BLONDSHAVEMOREFUN
In the dark
"We have been sufficiently humbled cosmically. It's time now to strive
for some terrestrial humility. Until we have the simple modesty to treat
each other as equal accidents on this pinprick of ordinary matter called
Earth, I wouldn't worry about 96 percent of the universe we know nothing
about."
Urban Legends and Folklore... THEY ARE STILL OUR SLAVES we can continue to reap profits
from the Blacks without the effort of .... Hoaxes / Chain Letters Dscns: 1552 -
Msgs: 32046 ...
http://www.forums.about.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?tsn=1&nav=messages&webtag=ab-urbanlegends&tid=8845
In the dark
Posted by Chet at 11:52 AM UTC
"Dark energy, an invisible, undetectable force that seems to break all
the rules of physics may be about to redefine the universe," says last
Sunday's New York Times Magazine, as the subtitle to an article on dark
matter and dark energy by Richard Panek.
Dark matter is a presumed non-luminous massy stuff that accounts for 22
percent of the universe. It's presence is signaled in the rotation of
galaxies, which seem to require more mass than is visible to keep them
from flying apart.
Dark energy is an even more mysterious something that makes up 74
percent of the universe. Its presence is signaled as an acceleration of
the outward flight of the galaxies against the pull of gravity.
That leaves 4 percent to contain everything we thought the universe was
made of, including us.
If dark matter and dark energy exist, it would have "philosophical
consequences of the civilization-altering variety," writes Panek. The
ultimate Copernican Revolution, he calls it; not only are we not at the
center of things, we re not even made of the same stuff as most of what is.
I once mentioned to a friend that 96 percent of the stuff of the
universe is unknown and possibly unknowable. He responded, with his
usual wry wit: "It's probably the best stuff too."
Well, maybe. I'm not about to get all hot and bothered. Anyone who still
thinks we are the be-all and end-all of creation hasn't been paying
attention. A glance at the Hubble Ultra Deep Field Photograph -- tens of
thousands of galaxies in a part of the sky you could cover with a
pinhead held at arm's length -- should pretty much put the kibosh on any
shred of self-importance we assumed on the cosmic scale. Yet still we
have preachers with Rolex watches and Lincoln Town Cars telling us the
Creator of the universe wants us to tithe, and popes who sit on
Renaissance thrones channeling "infallibly" the Creator's thoughts.
We have been sufficiently humbled cosmically. It's time now to strive
for some terrestrial humility. Until we have the simple modesty to treat
each other as equal accidents on this pinprick of ordinary matter called
Earth, I wouldn't worry about 96 percent of the universe we know nothing
about.
Comments made (3) E-mail Wednesday, March 14, 2007
http://www.sciencemusings.com/blog/blogarchive/2007_03_01_blogarchive.html
Telascope-Microscope
http://www.sciencemusings.com/blog/blogarchive/2007_03_01_blogarchive.html
http://youtube.com/watch?v=x2Jr03ADQmk&feature=related
Rare video JFK 1960 Speech at the Houston Ministers
http://youtube.com/watch?v=x2Jr03ADQmk&feature=related
=====================================================
Michael Ruppert confronts CIA director about Drug Laundering
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4t3pl5Wxgyg
Loose Change Final Cut, a Louder Than Words production
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Loose+Change+Final+Cut%2C+a+Louder+Than+Words+production&btnG=Google+Search
Markylee wrote: Your friend sent you the following video and included this message:This is something I think you should watch
http://www.therandirhodesshow.com/
Randi_Rhodes_ We_Believe__Detroit__2007.mp4
http://mingus.charlesmingus3art.com/randi-rhodes--_634.html
37 min 8 sec - Nov 13, 2007
Average rating: **** (301 ratings)
Description: Randi Rhodes ( Air America ) Addressed
The 50th Anniversary party of PEACE ACTION
of Mich. nov 11 2007
.Her speech " WE BELIEVE " was received with standing ovation after standing ovation and
her thoughts are shared thru out the peace now & forever community. I am very proud &
honored to share her thoughts & words with the " thinking & principled" of the world.
Thank you" Community Media Network" ( public access television )
Want to see more cool videos?
Go to video.google.com/
Think you have an even cooler video?
Add it at
video.google.com/videouploadform
If you're having trouble watching the video, try copying the following URL into your browser
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5135640519224261460&pr=goog-sl
Site for the weekday talk show host who comments on current political affairs.
- 7k - Cached - Similar pages
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The Randi Rhodes Show on Air America Radio
Talk to The Randi Rhodes Show LIVE (3-6pm ET) 1.866.303.2270.
