A Vaccine To Prevent Every Strain Of Flu

British scientists are on the verge of producing a revolutionary flu vaccine that works against all major types of the disease. Described as the 'holy grail' of flu vaccines, it would protect against all strains of influenza A - the virus behind both bird flu and the nastiest outbreaks of winter flu. Just a couple of injections could give long-lasting immunity - unlike the current vaccine which has to be given every year. The brainchild of scientists at Cambridge biotech firm Acambis, working with Belgian researchers, the vaccine will be tested on humans for the first time in the next few months. A similar universal flu vaccine, being developed by Swiss vaccine firm Cytos Biotechnology, could also be tested on people in 2007 - and the vaccines on the market in around five years. Importantly, the vaccines would also be quicker and easier to make than the traditional jabs, meaning vast quantities could be stockpiled against a global outbreak of bird flu. Martin Bachmann, of Cytos, said: "You could really stockpile it. In the case of a pandemic, that would be a huge advantage.

FBI, FEMA Move Some Jobs Outside 'Blast Zone'

The FBI and the Federal Emergency Management Agency are moving jobs to the Shenandoah Valley - a picturesque locale that happens to be just outside Washington's "blast zone." In the event of a nuclear explosion in the capital, Winchester's location about 70 miles from Washington would put it outside the fallout zone, often estimated at 50 miles. At the same time, employees could easily travel to Washington when they need to. The FBI chose Winchester, a city of 26,000, over other places of similar distance from Washington for a big centralized archive that by 2009 will employ at least 1,200 people, many of them now working in Washington and Baltimore. Some employees already are working in a temporary center outside Winchester. Meanwhile, FEMA has chosen a farm just outside town for an operations center that will employ 700 people. Local officials say it will include positions moved from Mount Weather, the government's hilltop emergency center on the border of Loudoun and Clarke counties. The trend is happening elsewhere in the region as well. Outside Martinsburg, W.Va., the Coast Guard is building a National Maritime Center, a 200-person office currently in Arlington County. In Washington County, Md., near Hagerstown, the government is redeveloping the vacant Fort Ritchie to house national-security jobs.
Federal officials defended the moves, "For any government agency looking at a new facility in this day and age, of course, security is going to be a priority," FBI spokeswoman Cathy Milhoan said.

Kids Interested In The Occult

Researcher George Barna narrowed his yearly religious surveys to the top 12 most significant or surprising findings and highlighted religious faith to be a hot issue in people's lives still today. And the future of America's faith looks more diverse than ever. The 12 most noteworthy outcomes... Three out of every four teenagers have engaged in at least one type of psychic or witchcraft-related activity. Among the most common of those endeavors are using a Ouija board, reading books about witchcraft or Wicca, playing games involving sorcery or witchcraft, having a “professional” read their palm or having their fortune told. Conversely, during the past year fewer than three out of every ten churched teenagers had received any teaching from their church about elements of the supernatural.

Orwell Was Right: Spy Cameras See Britons' Every Move

It's Saturday night in Middlesbrough, England, and drunken university students are celebrating the start of the school year, known as Freshers' Week. One picks up a traffic cone and runs down the street. Suddenly, a disembodied voice booms out from above: ``You in the black jacket! Yes, you! Put it back!'' The confused student obeys as his friends look bewildered. ``People are shocked when they hear the cameras talk, but when they see everyone else looking at them, they feel a twinge of conscience and comply,'' said Mike Clark, a spokesman for Middlesbrough Council who recounted the incident. The city has placed speakers in its cameras, allowing operators to chastise miscreants who drop coffee cups, ride bicycles too fast or fight outside bars. Almost 70 years after George Orwell created the all-seeing dictator Big Brother in the novel ``1984,'' Britons are being watched as never before. About 4.2 million spy cameras film each citizen 300 times a day, and police have built the world's largest DNA database. Prime Minister Tony Blair said all Britons should carry biometric identification cards to help fight the war on terror. At a single road junction in the London borough of Hammersmith, there are 29 cameras run by police, government, private companies and transport agencies. Police officers are even trying out video cameras mounted on their heads. ``We've got to stand back and see where technology is taking us,'' said Thomas, whose job is to protect people's privacy. ``Humans must dictate our future, not machines.'' Blair said citizens have to sacrifice some freedoms to fight terrorism, illegal immigration and identity fraud.

Eight Nations Now Building ICBM Nuclear Missiles

Ballistic missile defense programs around the world are going to have their work cut out for them: At least eight nations went all out in developing their own offensive ballistic missile programs in 2006, a new survey says. ‘According to a preliminary count, eight countries launched more than 26 ballistic missiles of 23 types in 24 different events,’ the Strategic Security Blog of the Federation of American Scientists recently reported. North Korea was not on the only ballistic missile-developing nation to experience test failures in its 2006 missile testing, the SSB report noted. Russia and India did too. However, ‘the United States demonstrated a very reliable capability including the 117th consecutive successful launch of the Trident II D5 sea-launched ballistic missile,’ the SSB said. The SSB noted the extensive ballistic missile testing activities of the United States, Russia, France and India, and dryly noted that they reflected ‘yet another double standard in international security.’ It recommended ‘that initiatives are needed to limit not only proliferating countries from developing ballistic missiles but also find ways to curtail the programs of the existing nuclear powers.’

Giant ice shelf breaks off in Canadian Arctic, Global Warming Sign ?

An enormous ice shelf broke away from Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic, researchers said, warning it could be another symptom of global warming. The 66-square-kilometer (25.5-square-mile) ice island tore away from Ellesmere, a huge strip of land in the Canadian Arctic close to Greenland. The break was so violent that it caused tremors that were detected by Canadian seismographs 250 kilometers (155 miles) away, but at the time no one was able to pinpoint what had happened. The Canadian Ice Service contacted geographer Luke Copland of the University of Ottawa, who reconstructed the chain of events by piecing together data from the seismic readings and satellite images provided by Canada and the United States. "This loss is the biggest in 25 years, but it continues the loss that occurred within the last century," Copland told AFP, saying 90 percent of the the ice cover had been lost since the area was discovered in 1906. "What is important and interesting is that it is sudden, quite large even," he said. "In the past, we looked to climate change (and) thought perhaps ice shelves ... would just melt apart by losing a little piece day by day, but it now seems that when you reach some kind of threshold, when you reach that level, the whole thing just breaks apart." Following the discovery, biologist Warwick Vincent of Laval University in Quebec, visited the icy waters of the Arctic to view the "new island." Vincent said he had seen nothing like it in the past decade. "It really is incredible," Vincent was quoted as saying by the newspaper National Post.

Majority Of Americans Believe In Angels

An overwhelming majority, almost regardless of backgrounds and religious convictions, think angels are real, according to an AP-AOL News poll exploring attitudes about Santa Claus, angels and more. Belief in angels, however people define them, is highest — almost universal — among white evangelical Christians, 97 percent of whom trust in their existence, the poll indicates. But even among people with no religious affiliation, well more than half said angels are for real. Protestants, women, Southerners, Midwesterners and Republicans were the most likely to believe in angels, although strong majorities in other groups also shared that faith. Belief in angels declined slightly with advanced education, from 87 percent of those with high school education or less to 73 percent of those with college degrees. Overall, 81 percent believed in angels.

Using Global Positioning System to Take Command

Global Positioning Satellite System (GPS) technology offers solutions to these challenges. GPS enables an individual to determine his precise location on the Earth via devices that receive signals from a constellation of 24 satellites. Imagine establishing a command post with computer screens that graphically depict the locations of resources and display a real-time image of the scene from a satellite, albeit with a slight delay. Commanders at distant locations could view the same picture, communicate and develop strategies. In addition, if personnel are properly equipped, the incident commander can transmit information such as a picture of a wanted suspect, logistical plans of a building or an overhead view of a disaster to personnel through a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA). GPS can increase efficiency, promote officer safety, augment plan development, and enhance communications between headquarters and field command posts.

FDA Approves Food From Clones Without Warning Labels

A long-awaited study by federal scientists concludes that meat and milk from cloned animals and their offspring is safe to eat and should be allowed to enter the food supply without any special labeling. The finding is a strong signal that the Food and Drug Administration will endorse the use of cloning technology for cattle, goats and pigs when it publishes a key safety assessment intended to clear the way for formal approval of the products.

No Matter Where Patients Go, Chip Lets Hospital Know

It's the stuff of futuristic novels: Everyone is issued a bracelet that emits radio waves to track their location. Where they are and how long they've been there is displayed on a computer screen that's continuously monitored. This technology is no longer just fiction. It's being used now at hospitals across the country, including Middle Tennessee.
Becky Morris, a patient at Middle Tennessee Medical Center, says the bracelet gives her a sense of security. "I think it's great," said Morris, who recently underwent knee-replacement surgery. "I like everybody to know where I'm at." Advocates of the technology, called radio frequency identification, say it will lead to faster patient treatment and better health outcomes. The transmitters will also be attached to medical equipment, to help keep track of it. "This is a time-saving measure that allows us to quickly locate patients and equipment," said Emily Gardner, who works in MTMC's "mission control," a room with eight computer screens that show the location of every patient and 1,600 pieces of hospital equipment. "This gives us an overall view of what's going on in the hospital." Not everyone is a fan of the technology. Liz McIntyre, communications director for CASPIAN, a group that seeks to educate consumers about marketing strategies that invade their privacy, says the group is opposed to using the technology to track people. She says the concern is that one day it will be used to constantly monitor people as they go about their daily lives. To some extent, McIntrye says, that's already happening. She pointed to toll tags that allow people to quickly get through tollbooths on the interstate. Like it or not, some health experts predict it's only a matter of time before the transmitters become commonplace in hospitals. Locally, patients and equipment at Middle Tennessee Medical Center are being tracked via the technology. Hospital Corporation of America, which owns several hospitals in the Nashville area, is testing it to monitor equipment in some of its Florida and Texas facilities. And a Vanderbilt University Medical Center official says it's not a question of if, but when they will purchase the equipment to track patients, equipment, and perhaps employees.

We'll All Be Cyborgs Someday, Scientist Says

In "Casino Royale," the latest James Bond movie, Bond is implanted with a microchip that allows headquarters to track his whereabouts and monitor his vital signs. If a British cybernetics expert is right, the day will come when most people are implanted with chips — and the real-life chips will do a lot more than Bond's does. Kevin Warwick, a professor of cybernetics at the University of Reading, has firsthand knowledge. In 1998, he had a chip surgically inserted into his left arm, becoming, he thinks, the first human ever implanted with a computer chip. Since then, he's had a more sophisticated chip connected directly to his nervous system. He is still working toward his grandest experiment: having a chip implanted in his brain.

Wiccans Witches Going Mainstream

With an estimated 400,000 members nationwide, and a high-profile fight with the federal government over veterans' grave markers, Wiccans are moving into a more prominent place in the religious landscape. And Selena Fox is leading the way. A Wiccan priestess and founder of Circle Sanctuary, a 200-acre nature center in the Wisconsin woods about 30 miles west of Madison, Fox battles for acceptance of the so-called neo-pagan religion. Fox, whose graying hair flows midway down her purple dress and matching cape, exudes more hippie-esque charm than any kind of Hollywood-conjured witchery. She embraces the task of fighting discrimination against Wiccans. "Spirituality should be something that lifts the spirit," she said. Fox, a 57-year-old psychotherapist, wants to make clear that Wiccans do not worship the devil or engage in Satanism. She doesn't cast spells, ride a broomstick or wear a pointy black hat. The golden rule for Wiccans is, "And it harm none, do what you will." A nature-based religion, the Wiccan faith is founded on respect for the earth, nature and the cycle of the seasons.

Electronic Tagging Of Humans

The electronic tagging of humans may provide immense applications from security and national identity management to the offender tagging. The uses of this technology are endless. It would provide a more permanent form of identification than a smart card. In the future, a silicon chip implant could provide a unique and permanent source of identification of a person, containing vast amount of data on an individual such as nationality, medical record and citizen data. This data would be retrieved easily and could be transmitted instantly to any place via internet. In the financial sector, it would offer new ways in personal verification technology. It would help in curbing identity theft and prevent fraudulent access to banking and credit card accounts because for meeting any such transaction, the physical presence would be required. In the fast changing world of information technology, the security is of paramount importance. In this field, the chip implant could integrate with advanced biometric devices such as retina scanners so as to enable the security managements safe access to buildings and government establishments. Its use could be extended to consumer products such as cars, homes, ACs and mobile telephones. Another important area of its use, would be in the countries where kidnapping for ransom is prevalent. The chip implant technology may provide an ideal solution. Soon you can have a tracking chip implanted in your body. If you have lost your little baby on way to school or at the mall, the Babysitter will track his location from a jellybean-sized microchip implant discretely tucked under the collarbone. The Constant Companion lets you keep a watchful eye on grandpa or grandma, even when you can’t be by their sides.

Building The Hal-Like Laptop That Will Know How You Feel

Rosalind Picard is a contagious bundle of excitement when she talks about "Mind Reader," a system developed by her team in the Affective Computing Group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass. "Mind Reader" uses input from a video camera to perform real-time analysis of facial expressions. Using color-coded graphics, it reports whether you seem "interested" or "agreeing" or if you're "confused" about what you've just heard.

More new babies named Mohammed than George in Britain

Mohammed or Muhammad has overtaken George near the top of the list of most popular names for newborn babies in Britain, according to statistics, reflecting the ethnic mix of the population. The Office for National Statistics said Thursday there were 2,833 baby boys called Mohammed in 2006, with a further 1,422 Muhammads making a total of 4,255, exceeding the number of Georges (3,386) and Josephs (3,755). Mohammed is the 22nd most popular name for a newborn baby, while the spelling Muhammad is 44th and enters the top 50 for the first time.

Samsung CEO Predicts ‘Pseudo Human Brain’ by 2020

One day, electronic memory speed, logic speed and processing capability may match the levels of the human brain. Chang-Gyu Hwang, president and CEO of Samsung Electronics' Semiconductor Business, thinks this capability will come soon. During a keynote speech at this week’s IEDM conference in San Francisco, Hwang said, “The pseudo human brain will be available in 2020.” Hwang inspired the 1500-plus audience members with bold predictions as well as interesting specifics about the direction for perhaps today’s most aggressive semiconductor company. Among the technologies he highlighted were the imminent replacement of hard drives with NAND flash, which will allow boot times on PCs to shorten from ~50 seconds to only 10 seconds. The company will roll out more stacked memories, including an interesting new 3-D stack for SRAMs that minimizes litho steps and enables blazing processing speeds. He also talked about an end to industry cycles. Hwang’s overall theme was that we are entering the fusion era where individual technologies (memory, logic, MEMS, image sensors, biochips, and even software) will be combined to meet the needs of a multimedia, wireless society. We have gone through the PC-centric era, and are now in the mobile consumer era. Around 2010, developments will be predominantly in the information technology and media communications arenas. Going into 2020, the emphasis will be more on humanoid and bioscience capabilities to enhance the quality of life.

