Eight things you didn't know about the internet

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227061.900-eight-things-you-didnt-know-about-the-internet.html

It was born 40 years ago, in a lab at the University of California, Los Angeles. Today it wraps the entire planet and features in the daily routine of more than 1.5 billion people. Of course, it's easy to take the internet for granted and forget that it's very much a work in progress. So what forces are shaping it, how big has it grown, and will it ever evolve a mind of its own? To find out, New Scientist posed eight simple questions.

Who controls the internet?
Could the net become self-aware?
How big is the internet?
Is there only one internet?
Is the net caught in the credit crunch?
Where are the net's dark corners?
Is the net hurting the environment?
Could we shut the net down?

Swine Flu Expose

·a book by Eleanora I. McBean, Ph.D., N.D.; 1977. (Also known for her 1957 classic, 'The Poisoned needle')
http://www.whale.to/a/mcbean2.html

PREFACE
This booklet on Swine Flu hazards and fakery is part of a larger book on vaccination, titled, VACCINATION CONDEMNED BY COMPETENT DOCTORS. It is about time a large and comprehensive book of the long concealed facts about vaccination is brought forth. This is the largest and most informative book on the subject ever written in America. It contains data collected from medical records, army reports, and startling findings from researchers all over the world.
The book is intended to help combat the disastrous effects of vaccine promoters and their deceptive propaganda.
[...]
CHAPTER 1: SWINE FLU ANOTHER MEDICALLY-MADE EPIDEMIC
At the present writing, October 1976, a group of medical opportunists have taken upon themselves the dictatorial authority to declare the threat of a sweeping epidemic of SWINE FLU which they said was similar to, or related to, the 1918 epidemic of Spanish influenza which wiped out 20,000,000 people world-wide. [Hum...this sounds familiar]. This declaration was supposed to scare all the people into their vaccination centers to be shot full of experimental vaccine poisons, while they, the promoters, raked in the profits. During the big polio vaccine drive, a spokesman for ParkeDavis, one of the five drug houses making the vaccine, stated, ''Our company will clear over $10,000,000 on Salk vaccine in 1955.'' Before they were through they had fleeced the people of over $4 billion dollars on the Salk racket. (See the chapter on POLIO CAUSED BY VACCINATION)

Go here to read all of 'Vaccination Condemned By Competent Doctors'

Rich people feel guilty buying luxury stuff in bad economy

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/retail/2009-04-29-luxury-guilt_N.htm

More than half of affluent consumers say they feel "guilty" making luxury purchases in this economy, a survey of the most-moneyed Americans finds. Fewer this year also say they like to be labeled as "wealthy."
The survey of people with an annual discretionary household income of more than $100,000, which is generally those earning $500,000 or more, was released Wednesday by consulting firm Harrison Group and American Express Publishing. Discretionary income is what's left after the mortgage and taxes are paid.
People with such discretionary incomes make up 10% of households yet account for more than half of retail sales and 70% of profit margins.
[...]
Of course, far more than a guilty conscience is at play. More than half of those polled — 53% — said they worry they could actually run out of money.[!!!]

Read more...

Silence covers 'zone of death'

http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2009/apr/30/from-the-archives-chernobyl

The area around the stricken nuclear plant at Chernobyl was last night enclosed by a wall of official silence and tight security covering a radius of at least 18 miles.
For an unknown number of the inhabitants of several towns and villages closest to the reactor, and now evacuated, it may [be] the silence of the grave; in the words of a Russian scientist yesterday, this is the "zone of death". Inside that zone is the town of Chernobyl, and the vast nuclear complex at Pripyat, containing four completed reactors, and two under construction. The nuclear park is alongside the Pripyat River, which supplies drinking water to the city of Kiev, capital of the Ukarine, about 60 miles downstream.
To the north stretches the danger zone, licked by the escaping radiation since the disaster began on Saturday. There is the farmland of Belorussiya, and 200 miles north, the city of Minsk.
[...]
Last night, as technicians struggled to contain a fire thought to be threatening three other reactors, the achievement was in ruins. Unconfirmed reports spoke of mounting casualties and of a Kiev hospital crammed with victims of radiation sickness. Last night, Chernobyl had become a symbol of all that is frightful and frightening in the modern world of nuclear power.
[...]
Even beyond the "zone of death", the silence continued yesterday.
"We knew nothing about it until we heard the BBC World Service news this morning," Ms Sue Parminter, a 26-year-old teacher from Sevenoaks, Kent, told me from Minsk by phone.
[...]
An American military attache who was in Kiev until yesterday morning was checked over with a geiger counter at the US embassy in Moscow yesterday, and was found to have a modest dose of radioactivity.