Join Randi & Habitat for Humanity in ... CACI v Randi Rhodes –
Randi’s victorious decision ...
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MySpace.com - Randi Rhodes Fans - 48 - Female - NEW YORK, New York ...
MySpace profile for Randi Rhodes Fans with pictures, videos, personal blog,
interests, information about me and more.
http://www.profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=46858263 -
YouTube - Randi Rhodes: Senator Larry Craig is and ...
http://www.therandirhodesshow.comhttp://www.myspace.com ...
var mb4=ManyBox.register('4',2,'XHtHsiw0_nAJ','','e41b',21,'Watch
video','Hide video')Watch video - 10 min -
HTTP://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0G7mzaq5ZM
YouTube - Hempfest 2006- Randi Rhodes
AM1090's Randi Rhodes was a special guest emcee on the main ...
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Watch video - 7 min -
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The Randi Rhodes Show on Air America Radio
CACI v Randi Rhodes – Randi’s victorious decision ...
These stories, your calls and much more on today’s Randi Rhodes
Show. past show posts. ...
http://www.airamerica.com/randirhodes/index.php -
Randi Rhodes : CafePress.com
The Randi Rhodes Show. Navigation. Home · Contact · Photos · Affiliates ·
Research · Archives · Team Randi · Listen Live · Newsletter · Message Board ...
http://www.cafepress.com/randirhodes -
Randi Rhodes statement on
"mugging"/falling down incident
Speaking on her radio show today, Air America Radio's Randi Rhodes spoke
about her supposed mugging.She said she was watching football in an Irish pub and ...
http://www.boreamerica.com/archives/2007/10/randi-rhodes-statement-on-muggingfalling-down-i.html -
|
Urban Legends Reference Pages: 'Black Tax' CreditNow, if you know our government
I bet they are not expecting a lot of people to call for this .... "IRS Official
Warns of Tax Hoax Using Slave Reparations. ...
www.snopes.com/business/taxes/blacktax.asp -
Urban Legends and Folklore... THEY ARE STILL OUR SLAVES we can continue to reap profits
from the Blacks without the effort of .... Hoaxes / Chain Letters Dscns: 1552 -
Msgs: 32046 ...
http://www.forums.about.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?tsn=1&nav=messages&webtag=ab-urbanlegends&tid=8845
-
They Are Still Our Slaves” Very Enlightening Article. Think About ...
"THEY ARE STILL OUR SLAVES" We can continue to reap profits from the
Blacks without the effort of physical slavery. Look at the current methods of ...
http://www.pridemagazine.wordpress.com/2006/04/26/they-are-still-our-slaves-very-enlightening-article-think-about/ -
They are still our slavesThey are still our slaves. We can continue to reap profits from the
Black community without the effort of physical slavery. ...
www.blink.org.uk/print.asp?key=161 -
Rise, Prophet!: "They Are Still Our Slaves": A RebuttalI understand and a
ppreciate the author's intentions, but this article is racist, not because it begins by saying,
"THEY are still our slaves," not because ...
http://www.riseprophet.blogspot.com/2007/01/they-are-still-our-slaves-rebuttal.html -
Dee Lee, a white man says "THEY ARE STILL OUR SLAVES" /and RBG SS ...THEY ARE
STILL OUR SLAVES Why: IGNORANCE, GREED, and SELFISHNESS. Post Response by
"Street Poet" Pictorial Embellishments by RBG Street Scholar The Dream ...
www.zimbio.com/.../articles/44/Dee+Lee+white+man+says+STILL+SLAVES+RBG+SS -
They Are Still Our SlavesThey have stripped our culture down to the point where
we only believe we can become rappers and athletes. We are so much more. ...
http://www.ssbca.org/id26.html -
They Are Still Our SlavesThe study revealed that while anglophone Blacks made
up 5.8 per cent of the total English-speaking population, they represented
22.8 per cent of the ...
http://www.ssbca.org/id27.html -
Alaskan Plumb Line - THEY ARE STILL OUR SLAVESTHEY ARE STILL OUR SLAVES. We
can continue to reap profits from the Blacks without the ... THEY ARE STILL
OUR SLAVES 1 comments Create New Account ...
http://www.aplaskanplumbline.info/article.php?story=200508162241184 -
They Are Still Our Slaves - AfricanLoftSome even neglect their children to
have the latest Tommy or FUBU, and they still think that having a Mercedes,
and a big house gives them “Status” or that ...
www.africanloft.com/they-are-still-our-slaves/ -
Liberation Concepts - They are Still Our Slaves !I placed this article on the
site in hope to arouse the consciousness of every brother & sister that read
it. I truly hope this article anger you to the ...
www.liberationconcepts.com/they_are_still_our_slaves_ -
pages
They are saying jews were our slaves and we are black arabs ..."They are saying
jews were our slaves and we are black arabs ;-)? ... they are not black,they
are still there in the mountains of Algeria and Morocco and ...
http://www.answers.yahoo.com.au/question/index?qid=20070926112513AAOVa8q -
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
ART FROM CHINA AND ELSEWHERE
http://www.goyatobeijig.org/index.html
CONTEMPORARY ART FROM CHINA – REWRITING WORLD ART HISTORY
: www ...
