today

The PML Mini QED apparently has a top speed of 150 mph, a 0-60 mph time of 4.5 seconds. The car uses a small gasoline engine with four 160 horsepower electric motors — one on each wheel. The car has been designed to run for four hours of combined urban/extra urban driving, powered only by a battery and bank of ultra capacitors. The QED supports an all-electric range of 200-250 miles and has a total range of about 932 miles (1,500 km). For longer journeys at higher speeds, a small conventional internal combustion engine (ICE) is used to re-charge the battery. In this hybrid mode, fuel economies of up to 80mpg can be achieved.

The same website also mentions the PRAZE Electric Scooter, apparently developed by PML FlightLink also, with high profile European partners including Peugeot and with support from the European Commission. The aim of the PRAZE project was to improve the efficiency of the “battery powered electric scooter”, and create “Personal Zero Emission Transport for the City of the Future”. Achievements include the development of a Ni-Zn battery without any toxic components and a charge profile of less than 5 hours (Sorapec).

One is also referred to the rather odd PRAZE site

IMO: A long way to go yet, and one is reminded of the Sinclair C5 and the Tucker car I am afraid. Neither of those were successful though both were fascinating and the success of the present endeavours depends a lot on actual circumstance and the competence of those involved. The PML site would probably sell bits and pieces for those who wish to experiment.

TROY, N.Y., Aug. 30 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists using an off-the-shelf inkjet printer have developed a technique for printing patterns of carbon nanotubes on paper and plastic surfaces.

Most current techniques to make nanotube-based devices require complex and expensive equipment. This method can fabricate nanotubes by printing easily and simply on paper.

IMO: This is another idea, like the one I gave on August 22nd, that might well be good for important but inexpensive research or at least an article in somewhere like Make magazine. There are plenty of good ideas that such nanotubes can be used for or they can possibly even be sold.

According to the International Herald Tribune, Iran was handed a harsh diktat to cease doing what it insists is its lawful right, while Pakistan has received exceptionally lenient treatment, despite the discovery of a major nuclear black-market ring run by Pakistani scientists and intelligence and military officials. Lenient treatment of Pakistan is quite intolerable in such a blatant case and illustrates the pressures under which the US and UN labor, which suggests that both can only be regarded as lightheaded and impractical.

The uncovering of the illicit Pakistani supply network, which has been operating for at least 16 years, exposed the worst proliferation scandal in history. Yet in response the Security Council passed a resolution that made no reference to Pakistan, or even to the nuclear smuggling ring, but instead urged the entire world to share the responsibility. Resolution 1540 obligates all states to legislate and implement tight domestic controls on materials related to weapons of mass destruction so as to ensure that non-state actors do not get hold of them.

IMO: One can perhaps understand the Iran diktat as it would be a good thing to prevent undue nuclear proliferation, and the sooner the better. Iran has plenty of energy already. In 2002 Tehran admitted it had built undeclared facilities and it is frequently talking quite officially about war. The facilities which are being built would seem to be obviously capable not just of creating WMD but turning them out like a car factory can produce Fords. I do not relish that. Incidentally people, particularly Democrats and British liberals, keep saying the US did not find WMD in Iraq. It is understood that the US found at least 150 WMD, each of which could have had substantial effect on a large city.

When no one seemed to be stepping up to correct what he saw as critical security flaws in the U.S. Coast Guard's $24 billion Deepwater program to rehabilitate ships, De Kort did just about the only thing left he could think of to get action: He made a video and posted it on YouTube.com, A website normally reserved for goofy home-movie outtakes and Paris Hilton parodies may seem an odd place to blow the whistle on potential national security lapses.

But, De Kort is unemployed after being laid off by Lockheed Martin. Lockheed said that the video did not influence the decision to lay off De Kort. However, the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general's office aunched an investigation into De Kort's allegations, and spokeswoman Tamara Faulkner said that inquiry should be completed in the next few months.

De Kort's video has been covered by defense trade magazines, and yesterday, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), ranking Democrat on the Homeland Security Committee, wrote a letter to the Coast Guard asking for an answer to De Kort's "extremely distressing" allegations.

As of late yesterday, his video had been viewed more than 8,000 times. That is low by YouTube standards, where a 42-second clip of a cat on a wheel received more than 800,000 views. But it is higher than might be expected for a totally boring video.

The Project on Government Oversight. said "This is a tremendous way for someone brave enough to do it to say something directly and not have to go through a filter."

Other watchdog groups were less impressed. Patrick Burns, spokesman for Taxpayers Against Fraud, said suing for fraud is ultimately a lot more effective than being "the serious guy in a room full of clowns." "I recommend buttoning up your lip, Xeroxing paper and filing a case," Burns said.

IMO: Burn's suggestion is presumably sound. But it would have meant a lot of dull paperwork and time wasted, important to an unemployed man. De Kort at least made his point clearly, quickly and at relatively low cost. Don't we all want that kind of luck ?

An unlikely assassin: Barry George, an epileptic with learning disabilities.

New evidence includes testimony from two new witnesses - believed to be a retired church minister and an airport worker - that contradicts the police claim that none of its officers was armed. The only forensic evidence that linked George with the murder was a particle from gunshot residue found in his coat pocket. But experts have pointed out that if the officers who searched his flat were armed they would have been covered with residue themselves and could have easily contaminated his clothes.

The gun used appears to be home-made, a difficult and risky task, which has gone wrong for known experienced assassins. George was not known to possess a gun, and he sounds the sort of inconvenient fellow who would flash it around if he did. George's uncle said: "If his mother ever wanted a plug changed then he would always ask me to help her instead."

On the basis of the long "Independent" report it looks as if the Police have simply taken some dill off the street, and this is not what we pay our rates for. OK. so George did have pictures of Dando in his room. Er,.... Does this mean we should put in prison all members of the Tory party who have pictures of Tony B. Liar? Doubtless Bliar be assassinated if he hangs around Westminster much longer. That could be useful pre-emption and lead to Police peerages all round.

Marathi daily Lokmat does not know what to do with Thackeray’s massive silver throne that the Sena chief has sent to its Chinchpokli office.

Thackeray sent his silver throne, sitting on which he has addressed countless press conferences, to Marathi daily Lokmat's Chinchpokli office after being accused by the paper of double-speak on his bitter opposition to a proposal to build a Rs 22-crore gold throne for Shirdi Saibaba. Lokmat, in an article published in the paper, had questioned Thackeray's right to object to Saibaba Sansthan's plans when he himself sits on an oversized silver throne.

Vivek Girdhari, resident editor, Mumbai, admitted, "We believe that only Thackeray can occupy this throne since it has been gifted to him by Shiv Sainiks with love and affection."

IMO: Thackeray is a brilliant politician, represents the ordinary people and is a wonderful cartoonist. Furthermore the chair was made inexpensively (mainly from wood and tinfoil) because the people who made it usually did not have much money. It was gifted to him sensibly and the intent of the gift was good and praiseworthy. 22 crore for a gold idol would have been another matter.

The Shri Saibaba Sansthan managing committee said: "We don’t want a morcha by Shiv Sena. After all, Saibaba was a holy man with a vast following. The general opinion was that he lived frugally and did not need a gold throne". Well my relatives, reasonably, enthuse about (the original) Sai Baba but I would have gone on the Sainik procession. My grandmother made idols from mud and they were acceptable for Ganpathi. The 22 crore should be spent on genuine teaching, education and to prevent poverty. It is what SaiBaba would have wanted even if latterday goondas simply have the intent of keeping it for themselves.

Atomic reactors are not getting adequate supply of fuel. A recent case in the point is that of Tarapur nuclear plant, which was on the verge of shutting down had Russia not pitched in with uranium supplies. Nuclear plants in the country are currently operating at 65 per cent of their installed capacity.

The Indo-US nuclear agreement, once implemented, is expected to meet the shortage of fuel as it will allow the international community to supply the much-needed uranium. The shortage of fuel could hamper India's plans to generate 20,000 MW electricity from nuclear plants by 2020.

Another key issue to figure at the meeting was that of security at nuclear installations. As I mentioned on this blog on August 15th, three persons working at the Narora Atomic plant in Bulandshar district of UP were arrested earlier this month for providing fake residential addresses. Security at nuclear facilities across the country was stepped up following reports that terrorists might target these installations.

Thursday, Aug. 24, 2006

A Republican candidate for this area’s congressional (Nashua) seat said Wednesday that the U.S. government was complicit in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. In an editorial board interview with The Nashua Telegraph on Wednesday, the candidate, Mary Maxwell, said the U.S. government had a role in killing nearly 3,000 people at the World Trade Center and Pentagon, so it could make Americans hate Arabs and allow the military to bomb Muslim nations such as Iraq.

IMO: This sounds a totally bizarre allegation to me. But, these accusations against the GOP seem to have been appearing more and more often, and often from apparently reputable sources. Perhaps we will be left with the strange situation that the President of the USA himself will become liable for capital punishment. Not an impossible situation and this sort of thing has frequently occurred in 3rd world countries. We remember the great controversy over President Nixon, also GOP. To any responsible person, this is a completely worrying situation. Both major US parties seem to have serious faults but we can only hope that the USA, still the greatest hope in the world for effective democratic Government, will somehow struggle on.

.. apparently, hadn't noticed it myself.

