrinking food packages.

With unemployment still high, companies in recent months have tried to camouflage price increases by selling their products in tiny and tinier packages. So far, the changes are most visible at the grocery store, where shoppers are paying the same amount, but getting less."

New Image: Rosy Glow of Starbirth, Just in Time for Spring

New Image: Rosy Glow of Starbirth, Just in Time for Spring

by ANNE MINARD on MARCH 30, 2011

Star cluster and surrounding nebula NGC 371. Credit: ESO/Manu Mejias

Just in time for the start of spring, the ESO’s Very Large Telescope has captured this stunning new image of a region of glowing hydrogen surrounding the star cluster NGC 371.

Regions of ionized hydrogen like this one — known as HII regions — are exploding with the births of new stars. NGC 371 lies in our neighboring galaxy, the Small Magellanic Cloud. It’s an example of an open cluster; its stars all originate from the same diffuse HII region, and over time the majority of the hydrogen is used up by star formation — leaving behind a shell of hydrogen such as the one in this image, along with a cluster of hot young stars.

Science Fiction as Theology

Science Fiction as Theology

Here’s an interesting bit of philosophical inquiry from philosopher Ed Feser on David Cronenberg’s version of “The Fly”, one of the most disgusting sci fi movies ever made.  I am familiar with the original, but (knowing Cronenberg’s reputation for yuck) I’ve opted to avoid the remake.  Feser is not dealing with the yuck factor.  Rather, he’s dealing with the metaphysical question of what it means to be a human being and how far changes in our bodily structure can go before you stop being human and start being Something Else.  It’s a question science fiction raises for us a lot—and a question the sciences will soon be confronting us with as we continue to screw around with life at its most fundamental level, just because we’ve got the funding.  We are already champing at the bit to treat fertilized eggs and embryos as a scientific playground for endless experimentation.  And, as the headlines blared recently, we are beginning to fiddle about with synthetic genomes, just to see what we can do.  It doesn’t take much imagination to see some giant multinational corporation taking it upon itself to create human chimaeras which mix human and animal DNA in all sorts of ways (in fact, it’s already been done a bit, but there’s lots of room for more monstrous things to be done).

Transcending the flesh: The coming Singularity

Transcending the flesh: The coming Singularity - Technology - GMA News Online - Latest Philippine News: "In the future, there will be robots. And that future will happen less than 40 years from now. If you believe that humans and machines will eventually become one, then the Singularity movement is for you.

In the future, there will be robots. And that future will happen less than 40 years from now.

What is The Singularity? It is that point in time when humanity’s technological capacity so outstrips itself that a moment of near apotheosis for the race takes place. This means many things, but chief among them are: a) technology will become so small and cheap that body augmentation (through nanobots) will become as routine as an injection’ and b) we will give birth to machine artificial intelligence (AI) so smart it surpasses all the smart human brains of the world put together."

YouTube - CNN talks about how Humans will MERGE with computers

CNN talks about how Humans will MERGE with computers:The media push for transhumanism continues. After movies, music videos and video games and magazines, the message is now communicated in news networks.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

The Unnatural History of Making People

The Unnatural History of Making People

Philip Ball’s new book, Unnatural: The Heretical Idea of Making People gets into the mythological underpinnings of our concerns about making people.Nature‘s Chris Mason reviews [gated] Unnatural and makes a striking observation:

Even today, Ball points out, societal and cultural debate is pervaded by the belief that technology is intrinsically perverting and thus carries certain penalty. Views that human cloning will be used for social engineering, eradicating one gender or resurrecting undesirable figures from the past, for example, all reflect age-old fears about the consequences of meddling in the ‘unnatural’. Ball warns that, as there is no global ban on human reproductive cloning, there is a strong chance that it will happen. It is thus likely to become a de facto reality without the well-informed debate it deserves.

Let’s unpack that little nugget, because it contains two very important points.

The first point is that many of our fears about advancing science and biotechnology related to the body trigger fundamental, core cultural fears. Leon Kass calls this the “Yuck” reaction, or, more eloquently, “Wisdom from Repugnance.” Kass’ argument is that we are naturally repelled by abhorrent ideas, like torturing babies and eating people. As regular readers of Science Not Fiction know, eating people isn’t always bad.

Well, as it turns out, Leon Kass’ argument that we should trust our gut when it says, “yuck!” is a pretty terrible way to do ethics. Why? Because what is “yuck” to me might be “yum” to you. And we’re back to not knowing if doing something ethically questionable, like cloning people, is morally permissible. Unnatural at least explains why so many people say “yuck” to modifying humans; it is a lesson we’ve been told over and over for millennia in myths and religion.

The Shocking History Of UFO Activity In The Antarctic - Dallas ufo | Examiner.com

The Shocking History Of UFO Activity In The Antarctic - Dallas ufo | Examiner.com: "Recent massive UFO formations reported on 10, December 2010 moving toward the North American Continent and causing air defense alerts within the US Air Force have led us on a dark journey into the past. In order for us to comprehend certain aspects of the bizarre prospects of under water UFO bases near the Antarctic.

Before the out break of World War II, it is rumored by many sources that a UFO crashed near Feiberg, Germany in 1936. Though they were unable to reverse engineer the UFO to the point of replicating its propulsion system, a number of revolutionary aircraft designs emerged that were inexplicably far ahead of the Allies."

Technology News: Emerging Tech: Power Plant: One Small Leaf Could Electrify an Entire Home

Technology News: Emerging Tech: Power Plant: One Small Leaf Could Electrify an Entire Home: "Scientists at MIT have created what may be the first practical artificial leaf -- a device about the size of a playing card capable of splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen and storing the energy in a fuel cell. Placing the leaf it in a single gallon of water in sunlight could produce enough electricity to supply a house in developing countries with its daily electricity requirement, according to researchers."

Renowned Pakistani Columnist Nusrat Mirza Accuses U.S. Of Artificially Causing Japanese Earthquake: 'The U.S. has Carried Out a Second Nuclear Attack on Japan'

Renowned Pakistani Columnist Nusrat Mirza Accuses U.S. Of Artificially Causing Japanese Earthquake: 'The U.S. has Carried Out a Second Nuclear Attack on Japan': "In a recent article, renowned Pakistani columnist Nusrat Mirza accused the U.S. of artificially causing the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, calling the radiation leaks resulting from damage to nuclear plants the U.S.'s 'second nuclear attack' on the Japanese nation. He argued that the March earthquake was artificially caused by the U.S. X-37B spaceplane just six days after it was launched.