Read all of it here...

Descubren un planeta del tamaño de Júpiter próximo a una estrella como el Sol

http://www.lavanguardia.es/ciudadanos/noticias/20090429/53692806954/descubren-un-planeta-del-tamano-de-jupiter-proximo-a-una-estrella-como-el-sol-jupiter-londres-hertfo.html

Londres. (EFE).- Un grupo de astrónomos han descubierto un planeta del tamaño de Júpiter que gira alrededor de una estrella similar al Sol, informó hoy la cadena pública británica BBC.
El nuevo mundo, bautizado como HD80606b, se mueve por una órbita elíptica inusual alrededor de esa estrella, según explicaron los expertos, del University College de Londres, en una conferencia celebrada en Hertfordshire, al norte de Londres.
Cuando en esa órbita el planeta alcanza el punto más lejano a la estrella, esa distancia es como la que separa a la Tierra del Sol (132 millones de kilómetros).Sin embargo, cuando el planeta se coloca en el punto más próximo, la distancia es diez veces menor que la que separa a Mercurio del Sol (cinco millones de kilómetros). Según el estudio de los astrónomos, HD80606b se sitúa en el punto más cercano a la estrella cada 111 días.
Si en ese "doble" de Júpiter, una persona mirase al cielo, vería una estrella treinta veces más grande que el Sol, indicaron los expertos, que observaron el tránsito de ese nuevo mundo al cruzarse frente a la estrella.

Leer más...

Space Junk Forcing More Evasive Maneuvers

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/04/space-junk-forcing-more-evasive-maneuvers/

American spacecraft had to dodge space debris four times in 2008, NASA revealed Tuesday, a fact that highlights both the extent of the space junk problem and the primary mitigation option open to NASA.
By tracking pieces of debris larger than around four inches, space engineers can identify some dangerous space junk and meteoroids. If a satellite or spacecraft is in danger of getting hit, they simply move it out of harm’s way. The International Space Station, for example, had to make an evasive maneuver back in August 2008, to avoid a piece of an old Russian craft.
“On average, Shuttle and ISS have conducted several collision avoidance maneuvers over the past ten years on the order of about one per year,” said Nicholas Johnson, chief scientist at NASA’s Orbital Debris Program Office, in a teleconference with reporters ahead of a House subcommittee on space and aeronautics meeting about space debris.
Space debris is an increasing problem. Johnson noted that from the 1960s until the past year, orbital debris had increased linearly, despite advances in decreasing the amount of debris left behind per trip to space. But recently, a Chinese missile test on a satellite and the collision of two satellites in orbit, sent the amount of space debris up considerably. The satellite collision alone increased the risk to the upcoming May shuttle mission to the Hubble Space Telescope by 8 percent.

Read more...

Pandemic (Subliminal word for MediPanic)

Earth's atmosphere is CO2 impoverished

http://heliogenic.blogspot.com/2009/04/earths-atmosphere-is-co2-impoverished.html

"And if co2science and many other excellent sources are right on the benefits of carbon/CO2 (and I believe they are), then there is no need for us to reduce our carbon footprint, decarbonize our economies, reduce CO2 in the atmosphere, cap and trade on CO2, tax carbon, or engage any other endeavors to limit the basis and food of all life. In fact, according to paleo-climate records, our atmosphere is still "CO2 impoverished".
Dangerous levels of CO2 are not reached till up around 5,000 ppm to 10,000 ppm, and some sources suggest that CO2 levels are not dangerous till 15,000 ppm (see co2science.org, "Does high CO2 harm humans" under Health Effects at CO2: General or http://co2science.org/subject/questions/1998/91598q1.php). The low levels of atmospheric CO2 that we have been experiencing in this latest ice era are the real problem for life on Earth. Life evolved over the past 600 million years at the more healthy average level of 1500 ppm.
And when CO2 was at 7000 ppm there was no dangerous global warming. When it was at 4,400 ppm during the Late Ordovician Period, Earth was as cold as it is now. So also over the past 150 years." Wendell Krossa on CCNet April 20.