Prices rise and rise; collectors, museums and galleries cannot get enough of new art
coming out of China. In Beijing, as elsewhere in China, ...
www.34long.com/2007article2/vzine.htm -
Common People And ArtistIt starts from the premise that in China as elsewhere advertising
is one of ... even be said to fulfill „the function of art and religion in earlier days! ...
commonpeopleandartist.net/New_Women.php - 9k - Cached - Similar pages
Issue 25– Book Review – LONELY IN SOUTHWEST CHINA“Contemporary art in China and
elsewhere is becoming increasingly a-historical, perpetuated among an elite urban group
along Western lines,” argues Lu, ...
www.gbcc.org.uk/iss26art1.htm -
Precarious paths on the mainland - art in China - Report From ...China is a country where time
does not run quite as it does elsewhere. ... the exhibition of their work held at the China National
Art Gallery in September. ...
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1248/is_n3_v82/ai_15243134 -
CHINESE POTTERY.; Capt. F. Brinkley's History of the Keramic Art ...F. Brinkley's History of
the Keramic Art in China. .... elation of the beat,specimens; will-; IngncsB to .pap-fop'-: not to .
elsewhere,. conditions 'were . ...
http://www.query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F50E13F63B5D16738DDDAC0894DA415B838CF1D3 -
Art's New Frame Of ReferenceWhether the art comes from China or elsewhere, emerging-nation
collecting is here to stay. Henry Howard-Sneyd, Sotheby's chief honcho in Hong Kong, ...
www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_52/b4015086.htm -
JSTOR: The Lemon in China and Elsewhere... mineralogy (including some art crafts) of China and
foreign countries. .... The Lemon in China and Elsewhere of the size of an orange or pumelo" j I;t ...
http://www.links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0003-0279(193406)54%3A2%3C143%3ATLICAE%3E2.0.CO%3B2-P -
THE REFORM OF STATE-OWNED ENTERPRISES IN CHINA: THE ART OF THE ...ENTERPRISES
IN CHINA:. THE ART OF THE POSSIBLE. DEREK MORRIS. Oriel College, Oxford. I. INTRODUCTION ....
. China, as elsewhere in the world, a fundamental ...
oxrep.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/11/4/54.pdf - Similar pages
R E A L T I M EThe fear is that art in China has left the (local) audience and that ... being on the verge
of elsewhere, a restless present always focussed on what’s next. ...
www.longmarchspace.com/media/R%20E%20A%20L%20T%20I%20M%20E.htm -
REVIEW ARTICLE Michel Strickmann on Magical Medicine in Medieval ...Michel Strickmann
on Magical Medicine in Medieval China. and Elsewhere ..... reflected in the sculptural art
associated with this particular form of ...
www.journals.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/resolve?id=doi:10.1086/426739 -
=================================================
=================================================
http://www.kimsoft.com
The CIA's Secret Manual on Coercive Qestioning
http://www.kimsoft.com/2000/kubark.htm
The US Game - What's Bush is really after
http://www.kimsoft.com/2001/usgame.htm
http://www.kimsoft.com/guerilla.htm
[11/25/2007 11:31:41 AM]
http://www.kimsoft.com/spy-portals.htm
(1 of 2) [11/25/2007 12:27:43 PM]
=================================================
http://www.kimsoft.com/guerilla.htm
PSYCHOLOGICAL OPERATIONS
IN GUERRILLA WARFARE
A tactical manual for the revolutionary that was published by the Central
Intelligence Agency and distributed to the Contras in Central America.
by Tayac n
Getting Started
http://www.kimsoft.com/guerr-01.htm
Combatant-Propagandist
http://www.kimsoft.com/guerr-02.htm
Armed Propaganda
http://www.kimsoft.com/guerr-03.htm
Armed Propaganda Teams
http://www.kimsoft.com/guerr-04.htm
Development/Control - Front Organizations
http://www.kimsoft.com/guerr-05.htm
Mass Concentration And Meetings
http://www.kimsoft.com/guerr-06.htm
Massive In-Depth Support - Psychological Operations
http://www.kimsoft.com/guerr-07.htm
Appendix
http://www.kimsoft.com/guerr-07.htm
A Study of Assassination
http://www.kimsoft.com/korea/cia-0.htm
Not in the original document - added by KWW editors for completeness.
