Ultra-violent MS-13 gang found in 42 states

Cliques of the ultra-violent Latin American MS-13 gang have been identified in 42 U.S. states, according to the director of an FBI task force, speaking at a conference here. Another violent group, the 18th Street Gang, is in 37 states, said Brian Truchon, director of the FBI MS-13 National Gang Task Force, or NGTF. Truchon spoke at the Third Gang Enforcement Conference 2007 conference, which is focusing on MS-13. "One thing we figured out with the on-going cases was that Los Angeles is our starting point," Truchon stressed. "When the gang migrates throughout the U.S., there is always a road back to L.A. From L.A., there is always a road back to Central America." The FBI has identified 13 core cities for MS-13 in the U.S.: Los Angeles, Washington, Baltimore, New York, Houston, Charlotte, Sacramento, Seattle, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Omaha, Newark and Boston. Currently, the FBI has in excess of 110 MS-13 investigations in 40 different FBI field offices. For the 18th Street Gang, the FBI has more than 20 on-going investigations in 15 FBI field offices. The FBI has found foreign connectivity from MS-13 and the 18th Street Gang back to El Salvador, Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras. "One piece of information a particular FBI field office develops may fit into an international puzzle," Truchon emphasized. "The information might actually help us with a case we are developing in an entirely different city." Truchon said individuals in gang cliques in the U.S. often are influenced by gang members in Latin America, even from within the prisons. "Gang members in a prison in El Salvador are able to reach out from prison and kill gang members in L.A.," he said.

The Mark Of the Beast "On" Or "In" The Hand?

Revelation 13:16 "And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: Ever since the Revised Version (RV) and American Standard Version (ASV), users of modern versions have been given the misleading translation of this verse in such a manner: ASV Rev: 13:16 "And he causeth all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free and the bond, that there be given them a mark on their right hand, or upon their forehead;" RSV Rev: 13:16 "Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead," There is only one problem with most of these versions, and that that the mark of the beast is stated to be on the hand and not in it as the KJV tells us. These two prepositions are small words, but the error is not a small one at all. Some translations go so far as to mislead readers by insinuating that the mark is a tattoo. This is not impossible, since a tattoo is both on the skin and in the skin, but it is not stated in any Greek text and at best it is a guess. At worse, it is a lie to misguide those who fall for the new version scam. Today, we can be reasonably confident that the mark of the beast will be a biochip that will be inserted under the skin. Such chips have been injected into livestock and pets for decades, and it has long been theorized that people are to be targeted for these chips. There was a time when some naive and ignorant people guffawed the idea that such tracking devices would ever be placed in people, but only the most foolish of the willingly ignorant can pretend that it is not happening now. The Bible makes it clear that the mark will be used for buying and selling, as well as for identification. Decades of planning and theorizing have gone into shifting the economies of the world into cashless societies. Only in a cashless society where money is intangible and under the control of a central authority can people be reduced to total livestock. America, including America's Christians, have allowed our country to be taken over by an international banking cartel called the Federal Reserve with armed thugs (IRS, BATF, FBI, FEMA, etc.) that enforce their godless will on the masses through terror. We have been numbered like prisoners with the Socialist Slavery Number, which some confuse with social security. The Bill of Rights and Constitution have been null and voided and the Bible has been removed from the public arena, and has been replaced with faith-based community organizations and other 501(c)3 government corporations that have turned away from Christ and turned toward Caesar. We have allowed devils and degenerates to rule over us, and as a consequence, the technology for the mark of the beast is ready now for those too weak and reprobate to take a stand.

Iranian official says Iran will strike U.S., Israel if attacked

Iran will strike U.S. interests around the world and Israel if attacked over its disputed nuclear program, a senior official was quoted recently by the official IRNA news agency as saying. "Nowhere would be safe for America with (Iran's) long-range missiles ... we can fire tens of thousands of missiles every day," said Mohammad Baqer Zolghadr, the deputy interior minister in security affairs. 'With long-range missiles Iran can also threaten Israel as America's ally.' Iran says its Shahab-3 missile with a range of 1,250 miles (2,000 km) is capable of hitting Israel and U.S. bases in the Gulf.

Veteran Talks of the 'Foo Fighters'

Pilots in the 415th encountered and reported 'foo fighters' (or luminous, unidentified objects) during the night over the German-occupied Rhine River valley. The sightings were recorded between November 1944 and April 1945, when the 415th was operating from landing strips in Dijon and Ochey, France. The sightings posed a baffling question to air war buffs, scientists, the media and the public. What were they? The pilots could find no explanation that fit all of the sightings.

Christians in bull's-eye in new 'hate crimes' plan

A fast-tracked congressional plan to add special protections for homosexuals to federal law would turn "thoughts, feelings, and beliefs" into criminal offenses and put Christians in the bull's-eye, according to opponents. "H.R. 1592 is a discriminatory measure that criminalizes thoughts, feelings, and beliefs [and] has the potential of interfering with religious liberty and freedom of speech," according to a white paper submitted by Glen Lavy, of the Alliance Defense Fund. "As James Jacobs and Kimberly Potter observed in Hate Crimes, Criminal Law, and Identity Politics, 'It would appear that the only additional purpose [for enhancing punishment of bias crimes] is to provide extra punishment based on the offender's politically incorrect opinions and viewpoints,'" said Lavy. The proposal has been endorsed by majority Democrats on the committee, and already has 137 sponsors in the full House, making it possible it could be voted on in a matter of days or weeks. "This is a terrible thing, to criminalize thought or emotion or even speech," Lavy told WND, referring to H.R. 1592, now pending at the committee level in the U.S. House. Democrats there have been turning back amendments that would strip it of its worst provisions, according to an observer. Bishop Harry Jackson, chairman of the High Impact Leadership Coalition, said the plan, the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Protection Act of 2007, is no more than "a surreptitious attempt by some in Congress to strip the nation of religious freedom and the ability to preach the gospel from our church pulpits." "It will stamp all over our doctrine and practice of our faith," he said. "We believe what the Bible says. If you start there we've got a major problem."

Drugs. Implants. Virtual Reality. Do We Really Want Joy 24/7?

We're entering an age in which technology may allow us to produce pleasant sensations all the time. Hints of that future go back to Prozac and other neurotransmitter-controlling drugs introduced in the late 1980s. But our ability to manipulate the molecules and electrical impulses whizzing through our heads is reaching a newly sophisticated level.... It's reminiscent of the scenario laid out by another prescient thinker, H. G. Wells. In his book The Time Machine, Wells wrote about a world where the happy, indolent elite — the Eloi — are served by industrious outsiders called Morlocks. The Eloi are also the hardworking Morlocks' food.

Security software vendor McAfee says 'RFID Chips Represent Vast Danger'

The current generation of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology is vulnerable to eavesdropping, cloning and forging. That's according to an April security trends report (download PDF) from security software vendor McAfee Inc. The Sage report is issued semiannually by McAfee Avert Labs based on its research into high-tech threats. The report warns that as RFID technology becomes more pervasive, the risk for users increases dramatically. The study notes that the technology is increasingly embedded in clothing, food and health care products and that some companies are even embedding RFID chips into the bodies of employees. Some states have already passed laws to prohibit forced implantation of the chips. The report found that the rapid spread of RFID technology is making it very attractive to hackers, who can clone chips and steal authentication information to gain access to a users' personal information. Some researchers have warned that a virus placed on an RFID chip can infect other networked chips, and ultimately assault vulnerable databases. Government agencies and large retail firms are playing a key role in the spread of the technology -- and adding to the growing list of vulnerabilities, the report said. For example, the U.S. Department of State last year began issuing passports embedded with and RFID chip containing the holder's date of birth and biometric information, such as a digital photo or a copy of their fingerprints. Critics claim that the e-passport could allow hackers to read the chip embedded inside and that the biometric data could be stolen for the purpose of identity theft. It could also allow Americans on foreign soil be tracked by enemies, critics say. In the retail industry, the report predicted, RFID chips will soon replace bar codes as the tracking technology of choice. It cited retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s highly publicized efforts to use RFID to track pallets and cases from its suppliers to the store. The Sage report noted that many retail executives expect that RFID technology will save their companies time and money performing inventory counts and doing restocks.

Plasma Shield May Stun and Disorientate Enemies

The U.S. Army hopes, within a few years, to deploy a plasma shield – a machine that generates a protective screen of dazzling mid-air explosions – to stun and disorient an enemy. The device uses a technology known as dynamic pulse detonation (DPD). A short but intense laser pulse creates a ball of plasma, and a second laser pulse generates a supersonic shockwave with the plasma to generate a bright flash and a loud bang. The Plasma Acoustic Shield System will eventually combine a dynamic pulse detonation laser with a high power speaker for hailing or warning, and a dazzler light source. PASS has already been demonstrated by the system's makers, Stellar Photonics. "It uses a programmed pattern of rapid plasma events to create a sort of wall of bright lights and reports (bangs) over the coverage area," says Keith Braun of the U.S. Army's Advanced Energy Armaments Systems Division at Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey, U.S., where the system is being tested.

China to force rain ahead of 2008 Olympics

Chance of showers during the 2008 Beijing Olympics: 50 percent. But Chinese meteorologists have a plan to bring sunshine. The meteorologists say they can force rain in the days before the Olympics, through a process known as cloud-seeding, to clean the air and ensure clear skies. China has been tinkering with artificial rainmaking for decades, but whether it works is a matter of debate among scientists. Weather patterns for the past 30 years indicate there is a 50 percent chance of rain for both the opening ceremony on Aug. 8, 2008 and the closing ceremony two weeks later, said Wang Yubin, an engineer with the Beijing Meteorological Bureau. The forced rain could also help clean Beijing's polluted air, said Wang Jianjie, another meteorologist with the bureau. "When conditions permit, we will artificially increase rainfall," she said. "Rainfall is a way to naturally clean the air."

Has U.S. Defense Sec. Accelerated Ancient Prophecy Of Russian Attack On Israel?

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates may well have accelerated an ancient prophecy about Russia and Iran attacking Israel by offering the Russians an opportunity to see how America would defend herself against Iranian missiles made with Russian-assistance. Gates was trying to sweeten the pot for Russian approval of U.S. missile defense deployments in Poland and the Czech Republic. Gates, however, came away from the meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin with no change in Russian policy, but a certain agreement that the Russians will have access to American missile defense technology. Gates announced that Russia and the United States have agreed to cooperate by forming a working group where the U.S. will share technical aspects of the proposed missile shield and develop a joint missile defense effort. The Russians, however, remained concerned that the missile defense systems to be deployed may be turned against Russia in the future. While the Russians apparently agreed to participating in the working group and getting a first hand view of the inner workings of American missile defense systems, Russian Defense minister Anatoly Serdyukov told reporters that “The Russian position remains unchanged.” Gates agreed to share with Russia the technology, radar interceptors and development aspects of the missile shield that would be used by the United States. According to reports, Gates even invited the Russians to visit the American missile defense sites in Alaska and California to see the non-explosive interceptors and the missile tracking radar systems that would be used in Eastern Europe. Russia is likely to absorb all the technical detail it can on U.S. anti-missile installations because Iran would use missiles similar to Russia’s in the event of an attack. According to the New York Times, the owners of Russia’s largest independent radio network, The Russian News Service, have ordered the network to portray the United States as an enemy. It appears that Gates and the Bush Administration do not understand the Russian intent. The Apostle Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 3:14, “But their minds were blinded: for until this day remains the same veil untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament.” The reading of the Old Testament, especially in Ezekiel 38, shows that Russia is prophesied to join with Iran in coming against Israel. The United States may have accelerated this prophesy by agreeing to share missile defense technology with the Russians.

Bee's Dying Around The World, Now Taiwan stung by millions of missing bees

Taiwan's bee farmers are feeling the sting of lost business and possible crop danger after millions of the honey-making, plant-pollinating insects vanished during volatile weather. Over the past two months, farmers in three parts of Taiwan have reported most of their bees gone, the Chinese-language United Daily News reported. Taiwan's TVBS television station said about 10 million bees had vanished in Taiwan. A beekeeper on Taiwan's northeastern coast reported 6 million insects missing "for no reason", and one in the south said 80 of his 200 bee boxes had been emptied, the paper said. Beekeepers usually let their bees out of boxes to pollinate plants and the insects normally make their way back to their owners. However, many of the bees have not returned over the past couple of months. Possible reasons include disease, pesticide poisoning and unusual weather, varying from less than 20 degrees Celsius (68 degrees Fahrenheit) to more than 30 degrees Celsius over a few days, experts say. "You can see climate change really clearly these days in Taiwan," said Yang Ping-shih, entomology professor at the National Taiwan University. He added that two kinds of pesticide can make bees turn "stupid" and lose their sense of direction. As affected beekeepers lose business, fruit growers may lack a key pollination source and neighbors might get stung, he said. Billions of bees have fled hives in the United States since late 2006, instead of helping pollinate $15 billion worth of fruits, nuts and other crops annually. Disappearing bees also have been reported in Europe and Brazil.

Futuristic Beam of Sound Aims Marketer's Messages

Advertisers have a new way to get into your head. Marketers around the world are using innovative audio technology that sends sound in a narrow beam, just like light, making it possible to direct messages right into consumers' ears while they shop or sit in waiting rooms. The audio spotlight device, created by Watertown firm Holosonic Research Labs Inc., has been used to hawk everything from cereals in supermarket aisles to glasses at doctor's offices. The messages are often quick and targeted -- and a little creepy to the uninitiated.

