Ancient Computer Surprises Scientists

New York Times
November 29, 2006


Fragments of the Antikythera Mechanism, shown above, have now been examined with the latest in high-resolution imaging systems and three-dimensional X-ray tomography. But a century ago, pieces of a strange mechanism with bronze gears and dials were recovered from an ancient shipwreck off the coast of Greece.

Historians of science concluded that this was an instrument that calculated and illustrated astronomical information, particularly phases of the Moon and planetary motions, in the second century B.C.

The Antikythera Mechanism, sometimes called the world’s first computer, has now been examined with the latest in high-resolution imaging systems and three-dimensional X-ray tomography. A team of British, Greek and American researchers was able to decipher many inscriptions and reconstruct the gear functions, revealing, they said, “an unexpected degree of technical sophistication for the period.”

The researchers, led by Tony Freeth and Mike G. Edmunds, both of the University of Cardiff, Wales, are reporting the results of their study in Thursday’s issue of the journal Nature.

They said their findings showed that the inscriptions related to lunar-solar motions and the gears were a mechanical representation of the irregularities of the Moon’s orbital course across the sky, as theorized by the astronomer Hipparchos. They established the date of the mechanism at 150-100 B.C.

The Roman ship carrying the artifacts sank off the island of Antikythera around 65 B.C. Some evidence suggests that the ship had sailed from Rhodes. The researchers speculated that Hipparchos, who lived on Rhodes, might have had a hand in designing the device.

America's First Gay President

Doctors Refuse To Examine Man's Cervix

Telegraph
By Celia Hall, Medical Editor

A family doctor has been summoned to a formal hearing over his refusal to put a 34-year-old male patient on the list for screening for cervical cancer. The man, who has fathered a child, believes he is a hermaphrodite although his doctors have examined him and can find no evidence for this. However, they did agree to his request to be re-registered with a female name.

He first wanted a cervical examination and was refused because he did not have a cervix. He then asked to be put on the list for regular screening. One doctor in the practice said: "We are worried that the PCT is so falling over backwards to be patient-friendly, that it has gone too far the other way. Silly things are starting to happen."

The wife of one of the GPs, told The Telegraph she had every sympathy for people who believe they had the body of the wrong gender but the decision to investigate the refusal was political correctness taken to extremes. She said her husband, who has been a GP for 30 years and who trains young doctors would be "pleased to hear from anyone, medical or otherwise, who could teach him the correct way to carry out a cervical smear on a 34-year-old male".

Ambien Can Cure Vegetative States

Guardian Unlimited
September 12, 2006

For three years, Riaan Bolton has lain motionless, his eyes open but unseeing. After a devastating car crash doctors said he would never again see or speak or hear. Now his mother, Johanna, dissolves a pill in a little water on a teaspoon and forces it gently into his mouth. Within half an hour, as if a switch has been flicked in his brain, Riaan looks around his home in the South African town of Kimberley and says, "Hello." Shortly after his accident, Johanna had turned down the option of letting him die.

Three hundred miles away, Louis Viljoen, a young man who had once been cruelly described by a doctor as "a cabbage", greets me with a mischievous smile and a streetwise four-move handshake. Until he took the pill, he too was supposed to be in what doctors call a persistent vegetative state.

It all sounds miraculous, you might think. And in a way, it is. But this is not a miracle medication, the result of groundbreaking neurological research. Instead, these awakenings have come as the result of an accidental discovery by a dedicated - and bewildered - General Practitioner. They have all woken up, paradoxically, after being given a commonly used sleeping pill (marketed as Ambien).

Dr Ralf Clauss, a physician of nuclear medicine - the use of radioactive isotopes in diagnostic scans - at the Medical University of Southern Africa, contacted Nel to suggest carrying out a scan on Louis. "The results were so unbelievable that I got other colleagues to check my findings," says Clauss, who now works at the Royal Surrey County Hospital in Guildford. "We did scans before and after we gave Louis zolpidem. Areas that appeared black and dead beforehand began to light up with activity afterwards. I was dumbfounded - and I still am." [Read More]

OTO Accused Of Pedophilia & Child Porn

TheAge.com.au
November 21, 2006

An anti-child sex campaigner accused an occult religious group of hosting parties at which naked children acted as waiters and at which members had sex with and murdered children, a tribunal was told yesterday.

