Requiescant in pace



WHO fears 120,000 deaths
[Irish Times]

Tsunami Relief [some links from Google]

We'll be back soon
We're still having some Blogger problems, and what with the season, and in mourning for the Asian disaster, nothing is really happening here just now. But we'll be back soon.
Quake report in depth

Seasons greetings from the team



We wish Blogmanac readers the very best of the season and a safe and blessed holiday. We'll be back after Christmas posting as usual.

Thank you for visiting through 2004, for your comments and support. And to the exactly 200 subscribers (as of today) who are getting the Blogmanac via email, thank you for subscribing and expect our team to work hard in 2005 to bring you the best each day.

If it's not too cold (or hot, depending where you live), step outside on Christmas night and take in the beams of the full moon that will shine on every child, mother, father, politician, soldier and refugee, rich and starving person on our small planet.

Neocons setting up Rumsfeld as Iraq fall guy

By Patrick J. Buchanan
" ... Rumsfeld is being set up to take the fall for what could become a debacle in Iraq. As the plotters, planners and propagandists of this war, the neocons know that if Iraq goes the way of Vietnam, there will be a search conducted for those who misled us and, yes, lied us into war, and why they did it. Rumsfeld has become designated scapegoat.

"To neocons, this war was never about weapons of mass destruction or any alleged Iraqi ties to Sept. 11. That was merely to mobilize the masses for war. Their real reason was empire and making the Middle East safe for Israel ...."
Source

Blair wins ID card vote

"LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Tony Blair has won a key vote in his bid to reintroduce identity cards, seen by the government as a key weapon in its anti-terror campaign.

"Members of parliament voted on Monday by 385 votes to 93 in favour of bringing back the cards, more than 50 years after wartime leader Winston Churchill abolished them."
Source: Yahoo News

It's Yule

Here we are at Yule, the Winter Solstice if you're in the Northern Hemisphere (midsummer for southerners like yours truly).

We are still having some Blogger problems and have to be very minimal in posts here just now. If you would like to read more about Yule, in the Book of Days, click here, and we'll be back in full operation mode as soon as humanly possible. Thanks for your patience.

A Not So Wonderful Life

EXTERIOR BRIDGE OVER POTOMAC RIVER - NIGHT

CLOSE SHOT - Rummy is standing by the railing, staring morosely into the water. The snow is falling hard. Feeling a tap on his shoulder, he wheels around and wrestles an old man with wings into a headlock.

OLD MAN: Ouch! Tut, tut. When will you learn that force doesn't solve everything?

RUMMY: Who the dickens are you?

OLD MAN: Clarence, Angel First Class. I've been sent down to help you.

RUMMY, squinting: You're off your nut, you old fruitcake. You can't help me. I was a matinee idol in this town, a studmuffin. Now everyone's turned on me - Trent Lott, Chuck Hagel and that dadburn McCain.

CLARENCE: No more self-pity, son. I'm going to show you what the world would have been like if you'd never been born.

Clarence, who can fly now, takes Rummy's hand and they soar over the icy Potomac to the Pentagon. Beneath the glass on the desk of the defense secretary is a list of members of Congress and their phone numbers.

RUMMY: Who put that there?

CLARENCE: Sam Nunn. He's the defense secretary. Sam consults with Congress. Never acts arrogant or misleads them. He didn't banish the generals who challenged him - he promoted 'em. And, of course, he caught Osama back in '01. He threw 100,000 troops into Afghanistan on 9/11 and sealed the borders. Our Special Forces trapped the evildoer and his top lieutenants at Tora Bora. You weren't at that cabinet meeting the day after 9/11, so nobody suggested going after Saddam. No American troops died or were maimed in Iraq. No American soldiers tortured Iraqis in Abu Ghraib. No Iraqi explosives fell into the hands of terrorists. There's no office of disinformation to twist perception abroad. We're not on the cusp of an Iraq run by Muslim clerics tied to Iran. Here's Sam. He's with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs.

GENERAL SHINSEKI: We got some good news today on the National Guard, sir. Recruiting is up 40 percent. With the money we saved killing that useless missile defense system, we up-armored all our Humvees.

RUMMY, fists and jaw clenched: Grrrrrrr...I want to see Wolfie!