[Source: Heliogenic Climate Change]

America. Freedom To Fascism

Conspiracy Cards - Vaccines

[Source conspiracycards.com]

Vioxx maker Merck and Co drew up doctor hit list

·AN international drug company made a hit list of doctors who had to be "neutralised" or discredited because they criticised the anti-arthritis drug the pharmaceutical giant produced.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25272600-2702,00.html

Staff at US company Merck &Co emailed each other about the list of doctors - mainly researchers and academics - who had been negative about the drug Vioxx or Merck and a recommended course of action.
The email, which came out in the Federal Court in Melbourne yesterday as part of a class action against the drug company, included the words "neutralise", "neutralised" or "discredit" against some of the doctors' names.
It is also alleged the company used intimidation tactics against critical researchers, including dropping hints it would stop funding to institutions and claims it interfered with academic appointments.
"We may need to seek them out and destroy them where they live," a Merck employee wrote, according to an email excerpt read to the court by Julian Burnside QC, acting for the plaintiff.
Merck & Co and its Australian subsidiary, Merck, Sharpe and Dohme, are being sued for compensation by more than 1000 Australians, who claim they suffered heart attacks or strokes as a result of Vioxx.
Read more...

[And if you want to learn more about Merck & Co. watch this...]

[Please forward this clip to everyone you know who thinks vaccines are "safe and effective."]

Mexican Swine Flu - Rap Video

Blu-ray Laser Phaser

[You know...lasers can be dangerous. Never point them at any living object! This is not a toy, and this should not be used like a conventional laser pointer. In other words, don't use it in presentations, or to play with pets, or allow children to use it. It should only be operated by responsible persons who understand and respect the potential laser safety hazard!]

Supreme Court ruling bans broadcast 'fleeting expletives'

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/judicial/2009-04-28-scotus-fcc-expletives_N.htm

WASHINGTON — A divided Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a federal prohibition on the one-time use of expletives in a case arising partly from an expletive uttered by Cher at a Billboard Music Awards show in 2002.
The ruling, by a 5-4 vote and written by Justice Antonin Scalia, endorsed a Bush administration Federal Communications Commission policy against isolated outbursts of, as Scalia said from the bench, the "f-word" and "s-word."
The ruling does not resolve a lingering First Amendment challenge to the 2004 policy that is likely to be subject to further lower court proceedings.
Tuesday's decision reversed a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit that had said the FCC's decision to sanction "fleeting expletives" was arbitrary and capricious under federal law. That lower court had agreed with Fox Television Stations, which broadcast the Billboard awards, that such isolated utterances are not as potentially harmful to viewers as are other uses of sexual and excretory expressions long deemed "indecent" and banned by federal regulators.
Other broadcast networks had joined in the challenge, saying the policy was especially chilling for live awards shows and sporting events.
[ :D :D :D ... excuse me, but I can only laugh. This is a Supreme Court ruling on... words! You see all the ways that this is wrong, don't you?]

In any case, go on reading, here...

Feeling More Secure, Some Banks Want to Be Left Alone

[They've always wanted to be left alone...it's taking the bail-out money that they didn't have a problem with.]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/29/business/economy/29bank.html?_r=1&hp

As Washington pushes banks to mend their finances, the banks are pushing back.
Emboldened by newfound profits and eager to shake off federal control, a growing number of banks are resisting the Obama administration’s proposals for fixing the financial system. Lenders that skirted disaster only months ago with the help of taxpayer dollars are now balking at government prescriptions.
Despite pressure from federal regulators, industry executives are taking issue with major elements of the president’s bank plan. Administration officials characterize each part of their three-pronged approach as crucial to bolstering banks and restarting the economy. But bankers are increasingly eager to extricate themselves from the government’s grasp, and worry that Washington will impose new restrictions on their businesses if the government’s already considerable role in the industry grows.
As the Obama administration marks its first 100 days, the banks’ resistance is complicating the government’s effort to solve some of the thorniest problems of the financial crisis. Opposition is building on several fronts.
Citigroup, Bank of America and other big banks are disputing so-called stress tests being conducted by federal examiners to determine how these institutions would withstand a deep, prolonged recession. The banks contend they are in better shape than the early findings suggest, although it is likely several will need to raise capital.

