Year End Bang: Whitehouse Conceeds Aliens May Be In Our Solar System

Scanning the 'news' at BBQ this morning, we come across this story; about a group of people visiting RAF Bentwaters, the location of a spectacular sighting of a structured UFO. On the 'See also' sidebar is a very old and odd piece of propaganda written by Dr David Whitehouse, 'Science' Editor at BBQ from December 3 2002. It is a classic skeptic piece of ridicule masquerading as Science. In this rather pathetic and illogical diatribe, we are treated to the following gem right at the outset:

UFOs in the sense of unexplained lights in the sky certainly exist. But flying saucers, that is, alien spacecraft, never have. It really is about time we put down the whole UFO-spaceship thing as part of the past; part of an old-fashioned view of the mysteries of space. At best, they were a delusion, wishful thinking by some who didn't want to know better.

I had actually read this piece before, thanks to a post from Alun. The above is an amazing proclamation, given what we read at this website, Invitation to ETI, to which he is a signatory. This website is an invitation to ETI (Aliens) to contact David Whitehouse and 99 other crackpots. And I quoth:

• What if one or more extraterrestrial civilizations long ago began probing the cosmos, to study their galactic neighbors?
• What if one of their autonomous space probes should happen to reach planet Earth?
• What if its super-smart Artificial Intelligence could figure out how to tap into the Earthlings' worldwide computer network?
• What if ET's advanced robotic emissary were reading this very page, right now?

Welcome to Invitation to ETI, a Web-based, scientifically credible SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) experiment built around those speculative questions. In these pages, you will find an invitation, issued by an informal group of approximately 100 scientists, artists and futurists from around Planet Earth, to any Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (ETI) having the capability to read it. This invitation is issued in hopes of establishing a constructive dialog between humanity and our cosmic companions.

I'm not making this up obviously. The most hilarious line above is 'scientifically credible'. Of course, this absurd and ridiculous project is only slightly more "scientifically credible" than SETI itself is...but that is not all. On their 'Security During the First thirty Days' page we see these idiots take apart their own project. First things first however. They say that,"The scientific search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) seeks irrefutable evidence of alien intelligence." This is of course, a lie. SETI is not interested in irrefutable evidence of alien intelligence, and it never has been. They are interested in...no one really knows what exactly. They refuse to consider any evidence that does not fit in with thier broken model of the universe, so quite what they are after is anyone's guess. Now lets look at the rest of this fascinating page. It goes on to describe 'the six problems likely to arise in the first 30 days after one SETI project or another achieves genuine contact'. Number three is this extraordinary paragraph:

3. GOVERNMENT CONTROL

We cannot rule out the possibility that powerful authorities from one or more national governments will make covert and/or overt efforts to control, hijack, or terminate the SETI project and the dialogue with ETI. These authorities or agents could be based in security and intelligence agencies, the military, national police departments, or emergency measures organizations. Agents from several nations may enter the nation of discovery in order to conduct covert operations. We may also find ourselves dealing with people with less legal authority but with very high status or strong moral authority, such as leaders of certain UN agencies/departments, major religious leaders, and high-status leaders in the international scientific community.

Several sorts of motives could lead to this sort of behaviour by national governments.[8] First, some nations will hate losing their superiority. Second, national governments, spy and police agencies, and multi-national corporations will be desperately eager to get ETI's information first (and keep it secret) for economic and military advantage. Third, security agencies charged with preventing breaches of security are going to feel very nervous about ETI's capacity because all they will see is the potential threat. Government officials charged with maintaining public order may insist that they monitor all our communications with ETI and that they be our gatekeepers and spokespersons for public/media information. They would do this for public safety, to avoid public panic and a stock market crash, to feel in control, and for national prestige.

It is important for SETI scientists to face the chilling reality of government power. If a national government becomes strongly displeased with a small group of SETI scientists, then in actual practice there is almost no limit to what that government could do. Let's face it, if they choose to do so, the authorities could impound all of their computers and files and data, terminate their capacity to interact with their colleagues, arrest anyone who tries to help them, try to close down all relevant websites, even jail them or make them disappear. It is foolish and dangerous to underestimate the covert and overt capacities of major national governments when they are determined, frightened, or angry.

I find these possibilities deeply worrisome, and have little to suggest as a solution. Perhaps the SETI League, for the benefit of its members, could establish a task force to explore the matter deeply. Perhaps this be done in partnership with the IAA's SETI Permanent Study Group, or with a private benefactor, or with the SETI Institute or SETI Australia.

Anyone with any knowledge of UFO evidence will understand why this piece of writing is amazing; what this paragraph describes is exactly what the Governments that have knowledge of the UFO reality have already done. Why is this paragraph extraordinary? It is extraordinary because David Whitehouse and co. believe that governments will only do this if they are personally involved in the discovery. He does not believe that governments have already done this, because only he and his 99 SETI cultists are the gatekeepers of reality; anything that does not happen within their gaze simply cannot exist. Now, look at these lines from the same page:

[...] Called the Invitation to ETI, [4] this project assumes it is quite possible that at least one highly intelligent extraterrestrial probe has reached our solar system[...] [...] If ETI is within the solar system, it may be reluctant to interact with humanity before we are ready for contact. [...]

