Cognitive Dissidents

Almost like a theme park for Noah's Ark Enthusiasts - the Dutch Version has finally opened to the public

The ark, in the town of Schagen, is 150 cubits long - half the length of Noah's - and three storeys high. A cubit was about 45cm (18in) long.

The ark opened its doors on Saturday, after almost two years' construction, most of it by Mr Huiber himself.

"The design is by my wife, Bianca," Mr Huibers said. "She didn't really want me to do this at all, but she said if you're going to anyway, it should look like this."

Life-size models of giraffes, elephants, lions, crocodiles, zebras and bison are included in the ark's interior.

The Bible's Book of Genesis says Noah kept seven pairs of most tamed animals and one breeding pair of all other creatures in the boat, which survived a catastrophic flood sent down by God to punish man.

Mr Huibers spent nearly two years building the ark

Mr Huibers, a contractor, built the ark out of cedar and pine - because Biblical scholars are still not sure as to which type of wood was used in the ark's construction.

He began building in May 2005, after he dreamed of the Netherlands being flooded.

Tags: museums, themeparks, biblical, noahs ark, old testament, schagen

Posted by Dr. K at 11:25 AM | Permalink

Just to prove that recycling can be useful: the Archimedes Palimpsest has traces of works by Archimedes, Hyperides and Aristotle.

The prayer book was written in the 13th Century by a scribe called John Myronas.

But instead of using fresh parchment for his work, he employed pages from five existing books.

Dr Noel, curator of manuscripts at the US-based Walters Art Museum and a co-author of a forthcoming book on the Archimedes Palimpsest, said: "It's a rather brutal process, but it means you can reuse parchment if you are short of it.

"You take books off shelves, you scrub off the text, you cut them up and you make a new book."

In 1906 it came to light that one of the books recycled to form the medieval manuscript contained a unique work by Archimedes.

And in 2002, modern imaging technology not only provided a clearer view of this famous mathematician's words, but it also revealed another text - the only known manuscript of Hyperides, an Athenian politician from the 4th Century BC.

But now advanced imaging technology has revealed a third text - a commentary on the philosopher Aristotle.

The "Lost Library of Alexandria" might have been right under our noses alll the time - in the form of recycled parchment - and all we needed was modern technology to read it.

Tags: palimpsest, archimedes palimpsest, lost knowledge, alexandria, techno-archaelology, fortean

Posted by Dr. K at 12:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

I've already wondered why the connectivity of the Internet has not been used to solved the Zodiac Ciphers - and then I found that Amateur sleuths keep cold cases alive

There are 100,000 missing people in the United States alone and at least 6,000 unidentified bodies. With the authorities struggling to solve so many cases, thousands of volunteers are using the internet to try to match the missing with the unidentified.

Often people involved in using the Internet to help resolve crimes are called amateur sleuths. I think the amateur effort is becoming an actual science. Those of us who seek the technology of the Internet, but not only the Internet, to find resolve in cold cases have found a niche that truly deserves a name.

It sounds like a powerful tool - but it needs checks and balances - suppose a group of "cybersleuths" pointed the finger at you and you were innocent?

Right now I like the idea - but the possible negative effects on the innocent could be life shattering

It sounds like a 21st Century version of Hue and Cry

By the statute of Winchester, 13 Edw. I cc. 1 and 4, (1285) it was provided that anyone, either a constable or a private citizen, who witnessed a felony shall make hue and cry, and that the hue and cry must be kept up against the fleeing felon from town to town and from county to county, until the felon is apprehended and delivered to the sheriff.

All able bodied men, upon hearing the shouts, were obliged to assist in the pursuit of the criminal, which makes it comparable to the posse comitatus. It was moreover provided that a hundred that failed to give pursuit on the hue and cry would become liable in case of any theft or robbery.

Those who raised a hue and cry falsely were themselves guilty of a felony.

Tags: hue and cry, posse comitatus, cold case, unsolved mysteries, unsolved murders, missing persons, techcriminology, todd matthews

Posted by Dr. K at 12:36 PM | Permalink

Funny how things go - the same day that I was mixing Jean Michell Jarre's "Oxygene" with Tangerine Dream's "Atem" this timely article about the early pioneers of electronic music appeared in the Guardian: Kings of The Cosmos

Everything you know about electronic pop is wrong. Years before Gary Numan and his electric friends, before the chart-popping porno-disco of 'I Feel Love by sexbot diva Donna Summer and pulsating producer Giorgio Moroder, before even Kraftwerk's serene electra-glide down the Autobahn, the trailblazers of synthesisers in pop were a bunch of long-haired hippies and slumming classical composers. Pioneered by Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze and Walter Carlos, then popularised by Tomita, Jean Michel Jarre, and Vangelis, this genre - space music, some call it, or analog-synth epics - has been almost completely written out of the history of electronica.

Tags: electronic music, tangerine dream, walter carlos, space music, synthesisers, the future is history

Posted by Dr. K at 9:01 PM | Permalink

As anyone who reads this blog will know - I am not a fan of mobile phones - so this product gets the official "Dr.K. Seal of Approval" ...

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Tags: mobile phones, accesories, hands free, lo-tech

Posted by Dr. K at 9:34 AM | Permalink

No - really - its a new theory that pushes back the date for the earliest colonisation of Easter Island and its the latest attempt to solve The Mystery of Easter Island

Hunt sent the samples from the dig to a lab for radiocarbon dating, expecting to receive a date around 800 A.D., in keeping with what other archaeologists had found. Instead, the samples dated to 1200 A.D. This would mean the Rapanui arrived four centuries later than expected. The deforestation would have happened much faster than originally assumed, and the human impact on the environment was fast and immediate.