Read more...

Superfast secret of northern lights revealed

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article6168928.ece

DIFFERENT CULTURES have attributed their spectacular light show to fire-breathing dragons, dancing gods and ghostly clans at war.
New research, however, has found that the northern lights, or aurora borealis, are powered by giant electrical tornadoes spinning at more than a million miles an hour and stretching thousands of miles into space.
[...]
They show how vast quantities of charged particles emitted by the sun first pile up in huge clouds about 40,000 miles above the night side of Earth. Then, as the energy they hold becomes too great, the particles explode downwards towards Earth, spinning as they go.
“When these space tornadoes reach the upper atmosphere their enormous energy heats the air so strongly it starts glowing. That is what generates the aurorae,” said Professor Karl-Heinz Glassmeier, director of the Institute for Geophysics and Extraterrestrial Physics in Braunschweig, Germany.
[...]
However, since the particles hit the “day side” of Earth – the part facing the sun – and the aurorae happen on the dark “night side”, they have puzzled over how the energy is transmitted between the two sides.

Read more...

Scientists find genetic clues to how autism can develop

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/apr/29/autism-genetics-science-research

Scientists have found the first substantial evidence that autism may be caused by genetic differences that damage the connection in the brain in early childhood.

Three studies have identified genetic variations which may help explain the origins of the condition, including one that could account for as many as 15% of autism cases.
[...]
Two papers published online in Nature, by Hakon Hakonarson and colleagues at the Centre for Applied Genomics at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, show that, mutations in genes[...mutations caused by what?! They don't go into this, now, do they?] that play a role in establishing connections within a child's brain, increase his or her chances of developing autism. While a single genetic variant may pose a small increased risk for a child, the researchers claim to have identified variants that may explain up to 15% of the prevalence of autism.
[...]
The exact causes of autism are still unknown[...see what I mean?], and many experts believe the type of behaviour that leads to people being diagnosed with autism may have more than one cause, she added. Other theories advanced in recent years as potential contributory factors include drinking during pregnancy, older fathers and early television viewing, though none has been substantiated.
Read more...

[For a different take on autism and its possible causes, go here...]
'What is autism?' by Golden Illumination

Internet DF

·Los habitantes de la capital mexicana han sustituido la vida real por la virtual
http://www.lavanguardia.es/internet-y-tecnologia/noticias/20090429/53692619093/internet-df.html

Como dice aina, como en una peli de zombies ("Estado Facebook". Dom, 05.04.) Carie, estáis todas bien? ¿Te sientes como si estuvieras en '28 días después' ("Xorx LLop ha escrito a las 12:37 del 26 de abril")
Mireya Gregorio -una publicista barcelonesa que vive en México DF- hace días que no sale a la calle. Se ha encerrado a cal y canto. El trabajo a distancia es la fórmula que han encontrado los nueve empleados de su empresa para evitar el contagio de la gripe. "Trabajamos vía "mail" y por teléfono, cada vez que necesitamos compartir información pesada (vídeo, fotografías) lo hacemos a través de yousendit", responde en un mensaje de Facebook. Mireya lleva con filosofía el encierro ("Pues aquí igual, tancats a casa i fent-nos pelis..."22:20 del 28 de abril), pero confiesa miedo: "las mascarillas están agotadas en todas partes, así que salir ahora es más difícil".

Leer más...

Los anti-Bolonia cambian de táctica y apuntan a ERC, PSC y los bancos

http://www.elperiodico.com/default.asp?idpublicacio_PK=46&idioma=CAS&idnoticia_PK=607876&idseccio_PK=1021

[Atención! Lo siguiente es un artículo de prensa -malintencionado!]