Astonishing. Why all of a sudden is this a valid assumption to make? What has changed between 2002 and now in David's small mind? Given the second of those two lines, what sort of behaviour would we expect from such explorers? Firstly they would almost certainly be carrying small probes, and they would launch them to observe and study us just as we dropped the Huygens probe on Titan from the Cassini spacecraft. Such probes would not be dropping down on a parachute however. They would most likely be stealthy, small, intelligently controlled, manouverable, evasive and recoverable. What would such a thing look like should we be fortunate enough to catch site of one? When you ask these questions, credible UFO sightings start to fit the model. Of course, you have to be open minded enough to ask these questions in the first place; David Whitehouse is not one of these open minded people. If he were, he would have already come to the conclusion that all reasonable people have come to and not become a signatory of that rather puzzling website. If you assume that aliens could be stationed in our solar system now, there is absolutely no reason not to believe that they have been in our solar system for thousands of years, studying us in a long term project. To think that they could only have arrived in our lifetimes is very small minded, egocentric and frankly, stupid. Any alien explorer that has the tools mentioned above would evenetually be discovered. Its clear to anyone with common sense and the ability to read that the above or something like it is the case right now; alien spacecraft are already visiting us in a furtive, 'hands off' manner, and it is only now that we have come to realize what they are and that they are here. Working backwards from paragraph 3, a reasonable person can imagine the sort of behaviour that a government would be diaplaying had they accepted that some UFOs are alien spacecraft. They would set up commitees, working groups, commissioned briefing documents from the best scientific minds - they would do everything that governments do when faced with a problem of any kind. If we were then to find such documents, through any means, this would be proof that governments took UFOs seriously; the complete opposite (for whatever reason) of their public stance. We would then be forced to concede (if we were reasonable) that there is indeed, something to the UFO problem; that this is not a fantasy or anything other than absolute reality. Once down this road, we can diminish or totally abandon listening for signals with radio antennae, since aliens are already here. We would then, being reasonable scientific people, take a close look at the best UFO evidence. This means visual radar cases made by credible professional people with no agenda. There are many such cases, the Wallonia Triangle case being one of the best:

The Belgian Air Force has gone on record with the details of its Black Triangle pursuit. It released its radar video footage and its conclusions, ruling out the following origins of the object in question:

1. Balloons. Impossible due to the highly variable speeds (confirmed visually and by radar).
2. ULM. Same as for balloons.
3. RPV. Impossible due to the hovering characteristics.
4. Aircraft (including Stealth). Same as for RPV. No noise.
5. Laser projections or Mirages. Unlikely due to lack of projection surface (no clouds). Light spots have been observed from different locations. Light spots moved over distance of more than 15 NM. Form of unlighted part of spots has been observed with spectacles. Laser projections or mirages can not be detected by radar.

The report concludes that the Belgian Air Force was, "unable to identify neither the nature nor the origin of the phenomena".

This account is only one amongst many others of this type. Combining the assumption above, the paper trail that we would expect to find should governments be actively persuing UFOs and the plethora of credible radar visual cases like this, the reasonable person, the true scientist, can come to only one conclusion; searching with radio telescopes for evidence of alien civilization is pointless when these aliens already here. What real scientists need to do is think about how we are going to deal with them right here and now, and not in some absurd ostrich posturing 'what if' scenario. This 'Security' page is actually about how SETI can stop the project beign taken away from them, so that they, the faux scientists can remain as the sole gatekeepers to this earth shattering event. These people are obsessed with being the sole arbiters of reality. Their treatment of anything outside their dogma proves however, that they are singularly unqualified to be the gatekeepers of anything at all, never mind interacting with aliens on our first contact. If I had to choose between a group of scientists and the CIA being the first people to be in contact with aliens, I would have to choose the CIA. The CIA are honest; they admit that they are liars, wheras scientists (of the SETI/Skeptic type) are completely self deluded, believing that they know and tell the truth about the world as they find it, when the opposite is the case. David Whitehouse and his cohorts have created this website, presumably so that aliens can email them upon reading the page. Should an alien email them from a hidden base somewhere in the solar system, how would they verify its source as being from a actual alien, and why should anyone believe them any more than they believe the people who claim to have seen UFOs or worse, been abducted by aliens? Can you see how totally absurd this website is? And out of all the people who run websites on this subject, surely after having read both the BBQ piece and this page, no alien with any sense would contact David Whitehouse or anyone from that site, since they are clearly irrational - there are far more qualified, scientific and credible people on the web who would be better candidates for that first contact email. In his BBQ piece, David Whitehouse said alien spacecraft 'have never existed'. Clearly something has happened to him since he wrote that, or, he was lying when he wrote it. Either way, this is a person who should not be trusted when it comes to this subject, quite apart from the fact that he is a member of SETI, which in this case stands for Simpleminded English Terran Irrationalist. I did say 'bang' didn't I?

Movements of all cars in Britain to be monitored by evil sytem

Movements of all cars in Britain to be monitored by evil sytem.

submitted by Beautyon 8 hours 50 minutes ago (via http://news.independent.co.uk/...)