Related Webs:
http://www.anusha.com/ciastudy.htm
CIA Study of Assassination
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB4/
CIA and Assassinations: The Guatemala 1954 Documents
Last modified:Tue, 21 May 2002 21:48:14 GMT.
http://www.kimsoft.com/guerilla.htm
===========================================================
The Web of the Six Way Evil: Part IV
Donald Granberry
At the end of the Second World War, the majority of the scientists working at Los Alamos, the laboratory
that built the first atomic bombs, gratefully returned home to their original work in their home
laboratories and classrooms. For all they could see, their work was finished and in truth, the United
States government held the same opinion. Those who stayed were mainly engineers and experimentalists
working on refinements to the existing fission weapons. Very few theoreticians, down to eight in 1945,
stayed with Los Alamos after the war. A partially complete history of the project can be found here.
(ThermoDevelopment.pdf)
http://www.kimsoft.com/USCIA/ThermoDevelopment.pdf
The Web of the Six Way Evil This official electronic version was created by scanning the best
available paper or microfiche copy of the original report at a 300 dpi resolution. Original
color illustrations appear as black and white images. For additional information or comments,
contact: Library Without Walls Project Los Alamos National Laboratory Research Library
Los Alamos, NM 87544 Phone: (505)667-4448 E-mail: lwwp@lanl.gov
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Telascope-Microscope
http://www.sciencemusings.com/blog/blogarchive/2007_03_01_blogarchive.html
In the dark posted by Chet at 11:52 AM UTC
"Dark energy, an invisible, undetectable force that seems to break all
the rules of physics may be about to redefine the universe," says last
Sunday's New York Times Magazine, as the subtitle to an article on dark
matter and dark energy by Richard Panek. Dark matter is a presumed non-luminous massy stuff that accounts for 22
percent of the universe. It's presence is signaled in the rotation of
galaxies, which seem to require more mass than is visible to keep them
from flying apart.
Dark energy is an even more mysterious something that makes up 74
percent of the universe. Its presence is signaled as an acceleration of
the outward flight of the galaxies against the pull of gravity.
That leaves 4 percent to contain everything we thought the universe was
made of, including us.
If dark matter and dark energy exist, it would have "philosophical
consequences of the civilization-altering variety," writes Panek. The
ultimate Copernican Revolution, he calls it; not only are we not at the
center of things, we re not even made of the same stuff as most of what is.
I once mentioned to a friend that 96 percent of the stuff of the
universe is unknown and possibly unknowable. He responded, with his
usual wry wit: "It's probably the best stuff too."
Well, maybe. I'm not about to get all hot and bothered. Anyone who still
thinks we are the be-all and end-all of creation hasn't been paying
attention. A glance at the Hubble Ultra Deep Field Photograph -- tens of
thousands of galaxies in a part of the sky you could cover with a
pinhead held at arm's length -- should pretty much put the kibosh on any
shred of self-importance we assumed on the cosmic scale. Yet still we
have preachers with Rolex watches and Lincoln Town Cars telling us the
Creator of the universe wants us to tithe, and popes who sit on
Renaissance thrones channeling "infallibly" the Creator's thoughts.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Apollo's Warriors: US Air Force Special Operations During the Cold War
Apollo's Warriors: US Air
Force Special Operations
during the Cold War
By Michael E. Haas, Colonel (ret), US Air Force Special Operations, 1994
A Korea WebWeekly book review - Lee Wha Rang
This is an encyclopedia of the covert actions conducted by the United States armed forces
(particularly air commandos) during the Cold War era. The author, a special forces veteran,
had access to many secret documents and veterans of covert actions.
The book touches on US Air Force contributions to the Office of Special Operations
(OSS) activities in Europe and Asia during World War II. Special operations in Korea,
Tibet, Libya, Cuba, Laos, Vietnam,Cambodia, Iran and other regions. Apollo's Warriors:
US Air Force Special Operations During the Cold War
A Korea WebWeekly book review - Lee Wha Rang
This is an encyclopedia of the covert actions conducted by the United States armed forces
(particularly air commandos) during the Cold War era. The author, a special forces veteran,
had access to many secret documents and veterans of covert actions.
The book touches on US Air Force contributions to the Office of Special Operations
(OSS) activities in Europe and Asia during World War II. Special operations in Korea,
Tibet, Libya, Cuba, Laos, Vietnam,Cambodia, Iran and other regions. Apollo's Warriors:
US Air Force Special Operations During the Cold War
A Korea WebWeekly book review - Lee Wha Rang
This is an encyclopedia of the covert actions conducted by the United States armed forces
(particularly air commandos) during the Cold War era. The author, a special forces veteran,
had access to many secret documents and veterans of covert actions.