Hunt suspected that humans alone could not destroy the forests this quickly. In the sand's layers, he found a potential culprit—a plethora of rat bones. Scientists have long known that when humans colonized the island, so too did the Polynesian rat, having hitched a ride either as stowaways or sources of food. However they got to Easter Island, the rodents found an unlimited food supply in the lush palm trees, believes Hunt, who bases this assertion on an abundance of rat-gnawed palm seeds.

Under these conditions, he says, "Rats would reach a population of a few million within a couple of years." From there, time would take its toll. "Rats would have an initial impact, eating all of the seeds. With no new regeneration, as the trees die, deforestation can proceed slowly," he says, adding that people cutting down trees and burning them would have only added to the process. Eventually, the degeneration of trees, according to his theory, led to the downfall of the rats and eventually of the humans. The demise of the island, says Hunt, "was a synergy of impacts. But I think it is more rat than we think."

Tags: easter island, rapa nui, ecocide, early settlement, jared diamond

Posted by Dr. K at 11:19 AM | Permalink

Remember that version of Stonehenge made of old fridges - well it doesn't seem it will last as long ..

Stonefridge, also known as Fridgehenge, is an 18-foot-tall, 100-foot-diameter replica of the rock-ringed relics at Stonehenge. Instead of hulking, oblong sandstone blocks, the monument in Santa Fe was constructed of more than 100 discarded refrigerators of varied age, color and size.

And while its British counterpart is aligned with the sunrise that marks the summer solstice, Stonefridge is aligned with Los Alamos National Laboratory, birthplace of the atomic bomb. Horowitz said that's a nod to some of the most deadly technology man has dreamed up.

No one intended for Stonefridge to become a cultish phenomenon. Neither the artist nor the Santa Fe city officials who reluctantly permitted its construction thought it would stand for nearly 10 years. They didn't expect it to become a hot tourism destination or appear on television and in print across the globe.

But it did, and it has.

So when strong winds knocked down much of the structure last week, artist Adam Horowitz was devastated. Now Horowitz is bracing against a brewing political storm that could permanently remove the trash that he transformed into what he calls "a megalithic, post-apocalyptic monument to consumerism and waste."

Tags: stonehenge, fridgehenge, modern art, nuclear power

Posted by Dr. K at 4:58 PM | Permalink

The Marie Celeste lives - as a new 'Ghost yacht' found floating off Great Barrier Reef

Rescuers in Australia are trying to solve the mystery of a yacht found drifting in calm waters off the Great Barrier Reef with food on the table, computers and engine running, but no sign of the three-man crew.

The 12-metre catamaran Kaz II was first spotted drifting off north Queensland on Wednesday by an aircraft on coastguard duty. A rescue helicopter was sent to the scene and circled overhead several times, with the pilot radioing back that there was no one aboard.

"It looked like the boat had been recently abandoned. The engine was still running in neutral [but] one of the sails had been damaged," he said.

"There was a laptop computer on board and running with power, the computers on board were running, all of their clothing was still there.

"The table was actually set for a meal with food and cutlery in place. The radio was working, the GPS was working and things below deck were normal except for the absence of crew."

Tags: fortean, marie celeste, ghost ship, unexplained mysteries

Posted by Dr. K at 9:02 AM | Permalink

Just a little cartoon from Cox & Forkum that sums up my attitude quite nicely...

Tags: iran, nuclear threat, iranian nuclear ambitions, cold war

Posted by Dr. K at 2:29 PM | Permalink

Forget about "to boldly go where no man has gone before" - it looks like future space exploration is going to be a lot different - as now we find out that 'Smart dust (is) to explore planets

Smart dust could be packed into the nose cones of planetary probes and then released into the atmospheres of planets, where they would be carried on the wind. For a planet like Mars, smart dust particles would each have to be the size of a grain of sand.

By applying a voltage to alter the shape of the polymer sheath surrounding the chip, dust particle could be steered towards a target, even in high winds.

The polymer sheath surrounding the computer chip could be made to wrinkle or flatten out.

Wrinkling the plastic sheath would increase the drag on the particle, lifting it higher on the wind. Flattening out the sheath would cause the particle to plummet.

Wireless networking would allow these particles to form swarms, and Dr Barker's team has carried out mathematical simulations to see how this would work.

"We envisage that most of the particles can only talk to their nearest neighbours but a few can communicate at much longer distances.

"In our simulations, we have shown that a swarm of 50 dust particles can organise themselves into a star formation, even in turbulent wind."

The ability to fly in formation would allow the processing of data to be spread, or "distributed" between all the chips, and a collective signal to be beamed back to a "mothership".

Tags: space science, space exploration, panspermia, swarms, ai, dystopian nightmare beyond our wildest dreams

Posted by Dr. K at 11:53 AM | Permalink

Am I surprised that government officials don't have the time to root out real terrorists and would prefer a blanket ban when we are fighting the New Cold War?

Have a guess?

A little known Treasury Department terror watch list is causing trouble for people trying to buy homes and cars. CBS 5 Investigates first uncovered the problems last year. Now, a report released Tuesday by civil rights lawyers provides new evidence showing the problem is becoming more widespread.

The 250-page list, posted publicly on a Treasury Department Web site, is being used by credit bureaus, health insurers and car dealerships, as well as employers and landlords, according to the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area.

