Human

I really wonder on how they come up with this stuff. It "WOWs'" Me. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ http://i-newswire.com/pr19066.html Zircons are tiny crystals embedded in rock that are the oldest known materials on Earth. -Newswire, 2005-05-07 - "Our data support recent theories that Earth began a pattern of crust formation, erosion, and sediment recycling as early in its evolution as 4.35 billion years ago, which contrasts with the hot, violent environment envisioned for our young planet by most researchers and opens up the possibility that life got a very early foothold," said E. Bruce Watson, Institute Professor of Science and professor of geochemistry at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. According to Watson, the research provides important information and a new technique for making additional discoveries about the first eon of Earth's history, the Hadean eon, a time period for which still little is known. The research findings are reported in the May 6 issue of the journal Science in a paper titled "Zircon Thermometer Reveals Minimum Melting Conditions on Earliest Earth." Watson collaborated with co-author T. Mark Harrison, director of the Research School of Earth Sciences at Australian National University and professor of geochemistry at UCLA, on the research. The work was supported by the National Science Foundation ( NSF ), the Australian Research Council, and the NASA Astrobiology Institute. Watson and Harrison developed a new thermometer that involves the measurement of the titanium content of zircon crystals to determine their crystallization temperature. Zircons are tiny crystals embedded in rock that are the oldest known materials on Earth. Zircons pre-date by 400 million years the oldest known rocks on Earth. These ancient crystals provide researchers with a window into the earliest history of the Earth and have been used to date the assembly and movement of continents and oceans. "Zircons allow us to go further back in geologic time because they survive processes that rocks do not," said Watson. "Although they measure only a fraction of a millimeter in size, zircons hold a wealth of information about the very earliest history of Earth."

Brazil, India, and Iran. Then you got Argentina, and Syria. Then Venezuela, Iran, Cuba. A very nice tangled web that Latin America is weaving. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ http://dailytelegraph.news.com.au/story.js...storyid=3073965 An Indian space rocket blasted off today in the country's first bid to carry two satellites in a single launch, part of its ambitious space program that aims to send a probe to the moon. The launch of the two satellites from the Satish Dhawan space port near Madras, on India's south-east coast, will help map makers and amateur radio operators, space officials said. The 44-metre Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle lifted off carrying a remote sensing satellite with precise imaging aimed at putting every Indian household on the map and one for home radio operators.

For the Farmers here in the United States, this is a sweet article. Also for the candy industry. :) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ http://www.chinadaily.comspam/english/doc/2...tent_428615.htm Updated: 2005-03-28 08:48 China will have to import almost the same amount of sugar this year as it did in 2004, as the gap between supply and demand is estimated to reach 1 million tons. "Although market demand is growing steadily, output is falling," said Jia Zhiren, chairman of the China Sugar Industry Association. The Chinese people's increasingly sweet tooth in recent years means that consumption of the sweet substance may hit 11.5 million tons this year, according to the association. But sugar output will fall short of this. The association predicts it will reach 10.5 million tons for the 2004-05 season, Jia added. The country's sugar crushing season starts when farmers begin harvesting their crops in October and ends in April. A total of 1.36 million hectares of sugar cane was planted in China in the 2004-05 season, a year-on-year increase of 6,667 hectares. But the increase in planting areas did not result in increased sugar cane output, as the crops in South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Southwest China's Yunnan Province were affected by poor weather conditions. An output of 10.5 million tons is already an optimistic estimate, according to the association, which said the collected statistics from planting areas showed it may even be as low as 10.1 million tons. "A market gap of over 1 million tons has to be filled by imports and State reserves," Jia pointed out. Last year, China imported 1.18 million tons of sugar, a sharp rise compared to 672,000 tons in 2003. The low-duty quota for 2005 is 1.945 million tons, the same as last year and increasing from 1.852 million tons for 2003. Zhu Weihua, an analyst from Merchants Securities, said market prices will determine how much of the gap will be filled by imports. Traders are closely monitoring the high world sugar prices. Raw sugar closed on March 14 at 9.23 US cents per pound on the New York Board of Trade, just 0.9 US cents off a four-year high. It closed last week at 8.75 US cents. White sugar for delivery in May traded at US$257.10 per metric ton on March 24 on the London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange, up 22 per cent year-on-year. And world market analysts said sugar prices, which have increased 27 per cent year-on-year, may get even higher as a result of record gasoline prices. Brazil, the world's largest sugar exporter, may use more sugar cane to produce ethanol, a type of alcohol distilled from sugar cane juice, and the Brazilian Government might increase the official blend rate if the oil price remains high. Despite the global price hike, Zhu believed imports will be the first choice to fill the gap as the government is unwilling to use up its sugar reserves. "The only question is when to buy," he said. The National Development and Reform Commission, which oversees the sugar market, and the China Sugar Industry Association have agreed not to use the sugar reserves if sugar price in China remains within a rational range. Anticipation of a fall in output has caused sugar prices to soar since January. Sugar is currently 3,000-3,200 yuan (US$362-387) per ton, up almost 20 per cent year-on-year.

AOL, MSN, Univision launch marketing campaign for Hispanic consumers Focusing on the growing online presence of Hispanic consumers, AOL, MSN, Yahoo, Univision.com and other members of the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Hispanic Committee are launching a marketing campaign designed to convince online marketers that the Internet is an important means to reach a growing Hispanic market. The committee has selected advertising agencies Tapestry, Starcom IP and Lapiz, all part of the Publicis Groupe, to launch a multi-media campaign later this year promoting the value of marketing to Hispanic consumers. "Competing online media companies banding together to launch a targeted campaign, especially in a market as competitive as the Hispanic sector, is truly unprecedented," said Greg Stuart, president and CEO, IAB. "This historic initiative is just another example of the online industry`s focused commitment to growing the industry above all else." The IAB cites figures from comScore Media Metrix that there were 13.8 million active U.S. Hispanic consumers using the Internet in January, with consumers aged 24 and under accounting for 49%. In addition, Hispanic consumers, when compared to the general U.S. market, view 19% more web pages per day, and spend 13% more time online per Internet usage day, IAB says. "The Hispanic community is a major force in our economy and culture and we are seeing this strength carry over into the online world,” says Monica Gadsby, CEO of Tapestry. “We are very excited for the opportunity to help Hispanic marketers identify the online space as an innovative and powerful tool in connecting with the ever-demanding consumer." http://internetretailer.com/dailyNews.asp?id=14489

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/Nation2....rticleID=142093 Arab world has 400,000 drug addicts By Mona Ahmed Staff Reporter Dubai: The Arab world has more than 400,000 drug addicts, a UN representative said yesterday during the Work Together for Effective Prevention of Drugs workshop. The two-day event is being held at the Dubai Officers Club. It was organised by the Mentor Foundation, an international foundation that focuses on the prevention of drug abuse, in partnership with Dubai Police. "The abuse of narcotics is a major problem worldwide and is creating a serious threat both for families and nations. This problem needs strong and effective cooperation from government and non-government organisations that work in the field of narcotics prevention," said Mohammad Abdul Aziz, regional representative of the United Nations office for narcotics and crime. Highlighting the nature of the menace, Lieutenant General Dahi Khalfan Tamim, Dubai Police Chief, said: "Drug smuggling and drug dealing are threatening the future of the younger generation and the future of Arab countries." "We are fast moving into an era where political and administrative barriers are disappearing and where there is the spread of many social problems, such as pollution and poverty and such phenomena as terrorism," Dahi said. He said that is why international efforts to curb the growing misuse of narcotics have increased. "All government and local authorities are working hard to cooperate and control this problem." According to him, Dubai Police's prevention programme for narcotics and drugs addicts is well established. The drugs workshop tries to spread awareness regarding the importance of preventing drug addiction and highlights the role of international and Arab associations in the field of drug control and prevention. It also addresses the need for the Arab world to fight the spread of narcotics. A workable plan to achieve drug prevention will also be discussed. According to the International Drug Addiction Report 2004, the total number of drugs addicts in the world in 2003 was about 185 million, an increase of five million since 2000. Abdul Aziz said that hashish and marijuana were among the top narcotics used around the world, with the total number of addicts numbering about 150 million. "Other types of narcotics are mainly used by young people. "In this category, heroin is at the top of the list, with more than nine million addicts either inhaling or injecting the drug. This opens up another problem - the spread of HIV and hepatitis C. "About 13 million people are cocaine addicts and international estimates show that 0.5 per cent of young drug addicts take either cocaine or heroin," he said. He said drug addiction affected both men and women and most addicts are 20 to 30 years old. "The rise in the misuse of narcotics is scary with more than 400,000 drug addicts in the Arab world." He said it was difficult to establish a link between the use of narcotics and HIV because of the lack of testing among addicts, increasing the chance of their spreading the disease. "We have signed an agreement for drug control with the UAE and an office will be based in Abu Dhabi. This office aims to support the drug control authorities in the GCC countries and was the result of the efforts of Shaikh Saif Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Interior," he said. There should be stronger cooperation between government and non-government organisations to stop the problem, he said. It was here that the role of an effective organisation, such as Mentor, came under the spotlight, he said. Esmail Al Qarani, director of the drug control department in Libya, said: "The misuse of narcotics has harmful consequences, including crime, physical assault, social problems and rape. Silence against narcotics is wrong because it is affecting the whole world." There was no clear data on the size of the problem in the Arab world, he said. "Arab countries are not cooperating in the sense that there is no sharing of information," he said. He also said that drugs sold nowadays were impure. "The drugs are mixed with animal bones and all this is destroying the countries' youth. We should implement a practical work plan to control this problem," he said.