Britians Police track ethnic groups with profile technology

Police are analysing people’s surnames to conduct secret ethnic profiling. Racial equality campaigners said they were “very saddened” that organisations would now target black and Asian households without their consent and feared that the technology would become a tool for racists. Already several police forces have used the ethnic-profiling system, which uses a person’s name to work out which country his or her ancestors are likely to have come from. NHS trusts have also used the system, called Mosaic Origins, as have groups such as Amnesty International. It has attracted interest from Labour and the Conservatives, banks, supermarkets and other commercial organisations, which could soon have access to it. “I’m really very saddened that forces can’t see the inherent dangers of police having this information,” Keith Jarrett, the president of the National Black Police Association, said.

Cloned Dogs To Be Mated In Fertility Test

The world's first cloned dog will be mated with the world's second dog clone, in an experiment to see whether they can reproduce normally. Snuppy, an Afghan hound who was the first dog to be created through a cloning process, will be mated later this year with second-in-line Bona, researchers in South Korea said. Snuppy will celebrate his second birthday on Tuesday while Bona was born in June last year.

DHS Adds Chlorine Bombs To Preparedness Need

The Homeland Security Department is warning U.S. chemical plants and bomb squads to guard against a new form of terrorism: chlorine truck bombs. At least five chlorine truck bombs have exploded in Iraq in recent months, killing scores of people and injuring many more after they breathed the toxic fumes. A chlorine truck blast April 6 in Ramadi killed 27 people and injured dozens more. "This is now being used as a tactic against us in another part of the world," says Robert Stephan, Homeland Security's infrastructure protection chief. "We've got to be prepared for it."

Device Keeps Organs Alive Outside The Body

A pioneering device that keeps organs "alive" outside the body could dramatically improve the success of transplants and provide new ways of treating tumours and liver disease. For the first time, scientists at the University of Oxford have managed to disconnect an organ from the body's blood supply and keep it functioning on an artificial blood circuit. The procedure has allowed them to keep livers viable outside the body for more than 72 hours - four times the current time limit. It is hoped the technique will make it possible to transplant organs that would previously have been unusable - alleviating the problems caused by a shortage of donors. Organs are capable of regenerating high levels of damaged tissue when isolated from the rest of the body, the scientists found. A version of the technique could also be used to treat organs with high doses of chemotherapy to combat cancers without harmful side-effects on the body. Such treatments might also be developed to fight liver disease caused by alcohol and hepatitis. Scientists are now planning the first clinical trials in patients and hope to use the technique on other organs including the lungs, kidneys and pancreas. They hope the procedure will be widely used within five years.

First Stop On The Road To ET Contact? Potentially Habitable Planet Found

Astronomers reported on April 25, they had discovered a "super-Earth" more than 20 light years away that is the most intriguing world found so far in the search for extraterrestrial life. About five times the mass of Earth, the planet orbits a cool, dim "red dwarf" star located in the constellation of Libra, the team from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) said in a press release. The star, Gliese 581, has already been identified as hosting a planet similar in size to Neptune, the frigid gas giant on the edge of our own Solar System. The new planet is 14 times closer to Gliese 581 than the Earth is to the Sun. But because Gliese 581 is so cool, the planet is not scorched by solar radiation. It zips around the star at express speed, making just 13 days to complete an orbit. "We have estimated that the mean temperature of this super-Earth lies between 0 and 40 degrees Celsius (32 and 104 degrees Fahrenheit), and water would thus be liquid," said lead researcher Stephane Udry of Switzerland's Geneva University. "Moreover, its radius should be only 1.5 times the Earth's radius, and models predict that the planet should be either rocky -- like our Earth -- or covered with oceans." "Liquid water is critical to life as we know it," said Xavier Delfosse, a team member from France's Grenoble University. "Because of its temperature and relative proximity, this planet will most probably be a very important target of the future space missions dedicated to the search for extra terrestrial life. He added: "On the treasure map of the Universe, one would be tempted to mark this planet with an X."

V-Tech Killings Have Scientists Looking At GM Mind Control

Strides in understanding human brain chemistry and genetics are giving scientists hope they may be able to defuse violent behavior to avoid tragedies like last week's university massacre in Virginia, neurologists say. "There is no doubt in my mind that if we could have examined his brain (the killer at Virginia Tech) we would have found anomalies, and we would have been able to suggest for him to get therapies," said Dr. Allan Siegel, a neurologist and researcher at the University of Medicine of New Jersey (UMDNJ). The front region of the brain, or the prefrontal cortex, including the limbic system, appears to play an important role in violent behavior, according to the neurologist.

Texas Senate waves through cell phone wiretapping bill

A bill extending wiretapping provisions to cell phones and covering a wider range of crimes - including kidnaping, human trafficking and money laundering - has been approved by the Texas Senate. Only murder, drug-related crimes and child pornography investigations are covered by existing lawful interception laws in Texas, AP reports. Wiretaps authorised by the proposed laws could be used to authorise the tracking of suspect's mobile, land line and online activities in multiple locations; unlike current laws which are location specific. The draft Homeland Security legislation also places tighter controls on the sale of prepaid phones. Retailers will be asked to keep records of customers in a move that means prepaid phones can no longer be bought over the counter without ID. Customers will have to supply their name and address, date of birth or Social Security number, while sales would be limited to five prepaid cell phones at a time. Police in Texas were also given the legislative go-ahead to use CCTV footage at toll booths to prosecute crime. Sen. John Carona, the architect of the bill, argued that the legislation would help police to fight organised crime and terrorism in the state. Critics said the measures extended crimes labeled as homeland security issues too far.

Moving Toward Designer Genes

Since scientists first began manipulating genes, they have been envisioning a brave new world in which diseases from Huntington's chorea to sickle-cell anemia to possibly diabetes could be cured simply by inserting the correct strip of DNA into the body's cells. So far, though, most of the genetic tinkering has been limited to transplanting genes into isolated cells in laboratory dishes or into bacteria. But the dawn of designer genes is slowly moving closer. Researchers are now extending their experiments to living animals. In April, scientists at the University of California in Los Angeles reported they had inserted into intact adult mice a gene that makes cells resistant to a specific drug. Last week a team of Yale University scientists announced they had altered an animal's hereditary makeup at a more basic level: by injecting foreign genes into a mouse at its earliest stage of development, a fertilized egg.

British Intelligence says: Al-Qaeda Planning Hiroshima-Level Attack

Al-Qaeda leaders in Iraq are planning the first “large-scale” terrorist attacks on Britain and other western targets with the help of supporters in Iran, according to a leaked intelligence report. Another plot could be timed to coincide with Tony Blair stepping down as prime minister, an event described by Al-Qaeda planners as a “change in the head of the company”. The report, produced earlier this month, appears to provide evidence that Al-Qaeda is active in Iran and has ambitions far beyond the improvised attacks it has been waging against British and American soldiers in Iraq. There is no evidence of a formal relationship between Al-Qaeda, a Sunni group, and the Shi’ite regime of President Mah-moud Ahmadinejad, but experts suggest that Iran’s leaders may be turning a blind eye to the terrorist organisation’s activities. The intelligence report also makes it clear that senior Al-Qaeda figures in the region have been in recent contact with operatives in Britain. It follows revelations last year that up to 150 Britons had travelled to Iraq to fight as part of Al-Qaeda’s “foreign legion”. A number are thought to have returned to the UK, after receiving terrorist training, to form sleeper cells. The report was compiled by the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC) - based at MI5’s London headquarters - and provides a quarterly review of the international terror threat to Britain. It draws a distinction between Osama Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda’s core leadership, who are thought to be hiding on the Afghan-Pakistan border, and affiliated organisations elsewhere. The document states: “While networks linked to AQ [Al-Qaeda] Core pose the greatest threat to the UK, the intelligence during this quarter has highlighted the potential threat from other areas, particularly AQI [Al-Qaeda in Iraq].” The report continues: “Recent reporting has described AQI’s Kurdish network in Iran planning what we believe may be a large-scale attack against a western target. “A member of this network is reportedly involved in an operation which he believes requires AQ Core authorisation. He claims the operation will be on ‘a par with Hiroshima and Naga-saki’ and will ‘shake the Roman throne’. We assess that this operation is most likely to be a large-scale, mass casualty attack against the West.”

Redefining Marriage Will Ultimately Lead Vatican To Tougher Questions

This week the Vatican's second-highest ranking doctrinal official called gay marriage "evil," adding that "parliaments of so-called civilized nations where laws contrary to the nature of the human being are being promulgated, such as the approval of marriage between people of the same sex ..." The comment comes at a time when a highly controversial law is being considered in Italy that would give homosexual couples legal recognition. Groups opposed to the law are planning a national rally in Rome next month. Religious organizations such as the Presbyterian and the United Church of Christ have gone the other direction, allowing ministers in their denominations to conduct domestic partnership ceremonies. The debate over recognizing homosexual unions will undoubtedly continue in public opinion polls, but a related issue of monstrous proportions is also on the horizon. It is certain to make resolutions by Vatican and similar councils inevitable. It involves changes in laws regarding "gender definition" as a result of sex-change operations, and a related subject, transhumanism, both of which challenge the orthodox rendering of "the divine order."

Worker fired after posting picture of Jesus

A call center employee says he has been dismissed from his job for posting an artist's rendition of the crucifixion during Easter week, even though other employees were allowed to post pictures and art as they chose in their cubicles. Chris Romansky, a former employee of Barclays, said he was told there had been a complaint about the picture he put up to remind himself of Christ's sacrifice on the cross, a foundational belief in Christianity. A company spokeswoman, Donna Sokolsky, said that the job termination "had nothing to do with anything religious whatsoever." But she said she was not permitted by human resources to know "more beyond that." Romansky said his dismissal was effective April 13, and he has contacted state labor regulators about filing a complaint. "We're actually allowed to hang up pictures on our cubes. I had a picture of my wife, and there's a cross in the background but that didn't seem to bother anybody," he said. He also had posted a couple of Internet clippings, but those generated no response either. Then during the Easter season, he said, "I hung a picture of the crucifixion, actually it was before Easter. It was of the crucifixion of Jesus and it showed the Resurrection and it said 'Happy Easter.'" "I came in on the following Tuesday, and it was face down on my desk, so I put it back up," he said. Then a team manager came and told him there had been a complaint that it was "offensive" and he had to take it back down. The manager called him into her office. "She told me people were offended, and she told me anything with Jesus and God can't be up," Romansky said.

Russia Is The Sole Target For U.S. Missile Shield In Europe

The U.S. missile defense system in Europe is only directed against Russia, a Russian first deputy prime minister said in a recent interview with The Financial Times. Sergei Ivanov, who in mid-February was promoted from defense minister and given a supervisory role in the country's nuclear power and defense sectors of industry, was interviewed in his Moscow office April 12. He said there is no need to intercept medium-range missiles from Iran, and even less so from North Korea, adding that Iran is definitely not going to have ICBMs in the foreseeable future. "Since there aren't and won't be ICBMs, then against whom, against whom, is this system directed? Only against us," he said.

Our benevolent surveillance state even knows what meds were all taking

Is there any good reason whatsoever why the federal government should be maintaining "files" which contain information about the pharmaceutical products which all Americans are consuming? The noxious idea has taken root in our country -- even before the Bush presidency, though certainly greatly bolstered during it -- that one of the functions of the federal government is to track the private lives of American citizens and maintain dossiers on what we do. If that sounds hyperbolic, just review the disclosures over the course of recent years concerning what data bases the Federal Government has created and maintained and the vast amounts of data they contain -- everything from every domestic telephone call we make and receive to the content of our international calls to "risk assessment" records based on our travel activities to all sorts of information obtained by the FBI's use of NSLs. And none of that includes, obviously, the as-yet-undisclosed surveillance programs undertaken by the most secretive administration in history. The federal government data base which contains all of our controlled substance prescriptions, for instance, was mandated by a law -- The National All Schedules Prescription Electronic Reporting Act -- passed in 2005 by the Republican-controlled Congress (though with full bipartisan support) and signed into law by the "conservative" Leader. That law appropriates funds to each state to create and maintain these data bases which are, apparently, accessible to federal agencies, federal law enforcement officials, and almost certainly thousands of other state and federal employees (as well as, most likely, employees of private companies).

Conspiracy Surrounds Lavish Washington, D.C. Temple Of Freemasons

Mammoth sphinxes guard the House of the Temple of the Scottish Rite, a formidable neo-Classical building in the heart of Washington, D.C. Inside, Egyptian hieroglyphics adorn a soaring atrium. The building's nine-foot-thick walls hold human remains. Bronze coiling snakes flank a large wooden throne, canopied in purple velvet, in a second-floor inner sanctum called the Temple Room, where men from around the world gather behind closed doors every two years. Over the centuries the select membership has included signers of the Declaration of Independence; George Washington, Theodore Roosevelt, Gerald Ford and 13 other presidents; Senators Charles Schumer and Robert Dole; Chief Justice Earl Warren and other Supreme Court justices. Formally they are known as Freemasons, but most people know them simply as Masons. And this artfully forbidding edifice, a mile from the White House, is their southern headquarters.

Amish See Step Toward 'Mark Of The Beast' In Livestock ID Numbers

About 200 Amish dairy producers met with State Sen. Dan Kapanke and former State Sen. Brian Rude last week to express their concern over a state law that they say is forcing them to choose between religion and dairy farming. The law, known as the "premise ID" law, passed the state legislature three years ago and requires all farms with animals to register with the state and a get a farm ID number. There was an "animal ID" component to the law that would have required registering individual animals, but that has been put on hold. While meeting in an auction barn on Irish Ridge near Cashton, a number of Amish producers cited specific Bible passages (Revelations chapter 13, verse 7 and chapter 19, verse 20) that refer to buying and selling of animals that are numbered and consider it the "mark of the beast."