The list includes some of the world's most common names, such as Gonzalez, Lopez, Ali, Hussein, Abdul, Lucas and Gibson, and companies are often unsure how to root out mismatches. Some turn consumers away rather than risk penalties of up to $10 million and 30 years in prison for doing business with someone on the list, the group said.

"We have found that an increasing number of everyday consumers are being flagged as potential terrorists by private businesses merely because they have a name that's similar to someone on this government watch list," said the report's author, Shirin Sinnar, an attorney with the Asian Law Caucus.

When everyone is perpetually watched to see if they are a potential security threat then everyone is a potential security threat

Tags: blacklists, watchlists, software engineering, false positives, false negatives, not fit for use

Posted by Dr. K at 10:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Over at Eject! Eject! Eject! an article about the notion of "Sanctuary" stirs up yet more cognitive dissonance by asking tough questions about the silence of the left

I am trying my level best to understand how and why someone who professes to be for freedom for artists, homosexuals and women – not to mention unlimited personal expression of every stripe -- can take the side of 8th Century religious fanatics who brag about murdering writers, stoning women, beheading homosexuals and instituting moral policemen at every street corner with unquestioned authority to beat, jail or execute anyone suspected of being insufficiently pious.

I used to wonder why civilizations fell. No longer. I see it now before my eyes, every day. Civilizations do not fall because the Barbarians storm the walls. The forces of civilization are far too powerful, and those of barbarism far too weak, for that to happen.

Civilizations fall because the people inside the Sanctuary throw open the gates.

Tags: sanctuary, islam, iraq

Posted by Dr. K at 9:30 PM | Permalink

Having a day of posting Fortean material has just reminded me of a piece I read recently about Critical Thinking

My evening with Joe was very illuminative. After the moon hoax came the following, depending on your point of view:

Alien blobs surrounding the Space Shuttle OR a negative image videotape of a blurry object at the bottom of an aquarium.

UFO squadrons flying in close formation OR distant geese at the limit of a digital zoom slowed to 5 frames per second.

A giant, manned American space station in orbit around Mars OR a still frame from NASA’s 1976 Viking animation.

Otherworldly “rods” darting invisibly through the skies of our planet OR individual frames of a large insect leaving a blurry video trail as it whizzes past the lens.

Every time I would identify one of these great mysteries, Joe had the same response: okay, but what about this! No fight, no defense – nothing. And then we’d be on to some new blur or smudge that proved, incontrovertibly, that this “reality” we live in is a giant lie, and that we are all victims of Dark Forces moving beyond our control or even our awareness… and that while the sleepwalking sheeple go on with their corporate-controlled lives, the mysterious wheels of the Shadow Government turn inexorably onward, crushing those brave few individuals who are on to the whole horrid plot like so many ants.

There is a word for this diseased mental state. It begins with a “P” and if you blurted out “progressive” then shame on you, you horrible bigot. That may be a correlation without causality.

As I was leaving Joe’s, he said something I’m sure he thought was very funny. He said, “Man, I’ll bet a guy like you thinks Lee Harvey Oswald really shot JFK.”

Tags: skepticism, logic, debunking, conspiracy theory

Posted by Dr. K at 1:02 PM | Permalink

A good day for Forteana really - as Malaysia terminates 'un-Islamic' vampire exhibition - apparently they couldn't even agree if some of the items were "fake" or not.

What - not even the vampire carcass and the phoenix? Faked - surely not!?

A Malaysian state has closed down an exhibition on ghosts, ghouls and supernatural beings after Islamic clerics declared it detrimental to Muslims' faith.

The exhibition at the state museum capitalises on widespread fascination in Malaysia with other-worldly creatures from local mythology. Artefacts on display reportedly included alleged carcasses of vampires and a phoenix.

Abdul Shukor Husin, chairman of the fatwa council which advises the government on Islamic regulations, was quoted as saying: "We don't want to promote a belief in tahyul [supernatural] and khurafat [superstition] which we do not know about. We do not need to focus on such things or play them up by having such exhibitions." Some 60 per cent of the 26 million population are Muslims.

Last year, a three-month exhibition on "Mysteries, Genies, Ghosts and Coffins" drew tens of thousands of visitors to view, among other objects, a preserved mermaid, the shrivelled skeletal remains of a half-woman, half-snake, and a goblin in a bottle. Critics were divided between those who accused it of being un-Islamic and others who suggested the items could be fakes.

Tags: carny, fakes, fraud, gullibility, islam, un-islamic, vampires, genies, mermaids

Posted by Dr. K at 12:40 PM | Permalink

This chimp is older than me - Happy Birthday Cheeta

Cheeta the chimpanzee, the animal star of 12 Tarzan films in the Thirties and Forties, celebrated his 75th birthday yesterday.

He has outlived both his human Tarzan costars. Johnny Weissmuller, who played the lead, died in 1984 aged 79, and Maureen O'Sullivan, who was Jane, died in 1998 at 87.

He denied all rumours about his relationship with Maureen O'Sullivan but referred to that fact that "Johnny Weissmuller was always jealous of me" commenting that "It wasn't just that i was hairier than him, nor that I had better muscles - it was the fact that I could act him off the set any day of the week".

Tags: happy birthday cheeta, 75 year old chimp, tarzan, old hollywood star

Posted by Dr. K at 12:13 PM | Permalink

Yet again proving that governments are using "data mining" techniques that will not stop terror on public websites - we have this story:I only wanted to make fairy lights, says eBay man in terror raid

A man who bought items on eBay to make fairylights and fireworks for a family celebration had his home raided by police because they thought he was making a bomb.