The 12 Indian men arrested and later released at Amsterdam following a security alert on a Northwest Airlines flight were treated "inhumanely", said a Dutch passenger who was on the plane. "The way they got arrested inside the plane with everybody seeing how they got treated, I though it was inhuman. They were treated like dogs," said Antunius Slotboom and then he too was kicked off the plane after he remarked that the arrests were akin to what the Germans had done under Hitler during World War II. "They came to me and said, okay you come with us and you are not allowed to fly any more," he said.

IMO: Scratch an American and you'll find a Gestapo member, figuratively. Sounds like typical NorthWest Airlines behaviour to me. I don't think Americans understand foreigners most of the time, as USA seems so nice and cosy to its wealthier citizens. Overall, many people in USA seem poor compared to a wealthy place like Canada. Indian Airlines staff said "If we were to follow such strict rules in India, then every flight would have to make emergency landing."

Pluto lost its planetary status recently in a decision by the International Astronomical Union. Pluto was the first American-discovered planet and was discovered at Lowell Observatory. Lowell had been a wealthy donor with somewhat of an astronomical bee in his bonnet and all were greatly pleased at the time. (The saw goes "The Lowells spoke only to Cabots, and the Cabots spoke only to God" - snobs or what?).

Anyway God has apparently found new friends and Pluto is no more a planet.

Some, presumably including those who mock God, have asserted that Pluto's demise is based on a desire on the part of publishers to sell more textbooks. But Pluto always seemed a typical 'American' discovery so perhaps it is all to the good.

Three new planetary contenders were introduced into the debate that also didn't make the cut: Ceres, Charon and 2003 UB313, currently nicknamed "Xena.". Xeni Jardin had even suggested it would be nicer to call it "Xeni" (after herself) which I must say sounds a better and even a more romantic idea. (XENA? . Aw, c'mon guys! Where's the love? So close, and yet one vowel away), But like all romantic ideas ultimately do, perhaps this one now carries its own unhappy irony.

# posted by uv : 7:19 PM  0 Comments

British police did not want to yet arrest Rashid Rauf, the alleged mastermind, al-Qaeda facilitator and key informant on the details of the 10th August terror plot. They had wanted him arrested in UK for a UK trial. Asma Jehangir, of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, said that it was obvious how information had been obtained - torturing Rauf in Pakistan.

But Rauf is a UK citizen. The UK thus appears to be agreeing to torture of its citizens in Pakistan.

The arrest of Rashid Rauf purportedly triggered the ensuing wave of UK arrests, with Rauf providing in-depth details of the plot to his interrogators in Pakistan. Among the details attributed to Rauf is the idea that the plotters intended to mix a "sports drink" with a gel-like "peroxide-based paste" to create a chemical explosive that "could be ignited with an MP3 player or cell phone."

Citing US chemistry experts, Washington-based information security journalist Thomas C. Greene further concludes that "... the fabled binary liquid explosive -- that is, the sudden mixing of hydrogen peroxide and acetone with sulfuric acid to create a plane-killing explosion, is out of the question... We have reacted to a movie plot"

LSE, Tuesday, 22nd August 2006, 17:12

West Country farmers reckon their cattle moo with a Wurzel accent. Somerset herds moo with a Somerset twang, copying the human voices they hear around them. Birmingham tones have been heard in the Midlands, while Norfolk and Lancashire have also seen their own bovine vernacular. Essex farmers have also reported their cows picking up the much-derided local accent. Cattle owners put the territorial twang down to the amount of time they spent with their herds. West Country farmers say their Friesians definitely moo with a Somerset drawl.

IMO, as someone who has frequently observed cows, I have found Indian cows to be smarter than Western cows, more placid and pleasant in their nature and very family-oriented. English cows are on the whole more individualistic than American cows but it is hard to generalise and it may also be that the nature of US cows has become more placid in, for example, Tallahassee, than it used to be, after the relatively recent State laws abolishing cow-tipping, or probably more accurately, attempts at cow-tipping.

MUMBAI, 17 Aug: "Not a single pothole after August 30," was the blunt message delivered by the Bombay HC on Wednesday, according to Times of India

Under pressure to meet the Bombay High Court’s August 30 deadline by which time all roads must be mended, Municipal Commissioner Johny Joseph clarified that not only ward officers, but also officials of the central agency (the roads department) will be held accountable if they do not fill up potholes on the roads.

You can get a mild example of how bad it is from the Yahoo India video below. IMO that is probably an underestimate.

http://in.news.yahoo.com/060822/211/66veu.html

Electric Tweezers Move Microscopic Objects. EurekaAlert shows yet another sign that desktop laboratories will become cheaper, more widely accessible, more automatable.

While devices with similar functionality using lasers exist, they often cost upwards of a quarter-million dollars. Edwards' device performs some of the same tasks as laser tweezers, yet at a price anticipated to be in the same range as a high-end desktop computer. All it would take to use electric tweezers is a computer and a microscope. The tweezers' action occurs on a common glass microscope slide embedded with five electrodes. These electrodes create an electric field that can be used to push, pull, move and spin a selected object in any direction without actual physical contact. Using software Edwards developed, an operator can select an individual object from a microscope image on a computer screen. "All the user needs to do is to move a joystick."

Anybody who wants to get into nanotech or at least work with some very small devices might want to consider this idea, and even build one at home right now! Maybe someone will take the trouble to do an article for "Make" magazine for example. Inventors are student Brian Edwards, Nader Engheta, professor, and Stephane Evoy, adjunct assistant professor, of University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-08/uop-ups081806.php

Suicide is justified by a number of clerics, including Doha-based Shaykh Yusuf Qaradawi. Objecting to the term “suicide ” because it is “incorrect and misleading,” he states“when Jihad becomes an Individual Duty, as when the enemy seizes the Muslim territory, a woman becomes entitled to take part in it alongside men,” even if it means taking off her hijab to carry out an operation.

This is definitely tendentious but reminds one of the sufragette movement in England, when women protested for the right to vote, often using suicidal violence. One also thinks of the antifeminist protest song (to the tune of "Mr. Gallaher and Mr. Sheen") : "They got the right to vote, oh it really gets my goat, and pretty soon we'll all be going up in smoke!".

More in "Ready to Detonate: The Diverse Profiles of Female Bombers" by Farhana Ali.

Reasonable people see all this as quite ridiculous and by now there are scads of psychology theories. Probably voting by women is harmless and reasonable, but Muslim clerics to date have apparently begged the question, whilst at the same time often condoning female suicide bombing, using dubious logic in their efforts.

Whether equality for women is really meaningful is one of those Bushism issues "You are either for us or against us". Probably the right answer is that allowing women equality is a fair compromise for the moment whilst bearing in mind that dt-MRI scans suggest a different brain structure for women. The feeling would be that it would be democratic to allow women equal rights but we must remember that democracy often does not throw up the right candidate. Complex issues here.

Yes, the electric car IS coming as I have already suggested in several blogs ! Mumbai-Mirror on Sunday (URL below) gave an excellent description of one way this might work

The major European company Siemens VDO are designing it and it could eventually be suitable for autoricks too, though motorcyclists will probably realise that 3-wheelers have inherent stability problems which may need a little more work.

Effectively the Siemens device uses a motorised hub and apparently their eCorner device has started selling licences in Australia. I hope it is better than the Hartnett car anyway, which few will remember. I would recommend ensuring there is a suitable battery and a mains power recharging or reticulation system, (even along humble trolley bus lines if need be) before personal investment. Possibly a Prius type system is envisaged, but this could be cumbersome for small vehicles.

EnGadget say however "Siemens expect cars that would use such functionality to be common in 15 years or so, but we hope we don't have to wait that long for all the fun and power savings this system promises."
http://www.mumbaimirror.com/nmirror/mmpaper.asp? sectid=16&articleid=81920062340406568192006233624406

Times of India, Lucknow

Acute Viral Encephalitic Syndrome (AVES) might strike in the plains of UP as well after taking toll of more than 60 lives in the Terai belt of the state. All that the virus needs is unhygienic living condition and poor resistance to diseases, which exists in abundance here.

It is not caused by mosquitoes and undergoes man to man transmission. But despite this, the state health machinery is sitting idle.

Director General medical health, Dr B Nath said, "We will wait for the National Institute of Virology, Pune to confirm the SGPGI reports. Only then we will draw a strategy to meet the crisis. The team is expected to visit several districts of eastern UP in the coming week."

New Scientist 18 August

Dennis Steindler and his colleagues transplanted adult human brain cells into mice and found that they could successfully generate new neurons and incorporate themselves in a variety of brain regions.

Indeed, and if the French have any brain cells left from their 200 'volunteers' for the Lebanon after they have been dealt with by Hezbollah, perhaps what is left could be transplanted into a mouse and we could have REAL "cheese-eating surrender monkeys". Charles Martel , the greatest of the French and the last true Frenchman, is turning in his grave.

Five years ago in July 2001, Kerala residents said they heard a loud boom. Then red rain fell, which stained white clothes. News of the red rain mystery reached Dr. Godfrey Louis, a physicist at Mahatma Gandhi University in Kerala. He collected many test tubes full of the red-colored rainwater and put some of the odd liquid under a microscope. He was struck by the beautiful rust color of what seemed to be living cells. The cell diameters averaged 10 microns, a little bigger than a human blood cell, which is about 7 microns.