China's Police force abortions on Christian women

Dozens of unborn babies have been killed in a sweep by Chinese authorities of the Guangxi province that snared pregnant women and brought them against their will to a hospital for fatal abortion injections, according to a Christian ministry that monitors the district and ministers to those in need. "After 41 women were forced to have abortions on April 17, China Aid Association has learned that the Youjiang District People's Hospital of Baise City performed forced abortions for at least 20 more pregnant women on April 18," an alert from the organization said. China Aid, which has its U.S. offices in Midland, Texas, confirmed that eyewitnesses are reporting that the latest roundup of pregnant women involved more than 20, who were transported to a hospital by government "Family Planning" authorities. "Within 30 minutes, about 10 of them were injected forcefully for an abortion. This means within [the] last 24 hours, at least 61 babies were killed by forced abortions," the sources within China told CAA. "At bed Number 37, Ms. He Caigan was nine months pregnant. Officials injected her baby's head and 20 minutes later, her baby stopped moving and died," the sources confirmed. Many of those targeted in the killing rampage were Christians, CAA said.

The ' Dover Demon ' Bewitches Still, 30 Years Later

This weekend marks the 30th anniversary of the alleged sightings of the mysterious creature known as the 'Dover Demon', described by several witnesses as about 4 feet tall with a thin body and arms, glowing eyes, and a huge, egg-shaped head. The Dover Demon has gained notoriety among paranormal enthusiasts around the United States and the world. "The Dover Demon case is one of the most widely publicized creature sighting reports of all time," said Chris Pittman, a Franklin resident who presides over the Massachusetts UFO Resource Site, a website focused on the paranormal. "I don't think it would be possible for anyone interested in paranormal mysteries not to have heard of this case." These days the creature is included in a number of books and websites about strange creatures right alongside Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster. For example, About.com (a website owned by The New York Times, parent company of the Globe) puts the Dover Demon on its list of the "Top 10 Most Mysterious Creatures of Modern Times," and a Japanese toy company has manufactured Dover Demon figurines. The creature was reportedly seen on three separate occasions on April 21 and 22, 1977. William Bartlett , who was the first person to report seeing the creature, said he wasn't aware the Dover Demon incident was turning 30. "I don't really think about it, unless someone calls me to ask about it," said Bartlett, an accomplished painter in the realist style who lives in Needham but grew up in Dover. When asked, Bartlett stands by his story. Bartlett, who was then 17, said he spotted the creature while driving his Volkswagen Beetle along Farm Street about 10 p.m. that April 21. He got a good look at the creature for 10 to 15 seconds, he said, and knew right away that it was like no animal he had ever seen. The creature's head was nearly as big as the rest of its body, and it had long, spindly fingers, he said. It was walking on all fours atop a stone wall. "As I drove by it turned its head to look at me," Bartlett said in a recent interview. "You get that moment where your eyes meet. I remember that happening. It freaked me out." Bartlett said he went home, told his parents what happened , and immediately began sketching a picture of the creature. He was already an aspiring artist at the time and has always had a good visual memory, he said. Bartlett's sketches have become the most-used representation of the creature. This and information on numerous other creatures of cryptozoology can be found at the website, Unknown Creatures: http://www.unknown-creatures.com

Argentine Cow-Human Clones Produce Insulin In Milk

Argentine scientists say they have created four cloned and genetically modified calves capable of producing human insulin in their milk, a step they said could cut the cost of treating diabetes. The newborn Jersey heifers – who the scientists have named Patagonia 1, 2, 3 and 4 – will start producing the human hormone when they reach adulthood, said the biotechnology company behind the project, Bio Sidus. "This model of a genetically modified cow is a model that allows us to produce large quantities of products at very low cost," said managing director Marcelo Criscuolo, adding that insulin produced by cows would be at least 30 per cent cheaper. "The cattle-ranching know-how we have in Argentina has really given us a startling advantage in generating the technology," he said at a news conference. To produce pharmaceutical products from cow's milk, scientists insert the human gene of interest into an embryo before implanting it into a surrogate mother cow. In this case they used a gene for insulin.
Once milk is obtained from the genetically modified cow, it will be purified and refined to extract the insulin. Similar techniques have already been used to produce human proteins in goats and cows.

DARPA's Incredible Arsenal Of The Near Future

DARPA has begun on dozens of weapons that close the gap between old-fashioned military hardware and the virtual future. One of the most promising, in the Pentagon’s view, is the Brain Machine Interface, a system of embedded neural transmitters and computer software that bridges thought and action. It is being developed by Duke University scientists, who have already created a computerized system in which a lab monkey can move a robotic arm in a laboratory 1,000 kilometres away just by thinking about it. In the future, military commanders with brain implants will use more advanced versions of this technology to deploy unmanned gun ships and robotic tanks in battlefields half a world away. The military is also planning unmanned spaceships that will carry huge tungsten bolts, nicknamed “rods from God,” that can be dropped with devastating impact on even the smallest target anywhere on the planet.

Chinese make first artificial snowfall

China claimed recently to have caused a snowfall for the first time as part of its increasingly ambitious attempts to control the weather. Officials in the meteorological bureau in Tibet said they had used "rain-seeding" techniques to trigger a snowfall over the city of Nagqu last week. "This proves it's possible for humans to change the weather on the world's highest plateau," said Yu Zhongshui. The bureau said it had produced just under half an inch of snow at a height of 15,000ft. Mr Yu said the experiment was conducted in the hope it would lead to alleviating drought on the northern Tibetan plateau, whose grasslands are turning brown as global warming melts and drains its permafrost. The government also hopes that the project will benefit the great river systems of China. The Yellow, Yangtse, Salween, Mekong and Brahmaputra rivers all rise in Tibet, and the effects of damming and over-extraction for agriculture are beginning to threaten water supplies to major cities. China is the world's largest practitioner of rain-seeding, a controversial procedure that involves releasing silver iodide as a catalyst into clouds either by aircraft or by firing cannon shells into them. It employs 37,000 people on the program, which it uses to trigger rainfall principally to maximize water supply in the drought-prone north of the country, although in Beijing it is often said to be part of attempts to ensure a blue sky for major events. Authorities have already promised to use rain-seeding before the Olympics to clear the often gloomy August skies for the opening ceremony.

If Ruins Of An Ancient Civilization Are Discovered On Mars, Will You Lose Your Religion?

NASA's recently released ultra high resolution pictures of the "face on Mars" reveal details as small as a few inches across including what some believe to be girders, windows and walls from ancient structures. Richard Hoagland and his Enterprise Team believe this is the smoking gun. "The debate is over," he says. "I no longer need to prove that these are ruins, my critics need to prove that they are not."

Microchip Elderly People, Says Science Minister

Elderly people should be "tagged" to enable the authorities to keep tabs on them, a government minister suggested today. Science minister Malcolm Wicks said satellite technology could be used to allow families to monitor frail or elderly relatives, it was reported today. According to the Mirror newspaper, Mr Wicks said many families worried about elderly relatives or "what's happening about an 80 or 90-year-old who may have Alzheimer's", and using the technology could let them know their loved one was safe. Mr Wicks said: "Satellites currently monitor the planet in a variety of different ways. I'm raising this as an issue for discussion. Are there other uses of technology that could benefit society? "We've got an ageing population with many people frail and many suffering from dementia, including Alzheimer's. "How can we get the balance right so that these people have the freedom to live their lives, to go out in the community and go shopping?" Similar technology is used to "tag" and keep track of convicted criminals who have been released from prison.

The Evolution and Potentially "Extinction" Consequences of Synthetic Biology

In the 1970s, genetic engineering was the hot new technology in which DNA molecules from one organism could be spliced into another organism's DNA. Today, synthetic biology could likewise revolutionize our way of life. But synthetic biology is orders of magnitude beyond genetic engineering because it can create completely novel DNA sequences. By human "intelligent design," synthetic biologists could conceivably create new life-forms previously unknown to this planet. Given our current understanding, it's hard to know whether this is a good or bad thing. But since life-forms--at least the nonsynthetic ones--are typically unpredictable, how can we make sure that synthetic biologists create new life that would be purely beneficial?

Virginia Tech University convocation told of Allah, Buddha, Dalai Lama but not Jesus

Speakers at the Virginia Tech convocation called on Allah and Buddha in their efforts to minister to the survivors, family and friends of victims of the shooting massacre at the school – but Jesus wasn't mentioned by name. President Bush did offer a biblical message of hope, when he suggested the school community that lost 32 members to the shootings by an out-of-control resident alien student find "comfort in the grace and guidance of a loving God." But even he didn't bring Jesus, the only hope of comfort and future life for Christians, into the memorials. "I'm sitting here watching the convocation service at VT," wrote a person who was given anonymity. "Five minutes ago they had four representatives from the local 'religious community.' The Muslim specifically invoked Allah's blessings… and he didn't shy away from saying the name of Allah. The Jewish rep asked for God's blessings. Buddha was represented. The only name that [was] omitted, of course, Jesus Christ."

"American Hiroshima" At 50% Chance Of Detonation Within 10 Years

How likely is it that terrorists will some day be successful at detonating a nuclear device in a major American city? That was the question debated in an online forum sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations this week. And while Harvard's Graham T. Allison and the CFR's Michael A. Levi may disagree over the likelihood of such an attack, they agreed it is a serious threat and much more needs to be done to avoid the disastrous consequences. "In the hotly contested American presidential election in 2004, the two candidates agreed on only one fundamental point," he said. "In the first televised debate, they were asked, what is 'the single most serious threat to the national security to the United States?' President Bush, answering second, said: 'I agree with my opponent that the biggest threat facing this country is weapons of mass destruction in the hands of a terrorist network.'" Allison cited other authorities, including former Sen. Sam Nunn, who is on record as saying the likelihood of a single nuclear bomb exploding in a single city is greater today than at the height of the Cold War. Perhaps no one, however, has studied the issue more thoroughly than Allison. In his book, based on the current trend line, he concludes the chances of a nuclear terrorist attack in the next decade are greater than 50 percent. He said former Secretary of Defense William Perry believes that assessment underestimates the risk. "From the technical side, Richard Garwin, a designer of the hydrogen bomb who Enrico Fermi once called, 'the only true genius I had ever met,' told Congress in March he estimated a '20 percent per year probability with American cities and European cities included' of 'a nuclear explosion -- not just a contamination, dirty bomb -- a nuclear explosion.'

Alert! FDA Formalizes Proposal to Regulate Herbs, Vitamins

The federal Food and Drug Administration is proposing to regulate a wide variety of alternative medicine products, from vitamin, mineral and herbal supplements to lotions and stones used by massage therapists. "This could be potentially devastating, not just to my business but to any business relating to supplements," said Sophy Winnick, a Felton mother of four who has been selling Youngevity products for 10 years. "People better get on the horn about this"

Homeland Security is evaluating chipped license proposal

The Department of Homeland Security is proceeding to evaluate Washington state's proposal for a driver's license "enhanced" with a radio frequency identification, or RFID, chip that would encode personal information. DHS spokeswoman Naomi Elmer said the Washington state proposal was being considered as an initiative under the Real ID Act – the controversial measure passed in 2005 that includes standardization of state driver's licenses. Nearly half the states have voted not to participate amid criticism it will result in a de facto national ID card. DHS has issued requirements that as of Jan.23, U.S. citizens traveling by air between the U.S. and Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean and Bermuda are now required to present a valid passport to enter or re-enter the U.S.

Animal intelligence: Startling new evidence emerges

We've known for some time that apes are brainy. Until a couple of years ago, there had been no observation of gorillas using tools in the wild. Then, in 2005, Thomas Breuer of the Wildlife Conservation Society, while observing lowland gorillas in the Republic of Congo, saw something remarkable. A female gorilla, named Leah, waded upright into a pond until waist deep, and then, unsure of herself, returned to the water's edge, grabbed a stick and proceeded to use it as a depth gauge. Chimpanzees also fashion tools out of twigs, and in tests, one bonobo chimp named Kanzi used a computer to ask him: "Can you make the [toy] dog bite the [toy] snake?" Kanzi found the toys, put the snake in the dog's mouth and squeezed it shut - he understood that "dog" was the subject of the verb "bite" and that the direct object was "snake". Dutch primatologist Carel van Schaik discovered orang-utans do something chimps don't - they use leaves as rain hats and make leak-proof roofs over their nests. The Harvard University psychologist James Lee recently argued that orang-utans are the most intelligent apes of all, knocking chimps off their pedestal - but these findings have yet to be verified. An experiment just reported in the US found that rats are smart enough to know when they don't know something - an ability called metacognition. It was once thought that only humans had this ability, and later it was discovered that some apes have it too. In the recent study, lab rats had to decide whether a sound was short or long. A right answer led to a large food reward; a wrong answer to no reward. But if the rats declined the test, they got a small reward. When the sounds were clearly long or clearly short, discriminating was easy, but when the sounds were of a medium duration, the rats soon worked out that it was better to settle for the small reward, rather than risk an incorrect answer.

IAEA Says, Iran Is Making Nuclear Fuel In Underground Plant

Iran has started enriching small amounts of uranium gas at its underground plant at Natanz, according to the UN's nuclear agency, the IAEA. The agency said eight cascades of more than 1,300 centrifuges, the machines that spin uranium gas into enriched material, were now operating. Earlier this month Iran's president said Natanz was ready to enrich uranium on an industrial-scale. The West suspects Iran of seeking atomic weapons, a charge Iran denies. Tehran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only. The UN Security Council has imposed sanctions on Teheran for its failure to scale back its nuclear program. Diplomatic sources have confirmed to the BBC the contents of what was a confidential letter from the International Atomic Energy Agency to Iranian officials. The document - a letter signed by IAEA deputy Director General Ollie Heinonen - said the Agency took note of the information provided by Iran that it is running more 1,300 centrifuges - the machines used to spin the gas into enriched uranium. It said some UF6 uranium gas was being fed into the centrifuges.