The obscure group Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO) claims Dr Reina Michaelson and the Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Program described it in a website article as a satanic cult that sacrificed children and ate their organs and blood.

It has complained under Victoria's religious hatred law that Dr Michaelson and her organisation vilified OTO members, causing revulsion, ridicule, hatred and contempt.

According to OTO's statement of complaint, Dr Michaelson said it was not a religion but a child pornography and pedophile ring, that its members practised trauma-based mind control, sexual abuse and satanic rituals to discourage its victims from complaining to the authorities, and that it condoned kidnapping street children and babies and children from orphanages for sex and sacrifice in religious rituals.

The case began at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal yesterday, but was adjourned to today to allow a last-ditch attempt to settle out of court.

The article, still accessible on a website run from NSW, suggests senior politicians and television celebrities are part of a top-level pedophile ring and have been protected by some police. It says some members of the ring pretended to support Dr Michaelson's campaign and became board members of her group to subvert it from within.

Adam Paszkowski, for Dr Michaelson, who was named Young Australian of the Year in 1997 for founding the Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Program, said the article was published on the website "without her knowledge or consent or authority".

Dr Michaelson last year called for a royal commission to investigate her claims that Victoria Police did not properly investigate pedophile ring allegations.

Earlier complaints led to a report by the police ombudsman in 2004 that was highly critical of two senior detectives.

IDF Admits Targeting Civilian Areas With Cluster Bombs

Haaretz
November 20, 2006

The Israel Defense Forces on Monday admitted for the first time to having targeted populated areas with cluster munitions during the recent war in Lebanon. The IDF Spokesman's Office said in a statement that "the use of cluster munitions against built-up areas was done only against military targets where rocket launches against Israel were identified and after taking steps to warn the civilian population." The upper echelons of the IDF ordered the use of cluster munitions during the war in Lebanon and authorized every target north of the Litani River, including those in densely populated areas, a commander in the IDF's Multiple Launch Rocket System unit said Monday.

As a result of this information, Defense Minister Amir Peretz ordered an "extensive inquiry" into the use of these munitions before the war's end.

MK Ran Cohen (Meretz), a reserves colonel who led an artillery support unit in the first Lebanon war, called the use of cluster bombs a "very unusual" measure. He added that in his experience, every such use must receive the approval of the division commander or even the regional general officer. "This is a very grave matter," Cohen said. "If cluster bombs were used in populated areas, it is an indescribable crime. There is no goal that can't be reached without the use of clusters. The massive use the IDF employed during the war testifies to a lack of control, to complete hysteria."

To date, roughly 58,000 unexploded bomblets have been discovered at about 800 different sites in southern Lebanon. Most are near populated areas. According to the officer, in order to compensate for the rockets' lack of precision, they were told to "flood" the area with them. "We have no option of striking an isolated target, and the commanders know this very well," he said. [Read More]

If I Didn't Do It, Here's How It Didn't Happen

Newsday.com
November 20, 2006

In a surprise move, News Corporation has pulled the plug on both the forthcoming O.J. Simpson book and a scheduled two-part interview special that was to air next week. In a statement released a few minutes ago, News Corp chief Rupert Murdoch said, "I and senior management agree with the American public that this was an ill-considered project. We are sorry for any pain this has caused the families of Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown-Simpson."

News of the book, "If I Did It, Here's How It Happened" - one of those as-told-to tomes in which Simpson was reportedly going to muse on how he might have killed his wife and her friend - caused an immediate firestorm, both within Fox and outside. Commentators on the Fox News Channel, like Bill O'Reilly, lambasted the decision to publish as well as air the companion special while there was believed to a considerable amount of teeth gnashing off-screen as well. In a matter of just a few days, the planned TV special had done considerable damage to the Fox network's relationship with affiliates - some of whom had planned to spike the two-part interview, scheduled for Nov. 27 and 29. Tribune's Fox affiliates as well as Sinclair's Fox affiliates were believed close to canceling plans to air the special as well.