IMO it sounds like it could be most peculiar and may indeed be worth further study. David Lloyd, the Cardiff, UK lab director organising some studies of it, thought it could contain some form of yeast cells, but that idea apparently still leaves some open ended questions.

Another take: "There is a discovery in rainwater that fell on the southwestern tip of India in the state of Kerala, which is challenging the idea that all DNA in this universe is the same."

This so-called "red rain" does occur occasionally, and it is said that red rain (apparently unanalyzed) has fallen in the past in other places like Mongolia and Japan. There still is no definitive confirmation of DNA, or what makes the cell walls red.

In mid-September 2006, Prof. Wickramasinghe (of the Hoyle/Wickramasinghe theories) will host 30 astrobiologists from around the world at Cardiff University, including Dr. Godfrey Louis, who is flying in from Kerala, India, to present his research on the red rain cells since 2001.
http://www.earthfiles.com/news/news.cfm?ID=1129&category=Science
http://www.astrobiology.cf.ac.uk/redrain.html
http://education.vsnl.com/godfrey

It seems he has wasted a substantial amount of Police time with his lies, at the very least, and caused grave diplomatic concerns.

At the very least, surely Al Fayed can be given enforced medication and restrained, under the legislation proposed for Spring 2008.

Im Spring 2008 the English government plans to make the definition of mental illness more broad and far reaching, and plans to force people to take medication once they have been discharged from hospital (Community Treatment Orders). Personally I think the legislation should not be carried out anyway and is of little merit but if Al Fayed is not constrained and given enforced medication it sounds like bizarre cronyism and further steps may even make the legislation unenforceable. See bedpush.com for proposed details regarding legislation.

Dr Mailliez denied the claim by Mr Al Fayed that there was a last message about her love for his son. Dr Mailliez said: “When I arrived she was not conscious. She was just moaning and moving her hands and her arms in every direction. That showed that she was in a little pain. But she couldn’t speak words.” Dr Mailliez confirmed that in the half-hour or more he was at the scene, he never heard the Princess speak.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2319336,00.html

IMO the idea of hiring professional hackers to start a wireless internet in Himachal Pradesh is somewhat reminiscent of the idea of the USA hiring Osama Bin Laden to prevent terrorism. A lot of these guys are drug addicts and unrepentant turncoats and thieves, furthermore wealthy turncoats and thieves.

One typical such "hacker" is Peter "Mudge" Zatko who testified to the Senate that he could "take the Internet down in 30 minutes". Errm, an unlikely boast to get Govt funds? Anyway, for 'protection' of legimate services, he apparently was paid well in excess of $5mn. In 1983 he was involved, according to the Happy Hacker website, with Fred Villella, who apparently drew up plans to throw several hundred thousand legal immigrants from Central America into concentration camps if USA invaded Nicaragua. There's a lot more....

Surely one Osama Bin Laden was enough even for the admittedly dead stupid US voters?

http://www.boingboing.net/2006/08/18/dalai_lama_issues_su.html

August 19, 2006

Not in this case.

Aslam Shaikh and sister Shaheen were the first to taste Mahim creek's 'sweet' water, yesterday evening. In a couple of hours, there were at least 5,000 people, dipping their bottles into the smelly, murky waters, and swigging it down like manna. Among them, children, even infants, who were not only made to drink the water, but were also bathed in it. People in Mahim buy the 'sweet water' in plastic bottles normally used for storing Aab-e-Zamzam, the sacred water from Madina.

Pictures show decent people actually buying the water. PLEASE STOP IT.

It is almost certainly heavily polluted with poisonous chemicals and that gives the peculiar taste. In fact I would have to be very, very thirsty to drink the water in Mahim Creek at the best of times; it seems to me to taste like elephant urine.

Mumbai Mirror, Saturday, August 19, 2006

Barely three days after the horrific 7/11 blasts, four Pakistanis trained in making explosives entered India through the Nepal-Uttar Pradesh border, Faisal Shaikh, one of the blasts accused has told Anti-Terrorist Squad officials. Faisal, allegedly the Lashkar-e-Taiba's western India commander picked up on July 27 along with his Bangalore-based software engineer brother Muzammil, has said that he himself helped the four enter Indian territory and dropped two of them near Punjab and the other two in Uttar Pradesh. Before the blasts too, he brought in four other Pakistanis through the same route, Faisal has disclosed in his statement, an ATS officer who did not wish to be named said.

Police have taken Faisal's revelation as a stark warning and are seeking more details about the Pakistanis. However, officials said they had information that the intruders would not be living alone but would try to set up a family, as that could create suspicion, but were likely to become part of some thickly-populated and predominantly Muslim locality. The attempt was to make detection difficult, police said.

PTI Friday, DNA Mumbai

RAIPUR: A major breakthrough has been achieved in the probe into the July 11 serial bomb blasts in commuter trains in Mumbai, Union Minister for State for Home Sriprakash Jaiswal said here on Friday.

"In a major breakthrough, we have understood the conspiracy behind the blasts although the accused are yet to be arrested," he told reporters at the Mana airport here.


"It will now be difficult for anyone to carry out any such blasts", he said.

Well that is a bit more cheerful and we hope he is right.

Times Online August 18, 2006

Michael O'Leary, chief executive officer of the popular low-cost European airline Ryanair, said the situation at British airports is still far from normal due to what he called "farcical" new security measures.

Ryanair’s threat to sue the Government for compensation has little legal merit and is motivated by the low cost airline’s fears for its long term survival, according to leading aviation lawyers. "It’s nothing more than a bit of sabre-rattling because Ryanair is petrified of what the new security measures will do to its business if they are made permanent," one lawyer told Times Online.

That is apparently the view of The Times's aviation lawyers and as a previous customer of cheap EU airlines I do not see why UK taxpayers should have to pay to subsidise Ryanair which is not even a UK airline and is in competition with BA.

Good for the Government ! Make Ryanair pay its own bills or confiscate its airplanes and take away its slots if it cannot look after its customers as it promises. People have to realize that a venture is a venture and firms like Ryanair should not rely on the Government to hold their hand, like a nanny guiding a small child. To do so probably would have even turned Maggie Thatcher puce, in her palmier days. Enough money has already been wasted on such subsidies, e.g. on the water companies who in some cases have simply put money intended for reticulation improvement, straight into the pockets of foreign shareholders. The Govt should be seriously hard on these airlines and save taxpayers some money. I think it was Reg Ansett who once said about Butler of Butler Air Transport: "The guy should be cracking rocks!". And that is how airlines operate, harsher than Enron. The UK must still retain some face against foreign opposition in a difficult market.

Aug 11,2006 Mid-Day Thane

Ganesh idols in Mumbai will cost at least 20 to 30 per cent more this year, say idolmakers. The hike is mainly due to the increase in rates of raw material and colours.

Says Subhash Anant Bolinjkar, an idolmaker in the city, "Every year there is a hike in Ganesh idol prices, but this year the hike is more pronounced due to the rise in petrol prices in addition to the increase in rates of raw materials. We have to spend more on transporation due to the petrol hike."
Ganesh Chaturthi falls on 27th August this year

Edmonton Sun August 17

IMO: It is not immediately clear that this comment is relevant and why. Better for whom? US is now incapable of building a modern warship. It relies on China to do so for it. China’s 2.3 million member People’s Liberation Army is the world’s largest fighting force and Beijing has alarmed its neighbours with double-digit percentage increases in military spending nearly every year for a decade.

U.S.-China military relations have been strained over a number of issues in recent years, including U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s push for Beijing to be more open about its defence priorities, its military budget and its nuclear arsenal.

The White House said. "Tony Snow, asked by a journalist about the alleged remark, tried to play down the episode, saying that President Bush had “been called a lot worse and, I suspect, will be”. Mr Snow told reporters in Washington: “And there will be piquant names, sort of, hurled his way from time to time, but, you know, that’s part of the burden of leadership.” "

IMO: It looks as though the White House is too diplomatic to admit any adherence to John Prescott's view. I'd like to add 'LOL' but bearing in mind the 'success' of Israel in polluting so much fine coastline and killing so many innocent people, it is hard to do add 'LOL'. The trouble is, as is so often is the case, many of the poor fellows who call themselves 'Muslims' seem to be even more indoctrinated with foolish paradise and religion lies than the Jews are, who have at least the dignity of claiming they were born that way. But born evil? For either side ? It does not fit in with my views and both sides owe it to their own beliefs not to be made suckers by a bunch of crap politicians. When I studied Islam I was led to believe that a Muslim prayed to God, not to some crap imam who is probably far less moral than yourself and your family. They would probably do better by praying to George Bush than, effectively, to their imam, and I don't recommend either.

The Independent asked a group of Labour MPs what they thought of John Prescott's outburst.
18 August 2006

Ian Davidson Glasgow South West MP
"I think that John Prescott is to be commended for the quality of his political analysis. His comment on American policy is brief and accurate. Britain has got to ensure that it is no longer seen as simply being the glove puppet of the United States."

Glenda Jackson Hampstead and Highgate MP
"I entirely endorse his view. This is why Parliament should be recalled. This government is failing miserably as far as our approach towards the Middle East is concerned. We are simply... bag carriers for Bush and all his policies have been a disaster."