Cambio de estrategia[Mentira! Esto no es un cambio de estrategia, sigue siendo la misma estrategia]. Tras el ocaso[!] de las ocupaciones universitarias (algunas finalizadas a la fuerza y otras desconvocadas voluntariamente)[!], los estudiantes contrarios al plan de Bolonia han retomado las protestas con un nuevo tipo de acciones. La semana pasada ya decidieron encerrarse por unas horas en un instituto de secundaria de Barcelona y en otro de Santa Coloma de Gramenet, y ayer cambiaron[!] los centros educativos por objetivos diferentes[!]: las sedes del PSC, ERC, el comisionado de Universitats y el Banco Santander. Por la tarde, en cambio, se recuperó el formato reivindicativo de la manifestación en la plaza de la Universitat. Asistieron solo unas 300 personas, muchas menos que en su última concentración, el 26 de marzo, que contó con cerca de 10.000[!].
Con la nueva táctica[!] llevada a cabo por la mañana, los anti-Bolonia[Este sobrenombre peyorativo lo usan sólo los de los medios...los activistas no se autodenominan a sí mismos -los anti-bolonia!] colocaron en el punto de mira[...esto es como apuntar con un arma, no?] a quienes consideran "responsables de la privatización de la universidad": a ERC, por ser el partido que gestiona la Conselleria d'Universitats; al PSC, por ser la formación que lidera el Govern; y al Banco Santander, por ser ejemplo de "la entrada de las empresas en la universidad".
Leer más...

[En fin...que para entender cómo los medios distorsionan y manipulan la información, ver...]
Alarma Social ¿Cómo Se Crea?

[Y si de verdad quieres saber más sobre el Proceso Bolonia, puedes comenzar por este artículo del Proyecto Matriz, titulado...]
Plan Bolonia: Universidad, S.A.

¡Peligro! :D

Imagen de una señal de tráfico en Nicaragua! :D

Artificial Intelligence Cracks 4,000-Year-Old Mystery

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/04/indusscript

An ancient script that’s defied generations of archaeologists has yielded some of its secrets to artificially intelligent computers.
Computational analysis of symbols used 4,000 years ago by a long-lost Indus Valley civilization suggests they represent a spoken language. Some frustrated linguists thought the symbols were merely pretty pictures.
"The underlying grammatical structure seems similar to what’s found in many languages," said University of Washington computer scientist Rajesh Rao.
[...]
They fed the program sequences of four spoken languages: ancient
Sumerian, Sanskrit and Old Tamil, as well as modern English. Then they gave it samples of four non-spoken communication systems: human DNA,
Fortran, bacterial protein sequences and an artificial language.

Read more...

Danger from the Bird-Flu drug, Tamiflu!

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1601062,00.html

In 2004 a 17-year-old boy in the Japanese town of Gero suddenly ran out of his home and into the middle of a busy street, where he was struck and killed by a truck. In 2005 a 14-year-old boy Chiryu got out of bed, climbed the wall outside his parent's ninth-floor apartment and dropped from the edge. And last month, in two separate incidents, a 14-year old male and a 14-year old female fell to their deaths from their respective high-rise apartment buildings. No one left a suicide note.
What they have in common is that each victim took the influenza antiviral Tamiflu shortly before they died. According to the Japanese Health Ministry, 54 people have died after taking Tamiflu —the drug governments around the world have stockpiled for use against avian flu— since the drug was approved for use in Japan in 2000. Most suspiciously, in multiple cases people, including those cases above, acted erratically after taking Tamiflu. Though the Health Ministry has said there is no clear evidence linking Tamiflu to the deaths, there is growing concern among doctors and parents in Japan over the drug's possible side effects. That is potential cause for concern in the rest of the world, because in the absence of a vaccine, Tamiflu will be the drug of first and last resort in the event of a pandemic.[!!!!!]

Don't take Tamiflu! Read on...

Is Swine Flu A Biological Weapon?

http://www.prisonplanet.com/is-swine-flu-a-biological-weapon.html

There are some factors that suggest the swine flu killing people in Mexico may be a biological weapon, but obviously no such conclusion can be drawn at this time. The World Health Organization and the U.S. government have been quick to deny such claims.
The swine flu virus is described as a completely new strain, an intercontinental mixture of human, avian and swine viruses. Tellingly, there have been no reported A-H1N1 infections of pigs.
According to a source known to former NSA official Wayne Madsen, A top scientist for the United Nations, who has examined the outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in Africa, as well as HIV/AIDS victims, concluded that H1N1 possesses certain transmission “vectors” that suggest that the new flu strain has been genetically-manufactured as a military biological warfare weapon.
Madsen claims that his source, and another in Indonesia, “Are convinced that the current outbreak of a new strain of swine flu in Mexico and some parts of the United States is the result of the introduction of a human-engineered pathogen that could result in a widespread global pandemic, with potentially catastrophic consequences for domestic and international travel and commerce.”
[...]