The book touches on US Air Force contributions to the Office of Special Operations
(OSS) activities in Europe and Asia during World War II. Special operations in Korea,
Tibet, Libya, Cuba, Laos, Vietnam,Cambodia, Iran and other regions. Apollo's Warriors:
US Air Force Special Operations During the Cold War
A Korea WebWeekly book review - Lee Wha Rang
This is an encyclopedia of the covert actions conducted by the United States armed forces
(particularly air commandos) during the Cold War era. The author, a special forces veteran,
had access to many secret documents and veterans of covert actions.
The book touches on US Air Force contributions to the Office of Special Operations
(OSS) activities in Europe and Asia during World War II. Special operations in Korea,
Tibet, Libya, Cuba, Laos, Vietnam,Cambodia, Iran and other regions. Apollo's Warriors:
US Air Force Special Operations During the Cold War
A Korea WebWeekly book review - Lee Wha Rang
This is an encyclopedia of the covert actions conducted by the United States armed forces
(particularly air commandos) during the Cold War era. The author, a special forces veteran,
had access to many secret documents and veterans of covert actions.
The book touches on US Air Force contributions to the Office of Special Operations
(OSS) activities in Europe and Asia during World War II. Special operations in Korea,
Tibet, Libya, Cuba, Laos, Vietnam,Cambodia, Iran and other regions. Apollo's Warriors:
US Air Force Special Operations During the Cold War
A Korea WebWeekly book review - Lee Wha Rang
This is an encyclopedia of the covert actions conducted by the United States armed forces
(particularly air commandos) during the Cold War era. The author, a special forces veteran,
had access to many secret documents and veterans of covert actions.
The book touches on US Air Force contributions to the Office of Special Operations
(OSS) activities in Europe and Asia during World War II. Special operations in Korea,
Tibet, Libya, Cuba, Laos, Vietnam,Cambodia, Iran and other regions. Apollo's Warriors:
US Air Force Special Operations During the Cold War
A Korea WebWeekly book review - Lee Wha Rang
This is an encyclopedia of the covert actions conducted by the United States armed forces
(particularly air commandos) during the Cold War era. The author, a special forces veteran,
had access to many secret documents and veterans of covert actions.
The book touches on US Air Force contributions to the Office of Special Operations
(OSS) activities in Europe and Asia during World War II. Special operations in Korea,
Tibet, Libya, Cuba, Laos, Vietnam,Cambodia, Iran and other regions. Apollo's Warriors:
US Air Force Special Operations During the Cold War
A Korea WebWeekly book review - Lee Wha Rang
This is an encyclopedia of the covert actions conducted by the United States armed forces
(particularly air commandos) during the Cold War era. The author, a special forces veteran,
had access to many secret documents and veterans of covert actions.
The book touches on US Air Force contributions to the Office of Special Operations
(OSS) activities in Europe and Asia during World War II. Special operations in Korea,
Tibet, Libya, Cuba, Laos, Vietnam,Cambodia, Iran and other regions. Apollo's Warriors:
US Air Force Special Operations During the Cold War
http://www.kimsoft.com/1997/haas2.htm (1 of 3) [11/25/2007 6:47:21 PM]
I am, therefore I think, I think posted by Chet at 11:25 AM
UTC
Yesterday's sea hare was not much more than a fist-sized blob of goo on
the sand, but it was aware. If we touched it, it quivered in response,
as if to signal "Put me back in the water, please!" Self aware? With
only a few tens of thousands of neurons, presumably only in the most
elementary sense. The sea hare's awareness is mostly focused on finding
food and a mate. For food, seaweed (of the same color as itself!). For a
mate -- well, another sea hare; they are hermaphroditic.
All sexual eukaryotes are aware of their environment; all must find food
and mates, and escape predators. Specialized cells -- neurons -- make
this possible. A human brain contains about 100 billion neurons; stretch
out their axons end to end and they'd reach to the Moon. One hundred
trillion synaptic connections. A human brain is the most complex thing
we know about in the universe, and with it comes that mysterious thing
called self-awareness. The apes may be self-aware, but in humans
self-awareness has become a planet-transforming emergent quality. We
are, whether we like it or not, the lords of creation -- at least in
this little corner of the universe -- and with such awesome power comes
a proportionate responsibility. To whom? We have no dictates from on
high. We assume our own responsibilities. To ourselves. To each other.
To sea hares.