Preparing The Biggest Multi-Dimension Experiment Ever Conducted

An international team of over 2,000 scientists, led by Professor Tejinder Virdee from Imperial College London's Department of Physics is stepping up preparations for the world's largest ever physics experiment, starting next year at CERN near Geneva, Switzerland. Professor Virdee is the lead scientist on the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) particle detector experiment, which will aim to find new particles, detect mini black holes and solve some of the mysteries of the universe such as where mass comes from, how many dimensions there are and what constitutes dark matter. Particles are the building blocks of matter and are even smaller than atoms. Scientists hope the CMS experiment may also help them progress towards a unified theory to explain all physical phenomena – a theory that has eluded scientists up until now.

Druids - and a Wizard - Celebrate Solstice at Stonehenge

Pagans and druids assembled in the early morning mist for a celebration of the winter solstice at Stonehenge yesterday. Many were dressed in flowing robes in white or earth colours while one man came dressed as a wizard. A pagan wedding ceremony was conducted amid the stones. Experts are divided as to whether the prehistoric stone monument was put up to mark the winter solstice or or the summer solstice, which usually draws a bigger crowd.

Some See 666 In Mandatory National Animal Identification

Initial plans for a national livestock identification program were unveiled in 20002 and almost immediately opposition to the program started to mount. In fact, some said the proposed ID program is a new threat to rural freedom. The voices against instituting the USDA National Animal Identification System (NAIS) continue to grow louder as more elements of the plan are being put in place by USDA. Opponents base their stand on a smorgasbord of issues ranging from the plan being unconstitutional to not fulfilling the initial goal of the program, and from an unfair economic burden on livestock producers to the infringement of their personal and religious rights. Even though the NAIS process has advanced to the stage of voluntarily obtaining premise ID numbers, those opposed to the program hope to stop it dead in its tracks, before January 2008, when they claim USDA will make premise and animal identification mandatory. To better understand the opposition to the plan, a little background information is first needed. The NAIS plan is basically made up of two registration components and an additional animal tracking capability. First, every person who owns even one cow, pig, horse, sheep, bison, chicken, turkey, or virtually any livestock animal, would be required to register their location, including name, address, telephone number, GPS coordinates, in a federal database under a 7-digit “premise ID number.” The second part would require these owners to obtain a 15-digit ID number for any animal that ever leaves the premises of its birth. This number would also be kept in a federal database. Even though these registrations are now voluntary, opponents to NAIS say it's only a matter of time until they become required and they point to recent statements by political and commodity leaders to prove that point. Finally, once the two ID parts are in place, animal tracking will be easily accomplished. “We want to see it mandatory,” Philippi said. “We believe the best thing that can happen is that if it's a mandatory law people have to register their premises, because if we can have that 48-hour trace-back, we protect our herd.” The voices against instituting the USDA National Animal Identification System (NAIS) continue to grow louder as more some are claiming that the proposed ID system directly conflicts with the Bible's book of Revelation, where chapter 13 warns, “The Beast also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name.” William Jud, writing in Maine's Magic City Morning Star, said “The convergence of NAIS and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags enables the Beast Computer to place its mark on every item of commerce. If the Beast Computer does not, will not, or is instructed not to recognize its identifying mark the Beast will not let you buy or sell.”

A Gag on Free Speech

The Bush administration is trampling on the First Amendment and well-established criminal law by trying to use a subpoena to force the American Civil Liberties Union to hand over a classified document in its possession. The dispute is shrouded in secrecy, and very little has been made public about the document, but we do not need to know what's in it to know what's at stake: if the government prevails, it will have engaged in prior restraint - almost always a serious infringement on free speech - and it could start using subpoenas to block reporting on matters of vital public concern.

The Blasphemy Challenge

Would you trade your soul for a DVD? Well, over one hundred young people (and counting) have. A group calling itself the "Rational Response Squad" is inviting people (mainly teens) to blaspheme the Holy Spirit and thereby commit the "unpardonable sin." If you are among the first 1001 people to declare "I deny the Holy Spirit" and post your denial on YouTube, you, too, will receive the free DVD, "The God Who Wasn't There." The RRS reports that the Blasphemy Challenge is targeting 25 websites geared to teens including Xanga, Friendster, Boy Scout Trail, Tiger Beat, Teen Magazine, YM, CosmoGirl! and Seventeen. Their aim: to de-program kids who have been indoctrinated from birth to believe in God, in general, and Christianity in particular. In the words of RRS, "If we talked about religion the same way we talk about science, history or other fields involving truth claims, dogma would wither in the light."

Human Thoughts Control New Robot

Scientists have created a way to control a robot with signals from a human brain. By generating the proper brainwaves—picked up by a cap with electrodes that sense the signals and reflect a person's instructions—scientists can instruct a humanoid robot to moves to specific locations and pick us certain objects. The commands are limited to moving forward, picking up one of two objects and bringing it to one of two locations. The researchers have achieved 94 percent accuracy between the thought commands and the robot's movements. "This is really a proof-of-concept demonstration," said Rajesh Rao, a researcher from the University of Washington who leads the project. "It suggests that one day we might be able to use semi-autonomous robots for such jobs as helping disabled people or performing routine tasks in a person's home."

Secret Societies: They Are Not Just at Yale - They Are Running a University Near You

The world over has heard of Skull and Bones of Yale University. This elite secret society holds within its membership at least four U.S. Presidents. George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry are both members of Skull and Bones. This made the 2004 presidential election the first known election where two secret society members ran against each other. However, names like the Order of the Bull's Blood, Mystical Seven Society, The Order of Gimghoul , Burning Spear, and Machine are less familiar. Make no mistake these too are powerful societies. The clear pronounceable difference between these organizations and Skull and Bones is that these secret societies were founded and continue to wield power at universities where ivy does not grow. Just how these societies impact the physical landscapes and traditions of school are probably the easiest thing to observe about them. For instance, The Seven Society writes 7s on school property at the University of Virginia. Members of Burning Spear begin the beating of a large drum in the FSU's Student Union when the university plays a rival like UM or UF. The Noze has painted school bridges pink , dyed the water in school fountains pink, and made false announcements declaring Homecoming canceled. Michigamu, unlike any other group on campus, is given a free office space on campus.
Some may see these acts as mysterious or cool, foolish or petty vandalism, or simply harmless but they have been mistakenly viewed as part of these Universities' distinctions and traditions. These organizations are physically making a clear statement: This university and everything you think is yours belongs to us. They are given the power to take up space and "decorate" the university as they see fit without question, without revealing their motives or membership, and without campus reprisal and without being subjected to following standard university rules.

Inventing Our Evolution

The surge of innovation that has given the world everything from iPods to talking cars is now turning inward, to our own minds and bodies.... We are transforming our minds, our memories, our metabolisms, our personalities and our progeny. Serious people, including some at the National Science Foundation in Arlington, consider such modification of what it means to be human to be a radical evolution -- one that we direct ourselves. They expect it to be in full flower in the next 10 to 20 years.

Young People Buying Conspiracies About Jesus

Some Americans give credence to suggestions that Jesus of Nazareth married Mary Magdalene and had children, the central ideas in the novel "The Da Vinci Code."
But a much larger number - 40 percent of the 1,031 adults interviewed in a Scripps Howard/Ohio University poll - say it's possible that early church leaders withheld important details about Jesus' life. Dan Brown's book suggests that the Christian church's hierarchy for nearly 2,000 years has suppressed the complete story of Jesus' life, including the fact that he raised a family whose offspring exist into the present day. One of the novel's central characters discovers she is a direct descendent of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. "The power of this story had more to do with the conspiracy theory than with the actual data concerning the life of Jesus," said the Rev. Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. "The book gave people who are looking for a conspiracy theory and people who are interested in an imaginative reconstruction of Jesus some new material to work on." The survey tested whether Brown's theories have resonated with the public. Participants in the poll were asked, "Do you think it is likely that Jesus was married or do you think Jesus never married?" Eighteen percent said they think it is likely that Jesus married, 58 percent consider it unlikely and 24 percent are undecided. The survey also asked, "Do you think it is likely that Jesus fathered a child or do you think Jesus did not father a child?" Twenty-three percent said they think this is likely, 56 percent said it's unlikely and 21 percent were uncertain. Even though people who believe the major claims of "The Da Vinci Code" are in the minority, religious scholars said they are still surprised by the figures. "I'm stunned that there are this many," said theology professor Eric Plumer of the University of Scranton, a Catholic school. "With regard to 'The Da Vinci Code,' the Roman Catholic Church and the Vatican have adopted a philosophy of just ignoring the subject. That was a mistake, especially in a time when there is so much ignorance. This could have been an opportunity for teaching, but the church hasn't taken it."
The poll found young people 18 to 24 are especially likely to be open to new interpretations of Jesus' life. Nearly a third say they think it's likely that Jesus had children, compared to only one in eight of Americans 65 or older.

The Wild Weapons of DARPA

DARPA now embraces the imagery of the natural environment in its "Organic Air Vehicles in the Trees" project, which sounds downright "green," though it's actually a tiny UAV that will fly in the forests, over hills and through cities searching for enemies.... its "Bio-Revolution" program which seeks to "harness the insights and power of biology to make U.S. warfighters and their equipment… more effective.".... to "help researchers in various disciplines self-assemble into teams capable of developing plant inspired actuation systems that will ultimately have application in military adaptive or morphing structures."

FDA to Discuss Using Cow-Human Blood Substitute On Trauma Victims Without Their Consent

The Navy's latest proposal to test a blood substitute on 1,100 trauma victims appears more likely to earn a go-ahead from regulators who had blocked the experiment over safety concerns. The Navy wants to test the product, derived from cow blood, on civilian trauma victims in emergency situations. It proposes doing so without obtaining their consent in advance, as is customary in clinical trials. The substitute blood, called Hemopure, would be given on the way to the hospital to patients ages 18 to 69 who have lost dangerous amounts of blood. It would substitute the saline fluids typically given in ambulances when donated blood is unavailable for transfusion. Three times since June 2005, the Food and Drug Administration has blocked Hemopure trials from starting. Each time, it has cited safety concerns. Its manufacturer, Biopure Corp., based in Cambridge, Mass., contends that the benefits of Hemopure outweigh its risks. The Navy, which is overseeing the government-funded study, has since revised its design. It now says the product won't be given to patients 70 or older, and it's limiting the amount of Hemopure that would be given to trauma victims. Those changes may persuade the FDA to allow the experiment to proceed.

U.S. To Defend Space With Military Force

The United States will use military force in space to protect satellites and other space systems from attack by hostile states or terrorists, the Bush administration's senior arms-control official said yesterday. Robert Joseph, undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, said in a speech outlining a new White House space policy that free access to space is a "vital" U.S. interest and that the Bush administration opposes new agreements that would limit U.S. space defenses.

Scientists Busy Combining Human And Animal Cells To Create Hybrid Creatures

What happens when you cross a human and a mouse? Sounds like the beginning of a bad joke but, in fact, it's a serious high tech experiment recently carried out by a research team headed by a distinguished molecular biologist, Irving Weissman, at Stanford University's Institute of Cancer/Stem Cell Biology and Medicine. Scientists injected human brain cells into mouse fetuses, creating a strain of mice that were approximately 1 percent human. Dr. Weissman is actively considering a follow-up experiment that would produce mice whose brains are 100 percent human. What if the mice escaped the laboratory and began to proliferate in the outside environment? What might be the ecological consequences of mice who think like human beings, let loose in nature? Dr. Weissman says he would keep a tight rein on the mice and if they showed any signs of humanness he would kill them. Hardly reassuring. In a world where the bizarre has become all too commonplace, few things any longer shock the human psyche. But, experiments like the one that produced a partially humanized mouse at Stanford University stretches the limits of human tinkering with nature to the realm of the pathological. Some researchers are speculating about human-chimpanzee chimeras-creating a humanzee. A humanzee would be the ideal laboratory research animal because chimpanzees are so closely related to human beings. Chimps share 98 percent of the human genome and a fully mature chimp has the equivalent mental abilities and consciousness of a four-year-old human child. Fusing a human and chimpanzee embryo-a feat researchers say is quite feasible-could produce a creature so human that questions regarding its moral and legal status would throw 4,000 years of human ethics into utter chaos.

General Foresees 100 Year War Against Terrorism

The American people need to prepare for a long-duration war against radical Muslims who are set to fight for 50 to 100 years to create an Islamist state in the region, a top Pentagon strategist in the war on terror says. Air Force Brig. Gen. Mark O. Schissler said in an interview that the current strategy for fighting Islamists includes both military and ideological components that make it similar to the 40-year Cold War against communism. "We're in a generational war. You can try and fight the enemy where they are and where they're attacking you, or prevent them and defend your own homeland," said Gen. Schissler, deputy director for the war on terrorism within the strategic plans office of the Pentagon's Joint Staff. "But that's not enough to stop it. We've got to break the chain, and that's ... the ideology. We really need to show the errors in Islamist extremist thinking." Gen. Schissler said he is concerned that Washington politics is weakening the will of the nation. "I don't care about the politics. I care about people understanding the facts of what's our enemy is thinking about, what's our strategy to defeat them, and for [Americans] to understand that it will take a long fight, mostly because our enemy is committed to the long fight," he said. "They're absolutely committed to the 50-, 100-year plan."
"One of my concerns is how to maintain the American will, the public will over that duration," he said.

N.J. Gov to Make Gay Unions Official

New Jersey's gay couples are gaining all the rights and responsibilities of marriage as the state moves to become the fifth in the nation to institute civil unions. New Jersey will join Connecticut and Vermont as states that allow civil unions for gay couples. Massachusetts allows gay couples to marry, while California has domestic partnerships that bring full marriage rights.

Artificial Intelligence To Move Video Surveillance to New Level

Surveillance cameras are sprouting up in more and more places, forming an ever more powerful tool for solving crimes after they happen. But what about using them to prevent or stop criminal and terrorist acts? This requires that someone, or something, watch these rapidly multiplying video feeds 24-7. And that’s the problem. Paying people to adequately monitor dozens, or even hundreds, of surveillance cameras can be highly expensive. Plus, humans tend to get bored and lose focus staring at security TV monitors hour after hour, day after day. Computerized monitoring would seem to be the obvious answer, but creating software programs that can recognize suspicious activities or suspect individuals has proven highly difficult. However, Rama Chellappa, a professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering of the University of Maryland’s A. James Clark School of Engineering, is developing a real-time computer monitoring system that provides some answers to this problem. Chellappa’s artificial intelligence system can reliably monitor surveillance images to detect certain suspicious movements or suspect individuals and alert human security personnel.