The movements of all vehicles on the roads in Britain are to be recorded. A new national surveillance system will hold the records of scanned number plates of all cars that use the roads. 100% Apalling. [...]

Now, what I want to know is this:

Who and what gives the right to the police to creat this system unsupervised and unnacounted for, without any oversignt, special legislation, consultation or debate?

The public roads are precisely that, the property of the public, not the police - after all, the public payed for their construction and continues to pay for their maintenance. If you cannot drive down the road (or walk for that matter, because face recognition is surely next) without being under surveillance, then the freedom to travel unencumbered dissapears.

The police say that they want to "deny use of the roads to criminals". If the justice system worked correctly, those involved in violent crime and burglary would be denied the use of the roads because they are in gaol, not because a totally bogus surveillance system is place, whose true purpose is streamlined / automated road violation fining, swingeing car taxation and punishment of ordinary drivers.

The only reason why the state can get away with this is because no one in the UK gives a fuck. They go around like nothing is changing, continuing to pay for the prison to built around them whilst the deafening noise of construcion rages all around them. They are all going to get what they deserve.

Once again, the Independent simply recounts the facts in a dry, emotionless manner, when in fact, they should be screaming. If the newspapers in Poland during their revolution took the same tone that the British papers are taking while the UK is being dismantled, the Berlin wall would still be up.

Digg is the new Slashdot by the way. My second ever submission to Digg and its on the front page. Digg is agendaless and that is the advantage that trumps Slashdot.

A Cobbler's Tale

5. Lastly a story that made me laugh: a friend of mine went into a jeweller in Burnley and asked the young girl behind the counter for a Crucifix. She asked what he menat and when he explained she said she thought she had some in the back. She went to look and after a few miutes shouted back to him, "do you want a plain one or one with a man on it". It's only funny because it's true. Taken from the letter sent out by Tim Little.

Suckers!

Can you count, suckers? I say the future is ours if you can count .... You're standing right now with 9 delegates from 100 gangs. And there's a hundred more. That's twenty thousand hard core members, 40,000 counting affiliates, and 20,000 more not organized, but ready to fight. 60,000 soldiers.... now there ain't but 20,000 police in the whole town. Can you dig it. Can you dig it? CAAAANNN YOUUUU DIG AAAATTT!!!!!! Now here's the sum total. One gang could run this city. One gang. Nothing would move, without us allowing it to happen. Tax the crime syndicates, the police, because we've got the street, suckers! CAAAANNN YOUUUU DIG AAAATTT! The problem in the past has been the man turning us against one another. We have been unable to see the truth, because we've been fighting for ten square feet of ground. Our turf, our little piece of turf. That's crap brothers. The turf is ours by right, because it's our turf. All we have to do is keep up the general truce. We take over one borough at a time. Secure our territory. Secure our turf. Because it's ALL our turf! CAAAANNN YOUUUU DIG AAAATTT!!!!!

NBC (General Electric) & CBS (Westinghouse) are evil and the LARGEST EXPORTERS OF WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION ON THE PLANET. They PROFIT from MURDER, DEATH & DESTRUCTION using the oldest tool on the planet, "Divide and Conquer". Here is a brief description: 1) Keep the Majority (of the population) Stupid. Give them cute labels like 'Soccer Moms' and 'NASCAR Dads' when you need their support. 2) If the Majority show any signs of intelligence, create 'Have' and 'Have Not's', by giving Have something and Have Not Nothing. Then get them to fight one another for failure to share. 3) Sell both sides tools of destruction to fight/destroy and then sell them the tools to rebuild. Owning Major media makes it easier to implement divide and conquer, which produces massive profit, has nothing to do with humanity and would indicate talking heads are tools of the Legions of Darkness. It makes one wonder if purchases of their sponsor's products support EVIL & THIS ? 85% of the people in the United States are Christian. GOD said, "thou shall not kill" and Jesus extended this concept when he said, "Christians are to no longer execute sinners, so they should not wage carnal war, but spiritual warfare (John 18:36; 2 Corinthians 10:1-6; Ephesians 6:10-18; 1 Timothy 1:18-20; 6:11-14; 2 Timothy 2:3-5; 4:6-8). Christians must be peacemakers (Matthew 5:9, Romans 14:19), forgiving those who do them harm (Ephesians 4:29-32; Colossians 3:12-14; Matthew 6:9-15; Mark 11:25-26), treating their enemies with love (Luke 6:27-36) and not seeking revenge (Romans 12:17-21; 1 Peter 3:8-12). Hatred which is the same as murder (1 John 3:15), is unforgiving, vengeful and hostile towards one's enemies"; which begs the question, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING ? So, I wish a great Saturnalia or Yule to all my NON-Christians friends, psychic youth, left-hand path, occultist, gnostic, psychonaut, thelemite, rajneeshan, zen Buddhist, wiccan, kaote, discordian, taoist, kali yogi, outcasts, Shivaïte, discerning real individuals, non-dogmatic and unrelated creative and whatever akin peoples. All ther rest and their commercial Christmas hypocrisy: bug off, keep your charities for action. Hail Eris! Celebrate Yule!, Io Saturnalia!

Whew!