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
I am, therefore I think posted by Chet at 12:44 PM
UTC
How
this fellow got himself stranded on the sand, I don't know, but if my
sister hadn't pulled me aside I would have squished him with my bare
foot. A spotted sea hare, Aplysia dactyolmela. A worthy creature, as I
shall now disclose, of estimiable value to science. We put him back in
the sea where he quickly revived, flapping his mantle wings as if he
wanted to fly.
The 2000 Nobel Prize in medicine went to Eric Kandel, Paul Greengard,
and Arvid Carlsson for studies on the physiology of memory. In his
address to the Nobel Foundation, Kandel recounted his evolution as a
scientist.
He first became interested in the study of memory in 1950 as a result of
his readings in psychoanalysis as an undergraduate at Harvard. Later, as
a medical student, he began to find psychoanalysis limiting; it treated
the brain as a black box, observable only from outside. Kandel wanted to
open the box, to see what was inside -- to explore the mansion of memory
as flesh and blood.
He was convinced that memory was biological and that human memory might
have much in common with memory in other organisms. His approach,
therefore, would be reductionistic: Start with the rudiments of memory
in a simple organism, with the hope of eventually understanding the
apparent miracle of human memory.
Kandel took Aplysia as his model. This shell-less aquatic snail has
several advantages as an experimental animal: It has only 20,000 central
nerve cells, rather than the tens of billions in mammalian brains, and
the cells are big, ten times larger than human neurons. And Aplysia can
be trained to respond to stimuli. It learns and remembers.
When a sea snail remembers, changes happen at the places where nerve
cells touch each other, the synapses. Kandel, and others, worked out the
biochemistry of these changes, for both short-term and long-term memory,
and showed that the cellular and molecular changes at work in Aplysia's
rudimentary brain are present in mammals too.
There may be as many as 100 billion nerve cells in the human brain, and
each one is connected to thousands of others. Memories are stored as
electrical and chemical changes at the synapses where cell communicates
with cell. A scribble. A lifetime of experiences scribbled into flesh.
As Kandel pointed out in his Nobel address, there is lots more yet to
learn, and full understanding of human memory will require the combined
efforts of molecular biologists, cognitive psychologists, neurologists,
psychiatrists, and perhaps even computer modelers. The 21st century
promises to be the century when we explore every corner of the human
brain, and understand, at least in principle, how a brain gives rise to
mind.
The sea snail Aplysia has helped confirm that Descartes was wrong; the
human self is not a dualism of mind and matter, but rather an
efflorescence of self from matter, a shimmering exuberance of the stuff
of the universe gathered in the human brain into biochemical webs of
astonishing complexity. Not "I think, therefore I am," but rather "I am,
therefore I think."
http://www.sciencemusings.com/blog/blogarchive/2007_03_01_blogarchive.html
OLD The CIA's Secret Manual on Coercive Qestioning
http://www.parascope.com/articles/0397/kub_xii.htm
http://www.michael-robinett.com/declass/c000.htm
http://www.michael-robinett.com/declass/c000-1.htm
http://www.michael-robinett.com/declass/c000-2.htm
http://www.michael-robinett.com/declass/c000-3.htm
Data-Spacecowboi
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=6727538
http://www.myspace.com/onionnews
Arjun Makhijani, Saddam's Last Laugh ?
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm?ID=4110%20
The Dollar Could be Headed for Hard Times if OPEC Switches to the Euro
(March 2001)
Arjun Makhijani, Saddam's Last Laugh ?
http://tompaine.com/Archive/scontent/4110.html
/xzhttp://www.informationclearinghouse.info/index.html
22 November 2007
Web informationclearinghouse.info
Number Of Iraqis Slaughtered In U.S.
War On Iraq 1,118,625
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Number of U.S. Military Personnel Sacrificed (Officially acknowledged)
In U.S. War And Occupation Of Iraq 3,875
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cost of U.S. War and Occupation of Iraq
$470,275,752,665
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Arjun Makhijani, Saddam's Last Laugh ?
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm?ID=4110%20
The Dollar Could be Headed for Hard Times if OPEC Switches to the Euro (March 2001)
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SADDAM?S LAST LAUGH
The Dollar Could be Headed for Hard Times if OPEC Switches to the Euro
Arjun Makhijani is president of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research in Takoma Park, Maryland.
For a considerable time the United States has enjoyed a position of undisputed power among the world's countries.