Nusrat Mirza is a senior journalist and columnist for the Urdu-language newspaper Roznama Jang, the mass-circulation Urdu-language newspaper of Pakistan. He has over 25 years of experience in journalism in Pakistan and has also advised the governments of Pakistan and of Sindh province.

In his column , titled 'The Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami – Natural or Artificial?' Nusrat Mirza argued that the world will have to decide that the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan, the 2010 Pakistani floods, the 2004 tsunami in Indonesia, and the 2011 Japanese earthquake-cum-tsunami were all artificially caused by the U.S., possibly through the use of HAARP technology at a scientific research center in Alaska."

Pacts of the Faustian Kind

Pacts of the Faustian Kind

by Nick Redfern

In my book, Final Events, I told the strange story of a U.S. Government think-tank-style group nicknamed the Collins Elite. Their belief is that the UFO phenomenon has – quite literally – demonic origins, and that the extraterrestrial angle is merely an ingenious, deceptive ruse employed by Satan. The goal: to further allow his minions to get their claws into us all, and lead us down a distinctly dark pathway before Judgment Day and the final-countdown begins. As someone who holds no particular views on the nature of religion or life-after-death, I have no real opinion on the validity of the beliefs of the Collins Elite, aside from the fact that I find it fascinating that such a think-tank group actually exists. But what interests me most of all, is that a certain theme runs through much of this story that can also be found elsewhere at an official level, and it’s one I find somewhat disturbing…

I was put on the trail of the Collins Elite by a man named Ray Boeche. As well as being an Anglican priest, Ray is a former State-Director (for Nebraska) with the Mutual UFO Network: MUFON. In a truly fascinating interview with Ray in 2007, he told me how he had been clandestinely approached, in 1991, by two Department of Defense (DoD) physicists working on a classified program to try and contact what were described to Ray as “Non-Human Entities, or “NHE’s.”

In Ufological terms, we would call these entities the diminutive, black-eyed “Grays.” For the people on the DoD project, they may very well have begun with that view too, but ultimately they came around to the notion that this was merely a terrible ruse. Like the Collins Elite, Ray’s ufological Deep-Throat-like sources finally accepted that the entities at issue were demonic. But, there was an interesting – and disturbing – further aspect to this revelation: there were those on the project that believed engaging the NHE’s in some form of “Faustian pact,” as a means to understand and harness their extraordinary and potentially-lethal powers, could actually aid in the development of occult-based weapons of war, such as the ability to provoke psychic-assassinations.

Ancient Subatomic Signature Discovered Spanning the Universe

Ancient Subatomic Signature Discovered Spanning the Universe

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An ancient subatomic signature extends across the universe.  It seems that some subatomic particles, invisible and untouchable effects of the very creation of reality, might exist simultaneously across all of space. 

"Relic" neutrinos, like the relic photons that make up the cosmic microwave background, are leftovers from the hot, dense early universe that prevailed 13.7 billion years ago. But over the lifetime of the cosmos, these relic neutrinos have been stretched out by the expansion of the universe, enlarging the range in which each neutrino can exist.

Most Massive Black Hole in the Universe Found -An 'Event Horizon' 20 Billion Kilometers Wide

Most Massive Black Hole in the Universe Found -An 'Event Horizon' 20 Billion Kilometers Wide (Today's Most Popular)

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A stunning example of the power and effervescence of supermassive black holes is shown in this Chandra space telescope image above of the elliptical galaxy M87 in the Virgo Cluster. The features in this image imply that outbursts and deep sounds have been generated by the black hole for eons.

The black hole at the center of the supergiant elliptical galaxy fifty million light-years away is the most massive black hole for which a precise mass has been measured -6.6 billion solar masses. Orbiting the galaxy is an abnormally large population of about 12,000 globular clusters, compared to 150-200 globular clusters orbiting the Milky Way.

Using the Frederick C. Gillett Gemini Telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, a team of astronomers calculated the black hole’s mass, which is vastly larger than the black hole in the center of the Milky Way, which is about 4 million solar masses. Astronomer Karl Gebhardt of the University of Texas, Austin, said that the black hole’s event horizon, 20 billion km across, “could swallow our solar system whole.”

Top 10 UFO sightings: Are they more believable than those red lights over Lafayette? (VIDEOS) - Denver News - The Latest Word

Top 10 UFO sightings: Are they more believable than those red lights over Lafayette? (VIDEOS) - Denver News - The Latest Word: "Last week, we told you about a UFO sighting over Lafayette -- and frankly, some of our readers weren't impressed. But the video we shared went viral anyhow, even catching the attention of Good Morning America. So how does it stack up against the top UFO sighting reports of all time?
We used as our starting point for our compare-and-contrast mission the WeirdWorm.com roster of the 'Top 10 Amazing UFO Sightings,' which we've supplemented with videos. Page down and check them out. Then see the original Lafayette clips -- now labeled 'As seen on Good Morning America!' -- plus coverage from 9News and, yes, GMA.

Watch the skies!"

7 planetary disasters that may kill you

7 planetary disasters that may kill you: "It's hard enough to live without a world catastrophe spoiling your whole day. But what can you do? Mother Earth's thrown everything it has at life for millions of years.

Just when you thought it was safe to go outside some new disaster hits. And nowadays it seems the disasters are bigger, more frequent, and creeping closer, ever closer."

Iran Film: Iran Plans to Conquer Israel, World

Iran Film: Iran Plans to Conquer Israel, World: "A feature-length documentary film, produced by a top adviser to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, claims that the cataclysmic events that will usher in an era of Muslim world domination are about to begin, triggered by actions launched by Iran and its Lebanese ally, Hezbollah.

Iran's Ahmadinejad repeatedly talks about the coming of the 12th imam, a Muslim messianic figure whose “reappearance” will make Islam victorious over the entire world."

Walk Like a Man, Talk Like a Man: Sasquatches as “Manimals”?