Stewardess banned from carrying Bible

A second airline is embroiled in a religious row after a stewardess decided to take bmi to an employment tribunal because it refused to allow her to carry a Bible on flights to Saudi Arabia. The stewardess, who has not been named, claims that she has been subject to discrimination because of her faith. She is understood to have deep religious convictions and carries a Bible with her at all times. But bmi, which is the only British scheduled carrier to fly to the country after British Airways pulled out of the route, insisted that it was only following Foreign Office advice. The dispute has erupted as British Airways seeks to settle its own dispute with Nadia Eweida, a Heathrow check-in worker, who has been banned from wearing a cross on a necklace while on duty. A spokesman for bmi said the airline was complying with Saudi law and added that the stewardess had been offered the opportunity to switch to working on its short-haul routes. It could not, however, alter its long-haul rosters to accommodate her.
The Foreign Office website informs travellers to Saudi Arabia: "The importation and use of narcotics, alcohol, pork products and religious books, apart from the Koran, and artifacts are forbidden." A spokesman said last night that the Saudi authorities would automatically confiscate a Bible from anybody trying to bring one into the country and it would not be returned.

Jesus, Mahdi both coming, says Iran's Ahmadinejad

In a greeting to the world's Christians for the coming new year, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he expects both Jesus and the Shiite messianic figure, Imam Mahdi, to return and "wipe away oppression." "I wish all the Christians a very happy new year and I wish to ask them a question as well," said Ahmadinejad. "My one question from the Christians is: What would Jesus do if he were present in the world today? What would he do before some of the oppressive powers of the world who are in fact residing in Christian countries? Which powers would he revive and which of them would he destroy?" asked the Iranian leader. "If Jesus were present today, who would be facing him and who would be following him?"

Elementary & Middle School Kids Are Joining Gangs

A study was done by the Baltimore City Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee. It identified more than two-thousand gang members in Baltimore. What is more alarming is that roughly 500 of the City's 26,000 gangs members attend elementary and middle schools. Some officials have studied the gang symbols and they see them all over. Police say they can even pinpoint the areas with heavy gang activity, by looking at the amont of crime and type of grafitti in neighborshoods. WJZ's Gigi Barnett talked to Jim Green, from Baltimore City Police. He says, "We've seen a spike in certain times of the year....and robberies have been one of the traditional gang initiation rites of passages. We see increases in assaults." The study found 95 percent of the members are black. Police say they gather information about suspected gang members from informants and admissions.

Orwellian Total Recall By 2026

Computers 'could store our entire life by 2026'. A device the size of a sugar cube will be able to record and store high resolution video footage of every second of a human life within two decades, experts recently said. Researchers said governments and societies must urgently debate the implications of the huge increases in computing power and the growing mass of information being collected on individuals. Some fear that the advent of "human black boxes" combined with the extension of medical, financial and other digital records will lead to loss of privacy and a dramatic expansion of the nanny state. Others highlight positive advances in medicine, education, crime prevention and the way history will be recorded. Leading computer scientists, psychologists and neuroscientists gathered to debate these issues at Memories for Life, a conference held at the British Library yesterday. Prof Nigel Shadbolt, president of the British Computer Society and professor of artificial intelligence at the University of Southampton, said: "In 20 years' time it will be possible to record high quality digital video of an entire lifetime of human memories. It's not a question of whether it will happen; it's already happening."

Farewell to Pax Americana

With hindsight we may see 2006 as the end of Pax Americana. Ever since World War II, the United States has used its military and economic superiority to promote a stable world order that has, on the whole, kept the peace and spread prosperity. But the United States increasingly lacks both the power and the will to play this role. It isn't just Iraq, though Iraq has been profoundly destabilizing and demoralizing. Many other factors erode U.S. power: China's rise; probable nuclear proliferation; shrinking support for open trade; higher spending for Social Security and Medicare that squeezes the military; the weakness of traditional U.S. allies -- Europe and Japan.

Building The Hi-Tech Human Body Of Tomorrow

Science and technology is progressing with a great pace and thus revolutionising medical science in particular. We are entering a century in which medical science will go beyond treating disease to create enhancements that will make us “better than well”. The advances in medical science like brain chips that enable us to control machines with our thoughts; design the child of your dreams, kidneys and lungs built to order in the lab; pills to make you smarter and more creative and an implant that gives you a tan and protects against skin cancer may well lead to more-than-human abilities. Genetics, materials science, tissue engineering and nanotechnology are already yielding products to help the sick and injured, including a Band-Aid-like heart patch and the C-leg prosthesis for amputees. All these innovations are in development; some are already being tested on human subjects.

Creationists Told To End School Campaign

A group of Christian academics promoting the Biblical story of creation in school science lessons have been told to end their campaign. In a letter, officials at the Department for Education and Skills told the group that creationism and its more recent off-shoot, intelligent design, have no place in the national curriculum and schools should refuse to use their teaching materials. The move comes amid growing debate over the use of religion to debate Darwin's theory of evolution in GCSE and A-level science. Truth in Science, which is funded and supported by prominent academics, teachers and clergymen, sent lesson plans to 5,700 state and private schools in September as part of a £20,000 campaign to promote alternative interpretations of the origins of life. The teaching packs - a booklet and two DVDs - ask schools to consider that certain features of the universe cannot be explained by natural selection, but are best explained as the work of an "intelligent designer".

Nanotechnology Report Creates Urgency for Preparation

A congressionally-mandated review of US nanotechnology policy conducted by the National Materials Advisory Board (NMAB) includes a study of "the feasibility of manufacturing systems capable of building, with molecular precision, complex systems that consist of multiple components." The Center for Responsible Nanotechnology (CRN) expects that the NMAB report will accelerate research toward the development of molecularly-precise manufacturing. However, without adequate understanding and preparation, exponential atom-by-atom construction of advanced products could have catastrophic results. Conclusions published in this report should create a new level of urgency in preparing for molecular manufacturing.

Technology gives police instant ID info

With a quick imprint of a suspect's two fingers on a handheld device, Columbus police can get instant access to the person's identity without making a trip to the booking office. The department announced this week it is testing 40 RapID wireless units it purchased recently for about $3,000 each using a federal Homeland Security grant.
Police say the new technology saves time by eliminating a trip to a downtown booking station. It typically would be used to check the identity of someone without proper ID who uses a name police suspect is not real. A person might not necessarily be arrested as a result of the check, but could be issued a summons or citation depending on the reason he or she was questioned. The system checks the fingerprints against existing prints in a Columbus police database, which includes about 250,000 entries. If there's a match, the officer will receive the person's real name, date of birth, gender and race at the scene.

India Aborting 7,000 Girls Daily

India is losing almost 7,000 girls daily because of the traditional preference for sons which cause many people to abort female foetuses, the UNICEF said. "India is one of the few countries worldwide with an adverse child sex ratio in favor of boys," the United Nations children's agency said in its annual "State of the World's Children Report"

Military Super Soldier Objective: Less Sleep, More Fight

Driven by the U.S. military's quest for a super soldier who is stronger, faster and can fight for days, researchers across the nation are seeking to challenge the notion of a good night's sleep. One of those is Lexicon Genetics. The Woodlands-based company recently received a grant from the Department of Defense, which has funded studies looking for ways to allow humans to sleep less and perform better far longer. Lexicon's scientists have used genetic engineering techniques to create mice that are more alert and active than normal mice. These test mice outperformed standard mice, which needed time to wake up in the morning and got tired when their energy dipped during afternoon. "The ultimate goal of the research is to find targets for drugs that can improve sleep quality," said Brian Zambrowicz, Lexicon's executive vice president of research. "Insomnia is a huge problem, and it's crucial to find new ways to treat it." Lexicon's scientists say they are studying whether genetically modified mice are getting a different, more restorative, kind of sleep, which boosts their energy. These studies might lead to treatments that could, for example, prolong wakefulness or promote restorative sleep. The military has long been interested in performance-enhancing drugs that would enable soldiers to carry out 48 to 72 hours of continuous operations without jeopardizing their physical and mental health. By supporting long-term research projects, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, hopes to unshackle sleep from the limits imposed by nature. "The goal of the DARPA Preventing Sleep Deprivation Program is to research and develop technologies that will assist in maintaining the cognitive performance of war fighters despite short-term sleep deprivation."

Scientist Plan To Revive 'Killer' Alien Life Frozen On Mars

Killer Aliens are lying frozen beneath the surface of Mars, says a top UK space scientist — and he wants to WAKE them. Planets expert John Murray believes life-forms on the Red Planet could be trapped in suspended animation. He warns they could wipe out all human life if they are brought here and escape. But he still wants to crash a rocket into the vast frozen ocean where he believes the creatures lie dormant — and revive them by adding water. The prospects for life on Mars were boosted last week by Nasa’s discovery of running water on the planet. Now Dr Murray, UK lead scientist with Europe’s Mars Express mission, claims he has overwhelming evidence of the frozen ocean near its equator where simple life could have thrived as microbes. He wants the rocket to blast a crater into ice floes in the region — named Elysium — allowing access to the aliens. Then he would land a follow-up probe to scoop up the soil, put it under a microscope and add water. Both Nasa and the European Space Agency plan to bring samples of Mars 48million miles back to Earth in the next decade to be studied in a lab. That is where the danger lies. Dr Murray said: “It is going to be extremely primitive life. We are talking about bacteria. “The only danger is if we brought it back and it escaped, we could have a War Of The Worlds situation. “Earth bacteria killed the invading Martians in that. The Martians brought to us could kill off humans. “We’d best have a good look at things on Mars before bringing anything back.” Dr Murray’s “alien resurrection” plans may not be fiction like movie Mars Attack. He said: “On Earth they have brought microbes in the Arctic back to life after 30,000 years.”

Skipping Into Ubiquitous Auto-Surveillance

Machines rather than people could soon be running Britain because the country has sleepwalked into a surveillance society, the Government's privacy watchdog warned today. Information Commissioner Richard Thomas delivered the alarming warning as fears grow over the explosion in technology used to monitor individuals. "There are dangers to our privacy, our autonomy, the more the information is converged together," he said. Stressing the threat came from government as well as private companies, he added: "We have got to make sure there is full accountability and that people don't go too far and really undermine our fundamental rights and our integrity as individuals. Humans must dictate our future, not machines." He also raised the spectre of surveillance getting so bad in Britain that it would be similar to eastern European countries when they were under Communist regimes. The Information Commissioner stressed that while much of the current data collected on individuals was "fragmented", the real danger to individual freedoms would come if all this information was gathered under a "Big Brother" regime. He stressed there were benefits from increased surveillance, such as the four million CCTV cameras across Britain, and other measures to fight crime and terrorism. However, he also emphasised there were "dangers" of people being wrongly accused of a crime or other offences because of flawed data or excessive surveillance. The leaking of information could also be problematic. "It's not just the cameras in the streets. It is the technology monitoring our movements and activities. Every time we use a mobile phone, use our credit cards, go online, do searches on the internet, electronic shopping...more and more information is being collected and we are leaving an electronic footprint," he said.
The report comes as an international league table is published suggesting Britain is the most "snooped on" nation in the world. The report warns: "The combination of CCTV, biometrics, databases and tracking technologies can be seen as part of a much broader exploration, often funded with support from the US/UK war on terror."
Fears are growing in the UK over the number of public databases. There are proposals to put millions of people's medical records on a controversial computer system for the NHS. There are also proposals for spy-in-the-sky technology to monitor the movement of every car under a road charging system, a database of all children for town halls, new biometric passports, as well as the latest Census which will ask people about their income and where they stay overnight.

Robot Support Vehicle Preparing for Battle

Lockheed Martin developers are stepping up their efforts to prepare the Squad Mission Support System (SMSS) for battle. The SMSS, in development for the past several years, is a small, mobile 2,500-pound manned and unmanned transport vehicle. The rationale for the vehicle, according to its developers, is to bring a logistical and tactical advantage to fast-moving squads of soldiers operating with light infantry units. “We feel there is a need for this system for light forces, and we will look at the Special Operations community. The vehicle will be small enough and transportable enough with light forces [that] are often airdropped into a combat location,” said Don Nimblett, manager for business development for unmanned systems at Lockheed Martin. The SMSS is semi-autonomous in certain respects, say Lockheed developers; it can be controlled by a small, remote hand-held device or by a small wearable computer traveling with a soldier. The vehicle is equipped with Global Positioning System (GPS) enhanced software, allowing it to conduct a “terrain analysis” through which the vehicle assesses and predicts where it can travel before charting a course. “Our goal is to develop a system with some degree of autonomy which can operate like a soldier,” Nimblett said. Developers say the SMSS, successfully tested last July at Fort Knox, Ky., can swim, climb mountains and handle all kinds of rigorous terrain.

Regional Nuclear War Could Spark Climate Change

New scientific modeling shows that a regional nuclear conflict between countries such as India and Pakistan could spark devastating climate changes worldwide, a team of researchers recently said. "We are at a perilous crossroads," said Owen Toon of the University of Colorado at Boulder's Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences. "The current combination of nuclear proliferation, political instability and urban demographics form perhaps the greatest danger to the stability of society since the dawn of humanity."

More Churches are getting ATMs 'Automatic Tithe Machines'

At the Stevens Creek Community Church in Georgia, USA, God takes credit cards, and Debit cards, too. Two "giving kiosks" sit just outside the church's chapel, next-generation collection plates that allow churchgoers to swipe their credit or debit cards and instantly send donations to the church. Pastor Marty Baker likes to call the black terminals ATMs — "automatic tithe machines." "We're just trying to connect with the culture," Baker said. "And that's how the culture does business. It's more than an ATM for Jesus. It's about erasing barriers." Baker came up with the idea three years ago when his east Georgia church was preparing for a fund-raising drive. He realized that, like many in his 1,100-member congregation, he rarely carried cash; he hired developers to find a way for his flock to pay with plastic. Eventually, they cobbled together a prototype that he set up at his church in early 2005. Since then, the evangelical church has seen an 18 percent bump in donations — and an average gift of more than $100 each time a card is swiped. The results encouraged Baker and his wife Patty to form a for-profit company, called SecureGive, which sells the terminals for between $2,000 and $5,000 apiece and charges a $50 monthly subscription fee. By the end of the year, they expect to have terminals in 15 spots across the country. The kiosks are fairly simple to use. After typing in a phone number and PIN number, users swipe a credit or debit card. The terminals allow users to give to a specific fund, such as a building drive or a mission. Afterward, they spit out a receipt.