http://www.infn.it/indexen.php Rome, Italy (SPX) Mar 17, 2005 Why is the universe expanding at an accelerating rate, spreading its contents over ever greater dimensions of space? An original solution to this puzzle, certainly the most fascinating question in modern cosmology, was put forward by four theoretical physicists, Edward W. Kolb of the U.S. Department of Energy's Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Chicago (USA): Sabino Matarrese of the University of Padova; Alessio Notari from the University of Montreal (Canada); and Antonio Riotto of INFN (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare) of Padova (Italy). Their study was submitted yesterday to the journal Physical Review Letters. Over the last hundred years, the expansion of the universe has been a subject of passionate discussion, engaging the most brilliant minds of the century. Like his contemporaries, Albert Einstein initially thought that the universe was static: that it neither expanded nor shrank. When his own Theory of General Relativity clearly showed that the universe should expand or contract, Einstein chose to introduce a new ingredient into his theory. His "cosmological constant" represented a mass density of empty space that drove the universe to expand at an ever-increasing rate. When in 1929 Edwin Hubble proved that the universe is in fact expanding, Einstein repudiated his cosmological constant, calling it "the greatest blunder of my life." Then, almost a century later, physicists resurrected the cosmological constant in a variant called dark energy. In 1998, observations of very distant supernovae demonstrated that the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate. This accelerating expansion seemed to be explicable only by the presence of a new component of the universe, a "dark energy," representing some 70 percent of the total mass of the universe. Of the rest, about 25 percent appears to be in the form of another mysterious component, dark matter; while only about 5 percent comprises ordinary matter, those quarks, protons, neutrons and electrons that we and the galaxies are made of. "The hypothesis of dark energy is extremely fascinating," explains Padova's Antonio Riotto, "but on the other hand it represents a serious problem. No theoretical model, not even the most modern, such as supersymmetry or string theory, is able to explain the presence of this mysterious dark energy in the amount that our observations require. "If dark energy were the size that theories predict, the universe would have expanded with such a fantastic velocity that it would have prevented the existence of everything we know in our cosmos." The requisite amount of dark energy is so difficult to reconcile with the known laws of nature that physicists have proposed all manner of exotic explanations, including new forces, new dimensions of spacetime, and new ultralight elementary particles. However, the new report proposes no new ingredient for the universe, only a realization that the present acceleration of the universe is a consequence of the standard cosmological model for the early universe: inflation. "Our solution to the paradox posed by the accelerating universe," Riotto says, "relies on the so-called inflationary theory, born in 1981. According to this theory, within a tiny fraction of a second after the Big Bang, the universe experienced an incredibly rapid expansion. This explains why our universe seems to be very homogeneous. Recently, the Boomerang and WMAP experiments, which measured the small fluctuations in the background radiation originating with the Big Bang, confirmed inflationary theory. It is widely believed that during the inflationary expansion early in the history of the universe, very tiny ripples in spacetime were generated, as predicted by Einstein's theory of General Relativity. These ripples were stretched by the expansion of the universe and extend today far beyond our cosmic horizon, that is over a region much bigger than the observable universe, a distance of about 15 billion light years. In their current paper, the authors propose that it is the evolution of these cosmic ripples that increases the observed expansion of the universe and accounts for its acceleration. "We realized that you simply need to add this new key ingredient, the ripples of spacetime generated during the epoch of inflation, to Einstein's General Relativity to explain why the universe is accelerating today," Riotto says. "It seems that the solution to the puzzle of acceleration involves the universe beyond our cosmic horizon. No mysterious dark energy is required." Fermilab's Kolb called the authors' proposal the most conservative explanation for the accelerating universe. "It requires only a proper accounting of the physical effects of the ripples beyond our cosmic horizon," he said. Data from upcoming experiments will allow cosmologists to test the proposal. "Whether Einstein was right when he first introduced the cosmological constant, or whether he was right when he later refuted the idea will soon be tested by a new round of precision cosmological observations," Kolb said. "New data will soon allow us to distinguish between our explanation for the accelerated expansion of the universe and the dark energy solution."

http://www.tehrantimes.com/Description.asp...05&Cat=9&Num=14 Tehran Times Economic Desk TEHRAN – Iran’s small and intermediate industrial units under the support of Organization of Small Industries and Industrial Towns will participate in Venezuela’s SME permanent exhibition, Zafarzadeh, the organization’s deputy for economic and international affairs said on Saturday. In line with the supporting policies of the industries, the organization will support the units manufacturing machineries of foodstuff industries, petrochemical, plastic products, and printing in their participation in the Venezuelan exhibition, the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) reported Zafarzadeh as saying. He added that the agricultural tools and the production lines of the thermal and heating industries, pharmaceutics, and structure of the auto parts are among other participating industries supported by the organization. He also announced that subsequent to the recent agreements and memoranda of understanding (MOUs) inked by the Venezuelan and Iranian officials during President Mohammad Khatami’s trip to the country, the Iranian experts will establish industrial towns in Venezuela. In addition, over 30 Iranian industrial units are presently in Venezuela, and grounds have been paved for conveyance of Iran’s industries to Venezuela as much as $50m, Zafarzadeh said. He said in conclusion that if Iran’s products are of the required international standards, the industries will obtain the export capacity up to $1bn which is unique in the country’s industrial history.

On the internet, the democrats have to be carefull on what they post because the people online can check with great speed if what they are saying is correct or not. The Internet is not like Broadcast Corporations where the news is pre-digested for the general public. This is one of many advantages of being online, it will Keep both sides "Republicans, and Democrats" honest. ( at least on the internet.)

The report on the Congo sex scandal came out by the United Nations. Ya know people, that report did not surprise me, and I will tell you why. When I use to be on aol " a while back ago" I use to go into a chatroom there called the "aclu chats". Oh!!!! that place was lively "to say the least". Well in anycase one of the people that use to come in there worked for one of U.N. health organizations in the dominican republic, and that he would pick up when he was there " for two to three months" 13 to 14 year old girls " all of the time". Of course I reported him, but nothing ever seemed to come of it. I forgot the exact year that i reported the guy on, I know that it was during the clinton years, but thats about it. I also forgot the guys screen name but I will never forget what he said. When he typed about it in an open chatroom " it was like normal to him to do that to kids." To this day I still shake my head in disbelief thinking that people can do that kids, but it doesn't surprise me anymore.