New Laws of Robotics Proposed for US Kill-Bots

A new set of laws has been proposed to govern operations by killer robots. The ideas were floated by John S Canning, an engineer at the Naval Surface Warfare Centre, Dahlgren Division – an American weapons-research and test establishment. Many people will be familiar with the old-school Asimov Laws of Robotics, but these are clearly unsuitable for war robots – too restrictive. However, the new Canning Laws are certainly not a carte blanche for homicidal droids to obliterate fleshies without limit; au contraire. Canning proposes that robot warriors should be allowed to mix it up among themselves freely, autonomously deciding to blast enemy weapon systems. Many enemy “systems” would, of course, be themselves robots, so it's clear that machine-on-machine violence isn't a problem. The difficulty comes when the automatic battlers need to target humans. In such cases Mr Canning says that permission from a human operator should be sought.

Britain Steps Closer Toward a Biometric ID Card

Toward the end of 2009, the United Kingdom hopes to have a national identity card scheme up and running for citizens and residents. The personal information of millions of people will be included in a computer database, along with biometric details such as fingerprints and facial characteristics. At the beginning, the new scheme will be voluntary from 2008. It will be developed and problems worked out as more people join. The government is estimating that approximately 60% will obtain the card during this phase. Then by 2014 it is planned that it will be compulsory for people to own a card. One of the reasons for the card is that people will be required to present it when obtaining various services. Documents were published by the Department for Work and Pensions under the Freedom of Information laws earlier this month. Some of the working assumptions are based upon analysis from late 2004, in which it is suggested that up to 30% will refuse to show their card or other biometric data. 10% are expected to confirm their identity by allowing biometric methods to be used. Foreign national residency permits would account for about 3% of all identity cards. Both citizens and immigrants using social services will be required to have a card, which will also help confirm the immigration and visa status of people. The current government maintains that the identity cards are necessary not only for security, but that they will up to halve identity fraud in the United Kingdom. Most foreign nationals living in Britain will have to carry a card, and the government has said it wants the cards to eventually become compulsory in order to fight terrorism and identity fraud.

Note From FEMA: Record Breaking Storms Coming... And You're On Your Own Again

A federal government plan for responding to emergencies will not be ready in time for the approaching hurricane season, officials have told Congress. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, which bore the brunt of criticism following the 2005 season when Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated the Gulf Coast, sent an advisory to Congress last week acknowledging it will not meet its June 1 deadline for issuing a new national response plan. The advisory said development of the new plan had been delayed by unexpected issues, and more time is needed to resolve them. No new target date was set.

Vice President Dick Cheney: Threat of nuclear attack in U.S. city 'very real'

Vice President Dick Cheney, often called upon to deliver the administration's toughest talk about the wars abroad, now says this about the threat of terrorists detonating a nuclear bomb in an American city: "It's a very real threat. ... Something that we have to worry about and defeat every single day." Cheney's warning about what's at stake for the U.S. in withdrawing from Iraq, delivered in a TV interview recently and coupled with a speech in Chicago on April 13 and a war statement that President Bush plans to make on April 23, is part of an escalating chorus of pressure that the White House hopes to exert on Democrats to approve a new war-spending bill. "The fact is that the threat to the United States now of a 9/11 occurring with a group of terrorists armed not with airline tickets and box cutters, but with a nuclear weapon in the middle of one of our own cities, is the greatest threat we face," he said. The administration has confronted questions about Bush's warnings about terrorists "following us home" if not defeated in Iraq, despite his assertion that security tactics have made the nation safer. Asked about that, the president downplayed a specific threat. "I'm not going to predict to you the methodology they'll use," Bush said. "Just you need to know they want to hit us again.

Scientists Say: Artifacts With Extraterrestrial Writings Discovered Near Tunguska Site

Scientists from the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk claim that they have discovered several artifacts with extraterrestrial writings near the fall site of the Tunguska meteorite, the Regnum news agency reports. The president of the Tunguska Space Phenomenon research foundation told reporters that several quartz boulders with mysterious writings on them were found in the Tunguska river basin in 2006. The boulders were tested in Krasnoyarsk and Moscow and test results speak for the fact that they are of extraterrestrial origin, he said. The boulders were covered in strange signs of artificial origin, presumably made with plasma. Russian researchers suggested a hypothesis that the quartz tablets were parts of an information container delivered to Earth by the extraterrestrial spaceship that crashed in Tunguska region in 1908. Russian researcher also said that scientists from the United States, Britain, France and Germany have requested the newly-found artifacts for research, but Russians want to be the first people to decode the message from another civilization.

If House Bill 760 passes, Pennsylvania Gun Owners will be treated like criminals

If someone told you he had been forced to provide the Pennsylvania State Police with their fingerprints, photograph, Social Security number and a host of other personal information, you'd probably assume they were arrested and charged with a crime. Last month, a group of six state lawmakers introduced legislation (House Bill 760) that would require the annual registration of virtually every privately-owned firearm in the state. Those who would refuse to register their guns would become criminals, and those denied registration certificates for any reason would have their guns confiscated by the government. In addition to providing the information mentioned above, gun owners would be required to undergo an annual criminal background check and provide police with the make, model, caliber and serial number for every gun they own -- along with a $10-per-year, per-gun registration fee. Private gun owners whose applications are approved would receive registration certificates for each firearm. The certificates, which would include the gun owner's name, address, date of birth, photograph and other information, would have to be carried with the associated gun at all times and presented to police on demand. Gun owners also would be required to notify state police within 48 hours of any gun that is lost, stolen or destroyed. And gun owners could not sell or give a firearm to anyone else without notifying state police at least 48 hours in advance.Finally -- and this one is really the icing on the cake -- gun owners would be required to keep all firearms unloaded and disassembled (or bound by a trigger lock or gun safe) unless the firearm is in the owner's immediate control and possession at the owner's residence or business or while being used for legal recreation.

Robots are exploring Mars

An army of robots currently is orbiting and crawling over Mars, including Spirit and Opportunity, the two successful rovers that refuse to die more than three years after their arrival. But Phoenix will do something they can't: Dig for ice. "And we're reasonably confident we will be able to sample the ice, which no previous mission has been able to do," says Carol Stoker, a Phoenix team member and planetary scientist with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

War on Terror Is Now War on Human Rights, Says Group

The head of an international human rights group recently charged that the war against terror had transformed itself into a war against human rights. Larry Cox, executive director of Amnesty International, blasted the labeling of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and other clandestine sites around the world, as enemy combatants and holding these individuals without charging them with a specific crime or prosecution. He said the detainees at Guantanamo are being held in conditions that can lead to mental illness, that the inmates are possibly being tortured, but "exactly what happens to these people is kept a secret from all of us." He added that with the Military Commissions Act of 2006, Congress condoned these practices and "took bad policy and turned it into bad law." "With this act, the U.S. Congress officially, in the name of all of us, carried out an assault on the core idea of human rights - on the idea that there are certain rights that belong to all human beings without exception, even those we have labeled enemy combatants," Cox said.

Are Secrets Of The Universe Just About To Be Revealed?

The invisible force which explains the nature of life, the universe and everything was first predicted by an Edinburgh scientist. Now, a team of Glasgow University physicists are preparing to discover if he was right. This week, in a cavern underneath the Swiss mountains, Chris Parkes and Saverio D'Auria watched as the particle detectors they designed and built were slotted into position in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). They are among 7000 scientists at Cern, a research centre near Geneva, aiming to discover what the universe is made of and how it came to be the way it is today. By recreating the conditions one millisecond after the Big Bang, the LHC will allow them to search for the elusive Higgs boson, the "God particle", which is believed to give mass to the the universe and everything in it. Predicting the Higgs boson was a eureka moment for Edinburgh University physicist Peter Higgs. He conceived of the "Higgs mechanism" while walking in the Cairngorms in 1964, and returned to his lab declaring he had had his "one big idea". Having failed so far to discover it, Europe's leading nations have spent £5bn assembling the largest, most expensive science experiment ever built. The LHC sits 100m below ground, in a 27km tunnel, straddling the Swiss-French border. Inside the circular tunnel, charged particles are accelerated to just less than the speed of light. When these protons crash into each other, they will release high-energy particles, many of which have never before been observed. "The exciting thing is that we have no idea what we will find," say Parkes. "It could be the Higgs boson, or it could be something else entirely. But whatever it is that gives matter its mass, we are certain to find it."

Texas is amassing an unprecedented amount of information on its citizens

Piece by piece, Gov. Rick Perry's homeland security office is gathering massive amounts of information about Texas residents and merging it to create the most exhaustive centralized database in state history. Warehoused far from Texas on servers housed at a private company in Louisville, Kentucky, the Texas Data Exchange -- TDEx to those in the loop -- is designed to be an all-encompassing intelligence database. It is supposed to help catch criminals, ferret out terrorist cells, and allow disparate law enforcement agencies to share information. More than $3.6 million has been spent on the project so far, and it already has tens of millions of records. At least 7,000 users are presently allowed access to this information, and tens of thousands more are anticipated. What is most striking, and disturbing, about the database is that it is not being run by the states highest law enforcement agency -- the Texas Department of Public Safety. Instead, control of TDEx, and the power to decide who can use it, resides in the governor's office. That gives Perry, his staff, future governors, and their staffs potential access to a trove of sensitive data on everything from ongoing criminal investigations to police incident reports and even traffic stops.

Navy training ani-terrorist Dolphins and Sea Lions

In a world of high-tech sensors and underwater robotics, Koa the bottlenose dolphin and others like her may still be the Navy's best line of defense against terrorists in scuba gear. "They are better than anything we have ever made," said Mike Rothe, head of science for the Navy's marine mammal program, which trains dolphins and sea lions to guard military installations. About 75 dolphins and 25 sea lions are housed at Naval Base Point Loma in San Diego Harbor as part of a Navy program to teach them to detect terrorists and mines underwater. Both species can find mines and spot swimmers in murky waters. Working in unison, the dolphins can drop a flashing light near a mine or a swimmer. The sea lions carry in their mouths a cable and a handcuff-like device that clamps onto a terrorist's leg. Sailors can then use the cable to reel in the terrorist.

White House Seeks Boost to Spy Powers

The Bush administration asked Congress recently to allow monitoring of more foreigners in the United States during intelligence investigations. The plan is one of several proposed changes, which have been in the works for more than a year, that go to the heart of a key U.S. surveillance law. The administration says the changes are intended to help the government better address national security threats by updating the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to bring it into line with rapid changes in communications technology. Civil liberties groups see the government's effort as a needless power grab. The proposal would revise the way the government gets warrants from the secretive FISA court to investigate suspected terrorists, spies and other national security threats. The administration wants to be able to monitor foreign nationals on American soil if they are thought to have significant intelligence information, but no known links to a foreign power. Under current law, the government must convince a FISA judge that an individual is an agent of a government, terror group or some other foreign adversary. The administration also wants new provisions to ease surveillance of people suspected of spreading weapons of mass destruction internationally.

A Bronze Age Vessel of Purification Reveals the Signature of Moses

The Vessel of Purification is believed to have been associated with the Prophet Moses over 3,300 years ago. Researchers have identified upon the Bronze Age Art-scroll artistic montage distinctive Paleo-Hebrew writing including the signature of its artist that elaborately signed, yet clearly spelled out his name, 'MoSHeH.' The investigation of a Hebrew artifact holds great significance to Muslims, Christians and Jewish people... The stories of the patriarchs regarding the children of Abraham are described from each segment of the Master artist's brilliant brush strokes. The montage 'to go up the mount' suddenly takes on new meaning as the story line's panoramic scenes include a 360° view of Mount Sinai and Horeb peaks.

The war on terror is turning into terrorism for every citizens rights

The War on Terror is a marketing campaign for security industries and terrorism experts. The latter are pulling in the consulting fees, and the former are rapidly inventing new products that enable "our" government to watch our every move and to know our location at every moment. Although it should be working on its corporate ethics, BAE Systems is working on an "Onboard Threat Detection System." The system consists of tiny cameras and microphones implanted in airline seats. The Onboard Threat Detection System records every facial expression and every whisper of every passenger, allowing watchful eyes and ears to detect terrorists before they can strike. BAE says its system is so sophisticated that it can differentiate between nervous flyers and real terrorists. Other firms are developing chip implants that identify a person to scanning machines and allow our movements to be monitored by GPS systems. Still others are developing ID cards that have retina scans and our DNA. No doubt we will be required to have both.

Scientists claim Mobile Phones may be killing the bees

It seems like the plot of a particularly far-fetched horror film. But some scientists suggest that our love of the mobile phone could cause massive food shortages, as the world's harvests fail. They are putting forward the theory that radiation given off by mobile phones and other hi-tech gadgets is a possible answer to one of the more bizarre mysteries ever to happen in the natural world - the abrupt disappearance of the bees that pollinate crops. Late last week, some bee-keepers claimed that the phenomenon - which started in the US, then spread to continental Europe - was beginning to hit Britain as well. The theory is that radiation from mobile phones interferes with bees' navigation systems, preventing the famously homeloving species from finding their way back to their hives. Improbable as it may seem, there is now evidence to back this up. Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) occurs when a hive's inhabitants suddenly disappear, leaving only queens, eggs and a few immature workers, like so many apian Mary Celestes. The vanished bees are never found, but thought to die singly far from home. The parasites, wildlife and other bees that normally raid the honey and pollen left behind when a colony dies, refuse to go anywhere near the abandoned hives. The alarm was first sounded last autumn, but has now hit half of all American states. The West Coast is thought to have lost 60 per cent of its commercial bee population, with 70 per cent missing on the East Coast. CCD has since spread to Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece. And last week John Chapple, one of London's biggest bee-keepers, announced that 23 of his 40 hives have been abruptly abandoned. The implications of the spread are alarming. Most of the world's crops depend on pollination by bees. Albert Einstein once said that if the bees disappeared, "man would have only four years of life left". No one knows why it is happening. Theories involving mites, pesticides, global warming and GM crops have been proposed, but all have drawbacks. German research has long shown that bees' behaviour changes near power lines. Now a limited study at Landau University has found that bees refuse to return to their hives when mobile phones are placed nearby. Dr Jochen Kuhn, who carried it out, said this could provide a "hint" to a possible cause.