Walk Like a Man, Talk Like a Man: Sasquatches as “Manimals”?

Throughout various different reports of weird phenomenon that sometimes occur, I take particular delight in those where strange human-like creatures–namely those in the realm of Bigfoot and similar man-apes–display actions that are almost human. These range from simple gestures and arbitrary activities, to more complex functions that involve rudimentary speech, and even a few reports of Bigfoot wearing clothing.

UFOs | An Alternative Theory | UFO Briefcase

UFOs | An Alternative Theory | UFO Briefcase: "UFO’s have been sighted all around the world. Witnesses describe them as being far beyond current technologies developed by mankind and therefore must be the stellar vehicles developed by intelligent beings from a planet outside our own solar system.

But what are alternative theories not commonly discussed in the news?"

Transhumanism: The New Face of Eugenics

Christina Aguilera : Bionic

by Zen Gardner

My wife sent me a copy of this book cover (below) from an airplane magazine. I haven't read the book, but I can tell already he's on target, or at least is broaching an important subject with some urgency. Especially when reviewers say "it's not as close as he thinks but he makes some good points."

It's not?

http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lhezyi877d1qaouh8o1_400.jpg

What is Transhumanism?

Transhumanism has a variety of definitions and can be made to appear as just an innocuous notion. We're plagued with mechanization and digitalization. It moves information, ourselves, our economy. How can it be bad? Why not use it to enhance our capabilities?

Yeah, but where do you draw the line? What's really going on?

Wiki says;

"The transhumanist vision of a transformed future humanity, which is influenced by thetechno-utopias depicted in some great works of science fiction, has attracted many supporters and detractors from a wide range of perspectives.[4] Transhumanism has been condemned by one critic, Francis Fukuyama, as the world's most dangerous idea,[6] while one proponent, Ronald Bailey, counters that it is the "movement that epitomizes the most daring, courageous, imaginative, and idealistic aspirations of humanity".[7]"

OK, make it look like there's some discussion on the matter, blah blah. In reality it's all over the place and getting shoved down our throats as the "wave of the future". From commercials to pop stars to military "breakthroughs" we're seeing the robotization agenda in full swing.

It's a definite dehumanizing trend that is being programmed into an unsuspecting human population.

http://www.technovelgy.com/graphics/content08/IronMan-HAL-XOS.jpg

HAL robot - Iron Man movie character and Sarcos XOS military exoskeletons...now icons
"But it's helping us..."

The impetus for this "bionic body" gains its momentum from the health (s)care faction. There are wonderful inventions to help humanity. No doubt.

But just like splitting the atom can go both ways, so does everything. And right now, the Controllers are ruling. They have the technology to help the blind see, the immobilized move, replace missing limbs...

But don't be fooled. The PTBs are always out to control. Period.

More here: http://www.naturalmedicine.com/blogs/wondering/2011/03/29/transhumanism-the-new-face-of-eugenics/

Japan nuclear meltdown: Radioactive iodine from Fukushima found in rainwater in US | Mail Online

Japan nuclear meltdown: Radioactive iodine from Fukushima found in rainwater in US | Mail Online: "Low levels of radioactive iodine believed to be from Japan's disaster-stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant have been detected in the atmosphere in South Carolina, North Carolina and Florida, environmental officials said today.

There is no current threat to public safety, said Progress Energy spokesman Drew Elliot.

Monitors at Progress Energy's nuclear plants in Hartsville, South Carolina, and Crystal River, Florida, picked up low levels of radioactive iodine-131. So did Duke Energy's monitors at its two nuclear facilities in South Carolina and the plant in Huntersville, North Carolina."

WHAT WE CANNOT PREDICT - An EDGE Special Event

Edge: WHAT WE CANNOT PREDICT - An EDGE Special Event: "About a year ago, on Wednesday April 14th, I was on the way to London from JFK, when the pilot announced a slight delay into Heathrow in order to avoid the ash cloud coming out of the Icelandic volcano eruption. This was the first time I paid any attention to the subject. But once in London that is the only subject anybody talked about for a week.

'Something is going on here that requires serious thinking,' I wrote on these pages. 'We've had earthquakes before, and we've had plane stoppages, but nothing like the continuing effects of the ash cloud.' The result was an Edge Special event on 'The Ash Cloud'. I asked the following question:

'What do the psychologists have to say about the way the decision-makers have acted? What have the behavioral economists learned from this? I am interested in hearing from the earth and atmospheric scientists, the aeronautical engineers, the physicists. What can science bring to the table?'

It's already clear that the earthquake and tsunami that hit northern Japan is the latest tragic example of our inability to predict when it matters most."

Monday, March 28, 2011

One Trillion Stars! Andromedea Galaxy in Infrared & X Ray

One Trillion Stars! Andromedea Galaxy in Infrared & X Ray

M31-irac_cx38
The detailed Spitzer Space Telescope view above features infrared light from dust (red) and old stars (blue) in Andromeda, a massive spiral galaxy a mere 2.5 million light-years away. In fact, with over twice the diameter of our own Milky Way, Andromeda is the largest nearby galaxy. Andromeda's population of bright young stars define its sweeping spiral arms in visible light images, but here the infrared view clearly follows the lumpy dust lanes heated by the young stars as they wind even closer to the galaxy's core. Constructed to explore Andromeda's infrared brightness and stellar populations, the full mosaic image is composed of about 3,000 individual frames. Two smaller companion galaxies, NGC 205 (below) and M32 (above) are also included in the combined fields. The data confirm that Andromeda (aka M31) houses around 1 trillion stars, compared to 4 hundred billion for the Milky Way.

UFO Sighting Spooks Lafayette, Colorado Town - ABC News

UFO Sighting Spooks Lafayette, Colorado Town - ABC News: "Was it an airplane? Was it a satellite?

The strange triangular formation of lights hovering above Lafayette, Colo., last week has many wondering if it's a sign that we're not alone.

Leroy van der Vegt and his son Nick captured the sight on camera.

'It was completely quiet. No noise at all,' van der Vegt said.

The unidentified red lights did not blink but were in a triangular shape as they hovered in the sky."