Exactly what Simpson was to say in the book - scheduled for release late next week - remains shrouded in mystery. Most observers assumed he would stop short of a confession because that would have him subject to further prosecution (although he can not be charged in criminal court again.) News Corp. publishing unit, Reganbooks, was believed to have paid Simpson $3.5 million; that figure - of course - doesn't' include cost of printing and marketing, which means News Corps' total lost from the double-cancellation will be a multiple of that figure.

Accept Jesus or "You Belong In Hell"

The Star-Ledger
November 15, 2006

David Paszkiewicz, a Kearny (NJ) high school history teacher who is also a Baptist preacher in town, told students that if they didn't accept Jesus, "you belong in hell." He also dismissed as 'unscientific' the theories of evolution and the "Big Bang." Paszkiewicz, a teacher at the high school since 1992, did not return phone messages left for him at the high school.

On Sept. 14 - the fourth day of class - Paszkiewicz is on tape saying, "He (God) did everything in his power to make sure that you could go to heaven, so much so that he took your sin on his own body, suffered your pains for you and he's saying, 'Please accept me, believe me.'"

He adds, according to the tapes: "If you reject that, you belong in hell. The outcome is your prerogative. But the way I see it, God himself sent his only son to die for David Paszkiewicz on that cross ... And if you reject that, then it really is to hell with you." He also told his class that dinosaurs were on Noah's ark.

Principal Al Somma declined to comment. Superintendent Robert Mooney, who called Paszkiewicz "a wonderful teacher," said he was aware of the issues raised by a student, Matthew LaClair - and recordings made by LaClair - and that "corrective action" would be taken. He refused to elaborate.

USA Enters Into Nuclear Deal with India

Toronto Daily News
November 17, 2006

The US Senate has adopted a bill on US-India Civilian Nuclear Agreement to co-operate with India over civilian nuclear technology, reversing a 30-year-old ban. US Congress chose to bypass the requirements of the US Atomic Energy Act, which currently prohibits nuclear sales to countries that didn't sign nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty., such as India.

US weapons experts warned that forging Atomic Energy Act would not only make it harder to enforce rules against nuclear renegades Iran and North Korea, but also set a dangerous precedent for other countries with nuclear ambitions.

Under the bill, India would gain access to U.S. nuclear fuel and reactors. In return, India agreed to place its atomic reactors, except India's eight military plants, under global safeguards as part of the deal. Speaking to the media during his visit to Asia US president Bush immediately praised the passage of the deal saying it would bring India into the 'non-proliferation mainstream'.

Bush and Manmohan Singh, the Indian prime minister, had agreed to the deal in July last year when Singh paid a visit to Washington.

Bush Buys Land in Northern Paraguay

Prensa Latina

Buenos Aires, Oct 13 (Prensa Latina) An Argentine official regarded the intention of the George W. Bush family to settle on the Acuifero Guarani (Paraguay) as surprising, besides being a bad signal for the governments of the region.

Luis D Elia, undersecretary for the Social Habitat in the Argentine Federal Planning Ministry, issued a memo partially reproduced by digital INFOBAE.com, in which he spoke of the purchase by Bush of a 98,842-acre farm in northern Paraguay, between Brazil and Bolivia.

The news circulated Thursday in non-official sources in Asuncion, Paraguay.

D Elia considered this Bush step counterproductive for the regional power expressed by Presidents Nestor Kirchner, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Evo Morales, Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro.

He said that 'it is a bad signal that the Bush family is doing business with natural resources linked to the future of MERCOSUR.'

The official pointed out that this situation could cause a hypothetical conflict of all the armies in the region, and called attention to the Bush family habit of associating business and politics."