Neil Harris used the online auction site to buy a rucksack, electronic relay board and saltpetre, which has explosive properties.

Let's look at some numbers. We'll be optimistic -- we'll assume the system has a one in 100 false-positive rate (99 percent accurate), and a one in 1,000 false-negative rate (99.9 percent accurate). Assume 1 trillion possible indicators to sift through: that's about 10 events -- e-mails, phone calls, purchases, web destinations, whatever -- per person in the United States per day. Also assume that 10 of them are actually terrorists plotting.

This unrealistically accurate system will generate 1 billion false alarms for every real terrorist plot it uncovers. Every day of every year, the police will have to investigate 27 million potential plots in order to find the one real terrorist plot per month. Raise that false-positive accuracy to an absurd 99.9999 percent and you're still chasing 2,750 false alarms per day -- but that will inevitably raise your false negatives, and you're going to miss some of those 10 real plots.

Right - way to go - in this wonderful "Age of the Web" - can't something a little better be done?

Is it really, really necessary to watch everyone all of the time in order to foil a "tiny minority of extremists" of the "religion of peace"?

Or is there something else being played out behind the scenes by the powers that be - who really just want more power and control?

When everyone is perpetually watched to see if they are a potential security threat then everyone is a potential security threat

Welcome to the New Cold War - where you are the suspect - forever.

Tags: data-mining, propaganda, disinformation, big brother, george orwell, eric blair, 1984, newspeak, war on terror, ebay, daliymail

Posted by Dr. K at 11:04 AM | Permalink

Properly Fortean tale - i.e. You Couldn't Make it Up - as the BBC reports about a Sudanese man has been forced to marry a goat.

A Sudanese man has been forced to take a goat as his "wife", after he was caught having sex with the animal.

The goat's owner, Mr Alifi, said he surprised the man with his goat and took him to a council of elders.

They ordered the man, Mr Tombe, to pay a dowry of 15,000 Sudanese dinars ($50) to Mr Alifi.

"We have given him the goat, and as far as we know they are still together," Mr Alifi said.

Mr Alifi, of Hai Malakal in Upper Nile State, told the Juba Post newspaper that he heard a loud noise around midnight on 13 February and immediately rushed outside to find Mr Tombe with his goat.

"When I asked him: 'What are you doing there?', he fell off the back of the goat, so I captured and tied him up."

Mr Alifi then called elders to decide how to deal with the case.

"They said I should not take him to the police, but rather let him pay a dowry for my goat because he used it as his wife," Mr Alifi told the newspaper.

Tags: fortean tale, goats, bestiality, marriage, strange customs

Posted by Dr. K at 9:40 AM | Permalink

Kurt Vonnegut - one of my favourite authors - has died.

I'll never forget watching the film Between Time and Timbuktu when I was about 14 or so.

It was part of a late, late night BBC2 series of science fiction films - but because I was "home alone" and trusted - I used to stay up late watching all the films that I should would never normally have seen ..

The next day I couldn't remember the name of the film - but I remembered one thing - the name of "Vonnegut".

A quick trip to the library later - and knowing how to use the library catalogue index and all - I had a pile of his books in my hand.

It took me years to find out the name of the film I had watched that night, it wasn't until they published a "book of stills" from the movie (which - regretfully - I lent out and no longer own) - that I found out the name of the movie which has set me on this journey.

But by then I had learnt the word of Vonnegut - Ice Nine - Tent Rentals on Mars - Schlachthof Fünf - and most of all - my favourite science fiction writer of all time - Kilgour Trout.

I am a fan of Kilgour Trout to this day - because he was the first Sci-Fi author who taught me not to take things too seriously - (as a young 14 yr old SciFi fan might do on occasion) - and he made me laugh.

Kurt Vonnegut - 1922 - 2007 - "So It Goes"

I hope they put it on his tombstone ....

Tags: eulogy, kurt vonnegut, kilgour trout, ice-nine, stony stephenson, tent rentals, timbuktu, modern authors, literature, schlachthof fünf

Posted by Dr. K at 9:33 AM | Permalink

No - really - Browne decision was not a good idea

Mr Blair was asked if he was involved in the initial decision, and replied: "I didn't actually know about the decision until after it was taken. But really that is not the point".

Is Mr. Blair (no "K" yet - give it time .. or maybe not) really saying that he had no knowledge of what was going on ... when he was president prime-minister of the UK??

But of course "really that is not the point" ..

Is the defence secretary "Des Browne" just falling on his sword taking the blame being a scapegoat really responsible for the propaganda debacle triumph of Mr. Blair??

Like who runs the country anyway???

An election might be a good idea if the useless w*nkers opposition might actually get themselves together and actually oppose this useless bunch of appeasement monkeys ..

Otherwise I have to comment that the weather in Spain is quite nice this time of year - and at least you really don't have to understand what the politicians are saying here either - its just the same lies in a different language ...

Tags: nulabour, blair, iran, appeasement, useless government

Posted by Dr. K at 7:13 PM | Permalink

As if the New Cold War wasn't enough - now we have the "new" New Cold War - as Russia flexes its muscles in the wake of the apparent perceived weaknesses of the the western bloc: Russia threatening new cold war

The threat of a new arms race comes at a time when relations between Russia and the US are at their worst for a decade. In February Mr Putin accused the Bush administration during a speech in Munich of seeking a "world of one master, one sovereign". On Friday Russia's duma, or lower house or parliament, warned that the US's plans could ignite a second cold war. "Such decisions, which are useless in terms of preventing potential or imaginary threats from countries of the middle and far-east, are already bringing about a new split in Europe and unleashing another arms race," the declaration - passed unanimously by Russian MPs - said.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has openly called for Israel to be wiped off the map.