UK Cameras not only see you, but will talk to you

Police in Middlesbrough unveiled a startling new weapon in the ongoing war against crime: CCTV cameras that shout at you whenever you do something wrong. Currently, they are chiefly used to warn drunken revellers hell-bent on stealing traffic cones, or to dish out virtual bollockings to litterbugs. "Respect tsar" Louise Casey says it "nips problems in the bud", while home secretary John Reid praised the scheme on the grounds that rather than being "secret surveillance", it was "very public", and most importantly, "interactive". And wait, it gets worse. As if the scheme wasn't already unsettling enough, according to news reports, "children's voices are to be used initially to make the encounter less confrontational". This would be a brilliantly disturbing twist in a dystopian sci-fi movie in which the traditional adult-child relationship has been thrown into reverse, and misbehaving grownups are publicly scolded by eerie, disembodied infant voices, but unfortunately it's not happening in a dystopian sci-fi movie at all, but in Middlesborough. And, later this year, in Southwark, Barking and Dagenham, Reading, Harlow, Norwich, Ipswich, Plymouth, Gloucester, Derby, Northampton, Mansfield, Nottingham, Coventry, Sandwell, Wirral, Blackpool, Salford, South Tyneside and Darlington.

Defector reveals Iran has uranium for bombs

The Iranian spy chief recently spirited out of Tehran in a Cold War-style operation by Britain has revealed Iran obtained uranium from Congo, where export controls on fissionable materials are non-existent. General Ali Reza Askari told Britain's MI6 debriefing team the nuclear material was flown out of the country from a military airfield near Kisangen, north to Sudan. Its ultimate destination was Iran's main nuclear enrichment plant at Natanz, where most of the country's enrichment process is taking place to produce weapons-grade uranium Askari also provided up-to-date information on countries with uranium deposits targeted by Tehran. Along with Congo, which currently has 8 percent of the world's deposits, Iran's agents have approached Somalia, Namibia and Kazakhstan. Iran's own domestic sources of uranium total around 40,000 tons, Askari said, far in excess of what Western intelligence sources have calculated and more than enough to create a nuclear weapons arsenal. The revelations raise new concerns to the West that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's warning that "the world must accept the new reality of our nuclear program" was not an idle boast.

Once again, Science Proves The Biblical Flood

Scientists have discovered oceans hiding deep down inside the planet. The large bodies of water are reportedly located at a depth of more than 1,000 km underneath the earth’s surface. The story of the Flood is a Biblical story about the universal deluge as recorded in Genesis. Some people regard it as a myth. However, many scientists believe the Flood did occur in days of old. Scientists point out numerous traces of the flooding still existent in various parts of the globe. They also believe that the salt-water lakes scattered around the land thousands kilometers away from a shoreline are the remainders of the Flood.

China's Growing Military Clout Worries India, U.S.

India and the U.S. came together on April 10, to discuss China's massive modernisation of its military capabilities, its spreading arc of influence in the Asia-Pacific region and the basic uncertainty about its long-term aims. Coming as it does just before the India-US-Japan trilateral exercise off Yokosuka near Tokyo Bay on April 17, the move is likely to ruffle feathers in Beijing. China is already suspicious at the emergence of what is being called the ``axis of democracy'' in the Asia-Pacific region, with India, US, Japan, and Australia upgrading their defence ties. India, however, would like to be viewed as a ``neutral'' player rather than being projected as a counterweight to China or being part of any grand strategy to ``contain'' China. It has steadily improved its bilateral relationship with China, with several military CBMs being implemented along the 4,057-km Line of Actual Control. But yes, India continues to remain apprehensive about China's deep strategic ties with Pakistan, its rapid modernisation of the 2.5-million-strong People's Liberation Army and military infrastructure build-up in Tibet. "We gave the U.S. side our assessment of China's maritime strategy and growing naval expansion in the Indian Ocean Region. China is rapidly increasing military and maritime links with countries like Myanmar, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar," said a source. India, of course, is trying to counter these moves. The latest one came on Tuesday itself, with Navy chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta holding talks with his visiting Indonesian counterpart, Admiral Slamet Soebijanto. With the Indonesian parliament recently ratifying a defence agreement with India, the two nations will now hold a joint naval exercise next year. The U.S., of course, is deeply worried about China, viewing it as the one country with the ``greatest potential to compete militarily'' with it.

Cloning Is Assault On Human Dignity: Archbishop

Archbishop Hart said it was wrong to believe cloned human embryos had no intrinsic value, arguing they "share the same human life that we all do". The insight of the biblical and Christian tradition was not changed simply because of scientific claims of the potential benefits of therapeutic cloning, he said. "To allow embryos to be deliberately created and then destroyed for scientific research is always unethical and would be an assault on the dignity of the human person at its most vulnerable." Under the legislation, introduced by Health Minster Bronwyn Pike and mirroring federal laws, researchers would be allowed to clone human embryos for medical research through somatic nuclear transfer — or so-called therapeutic cloning.

Google Backs Character-Recognition Research

Google is sponsoring an artificial-intelligence research group's work to develop advanced technologies for character recognition. The open-source project, called Ocropus, has several goals, including developing a high-level, easy-to-use handwriting recognition system that can convert handwritten documents to computer text, assisting in the creation of electronic libraries, analyzing historical documents and helping vision-impaired people access information. The "ocr" in Ocropus stands for optimal character recognition.

DARPA's Robobugs With Spy Cameras The Size Of An Insect

Robot 'insects' that could carry tiny spy cameras into buildings are being developed by the Pentagon. Defence chiefs say the mechanical bugs could prove far more manoeuvrable than micro-sized versions of conventional aircraft or helicopters. The Pentagon's Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency is developing four flying 'robobugs' weighing up to 10 grams each and with wingspans of up to 7.5 centimetres. One of the two companies developing the craft for DARPA – Aerovironment, based in Monrovia, California – aims to have a "rough demonstrator" flying by the middle of 2008. Insect wings often beat with a complex figure of eight motion which gives excellent mid-air agility - but is very hard for engineers to mimic. The first hurdle for engineers like Dr Ronald Fearing is to develop mechanisms that will generate enough lift. Insects do this by rapidly beating their wings down and forward and then rotating them back and upward. Dr Fearing has switched his insect flight model from a fly to a bee increasing the 0.1 gram MFI's (Micromechanical Flying Insect's) wing stroke from 170 beats per second to 275, and reducing the angle through which the wing moves up and down from 70 to 60 degrees. He said: "The critical thing we have shown is we have enough lift to take off." At the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne flight researcher Dr Dario Floreano is already testing a miniature propeller-driven aircraft. Dubbed Microflyer it tracks the position of features on the ground and walls using two cameras scanning below and ahead.

Russia threatening new cold war over missile defence

Russia is preparing its own military response to the US's controversial plans to build a new missile defence system in eastern Europe, according to Kremlin officials, in a move likely to increase fears of a cold war-style arms race. The Kremlin is considering active counter-measures in response to Washington's decision to base interceptor missiles and radar installations in Poland and the Czech Republic, a move Russia says will change "the world's strategic stability". The Kremlin has not publicly spelt out its plans. But defence experts said its response is likely to include upgrading its nuclear missile arsenal so that it is harder to shoot down, putting more missiles on mobile launchers, and moving its fleet of nuclear submarines to the north pole, where they are virtually undetectable. Russia could also bring the new US silos within the range of its Iskander missiles launched potentially from the nearby Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, they add. In an interview with the Guardian, the Kremlin's chief spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said Moscow felt betrayed by the Pentagon's move. "We were extremely concerned and disappointed. We were never informed in advance about these plans. It brings tremendous change to the strategic balance in Europe, and to the world's strategic stability."

The U.S. Is In Danger of Dictatorship, Warns Congressman Ron Paul

Presidential candidate Ron Paul has warned that the U.S. is now at a crisis point because the people have been so neglectful of protecting their liberties and big government has been so effective in eroding them. He warned that the elite are prepared to concoct events to scare the American people and asserted that the 2008 Presidential election is a contest between the people who care about their freedoms and those who are willing to succumb to the temptations of dictatorship. Congressman Ron Paul joined Alex Jones on air this week for a full hour to discuss his ongoing Presidential campaign and give his views on what he believes the fundamental issues are in America today. The Congressman gave a candid interview in which he discussed many topics in depth including the economy, foreign policy, the North American Union, the possibility of a draft and the situations in Iraq and Iran. Known for what many have described as his impeccable voting record, Ron Paul is a champion of individual liberty and a strong campaigner for restoration of a true Constitutionalist form of U.S. government, a trait that has made him a rare and popular candidate amongst people from all across the political spectrum. When asked what he believes the overriding issue in America today is the Congressman pointed towards the erosion of personal freedoms. "Probably it's the threat to individual liberty. because our government is growing endlessly by leaps and bounds and nobody seems to want to put a hold on it. every time government grows it is at the expense of personal liberty." The Congressman explained that freedom is the underlying issue because the consequences of such erosion of individual liberty have a knock on effect in many different areas. Economically, for example, the country is becoming dependent, less productive and less self sustaining.

Tiny robots may be inside our bodies in the near future

The future of medicine will include microscopic robots that travel around the human body, collecting information and making minor repairs. At least that’s the view of researchers who are working in the emerging field known as nanorobotics. If their designs can be realized, “nanorobots” might one day detect and break apart kidney stones, clear plaque from blood vessels, or ferry drugs to tumor cells.

Professor who criticized Bush added to terrorist 'no-fly' list

A top Constitutional scholar from Princeton who gave a televised speech that slammed President George W. Bush's executive overreach was recently told that he had been added to the Transportation Security Administration's terrorist watch list. Walter F. Murphy, the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, Emeritus, at Princeton University, attempted to check his luggage at the curbside in Albuquerque before boarding a plane to Newark, New Jersey. Murphy was told he could not use the service. "I was denied a boarding pass because I was on the Terrorist Watch list," he said. When inquiring with a clerk why he was on the list, Murphy was asked if he had participated in any peace marches. "We ban a lot of people from flying because of that," a clerk said. Murphy then explained that he had not marched, but had "in September, 2006, given a lecture at Princeton, televised and put on the Web, highly critical of George Bush for his many violations of the Constitution." The clerk responded, "That'll do it." Murphy was allowed to board the plane, but was warned that his luggage would be "ransacked." On his return trip, his luggage was lost.

NASA Plans On Putting People On The Moon Again, by 2019

NASA administrator Michael Griffin said his agency has budgeted for plans to send U.S. astronauts back to the moon 50 years after the first successful lunar landing in 1969. ‘Our plan right now is people back on the moon in 2019,’ said Michael Griffin. Griffin acknowledged that the date is far in the future, but said his agency has many other commitments to complete first. Among these is winding up the space shuttle program by 2010 and having replacement vehicles ready in a timely manner. ‘The development is just beginning, and we certainly have not had any problems, but we do not have as much money available as we thought we would, and so that development now has slipped out until probably 2015, unless something changes, for us to deploy those new vehicles,’ he said. ‘And that now will end up being a 4.5 -year gap. It is of concern.’ NASA's current budget is $16.8 billion. Its proposed budget for the 2008 fiscal year is $17.3 billion. The NASA administrator said it is important for the United States to continue pursuing space travel and exploration.

Most People Like Buying And Selling Without Cash

Imagine a day when the only item you'll need to take to the supermarket to complete a transaction is your index finger. The concept is already a reality in a limited capacity in some places around the world but observers believe the technology could become mainstream by 2012. Using biometric scanning to make transactions is expected to be only one of many new methods that are part of a revolution in payments technology. The long reign of swipe-and-sign plastic cards appears to be weakening with retailers and others considering new ways to make the payment process more secure and faster. In the US, NCR Corporation - a 123-year-old maker of cash registers - is already providing registers to retailers that include fingerprint scanner locks for staff to reduce loss and attendance fraud. NCR says the next phase of the technology is to get customers feeling comfortable with the idea of using their biological information to make casual purchases. Leading the charge in this area is another US company, Pay By Touch, which uses biometric technology to allow consumers to pay for purchases and access loyalty discounts at checkout counters. Pay By Touch has partnered NCR to merge the fingerprint authentication system with NCR's biometric point-of-sale hardware allowing US consumers to make purchases at selected stores. Biometric information in its various forms has gained acceptance in a number of government environments, predominantly for security reasons. And in the consumer sector, a number of Japanese and South Korean banks are using fingerprint scanners as a form of identification at automated teller machines.

Over Half Of Russia's Radioactive Material Is In Danger Of Being Stolen By Terrorists

Russian experts are expressing renewed alarm over the safety of the country's nuclear stockpiles, fearing terrorists will have no trouble gaining access. "Only 47 percent of them are secured in a safe manner," according to Victor Mizin, a former high-ranking Russian diplomat. That means bout 300 tons of radioactive materials need modernized physical security, especially now, when global terrorists such as al-Qaida are striving to obtain access. "If any of the terrorist groups will decide to obtain Russian nuclear materials for the purpose of making dirty bombs, they would be able to accomplish their goal relatively easy," Mizin said. A dirty bomb combines radioactive materials – waste from hospitals and laboratories as well as spent nuclear fuel – with conventional explosives to spread radioactive contamination over a wide area. Al-Qaida not only is believed to be seeking such materials but is assessed to be capable of making dirty bomb devices.