If I Did It, Here's How It Happened

Seattle Times
November 15, 2006

In what could well be the sleaziest, and certainly the strangest, documentary in the history of television, O.J. Simpson has agreed to a Fox TV interview in which he will discuss how he murdered Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman 12 years ago — if, that is, he had actually murdered them.

Done rubbing your eyes?

Good, because there's more. Simpson will be interviewed by Judith Regan, the founder and chief executive of ReganBooks, which will publish Simpson's "If I Did It" on Nov. 30. ReganBooks is an imprint of HarperCollins, owned by News Corp., parent of Fox.

The interview — "O.J. Simpson: If I Did It Here's How It Happened" — will air Nov. 27 and 29, just before the book goes on sale.

"This is an interview that no one thought would ever happen," said Mike Darnell, Fox chief of reality programs.

Simpson was paid a reported $3.5 million for the book, according to the National Enquirer, which first reported its existence last month.

Not much is known about the book or the interview; ReganBooks hasn't yet posted a description on its Web site, although the Enquirer piece noted that Simpson's account of the murders is "so detailed and so chillingly realistic" readers will likely come to the conclusion that Simpson committed the crimes.

Simpson was acquitted in 1995 after the criminal trial but later found liable for the deaths in a civil trial and ordered to pay $33.5 million to the victims' families.

The Devil Made Me Do It

Newsday.com
November 14, 2006

A mother has told police she killed her 9-year-old son in their Brooklyn home after being overtaken by 'demons,' police said Tuesday. After allegedly smothering the boy on Monday afternoon, the woman apparently tried to kill herself by throwing herself in front a subway train, but survived. Police withheld her name.

The mother told investigators that the trouble began when a birthday celebration for her son didn't turn out as he expected, police said. Apparently the boy expected food and friends at the party, but there was no food and friends didn't show up.

She said as her son became upset, 'demons overtook her' and she 'smothered the boy with a pillow,' Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said at a new conference.

At about 4:30 p.m., after calling the boy's father and telling him he needed to go home, the woman jumped in front of the subway train in a Coney Island station, police said. She was hospitalized with a broken leg and severed fingers.

The father discovered the child's body about 30 minutes later inside their third-floor apartment in the Crown Heights section, police said.

Church Backs Euthenasia for Crippled Infants

The Daily Mail
November 12, 2006

The Church of England has broken with tradition dogma by calling for doctors to be allowed to let sick newborn babies die.

Christians have long argued that life should preserved at all costs - but a bishop representing the national church has now sparked controversy by arguing that there are occasions when it is compassionate to leave a severely disabled child to die.

And the Bishop of Southwark, Tom Butler, who is the vice chair of the Church of England's Mission and Public Affairs Council, has also argued that the high financial cost of keeping desperately ill babies alive should be a factor in life or death decisions.

The shock new policy from the church has caused outrage among the disabled.

Bush Revives Espionage Act

Village Voice
by Nat Hentoff
November 10th, 2006

Not many Americans know about this trial, slated for next January, that could result in future government suppression of news stories—based on classified information—suchas The Washington Post's reports by Dana Priest of CIA secret prisons in Europe and the James Risen–Eric Lichtblau New York Times revelations on the National Security Agency's secret, warrantless spying on Americans.

The defendants, Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman, are former and dismissed staff members of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the leading pro-Israel lobbying organization.

They are accused by the Justice Department of having received classified information from a Defense Department analyst, Lawrence Anthony Franklin, who has since pleaded guilty and been sentenced to prison. Rosen and Weissman are charged with giving the information to an Israeli diplomat—and to a journalist.

"There's little difference between what the defendants are charged with and what reporters and advocates do day-to-day," says Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists Project on Government Secrecy. Aftergood says a conviction would put this nation far along the path to having its own Open Secrets law, the British measure that bars public interest as a defense for revealing classified information. "That would mean a fundamental transformation of the American government," he continues. "Retreating from freedom of the press would mean surrender of the principles of self-rule as the best form of government." [Read More]

America Gets Real...