CLARENCE: Sam never hired any of those wacko neocons. Wolfowitz is a woolly headed professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and a consultant to Ariel Sharon. Richard Perle was never in charge of the Defense Policy Board, so he was unable to enrich himself through government connections, or help Ahmad Chalabi con the administration. Perle stayed an honest man, running a chain of soufflé shops. His soufflés were so fluffy he became known as the Prince of Lightness. Doug Feith never worked here, either, so he never set up the Office of Special Plans to spin tall tales about W.M.D. and Qaeda ties to Saddam. And he never bungled the occupation because there was no occupation. Without you to swoon over in a book, neocon doyenne Midge Decter became a fallen woman, like Violet.

RUMMY, dyspeptic: Holy mackerel! Take me to Dick!

CLARENCE: Dick and Lynne run a bait, tackle and baton-twirling shop in Casper, Wyo. You didn't exist, so you never gave him those jobs in the Nixon and Ford administrations, and he never ran for Congress or worked for Bush 41 or anointed himself 43's vice president. W. chose Chuck Hagel as his running mate. So without you and Dick there to dominate him, he was guided by his dad and Brent Scowcroft, who kept Condi in line. Colin Powell was never cut off at the knees and the U.N. and allies were never bullied. There was never any crazy fever about Iraq or unilateralism or "Old Europe." Here's Colin now, heading for the Oval Office.

POWELL: Merry Christmas, Mr. President. With the help of our allies around the world, we have won the war on terror. And Saddam has been overthrown. Once Hans Blix exposed the fact that Saddam had no weapons, the tyrant was a goner. No Arab dictator can afford to be humilated by a Swedish disarmament lawyer.

RUMMY: Goodness gracious, I've heard enough now. I'm going home. Unless you're going to tell me my wife is an old maid, because I wasn't around to marry her.

CLARENCE: Oh, no. Joyce lives across the street from your old house on Kalorama Road. She's happily married to the French ambassador.

"Auld Lang Syne" swells as we FADE OUT.

BY: Maureen Dowd, New York Times [Free registration]

Source: Pagans4Peace

Merry Christmas In Various Languages

Afrikander – "Een Plesierige Kerfees"
Arabic – "I'd Miilad Said Oua Sana Saida"
Argentine – "Felices Pasquas Y felices ano Nuevo"
Armenian – "Shenoraavor Nor Dari yev Pari Gaghand"
Basque – Eguberri on
Bohemian – "Vesele Vanoce"
Breton – "Nedeleg laouen na bloavezh mat"
Bulgarian – "Tchestita Koleda; Tchestito Rojdestvo Hristovo"
Chinese – [Mandarin] – "Kung His Hsin Nien bing Chu Shen Tan"
Chinese – [Cantonese] – "Saint Dan Fai Lok"
Cornish – "Nadelik looan na looan blethen noweth"
More (scroll down)

UK: Law lords back detainees

Thursday 16th

"Detaining foreigners without trial under emergency anti-terror legislation breaks European human rights powers, law lords ruled today.

"The decision from the law lords, Britain's highest court, throws the government's security policies into chaos.

"A specially-convened committee of nine law lords upheld an appeal by nine foreigners who have been detained without charge or trial, most of them in Belmarsh prison, south-east London, for around three years."

Continues at The Guardian

Where's the Blogmanac?

We have been having trouble posting for 8 days and all through that time been writing to Blogger Support. Only today we received this reply.

Hi there,
This error means that you have filled up the 100 MB on your BlogSpot Plus account. You will need to remove any unused files or folders you may have on your FTP account in order to post new material. We apologize for the inconvenience.
Sincerely,
Blogger Support

I have written asking for further advice, and hope that the Blogmanac will be humming along as usual very soon. Thanks for bearing with us.

Paramedics challenge Lord Hutton over David Kelly's death

"Two paramedics have cast doubt over the verdict of the Hutton inquiry that weapons expert Dr David Kelly killed himself by slitting his wrists.

"Dave Bartlett and Vanessa Hunt, who were among the first people to arrive at Harrowdown woods, Oxfordshire, after Dr Kelly's body was found on 18 July last year, said there would have been much more blood at the scene using that method.

"In a joint statement, Mr Bartlett and Ms Hunt said yesterday: 'We felt that our observations of the scene where Dr Kelly's body was discovered were inconsistent with the conclusion of the Hutton Inquiry that Dr Kelly's death resulted from the wound to his wrist'."