I am starting my Christmas baking, and could not find my recipe for butter tarts! Then I remembered I posted the recipe here, can you believe, in 2002:

Mom's Butter Tarts (it just isn't the holidays without them ...) 12 unbaked tart shells (try to make these yourself, but the plug-and-play work too) Beat 1 egg, mix in 1 cup of brown sugar. Beat in the juice of 1/2 a lemon, 1 teaspoon vanilla, 2 tablespoons melted butter. Stir in 1 cup of raisins and 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts. You can use currants, pecans, coconut, whatever. Spoon into tart shells. Bake at 375 for 8-12 minutes, until filling is bubbling. MMMphphphphph!

Thank you Blogdial!

More unrepresentative madness

The European Parliament this morning voted in favour of a backroom deal that had been made between the two big parties in Brussels and the Council of Ministers, currently chaired by the UK. The deal completely ignored the amendmends proposed by the Parliament's Rapporteur and by the Justice and Civil Liberties Committee that was (well - officialy) in charge of the process. After a hot debate and a number of signs of cracks in the party blocks, a majority of 378 parliamentarians voted in favour of mandatory retention of telecommunications data, 197 against, 30 abstained. This is in short what we will get now: - retention of telephone and internet connection data (including email addresses) and location data for mobile phone calls - no harmonisation of the retention period (6 to 24 months but longer is allowed: Poland wants 15 years) - no harmonisation of cost reimbursement for the needed investments on the providers' side - no limitation to certain types of crimes for which access is allowed - retention of unsuccessful call attempts - no independent evaluation - no extra privacy safeguards - follow-up committee without representation from civil rights organisations Civil liberties organizations, consumers organizations and all the telco industry associations as well as journalists associations had been fighting like hell against this major and unprecedented surveillance plan until the last minute. We did not win (the outcome is in fact the worst possible, exactly what the UK home affairs minister Clarke wanted), but we at least raised a lot of awareness and disturbed the conservative and social-democrat party lines. But the UK council presidency had pushed so hard after the London bombings that this directive will enter the EU history as the one which took the shortest time ever from the first Commission draft to the final vote (less than three months - normally they need years). The next steps will be the adoption by the Council of Ministers (before christmas) and then the implementation process into national laws. There will be challenges to this plan before the constitutional courts. I am pretty sure that the German constitutional court will not like it, as it recently had ruled unconstitutional a major eavesdropping plan on phone calls - and that one was only directed at suspicious persons, whereas the EU directive applies to every single communication of all 450 Million inhabitants of the EU. More information, including recordings of the EP debate, is available at . Ralf (European Digital Rights, www.edri.org)

Blessed are those who struggle

AM ' would go to jail' over ID cards IC Wales | December 12 2005 A prominent Plaid Cymru AM has vowed to go prison rather than carry an ID card. Leanne Wood said she has signed up to a civil disobedience campaign against the Government’s ID cards plan. Ms Wood, the Welsh Assembly’s shadow social justice minister, said the cards were an “expensive Big Brother device”. “If for some reason you get picked up by the police and you don’t have your card or you’ve lost it, you could well end up behind bars,” she said. “We in Wales may have saved ourselves from some of the waste of money by saying that devolved services will not have to deal with ID cards. “But the UK Government is forcing this plan through and, sooner or later, they will require people who refuse to carry ID cards to go to prison. “I’m ready to go to prison, if the Government presses ahead with this dangerous plan.” Ms Wood, a former probation officer, added: “I still hope the Bill will be defeated, but if not I am ready to go behind bars. “I do not believe that I should have to identify myself as a matter of course. I am also pledging that if plans go ahead to link the ID card to people’s right to hold a passport, I will challenge it in court.” [...] IC Wales

Heros with money. Gotta love it.

"I'm a millionaire," Gilmore said. "I can do whatever the fuck I want, right? Why should I run around without an ID? Because no one else was paying attention to that and letting our liberties slip down the drain. I figured it was worth some amount of money and some amount of personal sacrifice to keep a free society." [...] http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,69774,00.html?tw=rss.TOP

Pointless yet effortless

Previous Politech messages: http://www.politechbot.com/2005/09/10/dutch-internet-providers/ http://www.politechbot.com/2005/09/23/european-commission-proposes/ http://www.politechbot.com/2005/06/16/feds-contemplate-forcing/ -------- Original Message -------- Subject: URGENT: letter to European Parliament against data retention Date: Mon, 05 Dec 2005 15:34:39 +0100 From: Ralf Bendrath Reply-To: bendrath@zedat.f-berlin.de To: Declan McCullagh Declan, could you send this to politech quickly? It is pretty urgent... Thanks, Ralf --- Please spread widely and quickly --- The European Parliament - after heavy pressure and blackmailing from the council of ministers - is about to vote for mandatory retention of all communications, phone and location data in the EU for up to 2 years. This is outreageous. --> Please sign the open letter drafted by Privacy International and European Digital Rights. Deadline is tomorrow morning, 6 December, 9:00 CET. We especially welcome signatures from Data protection authorities, Consumer unions/organisations and Internet and Telecom providers. Signatures should be sent to Sjoera Nas, EDRI, and/or Gus Hosein, Privacy International, . Thanks for your support. Ralf Bendrath (European Digital Rights) http://www.privacyinternational.org/retentionlaunderingcampaign Open Letter to the European Parliament on Data Retention 05/12/2005 To all Members of the European Parliament We the undersigned are calling on you to reject the Directive of the European Parliament and the Council on the Retention of Data Processed in Connection with the Provision of Public Electronic Communication Services and Amending Directive 2002/58/EC. Adopting this Directive would cause an irreversible shift in civil liberties within the European Union. It will adversely affect consumer rights throughout Europe. And it will generate an unprecedented obstacle to the global competitiveness of European industry. (...) _______________________________________________ Politech mailing list Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/)