Fears that a mass pandemic was being readied as a biological attack have rumbled on in the conspiracy community ever since 9/11. Investigators point to the highly unusual number of deaths of top microbiologists to suggest that people with knowledge of the program are being eliminated.

Read more...

Lonely? Bond with a TV character

http://www.theprovince.com/News/Lonely+Bond+with+character/1538441/story.html

Good news for anyone who's ever spent a solitary night with the gang from Grey's Anatomy: it's not just you.[!!!]
A new study suggests favourite TV shows serve as proxies when real friends are in short supply, leaving people feeling less lonely in the company of their favourite programs.[...yeah, I know. Crazy, isn't it?]
"We need connections to other people almost as much as we need food and water," says author Jaye Derrick, a research associate at the State University of New York at Buffalo. "To me, it made sense that television could be an extension of that need, a way of temporarily fulfilling that need while we aren't able to seek connection to other people."
The idea for the [!]study[!] came when Derrick noticed that watching TV made her feel better after an argument with a boyfriend or friend.

Ha! For more laughs click here...

Exclusive: The Monsanto Connection

http://dprogram.net/2009/04/27/exclusive-the-monsanto-connection-robert-singer/

I[Dprogram.net's Sakerfa] recently published an article “Grandmother Scores Huge Victory over Monsanto”.
The article was a magnet for controversy because I claimed the best way to fight Monsanto and HR 875 was by growing your own food and saving seeds.
[...]
1. Monsanto is one of the most powerful multi-national corporations in the world. The Global One-World Government New World Order conspiracy, of which Monsanto is a part, is aimed at controlling millions via the food they eat. “Control oil and you control nations; control food and you control the people,” said Henry Kissinger in 1970.
2. Monsanto uses overt and covert strategies to accomplish their goals. Monsanto is behind both sides of the battle over HR 875. They don’t leave important matters like these to chance.
3. Monsanto’s tentacles reach into every aspect of our society: government, private industry, the military, law enforcement and, of course, agriculture. Large, small, organic and non-organic farmers—and don’t forget libertarian grass roots activists—are all influenced directly and indirectly by Monsanto. The company that rose to power in the 20th century as a leading chemical giant now focuses on agriculture. In Monsanto’s world, there is no room for the family farmer. The company’s well-known corporate bullying tactics have made this clear. Just ask Percy Schmeiser, the brave Canola farmer who dared to take on Monsanto.
4. HR 875’s vague wording was intentional.
5. Family Farmers (organic and non-organic) are under attack, but not by Congresswoman DeLauro, the author of HR 875 whose husband was a political consultant to Monsanto 10 years ago.
6. The timing of HR 875 coincides with the slow food, Locavore, and urban gardening movements in the United States and, for that matter, any slow food movement anywhere in the world.
7. The E-coli and salmonella outbreaks related to spinach, tomatoes and peanuts are the work of Monsanto’s agents: Things don’t happen; they’re made to happen.
8. Healthy Family Farm owner Sharon Palmer was arrested for selling raw goat milk, and the Ohio food co-op raided Gestapo-style was obviously instigated by Monsanto agents in a move designed to intimidate urban gardeners.
Learn more...

Corn fortified with vitamins devised by scientists

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-genetic-corn28-2009apr28,0,5001580.story

Scientists[...from what company?] have engineered vitamin-fortified corn[!!!!!] designed to boost consumption of three key nutrients that are sorely lacking in the diets of millions of people in developing countries, according to a study published today.
The genetically modified African corn has bright orange kernels, reflecting the 169-fold increase in beta carotene, a precursor of vitamin A. The corn also has six times the normal amount of vitamin C and double the usual level of folate, researchers reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Though genetic engineering has been used to enhance vitamin content in a variety of crops -- including rice, potatoes, lettuce and tomatoes -- this is the first time scientists have been able to amplify multiple vitamins in a single plant. [They're not giving up, are they? Berlin banned, just recently, Monsanto's GM corn. Most of Europe opposes GM foods, but they won't let go, will they?]
[...]