UK Airports to Track Passengers With Radio ID Tags

Airports plan to track passengers with radio transmitter tags to cut delays and tighten security. Manchester airport has carried out a six-month trial of the technology, which used radio frequency identification (RFID) tags to track 50,000 volunteers in the airport. The airport's head of innovation, Yemmi Agbegi, said: "It enabled us to see how much time passengers spent airside and how efficient our security was." When the system is fully operational, Manchester will attach the radio tag to a passenger's boarding card when they check in. If the scheme is successful, it will be rolled out to other airports, including Heathrow, within a couple of years. For passengers who printed their boarding cards at home, the RFID tag will be stuck on the card as they pass through security on their way to the departure lounge. With airports running at full capacity, a single missing passenger can cause chaos, often forcing airlines to remove all the baggage from the hold. This, in turn, can lead to the plane missing its take-off slot. "Once a plane has missed its slot, then it is sent to the back of the queue," a BAA spokesman explained. For example, a missing passenger at London City Airport, which is a fraction of the size of Heathrow, delayed a flight to Frankfurt by 90 minutes. Tagging passengers could also be used to improve security, making it possible to detect anyone entering an unauthorised area. Companies are working on technology which would trigger an alarm if a device did not move at all, indicating it had been dropped or lost, or if the tag was removed from the boarding card. But the main benefit of the system is seen as a way of making airports run more smoothly. The Manchester trial was just one of a series of experiments being carried out across Europe.

Sunspots activity is reaching 1,000-year high

A new analysis shows that the Sun is more active now than it has been at anytime in the previous 1,000 years. Scientists based at the Institute for Astronomy in Zurich used ice cores from Greenland to construct a picture of our star's activity in the past. They say that over the last century the number of sunspots rose at the same time that the Earth's climate became steadily warmer. This trend is being amplified by gases from fossil fuel burning, they argue. Sunspots have been monitored on the Sun since 1610, shortly after the invention of the telescope. They provide the longest-running direct measurement of our star's activity. The variation in sunspot numbers has revealed the Sun's 11-year cycle of activity as well as other, longer-term changes. In particular, it has been noted that between about 1645 and 1715, few sunspots were seen on the Sun's surface. This period is called the Maunder Minimum after the English astronomer who studied it.

The Problem With Expanding DNA Searches

If you're convicted of a felony (or in some states a misdemeanor), your DNA goes into a database. That information primarily helps in the pursuit of repeat offenders. But some people want to extend the reach of that data to find people who are only a partial match. It's a particularly personal form of a law enforcement fishing expedition. The technique is called "familial searching," and it targets not only the convicted but their relatives as well. Sometimes, when an investigator tries to match a crime scene sample to the several million profiles in, say, the FBI's database, no exact match turns up. But there might be someone whose DNA profile is unusually similar. If the partial match is sufficiently close, or if some of the genetic markers in the sample are sufficiently rare, it could mean that the crime scene sample was left by a close genetic relative of the person who is included in the DNA database. Thus the familial search casts suspicion not on the convicted criminal in the database but on that person's siblings, parents or children. Should forensic scientists reveal partial matches to police and prosecutors? Should officials be able to use this DNA as the basis for investigating relatives? Is this a lead that any investigator would be crazy to ignore, or is it an encroachment on civil liberties? The difficulty is that it is both. While mining the DNA database for clues is certainly tempting, it is a temptation we should resist. Fairness and privacy concerns require it.

Scientists Predict Southwest Mega-Drought

Changing climate will mean increasing drought in the American Southwest — a region where water already is in tight supply — according to a new study. “The bottom line message for the average person and also for the states and federal government is that they’d better start planning for a Southwest region in which the water resources are increasingly stretched,” said Richard Seager of Columbia University’s Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory. Researchers studied 19 computer models of the climate, using data dating back to 1860 and projecting into the future, to the year 2100. The same models were used in preparing the reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The consensus of the models was that climate in the southwestern United States and parts of northern Mexico began a transition to drier conditions late in the 20th century and is continuing the trend in this century, as climate change alters the movement of storms and moisture in the atmosphere. The models show the drying trend continuing all the way to 2100 — for more than 90 years. "If these models are correct, the levels of aridity of the recent multiyear drought, or the Dust Bowl and 1950s droughts, will, within the coming years to decades, become the new climatology of the American Southwest," the researchers wrote.

U.S. Military Developing Robocop Armour for Soldiers

We may have seen it all before in science-fiction films. But the bionic warrior is in fact a vision of real-life warfare in the 21st century. U.S. defence chiefs hope to have their troops kitted out in the outlandish combat gear as soon as 2020. Included in the Pentagon's Future Warrior Concept are a powerful exoskeleton, a self-camouflaging outer layer that adapts to changing environments and a helmet which translates a soldier's voice into any foreign language.

Driver's licenses to feature radio chips

The state of Washington announced a pilot project to introduce a driver's license "enhanced" with a radio frequency identification, or RFID, chip that would encode personal information and possibly serve as a passport-alternative if approved by the Department of Homeland Security. Democratic Gov. Christine Gregoire signed a bill March 23 allowing Washington residents to apply for the $40 voluntary driver's license beginning in January. Gregoire spokeswoman Kristin Jacobsen told WND in an e-mail the enhanced license is intended to be an alternative way of complying with theWestern Hemisphere Travel Initiative mandated by the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004. The Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, the Real ID Act, the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America all call for ID technology to be built into drivers' licenses, passports and other types of border-crossing identification.

Iran May Be Only Months from making bomb

With news that Iran has begun injecting uranium hexafluoride gas into 3,000 centrifuges at its Natanz nuclear facility, the Islamic nation could be less than one year away from being able to enrich weapons-grade uranium. International reports persist that Iran has made improvements to the advanced P2 centrifuge designs it bought from the black market network created by rogue Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Kahn in 1987. David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) told the subcommittees of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs March 15 Iran had mastered manufacturing all the centrifuge components of the P1 centrifuge.

Revolution, flashmobs, and brain chips. A grim vision of the future

Information chips implanted in the brain. Electromagnetic pulse weapons. The middle classes becoming revolutionary, taking on the role of Marx's proletariat. The population of countries in the Middle East increasing by 132%, while Europe's drops as fertility falls. "Flashmobs" - groups rapidly mobilised by criminal gangs or terrorists groups. This is the world in 30 years' time envisaged by a Ministry of Defence team responsible for painting a picture of the "future strategic context" likely to face Britain's armed forces. It includes an "analysis of the key risks and shocks". Rear Admiral Chris Parry, head of the MoD's Development, Concepts & Doctrine Centre which drew up the report, describes the assessments as "probability-based, rather than predictive". The 90-page report comments on widely discussed issues such as the growing economic importance of India and China, the militarisation of space, and even what it calls "declining news quality" with the rise of "internet-enabled, citizen-journalists" and pressure to release stories "at the expense of facts". It includes other, some frightening, some reassuring, potential developments that are not so often discussed.

Massachusetts schools to use fingerprint scans to allow students to buy lunch

Taunton schools this spring could become the first in Massachusetts to have students pay for lunch by scanning their fingerprints. Under the plan, which is voluntary, schools will scan two fingerprints from each student, which will be converted into an individual number linked to a meal account. When they buy lunch, students will tap their finger on a reader that brings up the account. The cashier will enter the items and deduct the cost. School officials say the new system will speed the cafeteria line, possibly let parents monitor what children eat, and lift the stigma from poor students who receive free or reduced-price lunches. They say the system is secure because the fingerprint image is never stored, only a numeric representation of it.

Asteroid Attack! Scientists Say It's Coming

To David Morrison, a senior scientist at NASA, the Earth orbits the sun in a sort of cosmic shooting gallery. More than 1 million asteroids spin around the sun, and it is Morrison's job to figure out which of these bodies of rock, dust and metal could come crashing down on Earth. Right now, NASA is tracking 127 asteroids that have a very small chance of striking the planet. That number is about to get a lot higher. Stronger telescopes, and a new mandate from Congress, will allow scientists to detect thousands of smaller asteroids more likely to hit Earth. And scientists are plotting ways to stop them, from "gravity tractors" to solar ray guns.

Designed With Iran In Mind: Meet MOP, Boeing's New Bunker-Busting Super-Bomb

As U.S. concern about the nuclear ambitions of North Korea and Iran have grown, weapons designers have been working on bombs capable of destroying those countries' underground nuclear sites. Some nuclear facilities in both countries are believed to be buried deep, so U.S. designers — including some from Boeing — are developing a new class of bombs for plowing through hundreds of feet of earth and concrete before detonating. The latest of these weapons is the MOP — short for Massive Ordnance Penetrator — built by Boeing's Advanced Systems unit in St. Louis. The 20-foot-long bomb that weighs 30,000 pounds — much heavier than the 21,000-pound MOAB, or Massive Ordnance Air Burst bomb, unveiled in the prelude to the Iraq war. The MOAB was designed by the Air Force Research Lab and is built at the McAlester Army Ammunition Plant in Oklahoma.

Texas may start scanning fingerprints for age verification purposes for buying tobacco, etc.

If bills heard this week before the House and Senate transportation committees pass muster and become law, Texans could soon be using their "involved and delicate pattern left by the ball of a finger" for age-verification purposes, i.e. to buy tobacco, liquor and tickets for the Lotto or R-rated movies. Lobbyists from biometric company Pay By Touch likened their electronic fingerprint identification system to having a "virtual wallet" that can be accessed with the touch of a digit to a scanner. Rather than getting carded for booze, you get fingered instead. Even more unsettling is that electronic fingerprints could be linked to people's bank accounts or credit cards, for the dissemination of welfare funds from the state or the purchase of a candy bar at the neighborhood Albertson's (or Piggly Wiggly). Biometric payment systems: A strange but appropriate bedfellow to automated, human-less checkout lanes.

Solar bursts could threaten Global Positioning System

The Global Positioning System, relied on for everything from navigating cars and airplanes to transferring money between banks, may be threatened by powerful solar flares, a panel of scientists warned recently "Our increasingly technologically dependent society is becoming increasingly vulnerable to space weather," David L. Johnson, director of the National Weather Service, said at a briefing. GPS receivers have become widely used in recent years, for satellite signals that navigate airplanes, ships, and automobiles and for cellphones, mining, surveying, and many other commercial uses. Indeed, banks use the system to synchronize money transfers, "so space weather can affect all of us, right down to our wallet," said Anthea J. Coster, an atmospheric scientist at the Haystack Observatory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The cause for their concern, Johnson said, was an unexpected solar radio burst on Dec. 6 that affected virtually every GPS receiver on the lighted half of earth. Some receivers had a reduction in accuracy while others completely lost the ability to determine position, he said.

Genetically Engineering Children

For a number of years now, a great deal of discussion has taken place among scientists and in the popular media about the genetic engineering of children. Will it soon be possible, for prices widely affordable at least to the upper-middle class, to guarantee that children have a high IQ, or excellent athletic ability, or be over 6 feet tall, or have blond hair and blue eyes? Is it right to commodify children in this way, and have parents choosing options as they do with cars? And wouldn't it be boring to live in a world someday where almost everyone is extremely intelligent and beautiful? Variety, or even the politically correct term "diversity," But not everyone wants what seemed to be the three genetic engineering options: refrain and let nature take her course, attempt to repair genetic diseases but otherwise let well enough alone, or select positive qualities in children. There are parents who are deliberately ensuring that their children are born with disabilities, from deafness to dwarfism. A fourth option-inflicting permanent disabling conditions on children-is now being used. For some years now, some deaf parents have refused to allow their deaf children to receive cochlear implants that would enable them to hear. The devices must often be implanted when children are very young in order to work, so such parents condemn their children to a lifetime of deafness when they could have been able to hear. Some dwarf couples are even using in-vitro fertilization to create embryos in the lab, then killing the normal ones and implanting the ones with the dwarfness gene to ensure having a dwarf child.

Bulgaria's Satanists Demand to Register Sect as Official Religion

Bulgaria's Satanists will demand their sect to be recognized and promulgated as an official religion by the Bulgarian Directorate on Ecclesiastical Matters, Standart newspaper reported. There are politicians in the sect of Bulgaria's Satanists, its head Rumen Atanasov announced in an interview for Darik Radio. There are more than 100 people, who are members of the Argenteum Astrum Order, politicians among them, Atanasov, who is the head of the order in Bulgaria added. According to the newly adopted law on religion, the Satanists must register themselves as a religion in court and not in the Directorate on Ecclesiastical Matters. According to another newspaper, members of the ultra-nationalist party Ataka and of the Union of Democratic Forces also belong to the satanic order. Modern Satanism was founded by Aleister Crowley, who created a doctrine, whose main principle is "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law".

New Surveillance Industry Cashing In On ID Systems

The U.S. government’s growing appetite for biometrics-based ID systems to bolster security, detect terrorists, fight crime and control illegal immigration is generating billions of dollars of business for an evolving industry that’s coming of age in the post-9-11 era. The growth of the identification industry has also spawned an aggressive push-back from privacy advocates against what they call an emerging “surveillance-industrial complex.” Regardless of the perspective, few would deny that the expanding government market for more secure identification programs is laden with business potential. Players range from big-name defense contractors to obscure specialty firms. And the product line includes commonplace offerings that might have seemed possible only on Star Trek just a decade or so ago. Video or audio scanners can identify individuals by facial features, voice or even the blood vessels in their eyes, matching the information against data stored in a secure digital clearinghouse. Fingerprints are widely used for everything from firing up the computer to opening the office door. 9-11 accelerated the identification boom as high-tech companies stepped forward to supply several new security networks for transportation, government buildings, law enforcement and other venues.

Future of War Demands Futuristic Flying Machines

While no one can predict where, when or why countries will fight future wars, experts are already creating war technology that may play a deciding factor in the outcome. Perhaps it’s a bit bold to say scientists can write history before it occurs, but only future historians can decide that. In any case, scientists, militarists, and governments are currently investing large amounts of resources in an intriguing, futuristic technology—fleets of small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Actually, as scientists Tariq Samad, John Bay and Datta Godbole write in Proceedings of the IEEE, UAVs are not all that new, although interest in these small fliers has spiked recently due to current world circumstances. The scientists’ invited paper analyzes current UAV technology and suggests untapped research areas. Also, the group presents a concept of operations for a coordinated fleet of different types of UAVs, which are defined as powered aerial vehicles that use aerodynamic forces for lift, and which can either fly autonomously or be piloted remotely. “A particularly exciting development in UAVs over the last few years has been the emergence of (by now several) small, often portable, relatively low-cost vehicles,” Samad told PhysOrg.com. “These new UAVs, unlike their traditional counterparts, are especially well suited for urban operations and they promise to allow safer, easier, and more comprehensive surveillance and reconnaissance in urban areas.”