Times Online
November 12, 2006

The world believes that a new America was born last week. At the flick of a democratic switch out went the wild, warmongering, fundamentalist neocons. Out went the xenophobic fanatics who believe that allies are wimps, that Arabs should be tortured and that dinosaurs inhabited the Ark. European is no longer an American term of abuse and vice versa. Liberals walk free down Fifth Avenue and eat french fries. In short, the great American polity is sane again.

Anyone who criticises America knows that it is among the world’s most paranoid nations. But nothing has more irritated many Americans this past six years than that the world should identify them with George W Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld. I once attributed responsibility for Iraq to “America” and was deluged with complaints that the fault lay in Washington, with the Republicans, with the White House, then with the Pentagon, until I was told kindly to restrict my criticism to “Cheney and Rumsfeld”.

Nor have all Americans opposed abortion, homosexuality, stem cell research and evolution, let alone supported Pastor Ted Haggard, extraordinary rendition and biblical truth. As of last Tuesday, Bush’s reincarnation of the Ugly American may be dead, but not all Americans were that ugly nor are all ugly Americans that dead.

Since 9/11 the devil of the apocalypse in American politics has had the best tunes. There is nothing as useful to an insecure leader as fear. But it yielded no consensus. The last two presidential elections were a sign not of a homogeneous America but of a divided one. A bare majority (in 2000 a minority) supported Bush not just because they liked his fundamentalism but because his opponents were unconvincing and his organisation superb.

Nor are all this week’s “neo-Democrats” born-again liberals — far from it.

The election was a clear referendum on six years of Republican rule in Washington, but humility should guide any response to an American election.

A nation does not change its political culture overnight and America is the size of a continent. Reading this election would be like reading a European one in which, God forbid, voters were spread across Andalusia, Bavaria, Sicily and Wales.

The best available guide is the exit polls. Any midterm vote is conditioned by anti-incumbent, anti-Washington sentiment. After 12 years of a Republican Congress that failed to bring either Bill Clinton or Bush to book, outsiders might conclude that the American constitution of checks and balances needs reform. A flurry of scandals during the campaign capped a widespread aversion to the corruption of Bush’s Washington and a sense that something must be done about public spending that has risen faster under Bush than under any president since Johnson. [Read More]

House Resolution 4752

Library of Congress

109th CONGRESS
2d Session
H.R. 4752

To provide for the common defense by requiring all persons in the United States, including women, between the ages of 18 and 42 to perform a period of military service or a period of civilian service in furtherance of the national defense and homeland security, and for other purposes. [Read More]

Looks like they're going to bring back the draft...

UK MoD Warns Of ET Invasion Danger

Daily Mail
November 10, 2006



UFO sightings and alien visitors tend to be solely the reserve of sci-fi movies. So when a former MoD chief warns that the country could be attacked by extraterrestrials at any time, you may be forgiven for feeling a little alarmed. During his time as head of the Ministry of Defence UFO project, Nick Pope was persuaded into believing that other lifeforms may visit Earth and, more specifically, Britain.

His concern is that "highly credible" sightings are simply dismissed. And he complains that the project he once ran is now "virtually closed" down, leaving the country "wide open" to aliens. Mr Pope decided to speak out about his worries after resigning from his post at the Directorate of Defence Security at the MoD this week.

"The consequences of getting this one wrong could be huge," he said. "If you reported a UFO sighting now, I am absolutely sure that you would just get back a standard letter telling you not to worry. ''Frankly we are wide open - if something does not behave like a conventional aircraft now, it will be ignored. "The X-Files have been closed down." If these words had come from a sci-fi fanatic, they could be easily dismissed by cynics. But Mr Pope's CV - he was head of the UFO project between 1991 and 1994 - cannot be ignored.

When he began his job, he too was sceptical about UFOs but access to classified files on the subject and investigation of a series of spectacular UFO sightings gradually changed his mind. And while Mr Pope says that there is no evidence of hostile intent, he insists it cannot be ruled out. "There has got to be the potential for that and one is left with the uneasy feeling that if it turned out to be so, there is very little we could do about it," he said. "If you believe these things are extra terrestrial craft then you cannot rule out that what is happening is some kind of covert reconnaissance." [Read More]

Jeez, Give Santorum A Crying Towel!

