Amesj's Odditorium

[Bronco Bob]

Originally Posted by amesj523

it was a foon!

It was Foneco!

[alkemical]

[alkemical]

http://copycateffect.blogspot.com/20...ames-bond.html

Obama and Bond, James Bond


http://secretsun.blogspot.com/2009/0...ting-17th.html

Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Celebrating the 17th (UPDATES)
Don't you think the blue and gold chairs go well with the rug?

Today is February 17th and today Barack Obama will be in Denver signing the "Stimulus Package" into law. He's chosen a very strange venue to do so:

The bill-signing, an unusual event outside of Washington, will be Tuesday at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science in City Park... "This is like a dream," said George Sparks, director of the museum." - Denver Post

Funny, neither Sparks nor the Secret Service know why the museum was selected. Not to worry; while Obama is at the museum perhaps he'll make time to check out these exhibits:

[alkemical]

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/...ericas_top_spy

Bad News From America’s Top Spy

The specter of social unrest was raised at the U.S. Army War College in November in a monograph [click on Policypointers’ pdf link to see the report] titled “Known Unknowns: Unconventional ‘Strategic Shocks’ in Defense Strategy Development.” The military must be prepared, the document warned, for a “violent, strategic dislocation inside the United States,” which could be provoked by “unforeseen economic collapse,” “purposeful domestic resistance,” “pervasive public health emergencies” or “loss of functioning political and legal order.” The “widespread civil violence,” the document said, “would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities in extremis to defend basic domestic order and human security.”

“An American government and defense establishment lulled into complacency by a long-secure domestic order would be forced to rapidly divest some or most external security commitments in order to address rapidly expanding human insecurity at home,” it went on.

“Under the most extreme circumstances, this might include use of military force against hostile groups inside the United States. Further, DoD [the Department of Defense] would be, by necessity, an essential enabling hub for the continuity of political authority in a multi-state or nationwide civil conflict or disturbance,” the document read.

In plain English, something bureaucrats and the military seem incapable of employing, this translates into the imposition of martial law and a de facto government being run out of the Department of Defense. They are considering it. So should you.

[BroncsRule]

of course MI is concerned that we might riot.

Because.. We might riot.

[Bronco Bob]

Originally Posted by amesj523

http://copycateffect.blogspot.com/20...ames-bond.html

Obama and Bond, James Bond


http://secretsun.blogspot.com/2009/0...ting-17th.html

Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Celebrating the 17th (UPDATES)
Don't you think the blue and gold chairs go well with the rug?

Today is February 17th and today Barack Obama will be in Denver signing the "Stimulus Package" into law. He's chosen a very strange venue to do so:

The bill-signing, an unusual event outside of Washington, will be Tuesday at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science in City Park... "This is like a dream," said George Sparks, director of the museum." - Denver Post

Funny, neither Sparks nor the Secret Service know why the museum was selected. Not to worry; while Obama is at the museum perhaps he'll make time to check out these exhibits:

Cool. I love the Denver Museum. When I was a little kid and we would
visit a relative in Denver, one of the must see things to do while in Denver
for me was to visit the Denver Museum.

[alkemical]

First quarter of mirror is about done - i just need a cover.

[alkemical]

http://cryptogon.com/?p=7037
‘Absurd’ Conspiracy Theories Prevalent in Afghanistan

February 19th, 2009

Nato forces mistakenly supplied food, water and arms to Taliban forces in southern Afghanistan, officials today admitted.

Containers destined for local police forces were dropped from a helicopter into a Taliban-controlled area of Zabul province.

The coalition helicopter had intended to deliver pallets of supplies to a police checkpoint in Ghazni, a remote section of Zabul late last month.

By mistake they were dropped some distance from the checkpoint where it was taken by the Taliban, the Internal Security Affairs Commission of the Wolesi Jirga — the Afghan parliament’s lower house — was told.

Hamidullah Tukhi, a local politician from Zabul, told the parliamentary commission that the consignment had been taken by a local Taliban commander.

A Nato spokesman said the pallets were carrying rocket propelled grenades, ammunition, water and food.

—NATO Forces Supplied Food, Water and Arms to Taliban Forces in Southern Afghanistan

Via: Stars and Stripes:

To many in the Afghan capital, there’s an obvious explanation for the dramatic re-emergence of the Taliban — a force that seemed thoroughly dust-binned after the arrival of the world’s most powerful army seven years ago.

“Now,” as one 23-year-old Kabul shopkeeper, Qand Mohmadi, put it, “we think America is supporting both the Taliban and the Afghan government. That’s what everyone says.”

Indeed, the rumor of U.S. support for the Taliban is virtually ubiquitous in Kabul. And absurd as it might sound after a year in which American and other Western troops suffered record casualties in fighting with insurgents, many Kabul residents say they see at least a kernel of truth in the story.