Bhagvad Gita

I have read the Bhagvad Gita. Strangely enough, I was at a yoga workshop this weekend on the yamas and niyamas, and the book was referenced, as well as given as a focus of study: "Read a translation and write down five things you have learnt." Clearly, it's time to read it again. I found it on my bookcase, which arranged more by size and kind than subject: hardbound, oversized books on the bottom shelves, mostly art, some photography; medium-sized hardbound and thick paperbacks on the middle shelves, a mix of yoga, religious texts, homeopathy, novels, design; and small paperbacks on the tops shelves, predominantly novels but also some subjects already mentioned. I have a few other books in places around the house, but would like a larger shelf so they can all be together.

Why do you think they call them 'Murder Inc'?

Abuse worse than under Saddam, says Iraqi leader · Allawi in damning indictment of new regime · Bush prepares way for US troop pull-out Peter Beaumont, foreign affairs editor Sunday November 27, 2005 The Observer Human rights abuses in Iraq are now as bad as they were under Saddam Hussein and are even in danger of eclipsing his record, according to the country's first Prime Minister after the fall of Saddam's regime.

'People are doing the same as [in] Saddam's time and worse,' Ayad Allawi told The Observer. 'It is an appropriate comparison. People are remembering the days of Saddam. These were the precise reasons that we fought Saddam and now we are seeing the same things.'

In a damning and wide-ranging indictment of Iraq's escalating human rights catastrophe, Allawi accused fellow Shias in the government of being responsible for death squads and secret torture centres. The brutality of elements in the new security forces rivals that of Saddam's secret police, he said.

Allawi, who was a strong ally of the US-led coalition forces and was prime minister until this April, made his remarks as further hints emerged yesterday that President George Bush is planning to withdraw up to 40,000 US troops from the country next year, when Iraqi forces will be capable of taking over.

Allawi's bleak assessment is likely to undermine any attempt to suggest that conditions in Iraq are markedly improving.

'We are hearing about secret police, secret bunkers where people are being interrogated,' he added. 'A lot of Iraqis are being tortured or killed in the course of interrogations. We are even witnessing Sharia courts based on Islamic law that are trying people and executing them.' [...]

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1651789,00.html

This surprises who exactly?

The CIA are running secret torture prisons WORLD WIDE...obviously their crimes are the greatest in the world, always have been, and will be very hard to eclipse.

J. Robert Oppenheimer

J. Robert Oppenheimer, (1904–1967) the Supervising Scientist of the Manhattan Project was giving a lecture at Rochester University seven years after the first atomic weapon was successfully detonated. After his lecture he opened the floor to a period of questions and answers.

One student asked: “Was the bomb exploded at Alamogordo during the Manhattan Project the first one to be detonated?”

Dr. Oppenheimer’s answer was short but extremely telling. Dr. Oppenheimer said: “Well – yes. In modern times, of course.”

Dr. Oppenheimer years earlier had described what he was thinking when he witnessed the first modern atomic explosion. His thoughts had gone to the Hindu Bhagvad Gita which states:

"Of a thousand suns in the sky if suddenly should burst forth the light, it would be like unto the light of that Exalted One.” (Bhagvad Gita XI, 12)

“Death am I, cause of destruction of the worlds, matured and set out to gather in the worlds there." (Bhagvad Gita XI, 32)

However, in answering the question Dr. Oppenheimer was not referring to the Hindu Bhagvad Gita but rather an ancient Indian text known as the Mahabharata. That which had occurred in Japan in 1945 was reminiscent of a far more ancient episode, one as early as 2450 BC in the regions of the upper Ganges.

The text reads:

...a single projectile charged with all the power of the universe. An incandescent column of smoke and flame as bright as ten thousand suns rose in all its splendor......it was an unknown weapon, an iron thunderbolt, a gigantic messenger of death, which reduced to ashes the entire race of the Vrishnis and the Andhakas....the corpses were so burned as to be unrecognizable. Their hair and nails fell out; pottery broke without apparent cause, and the birds turned white. After a few hours all foodstuffs were infected......To escape from this fire. The soldiers threw themselves in streams to wash themselves and their equipment... [...] http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig6/case8.html

Have you read the Bhagvad Gita? It is very beautiful...