It keeps on getting worse. February 28, 2005 Colombia Rebels Deny Kidnapping Paraguayan ASSOCIATED PRESS BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - Colombia's main Marxist rebel group denied allegations it took part the kidnapping and murder of a former Paraguayan president's daughter. "The FARC had nothing to do with this lamentable act," Raul Reyes, a spokesman for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known by its Spanish acronym FARC, said in an interview posted late Sunday on a Web site closely tied to the rebels. Reyes' comments came after Paraguayan Attorney General Oscar Latorre earlier this month linked Rodrigo Granda, a senior FARC commander, to the kidnapping of Cecilia Cubas, 32, the daughter of former Paraguayan President Raul Cubas. Cecilia Cubas' body was found Feb. 16, some five months after she was kidnapped. The high-profile kidnapping shocked Paraguayans and raised fears that crime in the landlocked South American country was spiraling further out of hand Latorre said Granda, who was living in Venezuela until his arrest in December, had exchanged e-mails with Oscar Martinez, a Paraguayan leftist arrested on suspicion of masterminding Cubas' abduction, in which the two discussed the kidnapping. Martinez denies involvement but acknowledges meeting Granda, who is currently jailed in Colombia on charges of rebellion. Reyes said the FARC, which has been waging war on the Colombian government for 40 years, maintains only "political relations" with Paraguayan leftists.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/latinamer...ast_retirement/ SANTIAGO, Chile -- Irma Moya Benech has worked 40 years in public hospitals caring for the sick and elderly, and now that she is both, she says the state is not taking care of her. Already five years past the legal retirement age for women in Chile, Moya, 65, continues to toil as a medical technician for patients with AIDS, tuberculosis, and other infectious diseases, though her immune system is weak from radiation therapy for breast cancer. She desperately wants to retire but can't, she said, because her private pension would be less than 30 percent of her $1,738 monthly salary. She would no longer be able to afford quality health insurance to cover chemotherapy and prescriptions. Her 71-year-old husband, who has leukemia, is still working as an accountant at the University of Santiago, because his pension would be only 20 percent of his $2,127 monthly salary. ''I think we have done our duty and should be allowed to rest after working for 40 years," Moya said, tears streaming down her face. At a time when President Bush has made overhauling Social Security a central objective of his second administration, he and other proponents of privatization have held out Chile, the first in the world to privatize pensions in 1981, as a role model. By transforming its system, this country of 16 million people fended off a looming pension debt owed its aging population and fueled domestic capital markets, contributing to high growth rates and a halving of poverty in what has become one of the most affluent nations in Latin America. For steadily employed Chileans who consistently channel 10 percent of their salaries into private retirement accounts, as required by law -- and preferably top it up with more, tax-free contributions -- pensions could reach 70 percent of salaries, providing a comfortable standard of living in retirement, according to estimates by the pension fund managers' association. But what supporters of Chile's model have not advertised is that for poor, seasonal, and itinerant workers, and even for a great part of the middle-class and self-employed, the private system has proved inadequate, largely because those workers are unable to contribute enough to their private accounts. More than 17 percent of Chileans 65 and older keep working because their pensions are inadequate, according to a government-commissioned study. Based on Chile's experience -- and that of more than 20 countries mostly in Latin America and Eastern Europe that followed its lead by privatizing part or all of their pension systems -- one conclusion from a new World Bank report is that the government will have to play a bigger role in any reformed pension system than proponents of privatization suggest. Private accounts can be one pillar of a Social Security system, but the state will have to provide a safety net ''The 'Golden Years' don't exist for them," Yasmir Farina said of the association she leads of 157,000 retirement-age public employees who are lobbying the government to cover the shortfall between their private pensions and what they would have gotten under the old public system. It will be another 20 years before the first generation of Chilean workers who spent their careers under the privatized system retires, and perhaps only then can privatization be truly judged. But since the late 1990s, a debate has raged over how to reform the system to better serve everyone. Over two decades, Chile's privately managed pension funds, whose combined assets total $60 billion, have yielded impressive annual returns. But recent government and independent studies found that about half of the 7 million current subscribers are not contributing for the 20 years necessary to qualify for the minimum pension: They will become burdens on the state or simply fall through the cracks. Other apparent shortcomings of the Chilean experience, from money-management fees that critics say are too high, to a huge transition cost, offer lessons to anyone hoping to adapt the model to the United States. Critics note that the military government that imposed the privatized system on the advice of free-market economists -- and without the obstacle of political opposition -- kept members of the armed forces covered by the old, taxpayer-financed system, where they remain to this day. And far from being freed of its fiscal obligation, 24 years later the state is paying a staggering 30 percent of its annual budget toward pensions -- as much as it spends on health and education combined. ''It's a fiction to say there's no cost to financing a transition," said Ricardo Solari, Minister of Labor and Social Security. Those taxpayer dollars go to retirees still covered by the old system, to compensation bonds for employees who left the old system, and to workers whose private accounts have not accumulated enough after 20 years to generate the ''minimum pension" of $150 a month, roughly two-thirds of Chile's minimum wage. Chile also pays ''assistance pensions" of $50 a month to indigent elderly. But many more who are middle-class, but whose employers erred in calculating their pension deductions -- such as Moya -- have been forced to work past their retirement age to maintain a decent life or skimp to survive. Willy Contreras, an investment adviser at one of the large private pension funds, attributes low pensions to low wages. ''If your salary is low, there is no system that can help you retire decently." The challenge, Solari said, ''is to design a real social security system that allows people who can finance their own retirement to do so, while dealing with those who cannot." Bush's proposal would allow workers under age 55 to divert 4 percent of their payroll taxes from Social Security into individual accounts, but he has not suggested that private accounts replace the public system. In contrast, even middle-aged Chilean workers who were vested in the old system in 1981 were strongly encouraged to join the new system. Workers were compensated with bonds based on their salaries in 1978, '79, and '80, three years when Chilean wages were severely depressed. For salaried workers who joined the workforce in 1981 or later, 10 percent of their wages go by law into private pension funds and an additional 2.4 percent goes to fund managers for commissions and insurance. Employers contribute nothing. (In the United States, workers contribute 6.2 percent of wages to Social Security, which is matched by employers). Self-employed and informal workers -- from business owners to taxi drivers -- are not required to join Chile's system, and fewer than 3 percent do, either because they cannot reduce their monthly income or out of ignorance. With one-third of Chilean workers self-employed, and many more moving in and out of short-term jobs, ''over half of the workforce contributes less than four months a year" to their pensions, according to an analysis by Chile's Center for National Studies of Alternative Development. Guillermo Arthur Errazuriz, president of the association of Pension Fund Administrators, contends that ''those who aren't paying in must be taken care of by the state. That's not our responsibility. We can't criticize this system by asking why I don't pay poor people who don't contribute." For those who contribute, private funds have yielded high rates of return, an average of 10.3 percent a year, said Arthur, the minister of Labor and Social Security under the military regime. Deducting fund managers' commissions, the real profitability of net deposits was 6.3 percent, according to economist Manuel Riesco, author of the study by the Center for Alternative Development. Chile's six pension funds, whose trustees include at least 17 Cabinet members of the former military regime that imposed the system, according to Riesco, have become one of the most profitable industries in Chile, reporting a higher return on equity than Chile's biggest utilities. Arthur said critics who say the pension funds charge exorbitant fees are misinformed; commissions have been reduced, and now amount to 0.6 percent of total funds under management, less than most US money market funds, he said. Juan Yermo, a former World Bank pensions researcher, disputes the figure, saying fees amount to 1.2 percent of assets. Arthur also asserts that one-third of the economic growth Chile enjoyed between 1985 and 1994 was a byproduct of the infusion of private pension funds into capital markets, an economic boom that boosted salaries. That's little comfort to workers who contend that 20 percent of what is deducted from their wages every month goes to fees and insurance, not their accounts. Five of the six pension funds charge fixed monthly costs, said Solari, who wants to eliminate those fees. One of Bush's arguments for privatizing pensions is to link rewards to contributions. Guillermo Larrian, the government regulator who oversees Chile's system, agrees that pay-as-you-go systems are unfair, because people do not reap more for working longer. But he suggests Sweden's hybrid system adopted in 2000 may be a better model for the United States than Chile's. Swedes pay 2.5 percent of their wages into private accounts, plus 16 percent into government accounts that link pensions to how much one contributes. But for Rafael Tapia, a 49-year-old senior executive for a multinational corporation, Chile's system seems fair enough. Tapia has taken advantage of the tax break for adding extra contributions to his account and has amassed half a million dollars, about half of which is interest his money has earned, he estimated. ''I'd much rather stick with this system, which gives you a prize for your own work in life," he said, sitting by his pool. ''It's always a problem of personal responsibility." © Copyright 2005 Globe Newspaper Company.