“We don’t know for sure why they are doing it,” said Daoud Zadran, a middle-aged real estate broker. “Politics is bigger than our thoughts. But maybe America wants to build up the Taliban so they have an excuse to remain in Afghanistan because of the Iranian issue.”

Byzantine political conspiracy theories are nothing new in a region with little tradition of transparent government and where the arrival of international troops in 2001 was preceded by a long history of shadowy meddling by Western powers.

Still, the emergence of the rumor in what is easily Afghanistan’s most prosperous and best-educated city reflects a growing sense that the country is again sliding into chaos.


"....Many blamed corruption, with some seeing the U.S. or at least western companies in league with pilfering Afghan officials.

“This government is so corrupt that if Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar were crossing the street together right outside, no one would call the police because they know the police would just take a bribe to let them go,” Rahman said.

But there’s also another theory about bin Laden.

“A lot of people say that Osama is really from America,” said Nasrallah Wazidi, shrugging noncommittally. “They say he’s just playing a role like a movie star...."

[alkemical]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/today/tom..._this_wha.html

Do cells think...and is this what it sounds like?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today...00/7679354.stm

[gyldenlove]

Originally Posted by amesj523

http://cryptogon.com/?p=7037
‘Absurd’ Conspiracy Theories Prevalent in Afghanistan

February 19th, 2009

Nato forces mistakenly supplied food, water and arms to Taliban forces in southern Afghanistan, officials today admitted.

Containers destined for local police forces were dropped from a helicopter into a Taliban-controlled area of Zabul province.

The coalition helicopter had intended to deliver pallets of supplies to a police checkpoint in Ghazni, a remote section of Zabul late last month.

By mistake they were dropped some distance from the checkpoint where it was taken by the Taliban, the Internal Security Affairs Commission of the Wolesi Jirga — the Afghan parliament’s lower house — was told.

Hamidullah Tukhi, a local politician from Zabul, told the parliamentary commission that the consignment had been taken by a local Taliban commander.

A Nato spokesman said the pallets were carrying rocket propelled grenades, ammunition, water and food.

—NATO Forces Supplied Food, Water and Arms to Taliban Forces in Southern Afghanistan

Via: Stars and Stripes:

To many in the Afghan capital, there’s an obvious explanation for the dramatic re-emergence of the Taliban — a force that seemed thoroughly dust-binned after the arrival of the world’s most powerful army seven years ago.

“Now,” as one 23-year-old Kabul shopkeeper, Qand Mohmadi, put it, “we think America is supporting both the Taliban and the Afghan government. That’s what everyone says.”

Indeed, the rumor of U.S. support for the Taliban is virtually ubiquitous in Kabul. And absurd as it might sound after a year in which American and other Western troops suffered record casualties in fighting with insurgents, many Kabul residents say they see at least a kernel of truth in the story.

“We don’t know for sure why they are doing it,” said Daoud Zadran, a middle-aged real estate broker. “Politics is bigger than our thoughts. But maybe America wants to build up the Taliban so they have an excuse to remain in Afghanistan because of the Iranian issue.”

Byzantine political conspiracy theories are nothing new in a region with little tradition of transparent government and where the arrival of international troops in 2001 was preceded by a long history of shadowy meddling by Western powers.

Still, the emergence of the rumor in what is easily Afghanistan’s most prosperous and best-educated city reflects a growing sense that the country is again sliding into chaos.


"....Many blamed corruption, with some seeing the U.S. or at least western companies in league with pilfering Afghan officials.

“This government is so corrupt that if Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar were crossing the street together right outside, no one would call the police because they know the police would just take a bribe to let them go,” Rahman said.

But there’s also another theory about bin Laden.

“A lot of people say that Osama is really from America,” said Nasrallah Wazidi, shrugging noncommittally. “They say he’s just playing a role like a movie star...."

Most of the countries involved in Afghanistan have had talks with Taliban leaders over the last 6 months to try to work with them to resume control of parts of Afghanistan.

What is really needed in Afghanistan is a major hearts and mind campaign, they need to win over the regular citizens who have no particular side. It should be so that every time a militant is seen he will be reported to the NATO forces, everybody should want to turn over the weapons that are hidden to the NATO forces. The NATO forces have to make themselves the good guys.

[alkemical]

http://pof.aip.org/pof/gallery/2007-Zoueshtiagh.jsp

his video shows the movement of a deionized water drop provoked by surface acoustic waves. The waves are generated by means of an interdigited transducer laid on a piezoelectric substrate. Surface waves are launched when an alternating voltage at the resonance frequency of the transducers is applied. The waves propagating on the substrate surface reach the liquid/substrate interface and radiate a longitudinal wave into the liquid droplet. The latter causes a streaming movement within the drop. When SAW driving force reaches a certain critical value (depending on several parameters, such as the drop’s size and shape or the power input at the transducer), the force generated by the streaming enables the displacement of the drop in the direction of wave propagation.