David Crausby Bolton North East MP
"One of the most disappointing aspects of the Iraq resolution is that we stuck our neck out and supported the Americans... on the understanding that the road map would be there but it's not been delivered at all. It's virtually been forgotten."

Ann Cryer Keighley MP
"I have no doubt that there is a very large number of Labour MPs who will be agreeing with what John Prescott is alleged to have said. I agree with it. There is huge concern and this goes right across the Labour back bench."

Jim Sheridan Paisley and Renfrewshire North MP
"I think he is right. I don't think the Americans have given the road map the priority it deserves and until you solve the problem of Palestine, other problems are going to appear. Every time Palestine comes up the agenda it gets... put on the back-burner."

Peter Kilfoyle Liverpool Walton MP
"What he is reported to have said reflects the views of many people in the Labour Party. It may not go down well in international diplomacy... but in the Labour Party it will be welcomed as a rare flash of honesty from a senior member of the Government."

Ken Livingstone Mayor of London
"I have no idea what John Prescott did or did not say since it was a private conversation, but... the current US administration has been a disaster for the American people and has done untold damage not only to international relations but to the environment."

Jon Trickett Hemsworth MP
"The actions and language of the British Government are actively hindering the prospects for peace in the Middle East; simultaneously enhancing the threat from terrorism... Our historic influence with Arab countries has been squandered."

John Austin Erith and Thamesmead MP
"If John Prescott did say it, then it touches a chord with many of us... American foreign policy is a major contributor to the crisis in the Middle East... and its failure to ensure adherence to UN resolutions regarding Palestine, and its failure to progress the road map."

Martin Salter Reading West MP
"It is abundantly clear that the Bush administration has been less than enthusiastic in pursuing the Middle East road map, and indeed many of its policies have actually inflamed the situation rather than sought to resolve this long-standing conflict."

More than 75,000 Hindus were joining hands in a human chain to pray for the victims of war in the Middle East and call for peace.

At the annual Janmastami Festival in Watford, England, thousands of Hindu people were forming the human chain to help repair the "global bonds of trust" threatened by the current conflict.

The major festival, which runs until August 20, takes place at the Bhaktivedanta Manor ISKCON temple and commemorates the 5,000-year festival of the birth of Lord Krishna. Event organisers were again expecting more than 75,000 people to attend the festival which provides a colourful taste of mystic India with live stage shows, colourful costumes, enchanting music, mediation and exotic food.

His Grace Gauri Dasa, president of Bhaktivedanta Manor, said: "As the world watches the violence in the Middle East, we want to remind everyone of the simple message of Love at this Krishna Janmastami Festival.

Prime Minister Tony Blair said: "I understand that the Janmastami festival at the ISKCON Bhaktivedanta Manor Temple is likely, once again, to be the largest such gathering outside India. "My congratulations to the organisers and everyone else involved in this successful event."

Leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, Sir Menzies Campbell, added: "I am delighted that the Hindu community will be celebrating the festival of Janmastami in August. "This is an important event relating to Lord Krishna who is worshipped as God by over one billion Hindus in the world."

For Mumbaikars, the contest to get to the pot of gold on Janmashtami, the day the city enthusiastically celebrates Krishna’s birthday, is getting bigger, meaner and more lucrative than ever before.

Topping the list this year is a handi at Thane. The prize: a whopping Rs 5 lakh

Last year, the highest handi stood at 36 feet, about the top floor of a four-storeyed building. This time, it has reached 40 feet. Mumbai’s tallest handi, near Dadar’s Kohinoor cinema, was last broken by a 10-year-old girl, Prajakta Pandurang Tawri.

Reflecting the times, even the Govindas, the fiercely competitive crew of handi-crackers, are sponsored by companies, Indian and multinationals alike, often by powerful and moneyed individuals.

Some of the better known Govindas, such as those representing Shiv Sena MLA Bala Nandgaonkar’s Mazgaon Dakshin Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav Mandal, will be sporting logos of United Breweries and Reliance on their T-shirts this year.

With the stakes rising, the Govindas have begun training weeks before the event. Prajakta says it is easy to train because most of her “team mates’’ are her friends and like her. She also has her father, an expert Govinda, to look up to for inspiration. “The money is there but we are made to believe that a lot of reputation is also at stake,’’ she adds.
Indian Telegraph, Aug 20.

Deputy PM criticises US handling of Middle East, condemning 'cowboy' President at private meeting

Many papers have published this alleged comment by Prescott. e.g "The Independent", 17th August.

On July 31 I said here "I had always thought of Prescott as sounding like what I would have expected a Labour Party Prime Minister to be like". His alleged comment does fit in with this idea. Of Harold Wilson, a previous UK Prime Minister, it had been apparently alleged that the American CIA had set up a plot to depose him and replace him, crazily, with Lord Mountbatten!

I stand aghast of the folly already perpetrated everywhere. One example : The apparently needless bombing by Israel of Lebanese oil refineries, causing some say the largest oil spill since the Esso (or Exxon) Valdez.

"The War on Lebanon and the Battle for Oil" by Michel Chossudovsky suggests "Israel has a stake in the Azeri oil fields, from which it imports some twenty percent of its oil. The opening of the (Ceyhan-Tblisi-Baku or (BTC) ) pipeline will substantially enhance Israeli oil imports from the Caspian sea basin. But there is another dimension which directly relates to the war on Lebanon. Whereas Russia has been weakened, Israel is slated to play a major strategic role in "protecting" the Eastern Mediterranean transport and pipeline corridors out of Ceyhan." There are many other matters touched on in the article including the rerouting of 'Russian' oil to Asia through Israel and the use of water from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to supply Israel. So there certainly do seem to be some geopolitical reasons for Bush wanting to use EU citizens and Malaysians to act as cannon-fodder for Israeli imperialism and the destruction of Islam.

In Seller and Yeatman '1066 and all that' terms, "Is it all a Good Thing or a Bad Thing?" Well, the idea of allowing a major and known intentional polluter like Israel involvement with oil in any way sounds like a very bad thing. Maybe Bush's stooges in Europe and Malaysia should bear this in mind. Just a thought.

http://english.pravda.ru/hotspots/conflicts/11-08-2006/83898-Nuclear_War-0

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?
context=viewArticle&code=CHO20060726&articleId=2824

In USA of the small and medium-sized dams in this country were built to last just 50 years. (Nowadays the typical design life is more like 100 years.) According to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, about 30 percent of the more than 76,000 dams in the United States are older than 50 years--and by 2020, that number will increase to more than 80 percent. That's a lot of old dams, some of which hold back not just water but toxic sediments from early industrial operations. Once they start to go, a lot of people will be poisoned and/or flooded. Bearing in mind, for example, the failures to prepare for the New Orleans flooding, and for future global warming, the US Federal Goverment is likely to ignore this.

Apparently the US administration are happy to "Pray to God" but they do not "Check the Ammunition", in the words of the song.

as from "Gulf Times" 16 August, 2006, 11:00 AM Doha Time

LONDON: Prince Harry woke up yesterday to discover he had been re-branded "Dirty Harry" for kissing and groping television presenter Natalie Pinkham behind his girlfriend’s back.
Prince William did not come out of the episode with his reputation entirely intact either. Pictures of the two princes hugging each other and looking somewhat the worse for wear also appeared yesterday under the headline The Booze Brothers.

Seems Harry is also a self-harmer. It is well known that the Windsors are said to suffer from hereditary weaknesses including insanity, due to inbreeding, rather like Pakistanis are sometimes microcephalitic. After Natalie had finally taken her leave, Harry returned to the party, where he proceeded to cut his finger with a kitchen knife. Blood pouring from the wound, he was taken by his bodyguard to the casualty unit at St Thomas’ Hospital for treatment. The Royal family are clearly regarded by some English people as a nuisance and of no use to the country, just wasting taxpayer's money. At least it is better than having Tony B. Liar as king though I bet he does not think so.

Nowadays Colombo relies greatly on Pakistan for weapons though Colombo has been known to bomb and kill local Muslims for many years. This seems completely in disaccord with the Koran.

The site bombed by Sri Lankan jets on Monday had been designated a humanitarian zone and the LTTE had passed its coordinates on to the military via the UN children’s agency, UNICEF, and the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC), NGO sources said Tuesday.

The Sri Lankan military had been given precise coordinates of where ‘Peace village’ comprising the Senchcholai home hit by Monday’s airstrike and other humanitarian centres is located.
UNICEF chief in Colombo JoAnna VanGerpen told AFP Tuesday: "These were children from surrounding schools in the area who were brought there for a two-day training workshop on first aid."

On Monday four Kfir jet bombers dropped 16 bombs directly on the children’s home, destroying several buildings and killing scores of teenagers and wounding 150 others.

[TamilNet, August 15, 2006 11:32 GMT]

PTI Tuesday, August 15, 2006 21:50 IST

LUCKNOW: Three men working in the canteen of Narora atomic power plant in Bulandshahr have been arrested for allegedly giving fake addresses at the time of their appointment. For a proper job at a proper place, a true address should be given. Of course, they could be completely innocent.

In fact, they were found to be residents of Aligarh, best known as the site of the 'Muslim University' which in the days of the Raj was modelled after Cambridge University, UK. A case for giving false addresses has been filed against the trio at Narora police station and investigations are on.