MRSA Superbug Strain Kills Two

“A form of the superbug MRSA has killed patients in a British hospital for the first time, public health officials said today. Two people - a patient and a healthcare worker - died in September at a West Midlands hospital after contracting the aggressive strain of MRSA, the Health Protection Agency (HPA) said. An investigation by the HPA, which monitors infectious diseases, found eight people tested positive for Panton-Valentine Leukocidin community-associated MRSA, commonly known as PVL. Four of those people developed an infection, two of whom subsequently died. In a statement today the agency said: ‘This outbreak is the first time transmission and deaths due to this strain are known to have occurred in a healthcare setting in England and Wales.’ Most MRSA infections in UK hospitals occur in frail elderly patients, but PVL commonly affects healthy young people, though usually in the community. Angela Kearns, of the HPA, said the most commons symptoms of PVL infections were minor skin infections, such as boils and pimples, which could be treated successfully with everyday antibiotics. But occasionally PVL led to a more severe infection, including a form of pneumonia that could kill in 24 hours…”

Nineteen Eighty-Four Is Coming True

Nineteen Eighty-Four is coming true. Peter Wilson discovers George Orwell's London flat is surrounded by cameras, and surveillance monitors are about to get ears. SIXTY-ONE years ago, writer George Orwell sat in a chilly apartment on the top floor of a brick terrace in London conjuring up a fictional world in which people were under constant surveillance by cameras and microphones. It was there, perched four storeys above the gardens of Canonbury Square in Islington, that Orwell began writing Nineteen Eighty-Four, setting out an oppressive future in which the all-seeing government of Big Brother watched over its frightened citizens, stamping out privacy and all free thought. Now the electronic scrutiny is about to take a remarkable step forward. The walls are about to gain ears to go with their eyes. Ultra-sensitive microphones capable of listening to and recording private conversations in public places from up to 100m away are being introduced to London's streets. Experts believe that within a few years voice recognition technology will allow a new database to be built that could eventually allow officials to put a name to any voice picked up on the streets. After a series of trials in The Netherlands, Westminster City Council has become the first municipality in London to try out microphones as a way of detecting "breaches of the peace".

Iran envoy: Return of Golan Heights to Syria is our goal too

The Iranian ambassador to Damscus Hassan Akhtari said in an interview recently published that "returning the Golan Heights [to Syrian hands] is also an Iranian objective."
Speaking to the London-based Al Hayat Arab language newspaper, Akhtari said "the issue of Syrian participation in a peaceful retrieval of the Golan Heights has been on the agenda since the days of the late Syrian President Hafez Assad. Returning the Golan is not an exclusive Syrian objective, it is also an Iranian goal," he said. Akhtari's comments are uncommon in their explicitness, as Tehran is usually careful in making statements about Israel-Syria negotiations. Those urging Israel to renew its dialogue with Syria contend that talks with Damascus may weaken its strategic pact with Tehran. In this context Akhtari's interview can be seen as an attempt to restrain Syria from making overtures to Israel. The Iranian envoy said that relations between Damascus and Tehran were "excellent and strategic," although he stressed the two nations had not entered an official a pact.

Pentagon Evangelism Called 'National Security Threat'

Christian military officers who share their faith at work in the Pentagon pose a threat to national security, according to a group that advocates for religious neutrality in the military. Public displays of faith by high-ranking military officers project an image of a Christian nation waging war on non-Christians, both inside and outside the United States, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation recently said. This created an "internal national security issue every bit as great as the one we're fighting outwardly," said the organization's president, Mikey Weinstein. "The jihadists, the insurrectionists, everybody from the head of Hamas, Hizballah, the Islamic Jihad, the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, they see us as invading American imperialists and crusaders," he told a news conference in Washington, D.C. Weinstein, a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy who has been critical of proselytizing at the academy, called for an investigation into several officers who appeared in a promotional video for a Christian organization while in uniform. In addition to creating a national security threat, Weinstein said, evangelistic efforts by Christian officers directed toward their colleagues or subordinates amounted to "coercion" and "fanatical unconstitutional religious persecution."

VeriChip Infant Protection Product Now Used in One-In-Three U.S. Hospitals and Birthing Centers

Applied Digital, through its VeriChip Corp. subsidiary, announced today that it has passed an important milestone in the sale and use of VeriChip's infant protection systems, with one-out-of-three Hospitals and Birthing Centers in the United States now using systems manufactured by VeriChip. This includes systems sold under both the Hugs and HALO brand names. VeriChip believes that it has the largest installed base of infant protection systems of any company in the industry. Revenues from sales of VeriChip's infant protection systems increased by 28% during the first three- quarters of 2006 as compared to pro forma revenue from such systems during the comparable period in 2005. "This important achievement is reflective of VeriChip's leadership in RFID products for healthcare security solutions," said Daniel A. Gunther, President of VeriChip Corp. This system uses the first human-implantable passive RFID microchip, the implantable VeriChip(TM), cleared for medical use in October 2004 by the United States Food and Drug Administration.

Gorbachev and Reagan: A Military Alliance Against a Hypothetical Alien Attack

My question to Gorbachev was an unusual one for a statesman - it concerned certain public statements by Ronald Reagan about the possibility of "an alien threat from outside this world "coming from "another planet," which would eventually help all people recognize the common bond which "unites all the members of humanity." (Speeches on December 4, 1985, and before the UN on September 21, 1987.) During my question, Gorbachev interrupted me and, referring to Reagan, said, "Among other things he once talked about it with me as well." Why did Reagan talk to Gorbachev in private about an alien threat from other species?" The recent Gorbachev recollection is really meaningful and confirms what Zecharia Sitchin, the well-known Russian historian living in New York, wrote in his essay "Genesis Revisited," (1991) chapter 13: It is likely that the new era of understanding, trust and co-operation was also born because there was an alien threat to all the nations of the Earth.

Now The 'Lost Tribe of Manassah' Returns Home

One of the great mysteries of ancient history has been the fate of the lost tribes of Israel. Now the Israeli government, with the help of Jewish organizations, believes it has found members of the lost Tribe of Manasseh, today called Bnei Menashe. CBN watched as members of the long lost tribe returned to the Promised Land. Recently they joined with family members who had already immigrated to Israel for a tearful and emotional reunion at Israel's Ben-Gurion Airport. One group of Jews was part of the largest group in the tribe's history to return from India and resettle in the land of Israel. "Today is one of the happiest days for the Bnei Menashe history because we never had a large group like this that made aliyah," said one tribe member. One Jewish organization believes the Tribe of Manasseh is located in northeastern India in the states of Mizoram and Manipur. "We are convinced that they are Jewish and they are from the tribe of Bnei Menashe. It's our duty to bring them, so we do that," said Eli Izhaki of the Jewish Agency. The flight from India to Israel lasted only seven hours. But the arrival of the Bnei Menashe has been a journey nearly 3,000 years in the making. "I think what's happening today is nothing less than a miracle of Biblical and historic proportions," said Michael Freund, chairman of Shavai Israel, an organization dedicated to bringing lost Jews back to Israel. Freund said, "Twenty-seven centuries after the tribe of Menashe was exiled from the land of Israel, their descendents are coming home. This is the fulfillment of everything the prophets foretold. God promised us in the Book of Isaiah that with great, vast mercy shall I gather you in and that's what we're seeing."

Army Initiates Electronic Warfare Capability

One of the greatest emerging warfighting domains is the electromagnetic spectrum, the largely invisible space over which radio waves, light waves, and directed energy can travel. The Army has long developed systems which depend upon the spectrum for communications, radars, targeting assets, laser and radio frequency guided munitions, Global Positioning Systems, Blue Force Trackers and all manner of sensors for collecting intelligence and information. Currently, the Army is developing a much more robust network in its Future Combat Systems program. This will connect many new manned and unmanned systems that will enhance Soldier capability and protection.

GPS Technology Tracks More Employees

The company is one of a growing number using GPS to keep track of workers, said Chad Orvis, an attorney with the Mountain States Employers Council, which advises businesses on human-resources practices. Employers who use the technology, developed by the U.S. Department of Defense, rely on it to track employees who are off site, help lower fuel costs and increase productivity, Orvis said. Beside GPS, companies track other work-related functions - e-mail and Internet use, for example. Radio-frequency identification technology is used in ID tags that make it possible for an employer to know when a person walked through a security door. Chips using the technology can even be inserted into a human body.

Recoilless Technology Provides Killer App For UAVs

The technological progress of the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle has been astonishingly rapid. At the beginning of the current Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts, it’s fair to say that UAVs were regarded as a reconnaissance tool for improving situational awareness but from the time the first Hellfire missiles were fired from an RQ-1A Predator UAV during 2002, the enormous advantage of an armed UAV that can help identify and eliminate a target has been recognised. Predators can prowl and strike where conventional military force cannot. In September we wrote about the first purpose-built hunter-killer UAV, and now the rush is on to add armaments to smaller UAVs. UAVs must be relatively large to withstand the recoil of the weapons they shoot, so weapon caliber has been limited. Now a new recoilless technology is set to revolutionize the small UAV’s role in the battlespace - Recoilless Technologies International (RTI) has signed a Joint Commercialization Agreement with UAV manufacturer, Tactical Aerospace Group (TAG). The new technology offers effective elimination and control of recoil and hence enables very small UAVs to pack a massive wallop. That’s just the start though because the technology can be applied to larger caliber weapons systems so everything that flies, floats or moves on land will also be able to pack a similar increase in firepower. Who knows how small a killer UAV can get? We have visions of a swarm of semi-autonomous, networked, killer microbots shooting miniature poison-tipped darts as in Dan Brown's novel, Deception Point. RTI has successfully produced lightweight prototypes and the technology has undergone independent ballistic testing and the technology appears a genuine force multiplier. “RTI has the skills and capability to develop a recoilless ballistic armament system for TAG’s UAVs that will not only satisfy the capability requirements of “Detect First” but combine the much needed “Strike First” capability without placing valuable human resources in harm’s way or disrupting the flight pattern of the TAG rotary wing UAVs,” Mr. Richard Giza, RTI’s Chairman stated. “Although TAG’s advanced tactical UAVs have been in high demand, this new agreement will redefine the level of their war fighting capabilities and the requirements for all UAVs”, Mr. Giza said. The global marketplace for UAV technology is expanding, particularly in the United States. While UAV technology has played a key role in the US Future Combat Systems requirements, the development of a new Weaponized Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (WUAV), has the possibility of reshaping not only the capability requirements of the United States but other Allied Countries, including Australia, by adding a valuable tactical advantage to existing “Detect First” systems. “This is simply the first step of the realization of a larger capability enhancement for all Allied Forces,” the inventor of the Recoilless Technology Mr. Giza said.

UK Government Proposals Approve Human/Animal Embryo Hybrids

British researchers would be permitted to create human/animal embryo hybrids using test tube technology, under sweeping new proposals to be introduced by government health officials this week. Known as "chimeras", the embryos would be produced by combining human and animal genetic material within a laboratory setting--the North East England Stem Cell Institute has already requested permission to create an embryo that is part human and part cow. "The overarching aim is to pursue the common good through a system broadly acceptable to society," British Health Minister Caroline Flint said in a report on the policy changes. The coming proposals have been anticipated for some time, after urging by prominent leaders in the UK scientific community. A report introduced by members of the British Parliament's Science and Technology Select Committee in 2005 recommended relaxing current research restrictions to permit experimentation on human/animal hybrids, along with other proposals to permit screening of embryos for identifying genetic malformations and sex selection purposes.

The Role of Brain Research in National Defense

Military personnel in information-rich environments, like cockpits, could have their brain functions monitored for information overload, and officers behind the front lines could modify the flow of data accordingly, using devices now being developed to provide "real time" remote brain imaging. Other direct interventions to enhance soldiers' capabilities could come in many forms, including new generations of neuropharmaceuticals, implants, and neural stimulations. New antisleep agents like modafinil (which, under the brand name Provigil, readers' students may already have discovered) are replacing old-fashioned amphetamines among fighter pilots as well as globe-trotting business executives. Darpa's "peak soldier performance" program aims to improve metabolism on demand so a soldier could operate at a high level for three to five days, without needing sleep or calories, except perhaps high-nutrition pills. Darpa is also interested in increasing the "bandwidth" of soldiers' brains. One idea is to develop something called a "brain prosthesis," or a brain microchip

This Year Will Be Britain's Warmest Since Records Began

Britain is on course for the warmest year since records began, according to figures from the Met Office and the University of East Anglia yesterday. Temperatures logged by weather stations across England reveal 2006 to have been unusually mild, with a mean temperature of 10.84C. The record beats the previous two joint hottest years of 1999 and 1990 by 0.21C.

Iran's Frightening Holocaust Vision

Unfortunately, Iran is serious—or at least Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is deadly serious. Holocaust denial is his personal passion, not just a way of taunting Israel, and it's based in his personal interpretation of history. Earlier this year, in a distinctly eerie open letter to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, he lauded the great achievements of German culture and assaulted "the propaganda machinery after World War II that has been so colossal that [it] has caused some people to believe that they are the guilty party." Such views hearken back to the 1930s, when the then-Shah of Iran was an admirer of Hitler's notion of the "Aryan master race," to which Persians were meant to belong. Ahmadinejad himself counts as a mentor an early revolutionary who was heavily influenced by wartime Nazi propaganda.

Evil-Minded Parishioners Making Life Hell For Clergy

Churches in Britain are a “toxic cocktail” of bullying and terror, as parish priests struggle to lead congregations dominated by neurotic worshippers who spread havoc with gossip and manipulation. The “dark side” of parish life is detailed in a report published by the Church of England, which describes how peace and love are in desperately short supply in the pews of churches this Christmas. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, is among the contributors to the report, The Future of the Parish System: Shaping the Church of England for the 21st Century. One of the authors, Sara Savage, a psychology and religion researcher at the University of Cambridge, reports how increasing numbers of ministers are going down with a new illness, irritable clergy syndrome. Priests are being torn by the pressure of having to be nice all the time to everyone, even when confronted with extremes of nastiness, she says. It is worse in the suburbs, where Christians can choose between a variety of “gathered” churches, all offering different styles, from tambourines to High Mass with incense. Here, troublemakers indulge in “church hopping”, moving on to the next church once they have had enough of the one they are in.

VeriChip Corp Signs 3-year Distribution Contract With iChip Corporation Of South Africa

VeriChip Corporation ("VeriChip"), announced that iChip Corporation has acquired the distribution rights for all VeriChip radio frequency identification (RFID) products in South Africa, including VeriMed for patient identification, Roam Alert for wander prevention, HUGS for infant protection, and ToolHound. The three-year agreement is valued at US$750,000 and represents the first international deployment for the patient identification and medical information system.

Case Law School & WMU Receives NSF Grant To Study Enhancing Human Species Using Nanotechnology

Earlier this year, Case Law School received a grant from the National Institute of Health to begin research on human subjects for creating post-humans. Now Western Michigan University has received funding from the National Science Foundation to examine issues related to using nanotechnology to improve the capabilities of the human body. The project will focus on the ethical, social and related philosophical issues that arise in the application of nanotechnology to boost the abilities of humans. Nanotechnologically augmented vision, for example, is already under development and could amplify the natural vision of soldiers so that they could "see more than they naturally would", perhaps "finding tunnels hidden from natural sight" [aka Tom' Horn's proposition that human enhancement will open supernatural or dimensional gateways sealed off by the Creator].... For thousands of years, humans have enhanced their capacities by using tools, but technology today can be used to enhance humans themselves, either on or in their bodies... [to] make people more productive workers, more durable soldiers, more creative artists and more attractive people... "The ethics of human enhancement technologies is widely held to be the single most important debate in science and society and will define the 21st century," Lin says. "Today... with the accelerating pace of technology, some of the more fantastic scenarios may arrive sooner than people think--such as advanced cybernetic body parts and computers imbedded in our brains--which magnify the ethical issues involved.