[alkemical]

A GUIDE TO CODED SECURITY MESSAGES
Hospitals, airports and other public places use coded messages in public address annoucements to inform personnel or security of a possible emergency, without causing panic to the general public. If you ever hear one of the following messages over the intercom, it might be time to run like hell.

[alkemical]

Picture of 100ft-long 'snake' sparks fears of mythical monster in Borneo

According to legend, the Nabau was a terrifying snake more than 100ft in length and with a dragon's head and seven nostrils.

But now local villagers living along the Baleh river in Borneo believe the mythical creature has returned after this photo of a gigantic snake swimming along the remote waterways has emerged.

The picture, taken by a member of a disaster team monitoring flood regions by helicopter, has sparked a huge debate about whether the photos are genuine or merely the work of photo-editing software.



Even the respected New Straits Times newspaper in Kuala Lumpur has asked readers to make up their own minds about the photos.

Villagers who claim to have seen the snake say they have given it the name of Nabau, after an ancient sea serpent which can transform itself into the shapes of different animals.

People who have studied the photograph of the shape taken from the air have dismissed suggestions that it's a log.

As one writer asked: 'A log can't be that winding, can it?' Others have suggested it's a speedboat, but this has been dismissed because of the twisting wake.

The most common accusation is that the photo has simply been manipulated on a computer, while others complain that the river is a different colour to the real Baleh rover which is a murky brown.



Mythical: A second frame appears to show something snake-like in the water off a remote village

But villagers who insist the snake exists say that photos of the creature being taken in different parts of the river prove it is swimming about.

Earlier this month scientists unearthed the fossil of a killer snake that was longer than a bus, as heavy as a small car and which could swallow an animal the size of a cow.

The 45ft long monster - named Titanoboa - was so big that it lived on a diet of crocodiles and giant turtles, squeezing them to death and devouring them whole.

Weighing an impressive 1.25 tons, it slithered around the tropical forests of South America 60million years ago, just five million years after the last dinosaurs were wiped out.

Partial skeletons of the boa constrictor-like prehistoric killer were found in a Colombian coal mine by an international team of fossil hunters.

[alkemical]

(I was there, on the other side of the tent for the lightning and rain, etc)

[alkemical]

[TheReverend]

WTF is starscape?

[alkemical]

a big ass rave.

http://www.starscapefestival.com/index2.html

[alkemical]

http://aftermathnews.wordpress.com/2...ecurity-chief/

Personal data of innocent citizens must be made available to the Government to combat terrorism, according to an influential former security chief.

Sir David Omand, Whitehall’s former and security and intelligence coordinator, called for unprecedented Big Brother powers to allow access to private details - including phone records, emails and travel information - to be given to the intelligence services.

Setting out a hugely controversial blueprint for the future of national security he said ‘moral rules’ about individual privacy would have to be broken.

[gyldenlove]

Originally Posted by amesj523

http://aftermathnews.wordpress.com/2...ecurity-chief/

Personal data of innocent citizens must be made available to the Government to combat terrorism, according to an influential former security chief.

Sir David Omand, Whitehall’s former and security and intelligence coordinator, called for unprecedented Big Brother powers to allow access to private details - including phone records, emails and travel information - to be given to the intelligence services.

Setting out a hugely controversial blueprint for the future of national security he said ‘moral rules’ about individual privacy would have to be broken.

We all knew this is what they wanted to do. They would prefer everyone to have a GPS device and microphone implanted so they don't have to do their job at all.

Intelligence services just need to shut their cake holes, go to work and realize that they already have a LOT easier than most other people.

[alkemical]

Granted, that article was originally from the UK, but i feel it's just a matter of time before it's here....

I do agree with you though.

[alkemical]

Our Worst Enemies Aren't Terrorists: Rethinking National Security on a Sinking Planet

By Chip Ward, Tomdispatch.com. Posted March 3, 2009.

The chances of being affected by a terrorist attack are slim, but disruptions to our far-flung supply lines for food, water and energy are a reality.

http://www.alternet.org/environment/...t/?page=entire

[alkemical]

http://cryptogon.com/?p=7301

See: The Miracle of Vitamin D.

Via: Deseret News:

While the nation is in the midst of a financial crisis, another crisis is looming large — a health crisis caused by vitamin D deficiency.

That message was delivered to about 55 medical researchers, nutritionists and public health officials who gathered at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building on Friday to hear from Dr. Carol Wagner, a medical researcher from the Medical University of South Carolina.

Wagner presented the preliminary findings from her current study which focuses on the role of vitamin D during pregnancy and early infant development. Even in the preliminary stages, the results of Wagner’s study show profound, far-reaching implications for pregnant women, infants and the entire population as a whole.