Continue at The Independent

Pentagon Weighs Broad Use of Deception

"WASHINGTON, Dec. 12 - The Pentagon is engaged in bitter, high-level debate over how far it can and should go in managing or manipulating information to influence opinion abroad, senior Defense Department civilians and military officers say.

"Such missions, if approved, could take the deceptive techniques endorsed for use on the battlefield to confuse an adversary and adopt them for covert propaganda campaigns aimed at neutral and even allied nations ...

"Nearly three years ago, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, under intense criticism, closed the Pentagon's Office of Strategic Influence, a short-lived operation to provide news items, possibly including false ones, to foreign journalists in an effort to influence overseas opinion.

"Now, critics say, some of the proposals of that discredited office are quietly being resurrected elsewhere in the military and in the Pentagon."

Full text [free registration]: New York Times

Blair rejects Iraq deaths inquiry

This man is not only a liar, he's disgustingly blasé about it and appears nowhere without his "I-am-a-very-sincere-person-and-you-can-trust-me" smile. He's correct that "insurgents" are responsible for civilian deaths, but the majority of civilian deaths has been caused by coalition air strikes on densely populated areas. Of course, he has already rejected the Lancet study (mentioned below) which says so. The Lancet: "Violence accounted for most of the excess deaths and air strikes from coalition forces accounted for most of the violent deaths."

He is also clearly wrong in his assertion that the Iraqi health mininstry is best placed to tally the deaths. They, as I understand it, are reliant on hospital reports, and it is estimated that possibly less than a third of deaths take place in hospitals. Two-thirds or more occur away from hospitals and the bodies are buried immediately in accordance with Islamic law.

"London, England (AP) -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair has rejected demands that he set up an independent inquiry into the number of civilians killed in Iraq.

"Some 46 campaigners, including former British ambassadors, eminent academics, a bishop and a former British military chief, on Wednesday sent an open letter to Blair saying Britain and the United States have a duty to count the number of people killed in the ongoing violence.

"But Blair insisted the Iraqi health ministry was best placed to tally the dead, and said insurgents were to blame for civilian casualties ...

"The open letter marked the launch of a campaign by health charity Medact and the Iraq Body Count group for an independent inquiry into the number of civilians killed.

"It follows a study in The Lancet journal, which in October estimated that 98,000 civilians had been killed in Iraq since the outbreak of hostilities in March last year."

[My emphasis - N]

Full text

Why "insurgents"?

I've been wondering lately why the media now consistently call the bad guys in Iraq "insurgents", so I had to look it up.

[n] a member of an irregular armed force that fights a stronger force by sabotage and harassment
[n] a person who takes part in an armed rebellion against the constituted authority (especially in the hope of improving conditions)
[adj] in opposition to a civil authority or government
Source:
HyperDictionary

Now, I admit that I didn't know the meaning and had assumed it meant bad guys coming from another place, such as over the border. By way of defence, I must plead, your honour, that it sort of suggests people 'surging in'.

Before I looked it up I was discussing it with Baz le Tuff and we were in agreement that the journalists, even from the fairly progressive Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), never call them anything but 'insurgents' these days. Certainly never 'freedom fighters'. You won't hear any reporter calling these bad guys 'blokes defending their block against an invading army' (by 'bad guys' I mean the scruffy, bearded ones getting mowed down in vast numbers by weapons as big as houses to the applause of US soldiers). Baz and I both prettty much theorised that all these 'embedded har har' 'reporters har har' are coached by Army PR on what to call cannon fodder.

Fortunately, Baz le Tuff took some time out of his very busy schedule (he's putting on a wombat rodeo for crippled kiddies with suspected tropical horticulture aptitude) to assign his personal secretary, Mister Hister, the task of finding out why all this is so.

Mr Hister found this and this.

The first link says, inter alia, "The assault on Fallujah is intended to eliminate 'insurgents' from one of the most important centers of opposition in Iraq and is therefore a significant moment in the struggle to control the country. The term 'insurgent' has become the accepted way for both hawks and doves to refer to armed opposition in Iraq and is now used as if its meaning were unproblematic. The most recent studies, for example, assume a common understanding of the word and concentrate instead on strategic, battleground matters. Yet the term is far from being transparent and is also loaded with political claims. To investigate it is to consider the nature of the enemy. This is, self-evidently, an important exercise: we cannot claim to comprehend the world unless we can be sure that we are describing it in the most appropriate language. Ill-fitting descriptions may have far-reaching consequences for public understanding and formal policy-making."