A Free Mars

On May 19th, 2005, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit captured this stunning view as the Sun sank below the rim of Gusev crater on Mars. This Panoramic Camera (Pancam) mosaic was taken around 6:07 in the evening of the rover's 489th martian day, or sol. Spirit was commanded to stay awake briefly after sending that sol's data to the Mars Odyssey orbiter just before sunset. This small panorama of the western sky was obtained using Pancam's 750-nanometer, 530-nanometer and 430-nanometer color filters. This filter combination allows false color images to be generated that are similar to what a human would see, but with the colors slightly exaggerated. In this image, the bluish glow in the sky above the Sun would be visible to us if we were there, but an artifact of the Pancam's infrared imaging capabilities is that with this filter combination the redness of the sky farther from the sunset is exaggerated compared to the daytime colors of the martian sky. Because Mars is farther from the Sun than the Earth is, the Sun appears only about two-thirds the size that it appears in a sunset seen from the Earth. The terrain in the foreground is the rock outcrop "Jibsheet", a feature that Spirit has been investigating for several weeks (rover tracks are dimly visible leading up to "Jibsheet"). The floor of Gusev crater is visible in the distance, and the Sun is setting behind the wall of Gusev some 80 km (50 miles) in the distance. [...] http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07997

that snow

that snow looks like it would make a fat squeaking noise when you walk on it, as all the air is pressed out leaving large clumping foot prints. that snow looks perfect for constructing snowmen, amassing a large armament of snow balls, or perhaps packed into a frozen carapace for tiny tealights ...

The Lords intone

Lord Stoddart said: "I believe that we are now getting very far beyond Nineteen Eighty-Four. I do not think George Orwell, the other Blair, could even have contemplated the uses to which an individual’s personal property—that is, DNA—was going to be used to put him under control and surveillance. I know that this is rapidly ceasing to be a free country where the individual matters, but those of us who believe in individual freedom must, I think, stand up for the principle that we belong to ourselves, not to this or any other state." [...] List of amendments at: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200506/ldbills/028/amend/ml028-iii.htm Read transcripts of the debates at: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld199900/ldhansrd/pdvn/home.htm Watch the debates at : http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Archive.aspx (Debates were in the House of Lords on the 15th, 16th and 23rd November) From the No2ID mailout. So, even The Lords understand that this busineess makes people into property (merchandise). How can it possibly suceed? 'How' he says!

Order for order

All of my books touch each other. All my Mobeus books are together, in tome order, next to the complete 2000AD set. All the maths books are together, which are next to the philosophy. All my shortwave books are together, to the right of politics and modern music. Then come all my graphic design books. Novels are all on one shelf. Half of all the programming books are all together on one shelf, the other half on a chair next to where I work permanently. Anyone who licks their fingers before turning a page in a book should be hung by the neck till they are dead. The same goes for peope who 'dog ear' a book, (except a cook book or other such 'working book' which are there to be used brutally). I use pink silk ribbons for bookmarks. In work books, I glue these into the book, usually under the binding. In other books, I drape them. My records are 'organized' differently. I know where they all are, and its a mixture of date / artist / type / origin. All the jazz I got from my mother are together. All the weather report I bought myself are separate, for example.

Its Double Talk Time Again

EU warns Iran over nuclear arms

AP

Published: 24 November 2005

The European Union will today accuse Iran of having documents that serve no other purpose than making nuclear arms and will warn it of possible future referral to the UN Security Council at a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

A press statement, made available before planned delivery later in the day, was described by a diplomat as a summary of what Britain, France and Germany would tell a closed session of the IAEA board, which started meeting today. It criticises Tehran for possessing suspicious documents that "have no other application than the production of nuclear weapons".

The statement offered new negotiations meant to defuse tensions over Tehran's insistence that it be in full control of uranium enrichment - a possible pathway to nuclear arms.

"Failure to make progress" on easing international concerns about Iran's nuclear program "will hasten the day when the board decides that a report to the Security Council must be made," said the statement,

The European Union also reserves the right to call an emergency board meeting before the next scheduled gathering in March - for possible Security Council referral - "if Iranian behaviour makes it necessary."

The statement alluded to new revelations of concern contained in a report drawn up for the board meeting by IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei, including a finding showing the Iranians in possession of what appeared to be drawings of the core of an atomic warhead.

But the main issue is Iran's refusal to give up its right to enrichment, which can be used to generate power, but also to make weapons-grade material for nuclear warheads. Iran says it wants only to make fuel, but international concern is growing that the program could be misused.

A plan floated in recent weeks foresees moving any Iranian enrichment plan to Russia. There, in theory, Moscow would supervise the process to make sure enrichment is only to fuel levels.

But Iran insists it wants to master the complete fuel cycle domestically. Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told reporters in Tehran yesterday that, while his country was willing to resume formal talks with key European powers on its nuclear program, "naturally we aim to have enrichment on Iran's territory".

The European Union will today accuse Iran of having documents that serve no other purpose than making nuclear arms and will warn it of possible future referral to the UN Security Council at a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

A press statement, made available before planned delivery later in the day, was described by a diplomat as a summary of what Britain, France and Germany would tell a closed session of the IAEA board, which started meeting today. It criticises Tehran for possessing suspicious documents that "have no other application than the production of nuclear weapons". [...]

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/article329093.ece

Wow.

How can an entire nation be accused of 'having documents'?

You could accuse an individual of 'having documents' (though not in a free country) but to threaten a whole government and nation of such a made up and absurd 'crime' is beyond infinetly ridiculous.