Iranian Video Says Mahdi is 'Near'

Iranian Video Says Mahdi is 'Near': "New evidence has emerged that the Iranian government sees the current unrest in the Middle East as a signal that the Mahdi--or Islamic messiah--is about to appear.

CBN News has obtained a never-before-seen video produced by the Iranian regime that says all the signs are moving into place -- and that Iran will soon help usher in the end times.

While the revolutionary movements gripping the Middle East have created uncertainty throughout the region, the video shows that the Iranian regime believes the chaos is divine proof that their ultimate victory is at hand.

'The Coming is Near'

The propaganda footage has reportedly been approved at the highest levels of the Iranian government.

It's called The Coming is Near and it describes current events in the Middle East as a prelude to the arrival of the mythical tweflth Imam or Mahdi -- the messiah figure who Islamic scriptures say will lead the armies of Islam to victory over all non-Muslims in the last days."

NASA's buzz about comet Elenin

NASA posted a video on their website Buzzroom last week, bringing attention to a recently discovered comet in our solar system. The comet was discovered by Russian astronomer Leonid Elenin in December last year. Comet Elenin, as it is called, is of particular interest to NASA because of the close proximity to Earth that its orbit will reach during its turn around the sun on its way back out through the solar system later this year.

Most orbits of planets are not circles; they are ellipses. The elongated ends of elliptical orbits are called aphelions and perihelions; the aphelion being the end farthest away from the stationary object being orbited, and perihelion being the end closest to the stationary object. In Elenin's case, its trip around our sun represents the comet's perihelion.

So little is known about this comet because of its relatively recent-discovery status, therefore, information regarding its size, mass, and orbit still vary widely or are missing altogether due to a lack of observational data. Still, astrophysicists have been plugging away at Elenin ever sine it was discovered last year.

NASA’s put a video up in their Buzzroom about Elenin, but it is not there anymore [it is on YouTube]. It was probably pulled down more due to its amateur nature rather than as part of any grand conspiracy theory, but the relative silence by NASA and the mainstream media regarding Elenin has the Armageddon chatrooms abuzz with theories of doom and gloom.

Watch Video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=xsFhHmoK_d8

Children of the revolution:Yemeni children taking a stand as country teeters on brink

Children of the revolution:Yemeni children taking a stand as country teeters on brink

As their country teeters on the brink, many of Yemen's children draped in their country's flag today joined a protest against incumbent president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The middle eastern country is locked in a stalemate between the ruler for 32 years and hundreds of thousands of citizens who want him to leave power.

Protesters have camped in cities and towns for weeks now, inspired by the wave of people power sweeping the Middle East, amid a series of violent clashes.

A young Yemeni wears a headband reading in Arabic

Looking to the future: A Yemeni boy wears a headband reading in Arabic 'I'm the next martyr' during an anti-government demonstration in Sanaa.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1370464/Children-revolution-The-Yemeni-boys-taking-stand-country-teeters-brink.html#ixzz1HtqhiJIv

Mothman’s TNT Site Remains Mysterious

Mothman’s TNT Site Remains Mysterious: "Until you visit the TNT location, where Mothman was first sighted, just outside of Point Pleasant, reading about it does not do it justice. It is spooky, and remains so today."

Norway UFO - Oslo’s Airport Shutdown Due To UFO

Norway UFO - Oslo’s Airport Shutdown Due To UFO |Latest UFO News| UFO 2011 Sightings|Alien Pictures|2011 Solar Flares|Disclosure Project|Web Bot: "According to media reports the Oslo’s Airport at Gardermoen was forced to close on Friday March 25 busy spring afternoon, because of a UFO that entered its air space and stayed there.

A spokesman for Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), Knut Morten Johansen, told Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) Friday that the disruption also cost the airlines millions “because it affected so many flights and so many passengers.”

It was the crew on board an SAS flight that first spotted the small aircraft at the same elevation that the scheduled airlines maintain on approach to OSL. At first an SAS pilot said it looked like a hang-glider, while later reports called it a sail plane. It was not possible to establish any radio contact with its pilot."

MIT’s Implantable Nanotech Sensor Monitors for Cancer and Now Heart Attacks, Too | Singularity Hub

MIT’s Implantable Nanotech Sensor Monitors for Cancer and Now Heart Attacks, Too | Singularity Hub: "Heart attacks and cancer account for nearly half of all deaths in the United States – they’re the two biggest killers walking the streets, but MIT isn’t afraid. Michael Cima and his team developed an implantable sensor that uses antibodies attached to nanoparticles to detect cancer related biomarkers. In 2009 Cima showed that he could implant these devices into human tumors in mice and then ‘read’ the cancer growth using MRI. No biopsies need. Over the past few years, Cima and his team have adapted their work to create a very similar device that measures biomarkers related to heart damage."

You Never Get a Seventh Chance to Make a First Impression: An Awkward History of Our Space Transmissions by Genevieve Valentine | Lightspeed Magazine

You Never Get a Seventh Chance to Make a First Impression: An Awkward History of Our Space Transmissions by Genevieve Valentine | Lightspeed Magazine: "Ever since humanity has been able to launch projectiles into space to take nosey pictures that make us all feel insignificant, a major priority has been to somehow communicate with any alien life forms that might come across this space detritus and wonder who shot a space probe right into their upper atmosphere. Using physics, mathematics, art, and even Earth’s greatest weapon (Carl Sagan), our species has painstakingly crafted the first tentative social overtures towards the magnificent extraterrestrials we hope are listening."

Supermoon blamed as nearly 100 World War II bombs wash up on beach | Mail Online

Supermoon blamed as nearly 100 World War II bombs wash up on beach | Mail Online: "For decades they lay beneath the sea, undisturbed by time or tide.

But after 70 years, almost 100 Second World War bombs finally fulfilled their explosive destiny yesterday, thanks to the power of the 'Supermoon'.

A Navy bomb disposal team detonated them after abnormal tides thought to be caused by the unusual proximity of the moon washed them up on a Southampton beach."

Project Bluebeam Prep?? -- YouTube - Zebra Imaging ZScape Holographic Print: Seattle Hologram

YouTube - Zebra Imaging ZScape Holographic Print: Seattle Hologram: "This is a color hologram we created with data from Google Sketchup. The model is of downtown Seattle. The building heights in this hologram get up to about 10 inches."