The superpower has been able, with some exceptions, to shape critical global policies to serve its own internal needs. Yet, its huge appetite for oil has left it dangerously vulnerable to the policies of Middle Eastern oil exporters and to the vicissitudes of
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Historically, the fact that oil prices are denominated in U.S. dollars has accorded the United States a position of strength. This was bolstered by a strong military presence in the Middle East, which was welcomed until recently by at least some oil exporting states. But the global potential of the European Union's currency (the euro) and the rising anti-U.S. sentiment in the Middle East coupled with a series of other recent events, may lead OPEC to change oil pricing from the dollar to the euro -- a decision which could have a drastic effect on the U.S. economy and on global financial stability.
Setting the Stage for Crisis
U.S. domestic policy has generally been dominated by sentiment on two streets -- Wall Street and Main Street. But since the Israeli-Arab war in 1973 and the accompanying Arab oil embargo against the United States, the importance of a third "street" -- which might variously be called Oil Street or Middle East Street -- has grown steadily. Before the year is out, this last street may well dominate the scene.
Oil is the energy and financial lifeline of the United States, Europe and Japan. It's a lifeline that runs through an area of intense conflict, where antagonism to U.S. and Israeli policies is as widespread as it is heated. In that context, rising tensions between the United States, the European Union, Russia and China could make for a dangerous and volatile crisis. Of the major powers,
the United States is, in many ways, the most vulnerable. It certainly has the most to lose.
Take the issue of oil imports. In 1973, the U.S. imported 34 percent of the oil it consumed. By 1989, that had grown to 41 percent. Today, the U.S. imports over half of the oil it consumes, and consumption is growing steadily. Western Europe imports about half the oil it consumes, but that is down from 80 percent two decades ago, and consumption has stabilized. China imports 30 percent of its oil. Russia is an oil exporter.
Historically, the fact that oil prices have been denominated in dollars has benefited the U.S. economy enormously, as fluctuations in the value of the dollar had no direct effect on the price of oil for Americans. If the currencies of other countries decline against the dollar, the oil prices increase for those countries' citizens. For instance, last fall, oil prices increased faster for Europeans than for Americans, because the euro was plunging as petrol bills were soaring, triggering massive protests.
At the Bretton Woods international economic conference in 1944, the U.S. dollar was assigned a fixed value of $35 to an ounce of gold, and so pricing in dollars essentially meant pricing in gold. That system unraveled between the mid-1960s and the early 70s because the "guns-and-butter policy" during the Vietnam War created high inflation. Foreign dollar holders began losing confidence and converted their depreciating dollars into gold in increasing amounts.
By the early 1970s, U.S. gold supplies were running low. The U.S. devalued the dollar relative to gold in 1971 and, in 1973, unilaterally 'de-linked' it from gold. The U.S. dollar was no longer "as good as gold." Yet, oil exporters -- led by Iran, Venezuela
and Saudi Arabia -- decided to continue denominating the price of oil in U.S. dollars, ostensibly a sign of confidence in the United States and in its money. But, in fact, these countries had little choice but to continue to use U.S. dollars -- there was simply no realistic global alternative at the time.
With oil linked to the dollar, and a substantial U.S. military presence in the Middle East, the position of the dollar seemed to be strong. At that time, Iran was the closest U.S. ally in the Persian Gulf and welcomed U.S. military presence. Iran was also the
most powerful military force and the most populous country in the region, as well as the world's second largest oil exporter.
To date, the oil-dollar link has given the United States a huge advantage in international trade. Corporations and countries carry out trade in U.S. dollars, making the U.S. Treasury and the U.S. Federal Reserve Board the ultimate arbiters of global monetary policy. However, the stability of the U.S. dollar, and by extension the global monetary system, partially depends on the financial policies of Persian Gulf countries that control nearly two-thirds of the world's reserve of "black gold."
That weakness became evident in 1979, when the Shah of Iran was overthrown by Ayatollah Khomeini's Islamic revolution, and the United States lost its main military ally in the global oil patch. The price of oil shot up to $40 a barrel (about three times today's level in real terms) and the value of the dollar plummeted relative to other currencies. The price of gold soared to $800 per ounce. The U.S. had to drastically increase interest rates -- to 15 to 20 percent, causing the most severe recession since World War II -- to encourage foreigners to hold onto their U.S. dollars rather than dump them for other currencies.
Today in the Middle East
We're now in the midst of the worst Israeli-Palestinian crisis in a generation and the situation is at least as unstable as the 1973-1979 period. U.S.-Iranian relations are hostile and tense. The U.S. has troops based in Saudi Arabia, but they are not welcome.
In the early 1990s, several governments and many people in the Persian Gulf region tolerated and even welcomed the presence of U.S. troops out of fear of Iraq's dictator Saddam Hussein. Today, U.S. support to Israel in the face of the Palestinian struggle
for statehood is not seen as that of an even-handed mediator. Rather, it has fueled more anti-U.S. sentiment.