New bar codes can talk with your cell phone

It sounds like something straight out of a futuristic film: house hunters, driving past a for-sale sign, stop and point their cell phone at the sign. With a click, their cell phone screen displays the asking price, the number of bedrooms and baths and lots of other details about the house. Media experts say that cell phones, the Swiss Army knives of technology, are quickly heading in this direction. New technology, already in use in parts of Asia but still in development in the United States, allows the phones to connect everyday objects with the Internet. In their new incarnation, cell phones become a sort of digital remote control, as one CBS executive put it. With a wave, the phone can read encoded information on everyday objects and translate that into videos, pictures or text files on its screen. "The cell phone is the natural tool to combine the physical world with the digital world," that executive, Cyriac Roeding, the head of mobile-phone applications for CBS, said the other day. In Japan, McDonald's customers can already point their cell phones at the wrapping on their hamburgers and get nutrition information on their screens. Users there can also point their phones at magazine ads to receive insurance quotes, and board airplanes using their phones rather than paper tickets. And film promoters can send their movie trailers from billboards. Advertisers say they are interested in offering similar capabilities in the United States, but cell phones in the States do not come with the necessary software. For now, consumers have to download the technology themselves. Still, big advertising and technology companies like Hewlett-Packard and the Publicis Groupe, an advertising conglomerate, are pushing to popularize the technology here.

Prophecy Surge: The Barcode In Your Hand

Imagine just waving your hand over a screen to pay the check at a restaurant. It might sound like something from a "Star Trek" episode, but researchers at Snowflake Technologies in Memphis are well on their way to making it happen. Using technology developed by their parent company, Luminetx Corp., Snowflake personnel are in the process of developing a device that can identify a person by the patterns of veins in his or her hand. "We read your veins like barcodes - and no two are alike," said Jim Phillips, president and chief executive officer of Memphis-based Luminetx. Luminetx is the company behind the VeinViewer, a medical device that promises to revolutionize the way people have blood drawn by projecting an image of a person's veins right onto their skin using infrared light and a computer. Using that same technology, Snowflake is developing a device designed on the concept of biometrics, which are automated methods of identifying, or authenticating, the identity of a living person based on a unique physiological or behavioral characteristic. In this case, the unique characteristic is a pattern of veins on any part of human anatomy, from the foot to the forehead. The technology works because every person has a unique vein pattern, even identical twins. Other forms of biometric IDs include fingerprinting and iris scans, but Phillips said the device Snowflake is developing beats the others hands down. Fingerprints, he said, can be left behind on a surface and easily lifted. Irises can be altered with contact lenses.

Virtual Reality for Virtual Eternity

Imagine having a discussion with Isaac Newton or Albert Einstein on the nature of the universe, where their 3-D, life-sized representations looked you in the eye, examined your body language, considered voice nuances and phraseology of your questions, then answered you in a way that is so real you would swear the images were alive. This was an opening scene from an episode of the TV show "Star Trek" almost a decade and a half ago. A new research project between the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of Central Florida in Orlando may soon make such imaginary conversations a reality. Technology from computer games, animation and artificial intelligence provide the elements to make this happen. The National Science Foundation has awarded a half-million dollar, three-year grant to UIC and UCF researchers to bring those elements together and create the methodology for making such virtual figures commonplace. UIC will focus on the computer graphics and interaction while UCF will concentrate on artificial intelligence and natural language processing software. "The goal is to combine artificial intelligence with the latest advanced graphics and video game-type technology to enable us to create historical archives of people beyond what can be achieved using traditional technologies such as text, audio and video footage," said Jason Leigh, associate professor of computer science and director of UIC's Electronic Visualization Laboratory.

Los Angeles Suffers Longest Dry Spell In 130 Years

Los Angeles is going through its longest dry spell in at least 130 years, the National Weather Service said Sunday, fueling fears of rampant wildfires which have plagued the US west coast in recent years. "The rain season is currently the driest to date in downtown Los Angeles since records began in 1877," the weather service said in a statement. It said the southern California city had received just 2.47 inches (6.27 centimeters) of rain since July 1, 2006, far from the normal precipitation of 13.94 inches (35.4 centimeters) in the same period.

Engineers Create 'Optical Cloaking' Design For Invisibility

Researchers using nanotechnology have taken a step toward creating an "optical cloaking" device that could render objects invisible by guiding light around anything placed inside this "cloak." The Purdue University engineers, following mathematical guidelines devised in 2006 by physicists in the United Kingdom, have created a theoretical design that uses an array of tiny needles radiating outward from a central spoke. The design, which resembles a round hairbrush, would bend light around the object being cloaked. Background objects would be visible but not the object surrounded by the cylindrical array of nano-needles, said Vladimir Shalaev, Purdue's Robert and Anne Burnett Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering. The design does, however, have a major limitation: It works only for any single wavelength, and not for the entire frequency range of the visible spectrum, Shalaev said. "But this is a first design step toward creating an optical cloaking device that might work for all wavelengths of visible light," he said.

Homeland Security Panel Demands Plan For Visitor Tracking Project

In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, the lawmakers said they want a strategic plan by next Monday for the US-VISIT foreigner tracking system, including cost estimates and timelines for an exit component. The lawmakers said Congress has been waiting on the plan for almost two years, even though more than $1.3 billion has been spent on VISIT to date. By law, the department is required to use biometric identifiers, such as digital fingerprints, to verify that foreigners leave the country.

Warning Over GM Plants With Human Genes

Farmers could soon be growing GM crops that contain human genes and can produce insulin. The Canadian firm Sembiosys is growing insulin in the seeds of safflower, a seed oil plant, in trials in Chile, the U.S. and Canada. The company claims it will be able to sell a plant-based form of insulin within three years. The GM industry see this as part of a new wave of plants which could help change public opinion in its favour. Experts already claim to have modified tobacco so it produces a vaccine for cervical cancer.

Iran's leader is preparing for the 'Mahdi' who will control the world

The world is now in its "last days," reports an official Web site of the Iranian government. It claims that the Islamic messiah known as the "Twelfth Imam" or the "Mahdi" may come to earth in 2007 and could be revealed to the world as early as the spring equinox in Mecca, and then Medina. The mahdi will conquer all of Arabia, Syria, Iraq, destroy Israel and then set up a "global government" based in Iraq, says the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) Web site. Such Islamic eschatology (end times theology) is driving the Iranian regime and helps explain why Iran has no interest in helping the United States and European Union create peace in Iraq or the region, much less in ending its bid for nuclear weapons, the Iraq Study Group Report notwithstanding. Anticipation of the imminent arrival or "illumination" of the Islamic messiah has been steadily intensifying inside Iran since Mahmoud Ahmadinejad emerged as president of the country in June of 2005. An Iranian television series called "The World Towards Illumination" has been running since last November to help answer the many questions Iranians have about the end of the world as we know it. The series explains the signs of the last days and what to expect when the Islamic messiah arrives. The program also says that Jesus is coming back to earth soon as a Shiite Muslim leader, and it denounces "born-again Christians" for supporting "the illegal Zionist state of Israel." After [the Twelfth Imam’s] uprising from Mecca, all of Arabia will submit to him and then other parts of the world as he marches upon Iraq and establishes his seat of global government in the city of Kufa. Then the Imam will send 10,000 of his forces to the east and west to uproot the oppressors. At this time, God will facilitate things for him and lands will come under his control one after the other. ... He will appear as a handsome young man, clad in neat clothes and exuding the fragrance of paradise. His face will glow with love and kindness for the human beings. ... He has a radiant forehead, black piercing eyes and a broad chest. He very much resembles his ancestor Prophet Mohammad. Heavenly light and justice accompany him. He will overcome enemies and oppressors with the help of God, and as per the promise of the Almighty the Mahdi will eradicate all corruption and injustice from the face of the earth and establish the global government of peace, justice and equity.

Defense Department Plans for an Underwater Express

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Office (DARPA) has initiated an underwater express program to "demonstrate stable and controllable high‑speed underwater transport through supercavitation. The intent is to determine the feasibility for supercavitation technology to enable a new class of high‑speed underwater craft for future littoral missions that could involve the transport of high‑value cargo and/or small units of personnel. The program will investigate and resolve critical technological issues associated with the physics of supercavitation and will culminate in a credible demonstration a significant scale to prove that a supercavitating underwater craft is controllable at speeds up to 100 knots."

Human-Animal Chimeras Needed For Research, MPs Say

The Government's intention to ban experiments with hybridised animal-human embryos has come under fierce criticism from MPs, scientists and a phalanx of medical charities. A letter delivered today to Tony Blair from 223 medical research charities warns that a ban on the creation of "chimera" embryos will hamper efforts to develop effective treatments for many incurable conditions. Scientists have proposed taking DNA from human skin cells and merging it with the cytoplasm - the non-nucleus part of the cell - of the unfertilised egg of a rabbit or cow.

Birds fall out of the sky in Western Australia

A strange silence was the first clue that something was wrong. The dawn chorus that usually woke residents of the picturesque coastal town of Esperance, in Western Australia, had stopped. Then birds began falling out of the sky. The people of Esperance were alarmed when they came across dead lorikeets, wattlebirds, honeyeaters and silvereyes in their parks and back yards. Health officials told them not to worry. But they tested their rainwater tanks, the main source of drinking water, and found dangerously high levels of lead or nickel in more than a third. Authorities still insisted there was no cause for concern. Then they tested the seabed at the Esperance port, through which nickel and lead carbonate mined inland are shipped to Asia. Some samples contained 130 times the recommended health levels of the two metals. It was also established that 4,000 birds had died of lead poisoning. There was lead in the air, lead in the drinking water, and lead in the sea. And when health officials finally admitted that there might be reason to be anxious, and began testing the population, they found lead in their blood. Out of 900 people tested, 12 - including two young children - had higher levels than those deemed acceptable by the World Health Organisation. Lead is a particular hazard for small children and pregnant women.

Sick People Used Like Laboratory Rats In GM Trials

Genetically modified potatoes developed by Monsanto, the multinational biotech company, have been fed to sick patients in an experiment. Rats that ate similar potatoes in the research suffered reductions in the weight of their hearts and prostate glands. Dr Michael Antoniou, reader in molecular genetics at Guy's, King's and St Thomas' School of Medicine, said use of humans was "irresponsible and totally unethical, especially when already ill subjects were enrolled. These people truly were guinea pigs." Other scientists said the trials were too short, on too few people, to give meaningful results of long-term effects. Monsanto said the vegetables were safe, and the researchers conducting the experiment said effects on the rats were within "permissible" limits.

Is Time Travel A Possibility

While it has long been achievable with the artistic licence of novel-writing or movie-making -- one of the earliest time travel stories, Samuel Madden's "Memoirs of the Twentieth Century", was written as far back as 1733 -- the idea of time travel as a practical reality has generally been dismissed as impossible. Over the last 25 years, however, with some starling advances in the field of quantum physics, an increasing number of serious scientific thinkers have come round to the view that not only is time travel theoretically feasible but also, in some circumstances, practically so as well. "In theory it is absolutely possible," says Neil Johnson, a physics professor at Oxford University. "It might seem to go against common sense, but one of the beauties of Einstein's Theory of Relativity is that it allows for situations that are against common sense." Dr. Cliff Pickover, a leading US science commentator and author of numerous books on the subject (including "Time: A Traveler's Guide"), agrees. "We know for certain that time travel is possible," he told CNN. "For instance, scientists have demonstrated that objects traveling at high speeds age more slowly than stationary objects, so if I traveled on a high-speed rocket into outer space and returned moving close to the speed of light, I could travel thousands of years into the Earth's future. "Time travel into the past may be more difficult, but there are still numerous ways in which time machines for past travel might be built that do not seem to violate any known laws of physics."

Egypt’s chief archaeologist says 'The Biblical Exodus Didn't Happen'

On the eve of Passover, the Jewish holiday that celebrates the story of Moses leading the Israelites through this wilderness out of slavery, Egypt’s chief archaeologist took a bus full of journalists into the North Sinai to showcase his agency’s latest discovery. It didn’t look like much — some ancient buried walls of a military fort and a few pieces of volcanic lava. The archaeologist, Dr. Zahi Hawass, often promotes mummies and tombs and pharaonic antiquities that command international attention and high ticket prices. But this bleak landscape, broken only by electric pylons, excited him because it provided physical evidence of stories told in hieroglyphics. It was proof of accounts from antiquity. That prompted a reporter to ask about the Exodus, and if the new evidence was linked in any way to the story of Passover. The archaeological discoveries roughly coincided with the timing of the Israelites’ biblical flight from Egypt and the 40 years of wandering the desert in search of the Promised Land. “Really, it’s a myth,” Dr. Hawass said of the story of the Exodus, as he stood at the foot of a wall built during what is called the New Kingdom. “If they get upset, I don’t care,” Dr. Hawass said. “This is my career as an archaeologist. I should tell them the truth. If the people are upset, that is not my problem.” Archaeologists who have worked here have never turned up evidence to support the account in the Bible, and there is only one archaeological find that even suggests the Jews were ever in Egypt. Books have been written on the topic, but the discussion has, for the most part, remained low-key as the empirically minded have tried not to incite the spiritually minded. “Sometimes as archaeologists we have to say that never happened because there is no historical evidence,” Dr. Hawass said, as he led the journalists across a rutted field of stiff and rocky sand.