More here: http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/03/darpa-has-3d-holographic-display.html

Sun Eruption Creates Spectacular Plasma Tentacle

Sun Eruption Creates Spectacular Plasma Tentacle

SDO captured this nicely rounded prominence eruption from March 19, 2011 as a prominence became unstable and erupted into space with a distinct twisting motion.

SDO captured this nicely rounded prominence eruption from March 19, 2011 as a prominence became unstable and erupted into space with a distinct twisting motion.
CREDIT: NASA/SDO/GSFC

View full size image

A NASA spacecraft watching the sun has caught a dazzling view of a solar eruption that launched a vast tendril of magnetic plasma into space.

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the sun tentacle, which scientists call a solar prominence, on March 19 as it erupted into space with a rounded, twisting motion.

The eruption occurred over five hours as SDO watched the sun in the ultraviolet range of the light spectrum, SDO mission scientists said in a statement. The solar observatory watched as the prominence twisted up from the sun and expanded, then became unstable. [Video: Round Eruption From the Sun]

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Alien Life, Coming Slowly Into View - NYTimes.com

Alien Life, Coming Slowly Into View - NYTimes.com: "I REMEMBER the first time the concept of another world entered my mind. It was during a walk with my father in our garden in Sri Lanka. He pointed to the Moon and told me that people had walked on it. I was astonished: Suddenly that bright light became a place that one could visit.

Schoolchildren may feel a similar sense of wonder when they see pictures of a Martian landscape or Saturn’s rings. And soon their views of alien worlds may not be confined to the planets in our own solar system."

Gagging order on scientists probing dolphin deaths as U.S. builds criminal case against BP

Scientists probing the deaths of baby dolphins in the area affected by last year's BP oil spill have been ordered by the government not to speak about the project.

Wildlife biologists who have been contracted by the National Marine Fisheries Service to investigate a huge rise in dolphin mortality this year must keep their findings confidential.

The gagging order was imposed because the review of the deaths is part of the federal criminal investigation into last year's BP disaster.

Death on the sands: Evidence from the spike in deaths in the last three months is being collected for a criminal case, civil litigation and a detailed study of the environmental effects of last year's mammoth oil spill

Death on the sands: Evidence from the spike in deaths in the last three months is being collected for a criminal case, civil litigation and a detailed study of the environmental effects of last year's mammoth oil spill

A letter sent out to senior scientists who are not working on the project and are baffled by the silence, said: 'Because of the seriousness of the legal case, no data or findings may be released, presented or discussed outside the investigative team without prior approval.'
About 90 dolphins died last year, but this year the toll has jumped to 200 already.
Dr. Erin Fougeres, a marine biologist with the Fisheries Service, said: 'We are treating the evidence, which are the dolphin samples, like a murder case.
'The chain of custody is being closely watched. Every dolphin sample is considered evidence in the BP case now.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1370016/Gagging-order-scientists-probing-dolphin-deaths.html#ixzz1Hr1jmqaQ

An Island of Monsters

An Island of Monsters

Mar 27th in Cryptozoology by Nick Redfern

Whenever the words “Puerto Rico” and “strange creature” are mentioned in the very same breath, there’s a natural tendency to think of one thing, and one thing only: the alleged blood-sucking Chupacabra. But, the reality of the situation is that reports abound of additional strange entities roaming both the wild and not-so-wild parts of Puerto Rico. Unlike their far more famous cousin, the legendary Goat-Sucker, however, cases involving these “other things” are seldom discussed – which is a tragedy, given their startling nature.

On a number of occasions now, I have traveled to Puerto Rico in search of the Chupacabra, but, on each and every one of those occasions I have not just come away with new data on the island’s very own vampire (according to some at least!), but with copious data on other animals that, clearly, do not match the descriptions or traits attributed to the Goat-Sucker, but which hardly sound conventional either.

And one of the locales that seems to attract much of the attention is Puerto Rico’s sprawling and captivating El Yunque rain-forest, or the Caribbean National Forest, which is an amazing sight to behold. It’s around 28,000-acres in size, and located in the rugged Sierra de Luquillo, which is approximately 40-kilometers southeast of the city of San Juan. Named after the benevolent Indian spirit, Yuquiyu, El Yunque is the only rain-forest in the U.S. National Forest System.

Who are the Libyan Freedom Fighters and Their Patrons?

Who are the Libyan Freedom Fighters and Their Patrons? : "The world is facing a very unpredictable and potentially dangerous situation in North Africa and the Middle East. What began as a memorable, promising, relatively nonviolent achievement of New Politics - the Revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt - has morphed very swiftly into a recrudescence of old habits: America, already mired in two decade-long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and sporadic air attacks in Yemen and Somalia, now, bombing yet another Third World Country, in this case Libya."

Israel deploys 'Iron Dome' anti-rocket system

AFP: Israel deploys 'Iron Dome' anti-rocket system: "BEERSHEVA, Israel — Israel on Sunday stationed the first batteries of its 'Iron Dome' short-range missile defence system in the south of the country, but stressed the initial deployment was experimental.

The unique multi-million dollar system was stationed outside the southern city of Beersheva, days after it was hit by several rockets fired from the Gaza Strip amid a rise in tensions and tit-for-tat violence.
But officials were quick to point out that the system, the first of its kind in the world, could not yet provide complete protection for the hundreds of rockets fired from Gaza into southern Israel.

'Israel has been under missile threat for 20 years, since the (1991) Gulf War. I do not want to foster the illusion that Iron Dome, which we are deploying today for the first time, will provide a complete or comprehensive answer,' Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his cabinet."

Solar-Powered Eye Sensor

A cornea-implanted computer can monitor the eyeball's pressure

In the future, that twinkle in your loved one's eye might be an implanted solar-powered pressure monitor. At the 2011 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference in February, engineers from the University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor, described their work on a cubic-millimeter-size sensor meant to monitor pressure inside the eye. The researchers have yet to test the device in human eyes or animal ones, but they hope their system will one day thwart optic nerve damage brought on by glaucoma.