Ariel Sharon who, as Defense Minister, presided over a terrible massacre of Palestinians during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982-83, has just become Prime Minister of Israel. He has vowed that Israel will maintain sovereignty over an undivided Jerusalem, the holy city claimed by both Israelis and Palestinians. Saddam Hussein, the architect of brutal internal repression in Iraq, has proclaimed himself a military champion of the Palestinian cause. Many in the region welcome him in that role, now more than ever, as a counterweight to Mr. Sharon.
The U.S. also has an uneven policy in the Middle East concerning nuclear proliferation, winking at Israel's development of a substantial nuclear arsenal, and even selling it military hardware. Israel has avoided signing on to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), to which Egypt and other Arab states belong. It is likely that Iraq, which has long sought nuclear weapons, still has nuclear ambitions. The United States has never promoted sanctions against Israel for its nuclear arsenal, but the U.S. supports sanctions against Iraq, Iran, and Pakistan. This contradiction has angered many countries in the region and may have stoked the ambitions of some of them for acquiring nuclear weapons.
Israel has so far refused to participate in discussions regarding a Middle East nuclear-weapons-free zone. The specter of a black market in nuclear materials has increased with the economic woes of Russia, making nuclear proliferation in the Middle East a growing threat.
U.S. Relations with Europe and Russia
Increasingly, the U.S. is at loggerheads with other global powers. In the past two years, U.S. and Russia have clashed more and more over security issues such as national missile defenses and the expansion of NATO. Russia, China and France have regularly opposed the U.S. and Britain regarding UN Security Council sanctions against Iraq. Given the Bush administration's determination to build national missile defenses and President Bush's stated indifference to the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty, U.S.-Russian tensions are likely to flare up even more. China has already warned that existing non-proliferation arrangements may not survive should the U.S. decide to violate the ABM treaty.
U.S.- European relations are testy on a number of issues, ranging from trade to Europe's plan to create its own security force
(the European Rapid Reaction Force), to the U.S. proposal to install a national missile defense system.
In this context of global tension, the U.S. economic vulnerability to Oil Street is particularly poignant. In the last two years, the euro has risen as a possible alternative currency to the U.S. dollar. OPEC, unhappy with U.S. Middle East policies, could decide to create the financial equivalent of the 1973 oil embargo against the United States by changing oil pricing policy from dollars to euros. That would make the euro a major global competitor with the U.S. dollar.
Linking Oil to the Euro
Last autumn, as a protest against U.S. Middle Eastern policy, Iraq asked the United Nations for permission, which the UN granted, to be paid for its oil in euros. (It needed UN permission because Iraq is selling oil under a supervised United Nations sanctions regime. Other countries would not need permission.) Iran subsequently raised the possibility of doing the same. Both these
moves hint at the potential for a change in OPEC oil-pricing policy.
Pricing oil in euros rather than dollars could cause a tremendous flight from the dollar -- possibly far greater than the one that led to the collapse of the gold-dollar connection in 1973 or the one that caused the steep decline of the dollar in 1979-80. Like any other currency, the U.S. dollar is vulnerable to the fast, panicky currency trades made possible by the computerization of the financial world. Yet the dollar also has its own special vulnerability. Since it is the pre-eminent global currency, a large proportion
of all the U.S. currency -- half or more -- is held abroad.
The desire of foreigners to hold dollars provides the United States with a great deal of financial power. But it could also make
for a far faster fall, should holders of dollars decide to dump them. Though the underlying value of U.S. companies and real estate could stem the dollar's decline as those assets become cheap enough for holders of other currencies to want to buy, there is no predicting whether chaos and uncertainty would take hold first. In any case, the U.S. economy would likely be deeply damaged.
Russia has from time to time expressed an interest in tying itself closer to the euro. This would be more likely if the arms control dialog between the United States and Russia breaks down. If Persian Gulf oil exporters were to carry out an oil-pricing switch
from dollars to euros in collaboration with Russia, a dangerous multi-sided confrontation could develop.
In sum, a dangerous confluence of events has emerged very rapidly in the last two years: a Middle East political crisis, rising
U.S.-European Union differences, the introduction of the euro, U.S.-Russian and U.S.-Chinese tensions, and the inauguration
in the United States of an administration that has far more unilateralist proclivities than any since the end of the Cold War.
U.S. Domestic Implications
United States domestic actions -- such as attempts to open the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve (ANWR) to oil drilling -- will not solve the global conflict over oil, money and Israel-Palestine. Opening ANWR would not make a significant dent in U.S. oil imports for years to come, if at all. Nor would ANWR drilling ease the complex p | | |