http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/news/darkgalaxy/ Manchester, UK (SPX) Feb 24, 2005 A British-led team of astronomers have discovered an object that appears to be an invisible galaxy made almost entirely of dark matter - the first ever detected. A dark galaxy is an area in the universe containing a large amount of mass that rotates like a galaxy, but contains no stars. Without any stars to give light, it could only be found using radio telescopes. It was first seen with the University of Manchester's Lovell Telescope in Cheshire, and the sighting was confirmed with the Arecibo telescope in Puerto Rico. The unknown material that is thought to hold these galaxies together is known as 'dark matter', but scientists still know very little about what that is. Dr. Jon Davies, one of the team of astronomers from Cardiff University, says; "The Universe has all sorts of secrets still to reveal to us, but this shows that we are beginning to understand how to look at it in the right way. It's a really exciting discovery!" When astronomers observe the visible Universe it is like looking out at the darkest night from a well-lit room. It is easy to see the street lights, car headlights and other well-lit rooms, but not the trees, the hedges and the mountains because they don't emit any light. We live on a planet close to a star, so as astronomers our observing 'room' is always well-lit. This can make it difficult to find the dark, hidden objects. The international team from the UK, France, Italy and Australia has been searching for dark galaxies using not visible light, but radio waves. They have been studying the distribution of hydrogen atoms throughout the Universe. Hydrogen gas releases radiation that can be detected at radio wavelengths. In the Virgo cluster of galaxies they found a mass of hydrogen atoms a hundred million times the mass of the Sun. The Virgo cluster is a large group of galaxies about 50 million light years away. Dr Robert Minchin from Cardiff University is one of the UK astronomers who discovered the mysterious galaxy, named VIRGOHI21. He explains, "From the speed it is spinning, we realised that VIRGOHI21 was a thousand times more massive than could be accounted for by the observed hydrogen atoms alone. If it were an ordinary galaxy, then it should be quite bright and would be visible with a good amateur telescope." Similar objects that have previously been discovered have since turned out to contain stars when studied with high-powered optical telescopes. Others have been found to be the remnants of two galaxies colliding. However, when the scientists studied the area in question using the Isaac Newton Telescope in La Palma, they found no visible trace of any stars, and no nearby galaxies that would suggest a collision. The astronomers first took observations of the dark object back in 2000 and it has taken almost five years to rule out all the other possible explanations. VIRGOHI21 appears to be the first dark galaxy ever detected. Professor Mike Disney, a member of the team said: "As Sherlock Holmes famously said, 'When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever is left - however improbable - must be the truth'" Astronomers have been measuring the way in which stars and galaxies move for many years. These measurements indicate that there must be far more matter in the Universe than can be accounted for by the visible light we see. This 'dark matter' still holds many mysteries for astronomers - is it well mixed up amongst the stars, or is it separate from the stars? Another puzzle is that the current ideas about how galaxies form predict that there should be many more galaxies in the Universe than are visible to us. So, these two ideas - dark matter and the lack of galaxies - have led some astronomers to predict that there must be unseen 'dark' galaxies hidden in the Universe. Finding a dark matter galaxy is an important breakthrough because, according to cosmological models, dark matter is five times more abundant than the ordinary (baryonic) matter that makes up everything we can see and touch. The presence of dark matter in the Universe can be inferred by looking at the rotation of galaxies and measuring how fast their visible components are moving. The amount of matter in a galaxy dictates the gravitational force needed to hold it together. Astronomers have seen galaxies where the material is moving so fast that they should fly apart - as they don't, there must be a stronger gravitational force acting than can be accounted for using visible matter. This has led astronomers to believe that there is more matter unseen - the mass of this 'dark matter' can be calculated from the gravitational force that must be acting to hold the galaxy together. Dark galaxies are thought to form when the density of matter in a galaxy is too low to create the conditions for star formation. The observations of VIRGOHI21 may have other explanations, but they are consistent with the hydrogen being in a flat disc of rotating material - which is what is seen in ordinary spiral galaxies. The Cardiff-led team hope to continue their unique observations to probe the hidden extent of the Universe that we live in. The ellipse shows the region of the sky where the dark galaxy was found – image taken by Cardiff Astronomers using the Isaac Newton Telescope on La Palma.

I also forgot to add that it was Fidel castro who put fourth that foolish 'well more like incredibly stupid' idea about an assasination plot. The fact that you "President Chavez" believed it, does make me question whether you are up to the job as being a leader of a Country. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,12240...7-38199,00.html VENEZUELA'S President Hugo Chavez, adding to his growing barrage of charges against the United States, accused the George W. Bush administration of plotting his assassination and thanked his Cuban ally Fidel Castro for warning him of about it. "Thank you, Fidel. Really, there are rumors, (but) they are not going to pull it off, my dear friend. I am going to make it to old age like you," Chavez said late Saturday on a visit to Miranda state. Castro had said earlier Saturday that Bush's government likely would be behind a plan to kill the leftist-populist Chavez, whose country is a top US oil supplier. "If they kill Chavez it will be the responsibility of president George W. Bush", Castro said, quoted by the official Cuban news agency Prensa Latina. Castro cited his experience as someone "who has survived hundred's of the Empire's (US) assassination plots." The Cuban president, who leads the Americas' only communist government, made the remark at an international conference of economists in Havana. Chavez repeatedly has accused the United States of funding the opposition to try to pry him from office, and of having played a key role in the failed coup that removed him from power for two days in April 2002. Washington has shrugged off the accusations and slams Chavez, who is elected, for his close association with Castro, who leads a one-party regime. Also Saturday Chavez lashed out at the United States and warned it against meddling in Venezuelan affairs after the US ambassador was critical of Caracas' plans to purchase arms from Russia. "They are not the owners of the world, and their ambassadors here or anywhere in the world should show respect for the sovereignty of every country," Chavez said in Miranda. He slammed remarks by US ambassador William Brownfield, who in Friday said Venezuela's purchase of 100,000 AK-47 rifles and 40 Russian helicopters was "not transparent." "He is not here to be voicing these opinions. I can ask him or any other ambassador in Venezuela not to meddle in our domestic affairs, because you have to ask if there is transparency in the invasion of Iraq," Chavez said. "The world knows that president (George W.) Bush told a bold-faced lie saying that there were chemical weapons in Iraq that were threatening the world. And there the United States still is, bombing cities, killing children," Chavez said. He added that the United States would not have objected "if we had bought the (weapons) from them; then they would be happy." Cuba and Venezuela in October 2000 inked a cooperation pact that under which Caracas supplied Cuba with 53,000 barrels of oil a day, which has been crucial to keeping Cuba's severely strained economy afloat. Cuba in turn has boosted its cooperation with Venezuela, sending thousands of Cuban teachers for a literacy campaign, doctors and sports coaches to work there.

It seems that President Chavez does not like a FREE NET or a FREE PRESS here in the United States. (by the way, You "President Chavez" can't change the facts just because they don't favor you). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-02/...ent_2603481.htm Venezuela accuses US of discrediting, isolating Chavez www.chinaviewspam 2005-02-22 10:51:47 CARACAS, Feb. 21 (Xinhuanet) -- The Venezuelan government on Monday accused the United States of waging a "dirty war" of propaganda to discredit and isolate President Hugo Chavez, and said it would report the case to the Organization of American States (OAS) this week. US officials and some media are trying to isolate Chavez in theinternational community, Information Minister Andres Izarra told apress conference, in response to recent harsh anti-Chavez statements from Washington. The statements branded the Venezuelan leader a threat to regional stability and criticized his government. "All these statements together are part of a clear policy," Izarra said. "This is a campaign from the United States to isolateand discredit the Venezuelan government." He said Foreign Minister Ali Rodriguez would travel to the United States this week to present Venezuela's case before the OAS. However, he said, "Venezuela is not pursuing or considering anymeasure to cut oil supplies to the United States." Chavez accused the US government on Sunday of plotting to kill him, and warned Washington that Venezuelan oil shipments would be threatened if he suffered any injuries. Enditem