Nancy Pelosi's Tough New Rules

CBC.ca
November 8, 2006

No House member may accept any gift of any value from lobbyists, or any firm or association that hires lobbyists. No free travel.

House members will no longer be able to slip in special-interest projects on unrelated legislation. Further, all bills will be made available to the public a full 24 hours before a final vote.

Under the Pelosi rules, lobbyists will no longer be able to use the House gym (you'd be surprised how much gets negotiated in a sauna). Lobbyists will no longer be allowed onto the House floor or to use the cloakrooms just off the floor, preventing last-minute arm-twisting.

What's more, no member or staffer will be able to negotiate for employment in the public sector without disclosing such contacts to the House Ethics Committee, and within three days of such contact being made.

Finally, all of this will be audited and investigated by a new Office of Public Integrity, and that office reports, directly and only, to the U.S. Attorneys Office. [Read More]

Snake-Handling Christian Dies Of Snake Bite

FOXNews.com
November 8, 2006

A southeastern Kentucky woman was bitten by a snake during a church service and later died, a law enforcement officer said. Linda Long, 48, of London died Sunday at University of Kentucky Medical Center, said Brad Mitchell, a detective with the Laurel County Sheriff's Office. Long died about four hours after the bite was reported, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported.

Officials said Long attended East London Holiness Church. Neighbors of the church told the newspaper the church practices serpent handling. Lt. Ed Sizemore of the Laurel County Sheriff's Office said friends went with Long to a local hospital Sunday afternoon, and she was taken to UK. "She said she was bitten by a snake at her church," Sizemore said.

Handling reptiles as part of religious services is illegal in Kentucky. Snake handling is a misdemeanor and punishable by a $50 to $100 fine. Police said they had not received reports about snake handling at the church. Snake handling is based on a passage in the Bible, in the Gospel of Mark, that says a sign of a true believer is the power to "take up serpents" without being harmed.

Church officials could not be reached for comment.

Evangelical Church Dumps Gay Leader

CTV.ca
November 3, 2006

The church of a top U.S. evangelical pastor embroiled in a sex scandal has dismissed him after its investigative board found him guilty of inappropriate sexual acts.

Their statement confirmed that "we, the Overseer Board of New Life church, have concluded our deliberations concerning the moral failings of Pastor Ted Haggard. Our investigation and Pastor Haggard's public statements have proven without a doubt that he has committed sexually immoral conduct."

Ted Haggard, who is 50 years old and married with five children, is also the former president of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE). The NAE is an umbrella group that claims a membership of 45,000 conservative yet very diverse churches. Pastor Haggard was an outspoken opponent of gay marriage and has been a person of political influence among American political conservatives, with regular access to President George W. Bush.

Homosexual Evangelical Leader Resigns

Myrtle Beach Online
November 2, 2006

The Rev. Ted Haggard, senior pastor at New Life Church, resigned Thursday as president of the 30-million-member National Association of Evangelicals, following allegations he paid a Denver man for sex over the past three years. He also placed himself on administrative leave from New Life Church, pending an investigation of Jones' claims, a move church officials said is standard after allegations of impropriety.

A man who identified himself as Mike Jones, 49, of Denver told The Associated Press Thursday that he has voicemails from Haggard as well as an envelope he said Haggard used to mail him cash. Jones declined to make any of that available to the AP. "There's some stuff on there (the voice mails) that's pretty damning," he said.

Jones alleged on Wednesday he and Haggard had a three-year relationship. Jones told his story to a KHOW radio in Denver and to KUSA. Jones told The Associated Press that Haggard paid him to have sex nearly every month. Jones said he had advertised himself as an escort on the Internet and that a man who called himself Art contacted him. Jones said he later saw the man on television identified as Haggard. He said he last had sex with Haggard in August. He said he did not warn him before making his allegations public this week.