Ahmadinejad addressed students at a conference

"The establishment of the Zionist regime was a move by the world oppressor against the Islamic world," the president told a conference in Tehran on Wednesday, entitled The World without Zionism.

"The skirmishes in the occupied land are part of a war of destiny. The outcome of hundreds of years of war will be defined in Palestinian land," he said.

"As the Imam said, Israel must be wiped off the map," said Ahmadinejad, referring to Iran's revolutionary leader Ayat Allah Khomeini.

Russian delegations are in Tehran to discuss both financial and technical issues regarding the Bushehr nuclear power plant.

State news agency RIA Novosti reports negotiations are planned to last until April 13.

Atomstroyexport, the Russian nuclear firm building the $1 billion plant, stopped work last month because Tehran had fallen behind on its monthly payments.

Iran says the stoppage was because of international pressure over Iran's nuclear program. Iran's uranium enrichment projects, not the Bushehr plant, are coming under global criticism for having weapons aims, which Tehran denies.

Is the "New New Cold War" going to play out like the "Old Cold War" - but with 4 "blocs" instead of three?

Or are some people being used as puppets and war proxies by their masters?

Who is running the "New Cold War" - and is it the same as the "Old Cold War" - or is it just the "Old Cold War" revamped and reheated with the same players as before?

Tags: russian, iran, cold war, nuclear threat, propaganda

Posted by Dr. K at 1:00 PM | Permalink

Not that this has anything to do with the Iranian nuclear ambitions or anything like that - but it appears that Uranium Skyrockets to $113/lb on Supply Shortfall

Today sources confirmed the spot uranium price has jumped from $95 to $113 per pound. This 19% jump is the largest price increase on record, surpassing the previous record of 7% set in October 2006 after Cameco’s Cigar Lake flooded.

Eric Webb, VP of Information and Technology for Ux Consulting Company, previously told Resource Investor that the price jump in October was the largest weekly gain seen on record. Although UxC has not yet updated its pricing info, analysts at the inaugural Uranium Stock Summit confirmed the $18 price jump and told listeners there is more of this to come.

Uranium at “$200/lb is not unrealistic,” said Doug Casey, chairman of Casey Research, presenter of the Summit. The price has risen about 15-fold since 2001.

On Friday, April 6, Mestena Uranium LLC, a uranium producer based in Corpus Christi, Texas, offered 100,000 pounds of yellowcake in an auction, catapulting the price of uranium. Privately held Mestena, which has a mine in Texas, produces about 1 million pounds a year.

“Uranium is going higher, stocks are going higher,” said Casey. “You have plenty of time – all the money has not been made.”

If all the money has not yet been made - it means that either (a) demand has not yet outstripped supply and that the market must be growing or that (b) fixed supply is causing a scarcity of the product.

Who are the new buyers?

Russia’s Atomstroiexport is the general contractor for Iran’s Bushehr nuclear facility, which will run on uranium supplied by Russia. Mohammad Saedi, deputy head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization, said today that the Bushehr nuclear power plant will be commissioned by March 2008.

Its like planting a tree and watching it grow for 20 years while spending all your time weaving a thick rope ...

Tags: iran, nuclear fuel, cold war, appeasement, russia, uranium

Posted by Dr. K at 11:34 AM | Permalink

In the current New Cold War propaganda war between Iran and the UK - we reach a new low in stupid NuLabour moral equivalecy - I guess we should Not Offend the Iranians

Patricia Hewitt, health secretary in Tony Blair's Cabinet, was upset by pictures broadcast from Iran of the 15 captive British sailors and marines, reported Christopher Booker of the Sunday Telegraph.

"It was deplorable that the woman hostage should be shown smoking," Ms. Hewitt said. "This sends completely the wrong message to our young people."

No wonder the Americans think that the UK has lost its backbone as Iran's Bluff Humbles Britian

So in 2007 the men of the Royal Navy can be kidnapped and "the strong arm of England" (in Lord Palmerston's phrase) goes all limp-wristed and threatens to go to the U.N. and talk about drafting a Security Council resolution. Backstage, meanwhile, deals are done: An Iranian "diplomat" (a k a Mister Terror Kingpin) suddenly resurfaces in Tehran after having been reported in American detention, his release purely coincidental, we're told.

Some liken liberal appeasers to those Britons who wanted to make a deal with Hitler after the fall of France in 1940. That's unfair to those appeasers. Their attitude was not honorable, but it was reasonable. The Nazis then possessed a substantial advantage in military power. Today's liberal appeasers embrace dhimmitude even though it's the West that has a huge military and economic advantage.

Tags: iranian hostage crisis, iran, islam, appeasement, propaganda, churchill

Posted by Dr. K at 1:02 PM | Permalink

Methinks that the lady doth protest too much - if there wasn't a deal - why even deny it ...

Prime Minister Tony Blair has insisted no deal was done to free 15 Royal Navy crew members, as they arrived in the UK after being held in Iran for 13 days.

They were released "without any deal, without any negotiation, without any side agreement of any nature," he said.