Security at nuclear facilities across the country was stepped up last week in the run up to the Independence Day celebrations following reports that terrorists might target these institutions. I do not know UP well but remember it as a state where (some) cows are treated better than humans.

August 3, 2006 (Mumbai):

After dealing with local mafia, Mumbai police now have evidence that mafia dons from UP are also investing in Mumbai real estate. Their investments are in the satellite towns of Vasai, Virar and Nalla Sopara, which have a high concentration of migrants from Uttar Pradesh.

Uttar Pradesh gangster Kripashankar was shot dead in an encounter in Mumbai last week. Kripashankar was a close associate of Munna Bajrangi - a mafia don from Uttar Pradesh with links to Dawood Ibrahim. Bajrangi has invested several crore rupees in properties in the suburbs of Mira Road, Vasai and Nallasopara.

At least they are choosing these areas, which shows perhaps that they are 'improving'.

http://www.buzzmachine.com/

Large, informative and occasionally controversial blog, begun by someone located near 9/11 on 9/11, but covers many topics. Sample: "I have been sick of hearing the meme that British and American foreign policy led to the terrorist plots carried out recently and foiled last week in the U.K. I hear it from Muslims and their leaders quoted in the media. I heard it yesterday in an appalling report on the BBC’s World Service European show, with a reporter leading young people to say that our foreign policy and seeing their “brothers blown up” in Afghanistan led to this (let’s remember who’s really blowing up Muslims in Afghanistan and Iraq: Muslims)."


http://tribewanted.com

Tribewanted – what is it?
Tribewanted is 'a unique global project that is trying to bring 5000 people together online to decide what happens during the development of a sustainable community on a Fijian island'. Actually one of the first (Web 2.0) mixed cybergroups/realgroups and interesting as such. They say they are not simply a front for travel agent. Membership limited to 5000, and you can go to the island and also probably blog, mention videos etc.

Wakeupfromyourslumber (Url below) mentions that the largest US Christian Church, The Presbyterian Church, has released a book that says President Bush organized New York's Sept. 11 attacks.

It was apparently concluded in the book that the Twin Towers were brought down by controlled demolition, military personnel were given stand-down orders not to intercept hijacked flights and the 9/11 Commission, ostensibly created to uncover the truth behind the events of 9/11, 'simply ignored evidence' that the administration was involved in the attacks.

The blog goes on to say that once this fact sinks in to the US Moral Majority "The nation will undergo such fundamental changes in its power structure - i.e., the role of state and local governments vis-a-vis the federal government, issues of local and global defense and foreign policy - that it will no longer resemble what we see today."

Obviously I can't vouch for this but that is the news stated. The Presbyterian Church is certainly a major Church to allow production of such a statement under its aegis, if it has, and it is certainly to be hoped that the end result will be a better fairer society in the USA and reduce poverty in the USA, allow US progress to democracy, allow more moral practices (including mutual racial tolerance and perhaps an element of syncretism) and improve the country in a great number of ways. Why not? New York City has improved and the whole USA can improve too, in many ways.

USA could even regain its moral fibre and become an acceptable world leader again.

http://wakeupfromyourslumber.blogspot.com/2006/08/
largest-us-church-says-bush-behind-911.html

UK Sunday Times August 13

The world’s first solar- powered spy drone will take photographs from 60,000ft and provide the UK armed forces with a budget version of America’s surveillance satellites. The Zephyr had its first successful trial flight over New Mexico earlier this month and is scheduled to be in service over Iraq and Afghanistan within two years. It is designed to stay airborne for up to three months and relay pictures of targets as small as 10in across. It is also intended to relay radio signals from special forces soldiers in remote locations.

Presumably the drone could also be useful for many peaceful purposes also and carry them out at low cost.

My last post implied that there should be some improvement with regsrds to transportation. Clearly when we compare the motor car era to the horse and buggy era we notice that change can appear more of a compromise than it ultimately is. Early cars certainly had disadvantages that horse transport did not, and these took a long time to sort out. We know that in transportation a great step forward was taken with mobile phones, but even there the process was far from immediate and early mobiles were suitcase size which sounds impractical nowadays.

To allow physical motion, one way might be an improved electric autorickshaw with added safety features. Certainly the external aspects could also be stylised enough to provide status, if anyone bothered.The safety features might be the least of our problems (it could be argued that by adding doors, as in Goa, some attempts have been made already) but the obvious improvement might be to use a strong and well designed plastic shell. Obviously existing autoricks are rather impractical. They can't be used closer to Mumbai than Juhu already which looks wise, but they possibly aren't worth dramatic improvements unless for example they can be seen more easily by trucks and are powered electrically, say. Electric power would need an improved bettery source which is not yet available and whilst existing gas-powered vehicles using the cheaply modified petrol engines are a little environmentally better, a big further advantage in electric vehicles would be high reliability which is certainly not a characteristic of existing autoricks. A further improvement would be computerised central control perhaps along relatively predetermined paths or tracks, higher stability perhaps using a Segway-like gyro system and also a radar collision prevention system. These ideas are getting cheaper to implement. Soon implementation costs might not be much more than the cost of providing a mobile phone.A major expense is the shell and another could be provision of guidance tracks though that could probably be kept low as well. But so far there is no suitable battery and this determines success or failure, and ultimately the vehicle specifications. If money were spent on the tracks the ultimate efficiency of the battery might not be quite as important but I can see more problems and cost in providing tracks from a day to day practical viewpoint. Hopefully something like the nanotube battery (at present being developed at various sites such as M.I.T) will eventually come about but until it does the idea is possibly little more than the offer of a glimmer of hope. But at least there is hope that things can get better and other ways can be found too, I am sure.

Other alternatives such as doubledecker trains could be less desirable. Such trains work in low density areas like metropolitan France but where there is constant superheavy traffic they are not such a good idea. Provision of more tracks (e.g. two more tracks to as far as Virar on the Western region) would certainly be good and additional tracks to Virar are planned I think. But there is also the fact that land in such areas is hard to get and can be inconvenient to existing residents.

Toyota sales are said to soon exceed those of General Motors in US and in Detroit it is frequently said that Toyota and Honda are much superior to US cars. Saab (a GM subsidiary) now produce a lot of non-petroleum cars with excellent performance (e.g. 0-60 mph in 8 seconds) and better specifications than US cars but there is a problem that nongasoline (usually ethanol-driven) cars may ultimately be worse than using gasoline as rainforests could be destroyed. An electric car would still need energy too, even if more efficient batteries (e.g. using carbon nanotubes) come into production.

Any good answers? Very substantial reduction of car numbers and car size.

Developing countries like India and China should realise that cars are becoming passe, like it or not. US carmakers are certainly said in Detroit to have 'lost it'. The right answer is to look to a new and better carless future, whatever form that may take, not to fight against a new and hopeful future in USA or elsewhere. Just as USA went forward to the car when there were only horses and buggies. The answers are not yet clear as to what to do, but things move fast AND NOW IS WHEN TO WORK IT OUT.

The apparently obvious solution, that of physical teleportation (matter transmission), was patented years ago in USA, in a very primitive form, by the Xerox company but it may never be physically feasible for the commuter at any price. Obviously mobile phones are one answer and TV phones are getting more and more common too. A few years ago for an ordinary workman on a Mumbai building site to have a mobile phone would have been inconceivable and even outside the bounds of science fiction, but now it is normal! Still, a phone call is not the same as being there and there is much room for more progress. What that progress will be, is not yet clear but it is clear that when there is a problem, there is often a satisfactory solution. So there is certainly room for original thinkers and inventors.

Continuation of Peace Process in interest of India-Pakistan: Kasuri
'Pakistan Times' Diplomatic Desk

ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri Tuesday said that continuation of peace process was in the interest of both India and Pakistan. Responding to a question whether Bombay train bombing would affect the peace process, he said India and Pakistan are holding dialogue as both knew that this process was in their interest as "Interest of both the countries did not change."

Indian envoy holds surprise meet with FM
"Gulf Times" Wednesday, 9 August, 2006, 12:42 PM Doha Time
ISLAMABAD: Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan Shiv Shankar Menon held a surprise meeting with Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri at the Foreign Office, official sources said yesterday. The interaction carries significant importance as it took place on the request of the Indian side on the heels of expulsion of each other's diplomats by the two countries. Pakistan has once again offered India co-operation in interrogation of the blasts.

32 suspected illegal Bangladeshi immigrants held at Nalasopara (Zee)
Mumbai, Aug 09: Thirtytwo suspected illegal Bangladeshi immigrants were arrested from Nalasopara town in neighbouring Thane district during a special drive launched by Thane rural police last night, police said. With intelligence reports pointing out that a large number of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants have settled down in the Vasai-Virar belt of Thane district, police launched a combing operation in which nearly 80 people were rounded up on suspicion. Thirtytwo of them proved to be suspected Bangladeshi nationals, police said today. Additional SP (Vasai), S Pokale said that these suspects will be produced in court today and a direction will be sought to deport them in due course of time. "These suspected immigrants will also be questioned to find out if any one of them was involved in July 11 serial train blasts," the official said.