"WOW" ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Mexican school libraries stock songbook glorifying drug traffickers By Mark Stevenson Associated Press 02/22/2005 MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Mexico's school libraries are stocking a book that includes the lyrics of "narcocorridos" -- folk songs that glorify drug traffickers -- causing a storm of criticism in a country where the drug market and its violence have become part of life in thousands of communities. Opposition activists are livid that the administration of President Vicente Fox, which has declared a "war on all fronts" against drug gangs, allowed tens of thousands of copies of the book "100 Corridos: The Heart of Mexican Song" to slip into grade-school libraries. The book, printed by a private publishing company but bought in bulk by the government, contains lyrics for songs like "The Red Car Gang," which describes Mexican cocaine smugglers shooting it out with Texas Rangers: "They say they came from the south/In a red car/Carrying 100 kilos of cocaine/bound for Chicago ... " Another song describes female drug traffickers who poisoned police with opium to protect a drug shipment, then praises "The Lord of the Skies," the nickname for the deceased drug lord Amado Carrillo Fuentes: "They caught him alive/but they couldn't pin anything on him/ now they can display him dead/on trumped-up charges ... " Experts say the corrido is Mexico's national song form. Born along with the country's independence in the 1820s, it reached its peak during the 1910-1917 Revolution. Narcocorridos didn't start becoming popular until the 1970s and 80s. Legislators say the books have no place in Mexican schools and have scheduled hearings. "It's very bad to put books like this into the hands of children because they portray drug lords as heroes," said Salvador Martinez, who heads the education committee of the lower house of Congress. "That's bad, because we have a problem in this country where drug traffickers sometimes pave a town's road, build its school or hospital, and thus have a much better reputation among some people than the police. We have to work against that." The U.S.-driven drug market has woven its way into the life of thousands of Mexican communities, where narcotics have been a source of otherwise scarce money and of power. Ambitious and amoral young men are drawn by the vast profits in shipping Colombian cocaine to the United States. Poor farmers often see cultivation of marijuana or opium as a step away from starvation. In addition, Mexico has a growing domestic consumption problem -- possibly aggravated by the increasing difficulty of smuggling drugs over the U.S. border -- and concern about drug sales have led officials to routinely search students at some schools. The sheer bulk of candidate books for libraries -- and the fact that narcocorridos account for only a few of the corridos in the book -- apparently allowed the narcotics issue to be overlooked. Education Department officials say the volume is merely secondary reading material, purchased as part of an effort to put as many as 30 million books in school libraries across the country, while supporting Mexican publishers. More than 13,000 titles were submitted by local book distributors as candidates for the plan. The books were vetted by three non-governmental civic groups at the national level and then were evaluated by committees of parents, teachers and local officials in Mexico's 31 states and the capital. All but one of those states -- whose committees had access to the full text -- picked "100 Corridos" as a top choice for local libraries. The other state listed it as a second choice. None rejected it. About 80,000 copies of the book were printed, though it is not clear how many made it into schools. Officials say they have no immediate plans to withdraw it. Some education officials tried to depict the scandal as an example of overly zealous censorship of a song genre that for centuries has celebrated outlaws and the common man. They noted one of the best-known and oldest corridos, "La Cucaracha," also contains references to drugs. One verse runs: "La Cucaracha/ La Cucaracha/can no longer walk/Because he hasn't got/because he ran out of/marijuana to smoke." Many other corridos, like the 1930s song "The Smuggler," glorify thieves, rebels, or smugglers. Border towns in northern Mexico -- where drug vendettas have cost thousands of lives in recent years -- have tried to ban local radio stations from playing narcocorridos, saying too many lives have been lost to the drug culture. In 2002, Baja California state radio stations agreed to ban narcocorridos and decided to play only songs that promote positive messages. "I certainly recognize that corridos are part of our cultural values," said federal Sen. Jesus Ortega. "But they should be corridos, not these songs that glorify crime."

by Gene J. Koprowski Chicago (SPX) Feb 18, 2005 This could be the year Radio Frequency Identification technology achieves its long-expected mass-market success -- with the wireless tags being used everywhere from schoolyards to convenience stores, experts told UPI's Wireless World. A report by the consulting firm Deloitte & Touche LLP predicted that by the end of 2005, "billions" of RFID devices will be commissioned, tagging people, products and even parts. The data generated by the tags will change the face of e-commerce, experts said, and require databases that can hold terabytes, or trillions of bits, of information, spurring another massive growth in computer sales, perhaps rivaling the height of the Internet boom of the 1990s. "Traditional technology architectures are not prepared to handle this volume," said a spokesman for ObjectStore, a subsidiary of Progress Software Corp. in Bedford, Mass., and a developer of technology that collects, correlates and propagates data from RFID tags. "If you committed every piece of RFID-related data as it comes off a reader, you would be backed up in about two seconds." There will be setbacks along the way, to be sure. Last week, the first high-profile failure for RFID tags emerged when parents of children in a town in California raised hackles about a program launched by a local school to track children. Civil-liberties organizations objected that the technology interfered with the privacy rights of the students, but others think the concerns will be worked out. "The technology is a Godsend to frantic parents wondering if their child has been kidnapped or at a friend's house," said Robert Siciliano in Boston, author of the book, "The Safety Minute: 01." "It's scary to some like the (American Civil Liberties Union) and privacy advocates, but is it taking away your freedom or giving y ou the freedom of peace of mind?" Similar RFID projects in Japan and Houston, which are helping school administrators take roll calls of students during each day, have not been as controversial as the California project, however, and new uses for the wireless tracking tags are arising every day. "The trend of using RFID will hit a milestone when Jacksonville International Airport becomes the first major airport in the United States to launch this new technology for baggage tracking," said Albert Munoz, a spokesman for the facility. "Among its main benefits are increased airport safety and a decrease in lost baggage due to the accurate identification of luggage." Research shows RFID can be used to track baggage with 99 percent accuracy -- about a 14 percent improvement over bar codes used on luggage tags at most airports today. "Working with JIA is Delta Airlines, which aims to improve customer satisfact ion and decrease lost baggage costs," Munoz said, adding that other airports, such as Logan in Boston and McCarran International in Las Vegas, also are examining RFID technology. The ability to track packages accurately was first envisioned as a purely industrial operation -- helping major retailers, for example, track their inventory. Now, visionaries reckon the technology can help change the way consumers shop. "The fact is, many chains, mostly in Europe, have been testing RFID for supply chain initiatives, anxiously waiting for the results of the Wal-Mart initiative, or are deploying RFID-based technologies for other uses," said Michael Davis, managing director of the Clear Thinking Group., a consulting company in Hillsborough, N.J. Alastair Charatan, an for analyst for PA Consulting in London -- a leading researcher of the retail space -- who has been tracking RFID, said retailers envision equipping convenience stor es and other shopping centers with RFID readers in the coming years that will enable consumers to put their goods in their cart, bag them and walk out of the store, without having to stop at the cash register. "That is still a long way off," he told Wireless World. To prepare for that day, and for other business uses of the wireless technology -- including tags outfitted with sensors that can enable retailers to store price, product and other information on a disposable microchip -- even business graduate students are eyeing the problem. At Indiana University, for instance, professors in the decision-sciences field have created a Supply Chain Academy, said to be the only working prototype of an RFID operation in a business school. "We bought several types of systems, which involve antennas, tags and reading devices that are hooked to computers that store the information being transmitted," said George Vlahakis, a spokes man for the university. "Our students experiment with the system in different ways -- by, for example, putting the tags on a miniature train and truck system that simulates the transportation from train to truck to warehouse. This prototype system allows students to learn how well various systems offered by vendors capture information tags ... and to separate the hype from reality." Common problems that need to be worked out -- before grocery and convenience store check-out lines are eliminated -- include chip readers that cannot distinguish among the signals sent by different products, and multiple readings of the same chip by some readers. Research and development is continuing in the field to alleviate such problems. A spokeswoman for Hewlett-Packard said over the next five years, the company anticipates spending $150 million on RFID technologies for its own products. It also has targeted 26 manufacturing sites around the globe where i t is implementing RFID. Details of the projects will emerge in due time. "HP is working with several major retailers (but) they are currently under non-disclosure agreements," the spokeswoman told Wireless World. All rights reserved. © 2005 United Press International. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by United Press International. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of United Press International.