Not that I am cynical or anything ... not much anyway ... well maybe just a little

Tags: nuclear threat, iran, tony blair, appeasement, backdoor deal

Posted by Dr. K at 4:05 PM | Permalink

Latest news is that Islamic Fundamentalists threaten life of Dalai Lama

Of course it must be the fault of the West - becuase of Israel, the occupation of Iraq and the fact that we like Britney Spears videos.

A three-tier security ring has been thrown around the 72-year-old Buddhist head, who lives at Dharamsala, in the Himalayan foothills, Indian police spokesman Prem Lal said.

All those approaching the exiled Tibetan chief will be closely watched by highly trained Tibetan security guards as well as heavily armed deployments of Indian police.

Visitors are being body-searched before being allowed to approach him.

The Dalai Lama is scheduled to make a widely anticipated 11-day visit to cities and regional centres across Australia in early June, making both free and ticketed appearances at public lectures, blessings and teaching sessions. Before that, he will visit the US.

Superintendent Lal said police had been alerted by central intelligence agencies to the reported plot by Lashkar-e-Toiba to kill the Dalai Lama "on the directions of a foreign organisation", which he declined to name, but is assumed to be al-Qa'ida.

In a recent document, Osama bin Laden denounced "pagan Buddhism" as part of his general attack on anything not Islamic.

The assassination threat picked up by Indian authorities is thought to be based on bin Laden's denunciation and the extremist jihadi movement's hatred for anything and anyone that is not Muslim.

Tags: dalai lama, buddhism, islam, osama bin laden, fundamentalism

Posted by Dr. K at 11:32 AM | Permalink

Ignoring the fact that they shouldn't have been kidnapped captured in the first place - President Ahmadinejad made the most of this propaganda exercise with a huge news conference.

He spoke at length, attacking the West over its policy in the Middle East, and it was more than an hour before he even mentioned the captives issue.

He repeated allegations that the Britons were captured in Iranian waters, and awarded medals to the Iranian commanders responsible for detaining them.

It was all part of the build up to his extraordinary theatrical gesture, says the BBC's diplomatic correspondent James Robbins.

"We have every right to put these people on trial," Mr Ahmadinejad asserted.

"But I want to give them as a present to the British people to say they are all free."

"I'm asking Mr Blair to not put these 15 personnel on trial because they admitted they came to Iranian territorial water", he added, referring to taped "confessions" made by the British sailors and marines.

Tags: iranian hostage crisis, iran, ahmadinejad, propaganda, disinformation

Posted by Dr. K at 4:14 PM | Permalink

Looks like the press in Iran are getting their information from Rosie O'Donnell as they suggest that Iranian hostage crisis is nothing more than a dark conspiracy hatched by London

Iran's newspapers ended a fortnight's enforced silence on the 15 detained UK naval personnel yesterday by depicting the affair as a dark conspiracy hatched by London, with many denouncing the British and some saying the sailors and marines had been sent into Iranian waters to stoke a conflict aimed at isolating the country.

The tightly state-monitored dailies were publishing for the first time since before the national new year holiday.

The usually moderate Etemade Melli accused the Blair government of devising a "pre-planned scenario" to protect the Labour party from an electoral backlash caused by British public opposition to the Iraq war. "Britain was well aware that such an incursion by its military forces would provoke a reaction from Tehran," the paper wrote. "The existence of hi-tech satellite navigation equipment eliminates the possibility of negligence or error on the part of the British. London has been prepared to pay the price of the arrest ... to perform its pre-planned scenario."

Tags: iran, iranian hostage crisis, ahmadinejad, appeasement, propaganda, disinformation

Posted by Dr. K at 12:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

As if we couldn't see it coming - Blair has done with showing backbone and now its time to backpedal before making some kind of backdoor deal

Last night, a British delegation, probably consisting of naval officers, legal experts and diplomats, was standing ready to fly to Iran at short notice. The team would not formally negotiate the release of the 15 sailors and marines seized by Iran on March 23, British officials insisted, but would try to produce a face-saving way out of the crisis for both sides by discussing how to avoid another incident in the northern Gulf.

"The next 48 hours will be fairly critical," Tony Blair said yesterday. But British officials are also bracing themselves for a news conference today by the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has had little to say about the crisis.

"If they want to resolve this in a diplomatic way, the door is open," the prime minister said. But if the negotiations stalled, Britain would "take an increasingly tougher position".

All we can do is lie on our backs with our paws in the air and hope that no one will stamp on our tummies.

Of course what "Downing Street" said was:

There have been further talks between the UK and Iran this evening, including directly with Dr Ali Larijani.

On the basis of these, the Prime Minister believes that both sides share a desire for an early resolution of this issue through direct talks.

The Prime Minister remains committed to resolving this by diplomatic means. The UK has proposed direct bilateral discussions and awaits an Iranian response on when these can begin.

Tags: iranian hostage crisis, iran, tony blair, appeasement, ali larijani, ahmadinejad

Posted by Dr. K at 9:37 AM | Permalink

News of a the finding of a bone which challenges the theory that modern man originated in Africa

Most experts believe that our ancestors emerged in Africa more than 150,000 years ago and then migrated around the world.

However, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Prof Erik Trinkaus and colleagues provide details of a skeleton found in 2003 from Tianyuan Cave near Beijing.

The skeleton is 42,000 to 38,500 years old, making it the oldest modern human skeleton from eastern Eurasia, and one of the oldest modern humans from the region.

Most of its features match those of modern man, though some are more like late archaic humans, including the Neanderthals. The authors conclude that, as our ancestors spread, they interbred with local, more ancient, types of human.