National Stroke Association Views Implantable RFID Microchip such as VeriMed as a Potential Life-Saving Medical Device

In a letter to VeriChip Corporation, a subsidiary of Applied Digital Solutions (Nasdaq: ADSX - News), the National Stroke Association (NSA) has recognized that implantable RFID microchip technology offers the ability to improve stroke treatment by providing medical professionals with immediate access to vital health information of stroke-afflicted patients. An excerpt from the letter, signed by James Baranski, CEO of the National Stroke Association, states, "Personal Health Records, including implantable RFID microchips such as VeriMed, could play a critical role in assisting medical professionals in delivering appropriate stroke treatment promptly, leading to better patient outcomes." The VeriMed Patient Identification System which consists of a handheld radio frequency identification (RFID) scanner, an implantable RFID microchip and a secure patient database, is being used to help rapidly identify and provide access to important health information on participating patients who arrive at an emergency department unconscious, delirious or unable to communicate. This implantable RFID system is the only system of its type cleared by the United States Food and Drug Administration for use in people.

Synthetic Biology: Creating New Life Forms by Rearranging DNA

What synthetic biologists propose is more outrageous and dangerous than GMO crops, and it is easier for them to skirt around any rules and regulations. Synthetic biologists work inside hidden laboratories, not in open-air crop fields. They can place an order to build whole new viruses from synthetic DNA by simply ordering viral DNA from a genetic synthesis company. They want to use bits of DNA, called "bio-bricks," to build pseudo-organisms that can grow and act (even replicate) in more precisely controlled ways – creating "machines" which are "not quite like anything found in nature," explains Alex Steffen.

Expelling God From The Academy

In the Gospel of Matthew (19:24), Jesus speaks to his disciples about wealth: "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." The Christian life, at its foundation, is characterized by humility, which is to say that wealth, which fosters elitism, is often at odds with Christianity. The Bible does not say that prosperity is sinful, but those who place wealth above God are engaging in idolatry -- as defined in the Second of the Ten Commandments. One may rightly infer that a wealth of knowledge leading to academic elitism, like economic elitism, is also hostile to Christianity. Idolizing knowledge or wealth isolates one from the Truth and Light. While the federal judiciary erroneously cites the so-called "Living Constitution" to justify the eradication of God from the public square, it is wealthy university trustees and academic elitists who, under the aegis of "tolerance and diversity," seek to eradicate God from the academy. How is it that historic institutions such as Harvard, Yale and Princeton have all but forsaken their Christian foundations -- particularly in the last few decades? The answer is that, commensurate with the growth of their economic and academic stores, they rely on ever-wealthier trustees and enrollment prospects. (The average tuition among these institutions is now $42,000 -- and that's before room and board.) This is certainly not to say that our nation is devoid of wealthy and intelligent Christians, or that being of modest means insures one from materialist idolatry. Idolatry is not, after all, what you own, but what owns you. This is to say, however, that the potential for idolatry increases exponentially with growth in economic and academic elitism. Consequently, left-elite academicians, and their cadre of wealthy "Rockefeller conservatives" (economic conservatives/social liberals), who comprise majorities on most academic boards, harbor contempt for Christianity in academia.

Goldeneye 80 UAV Designed For Urban Warfare

Athena Technologies has announced its GuideStar flight control and navigation system contributed to the successful first flight of Aurora Flight Sciences' GoldenEye 80 unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The unique design and embedded capabilities of the GoldenEye 80 enable the UAV to be used for a variety of military missions, from conducting surveillance beyond hills in rural areas to gathering intelligence while flying between buildings in urban warfare operations. The GoldenEye 80 is being developed under contract to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) through its Organic Air Vehicle (OAV-II) program, which has responsibility for the development of UAVs to support small military groups conducting tactical missions. Standing 65 inches tall and weighing about 150 pounds, the ducted fan UAV takes off and lands vertically but can also transition to horizontal flight using wings. The flight marked an industry milestone as GoldenEye 80 became the first ducted fan UAV to fly under the power of a heavy fuel engine. Heavy fuel engines enable an aircraft to conveniently use common military fuel.

Israel Sees Similarities Between Ezekiel's Prophecies, Today's Mideast Reality As Uncanny

Current world events are beginning to increasingly resemble the 2,500 year old bible prophecy made by Ezekiel in chapters 38-39. Ezekiel foresaw the rise of Russia in a coalition with Iran and other Middle Eastern countries (Sudan, Ethiopia and Libya). The coalition is foretold to attack Israel from the north in a bid to destroy it during the earth's "last days," commonly known as the "war of Gog and Magog." Throughout history it was thought that the prophecy had been put on hold, until perhaps today when it seems frighteningly more feasible. If prophecies such as "the rebirth of the State of Israel, the return of the Jews to the Holy Land after centuries in exile, the re-blossoming of desolate desert land to produce abundant food, fruit and foliage, and the creation of an exceedingly great army" materialized in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, then why shouldn't the next prophecies come true in our lifetime? Magog, according to scholars, refers to Russia and the republics of the former Soviet Union, or perhaps Turkey. According to the prophecy in question, "many peoples with you" who will attack along "the mountains of Israel" implies that other countries will be involved in the Russian (or Turkish), Iranian, Sudanese, Ethiopian and Libyan coalition, and who border on the mountains of Israel. This includes Lebanon, Syria and possibly Jordan as well. Is it so farfetched to imagine the axis between Hizbullah, Iran and Syria, especially after the second war in Lebanon when these three forces overtly united and continue to support each other's goal to destroy Israel? According to the prophecy Magog "will build a military coalition and prepare a strike against Israel." Gog "will use overwhelming force against Israel" - could this be referring to nuclear force? And this coalition will "come like a storm…like a cloud covering the land." But let's not become hysterical. According to the prophecy, there is no need for Israel to become alarmed, "as the Lord God will bring judgment upon the enemies of Israel beginning with Gog (the tyrant)." Ezekial prophesizes a great earthquake and the turning of Gog's forces against each other. The next step, which prophesizes God subjecting the enemy to "pestilence, blood, torrential rains, hailstones and fire from heaven," is unclear and sounds like someone pressed the nuclear button, and if so, then who, and who in the region would survive it? But as in all happy endings, Israel, it is prophesized, will regain its economic prosperity. So the question remains: Should we wait for future developments and hope for the best, or look more closely at Ezekiel's prophecy and consider preemptive action to stop what may be seen as an imminent threat rising from the "anti-Israel coalition?" With this said, Ezekiel's prophecy says nothing about an Israeli pre-emptive strike to avert a possible attack – and indeed, it appears such a strike is unlikely considering the current state of our dubious, weak leadership.

Add DNA Samples From Babies To A National Database?

Britain's most senior murder investigator is calling for DNA to be taken from babies. Commander Dave Johnston said it would build up a database to SOLVE crimes and PREVENT others. He said samples could also be taken from Britons renewing passports and from migrants arriving here. “As well as solving crime, it would really make someone think twice about committing crime if they knew their DNA was on a database.

12 million suburbanites live in poverty

As Americans flee the cities for the suburbs, many are failing to leave poverty behind. The suburban poor outnumbered their inner-city counterparts for the first time last year, with more than 12 million suburban residents living in poverty, according to a study of the nation's 100 largest metropolitan areas recently released. "Economies are regional now," said Alan Berube, who co-wrote the report for the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. "Where you see increases in city poverty, in almost every metropolitan area, you also see increases in suburban poverty." Suburbs are adding people much faster than cities, making it inevitable that the number of poor people living in suburbs would eventually surpass those living in cities. The poverty rate in large cities (18.8 percent) is still higher than it is in the suburbs (9.4 percent). But the overall number of people living in poverty is higher in the suburbs in part because of population growth. America's suburbs are becoming more diverse, racially and economically. "There's poverty really everywhere in metropolitan areas because there are low-wage jobs everywhere," Berube said. Recent immigrants are increasingly bypassing cities and moving directly to suburbs, especially in the South and West. Those immigrants, on average, have lower incomes than people born in the United States.

Military Nanotechnology: Potential Applications and Preventive Arms Control

A new book by German physicist Jürgen Altmann of Dortmund University looks at Military Nanotechnology: Potential Applications and Preventive Arms Control (Routledge, 2006). Both near-term and long-term applications are examined. This is from the abstract: "NT applications will likely pervade all areas of the military…By using NT to miniaturise sensors, actuators and propulsion, autonomous systems (robots) could also become very small, principally down to below a millimetre – fully artificial or hybrid on the basis of e.g. insects or rats. Satellites and their launchers could become small and cheap, to be used in swarms for earth surveillance, or for anti-satellite attack. Whereas no marked change is expected concerning nuclear weapons, NT may lead to various new types of chemical and biological weapons that target specific organs or act selectively on a certain genetic or protein pattern. On the other hand, NT will allow cheap sensors for chemical or biological warfare agents as well as materials for decontamination.

The Resurgent Russian Bear Is Moving Fast In The Middle East

To Israel's detriment, it appears that Moscow has identified the Middle East as a primary region through which to recapture its former international significance. Russia has sought to present itself to the Arabs as a more neutral arbiter than the U.S. in order to increase its international influence in this strategic region of the world. To this end, Moscow has courted some of the most noxious regimes in the neighbourhood and provided them with sophisticated weaponry and diplomatic support which has been extremely damaging to Israel's interests.

Governor Kaine Reports Strange Mansion Events

Governor Tim Kaine isn't ruling out the possibility of ghosts in the governor's mansion home. He was asked on his monthly radio show on the Virginia News Network today whether he has had paranormal experiences like some previous Executive Mansion occupants, Kaine flatly answered: "Yes." Kaine said today that the telephone rings in his family's private quarters at the same "inconvenient time" every week, and when he picks up the phone, nobody's there. He says he's researching whether "something odd happened" on the same day and hour sometime in the mansion's history. Unlike some previous residents and staff, Kaine said his family has not seen the friendly ghost of a young woman who is said to haunt the mansion. But Kaine says first lady Anne Holton witnessed other strange occurrences in the mansion as the daughter of Governor Linwood Holton in the early 1970s, for example, a portrait mysteriously taken from the wall and deposited in another room. There also was a storm-related power outage that left all of Richmond in the dark except a lone light that mysteriously remained on in the mansion.

New wave of robots ‘striving’ for humanity

George the robot is playing hide-and-seek with scientist Alan Schultz. George whirrs and hides behind a post until he’s found. For a robot to actually find a place to hide, and then hunt for its human playmate is a new level of human interaction. The machine must take cues from people and behave accordingly. This is the beginning of a real robot revolution: giving robots some humanity. Robotics is moving from software and gears operating remotely — Mars, the bottom of the ocean or assembly lines — to finally working with, beside and even on people. The researchers who are injecting humanity into robotics are creating robots that can connect with humans in a more thoughtful way — building robot receptionists and robot physical therapists. They are finishing work on Huggable, a teddy bear robot line that will help monitor the mental and physical health of sick children for only a few thousand dollars apiece. Robots are coaxing autistic kids out of their shells. And there’s a cute penguin robot, Mel, that makes eye contact with people and nods when they talk. The places we will first see these robots are in the most human-oriented fields — those that require special care in dealing with the elderly, young and disabled.

Chips Let Parents Track Teen Driving

Susan Schauer never gave her teenage son the car keys without also handing him something he wasn't nearly as thrilled about — a small computer chip that kept an eye on his driving. Plugged into his family's Mazda 626, the chip recorded his speed, miles traveled and any fast starts or stops. If Ben removed the chip, it recorded that, too.
"It annoyed the heck out of him," said Schauer, a mother of three. "But it gave me peace of mind." From real-time GPS tracking systems to onboard cameras, technology is increasingly offering parents tools to track and even control how their teen-agers drive. Many of the options are borrowed from fleet managers who have used them for years to monitor truckers and other commercial drivers. With car crashes the No. 1 killer of teens, taking 5,000 to 6,000 young lives each year, many parents want to learn the truth about how their children drive. Technology can offer them some answers. The device used on Ben's car did not provide data until it was downloaded, but GPS-enabled trackers that instantly transmit information are increasingly available. Some will send text messages to parents if the car exceeds a certain speed or travels beyond a predefined area. A growing number of companies are selling the devices over the Internet.

666 Is Coming: One Generation Is All 'They' Need

One day we will all happily be implanted with microchips, and our every move will be monitored. The technology exists; the only barrier is society's resistance to the loss of privacy. By the time my four-year-old son is swathed in the soft flesh of old age, he will likely find it unremarkable that he and almost everyone he knows will be permanently implanted with a microchip. Automatically tracking his location in real time, it will connect him with databases monitoring and recording his smallest behavioural traits. Most people anticipate such a prospect with a sense of horrified disbelief, dismissing it as a science-fiction fantasy. The technology, however, already exists. For years humane societies have implanted all the pets that leave their premises with a small identifying microchip. As well, millions of consumer goods are now traced with tiny radio frequency identification chips that allow satellites to reveal their exact location. A select group of people are already "chipped" with devices that automatically open doors, turn on lights, and perform other low-level miracles. Prominent among such individuals is researcher Kevin Warwick of Reading University in England; Warwick is a leading proponent of the almost limitless potential uses for such chips. Other users include the patrons of the Baja Beach Club in Barcelona, many of whom have paid about $150 (U.S.) for the privilege of being implanted with an identifying chip that allows them to bypass lengthy club queues and purchase drinks by being scanned. These individuals are the advance guard of an effort to expand the technology as widely as possible. From this point forward, microchips will become progressively smaller, less invasive, and easier to deploy. Thus, any realistic barrier to the wholesale "chipping" of Western citizens is not technological but cultural. It relies upon the visceral reaction against the prospect of being personally marked as one component in a massive human inventory. Employers will start to expect implants as a condition of getting a job. The U.S. military will lead the way, requiring chips for all soldiers as a means to enhance battlefield command and control — and to identify human remains. From cooks to commandos, every one of the more than one million U.S. military personnel will see microchips replace their dog tags. Following quickly behind will be the massive security sector. Security guards, police officers, and correctional workers will all be expected to have a chip. Individuals with sensitive jobs will find themselves in the same position, and before you know it, the entire population is chipped.