To determine a glaucoma patient's treatment, doctors must monitor pressure inside the eye, says Gregory Chen, a graduate student of electrical engineering at Michigan. Today's methods gauge that pressure by pushing on the cornea, the eye's clear outer coating. The results may be inaccurate: "If you just happen to have a really thick cornea, your eye is going to be harder, no matter what the pressure is," Chen says. The engineers' prototype device would allow a microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) capacitive sensor to record pressure from inside the eye about every 15 minutes and store it to static RAM. Once a day, the system would wirelessly transmit the day's data, via two on-chip inductors, to a wand. The inductors would send the data at both 400- and 900-megahertz carrier frequencies, as a means of mitigating the signal's noise and increasing its range.

U.S. Military Satellites Achieve 'Holy Grail' of Missile Defense

U.S. Military Satellites Achieve 'Holy Grail' of Missile Defense

An artist's illustration of the new STSS missile defense demonstration satellites in orbit.

A pair of low Earth-orbiting demonstration satellites built by Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems for the first time on March 16 detected and tracked a ballistic missile launch through all phases of flight, a Northrop Grumman official said March 22.

So-called birth-to-death tracking of a ballistic missile launch had never been done before from space -- and is the most significant achievement to date for the Space Tracking and Surveillance System (STSS) spacecraft, said Doug Young, Northrop Grumman’s vice president of missile defense and warning programs. 

“It’s the Holy Grail for missile defense,” Young said during a media briefing here. [Top 10 Space Weapons Concepts]

Los Angeles-based Northrop Grumman built three STSS demonstration satellites for the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA). The first satellite, which had a classified mission, was launched in May 2009. After completing its test program, it was transferred Jan. 31 to the control of Air Force Space Command to continue supporting the service’s space situational awareness mission.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/03/24/military-satellites-achieve-holy-grail-missile-defense/#ixzz1Hp7Mtev6

Iran’s “Armageddon” Interpretation of the Arab Revolts

Iran’s “Armageddon” Interpretation of the Arab Revolts: "An Iranian website is soliciting militants for war, Al Arabiya has reported. The site, which is registered under the regime-licenced “ir” domain, urges recruits to carry out immediate suicide attacks on members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), a multilateral military alliance led by Saudi Arabia and currently deployed to the US-allied state of Bahrain.

The website, which features numerous verses from the Quran calling for Jihad, or holy war, as well as photos and video of alleged GCC troops in combat, was approaching 2000 volunteers Thursday. The page claims those who sign–up will be notified by email of their assignments, which will include “martyrdom” attacks on foreign troops.

But the site also makes a number of ominous references to a “redeemer” whose hand, it declares, is responsible for the unprecedented revolts sweeping the Islamic world."

Decoded: 'The clay tablet that tells how an asteroid destroyed Sodom 5,000 years ago'

Decoded: 'The clay tablet that tells how an asteroid destroyed Sodom 5,000 years ago'

A clay tablet that has baffled scientists for more than a century has been identified as a witness's account of an asteroid that destroyed the Biblical cities of Sodom and Gomorrah 5,000 years ago.

Researchers believe that the tablet's symbols give a detailed account of how a mile-long asteroid hit the region, causing thousands of deaths and devastating more than one million sq km (386,000 sq miles).

The impact, equivalent to more than 1,000tons of TNT exploding, would have created one of the world's biggest-ever landslides.

Clay tablet

Ancient record: Scientists claim the tablet, thought to be a 700BC copy from an even earlier civilisation, describes how a mile-long asteroid hit the Earth

The Old Testament story describes how God destroyed the 'wicked sinners' of Sodom with fire and brimstone but allowed Lot, the city's one good man, to flee with his family.

The theory is the work of two rocket scientists - Alan Bond and Mark Hempsell - who have spent the past eight years piecing together the archaeological puzzle.

At its heart is a clay tablet called the Planisphere, discovered by the Victorian archaeologist Henry Layard in the remains of the library of the Royal Palace at Nineveh.

Using computers to recreate the night sky thousands of years ago, they have pinpointed the sighting described on the tablet - a 700BC copy of notes of the night sky as seen by a Sumerian astrologer in one of the world's earliest-known civilisations - to shortly before dawn on June 29 in the year 3123BC.

Half the tablet records planet positions and clouds, while the other half describes the movement of an object looking like a 'stone bowl' travelling quickly across the sky.

The description matches a type of asteroid known as an Aten type, which orbits the Sun close to the Earth. Its trajectory would have put it on a collision course with the Otz Valley.

'It came in at a very low angle - around six degrees - and then clipped a mountain called Gaskogel around 11km from Köfels,' said Mr Hempsell.

'This caused it to explode - and as it travelled down the valley it became a fireball.

Sodom

Biblical proportions: Researchers claim the tablet is a witness's account of the asteroid responsible for the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, as described in the Old Testament

'When it hit Köfels it created enormous pressures which pulverised the rock and caused the landslide. But because it wasn't solid, there was no crater.'

The explosion would have created a mushroom cloud, while a plume of smoke would have been seen for hundreds of miles.

Mr Hempsell said another part of the tablet, which is 18cm across and shaped like a bowl, describes a plume of smoke around dawn the following morning.

'You need to know the context before you can translate it,' said Mr Hempsell, of Bristol University.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-551010/Decoded-The-clay-tablet-tells-asteroid-destroyed-Sodom-5-000-years-ago.html#ixzz1Hp6FmdkP

Transcending the flesh: The coming Singularity - Technology - GMA News Online - Latest Philippine News

Transcending the flesh: The coming Singularity - Technology - GMA News Online - Latest Philippine News: "In the future, there will be robots. And that future will happen less than 40 years from now. If you believe that humans and machines will eventually become one, then the Singularity movement is for you.

In the future, there will be robots. And that future will happen less than 40 years from now.

What is The Singularity? It is that point in time when humanity’s technological capacity so outstrips itself that a moment of near apotheosis for the race takes place. This means many things, but chief among them are: a) technology will become so small and cheap that body augmentation (through nanobots) will become as routine as an injection’ and b) we will give birth to machine artificial intelligence (AI) so smart it surpasses all the smart human brains of the world put together."