I expect the experts to be arguing about this for another 42,000 years at least ...

Tags: trinkaus, tianyuan, eurasia, modern man

Posted by Dr. K at 6:50 PM | Permalink

Tawfik Hamed talks about the Trouble with Islam - and notes many of the things that have been causing me cognitive dissonance lately ...

Western feminists duly fight in their home countries for equal pay and opportunity, but seemingly ignore, under a façade of cultural relativism, that large numbers of women in the Islamic world live under threat of beating, execution and genital mutilation, or cannot vote, drive cars and dress as they please.

The tendency of many Westerners to restrict themselves to self-criticism further obstructs reformation in Islam. Americans demonstrate against the war in Iraq, yet decline to demonstrate against the terrorists who kidnap innocent people and behead them. Similarly, after the Madrid train bombings, millions of Spanish citizens demonstrated against their separatist organization, ETA. But once the demonstrators realized that Muslims were behind the terror attacks they suspended the demonstrations. This example sent a message to radical Islamists to continue their violent methods.

Western appeasement of their Muslim communities has exacerbated the problem. During the four-month period after the publication of the Muhammad cartoons in a Danish magazine, there were comparatively few violent demonstrations by Muslims. Within a few days of the Danish magazine's formal apology, riots erupted throughout the world. The apology had been perceived by Islamists as weakness and concession.

Worst of all, perhaps, is the anti-Americanism among many Westerners. It is a resentment so strong, so deep-seated, so rooted in personal identity, that it has led many, consciously or unconsciously, to morally support America's enemies.

Tags: tawfik hamed, islam, newspeak, propaganda, feminism, the silence of the left, appeasement

Posted by Dr. K at 5:37 PM | Permalink

Remember the good old days of the Old Cold War when the USA was worried about the Missile Gap with the USSR?

Now - in the New Cold War it appears we have a new "Suicide Bomber" Gap as RAF pilots asked to consider suicide flight

During a training exercise, Air Vice-Marshal David Walker put it to newly qualified pilots that they should think of flying suicide missions in a "worst case scenario" when a terrorist attack was imminent.

The head of the RAF's elite One Group who is in operational control of Typhoon, Tornado, Jaguar and Harrier fighters and bombers, is reported to have asked the pilots: "Would you think it unreasonable if I ordered you to fly your aircraft into the ground in order to destroy a vehicle carrying a Taliban or al-Qaida commander?"

Hey! Great Swap - if this country wages a war of attrition like this we won't have any pilots or planes worth a damn!!

Lets do the maths:

Cost of Training of Pilot: £2 milllion (ish)
Cost of combat aircraft: £30-40 million (ish)

Total Cost: £30-40 million give or take a little bit

Cost of Enemy Combatant: £0 - volunteers always available, replacements easy to find, training costs fully subsidised ...

So why the sudden propaganda spasm?

Would it really be worth throwing the life of just one RAF pilot and his very expensive plane away to kill Bin Laden? It would make no sense at all ...

Unless the whole carefully contrived "leak" and "outrage" piece is designed to encourage disinformation amongst various factions that use suicide bombings as a force multiplier - leading to a percieved narrowing of the "suicide bomber" gap.

Of course - this whole story about "RAF Suicide Missions" has been leaked published just at a time when tensions between Iran and the UK are high - so I have no reason to disbelieve anything I read in mainstream media anyhow ...

Tags: kamikaze, raf, suicide bombings, force multiplier, missile gap

Posted by Dr. K at 9:42 AM | Permalink

A step in the right direction as EMI Music launches DRM-free superior sound quality downloads across its entire digital repertoire

The new higher quality DRM-free music will complement EMI's existing range of standard DRM-protected downloads already available. From today, EMI's retailers will be offered downloads of tracks and albums in the DRM-free audio format of their choice in a variety of bit rates up to CD quality. EMI is releasing the premium downloads in response to consumer demand for high fidelity digital music for use on home music systems, mobile phones and digital music players. EMI's new DRM-free products will enable full interoperability of digital music across all devices and platforms.

Eric Nicoli, CEO of EMI Group, said, "Our goal is to give consumers the best possible digital music experience. By providing DRM-free downloads, we aim to address the lack of interoperability which is frustrating for many music fans. We believe that offering consumers the opportunity to buy higher quality tracks and listen to them on the device or platform of their choice will boost sales of digital music.

Lets hope other companies follow suit.

Tags: emi, drm, online music

Posted by Dr. K at 9:30 AM | Permalink

The subject of Gary McKinnon has come up here before - because it looks like he is getting a bum rap for what he did.

Now - finally - the appeals process is exhausted and the news today is that UK hacker loses extradition fight - not that there was much chance of the government changing their minds of course.

Glasgow-born Gary McKinnon, 41, is accused of gaining access to 97 US military and Nasa computers.

Home Secretary John Reid granted the US request to extradite him for trial.

At the High Court in London, his lawyers argued he had been subjected to "improper threats" and the move would breach his human rights.

His lawyers had argued that, if extradited, he would face an unknown length of time in pre-trial detention, with no likelihood of bail.

He would also face a long prison sentence, "in the region of 45 years" and may not be allowed to serve part of the sentence at home in the UK, Edmund Lawson QC said.

The question now is - how much of the trial will be publicised and whether they bother to mention that the sys-admins of these sites failed to change the default password on a piece of commercial software - or whether they sweep inconvenient facts under the carpet in the name of "national security"?