To grow in Africa, Central America or elsewhere, they would have to be crossed [!!!!!] with the many corn varieties adapted to specific regions. That process could take 10 years, said Gary Toenniessen, an agriculture specialist at the Rockefeller Foundation[...now we know who!] in New York who is involved with the rollout of a genetically engineered crop, Golden Rice, fortified with beta carotene.

You must to read more...

A Tiny Hominid With No Place on the Family Tree

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/28/science/28hobbit.html?_r=1&8dpc

Six years after their discovery, the extinct little people nicknamed hobbits who once occupied the Indonesian island of Flores remain mystifying anomalies in human evolution, out of place in time and geography, their ancestry unknown. Recent research has only widened their challenge to conventional thinking about the origins, transformations and migrations of the early human family.
Indeed, the more scientists study the specimens and their implications, the more they are drawn to heretical speculation.
Were these primitive survivors of even earlier hominid migrations out of Africa, before Homo erectus migrated about 1.8 million years ago? Could some of the earliest African toolmakers, around 2.5 million years ago, have made their way across Asia?
Did some of these migrants evolve into new species in Asia, which moved back to Africa? Two-way traffic is not unheard of in other mammals.
Or could the hobbits be an example of reverse evolution? That would seem even more bizarre; there are no known cases in primate evolution of a wholesale reversion to some ancestor in its lineage.
The possibilities get curiouser and curiouser, said William L. Jungers of Stony Brook University, making hobbits “the black swan of paleontology — totally unpredicted and inexplicable.”

Read more...

The internet is God's present to China

·On the day he receives a human rights award, a Chinese dissident reveals his gratitude to the web.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article6181699.ece

Liu Xiaobo

Today there are more than 100 million internet users in China. The Chinese Government is ambivalent towards it. On the one hand, the internet is a tool to make money. On the other, the Communist dictatorship is afraid of freedom of expression.
The internet has brought about the awakening of ideas among the Chinese. This worries the Government, which has placed great importance on blocking the internet to exert ideological control.
In October 1999 I finished three years of jail and returned home. There was a computer there and it seemed that every visiting friend was telling me to use it. I tried a few times but felt that I could not write anything while facing a machine and insisted on writing with a fountain pen. Slowly, under the patient persuasion and guidance of my friends, I got familiar with it and cannot leave it now. As someone who writes for a living, and as someone who participated in the 1989 democracy movement, my gratitude towards the internet cannot be easily expressed.
[...]
The internet has made it easier to obtain information, contact the outside world and submit articles to overseas media. It is like a super-engine that makes my writing spring out of a well. The internet is an information channel that the Chinese dictators cannot fully censor, allowing people to speak and communicate, and it offers a platform for spontaneous organisation.

Read more...

Disgruntled Japanese turn to resurgent communists

·Web-savvy Japanese Communist party's message of welfare and jobs, lures young voters away from sleazed-mired political mainstream.
[Warning! Article to be taken with a pinch of salt. It is, after all, The Guardian]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/27/japanese-communist-party-resurgence

Faced with an economy in steep decline, rising unemployment and an uncertain future, a growing number of Japanese are shunning the conservative consensus and turning instead to a new brand of cuddly communism.
While the leaders of Japan's two main political parties battle poor opinion poll ratings and accusations of sleaze, the Japanese Communist party (JCP) has seen its fortunes transformed after years of being dismissed as an irrelevant hangover from the cold war.
In the last 16 months membership has soared to more than 410,000 as the revamped party courts younger voters from the working poor. Of the 14,000 ­people to have joined since the end of 2007, about a quarter are aged under 30, the party says. That contrasts with the ruling Liberal Democratic party (LDP), whose membership has plummeted from 5 million at its peak to about a million today.
By dispensing with ideological rhetoric and focusing on welfare and jobs, the JCP has struck a chord with students, the unemployed and the estimated 10 million Japanese earning less than 2m yen (about £14,000) a year.