Saturday, March 26, 2011

'Al-Qaeda snatched missiles' in Libya | News.com.au

'Al-Qaeda snatched missiles' in Libya | News.com.au: "AL-QAEDA'S offshoot in North Africa has snatched surface-to-air missiles from an arsenal in Libya during the civil strife there, Chad's President says.

Idriss Deby Itno did not say how many surface-to-air missiles were stolen, but told the African weekly Jeune Afrique that he was '100 per cent sure' of his assertion.

'The Islamists of al-Qaeda took advantage of the pillaging of arsenals in the rebel zone to acquire arms, including surface-to-air missiles, which were then smuggled into their sanctuaries in Tenere,' a desert region of the Sahara that stretches from northeast Niger to western Chad, Deby said in the interview.

'This is very serious. AQIM is becoming a genuine army, the best equipped in the region,' he said.

His claim was echoed by officials in other countries in the region who said that they were worried that al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) might have acquired 'heavy weapons', thanks to the insurrection."

Massive earthquake to hit Iran & Gulf states: expert

Massive earthquake to hit Iran & Gulf states: expert: "A massive earthquake, similar to the one that hit Japan recently, is set to hit Iran and might reach the Arab Gulf states as well, a Kuwaiti expert said, without forecasting she expected such natural disaster to take place.

'A destructive earthquake, centered in Iran, is likely to strike, according to all scientific and historical facts that we have,' Dr. Ferial Bu Rabei, an expert in earthquakes at the University of Kuwait, was quoted as saying by the Kuwaiti al-Watan daily on Thursday.

She urged the importance of giving up on all the nuclear projects in the region, even if those projects were aimed at producing electricity.
Bu Rabei expected that the quake might have a magnitude of 8 on the Richter scale and could trigger a huge tsunami in all directions that could reach as far as the Arab Gulf states.

The Kuwaiti expert sounded alarm over the presence of Iran's Bushehr nuclear plant as it might cause a huge catastrophe in the whole region."

Japan nuclear plant: Radioactivity rises in sea nearby

BBC News - Japan nuclear plant: Radioactivity rises in sea nearby: "Levels of radioactive iodine in the sea near the tsunami-stricken Fukushima nuclear plant are 1,250 times higher than the safety limit, officials say.

The readings were taken about 300m (984ft) offshore. It is feared the radiation could be seeping into groundwater from one of the reactors."

It’s Tracking Your Every Move and You May Not Even Know – NY Times

It’s Tracking Your Every Move and You May Not Even Know

Big Brother

A favorite pastime of Internet users is to share their location: services like Google Latitude can inform friends when you are nearby; another, Foursquare, has turned reporting these updates into a game.

But as a German Green party politician, Malte Spitz, recently learned, we are already continually being tracked whether we volunteer to be or not. Cellphone companies do not typically divulge how much information they collect, so Mr. Spitz went to court to find out exactly what his cellphone company, Deutsche Telekom, knew about his whereabouts.

The results were astounding. In a six-month period — from Aug 31, 2009, to Feb. 28, 2010, Deutsche Telekom had recorded and saved his longitude and latitude coordinates more than 35,000 times. It traced him from a train on the way to Erlangen at the start through to that last night, when he was home in Berlin.

Mr. Spitz has provided a rare glimpse — an unprecedented one, privacy experts say — of what is being collected as we walk around with our phones. Unlike many online services and Web sites that must send “cookies” to a user’s computer to try to link its traffic to a specific person, cellphone companies simply have to sit back and hit “record.”

FBI dedicates $1 billion to massive biometrics identification program | The Raw Story

FBI dedicates $1 billion to massive biometrics identification program | The Raw Story: "The Federal Bureau of Investigations announced recently that it is dedicating up to $1 billion for a Lockheed Martin-developed system that will enable on-the-fly analysis of detailed identification information that can be instantaneously shared with law enforcement all around the world.

It's called the 'Next Generation Identification System' (NGIS), and if you're a fan of television dramas like the CBS crime drama NCIS, it may sound pretty familiar.

The FBI says their forthcoming system is an 'incremental' upgrade to their currently-existing 'Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System' (IAFIS), but it's more than just an upgrade: it's a revolution in law enforcement technology that's bound to draw comparisons to the 'Total Information Awareness' (TIA) project Congress ostensibly shut down in 2004."

Scientists in China genetically modify cows to produce human-like milk

Scientists in China genetically modify cows to produce human-like milk: "Researchers at China Agricultural University have developed cows that can produce milk with same benefits of human breast milk.

A herd of 200 bovines have been genetically modified by State Key Laboratories for AgroBiotechnology at the Beijing-based university, and their milk, which has the same 'characteristics' of human milk, will be available for consumption in two years, with a mass-market projection of ten years.

Li Ning, director of the Laboratories tells The Times of India that the development 'will make the “healthy protein contained in human milk...affordable for ordinary consumers.'

Human breast-milk contains antibodies, and the perfect proportions of protein, fat, carbs, minerals, and vitamins (except D and K) required for a human infant to grow, but its value for adult humans has not been proven, however, however, it has been used to boost the immune system of adults for thousands of years (ancient Egyptians mixed it with honey and used it as a medicinal elixer)."

Emergency plans in Louisville raise eyebrows - Boulder Daily Camera

Emergency plans in Louisville raise eyebrows - Boulder Daily Camera: "Language in Louisville's proposed emergency response plan, which would give the city the power to 'commandeer private property' and 'seize' buildings in a crisis, has given several of the city's elected leaders pause.

The emergency ordinance, which was supposed to have gotten an up or down vote earlier this month, was instead tabled until April so that the council can figure out how it wants to deal with what one member called the measure's 'stark' language.

'I think any time you talk about government seizing private property -- that's not something I'm comfortable with,' Councilman Bob Muckle said Tuesday.

Muckle said he understood that in extraordinary circumstances, extraordinary measures must be taken, but he said he wants to hear from the police chief and other city staff on exactly how they envision implementing Louisville's emergency measures."

Water-Powered Spaceship Could Make Spaceflight Cheaper | Space Travel and Exploration | Spaceship Concepts | Space.com

Water-Powered Spaceship Could Make Spaceflight Cheaper | Space Travel and Exploration | Spaceship Concepts | Space.com: "Spaceships powered primarily by water could open up the solar system to exploration, making flights to Mars and other far-flung locales far cheaper, a recent study has found.