I really Enjoyed reading this article. It really does put many views into prespective. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ http://www.turkishweekly.net/news.php?id=2774 The new economy of terror Loretta Napoleoni, January 2005 Terrorism is business as well as politics. Loretta Napoleoni explains how its funders and sponsors support its operations by covert, sophisticated use of changes in the global financial system. ------------------------------------------------ Three and a half years since 9/11, the world is still beholden to the belief that it is politics or ideology that fuels armed struggles worldwide. But an analysis of five decades of modern terrorism reveals two unexpected and disconcerting truths: that the engine of the armed struggle is money, and that the deregulation of finance has allowed terror networks deeply to penetrate legitimate institutions of the international financial system. During the period of decolonisation and cold war after 1945, armed organisations were economically dependent on rich sponsors – former colonial powers (as with the guerrillas trained and bankrolled by France in Indochina) or superpowers (the state-sponsored terror groups funded by the United States and the Soviet Union to fight wars by proxy on the periphery of their own spheres of influence). The high cost of this type of war, and their domestic unpopularity, forced these powers to resort to a mixture of legal and illegal revenues to channel money to their favoured clients. A classic example of this was the Reagan administration’s sponsorship of Contra armed groups fighting against Nicaragua’s Sandinista government in the 1980s. Amid widespread political opposition to this United States policy, the administration secured Congressional approval for a financial aid package of $24 million (which was used to arm 2,000 Contras). This sum was increased each year until the eruption of the Iran-Contra scandal in 1986, but it was still insufficient to meet the high costs of bankrolling the group. To bridge the gap, several covert operations were put in place in parallel with the official pro-Contra campaign. A web of thousands of people and hundreds of companies and foundations contributed to the project, defrauding American taxpayers of billions of dollars. One such operation was an illegal scheme, in which US weapons acquired by the CIA were sold to the Islamic Republic of Iran, using Israeli and Saudi businessmen as brokers, who charged handsome fees. Iranian payments were channelled through numbered Swiss accounts controlled by the Contra leadership. American taxpayers ended up paying for the cost of both legal and illegal funding in the anti-Sandinista campaign; the heaviest economic burden of state-sponsored terrorism falls on the domestic economy of the sponsor. Terrorism is an expensive business. In the mid-1970s, the Italian Marxist terror group Brigate Rosse (Red Brigades), had a yearly turnover of $8-$10 million, equivalent to that of a medium-size north Italian commercial enterprise. Unlike the cash-generous United States, the Soviet Union chose to supply its favoured groups with free training, arms and ammunition. Western European groups like the Red Brigades and the Baader-Meinhof gang had to raise their own cash. This required managerial finesse more than military expertise. Terror and the “shell-state” Since the 1970s, the desire of armed organisations to gain financial independence from their sponsors in the face of the rising costs of terrorist activity, led them to seek greater self-sufficiency. For example, Yasser Arafat masterminded the transition of the Palestine Liberation Organisation from a state-sponsored to an economically independent armed group by creating the first model of the “privatisation of terrorism”. During the Lebanese civil war, Arafat assembled a de facto Palestinian state held together by a well-developed socio-economic infrastructure, even in the absence of self-determination. Over the last thirty years, similar “shell-states” have blossomed in zones of war and political instability. Colombia, Peru, Chechnya, Afghanistan, Nepal and now Iraq have become breeding-grounds for these entities. After terror groups establish military control over an area, they destroy the existing socio-economic infrastructure (or what is left of it) and seek to replace it with the armed groups’ own socio-economic infrastructure, one designed exclusively to feed the armed struggle. The 2003 attacks against the United Nations and the Red Cross in Iraq, and the more recent kidnappings of aid workers, form part of this strategy. The key to the survival of the shell-state rests upon the management of its finances, and on its interdependency with traditional economies. The Palestinian shell-state was run as if legitimate; for example, a 5% income tax was levied on Palestinians working abroad, and Arab states where Palestinian workers resided were held responsible for collecting the tax. Both legally- and illegally-generated money was invested in legitimate activities through the international financial markets. In 1976, following the legendary bank robbery of the British Bank of the Middle East , Arafat chartered a flight to Switzerland to invest the PLO’s share of the loot; the Christian phalange and the Corsican mafia, the other partners in the robbery, used their shares to buy arms. CIA estimates are that the PLO’s total wealth in the 1990s was $8-$14 billion. This suggests that the PLO in this period had a higher annual gross domestic product (GDP) than Arab countries like Yemen ($6.5 billion), Bahrain ($6 billion) and even Jordan ($10.6 billion). As Palestinian wealth grew, so did its interdependence with the economy of its neighbour and enemy, Israel. In 1987, the Israeli finance minister Adi Amorai released a PLO courier who had been stopped at the Allenby Bridge, the transit point between Jordan and Israel. The man was carrying a suitcase with $1 million in cash. Amorai knew that the money would be exchanged in shekels and spent inside Israel, money that was badly needed by the Israeli economy. The globalisation of terrorism In the 1990s, the further deregulation of international economic and financial markets gave birth to the globalisation of terrorism. As barriers came down, armed groups linked up economically and started to operate more freely across national borders; the linkages between terrorist-controlled money and traditional economies became closer. The business empire of Osama bin Laden, whose profits bankrolled terror attacks against western interests across the Muslim world before 9/11, is a striking example of this phenomenon. His portfolio was truly transnational and highly diversified. While residing in Sudan, bin Laden acquired 70% of Gum Arabic Ltd, a company holding a monopoly of gum arabic (80% of the world supply of this product is used to fix the print in newspapers, to prevent the solution in soft drinks from separating, and to create a protective shell around pills and sweets). By far the largest importer of gum arabic is the US, which enjoys a special price agreement with the supplier. In 1998, the Clinton administration’s decision to impose economic sanctions on Sudan was opposed by lobbies representing US importers of the product. Eventually they convinced the administration to exclude it from the list of sanctioned products. Their argument was very simple: the sanctions would hurt American importers. Why? Because the Sudanese were going to sell the product to the French, the second largest importer, who in turn would offer it to the Americans at a premium. Terror leaders themselves are well aware of this interpenetration between the terror economy and the official economy. In the 1990s, Osama bin Laden issued a fatwa urging his followers to refrain from attacking Saudi Arabia. The reason was that revenues from legal oil industry businesses, run by Saudis who backed al-Qaida, were needed to consolidate the Islamist revolution. These revenues found their way into the new economy of terror via legal donations or dividends. This fatwa was lifted in spring 2003 when al-Qaida waged its first spectacular attack inside Saudi Arabia. Western corporations are also often aware that they are doing business with groups that are closely linked with the illegal/terror economy. One way that Islamist armed groups have funded themselves is via smuggling of electronic products in Asia. Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter kidnapped and killed by Jaish-I-Mohammed (Army of Mohammed) in Pakistan reported that the Sony corporation used a contraband network in the continent as a part of its regional strategy. The dependence of consumers on terror money is evident in Latin America’s “triborder” region connecting Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay. Here, Arabs linked to the Lebanon-based groups Hamas and Hizbollah run a buoyant money-laundering business, using drug funds to purchase and smuggle duty-free products from Central America. Terror greenbacks There is also a close connection between the illegal/terror economy and the United States money supply. Arms, drugs, and people-smuggling are all cleared in US currency. Since the primary means of exchange in the US economy is the dollar, in particular $100 bills, the annual infusion of new US dollars is a rough indication of the rate of growth of this economy. Research from the St Louis-based Federal Reserve reveals that the stock of new dollars issued in the US and permanently transferred abroad has been steadily rising since the 1960s. In 2000, as much as two-thirds of the US M1 money supply (money in circulation) has been removed from the US monetary system in this way. The amount involved, which does not include stocks of dollars held by central banks in the form of reserve currency, is equivalent to $500 billion. If this assessment is accurate, then the rate of monetary growth of the illegal/terror economy is higher than that of the US economy. Indeed, the stock of dollars held abroad is a considerable source of revenue for the US treasury through seignorage. The mutual dependence between legal and illegal economies is so deeply rooted that unilateral measures to sever them may actually backfire. The Patriot Act, for example, imposes limits on the operation of non-US banks, reinforcing existing tax legislation which discriminates against foreign investors. The resulting perception that America has become unfriendly to foreign investors has made the euro appear to many a more secure reserve currency to “park” capital than the dollar. The Patriot Act monitors money transfers denominated in dollars across the world in the effort to curb money-laundering activities, capital flight and terror transactions. This may have reduced the flow of illegal and terror money into the United States. But the absence of equivalent legislation in Europe means that illegal capital flows have been diverted there. Recent currency fluctuations involving the dollar and the euro may therefore be seen in the light of the shift of businesses in Asia and Africa, illegal as well as legal, towards denominating their transactions in euros – avoiding the restrictions imposed by the Patriot Act. Any attempt to curb this black economy requires a concerted multilateral strategy, which will in turn necessitate United States cooperation rather than confrontation with dollar-holders around the world. ----------------------------------------------- Copyright © Loretta Napoleoni, 2005. Published by openDemocracy Ltd. and re-published by the JTW with permission. For more also visit openDemocracy at http://www.opendemocracy.com/debates/artic...2-124-2321.jsp#

Back up your Info. I every now and then save the links that I like best (just incase.) It's always a good idea to back up your information. So if you have not done it in awhile (like me), then it's time to do it. I just did it, it only took two hours. Remember, back it up on a zip or cd, or an external hard drive. To me this is like eating, and drinking. You got to do it.