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El sector cultural pide desconectar a los 4.500 internautas más piratas

·Solo se actuará contra el resto de usuarios si las descargas no se reducen un 70% en el primer año.[Es decir que, al final, -se actuará- contra el resto de usuarios, ya que una disminución del 70% en el primer año es inalcanzable...es irreal]
·Gestores de derechos de autor y operadoras[...y los usuarios???] se centran en las webs que permiten intercambios.
http://www.elperiodico.com/default.asp?idpublicacio_PK=46&idioma=CAS&idnoticia_PK=607341&idseccio_PK=1012

Un año después de que se sentaran a negociar por vez primera en la misma mesa, el sector cultural y las operadoras[...y los usuarios???] han llegado a un acuerdo que abarca el 95% de cómo regular el intercambio no autorizado de música, películas y videojuegos. En el 5% restante, sin embargo, reside la parte más controvertida de un plan que, más que en los internautas, se centra en la persecución de las webs que permiten las descargas. La fricción se halla en el modo de actuar contra los usuarios más piratas, aquellos que ponen a disposición de la red la gran mayoría de las primeras copias de las obras protegidas por los derechos de autor, y aquí los proveedores se inclinan por la sanción económica, mientras que la industria audiovisual aboga por algo más drástico: la desconexión para los llamados "primeros difusores", que durante los seis últimos meses han sido identificados y contados. Son 4.500.
"Se trata de hacer algo proporcional al efecto que buscamos --explican fuentes del sector cultural, representado por la llamada Coalición de Creadores e Industrias de Contenidos--. No tendría sentido desconectar a decenas de miles de usuarios". El esquema de Francia, impulsado por su presidente, Nicolas Sarkozy, no se aplicará en España. Allí se prevé emitir 10.000 notificaciones al día para los internautas cazados en plena descarga. Aquí será otra cosa.[!!!!!]

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El comisario de Multilingüismo de la UE apuesta por que los europeos "aprendan idiomas diferentes" y "no sólo el inglés"

http://www.europapress.es/navarra/noticia-comisario-multilinguismo-ue-apuesta-europeos-aprendan-idiomas-diferentes-no-solo-ingles-20090427143215.html

El comisario de Multilingüismo de la Unión Europea, Leonard Orban, consideró hoy que los europeos "deben aprender idiomas diferentes" y "no sólo el ingles", al existir dentro de la comunidad "una riqueza enorme" de lenguas que "deberían ser aprendidas".

[...]

Orban, que compareció acompañado del consejero de Educación del Ejecutivo foral, Carlos Pérez-Nievas, destacó que España se encuentra "a la cola" del ránking en capacidad lingüística en comparación con el resto de países europeos, como consecuencia "no sólo del sistema educativo", sino también por aspectos como los doblajes de las películas, en vez de simplemente subtitularlas[ :D ], iniciativas que "ayudan al desarrollo de la capacidad de aprendizajes de los distintos idiomas". No obstante, mostró su convencimiento de que esta situación "se enderezca en el futuro".
Para el comisario europeo, el aprendizaje de idiomas no sólo dota a las personas de mayores capacidades para poder encontrar trabajo, sino que aseguró que también es una herramienta para "mediar entre culturas" y que ayuda "a la comprensión cultural y la cohesión social".

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¿Otra pandemia de miedo?

http://conspiranoia-times.blogspot.com/2009/04/otra-pandemia-de-miedo.html

¿Se acuerda alguien de la gripe aviar? Según la ONU, los muertos podían haber sido, como mínimo, entre 2 y 7,4 millones. La realidad, según el organismo, es que sólo algo más de un centenar murieron al principio, y lo que iba a ser una mancha de aceite que se extendería por todo el planeta ha quedado circunscrita a Indonesia, Bangladesh, China, Egipto y, en menor medida, Nigeria (aunque de vez en cuando se da algún caso aislado en otros puntos del planeta), según dijo David Nabarro, coordinador de Naciones Unidas para la Gripe Aviar, en junio de 2008. Eso sí, Roche y Glaxo Smith Kline (dos gigantes farmaceúticos) se hicieron de oro vendiendo unas medicinas (Relenza y Tamiflú) que ni siquiera se podía decir que fueron efectivas. Y la gripe aviar, como la enfermedad de las "vacas locas" o la amenaza del ánthrax se quedaron en nada. Ahora, vuelve el miedo y el negocio.

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Sun: Unexpected burst of activity on April 23rd

[The sun produced an unexpected burst of activity on April 23rd when an enormous prominence rose over the northeastern limb and erupted. A coronal mass ejection (CME) billowed away from the blast site, but the billion-ton cloud is not heading toward Earth.]