Israel Agrees to Reopen Mt. Zion Talks with Vatican

PM Olmert will meet in the Vatican this week with Pope Benedict - two weeks after Israeli diplomats confirmed the reopening of talks over the status of church property on Mt. Zion and elsewhere. "In a move that surprised observers," Israel has agreed to re-launch negotiations with the Holy See over church status in the Holy Land that have been stalled since the Olmert government came to power." A year ago, Arutz-7 reported that a Foreign Ministry official admitted that a blueprint of an agreement with the Vatican giving it control of parts of Mt. Zion in Jerusalem - also known as King David's burial site - had been received. The proposed contract read as follows: "The State of Israel hands over to the Holy See the use of the Cenacle [the room of the event known as the Last Supper, above King David's tomb - ed.], of the access path to it, and of the spaces adjacent to it... It is the Holy See's intention to inform the Bishops - and through them the world's Priests - that the Catholic Church has been given the use of the Cenacle, inviting them to visit the Holy Place together with their faithful... The Holy See hands over this use of the Cenacle to the Custody of the Holy Land [which acts on behalf of the Holy See]... [which] will keep the Cenacle open from 6 AM to 8 AM for the celebration of the Holy Mass... Official liturgical celebrations of non-Catholic Churches can take place only upon prior written permission by the Custody of the Holy Land." At the time, President Moshe Katzav was about to embark on a visit to the Vatican. In the face of increasing public pressure, he was forced to deny any plans to sign away the King David's complex in Jerusalem. It now appears, however, that this option has once again surfaced.

Ministers To Ban Creationist Teaching Aids In Science Lessons

The government is to write to schools telling them that controversial teaching materials promoting creationism should not be used in science lessons. The packs include DVDs and written materials promoting intelligent design, a creationist alternative to Darwinism, that were sent to every school in the country by the privately-funded group Truth in Science. Advocates of the theory argue that some features of the universe and nature are so complex that they must have been designed by a higher intelligence. Last week, the Guardian revealed that 59 schools had told Truth in Science the materials were a "useful classroom resource". The government has already stated that the Truth in Science materials should not be used in science lessons. On November 1, the education minister, Jim Knight, wrote: "Neither intelligent design nor creationism are recognised scientific theories and they are not included in the science curriculum. The Truth in Science information pack is therefore not an appropriate resource to support the science curriculum." The Department for Education said it was working with the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, the public body that oversees the national curriculum, to communicate this message directly to schools. But Evan Harris, the Liberal Democrats' science spokesman, said: "I'm amazed that they have found it so difficult and it has taken so long." He feared that some teachers would use the packs to promote intelligent design as a belief or that it would be presented as a valid scientific theory.

Microwave Weapon Being Used In Iraq

The Air Force's Active Denial System, or ADS, has been certified safe after lengthy tests by military scientists in the lab and in war games. The ADS shoots a beam of millimeters waves, which are longer in wavelength than x-rays but shorter than microwaves -- 94 GHz (= 3 mm wavelength) compared to 2.45 GHz (= 12 cm wavelength) in a standard microwave oven. The longer waves are thought to limit the effects of the radiation. If used properly, ADS will produce no lasting adverse affects, the military argues. Documents claim that most of the radiation (83 percent) is instantly absorbed by the top layer of the skin, heating it rapidly. The beam produces what experimenters call the "Goodbye effect," or "prompt and highly motivated escape behavior." In human tests, most subjects reached their pain threshold within 3 seconds, and none of the subjects could endure more than 5 seconds. "It will repel you," one test subject said. "If hit by the beam, you will move out of it -- reflexively and quickly. You for sure will not be eager to experience it again." But while subjects may feel like they have sustained serious burns, the documents claim effects are not long-lasting. At most, "some volunteers who tolerate the heat may experience prolonged redness or even small blisters," the Air Force experiments concluded.

Pagan Christmas ritual pressed on young kids

A public-school handout urging young children in Virginia to attend a "Pagan ritual" tomorrow to "celebrate Yule" is sparking objections from concerned parents."Amazing – government schools ban orthodox Christianity, but allow an openly pagan organization to proselytize six-year-olds!" The flyer in question is from a group called NatureSpirit from the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Church, a Unitarian Universalist congregation that also teaches "Exploring Islam," "Women Weaving Wisdom," "Discovering the Healing Power of Dreams" and other religious subjects. The specific promotion that went from teachers and principals to elementary-age students in the district states:
"Happy Holidays? Have you ever wondered what 'Holidays' refers to? Everyone knows about Christmas – but what else are people celebrating in December? Why do we celebrate the way we do? The handout also displays three symbols: a cross, a Star of David and a pentagram – a star enclosed in a circle – often associated with paganism, witches groups such as Wicca, and even Satanism. On their website, the sponsors say: "Nature Spirit welcomes diverse people of all ages and religious traditions who feel Nature is a vital part of spirituality. They affirm the spiritual teachings of earth-centered and Pagan traditions which celebrate the sacred circle of life and instruct us to live in harmony with the rhythms of Nature."

Unexplained Force Shakes NSW Mid-North Coast

Residents in towns along the NSW mid-north coast inundated police with calls of a tremor that shook homes on the evening of Dec 4. Taree police said they took "a lot" of calls from people in the area reporting an earth tremor about 9.30pm (AEDT). But in Canberra, Geoscience Australia, the agency that measures seismic activity, said it had not recorded any tremor in the area. "We have registered absolutely nothing at all on our seismograph," a spokeswoman said. Police said they received calls from concerned residents. "Most of the calls came from Forster, with people saying their windows and doors were rattling," the police spokesman said. "A few residents were concerned people were breaking into their homes. But it's a fair dinkum mystery what happened." The "tremor" lasted anything from a few seconds to up to two minutes, according to reports. Taree radio station 2RE announcer Jeremy Miller said he started taking calls about 9.25pm (AEDT) from people wondering what was happening. "It was felt around Forster, Nabiac, and then up as far as Taree, Wingham. "The Taree Aquatic Club told me they felt the windows rattle for a couple of minutes." One caller to 2RE, reported on Macquarie Radio, said: "There was all this shaking; my windows were just shaking." Another caller said: "Both my doors, back and front, rattled at the same time, it sounded like there was thunder but it wasn't thunder. It was definitely coming from under the ground."

Pastor Chuck Baldwin On The Military Commissions Act As A Precursor To Tyranny

In an interview with nationally syndicated radio talk show host Alex Jones, Rep. Ron Paul of Texas recently discussed President Bush's support for the Military Commissions Act. During the interview, Paul said that "the law officially allows for citizen concentration camp facilities." Paul also warned that "the Military Commissions Act and the Defense Authorization Act . . . essentially wipes out Habeas Corpus." Paul continued by noting, "Right now we don't have concentration camps, but . . . the authority has been given so that concentration camps can come without Habeas Corpus." He then said, "If they can lock you up, what good is freedom of speech or what good is a gun?" Couple the implementation of the Military Commissions Act with the already-passed USA Patriot Act and all the legalities necessary to completely eviscerate America's constitutionally-protected liberties are in place. Think of it. Without firing a shot or dropping a bomb, President George W. Bush has done more to strip the American people of their liberties than all the world's despots and dictators combined!

Brooks Says U.S And Israel Targeting DNA With New Weapons

It’s been almost five months since the first report that Israeli drone aircraft have been dropping a “mystery weapon” on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Since then, news media around the world have run stories depicting the strange and “horrific” wounds inflicted by the new bomb. The international press has spoken with Palestinian doctors and medics who say Israel’s new device is a kind of chemical weapon that has significantly increased the fatality rate among the victims of Israeli attacks. In mid-October, Italian investigators reported forensic evidence that suggests the new weapon may also represent the near future of US “counterinsurgency warfare”. Combined with photographs of the victims and testimony from attending doctors, this evidence points to the use of Dense Inert Metal Explosives (DIME). Scientific studies have found that HMTA is chemically toxic, damages the immune system, rapidly causes cancer, and attacks DNA (genotoxic).

Chipping Away At Freedom

As the build-up towards ID cards implementation nears, the British public is increasingly sceptical of government claims on the usefulness and security of both the cards themselves, and the ID database. Today's poll by YouGov and The Telegraph demonstrates that not only are millions prepared to face fines and jail, rather than submit to scanning and fingerprinting, they're also a lot more clued up on the damage errors on the ID database may cause. Identity theft is problematic if the ID thief clones your Visa card, if your ID is switched at the database, half your life will be turned upside down - it's a credit to the public that they have grasped this when the Government seems unable to comprehend what a tempting target their ID database will be. Even so, 50% still favour introduction of the cards. However, when survey respondents were asked about a number of issues surrounding our developing surveillance society (a term, incidentally, that most felt appropriate) a fascinating element leaps out. That 50% faction suddenly shatters when the possibility of being tracked via ID cards is posed. Now, anyone who has made a thorough examination of the system knows that any widespread use of ID cards at points of sale, or to authorise cheques, bank payments or other transactions, or to permit access to specific areas or even computers, will permit easy, if partial, geographic tracking via database queries. But I'm guessing that this isn't what alarms the public - and in fact the YouGov question specifically refers to the use of "chips in identity cards to track movements". Looks like the tortured evasions of the Home Office, marvellously exposed here by The Register, have all been for nothing; the public have figured out what RFID chips are for, and they don't like it.

North Korea Says U.S. Has Nuclear Bomb In South Korea

“North Korea believes Washington has atomic weapons deployed in South Korea and it will not halt its nuclear program as long as this threat persists, Itar-Tass news agency quoted a North Korean source as saying. ‘(North Korea) has practically no doubts that there are U.S. nuclear weapons in the south of the Korean Peninsula,’ the source told Tass. ‘North Korea is forced, in the interests of self-defense, to enhance its nuclear capability.’ ‘Without eliminating the threat from the United States and without relevant guarantees being offered, Pyongyang will not agree to give up its right to possess a defensive nuclear shield whatever the pressure from outside.’ North Korea drew international condemnation when it conducted a nuclear test on October 9 but it has since agreed to return to six-party disarmament talks it had boycotted for a year. Despite a flurry of diplomacy, no date has been set for the talks, which involve the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia. The source did not link Pyongyang's allegations about a U.S. nuclear weapon directly to the failure to restart the talks. But the source underlined North Korea's conditions for their resumption. The North Korean side is ready in principle for such talks, but because of U.S. position the new round is being postponed,’ he said.

U.S. Air Force New Future Weapon: Artificial Earthquake

Attacking hardened and deeply buried targets is one of the Air Force’s biggest challenges. They are meeting this challenge with a devastating new approach: a focused underground shockwave that amounts to an artificial earthquake. At present the kinetic approach – a.k.a. ‘brute force’ – is favored; the most powerful weapon in the inventory is the BLU-113, a 4,600 lb weapon with a thick steel casing capable of piercing 22 feet of concrete -- or 100 feet of dirt -- before exploding. There are plans to go even bigger, with a monster 30,000 lb ‘Massive Ordnance Penetrator’ which would take the maximum depth to 60 feet. That’s about as big as you can carry on a plane.
I’ve described Deep Digger here previously. Unlike earlier weapons this is an active penetrator, a bomb that actually burrows into the ground by drilling a shaft with volleys from seven cannon. In a demonstration last year a Deep Digger prototype penetrated more than 30 feet of limestone. The makers were tight-lipped about how much further it could go. This presentation from David Burns of the Medium Caliber Weapons Systems Branch of ARDEC reveals much more about the weapon than previously released. In particular, it is described as being able to dig down to 150 feet. That’s impressive on its own, but the ‘Concept Of Operations’ in Slide 4 is staggering: an array of 20 Deep Diggers would be detonated together to produce a shockwave which will collapse all underground structures to a depth of 300 feet over a 200-yard square area.

Iran urges Arabs to eject U.S. military

Iran's top national security official recently urged his Arab neighbors to eject the U.S. military from American bases in the region and instead join Tehran in a regional security alliance. Ali Larijani told Arab leaders attending a conference here that Washington is indifferent to their interests and will cast them aside as soon as they are no longer useful. "The security and stability of the region needs to be attained and we should do it inside the region, not through bringing in foreign forces," Larijani told an audience of business and political leaders from the Arab world and elsewhere, including the United States. "We should stand on our own feet." The speech was one of the most explicit expressions yet of rising Iranian assertiveness in its contest with the United States for influence in the region.

FBI can listen to you via cell phone, even when off

The technique is called a "roving bug," and was approved by top U.S. Department of Justice officials for use against members of a New York organized crime family who were wary of conventional surveillance techniques such as tailing a suspect or wiretapping him. Nextel cell phones owned by two alleged mobsters, John Ardito and his attorney Peter Peluso, were used by the FBI to listen in on nearby conversations. The FBI views Ardito as one of the most powerful men in the Genovese family, a major part of the national Mafia. The surveillance technique came to light in an opinion published this week by U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan. He ruled that the "roving bug" was legal because federal wiretapping law is broad enough to permit eavesdropping even of conversations that take place near a suspect's cell phone. Kaplan's opinion said that the eavesdropping technique "functioned whether the phone was powered on or off." Some handsets can't be fully powered down without removing the battery; for instance, some Nokia models will wake up when turned off if an alarm is set. The U.S. Commerce Department's security office warns that "a cellular telephone can be turned into a microphone and transmitter for the purpose of listening to conversations in the vicinity of the phone." An article in the Financial Times last year said mobile providers can "remotely install a piece of software on to any handset, without the owner's knowledge, which will activate the microphone even when its owner is not making a call."

Schumer Warns On No-Swipe Credit Cards

No-swipe credit cards that use radio waves to relay their data put consumers at increased risk of identity theft, Sen. Charles Schumer (news, bio, voting record) recently said. "These cards may be convenient, but they're a double-edged sword," said Schumer, D-N.Y. Tens of millions of no-swipe credit cards have been issued in the past year. When a customer uses the credit card to make a purchase, the card is processed by a radio frequency identification reader operated by the retailer. Schumer said thieves can equip themselves with the radio frequency readers to steal information from the credit cards, which are being marketed heavily as time savers. "All you need to be is within a couple of feet of the customer," Schumer said. "You may as well put your credit card information on a big sign on your back." Schumer, who held a news conference on a busy Manhattan street corner Sunday amid holiday shoppers, called for regulations to require higher encryption standards that would make the cards more secure. In addition, Schumer said contracts for the no-swipe credit cards should have warning boxes disclosing "the known weaknesses of the technology." "Holiday shoppers need to be extremely careful with their credit cards," he said, "and these companies need to step up their efforts to protect people from identity theft."