A journey to Mars and back in a water-fueled vehicle could cost as little as one space shuttle launch costs today, researchers said. And the idea is to keep these 'space coaches' in orbit between trips, so their relative value would grow over time, as the vehicles reduce the need for expensive one-off missions that launch from Earth.

The water-powered space coach is just a concept at the moment, but it could become a reality soon enough, researchers said."

Scientists plan to drill all the way down to the Earth's mantle

Scientists plan to drill all the way down to the Earth's mantle: "(PhysOrg.com) -- In what can only be described as a mammoth undertaking, scientists, led by British co-chiefs, Dr Damon Teagle of the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, England and Dr Benoit Ildefonse from Montpellier University in France, have announced jointly in an article in Nature that they intend to drill a hole through the Earth’s crust and into the mantle; a feat never before accomplished, much less seriously attempted."

Ewe have got to be kidding! The 'puppy' born to a SHEEP

Vets say it’s impossible - but to Chinese farmer Liu Naiying his birth is a miracle.

For Mr Liu insists one of his sheep has given birth to a dog
The 'puppy' has wool like a lamb but its mouth, nose, eyes, paws and tail look more like a dog's.
'Miracle': The sheep/dog and the ewe that allegedly gave birth to him in Shaanxi Province, China
'Miracle': The sheep/dog and the ewe that allegedly gave birth to him in Shaanxi Province, China
His 'sheep dog' even plays like a hound.

The birth has prompted thousands to flock to his farm in Shaanxi Province to see for themselves.
Mr Liu told how he found the unusual baby animal shortly after it was born in one of his fields.

‘I was herding the sheep, and saw a sheep licking her newborn lamb on the grassland. The lamb was still wet,’ he said.

‘When I went up close to check on the lamb I was shocked because it looked so weird, like a cross between a sheep and a dog.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1369977/Sheep-gives-birth-dog-Chinese-farm-Ewe-got-kidding.html#ixzz1Hi8SVY1s

Libyan rebel commander admits his fighters have al-Qaeda links - Telegraph

Libyan rebel commander admits his fighters have al-Qaeda links - Telegraph: "Abdel-Hakim al-Hasidi, the Libyan rebel leader, has said jihadists who fought against allied troops in Iraq are on the front lines of the battle against Muammar Gaddafi's regime.

In an interview with the Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore, Mr al-Hasidi admitted that he had recruited 'around 25' men from the Derna area in eastern Libya to fight against coalition troops in Iraq. Some of them, he said, are 'today are on the front lines in Adjabiya'.

Mr al-Hasidi insisted his fighters 'are patriots and good Muslims, not terrorists,' but added that the 'members of al-Qaeda are also good Muslims and are fighting against the invader'.

His revelations came even as Idriss Deby Itno, Chad's president, said al-Qaeda had managed to pillage military arsenals in the Libyan rebel zone and acquired arms, 'including surface-to-air missiles, which were then smuggled into their sanctuaries'."

Friday, March 25, 2011

God's Hand? 44% of Americans See Natural Disasters of Sign of End Times

God's Hand? 44% of Americans See Natural Disasters of Sign of End Times: "According to just over half of Americans, God is in control of everything that happens on Earth. But slightly fewer are willing to blame an omnipotent power for natural disasters such as Japan's earthquake and tsunami.

A new poll finds that 56 percent of Americans agree or mostly agree that God is in control of all Earthly events. Forty-four percent think that natural disasters are or could be a sign from the Almighty. The fire-and-brimstone version of a vengeful God is even less popular in America: Only 29 percent of people felt that God sometimes punishes an entire nation for the sins of a few individuals.

Nonetheless, the desire to turn to God for an explanation after a disaster is a widespread human urge, said Scott Schieman, a sociologist at the University of Toronto who studies people's beliefs about God's influence on daily life."

Troops open fire as protests explode across Syria - Yahoo! News

Troops open fire as protests explode across Syria - Yahoo! News: "DAMASCUS, Syria – Troops opened fire on protesters in cities across Syria and pro- and anti-government crowds clashed in the capital's historic old city as one of the Mideast's most repressive regimes sought to put down demonstrations that exploded nationwide Friday demanding reform.
The upheaval sweeping the region definitively took root in Syria as an eight-day uprising centered on a rural southern town dramatically expanded into protests by tens of thousands in multiple cities. The once-unimaginable scenario posed the biggest challenge in decades to Syria's iron-fisted rule.
Protesters wept over the bloodied bodies of slain comrades and massive crowds chanted anti-government slogans, then fled as gunfire erupted, according to footage posted online. Security forces shot to death more than 15 people in at least six cities and villages, including a suburb of the capital, Damascus, witnesses told The Associated Press. Their accounts could not be independently confirmed."

Is new Jerusalem UFO video proof that extraterrestrials are visiting Earth?

Is new Jerusalem UFO video proof that extraterrestrials are visiting Earth?

Eligael Gedalyovich, who released the first video of a UFO hovering over the Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem on January 28, 2011, claims to have found new video that reveals in greater detail the UFO that appeared that day. Eligael claims to have been present during the filming of the very first video of the Dome of the Rock UFO which he posted to his Youtube channel. Another video soon emerged from a different source (Shshsh331) from another angle, and appeared to independently confirm the original video posted by Eligael. These first two videos have been widely viewed to be the most credible of the videos that have emerged so far of the Dome of the Rock UFO incident. At least one of the subsequent videos that have emerged, has been concluded to be a fake intended to discredit the first two genuine videos. Now Eligael has posted 3 seconds of what he claims to be conclusive proof that the Dome of the Rock UFO was in fact an interplanetary extraterrestrial vehicle.

The new Eligael video shows what appears to be a large metallic shaped flying saucer hovering over the Dome of the Rock, and casting a light in the vicinity. In Eligael's original video, the UFO was descended over the Dome of the Rock and hovered for about 25 seconds, before quickly shooting up vertically. The new video appears to be a close up of the UFO during the period it was hovering. Eligael claims that the new video is three minutes in total, and the three seconds released so far is a teaser of what's to come. It appears with captions: "Now the answer is clear" and "We are not alone."