Kashmir Terrorist Captured (VOA) 07 August 2006
In Mumbai, police have arrested six suspects in the July 11th commuter train bomb attacks that killed more than one-hundred-eighty people. Indian police say the suspects have been linked to the Students Islamic Movement of India, an extremist group associated with Lashkar-e-Toiba.
In its latest report on counter-terrorism, the U.S. State Department says "Lashkar-e-Toiba began as the militant wing of the Islamic extremist organization Markaz Dawa ul-Irshad, which was formed in the mid-1980s." It is one of the three largest terrorist groups fighting in Kashmir against India. The Pakistani government banned Lashkar-e-Toiba and froze its assets in January 2002. The group has claimed responsibility for numerous attacks since 2000, including an attack on Srinagar airport. India has been targeted by other Kashmir separatist groups and by Maoist insurgents in eastern India. Thousands of Indians have been killed in terrorist attacks during the past five years.

7 August
The Anti Terrorist Squad detained a 73-year-old retired army Major Ramchandra Pakhre from Shrirampur on Friday in connection with the Mumbai blast. Pakhre is said to have links with ISI member Arif Lakhani, who was arrested on Tuesday night.The cops found classified army information in Lakhani’s bag. Lakhani revealed during the interrogation that the book was give to him by Pakhre.A source from Manmad said, “Pakhre revealed to the cops during the interrogation that he had given the book and some documents to Arif as he wanted to join the army. He said he never wanted to leak out any information.” "Lakhani's modus operandi was simple," it was explained. Lakhani often travelled in Jhelum Express and struck friendship with serving and retired military personnel travelling on the train. Lakhani had a Pakistani visa and was set to move to Pakistan. He has been alleged to provide sensitive information to Pakistan. Pakhre was later released the same day. Lakhani and his accomplices are said to be a part of a larger network and having associations with some earlier operatives arrested from Sirsa and Ferozepore recently.

Muslim student body SIMI in eye of terror storm (Reuters) Fri Jul 28
Investigators have detained dozens of members of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) in connection with one of the country's worst terrorist attacks and some among the six arrested so far in the case are suspected to have links with it. Security experts say the crackdown was long overdue.

Dr Death cracks, admits 7/11 role
July 28, 2006 "Dr Death cracks, admits 7/11 role

Dr Ansari says he wanted to plant bombs on Mumbai trains soon after the 2002 Gujarat riots; claims LeT module he led was involved in last year’s Delhi blasts too.

Both the ATS and Mumbai Police's Crime Branch are now pretty sure about Ansari's central role in the July 11 blasts that killed close to 200 people and injured around 800. Ansari's confessional statement, which details how terror groups identify and recruit people, how the recruits travel to Pakistan and their training regimen and deployment as sleeper cells across India, has been sent to the Intelligence Bureau."

Metro-Thane Wednesday, August 09

"Forest officials from Teen Hath Naka set three snakes free into the nearby hills on July 30, the day of Nag Panchami.

The snakes had been rescued from snake charmers in the city. Officials claim this was an effort towards creating awareness among people that snakes were living beings, who deserved to be treated with kindness. Says an official, "They are often kept in abominable conditions by the snake charmers. We plan to undertake more drives like this throughout the city to rescue the reptiles from their clutches.""

I am sure these snakes should be treated well. I can tell from my pet slugs that such creatures deserve and respond to kindness. It is a pity, though, that most people nowadays have to spend such a long time watching television. In the old days there was much more variety and doubtless continuing to provide that constructively may improve pleasure and also provide job opportunites, without keeping snakes in captivity. We have to think of three things I suppose: The snakes, jobs for the snake charmers, and improved leisure activities for the general public. Also there are of course the important religious aspects.

Nag-Panchami is an important all-India festival. The thousand-headed Shesh Nag who symbolises Eternity is the couch of Lord Vishnu. It is on this couch that the Lord reclines between the time of the dissolution of one Universe and creation of another. Eternity in Hinduism is often represented by a serpent eating its own tail.

in.news.yahoo.com, August 9

Tamil ministers convey concern to Sri Lanka. The Tamil Nadu political parties in the UPA alliance today conveyed their concern over the worsening situation in the island nation to the Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Mangla Samaraweera. They said they would not endorse violence from any quarters and the ethnic issue should be resolved through dialogue, but were concerned about Tamilians increasingly becoming the ''target''.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi yesterday voiced concern in the state Assembly, saying, ''We cannot tolerate Tamils being killed and made to suffer in Sri Lanka.'' Karunanidhi had also said that the ban on LTTE is ''debatable''.

Maran is said to have echoed Karunanidhi's view to the Sri Lankan Foreign Minister today. But, both the DMK and PMK ministers told the Lankan minister that they were not supporting bloodshed and violence from any quarters. Dialogue was the only way to solve all the issues, they impressed upon the foreign minister.

In his meeting with Samaraweera, E Ahamed conveyed India's position that there was no military solution to the problems and efforts should be made to resolve the ethnic issue through dialogue.

Yahoo, Tuesday August 8

Mumbai, Aug.8 (ANI): Visually impaired women of the National Association For The Blind (NAB) are making tricolour rakhis for army soldiers deployed in Jodhpur, Jammu, Srinagar, Leh, Guwahati and Mumbai.

The visually impaired women are delighted to be given an opportunity to make and send these rakhis to the soldiers at the border.

"It feels great that the Rakhis made by us are tied on the wrists of the soldiers who protect us," said Mayuri Patil, a blind rakhi maker.

"We have named it as Rashtriya Bandhan. Flag colours are used in the making of these Rakhis. We make rakhis for the good health and safety of the soldiers. It also carries a message of long life for the soldiers," said Chhaya Desai, Assistant Director, Utkarsha.

http://cryptome.org/ said: Richard Tomlinson v. MI6 blog has been shut by request of HMG which bluffed craven US-based Typepad.com.

raincoaster.wordpress.com/ said on August 7: For the record, Richard Tomlinson is no donkey, but he is a self-serving, untrustworthy user. This, of course, isn’t a prosecutable offence, but it makes him more predictable. That’s my point.

But wiki may come somewhere close to an understanding of all this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Tomlinson

"During an interview in "Hardtalk", televised around the globe on BBC World, Tomlinson raises a pertinent question to the interviewer, Tim Sebastian. - He asks why, considering the historical importance of the death of the Princess of Wales, he is constantly hassled by the secret services for simply pointing out the bizarre similarity of the active plan MI6 had poised to assassinate Milosevic in 1992, and all the details of the crash which resulted in the Princess's death in 1997."

IMO: If that is true, I recall some (probably reputedly CIA) book about, perhaps, the assassination of leading US dignitaries which suggested: "If I were a US citizen who wished to assassinate President X, I would use a Kalashnikov or an Arisaka rifle, NOT a US rifle". In other words, Tomlinson's comments simply suggest the cause of any assassination was SOMEONE OTHER than MI6. Well, maybe it was a 'double-bluff' but why? The obvious assassin would be Al Fayed - if there was an assassination. More likely the silly repetitive stories are usual newspaper timewasting. One can only hope that Al Fayed's 'retirement pension' to Lord Stephens results in Al Fayed's arrest. But I have no reason to hope to trust the honesty of 'bent coppers'. And Tomlinson's book, referred to on Wiki and which his blog tries to publicise? Not worth reading.

Oh dear, what a waste of all our time.

New America Media, Feb 08, 2006

A little-known $385 million contract for Halliburton subsidiary KBR to build detention facilities for "an emergency influx of immigrants" is another step down the Bush administration's road toward martial law, the writer says. "Almost certainly this is preparation for a roundup after the next 9/11 for Mid-Easterners, Muslims and possibly dissenters," says Daniel Ellsberg, a former military analyst who in 1971 released the Pentagon Papers, the U.S. military's account of its activities in Vietnam. "They've already done this on a smaller scale, with the 'special registration' detentions of immigrant men from Muslim countries, and with Guantanamo."

Hey, what about intellectuals and guys like Noam Chomsky ? Won't there be room in the concentration camps for them too, or do they just get the 'final solution'?. After all, we don't live in the 20th Century when it was enough to round up a few harmless guys like David Bohm and Ring Lardner to keep the mentally deprived and religious charlatans loose to run the USA. I suppose that now Tony B. Liar with his vile concessions to the USA has made it easy to round up honest UK citizens and give them free one-way flights to nowhere, some of them will have to be preserved for awhile in the US for torture and interrogation prior to extermination. I ask myself - is this all really necessary?

Don't we all remember the "Lincolnshire Poacher" and "CherryRipe" call signs?

Harmless Nostalgia section: For three months, mysterious telephone numbers have been appearing on the Craigslist classified ad site which, when called, play recordings which sound much like shortwave numbers stations used by certain governments to communicate with intelligence agents in the field who are unreachable by other means. Now the secret behind these phone numbers stations has been revealed.

Hackers presented their findings at DEFCON earlier today and gave away CDs with "Make your own Mein Fraulein station" kits and posted one final number station for people to try to decrypt."