The topic description pretty well says it all. ( These programs are going to be a headache because both sides are going to use this as a political tool. For me it's going to be interesting to see which programs that the democrats will fight for.) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ (AP) - The 154 programs that President Bush wants to eliminate or cut in his 2006 budget proposal. Bush would terminate 99 programs and make major spending reductions in 55. Separately, the administration listed eight major reforms Bush proposed that also would produce spending cuts. Of the terminations, Bush has recommended 59 of them before. Twenty-seven of the 55 programs targeted for spending reductions have been previously submitted to Congress. TERMINATED: _Agriculture Department AMS Biotechnology Program Forest Service Economic Action Program High Cost Energy Grants NRCS Watershed and Flood Prevention Operations Research and Extension Grant Earmarks and Low Priority Programs _Commerce Department Advanced Technology Program Emergency Steel Guarantee Loan Program Public Telecommunications Facilities, Planning and Construction Program _Education Department Comprehensive School Reform Educational Technology State Grants Even Start (High School Program Terminations:) Vocational Education State Grants Vocational Education National Activities Tech Prep State Grants Upward Bound Talent Search GEAR UP Smaller Learning Communities Perkins Loans: Capital Contributions and Loan Cancellations Regional Education Laboratories Safe and Drug Free Schools State Grants (Small Elementary and Secondary Education Programs:) Javits Gifted and Talented Education National Writing Project School Leadership Dropout Prevention Program Close Up Fellowships Ready to Teach Parental Information and Resource Centers Alcohol Abuse Reduction Foundations for Learning Mental Health Integration in Schools Community Technology Centers Exchanges with Historic Whaling and Trading Partners Foreign Language Assistance Excellence in Economic Education Arts in Education Women's Educational Equity Elementary and Secondary School Counseling Civic Education Star Schools (Smaller Higher Education Programs:) Higher Education Demos for Students w/Disabilities Underground Railroad Program Interest Subsidy Grants (Small Job Training and Adult Education Programs:) Occupational and Employment Information Tech-prep Demonstration Literacy Programs for Prisoners State Grants for Incarcerated Youth (Small Postsecondary Student Financial Assistance Programs:) LEAP Byrd Scholarships B.J. Stupak Olympic Scholarships Thurgood Marshall Legal Opportunity (Small Vocational Rehabilitation Programs:) Vocational Rehabilitation Recreational Programs Vocational Rehab (VR) Migrant and Seasonal Workers Projects with Industry Supported Employment Teacher Quality Enhancement Program _Energy Department Hydropower Program Nuclear Energy Plant Optimization Nuclear Energy Research Initiative Oil and Gas Programs _Health and Human Services Department ACF Community Service Programs ACF Early Learning Opportunities Fund CDC Congressional Earmarks CDC Preventive Health and Health Services Block Grant CDC Youth Media Campaign Direct Service Worker Delivery Grants HRSA Emergency Medical Services for Children HRSA Health Facilities Construction Congressional Earmarks HRSA Healthy Community Access Program HRSA State Planning Grant Program HRSA Trauma Care HRSA Traumatic Brain Injury HRSA Universal Newborn Hearing Screening Real Choice Systems Change Grants _Housing and Urban Development Department HOPE VI _Interior Department BLM Jobs-in-the-Woods Program LWCF State Recreation Grants (NPS) National Park Service Statutory Aid Rural Fire Assistance (BLM, NPS, FWS, BIA) _Justice Department Byrne Discretionary Grants Byrne Justice Assistance Grants COPS Hiring Grants COPS Interoperable Communications Technology Grants COPS Law Enforcement Technology Grants Juvenile Accountability Block Grants National Drug Intelligence Center Other State/Local Law Enforcement Assistance Program Terminations State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP) _Labor Department Migrant and Seasonal Farm Worker Training Program Reintegration of Youthful Offenders _Transportation Department National Defense Tank Vessel Construction Program Railroad Rehabilitation Infrastructure Financing Loan Program _Enviromental Protection Agency Unrequested Projects Water Quality Cooperative Agreements _National Aeronautics and Space Administration Hubble Space Telescope Robotic Servicing Mission _Other Agencies National Veterans Business Development Corporation Postal Service: Revenue Forgone Appropriation SBA: Microloan Program SBA: Small Business Investment Company (SBIC) Participating Securities Program MAJOR REDUCTIONS: _Agriculture Department Federal (In-House) Research Forest Service Capital Improve and Maintenance Forest Service Wildland Fire Management (incl. supp. and emergency funding) Biomass Research and Development Broadband CCC - Bioenergy CCC - Market Access Program Farm Bill Programs (EQIP) Farm Bill Programs (CSP) Farm Bill Programs (WHIP) Farm Bill Program (Farm and Ranchland Protection) Farm Bill Programs (Ag. Management Assistance) IFAS Renewable Energy Rural Firefighter Grants Rural Strategic Investment Program Rural Business Investment Program Value-added Grants Watershed Rehabilitation NRCS Conservation Operations NRCS Resource Conservation and Development Program Water and Wastewater Grants and Loans _Commerce Department Manufacturing Extension Partnership _Education Department Adult Education State Grants State Grants for Innovation _Energy Department Environmental Management _Health and Human Services Department HRSA Children's Hospitals GME Payment Program HRSA Health Professions HRSA Rural Health SAMHSA Programs of Regional and National Significance State, Local & Hospital Bioterrorism Preparedness Grants _Housing and Urban Development Department Housing for Persons with Disabilities Native American Housing Block Grant Public Housing Capital Fund -Interior Department Bureau of Indian Affairs School Construction National Heritage Area Grants Payments in Lieu of Taxes USGS, Mineral Resources Program _Justice Department Federal Bureau of Prisons Construction Program High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas Program Juvenile Justice Law Enforcement Assistance Programs _Labor Department International Labor Affairs Bureau Office of Disability Employment Policy Workforce Investment Act Pilots and Demonstrations _State Department Assistance for the Independent States of the Former Soviet Union _Transportation Department FAA - Facilities and Equipment FAA - Airport Improvement Program (Oblim) FRA - Next Generation High Speed Rail _Treasury Department Internal Revenue Service - Taxpayer Service _Environmental Protection Agency Alaska Native Villages Clean Water State Revolving Fund -National Aeronautics and Space Administration Aeronautics: Vehicle Systems Program Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter _Other Agencies Archives: National Historical Publications & Records Commission U.S. Institute of Peace, Construction of New Building MAJOR REFORMS Agriculture: Rural Telephone Bank Commerce: Economic and Community Development Programs Homeland Security: State and Local Homeland Security Grants Homeland Security: Transportation Security Administration, Recover Aviation Security Screening Costs Through Fees Labor: Job Training Reform, Consolidate Grants Program Transportation: Amtrak Army Corps of Engineers (Civil Works): Performance Guidelines for Funding Construction Projects U.S. Agency for International Development and Department of Agriculture: International Food Aid (Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

Now don't the Democrats in Virginia have anything better to do then to pass a law that is un-enforceable? I forgot to add "poorly written as to target minority groups". The Bill was Sponsered by a Democrat "Del. Algie Howell, D-Norfolk". I would love to know what the Democrats were thinking?????????? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ § 18.2-387.1. Indecent display of underwear. Any person who, while in a public place, intentionally wears and displays his below-waist undergarments, intended to cover a person's intimate parts, in a lewd or indecent manner, shall be subject to a civil penalty of no more than $50. "Intimate parts" has the same meaning as in § 18.2-67.10.

It's getting worse. It seems that President Chavez really wants to crank up the heat "Venezuela buys Russian military helicopters and 100,000 rifles." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005.../02/10/050.html America Chides Venezuela for Russian Weapons Deal CARACAS, Venezuela -- Venezuela defended its purchase of new Russian weapons after a top U.S. official said Washington was concerned the arms could fall into the hands of illegal groups operating in the region. Venezuela's Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel rejected U.S. criticism of the deal to buy Russian military helicopters and 100,000 rifles, which he said were part of a policy to strengthen the nation's frontier defense. Venezuela, the world's No. 5 oil exporter, is a top fuel supplier to the United States. But relations between Caracas and Washington have soured since left-wing President Hugo Chavez came to power six years ago. "Venezuela is supplying its armed forces for the priority of national defense," Rangel said in a statement. "This policy is a concern only for the Venezuelan people and the nation's institutions. The destination of these weapons is guaranteed." His statement was in response to comments by Roger Noriega, U.S. assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere, who told CNN's Spanish-language service that Washington worried the arms may end up with groups such as Colombia's Marxist FARC rebels. Close ties between Chavez and Cuban leader Fidel Castro have rattled Washington, which criticizes the Venezuelan president's populist policies. Former army officer Chavez, in return, accuses the U.S. of backing attempts to topple him, including a 2002 coup, and presents himself as an alternative to U.S. regional influence. A fierce critic of U.S. President George W. Bush, Chavez often rejects charges from Bogota and Washington that his government has allowed Marxist Colombian rebels to take shelter in Venezuela. But relations between Venezuela and the U.S. tumbled to a low last year, when Chavez accused Washington of masterminding the kidnapping of a Colombian rebel leader. Venezuela says Rodrigo Granda was snatched in Caracas by Venezuelan soldiers paid by Bogota. Chavez has demanded an apology from Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe, a U.S. ally, but Colombia says the capture was a legitimate arrest of a terrorist.