It needs to be said also that documents don't make nuclear weapons, and neither can you make a nuclear weapon out of a document. They might tell you how to make one, but that is all that they can do, and this information is widely available, in the greatest detail.

Once again, a newspaper reprints a propaganda release unchallenged. Shame on The Independent, who will cry crocodile tears as soon as an illegal and insane invasion of Iran begins.

You FOOLS. The momentum that is gathering around this needs to have friction added to the equation early in the process, i.e., by not allowing these absurd statements to be printed in your wide format toilet paper without so much as a 'wtf'

Phallic Stinkhorn Fungi

Fig 3. (Left). A stinkhorn that has lost all of its slime. Again, note the swollen, egg-like base and the gelatinous remains of the egg. Fig 4. (Right): Even after all the spore-containing slime has been removed, a stinkhorn can remain strongly attractive to flies and beetles for a several days. [© Jim Deacon]

http://helios.bto.ed.ac.uk/bto/FungalBiology/profiles.htm#top

Repulsive and delicious.

THE PAOMNNEHAL PWEOR OF THE HMUAN MNID

THE PAOMNNEHAL PWEOR OF THE HMUAN MNID Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh?

very nice!

I like your font, Claus. I've had to look up typographic terminology, to know the bits and pieces.

There is a correlation

Go here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/4447082.stm And compare inflation with unemployment. Clegso, have you ever seen David Carson's work? Type to make your blood race... or run, depending on if you are making it or consuming it... http://www.davidcarsondesign.com/

Tech Support Responds

Hello, Thank you for your message. Gmail has a number of sending limits in place to prevent abuse of our system, and to help fight spam. If you reach one of Gmail's limits, you'll be temporarily unable to send mail. Some common reasons users reach their sending limits include: - Sending a message to more than 500 recipients You can send a single message to a maximum of 500 recipients. Their email addresses can be distributed among the 'To:,' 'Cc:,' and 'Bcc:' fields. - Sending a large number of undeliverable messages * We suggest verifying your contacts' email addresses. Make sure the email addresses you're sending mail to are valid. It's also important that everyone you are sending mail to is willing to receive it. If you'd like to learn more about best practices for sending a large amount of mail through Gmail, please visit: http://www.google.com/gmail/help/bulk_mail.html. Sincerely, The Gmail Team [...] And there you have it, from the horses mouth.

The means of production

Maybe anyone that busy shouldn't be relying on a freebie webmail app for their work email. The idea that you can't get useful work out of something free is a little antiquated. There is no reason whasoever (yes 'whasoever') why a free service can't be as useful as a for pay one. Welcome to the 21st century. Its that kind of thinking....well, expression, that stops the adoption of linux over windoze "how can something that is free possibly be better than something that you pay for?" is the line people take....'you get what you pay for'.... We of course, know better. My complaint in this case, and it is not really a complaint, it is an observation and a warning, is that the full facts about how the service works was not laid out in full in advance of us embarking on setting the account up. There is no reason why you should not be able to do all of your work productively with Gmail, and never pay a penny for it. This person was an AOLER. Anyone with experience of an AOLER knows that they are amongst the most computer illiterate people on the planet, with a phobia of technology that drives them to simplified services. Gmail is simple and powerful and open. It doesnt lock your address book in for example. You can forward incoming mail to any address...you know the score. This person did not want to (and didnt even understand what was involved in) having her own domain. She just wanted to get off of AOL, mostly because people were not taking her seriously. Im not making this up. Gmail doesnt have the same lamer connotations as hotmail, yahoo mail and AOL, and the latter is synonymous with 'ultimate lamer'. Aaannnnyway. The final answer is YES people should rely on 'freebie' webmail services for their work. If the service has all the features you need (and you can only know this if they describe all the limitations in advance) then you can use it just like any other tool. The cost is irrelevant. Didnt I already say this? I think I did!

My first ever bad experience with Google

Today I tried to help a friend migrate from AOL to Gmail. We exported all her contacts from AOL (a story in itself) cleaned them up and then did a BCC to all of them from her new gmail account to let everyone know she was off AOL. There were 735 contacts. Gmail threw up an error saying that you cannot send more than 400 mails in one batch, so we split the list into two and then they all went off. Everything was fine. No more AOHELL. A new account on the best webmail service out there. Or so we thought. As the new account started to kick in, which was almost instantly since this person is very busy, we started to get an error every time she tried to send a message.... "Oops, the system is unable to complete your operation... Please try again in a few seconds..." This error has persisted since around 1PM today. Subsequently (after Googling around for an answer) it transpires that there is an undocumented limit and severe penalty for sending too many messages at once from your gmail account. Obviously, had we known of this limit, we would never have sent this notification via Gmail, we would have done it from a service without such a limitation...AOL. here is the thread that I found with the facts about this secret limitation and penalty:

1. Quarky Apr 28, 3:25 pm show options From: Quarky - Find messages by this author Date: Thu, 28 Apr 2005 14:25:34 -0000 Local: Thurs, Apr 28 2005 3:25 pm Subject: Oops... system unable to complete your operation... Reply to Author | Forward | Print | Individual Message | Report Abuse So yesterday I sent out an email to a mailing list that I maintain for a local LAN party. I sent it in batches of 100 addresses (the limit with gmail) and I needed to send it about 7 times. After the fifth email I got this error message: "Oops, the system is unable to complete your operation... Please try again in a few seconds..." My friend told me that its a spam prevention thing, and that it would block me from sending anything for 1 hour. I've been getting that message anytime I try to send anything since yesterday morning. I couldn't even reply to the gmail support email that was generated when I went through gmail help. Anyone know if there is anything I can do?