“It’s quite likely that chronic nutritional vitamin D deficiency puts all of us at risk for developing debilitating, long-latency, chronic diseases,” Wagner said. “Diseases such as insulin-resistance, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer and autoimmune diseases.”

[alkemical]

Laid-Off Professionals Turn to ‘Survival Jobs’
March 2nd, 2009

This reads like Cryptogon circa 2004-2005.

During the final days at the last corporate job that I would ever have, I tried to tell those guys that I worked with…

“Don’t blindly sell yourself to another criminal organization. They’ll just screw you again and again. Play the next one to win. Get out of debt. Slash your cost of living. You might as well think of this as a life or death struggle, because that’s what it is.”

They thought I was nuts.

Via: Seattle Times:

Mark Cooper started his workday recently cleaning the door handles of an office building with a rag, vigorously shaking out a rug at a back entrance and pushing a dust mop down a long hallway.

Nine months ago he lost his job as the security manager for the Western United States for a Fortune 500 company, overseeing a budget of $1.2 million and earning about $70,000 a year. Now he is grateful for the $12 an hour he makes in what is known in unemployment circles as a “survival job” at a friend’s janitorial-services company. But that does not make the work any easier.

“You’re fighting despair, discouragement, depression every day,” he said.

Cooper is not counted in traditional unemployment statistics since he works five days a week, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. But his tumble down the economic ladder is among the more disquieting and often hidden aspects of the downturn.

It is not clear how many professionals such as Cooper have taken on these types of lower-paying jobs, which are themselves in short supply. Many professionals are doing their best to hold out as long as possible on unemployment benefits and savings while looking for work in their fields.

http://cryptogon.com/?p=7266

[alkemical]

http://cryptogon.com/?p=7298

Italy: Gypsy Vaccination Scheme Starts
March 3rd, 2009

Via: Financial Times:

Italy’s Red Cross has launched its biggest vaccination programme since the second world war, with the goal of immunising several thousand gypsy children living in camps around Rome.

The operation began at Casilino 900, a camp on the eastern outskirts of the capital that is believed to be one of the largest gypsy settlements in Europe. Some two dozen doctors were among 200 Red Cross volunteers that included clowns to provide entertainment in one of the big tents erected for the exercise.

[alkemical]

http://cryptogon.com/?p=7296

Scientists Make HIV Strain That Can Infect Monkeys
March 3rd, 2009

My commentary consists of two links:

1. The AIDS conspiracy (If this is new to you, prepare to lose many hours.)

and

2. Dr. Mary’s Monkey by Edward T. Haslam

Via: Reuters:

Scientists have created a strain of the human AIDS virus able to infect and multiply in monkeys in a step toward testing future vaccines in monkeys before trying them in people, according to a new study.

This strain of HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus, was developed by altering a single gene in the human version to allow it to infect a type of monkey called a pig-tailed macaque, the researchers said on Monday.

The genetically engineered virus, once injected into this monkey, proliferates almost as much as it does in people, but the animal ultimately suppresses it and the virus does not make it sick, they said.

The strain is called simian-tropic HIV-1, or stHIV-1.

Researchers hope to be able to test possible new AIDS drugs and vaccines in monkeys before trying them in people.

There is a “cousin” virus to HIV called SIV, or simian immunodeficiency virus, that causes a disease similar to AIDS in certain types of monkeys.

But this monkey AIDS virus is not identical to the one that infects people and is not a perfect substitute for testing drugs and vaccines against HIV.

“If our research is taken further, we hope that one day perhaps in the not-too-distant future, we’ll be able to make vaccines that are intended for use in humans and the very same product will be able to be tested in animals before human trials,” Paul Bieniasz of the Rockefeller University in New York, one of the researchers, said in a telephone interview.

Scientists have struggled to create an AIDS vaccine.

“If you make a drug that’s effective against HIV, sometimes it works against SIV and sometimes it doesn’t. So that basically devalues SIV as an animal model for doing experiments involved with developing drugs,” Bieniasz said.

“Now if you want to develop a vaccine, essentially what you have to do is to make a parallel vaccine for HIV and for SIV. You can test the SIV vaccine in animals and then have to make the leap of faith that the same approach would work equivalently in humans.”

Writing in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the scientists said in making the genetically engineered virus they removed the HIV version of a gene, known as vif, and inserted the SIV version. This gene acts to thwart proteins made by the monkey that that kill viruses.

Bieniasz said the scientists may need to make additional changes in the stHIV-1 to make it better for testing vaccines.

The genetically engineered virus infects the monkeys and during the early course of infection is a reasonably good mimic of what happens in HIV-infected people, Bieniasz said.

But after initially spreading in the monkey’s body, the animal succeeds in suppressing the virus — not completely clearing the virus but driving it to very low levels.

“The slight problem is the monkeys don’t go on to develop AIDS, they don’t get sick,” Bieniasz said.