These details as to how to "Make your own Mein Fraulein station" have now been removed from Craigslist, URL at gulfport.craigslist.org/mis/190448086.html
However brief details can still be found on the web at
http://www.homelandstupidity.us/2006/08/05/
phone-numbers-stations-mystery-revealed-at-defcon/

A Mumbai "Mid-day" photographer caught Congress councillor Dharmesh Vyas spitting from the BMC headquarters at CST. The House is divided on whether he should be punished under the old law or the new law. Under the new law if you dirty public property — litter, urinate, spit, defecate, wash vehicles or utensils — you will be fined between Rs 500 to Rs 10,000. The Shiv Sena mayor wants to book Vyas under the new law and wants to fine him Rs 500. Seems a fair cop to me from the photo, URL below. The defendant claims he was only chewing gum, but it looks to me as bad if not worse even if he was. At least this way we can get the streets and homes a little cleaner.
http://ww3.mid-day.com/news/city/2006/august/141603.htm

This truce does not appear to be agreed by Hezbollah in any meaningful way - understandibly.

The last time the US and France sent troops into Lebanon, Hezbollah attacked the US marines and the French soldiers and drove them out of the country. How can the French deal with this? I have implied the only way I know of in my blog of August 4th.

Existing programs are relatively naive but in social and conflict situations, mathematics is at least getting a little more steam up than it used to have. One tends to think how little the von Neumann/Morgenstern approach actually gave us but the present newer approaches and availability of more adequate home computers suggests that the field is still open for the traditional scientific hobbyist. More fun than SETI anyway, and there could be interesting possibilities from the generation of "flash mobs" even up to the development of actual interstellar communication.

"Schelling offers a framework for analysis by offering powerful evidence for the existence of focal points in social life. People who may never have met are nonetheless capable of coordinating their behavior under some circumstances. In one experiment, two people were instructed to think of a number between one and ten and told that both would be paid a reward if each arrived at the same answer. Subjects' ability to psyche one another out far exceeded chance. Perhaps even more surprising, certain open-ended questions can elicit a high amount of agreement. For example, in one experiment Schelling asked his subjects what they would do if they were simply told to go and meet someone in New York City on a certain day. Out of all the possibilities for when and where to meet, a majority, trying to intuit where and when other people would expect them to be, would have converged at the information booth in Grand Central Station at high noon!
Nothing paranormal is reflected in these experiments. Although it goes beyond what is definitely known to say what makes for a focal point, some features do seem to emerge pretty clearly from Schelling's experiments. For one thing, uniqueness seems to be important. When asked to pick a point on a map to await another person with the same map but with whom no meeting place has been arranged, many people will select a house on a map with one house and many crossroads, but will select a crossroads on a map with one intersection but many houses. And, of course, uniqueness makes sense when selecting focal points. Even if both parties select a house in the latter instance, the chance that they will select the same house is small. If one of many houses is distinct, however, it may be selected by some participants--a single mansion may be selected as a focal point even on a map with many houses. Another element that seems to figure in establishing a focal point is what could be called contextual prominence--for example, the number ``one'' in a series of numbers, or the center of a circular area or a mountain rising from a plane.""
http://tecfa.unige.ch/perso/staf/nova/blog/archives/000350.html

"Schelling segregation model
This project models the behavior of two types of turtles in a mythical pond. The red turtles and green turtles get along with one another. But each turtle wants to make sure that it lives near some of "its own." That is, each red turtle wants to live near at least some red turtles, and each green turtle wants to live near at least some green turtles. The simulation shows how these individual preferences ripple through the pond, leading to large-scale patterns."
http://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/models/Segregation

a more complcated program is at
http://www.econ.iastate.edu/tesfatsi/demos/schelling/schellhp.htm

Or so claims "The Register", URL at www.theregister.co.uk/2006/08/04/hawking_regrets_being_human/

Hawking's original query was "How can the human race survive the next hundred years?"

Well it seems to me that both Hawking and "The Register" should have thought things through more clearly before their public almost ex cathedra style pronouncements.

Hawking frets also about man-made global warming, and the possibility that we will "pass a tipping point at which the temperature rise becomes self sustaining." This point seems fair enough and at present rates of increased global warming/cooling, highly likely. In short the human race probably may be doomed, and even doomed within our own lifetimes.

"Perhaps we must hope that genetic engineering will make us wise and less aggressive," he writes. The deeper suggestion here, that we humans, as nature made us, are bad and stupid and should be ashamed of ourselves, is the suggestion of a colossal ignoramus, according to "The Register".

I think the nub of it is that such comments as the last paragraph imply that we all have to submit to some bastardised form of Christianity (or if you prefer Christian-derived humanism or atheism), and to its tenets, and that idea could infuriate many people. Or are Hawking's robots to be Christian robots? In many religions there is no suggestion of any innate badness, which could of course be taken to mean that robots are not Christians since they normally do not exhibit goodness or badness either. But that is hardly acceptable either. Some difficult problems here.

But Hawking at least looked for an answer to his problems and asks if anyone has sensible answers. By and large "The Register" does not, it seems. But, I have very rarely heard sensible answers on the web to ANYONE'S questions other than very detailed technical stuff where the web is often helpful. The internet seems not to be of much use for more practical lay-type questions like Hawking's and "The Register" reply could almost be paraphrased into one that I asked recently on the internet about weeding my garden, where in essence I was told to 'go out and do it' or 'don't bother' or 'buy our weedkiller', not very useful in the circumstances I gave.

As for me, I am afraid that any answer I could have slickly given to Hawking's query would have been far more grim than the question itself, which after all wasn't the point. What we really needed, maybe, was an improved question and an improved answer or maybe a petition or maybe...?

According to a rather long article, URL below, "Blair's Protection of Elite Paedophile Rings Spells the End For His Career"

http://www.propagandamatrix.com/blair_protection.html

Personally I doubt that, because so many people, like George Orwell, have said: "perversion is as English as the Union Jack". It'll probably win votes for Bliar.

And, the Daily Mail claims Bliar was at Bohemia Grove last weekend, in an article entitled "Tony Blair's gissa-job trip, partying with the super rich in America". Any sane person takes the view that the Daily Mail is bollocks, even if some of its facts, presumably like the (pedophile-based) party at Bohemia Grove, are clearly true.

More importantly, it may well be that the cheese-eating surrender-monkeys, as reported in my earlier blog, may soon "protect" the Lebanon. Now what is important here is that the French have access to neutron bombs, a type of nuclear bomb that kills people but does not destroy property as it mainly uses intense nuclear radiation. This could be very useful if Iran puts its money where its mouth is on Israel, or even if it 'seems' to. This could mean that Iran's population is removed but its oil/gas equipment and wells remain. A quick fix for some of the oil/gas problems of the region. I am sure that there are diplomatic opportunites galore here, and money to be made almost for the asking. What ? George Bush delighted at the idea ? Naw, he'd wish he had had the guts to do it.

Aug 03 2006

As Lebanon burns, Blair, Bush Sr. and Schultz will be at Bohemian Grove this weekend.

As Israel shoves thousands of troops into Lebanon’s face to trash as much of the country as it can before a cease-fire, Tony boy Blair swept into Frisco to attend George and Charlotte Shultz’s swanky pad for a cocktail party. He kicked off his five-day West Coast tour rubbing shoulders with America’s richest men.

Bohemia Grove is the secret club that US political elite (and friends like Tony) attend annually, men only.

Among the rituals, partaken by some former presidents, is an annual symbolic child sacrifice to Molech Lucifer Satan, before the effigy of a giant predatory owl. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the chief feature of Moloch's worship among the ancients seems to have been the sacrifice of children. The usual expression for describing that sacrifice was "to pass through the fire," a rite carried out after the victims had been put to death.

In John DeCamp's reporting of events in "The Franklin Cover-up", he writes on pages 326/328 that one of many young victims, Paul Bonacci, while at the Grove, claims that he and another boy were forced to perform sex acts with and to consume parts of a child whom they had watched being murdered by men in hooded robes. The body was to be disposed of by "the men with the hoods."

DeCamp reported that Bonacci also claimed that a "snuff" film was made of these events. The shocker is that the man the party had purportedly picked up in Las Vegas and who purportedly filmed the events was identified by Bonacci as "Hunter Thompson."

Well, we do not know for sure that these satanic rituals are carried on, but even for California, there is a lot of smoke if there's no fire. And there are a lot of rumours of this sort. And if they had half that info confirmed about the victims of the incompetently carried out Forest Gate police raid I recently blogged, those victims would get life imprisonment, where "life means life".
Prosaically, Tories say the taxpayer-tabbed trip was to generate income to pay for Blair’s £3.6 million mortgaged London home.

http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_1064.shtml

http://kutv.com/topstories/topstories_story_215063820.html

"Diplomatic efforts to stop the fighting have thus far faltered, diplomats said the United States and France were working on two U.N. resolutions to overcome the impasse. France has insisted that the fighting be halted first to pave the way for a wider peace."

Well the French had better do a better job in the Lebanon than they did in World Wars 1 & 2, if they don't finally fight shy of the whole thing.

Telegraph (UK) 3rd August

Hundreds of Chinese police clashed with thousands of "underground" Christians over the demolition of a church which was deemed to be an illegal structure.

Up to 500 police forced back as many as 3,000 Christians who had gathered at the weekend to mount a peaceful demonstration against the state's demolition of the church in the eastern province of Zhejiang.

The most prominent target has been the Falun Gong spiritual movement, which was banned in 1999 as a threat to public safety and communist rule. Its worshippers are regularly tortured.

LONDON, Aug. 2 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers say more than a quarter of the world's population is infected with a feline parasite related to malaria and which causes personality changes.