2. shicaca Apr 28, 3:44 pm show options From: shicaca - Find messages by this author Date: Thu, 28 Apr 2005 14:44:17 -0000 Local: Thurs, Apr 28 2005 3:44 pm Subject: Re: Oops... system unable to complete your operation... Reply to Author | Forward | Print | Individual Message | Report Abuse - Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - Quarky wrote: > So yesterday I sent out an email to a mailing list that I maintain for > a local LAN party. I sent it in batches of 100 addresses (the limit > with gmail) and I needed to send it about 7 times. After the fifth > email I got this error message: "Oops, the system is unable to complete > your operation... Please try again in a few seconds..." My friend told > me that its a spam prevention thing, and that it would block me from > sending anything for 1 hour. > I've been getting that message anytime I try to send anything since > yesterday morning. I couldn't even reply to the gmail support email > that was generated when I went through gmail help. > Anyone know if there is anything I can do? I'm sure it's nothing to do with you sending out e-mail, but moreso probably just the service going up and down. Remember: It is still a beta and therefore is not completely finished. They may take a server down for a bit to do some service to it or take the entire thing down to add functionality. You never know.

3. Quarky Apr 28, 3:47 pm show options From: Quarky - Find messages by this author Date: Thu, 28 Apr 2005 14:47:42 -0000 Local: Thurs, Apr 28 2005 3:47 pm Subject: Re: Oops... system unable to complete your operation... Reply to Author | Forward | Print | Individual Message | Report Abuse well I think I got it fixed. apparently its a fairly common problem that gmail refuses to document. all i had to do was enable snippets, and then disable them again. why it works I'll never know -- but it did.

4. jeandiata Apr 28, 4:59 pm show options From: jeandiata - Find messages by this author Date: Thu, 28 Apr 2005 11:59:47 -0400 Local: Thurs, Apr 28 2005 4:59 pm Subject: Re: [Gmail-Help-Discussion] Re: Oops... system unable to complete your operation... Reply to Author | Forward | Print | Individual Message | Report Abuse No - gmail does seem to have a limit of 400 contacts a day to prevent gmail from being used by spammers. If you're not a spammer and need to send out mass mailing - you may want to consider setting up a Google Group. Google actually seems to encourage using groups as mailing lists. :o) On 4/28/05, shicaca <[email address]> wrote: - Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - > Quarky wrote: > > So yesterday I sent out an email to a mailing list that I maintain > for > > a local LAN party. I sent it in batches of 100 addresses (the limit > > with gmail) and I needed to send it about 7 times. After the fifth > > email I got this error message: "Oops, the system is unable to > complete > > your operation... Please try again in a few seconds..." My friend > told > > me that its a spam prevention thing, and that it would block me from > > sending anything for 1 hour. > > I've been getting that message anytime I try to send anything since > > yesterday morning. I couldn't even reply to the gmail support email > > that was generated when I went through gmail help. > > Anyone know if there is anything I can do? > I'm sure it's nothing to do with you sending out e-mail, but moreso > probably just the service going up and down. Remember: It is still a > beta and therefore is not completely finished. They may take a server > down for a bit to do some service to it or take the entire thing down > to add functionality. You never know. -- Don't forget to "Search this Group" for your Answers! "It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer" ~Einstein

5. Quigi Apr 28, 3:52 pm show options From: Quigi - Find messages by this author Date: Thu, 28 Apr 2005 14:52:41 -0000 Local: Thurs, Apr 28 2005 3:52 pm Subject: Re: Oops... system unable to complete your operation... Reply to Author | Forward | Print | Individual Message | Report Abuse I think all you can do is wait, or open a second Gmail account. Gmail has limits on how much mail you can send (or receive). If you hit the limit you (or others mailing you) are blocked for some time. I contacted support, but they don't disclose anything. They don't even admit there are such limits (but many users have experienced them). It would be useful to know what the limits are (e.g., how many messages in what timespan), and how long the suspension lasts. Your friend says 1 hour, but apparently it's more.

It is completely reasonable to have a limit on the number of emails that can be sent from a service like this. What is unreasonable is that this limit is not documented, and that the subsequent penalty is not documented either. Now this person has told all her contacts she has a new gmail account, and she cannot conduct her business with this address. We could haved just as easily been warned that, "sending this many emails may cause your account to be deactivated" when we tried to send 735 emails. We were told that gmail had a limit on the number of emails going out at one time, so why not tell the whole story and warn that the account would be disabled? I cant reccomend gmail anyore; who knows what other secret restrictions are lurking in there to bite you in the ass when you are trying to get work done? Its a pity, because gmail, when it works, is very good, but clearly its not for people who send alot of email as a part of their work.