Spy Death by Nuclear Poisoning Tied to American Hiroshima

The death of Alexander Litvinenko by radiological poisoning points to the possibility that the former Soviet spy may have been involved with Islamic terrorists in the preparation of tactical nuclear weapons for use in the jihad against the United States and its NATO allies. Litvenenko, a former KGB agent, died in London on November 23 after ingesting a microscopic amount of polonium-210. In a deathbed statement, Litvinenko blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for the poisoning--an accusation which the Kremlin has vehemently denied. The denial is fortified by the fact that polonium-210 is a very rare radiological substance that is man-made by bombarding Bismuth-209 with neutrons within a nuclear reactor. It is expensive to produce and difficult to handle. When Russian officials resorted to nuclear poisoning in the past-- including the assassination of two Swiss intelligence officials who were engaged with Russia and South Africa in the nuclear black market--they relied on such readily available radiological substances as cesium-137 in salt form. According to nuclear expert David Morgan, killing a spy or political dissident with a grain or two of polonium-210 is as ludicrous as shooting a rat with a howitzer. Litvinenko, who was born an orthodox Christian, was a convert to Islam with close ties to the Chechen rebels. His last words consisted of his desire to be buried “according to Muslim tradition.” In recent years, considerable attention has been paid to suitcase nukes that were developed by U.S. and Soviet forces during the Cold War. Reliable sources, including Hans Blix of the United Nation, have confirmed that bin Laden purchased several of these devices from the Chechen rebels in 1996. According to Sharif al-Masri and other al Qaeda operatives who have been taken into custody, several of these weapons have been forward deployed to the United States in preparation for al Qaeda’s next attack on American soil. The neutron source or “triggers” of the suitcase nukes are composed of beryllium-9 and polonium-210. When these two elements are combined, the alpha particle is absorbed by the nucleus of the beryllium causing it to decay by emitting a neutron. Such “triggers” were a feature of early nuclear weapons in the U.S. and Soviet stockpiles.

Media Cranks Up Hard Sell of Biometric and RFID Microchipped Future

Note how forking over your biometric data is characterized as an "option," a lifestyle choice for the sake of convenience. Surrendering to Big Brother is now cool, as even James Bond, in the remake of Ian Fleming’s Casino Royale, has himself a microchip—for the sake of safety, of course. In the film, this little device saves Bond’s life. It will save your life, too, as you can now be scanned like a cocker spaniel. Lest we believe America has been left out of the biometric loop, consider the following: "Although biometric payment systems are still pretty rare… recent trials at stores like Albertsons and Cub Foods and even the school lunch line would seem to indicate that more pervasive rollouts are just around the corner."

U.S. Deconstruction by Transnationals

Tom Tancredo, Phyllis Schlafly, Howard Phillips, Jim Gilchrist, and other conservatives point to President Bush, in company with other globalists, as being transnationalists. The objective of the transnationalists is the piece-meal deconstruction of our sovereign Republic in expectation of dissolving our nation into a supranational macro-organization comprised of Canada, the United States, and Mexico. For real conservatives, we are in an epic battle for the survival not just of our Republic, but for our rights and freedoms under our Creator’s Law.

Russia Successfully Tests Own Missile Defense

The Russian military recently conducted a successful test launch of an interceptor missile used in the nation’s missile defense system. The missile was launched from the Sary-Shagan testing range, which Russia leases from Kazakhstan. “The launch was part of the program to extend the service lifetime of this type of missiles, and it has confirmed the missile’s main parameters,” adding that its previous test launch in 2004 was also a success. Such interceptor missiles have been used with a missile defense system deployed around Moscow since the Soviet times to protect it from intercontinental ballistic missiles. The Soviet Union deployed the anti-ballistic missile system around Moscow in 1974 and it has been continuously modernized. It complied with the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which allowed both the United States and Russia to protect a single site with no more than 100 interceptors. The United States had a similar system to protect missile fields in North Dakota in the 1970s, but it scrapped it.

The Truth About the Peace Symbol

The Peace Symbol has also been used as an anti-Christian symbol. During the reign of the Roman Emperor Nero, Saint Peter was condemned to death by crucifixion. Saint Peter, though, could not bear to be crucified as Christ had been. He requested, therefore, to be crucified upside down. Nero granted his wish and the Saint was crucified, legend has it, on an upside down cross, the arms of which had been broken and were pointing toward the ground. Saint Peter is celebrated, rightly, as a great Christian martyr. But anti-Christians have frequently used the Nero Cross, essentially the peace symbol, to symbolize anti-Christ.

Heathrow Begins Biometric Trials

Passengers at Heathrow airport are being invited to sign up for a trial of the most advanced passenger screening equipment in the world. Travellers will be able to bypass long queues if they have their fingerprints biometrically scanned, while face and eye scans will be introduced soon. Those trying the miSense system have the scans at the same time as their passport is scanned at check-in. It is designed to make travelling easier, while maintaining security. Some Cathay Pacific and Emirates flights will invite passengers to join the trial when they check in. Passengers' details are linked to their passport, so they can be fast-tracked past queues through security and boarding controls. The British Airports Authority (BAA) said the system provided passengers with a type of "electronic key" which would allow them to pass easily through each stage of the airport's processes. Steve Challis, head of product development for BAA, said: "Rather than having to continually show pieces of paper to prove who you are, or to prove entry to the next stage of a journey, then your electronic key should make things much faster and much more secure at the same time." Immigration Minister Liam Byrne, launching the measures at Heathrow's Terminal 3, said the new system was crucial for security. "Biometric ID systems are fundamental to securing our borders in a more mobile age," Mr Byrne said.

Has The Location Of The Ark Of The Covenant Been Found?

Archaeologists recently uncovered one of the world's first churches, built on a site believed to have once housed the Ark of the Covenant. The site, emerging from the soil in a few acres in the hills of the Israeli occupied West Bank, is richly decorated with brightly coloured mosaics and inscriptions referring to Jesus Christ. According to the team, led by Yitzhak Magen and Yevgeny Aharonovitch, the church dates to the late 4th century, making it one of Christianity's first formal places of worship. "I can't say for sure at the moment that it's the very first church," said Mr Aharonovitch, 38, as he oversaw a team carrying out the final excavations before winter yesterday. "But it's certainly one of the first." He said the site contained an extremely unusual inscription which referred to itself, Shiloh, by name. "That is very rare and shows early Christians treated this as an ancient, holy place," said Mr Aharonovitch. According to the Old Testament, the Ark of the Covenant, which contained the two tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments, was kept by the Israelites at Shiloh for several hundred years. It was eventually moved to the Holy of Holies in the Jerusalem temple that the Bible says was built by King Solomon around 1000 BC. When the temple was sacked by the Babylonians 400 years later, the Ark was lost, sparking theories about whether it had been hidden or destroyed.

Three out of four employers banning Christmas decorations

Law firm Peninsula said the workplace was becoming caught up in the "wave" of political correctness affecting festive traditions. A survey of 2,300 employers found that 74 per cent had banned decorations because they were worried about offending other faiths, while half thought they made offices look unprofessional. Peter Done, managing director of Peninsula, said the findings followed a number of cases involving local authorities banning festive activities and decorations in high streets and shopping centers.
"Christmas trees and decorations may well be a thing of the past in many workplaces this Christmas as political correctness culture has spread to the workplace. "Although employers who are enforcing the ban are sceptical and dismayed by this trend, they feel that they have little choice in the matter due to the threat of litigation; as they have to protect themselves, their reputation and their livelihood."

Prewar Attacks Fuel Whispers Of Conspiracy

Historians agree that imperial Japan, hoping to cripple United States forces in the Pacific, scored a major – although fatally incomplete – victory 65 years ago this week at Pearl Harbor. But there's a version of the tale you won't find in textbooks. In this alternative history, Dec. 7, 1941, was also President Franklin Roosevelt's triumph. He had withheld information that would have warned the Pacific Fleet, willingly sacrificing a dozen ships and more than 2,400 Americans to achieve his goal. In a recent article in Australia's New Dawn magazine, “War on Terror: The Police State Agenda,” Richard K. Moore asserts that both Roosevelt and the Bush administration “intentionally set the stage for a 'surprise' attack” to whip the American people into a “war frenzy.” “Unbelievable as this may seem,” Moore wrote, “this is a scenario that matches the modus operandi of U.S. ruling elites.”

War widow dedicates Wiccan plaque symbol

The widow of a soldier killed in Afghanistan saw a Wiccan symbol placed on a memorial plaque for her husband recently, after fighting the federal government for more than a year over the emblem. Roberta Stewart, widow of Sgt. Patrick Stewart, and Wiccan leaders said it was the first government-issued memorial plaque with a Wiccan pentacle — a five-pointed star enclosed in a circle. More than 50 friends and family dedicated the plaque at Northern Nevada Veterans Cemetery, about 30 miles east of Reno. They praised Gov. Kenny Guinn for his role in getting the Nevada Office of Veterans Services to issue the plaque in September. The agency cited its jurisdiction over maintenance of the state cemetery. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs recognizes more than 30 symbols, including more than a dozen variations of the Christian cross and the atomic whirl used by atheists, but not the pentacle. VA officials have said they are rewriting rules for approving emblems, but the process requires a public comment period. Last month, Americans United for Separation of Church and State sued the VA on behalf of Stewart and others for its refusal to include the Wiccan emblem. "Our people are on the front line in the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and it's not right they're not getting equal treatment," said the Rev. Selena Fox, one of the Wiccan organizers of the event.About 1,800 active-duty service members identify themselves as Wiccans, according to Defense Department statistics. Wiccans worship the Earth and believe they must give to the community. Some consider themselves "white" or good witches, pagans or neo-pagans.

UN Says: Israel Must Give Up East Jerusalem, Golan Heights And More!

The United Nations General Assembly voted in six resolutions at their annual summit on the Middle East conflict, condemning Israel and urging the Israelis to disengage from all land captured in the Six Day War, East Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the Golan Heights. The GA also welcomed the ceasefire in Gaza, and called on all sides to maintain the truce which will pave the way for a negotiated settlement. The resolutions made by the General Assembly are not legally binding, but are reflective of world opinion, an opinion that is slanted against Israel. Even Kofi Annan - who slammed Israel for shelling terrorists operating in UN bases in Lebanon - criticized the UN's Human Rights Commission a few weeks ago for only issuing anti-Israel resolutions since its creation six months ago. A few years ago, the UN General Assembly also voted overwhelmingly for Israel to dismantle its peace wall, while no condemnation was made of the terrorism that caused it to be erected.

VeriChip Results of Two-Year Clinical Study -- Everybody Happy Being Chipped

Applied Digital Solutions (Nasdaq: ADSX - News), though its subsidiary VeriChip Corporation, announced today the results of a clinical study on its VeriMed System for patient radio frequency identification (RFID) conducted by the Spallanzi National Institute of Rome Italy and sponsored by the Italian Ministry of Health. The two-year, 10 patient study was designed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of the VeriMed implantable RFID microchip and the functionality of the VeriMed System in the management of patients with chronic infectious diseases undergoing care at the Institute. The study reported no complications or side effects related to the insertion procedure, flawless access of the ID number using the hand-held reader, and universal acceptance within the patient study group. Based on the results of the study, the exclusive VeriChip distributor for Italy plans to petition the Italian Ministry of Health for full availability of the VeriMed System through the Italian National Health Service. Richard Seelig, MD, Vice President, Medical Applications of VeriChip Corporation commented, "We are extremely pleased with the results of the first long-term clinical study evaluating all aspects of the VeriMed System in a clinical management environment. The findings confirm that the VeriMed System provides a favorable clinical utility to treating physicians. The study also demonstrates the appeal of VeriMed to the patient population as all participants in the study elected to retain their VeriChip implant for use beyond the conclusion of the study."

Exorcism Has Become Big Business

What once was a very private practice in the Catholic Church has apparently become big business for others. An estimated 600 non-Catholic groups are now performing exorcisms, allegedly ridding people of their demons. "It's happening. It's a phenomenon. Why? Pick up the paper -- crime, drugs, violence ... horrendous sexual abuse," said Bob Larson, who has made a national name for himself. "This is all the work of the devil." As a radio and television evangelist, he is a self-proclaimed, self-taught exorcist. He says that most times he can look into a person's eyes and see what he believes is the devil. "Not always but very often," he said. "Jesus said the eyes are the mirror of the soul. When you look at somebody's eyes you are really connecting soul to soul with that person."

The Coming Era of Magical Physics -- Invisibility, Anti-Gravity, Perpetual Motion.

In the past year several scientific claims that apparently contradict "known" physical laws have been making headline news. In 2007 three of these breakthrough discoveries and claims could either make it into demonstrable prototypes or be confirmed by other research labs. Some of the claims are already experimentally confirmed, some are unconfirmed but from credible sources, and some are scientifically unsubstantiated but just too bold to ignore. If confirmed they would be a "hat trick" of remarkable advances that seemingly contradict everyday physical laws. In colloquial terms they are: invisibility, anti-gravity and perpetual motion....Theorized in the 1960s, metamaterials are composed of repeating structures of tiny metal nanorods and rings. They have the ability to capture elusive "evanescent" light waves lost to traditional optical material. Capturing these waves would create for the first time a perfect image without loss of resolution.

Ancient Viruses May Be Released During Arctic Meltdown

Influenza viruses may be preserved in glaciers and Arctic ice for thousands of years and released into the environment when the frozen water is thawed, potentially touching off lethal pandemics, researchers said. Global warming may speed the release of the microbes, increasing the frequency of outbreaks, according to a recent study in an issue of the Journal of Virology. The study is based on tests of water and ice from three lakes in Siberia, where large populations of migratory waterfowl breed before traveling to North America, southern Asia, Europe and Africa. The finding may help explain the constant emergence of influenza A-type viruses that cause seasonal epidemics and occasionally set off pandemics capable of killing millions of people. Disease trackers are monitoring flu viruses amid an outbreak of the H5N1 strain, known to have infected 258 people in 10 countries in the past three years, killing 153 of them. "`One expectation in relation to this phenomenon would be an increased rate of release of these microbes during times of global, or local, warming events and a decrease during cooler periods,'' said the authors, led by Gang Zhang from Ohio's Bowling Green State University.

MoD Looks To Spirit Of Robot Wars

As world armies gear up for the next generation of warfare, the MoD is asking British inventors to help out and conjure up the spirit of Robot Wars. It is all part of a search for new technology that could help ground troops detect threats in urban areas. Surveillance cameras in rubber balls, guns that can fire around corners, robotic heavy machine guns and unmanned warplanes. It all sounds a little bit like the Heath-Robinson contraptions on Robot Wars or Doctor Who, but the Ministry of Defence has already evaluated all of these items for use in urban warfare. Now it is setting up a challenge to see if British inventors can go even further in their blue skies thinking and revolutionise the way war is fought in cities. Army planners and politicians on both sides of the Atlantic have a dream. If more and more reconnaissance, and even fighting missions, can be undertaken by robots and drones, then military and civilian casualties can be reduced. During the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) such as the now well-known General Atomics Predator drone has risen dramatically with an estimated 800 operating in the two countries.

Radio Frequency Identification Raising Privacy Concerns

As prices come down, companies will start using RFID to replace bar code labels on merchandise. Products will be stocked more often, and eventually, customers will be able to simply walk out the door, and have their credit card charged automatically. But all this convenience comes with a downside. "Of course, the doomsday scenario is living in a world where there are readers all over the environment, in the roads, where we enter buildings, as we go through buildings, and that it could become a tracking device," said Privacy Rights Clearinghouse Director Beth Givens.