'Very active' hurricane season predicted

The 2007 Atlantic hurricane season should be "very active," with nine hurricanes and a good chance that at least one major hurricane will hit the U.S. coast, a top researcher recently said. Forecaster William Gray said he expects 17 named storms in all this year, five of them major hurricanes with sustained winds of 111 mph or greater. The probability of a major hurricane making landfall on the U.S. coast this year: 74 percent, compared with the average of 52 percent over the past century, he said. Last year, Gray's forecast and government forecasts were higher than what the Atlantic hurricane season produced. There were 10 named Atlantic storms in 2006 and five hurricanes, two of them major, in what was considered a "near normal" season. None of those hurricanes hit the U.S. Atlantic coast — only the 11th time that has occurred since 1945. The National Hurricane Center in Miami originally reported nine storms, but upgraded one storm after a postseason review. Gray's research team at Colorado State University said an unexpected late El Nino contributed to the calmer season last year. El Nino — a warming in the Pacific Ocean — has far-reaching effects that include changing wind patterns in the eastern Atlantic, which can disrupt the formation of hurricanes there. A weak to moderate El Nino occurred in December and January but dissipated rapidly, said Phil Klotzbach, a member of Gray's team. "Conditions this year are likely to be more conducive to hurricanes," Klotzbach said Tuesday. In the absence of El Nino, "winds aren't tearing the storm systems apart." The team's forecasts are based on global oceanic and atmospheric conditions.

Bill Of Rights For Abused Robots

A robot rights movement is taking shape and preparing the world's first ethical guidelines for human/robot relationships. "As robots will have their own internal states such as motivation and emotion, we should not abuse them," argues Professor Jong-Hwan Kim, one of South Korea's top robotics experts. "We will have to treat them in the same way that we take care of pets." A spokesman for the Korean Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy said: "The move anticipates that day when robots, particularly intelligent service robots, will become part of daily life."

RFID and the End of Privacy

The widespread use of RFID tags on merchandise such as clothing would make it possible for the locations of people, animals and objects to be tracked on a global scale - a privacy invasion of Orwellian proportions. - US patent application 20020116274 for IBM, filed February 21, 2001. Imagine a world where everything is fitted with an RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) spychip, containing a unique ID for each of the same product to differentiate it from others, and tracked in real time. It sounds far-fetched, but that is exactly what RFID companies like Accenture and the Auto-ID labs at MIT have been trying to do since 1999. They're now backed with funding from over a hundred major corporations including some big names like Coca-Cola, Kraft, CVS, Proctor and Gamble, Kelloggs, Best Buy, Home Depot, and even the US Postal Service.

Military Observers Absent From Center For Counterterrorism

For more than four months there have been no military intelligence representatives in the 24-hour operations room at the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) -- the hub of federal efforts to share real-time terrorist threat information among government agencies. Three representatives from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) were withdrawn from the operations center in November, according to NCTC spokesman Carl Kropf. A representative of Northern Command, or Northcom, the U.S. military command responsible for defending the continental United States, was withdrawn earlier, he told United Press International. "It was the [DIA] director's decision," Mr. Kropf said. No one at the agency was able to provide an explanation for the director's decision.

'Gay' cleric says: Christ did not die for sin

Church of England traditionalists, wearied by the battles over homosexuality in the church and the clergy, are about to take it on their spiritual chins once again when a leading "gay" cleric will tell listeners to BBC Radio 4 that Christianity's traditional teaching on Christ's crucifixion for the sins of mankind is "repulsive," "insane" and makes "God sound like a psychopath." Rev. Jeffrey John, who was forced to withdraw before assuming a position as bishop in 2003 after it was learned he was in a longterm homosexual relationship, is scheduled to appear on Wednesday and will criticize ministers who use their Easter messages to preach that Jesus was sent to earth to die as an atonement for sin, reported the London Telegraph. Christian theology has taught the doctrine of "penal substitution" – that humans, alienated from God by their sins and unable to save themselves, could only be forgiven by God sending Christ as a substitute to suffer and die in their place. "In other words, Jesus took the rap and we got forgiven as long as we said we believed in him," said John. "This is repulsive as well as nonsensical. It makes God sound like a psychopath. If a human behaved like this we'd say that they [sic] were a monster." In rejecting penal substitution, John will reportedly propose a different interpretation of Christ's death, suggesting Christ was crucified so he could "share in the worst of grief and suffering that life can throw at us."

A New Era Of Nuclear Fear May Loom In Shadown Of Missile Shield

The United States is reportedly developing a new-generation hydrogen warhead for its Trident II, (D-5) strategic submarines. The Pentagon plans to deploy elements of its National Missile Defense System, namely, an early-warning radar and ground-based interceptor, or GBI, launchers, in the Czech Republic and Poland. The U.S. Navy is transferring a powerful radar from the Hawaiian Islands to the Aleutian archipelago near the Russian border. Moreover, another radar will be positioned in the South Caucasus, but its exact location is still unclear. In other words, Washington is trying to "contain" Russia.

Navy Wish List: Ray Guns, Cyber "Domination"

The Navy has just released a new strategic plan for science and technology -- its first in years. At the top of the futuristic wish list: ray guns and cyber space "domination." The aims are ambitious, to say the least: alternative energy, "electronic camouflage," "enhancement of physical and cognitive performance," "warfighter exoskeleton technology," "non-lethal technologies to stop small vehicles and large ships" -- as well as "deny[ing] adversaries the ability to hide within the civilian population" and hitting targets "250 miles [away] from safe offshore locations."

China has gained and tested array of space weapons

China is developing an "impressive" array of space weapons, including missiles and jammers, and is moving toward placing nuclear weapons in space to attack U.S. satellites, the commander of U.S. strategic forces told the Senate recently. The Chinese military has "undertaken what we would call a very disciplined and comprehensive continuum of capability against ... our space capabilities," Marine Corps Gen. James Cartwright yesterday told the Senate Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee. Their capabilities go "all the way from temporary and reversible effects -- [Global Positioning System] jamming, things like that, [communications] jamming, all the way through direct ascent ASAT," he said, referring to anti-satellite weapons. "Eventually, they'll probably be looking at co-orbital" weapons -- missiles that orbit near a satellite and then explode. "Then, the one that you really worry about is introducing weapons of mass destruction into space on a missile," he said.

Flowers and fruit crops facing disaster as disease kills off bees in Britain

Devastating diseases are killing off vast numbers of bees across the country, threatening major ecological and economic problems. Honeybee colonies have been wiped out this winter at twice the usual rate or worse in some areas. Honeybee colonies in Britain have been wiped out this winter. Honeybees account for 80pc of all pollination. The losses are the result of either Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), a disease that has already decimated bee populations in the US and parts of Europe, or a new, resistant form of Varroa destructor, a parasite that attacks bees. Experts fear that, because honeybees are responsible for 80 per cent of all pollination as they collect nectar for the hive, there could be severe ecological problems with flowers, fruit and crops failing to grow. The pollination carried out by bees is worth £200 million to Britain's farmers each year. However, the total contribution by bees to the economy, including profits made from the sales of food, is up to £1 billion. In London, about 4,000 hives — two-thirds of the bee colonies in the capital — are estimated to have died this winter.

Shipping container terror threat remains

The Customs initiative to increase foreign inspections of cargo containers heading to the U.S. fails to include any contingency plans for the countries where terrorists are most active, says a new study in he Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. The program, called the Container Security Initiative, was designed to secure the U.S. maritime transportation system beyond U.S. borders – requiring inspections in foreign ports before cargo left for its destination in America. The CSI screens shipping containers for weapons of mass destruction and other hazardous materials in the ports of dozens of cooperating countries. However, few nations associated with terrorism are among them. The study, by researchers from the RAND Corp., the University of California, the Public Policy Institute of California and Beacon Economics, found the initiative focused on the largest and most active foreign ports rather than the riskiest or those most likely to be used by terrorists. Homeland security experts fear U.S. ports could be used by terrorists as either a destination for a weapon of mass destruction or as a conduit for smuggling one inside the country. "Containers could be used for either of these threats," say the researchers. "Once packed for shipment, containers are rarely opened or inspected, leading security experts to fear that they could be used to transport something like a radiological dispersal device, or dirty bomb, for detonation at a U.S. port or inside the United States."

DARPA Blob Robots to Slither Under Doors

"The ability to safely and covertly gain access to denied or hostile areas and perform useful tasks provides critical advantages to warfighters over a broad spectrum of military operations. An effective and logistically attractive means for gaining entry to denied areas is to deploy an unmanned platform, such as a robot. However, often the only available points of entry are small openings in buildings, walls, under doors, etc. In these cases, a robot must be soft enough to squeeze or traverse through small openings, yet large enough to carry an operationally meaningful payload.

VeriChip Hopes To Round Up More Hospital Implantees At American Medical Directors Association Annual Symposium

VeriChip Corporation, a provider of RFID systems for healthcare and patient-related needs, will present at the American Medical Directors Association (AMDA) 30th Annual Symposium in Hollywood, Florida, on March 29- 30, 2007. The conference attracts over 4000 medical directors, attending physicians, nurses, administrators, consultant pharmacists and other long-term care professionals. VeriChip expects to enroll additional physicians in its VeriMed Patient Identification System network through the symposium. Presenting on behalf of VeriChip is AMDA Foundation Chair and former AMDA President Jonathan Musher, MD, CMD. VeriChip Corporation, headquartered in Delray Beach, Florida, develops, markets and sells radio frequency identification, or RFID, systems used to identify, locate and protect people and assets. VeriChip's goal is to become the leading provider of RFID systems for people in the healthcare industry. VeriChip sells passive RFID systems for identification purposes and active RFID systems for local-area location and identification purposes. VeriChip recently began to market its VeriMed(TM) Patient Identification System for rapidly and accurately identifying people who arrive in an emergency room and are unable to communicate. 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.

Biometrics For Most UK Visitors

Three quarters of the world's population will need biometric visas to visit the UK by the end of next year in a major clampdown on illegal immigration, the Home Secretary John Reid announced today. In a bid to stop immigrants destroying paper documents and disappearing once they come to Britain on tourist visas, visitors from half the world's countries - which make up three quarters of global population - will need to have scans of fingerprints and irises and obtain special visas before leaving their country of origin by the end of 2008.

U.S. Missile Defense Chief Argues For Missile Shield In Space

A senior U.S. official in charge of America's missile defense program told a congressional committee recently that some elements should be deployed in space, including a "space-based layer" in near-Earth orbit. Addressing the Armed Services Committee, Air Force Lt. Gen. Henry Obering III, director of the U.S. missile defense program, sought to justify the need for substantial spending on the program in 2008 by saying it would increase the effectiveness of the missile shield in view of gathering threats and the proliferation of ballistic missiles worldwide. U.S. plans to deploy elements of the missile shield in Central Europe are expected to cost $1.6 billion over the next five years. The program will later be expanded to include sea-based missiles and missile tracking systems in space. Washington has cited possible threats from Iran or North Korea as a reason for its missile defense program. Obering's report to the committee said that about 100 foreign ballistic missiles had been launched in 2006 around the world, and that missile tests had doubled in number in 2007. The official also said space-based systems would provide anti-missile protection independent of geographic location, strategic warning or permission to deploy bases, and would make it possible to intercept ballistic missiles in mid-trajectory.

Presidential candidate Bill Richardson Warns 'Nuclear 9-11' Is Possible

Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson said the United States needs to do more to prevent a "nuclear 9-11," a threat that he argues has been neglected because the Bush administration has been consumed with Iraq. The New Mexico governor said the United States must lead an effort to secure nuclear materials in Russia and dangerous areas of the world so they can't get into terrorists' hands. "If al-Qaida obtained nuclear weapons, they would not hesitate to use them with the same ruthlessness that allowed them to fly airplanes filled with people into buildings," he said in a speech to the Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. "It took a Manhattan project to create the bomb," Richardson said. "We need a new Manhattan project to stop the bomb—a comprehensive program to secure all nuclear weapons and all weapons-usable material, worldwide."

Scientists say Antarctic ice sheet is thinning

A Texas-sized piece of the Antarctic ice sheet is thinning, possibly due to global warming, and could cause the world's oceans to rise significantly, polar ice experts recently said. They said "surprisingly rapid changes" were occurring in Antarctica's Amundsen Sea Embayment, which faces the southern Pacific Ocean, but that more study was needed to know how fast it was melting and how much it could cause the sea level to rise. The warning came in a joint statement issued at the end of a conference of U.S. and European polar ice experts at the University of Texas in Austin. The scientists blamed the melting ice on changing winds around Antarctica that they said were causing warmer waters to flow beneath ice shelves.

First Temple Wall Found In City Of David

A wall from the First Temple was recently uncovered in Jerusalem's City of David, strengthening the claim that it is the site of the palace of King David, an Israeli archeologist recently said. The new find, made by Dr. Eilat Mazar, a senior fellow at the Shalem Center's Institute for the Archeology of the Jewish People, comes less than two years after she said she had discovered the palace's location at the site just outside the walls of the Old City.

Big Brother Surveillance has arrived in Britain

Advances in surveillance technology could seriously damage individual privacy unless drastic measures are taken to protect personal data, scientists have said. Richard Thomas, the Information Commissioner, gave warning last year that Britain was “sleepwalking” into a surveillance society. Yesterday the country’s leading engineers developed the theme, fleshing out a dystopian vision that not even George Orwell could have predicted. They said that travel passes, supermarket loyalty cards and mobile phones could be used to track individuals’ every move. They also predicted that CCTV footage could become available for public consumption and that terrorists could hijack the biometric chips in passports and rig them up as a trigger for explosives. The report by the Royal Academy of Engineering, Dilemmas of Privacy and Surveillance - Challenges of Technological Change, argues that the scientists developing surveillance technology should also think about measures to protect privacy.