The Toxoplasma-gondii is spread by cats to humans and other animal species, including rats, and can lead to suicidal tendencies, said Dr. Kevin Lafferty, of the University of California at Santa Barbara in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society, Biology.

The study said about 7 percent of Britain's population had the parasite in their brains, while almost 70 percent of people in Brazil were affected.

Lafferty wrote that an infected rat's behavior changes and becomes more active, less cautious and therefore more likely to be caught by a cat.

Earlier research at Imperial College London said the same parasite may trigger schizophrenia, The Telegraph report said.

www.chinaview.cn 2006-08-02 15:17:14
"TEHRAN, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Iranian Supreme Leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called on Muslims on Wednesday to resist Israel and the United States, vowing Iran would support Lebanon in the confrontation of the Israeli attacks. "Muslims in the world must understand the only method to fight back the savage wolf of Zionism and Great Satan's aggression is resistance," Khamenei said in a speech broadcast by the state television. "

All very well perhaps, if you share his views, but by now the Lebanon has been more or less ruined by Israel and Hezbollah. THE TIME TO ACT WAS BEFORE THIS ALL HAPPENED. That's when the Lebanon could have been supported. Anyway, comments from Europe seem to indicate Israel is losing badly. The word here is that Israel does not understand this kind of war, and Israelis tend to agree. But hey, I trained to fight a war like this in Vietnam so many years ago I have almost forgotten. Nothing new here IMO except that the whole lot have ruined the Lebanon, and now it's to be talk, with maybe a few French troops to hold the fort. If Iran had wanted to, many believe it could have nuked Jerusalem easily enough with bootleg Paki nukes which were flashed around for years. Now it is all talk. Some call it diplomacy but I call it cowardice. What the speech says is " Lets hide from the "Great Satan", kiss his feet, lick his bum and worship him while counting our dishonest profits." Hardly Koranic, and his speech sounds like a profane abuse to Allah. But maybe 'Paki nukes are dud nukes'. That is the only moral explanation after such talk, which many believe is intemperate and irrational anyway.

What I say is, "If you can't stand the heat, don't tell the chef how to cook from well outside the kitchen", as Iran has placed itself. How ignominious.

Amnesty says key words are being filtered by web giants in China Amnesty International is urging UK users of Yahoo, Microsoft and Google to e-mail the companies asking them to change the way they operate in China. The human rights organisation says the companies are aiding internet censorship in the Communist state. And it is asking them to reveal which words they have banned from blogs or web searches in China. The internet companies say they are helping the people of China by making information more freely available. But Amnesty says they are helping to reinforce censorship by the Chinese government. If enough people tell them they are not happy with their actions in China, we hope it will make them think again

Amnesty International UK director Kate Allen said: "Yahoo, Microsoft and Google claim they are obeying local laws when in fact they are succumbing to political pressure. We want them to hear from customers here in the UK. If enough people tell them they are not happy with their actions in China, we hope it will make them think again."

Details on BBC URL below. Probably repeated complaints from countries other than UK to Yahoo, Microsoft and Google, are also in order.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/5194238.stm

Also "Write an appeal to President Musharraf to commute the death sentence of Mirza Tahir Hussain" see Amnesty URL for details http://www.amnesty.org.uk/ or from India you can also try http://www.amnesty.org.in/ , lots of useful Indian phone numbers on this site too.

PTI Wednesday, August 02, 2006 14:50 IST

"NEW DELHI: As many as 52 terrorist training camps are reported to be present in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and the Government is continuing to inform the international community of these developments, the Lok Sabha was informed on Wednesday.
Insurgent groups also continue to misuse Bangladesh territory for sanctuary, training camps, transportation or arms and transit and were being supported by intelligence agencies, both civil and military, of Bangladesh. This was stated by Minister of State for External Affairs E Ahmed in reply to a written question."

These terrorists from Pakistan are just a silly nuisance and better for them to be removed locally than for the need for Bush and Blair to do it for us. If both India and Pakistan would do it,. both countries would benefit. FWIW, IMO it is mainly Saudi Arabian Wahabis ultimately making most of the trouble and basically nothing to do with the subcontinent. Some Wahabis are OK but quite a lot are not. Better Pakistan sorts it out than Bush and Blair do it for them, as they will. All can benefit from some more common sense.

Kashmir: I like it but know things could be better and without any major moves, they probably could be. Get out the terrorists first is best. With any luck it will happen, both countries will cope and the India Free Trade area should make both countries happy and prosperous.

Things look good potentially for both India and Pakistan. Even the gas pipeline is beginning to look like a possible starter with only some business problems at the Iran end about price, the sums could definitely be done and the rest looks great.

I was in Dublin not so long ago and with all the Irish problems and bombings, the Republic would be a natural to rejoin the UK ! Incredible, isn't it ? What is likely to actually happen is that things will keep getting better as the EU improves, which most people want. But in the long run they might as well never have left the UK. So the Kashmir problem will disappear under its own steam in a somewhat similar way. I've been there, I like it, I know there are grumbles all round but success without any bargaining is possible and truly likely. It does make geopolitical common sense. Look, Montreal is still part of Canada and in fact it is more likely that California would leave the US for Canada than that Montreal would secede. Kashmir as it is can work, and that is best!

Cocktail cola: The fizz in your softdrink is pesticide, says CSE PTI Wednesday, August 02, 2006 17:34 IST

"NEW DELHI: Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) on Wednesday came out with a fresh study claiming the presence of "pesticide cocktail" in 11 brands of soft drink giants Coca Cola and PepsiCo, three years after the same brands were found to have contained pesticides.

On an average, the levels of deadly Lindane were over 54 times above the approved standards while one Coca Cola sample from Kolkata had this pesticide 140 times. Chlorpyrifos levels were on an average 47 times higher and a Coca Cola sample from Thane tested for this particular pesticide at a level that is 200 times than the approved levels.
"This is clearly unacceptable as we know that pesticides are tiny toxins and impact our bodies over time. Our soft drinks remain unsafe and unhealthy and public health remains severely compromised," said Narain."

There is a lot more in the report. What I would say is it means that if you want to survive and keep your health, DO NOT drink any drinks from the PepsiCola or CocaCola companies, in India, for the forseeable future. As I mentioned in an earlier blogpost, ThumsUp always used to taste of pesticide and now it seems that Pepsi and Coke are now keeping it in, maybe because it tastes better.

It is also good not to drink mineral waters if you wish to preserve clean water supplies, chai or coffee is still OK, AFAIK, as long as a clean source of water is used and boiling the water for a few minutes can help too. By the way I believe India is the largest tea producer in the world, far exceeding China though personally I prefer coffee.
http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1045027

The Hindu, Wednesday, August 2, 2006 : 1225 Hrs
"Houston, Aug 2 (PTI): The fight against obesity might not be a task in future if the claims of scientists at a Californian Institute of having developed an anti-obesity vaccine proves right.
Scientists at the Scripps Research Institute say they have developed an anti-obesity vaccine that significantly slows weight gain by tackling the ghrelin, a naturally occuring hormone that helps regulate energy balance in the body.

It's not certain that a ghrelin vaccine would be effective against the burger-rich, high-fat diet that many Americans eat, the researchers noted."

It might be very useful for a decent vegetarian and reasonably calorie-controlled diet though, as eaten by many people today.

Surprising how many characters in the BBC comedy "Little Britain" seem to occur in real life.

e.g. "welfare state" scrounger and professional cretin Andy Pipkin and his incompetent but mainly well-meaning "carer" Lou. It should be pointed out that, in the UK the people at the bottom of the food chain are supposed to benefit from the welfare state, but very rarely do, but in the US, the people at the top end of the food chain are supposed to benefit, and invariably do. The is in line with the US being a Christian country which benfits from Pr 22:7 : The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender. Compare with Bush (Andy) and Blair (Lou).

Andy: I wanna drop bombs on the Lebanon.

Lou: But Andy, you know that will cause death and suffering to countless millions, and mental torment to millions more.

Andy: Don't care! Wanna drop bombs on the Lebanon !

Lou: But Andy, if you do that your nurse Condoleeza won't be able to go to the Lebanon, so she won't be able to get you any sweets there.

Andy (fiercely): Don't care! Wanna drop bombs on the Lebanon !

Lou: (reluctantly) all right Andy, but just this once.

--------------------------------

or even
Andy: Yo, Lou! Wanna destroy the whole world !

Lou: But Andy, if you try to do that your friend Arnie will be annoyed and you don't want to annoy Robocop, do you, or he might stop your 'welfare benefit' from California.

Any: Don't care ! Wanna destroy the whole world !

and so it goes on.

-------------------------------

It would perhaps be presuming to point out the similarities between most women Labout MPs and a bizarre combination of tranvestite Emily after taking too many HRT tablets and an ageing Vicky Pollard.

The Vicky Pollard noises come out every time a women Labour MP is interviewed by the Press. I'm certainly glad, too, that when I was very young indeed my kindergarten school headmistress was at least not that bad.

Perhaps more seriously, Margaret Beckett did at least try a little bit to act for her constituency when she tried to stop the US murder planes for a short time, but maybe that was not what Tony and Rupert would have wanted , so for now she seems to have stopped. Jack Straw still seems to try to act for his constituency, at least, for right or wrong. But then so did Maggie Thatcher, and her constituency was big oil. And Rupert always acts for his constituency, which is Rupert.