Bio-Supercomputer Extension Is Coming To Our Brains In 5 Years

One of the prominent speakers in Dresden at the ISC2006 Supercomputer Conference was Dr. Steve Chen. Steve Chen designed some of the very successful early Cray Supercomputers in the US. In the recent years, he designed the SuperBlade systems for the Chinese company, Galactic Computing. But it does not stop there. While everybody else is looking ahead to the first Petaflop/s systems, perhaps next year, Steve Chen is already one step further. His new design, called theTHIRD-BRAINis an architecture far beyond the Petaflop/s system. Emulating and augmenting the real Human Brain, the design draws from a number of disciplines and incorporates this in an innovative approach. We can use current Supercomputing Grid to simulate and emulate the THIRD-BRAIN. The THIRD-BRAIN can be thought of as an addition to the Human Brain - the First and the Second Brain (the Cerebrum and Cerebellum) inside our head. The THIRD-BRAIN is outside and complements our own natural ones. It will do many jobs as well as or better than our Human Brain, but it will not decay, rarely be sick or can be self-healing. Our goal is to establish an initial [third-brain] model within three years, and to refine the model to show some meaningful results within five years.

States Move To Ban Smoking In Homes, Cars

Anti-tobacco forces are opening a new front in the war against smoking by banning it in private places such as homes and cars when children are present. Starting Jan. 1, Texas will restrict smoking in foster parents' homes at all times and in cars when children are present, says Darrell Azar of the Department of Family and Protective Services. Vermont, Washington and other states and counties already prohibit foster parents from smoking around children in their homes and cars. Arkansas and Louisiana passed laws this year forbidding anyone from smoking in cars carrying young children. Courts are ordering smoke-free environments in custody and visitation disputes. “We are very rapidly moving to protect children from secondhand smoke,” says John Banzhaf, executive director of Action on Smoking and Health. “Even from their own parents and grandparents.” Former surgeon general Richard Carmona said in June that children exposed to secondhand smoke suffer an increased risk of respiratory ailments and sudden infant death syndrome.

Yeti may truly be found in the Himalayas

Most cryptozoologists (who study animals whose existence has not been substantiated) say that after careful examination of eye-witness reports and statistical evidence, yeti reports are misidentification of mundane creatures. Well-financed expeditions, they say, have turned up little positive evidence of its existence. End of story? No, In early April 2001, British scientists made a startling announcement. After examining the DNA in a strand of hair supposedly from a yeti, they were unable to identify it as coming from any known animal. The long black strand was found on the bark of cedar tree in Bhutan. Bryan Sykes, Professor of Human Genetics at the Oxford Institute of Molecular Medicine and one of the world’s leading experts on DNA analysis examined the hair. “We found some DNA in it,” he said, “but we don’t know what it is. It’s not a human, not a bear nor anything else we have so far been able to identify. It’s a mystery and I never thought this would end in a mystery. We have never encountered DNA that we couldn’t recognise before.” Which brings us back to square one. Something odd is definitely taking place up there in those mountains and until such time as someone shoots a yeti and lugs the carcass back, we can not prove or dismiss it either. You can read lots of info about such beings at the Website: Unknown Creatures http://www.unknown-creatures.com

'Spooky Survey' Gets Big Response

An international online survey of paranormal experiences has met with an overwhelming response, say Australian researchers. The survey, on phenomena that cannot be explained using the current laws of science, is by researchers at Monash University in Melbourne. "The paranormal is covered by the media everyday. It is also in the public domain via chatrooms and websites and email lists," says Rosemary Breen, who will use the survey results as part of a Masters degree. "I wanted to tap into this and give a scholarly voice to these experiences." A recent Gallup poll revealed that 75% of Americans hold at least one paranormal belief, and a UK newspaper poll showed that 60% of Britons accept the existence of the paranormal, say the researchers. Some 2,000 people have made contact via the internet since the survey began six weeks ago, says Dr Beverley Jane, who is supervising Breen's research. She says 96% of respondents claim to have had at least one brush with the paranormal. The exercise seeks to gauge the frequency, effect and age of onset of unexplained phenomena such as premonitions, out-of-body and near-death episodes, telepathy and apparitions.
Results to date showed 70% of respondents believe an unexplained event changed their lives, mostly in a positive way. Some 70% also claim to have seen, heard or been touched by animal or person that wasn't there, 80% report having had a premonition, and almost 50% recalled a previous life.

Nuclear Strikes From 'Rogue States' Possible

Russia's Air Force commander recently said he considers nuclear missile launches by terrorists or 'rogue states' to be a genuine threat. "Increasingly probable and dangerous for the U.S., Russia and European countries are single or multiple missile strikes from third countries, known as rogue states, countries with unstable, non-democratic regimes, or terrorist organizations with access to missile technology," Vladimir Mikhailov said. Mikhailov said accidental launches were also possible.
"Although accidental launches of missiles with nuclear warheads have not occurred in the history of nuclear missile technology, this does not mean they will not occur in the future, given the growing spread of nuclear missiles," he said. Mikhailov also said terrorist organizations and the countries harboring them would not be deterred by the threat of a retaliatory strike, which has acted as a constraint for Russia and the United States, the world's largest nuclear powers. "The objective of terrorists is to attract as much attention to their attacks as possible," he said. Retaliation against a missile strike is also fraught with massive civilian casualties and destruction, the commander said, referring to recent warfare between Israel and Lebanon. Mikhailov warned that missile technology will be increasingly popular in 21st century conflicts due to its combat capability and relatively small size.

Scientists Fear Results of Collapsed Ice Shelf

The Ross Ice Shelf, a raft of ice the size of France, could collapse quickly, triggering a dramatic rise in sea levels, scientists warn. A New Zealand-led drilling team in Antarctica has recovered three million years of climate history, but the news is not good for the future. Initial analysis of sea-floor cores near Scott Base suggest the Ross Ice Shelf had collapsed in the past and had probably done so suddenly. The team's co-chief scientist, Tim Naish, said the sediment record was important because it provided crucial evidence about how the Ross Ice Shelf would react to climate change, with potential to dramatically increase sea levels. "If the past is any indication of the future, then the ice shelf will collapse," he said. "If the ice shelf goes, then what about the West Antarctic Ice Sheet? What we've learnt from the Antarctic Peninsula is when once buttressing ice sheets go, the glaciers feeding them move faster and that's the thing that isn't so cheery." Antarctica stores 90 per cent of the world's water, with the the West Antarctic Ice Sheet holding an estimated 30 million cubic kilometres. In January, British Antarctic Survey researchers predicted that its collapse would make sea levels rise by at least 5m, with other estimates predicting a rise of up to 17m.

Ahmadinejad: Israel will disappear

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh recently held talks in Doha, Qatar. The Islamic Republic News Agency reported Saturday Ahmadinejad saying, "As everybody knows, the Zionist regime was created to establish dominion of arrogant states over the region and to enable the enemy to penetrate the heart Muslim land." Saying the Israeli regime was inherently a "threat," and was "on the verge of disappearing" Haniyeh praised the support of the Iranian government and nation for the cause of the Palestinian nation. "The Iranian nation's brilliant stand in the rightful battles of the Palestinians encourages them and signifies their deep understanding of Islamic principles," Iran's official state-run news agency reported. "The Intifada (uprising) of the Palestinian nation will continue until the cause of the Palestinians is materialized and Al-Quds Al-Sharif (Jerusalem) is liberated," added Haniyeh. Ahmadinejad went on to say that, "Today scores of Western politicians are in doubt as to the future of this illegitimate regime and its existence has come under question. "There is no doubt the Palestinian nation and Muslims as a whole will emerge victorious," the Iranian president told Haniyeh.

U.S. Government Quietly Rates Millions Of Travellers For Terrorism

Without notifying the public, federal agents for the past four years have assigned millions of international travellers, including Americans, computer-generated scores rating the risk they pose of being terrorists or criminals. The travellers are not allowed to see or directly challenge these risk assessments, which the government intends to keep them on file for 40 years.

London Gets Ready for Contactless Payments

Details were announced of the initial London roll out of a new wave of contactless debit cards, credit cards and pre-pay cards for payments under £10. An extension to the existing Chip and PIN EMV network, Maestro / MasterCard’s PayPass and Visa's contactless system will allow users to pay for small goods such as rail tickets, newspapers and beers by waving their card in front of an RFID sensor on a point of sale or vending machine. While, initially, this might sound open to wide scale abuse, with robbers able to swipe the card and pay for things without challenge, the maximum transaction size of £10 will help to minimise the risk, and each card will come with built-in counters that will only allow a certain number of contactless payments to be made before a PIN must be entered. This counter is also reset every time a standard Chip and PIN transaction (so anything over £10) is made, so the card providers believe that a PIN will only be required in practice every one out of 20 times the card is used. Initial trials in Scotland, and elsewhere across the world, have shown very positive feedback from customers and merchants alike, with cardholders liking the ease-of-use and speed, and merchants the reduced hassle, especially having to haul less cash around at the end of the day.

Pakistan Test Fires Nuclear Capable Missile

Pakistan test launched a nuclear-capable medium range missile two days after South Asian rival India recently conducted its first trial of a new ballistic intercept system. The Pakistani Hatf 4 or Shaheen-1 missile -- Shaheen means ‘eagle’ in Urdu -- has a range of 700 kilometers (437 miles) meaning it can hit targets deep inside neighboring India. ‘Pakistani troops today conducted a successful launch of the medium range Hatf 4 or Shaheen-1 missile,’ the military said in a statement. The test came as part of a continuing exercise by Pakistan's Army Strategic Force Command. On November 16 Pakistan test fired a Ghauri missile with a longer range of 1,300 kilometers (812 miles) away. ‘The event marked the culmination phase of the training exercise and validated the operational readiness of the strategic missile group equipped with Shaheen-1 Missiles,’ the statement said.

GPS Surveillance Creeps into Daily Life

For $5.99 per month, you can turn a cell phone into a surveillance device and track when your target leaves home, where he or she travels and at what speed. You can even detect how much battery power is left on the phone. Marketed as "virtual eyes" on your kids or employees, the service also allows you to construct a virtual "fence" so that you can receive electronic alerts if the phone’s carrier crosses into forbidden areas. Provided by the company AccuTracking, this service is just one of dozens integrating the Global Positioning System (GPS) into everyday life. The system uses satellites to determine the locations of GPS-enabled devices. From brightly colored cell phones and watches designed to help parents shadow the movements of children, to enhanced mapping websites allowing managers to monitor traveling employees through mobile devices, corporations are cashing in on GPS surveillance technology.

Japan capable of making nuclear weapon

Foreign Minister Taro Aso, who has called for discussion of Japan's non-nuclear policy, also asserted in parliament that the pacifist constitution does not forbid possession of the bomb. "Japan is capable of producing nuclear weapons," Aso told a parliamentary committee on security issues. "But we are not saying we have plans to possess nuclear weapons." Japan, the only country ever attacked by atomic weapons, has for decades espoused a strict policy of not possessing, developing or allowing the introduction of nuclear bombs on its territory. Aso's comments appear to be stronger than those made last month by Defense Minister Fimio Kyuma, who stated that Japan has "advanced technology and missile capabilities so perhaps we do have the potential to make nuclear arms." The non-nuclear stance has come under increasing scrutiny since North Korea's Oct. 9 nuclear test, which raised severe security concerns in Japan.

Robot Spy Craft To Begin Real Operations In U.S.

The Palmdale-produced Global Hawk robot spy plane is coming up on a number of firsts, including the start of operations in the United States and the beginning of flight testing of a larger, more capable version. Known for providing images and intelligence in the War on Terror for the past five years, the program is just beginning operations with the arrival of the first Global Hawk at Beale Air Force Base in Northern California. The aircraft flew a mission from Beale recently, marking the first time a nontest mission had been flown in the United States. The Air Force is considering using the aircraft's training flights for other uses, including border patrol, search and rescue, and homeland security missions, said Ed Walby, Northrop Grumman's business development director for high-altitude long-endurance programs. "There's a world of activities you can participate in," Walby said of U.S. missions. "It's dual use for the flying time." Assembled by Northrop Grumman workers in Palmdale, Global Hawk aircraft are capable of flying at an altitude of 65,000 feet, above storms and about six miles higher than jetliners normally fly, for more than 35 hours at a time. During a single mission, Global Hawk's sensors can survey 40,000 square miles.

'Nativity' Booted From Chicago Holiday Fair

A public Christmas festival is no place for the Christmas story, the city says. Officials have asked organizers of a downtown Christmas festival, the German Christkindlmarket, to reconsider using a movie studio as a sponsor because it is worried ads for its film "The Nativity Story" might offend non-Christians.

DARPA's Mind Boggling Super Soldier Developments

In a concept known as Continuous Assisted Performances (CAP), agency researchers are working on ways of getting parts of the brain that become ‘mentally’ (biochemically) fatigued due to sleep deprivation to switch off, while another part of the brain is ‘taught’ to recharge itself or by using neurological drugs.... In a ‘Beyond 3000’ concept known as Engineered Tissue Constructs (ETC), the idea is to ‘customise’ organs and body parts on demand inside the body, rather than by the crude technique of transplantation. One of the aims of ETC is to allow badly-injured soldiers to enter a state of hibernation or suspended animation.

Very Different and Frightening World Coming Fast

Animal and plant species have begun dying off or changing sooner than predicted because of global warming, a review of hundreds of research studies contends. These fast-moving adaptations come as a surprise even to biologists and ecologists because they are occurring so rapidly. At least 70 species of frogs, mostly mountain-dwellers that had nowhere to go to escape the creeping heat, have gone extinct because of climate change, the analysis says. It also reports that between 100 and 200 other cold-dependent animal species, such as penguins and polar bears, are in deep trouble. "We are finally seeing species going extinct," said University of Texas biologist Camille Parmesan, author of the study. "Now we've got the evidence. It's here. It's real. This is not just biologists' intuition. It's what's happening." Parmesan reports seeing trends of animal populations moving northward if they can, of species adapting slightly because of climate change, of plants blooming earlier, and of an increase in pests and parasites. Parmesan and others have been predicting such changes for years, but even she was surprised to find evidence that it's already happening; she expected it would be another decade away. Just five years ago biologists, though not complacent, believed the harmful biological effects of global warming were much farther down the road, said Douglas Futuyma, professor of ecology and evolution at the State University of New York in Stony Brook. "I feel as though we are staring crisis in the face," Futuyma said. "It's not just down the road somewhere, it is just hurtling toward us.

Scientists Have Speaking In Tongues On The Mind

For a practice that's been around for thousands of years, scientists understand very little about what goes on when people "speak in tongues." Currently, glossolalia--as it's called--can be found in Pentecostal and Charismatic Christian sects, where those affected believe they are uttering a message directly from God. Now scientists say they have captured glossolalia on brain scans, which link decreased frontal lobe activity to a loss of self control. It's an excellent study, says psychologist Michael Persinger of Laurentian University in Ontario, Canada, who has done brainwave research with glossolalia. "Each of Dr. Newberg's results have specific implications," he says. For example, increased parietal activity would go with a sense of one's self being "touched by the spirit."