The Big question being is in how will this effect the United States? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ http://www.indiaexpress.com/news/national/...20050120-1.html India, Chile signs framework agreement for economic cooperation 17.32 IST 20th Jan 2005 By IndiaExpress Bureau Marking a new dimension in their ties, India and Chile today signed a framework agreement for economic cooperation and agreed to explore prospects for stepping up cooperation in defence, agriculture, forestry, mining and education. The framework agreement, signed in the presence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and visiting Chilean President Ricardo Lagos in New Delhi, will be followed up by a PTA by this year. The two sides will then firm up a comprehensive economic cooperation pact. Singh and Lagos held extensive parleys on regional and international issues of mutual interest and noted that there was understanding and similarity on views on many current issues, a joint statement issued here said. The two sides inked a Memorandum of Understanding between the Indian Council of Agricultural Research and the Chilean Agricultural Research Institute and another MoU on Sanitary and Phytosanitary issues between the two agriculture ministries. Lagos, on a five-day State visit, met President A P J Abdul Kalam and External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh. Chile has shown interest in purchase of advanced light helicopters and defence items from India. The Chilean defence minister is expected to visit India in April this year. New Delhi attaches considerable significance to its relations with Chile, which has expressed support to India for permanent membership of the UN Security Council.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pag...d=1106740797057 Jan. 26, 2005 21:25 Israel to launch two military satellites By ASSOCIATED PRESS Israel will launch two military satellites in the near future, according to a military publication. The soldiers' weekly "Bamahane" reported in its current edition that the launch of the two satellites has been brought forward because of the failure of the "Ofek 6" to attain orbit in September. "Ofek 6" was a sophisticated spy satellite designed to replace older models that were about to re-enter the atmosphere, but it plunged into the Mediterranean in an unsuccessful launch attempt on Sept. 6. The weekly said the two satellites, called TESCAR and Ofek 7, developed by military industries, are to be launched in the near future. The report indicated that TESCAR would be launched first, but it gave no specific dates. The report said the TESCAR satellite represents a "technological breakththrough and will expand the capabilities" of Israel's satellite program. It gave no details. Earlier Israeli spy satellites have overflown Syria, Iran and Iraq. Experts said the Ofek-6 was designed to enhance intelligence-gathering capabilities over those countries - especially Iran, suspected of developing a nuclear weapons capability.

http://www.times-dispatch.com/servlet/Sate...d=1031780546399 Car-tax proposal worries officials Va. localities wonder how a full phaseout would affect budgets BY KIRAN KRISHNAMURTHY TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Jan 31, 2005 Hundreds of local government officials will converge on Richmond this week to visit the state Capitol and take their legislators out to dinner. The continuing debate over the car tax -- specifically, its impact on local governments -- is sure to be on the menu. Last week, Republican leaders in the House of Delegates announced they would push for the full phaseout of the car tax. But they did not give details, and that has some local officials worried. "Phasing-out, meaning what?" said Cheryl Beagle, Stafford County's budget director. An informal survey of local government officials last week indicated general satisfaction, to date, with the phasing out of the car tax but a certain anxiety about what lies ahead. Much of their concerns center on the $950 million annual cap imposed by the General Assembly last year and due to take effect next year. The state currently reimburses each locality 70 percent of the car tax due from a vehicle owner on the value of personal vehicles up to $20,000. The owner is responsible for paying the remaining 30 percent due and the full tax on the value of the vehicle above $20,000. "It's been a steady, stable, reliable source of revenue," said Mark Jinks, Alexandria's chief financial officer. Starting in 2006, the state is to pay a fixed annual amount -- the $950 million divided among all localities -- regardless of the inevitable registration of more vehicles. "By creating a cap, the tax source from the state is no longer inflation-proof," said Virginia Beach Treasurer John T. Atkinson. The flat reimbursements are expected to especially hurt localities with fast-growing populations. "Our population is growing. Our tax base is growing. But state participation is not growing," Atkinson said. Local officials, especially in those fast-growing areas, predict the cap will prompt localities to raise personal-property rates above what the state is reimbursing, raise other tax rates and/or create new fees to help offset the diminishing role of the state reimbursements in city and county budgets. "We're going to get it back, but at the cost to our taxpayers," Stafford's Beagle said. Amherst County Administrator Bryan David said officials there already have raised the personal-property rate for the percentage that county residents pay to help make ends meet. The state's 70 percent reimbursement to Amherst comes at $2.50 per $100 of assessed value, which was the county's rate in 1998 when the phaseout began. A few years ago, the county raised its rate to $3.25 cents per $100. County residents must pay the 75-cent difference on the 70 percent value of the car that the state reimburses, as well as the full $3.25 rate on the remaining 30 percent billed to taxpayers. For example, Amherst's total tax calculation for a car valued at $10,000 is $325. The state would reimburse Amherst $175 for the first 70 percent of the value. The taxpayer would owe $97.50 on the remaining 30 percent, plus $52.50 for the 75 cents' difference on the 70 percent for which the state reimburses at the lower rate of $2.50. "The elasticity of the real-estate tax had really gotten to its upper reaches," he said. "The Board [of Supervisors] had to look at some other means to generate revenue." To some extent, a locality's losses under the flat state reimbursement will be offset by the escalating value of newer vehicles, many of which cost more than the $20,000 threshold. Some officials wonder what a full phaseout of the car tax means, particularly whether the state will maintain the reimbursements in hard times. "There's always been trepidation about the long-term commitment of the state to send dollars back to local governments," said R. Michael Amyx, executive director of the Virginia Municipal League. "The car tax continues to be an expensive proposition. . . . It remains to be seen whether the state can afford that." Local officials say the state's reimbursements have been timely. About 40 localities that send their tax bills in the spring, however, are concerned about the impact on their budgets in 2006 because legislators last year chose to delay reimbursements until after July 1, 2006. Legislators changed the schedule as a way to free up about $250 million for schools and other needs. They suggested at the time that localities could dig into local rainy-day funds or use short-term loans until receiving the reimbursements, but local officials said doing so could hurt their credit ratings or mean higher interest rates. In the Richmond area, Chesterfield County faces a potential $42 million shortfall, while Henrico County and Richmond are looking at $17 million each. The VML and the Virginia Association of Counties, which are sponsoring Thursday's annual local government day in Richmond, are working with affected spring-billing localities to push for a change in the reimbursement schedule during the current legislative session. Amyx, of the VML, said he believes legislators are sensitive to the importance of the car-tax revenue stream for localities. "I think the General Assembly realizes how important those dollars are," he said.

Interesting! Isn't it? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ A Stratellite is similar to a satellite, but is stationed in the stratosphere rather than in orbit. At an altitude of 10 to 13 miles above the Earth, each Stratellite will have clear line-of-sight communications capability to an entire major metropolitan area as well as being able to provide coverage across major rural areas. Several Stratellites linked together could cover many hundreds of thousands of square miles. The Stratellite will allow subscribers to easily communicate in “both directions” using readily available wireless devices. In addition to voice and data, proposed telecommunications uses include cellular, 3G/4G mobile, MMDS, paging, fixed wireless telephony, HDTV, real-time surveillance and others. Stratellites throughout South America. The agreement calls for Sanswire to enter into a Joint-Venture Agreement with Orlando, Florida based Dynamic International Networks, Inc. to build and operate Sanswire's high-altitude airships called Stratellites in various South American countries. The Agreement calls for the first Stratellite to be launched over Lima, Peru to provide various wireless services to the Peruvian capital and surrounding areas.