Strikes me the whole thing is a complete waste of time - a fine example of "security theatre" which will end in a showtrial and maximum publicity - while meanwhile hostile cyber-criminals and hacktivists will continue to make the Internet a battlefield every time something racks up international tension.

Wake up Department of Homeland Security!! There really are people out there who want to harm you!!

But from all appearences Gary McKinnon was not one of them ...

Tags: gary mckinnon, homeland security, incompetence, security theatre, dhs

Posted by Dr. K at 9:09 AM | Permalink

If anybody remembers the "Brainwashing" scare of the "old" Cold War - then the latest developments in the tale of the Iranian kidnapped hostage saga - in which they have all confessed now should be ringing some small distant bells of memory.

Signed stilted confessions, showtrial TV and just the whiff of possible coercion - sounds like the Sixties all over again.

All 15 of the British service personnel held in Iran have confessed to having illegally entered the country's waters, an Iranian state-run television channel said today.

The unsourced report was on the Arabic-language channel al-Alam and contained a mix of old and previously unseen footage of the captives.

Iranian media reports said footage of the "confessions" would not be broadcast, following unspecified "positive changes" in Britain's negotiating stance.

Since last week, al-Alam has broadcast footage of four of the 15 captives "confessing".

Were these hostages tortured in some horrible 60's mindwarp "Ipcress File" nightmare to make them "confess"?

No - it would seem thats its all down to Tricks of the Intelligence Trade:

A likely scenario, I think, is that the Iranian interrogators have been feeding disinformation to the British sailors and have managed to make them believe not only that they were in Iranian waters when caught but that the British government has also admitted this and apologised for it, and that now they have realised their mistake, a genuine apology would best serve their own and their country's interest.

The Iranian intelligence service has used this technique before on some Iranian dissidents and the results were satisfactory. In one case they had even produced a bogus version of a well-known newspaper to persuade them.

In this way, without even touching the detainees or doing anything that could legally be considered as torture, either physical or psychological, they may have managed to get the words they want from the detainees.

That's why the interrogators don't allow the detainees to have any contact with the outside world, so that the detainees can only be fed with disinformation that could naturally and logically lead them into willingly doing or saying exactly what the interrogators want.

Not that I am slightly cynical or anything - but I suspect the hidden hand of the government in communicating exactly what kind of appeasement noises the hostages have to make to dampen down media interest - while behind the scenes some licenses for some exports of weapons get quietly approved ...

Not that I would ever suggest that Britain waives the rules when it comes to "doing business" with people to ensure "peace in our time" ...

Tags: iran, iranian hostage crisis, cold war, hostage swap, brainwashing, showtrials

Posted by Dr. K at 6:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The Brussels Journal has a nice take on the recent article in the Daily Telegraph about how How not to confuse terrorism with Islam ...

It appears the EU not only wants to restrict freedom of speech but to restrict information on the restrictions it imposes.

1. Will the Commission make this lexicon available to Members of the European Parliament? If so, please inform me how to obtain a copy.

2. If the Lexicon is not to be made available to MEPs, will the Commission please provide a full explanation of why not?

3. On what legal basis does the Commission consider that institutions of the EU have competence to determine freedom of speech & the use of language?

4. Does the Commission consider that it has any legal basis to provide, what appears to be legally binding instructions to member state press spokesmen and women, and if so, what is that legal basis?

5. On what basis is the EU empowered, or feels itself able, to decide what is and is not authentic and non-authentic Islam?

6. Has any institution of the European Union consulted any organisation or body representing the Islamic religion on the use of language to describe its adherents, or terrorists purporting to be Muslims?

Quite - if the EU has the guts to circulate a list of "B-Vocabulary Words" which are:

deliberately constructed for political purposes: words, that is to say, which not only [have] in every case a political implication, but [are] intended to impose a desirable mental attitude upon the person using them

Otherwise I will continue in my politically incorrect course and call "a spade a spade".

If people get the "wrong idea" and think that I am calling Islam a patriarchal misogynist religion - run by men for men and which has designs to make over the whole world in its image - I am not going to apologise

Tags: george orwell, eric blair, islam, newspeak, propaganda, rhetoric, womens rights, feminism, freedom, daily telegraph

Posted by Dr. K at 12:06 PM | Permalink

Most of the research done on the great pyramid of Cheops/Khefru has been done by "Pyramidiots" who seek to prove - well just about anything really.

So it is nice to hear from an archaeologist who is more worried about how they were built and has come up with yet another solution to the pyramid contruction puzzle.

Ending eight years of study on the subject, architect Jean-Pierre Houdin released his findings and a computerized 3-D mockup showing how workers would have erected the pyramid at Giza outside Cairo.

The most widespread theory had been that an outer ramp had been used by the Egyptians, who left few traces to help archeologists and other scientists decode the secret to the construction.

Houdin said he had taken into account the copper and stone tools available at the time, the granite and limestone blocks, the location of the pyramid and the strength and knowledge of the workers.

While we are on the subject - my preferred solution to the problem of fixing the lintels of Stonehenge is the idea that they packed the uprights with snow in winter to produced a platform at the right level, then built a ramp and slid the lintels into place.

When spring came the ice melted and the lintels settled into place across the uprights ...

You can find more about this new solution to the pyramid contrstruction puzzle - including a 3D film and the original paper (pdf) here

Tags: pyramids, architecture, bronze age building techniques, jean-pierre houdin, stonehenge

Posted by Dr. K at 8:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)