The second one (from the Seattle Post) says, beneath the heading

Resist biased words: The fighters are not 'insurgents'

"On Nov. 3, 2003, the staff at the Los Angeles Times received a memo from an editor forbidding the use of the term 'resistance fighters' to describe those resisting the American military occupation of Iraq. The term 'romanticizes the work and goals of those killing GI's,' the memo said, according to the Web site L.A. Observed.

"In a subsequent interview with Dan Whitcomb of Reuters, Melissa McCoy, the editor who issued the memo, claimed that the term evoked images of the French Resistance in World War II and of the Jews fighting the Nazis in the Warsaw ghetto.

"McCoy then said that the decision to ban the term had been made by top editorial staff and was not a result of readers' complaints, Whitcomb reports in the same Nov. 5, 2003 article. In fact, she was not aware of any reader complaints about the Times' use of the term prior to the decision to ban it.

"Lately, 'insurgent' has been the media's noun of choice to describe those resisting the American occupation of Iraq. While it appears relatively infrequently in the international media, it is a favorite of National Public Radio, CNN and Fox News.

"They especially like using the term when it is unknown who in particular actually carried out an attack.

"Everyone who attacks American forces, whether former military or Baath party loyalists, Iraqi or outsider, is labeled 'insurgent.' This sets American interests as the norm and implies all non-American interests are the same.

"More importantly, the term 'insurgent' ascribes legitimacy to one side of a conflict. This is why American military leaders in the Spanish-American War, America's first war of conquest and occupation, preferred the Spanish term 'insurrectos' to describe the indigenous Filipino resistance.

"The Oxford American English Dictionary defines 'insurgent' as 'a person who rises in revolt against civil authority or a recognized government.'

"Biases and inaccuracies abound when this term is used to describe the situation in Iraq. It is clearly a matter of perspective whether or not the American occupation constitutes a 'civil authority' or a 'recognized government.' Many Iraqis and internationals certainly do not believe it does.

"In fact, whether the American occupation amounts to a recognized government is a hotly debated, politically charged question. It is easy to deduce which perspective is favored when a party is branded 'insurgent.'

"Then there is the fact that Americans really only occupy some areas in Iraq. We know from recent reports of violence and death that American forces have failed to control Falluja, a city west of the capital Baghdad. The Marine and Army divisions surrounding Falluja do not constitute a civil authority or government, so how can someone fighting them be an insurgent?

"The answer is that such a person is not an insurgent, he is a resistance fighter."

Well spotted, Mr Hister, and thank you, Baz 'Venceremos!' le Tuff.

You asked for my evidence, Mr Ambassador

By Naomi Klein, The Guardian:

"David T Johnson, Acting ambassador, US Embassy, London

Dear Mr Johnson,

On November 26, your press counsellor sent a letter to the Guardian taking strong exception to a sentence in my column of the same day. The sentence read: "In Iraq, US forces and their Iraqi surrogates are no longer bothering to conceal attacks on civilian targets and are openly eliminating anyone - doctors, clerics, journalists - who dares to count the bodies." Of particular concern was the word "eliminating".

The letter suggested that my charge was "baseless" and asked the Guardian either to withdraw it, or provide "evidence of this extremely grave accusation". It is quite rare for US embassy officials to openly involve themselves in the free press of a foreign country, so I took the letter extremely seriously. But while I agree that the accusation is grave, I have no intention of withdrawing it. Here, instead, is the evidence you requested.

In April, US forces laid siege to Falluja in retaliation for the gruesome killings of four Blackwater employees. The operation was a failure, with US troops eventually handing the city back to resistance forces. The reason for the withdrawal was that the siege had sparked uprisings across the country, triggered by reports that hundreds of civilians had been killed. This information came from three main sources: 1) Doctors. USA Today reported on April 11 that "Statistics and names of the dead were gathered from four main clinics around the city and from Falluja general hospital". 2) Arab TV journalists. While doctors reported the numbers of dead, it was al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya that put a human face on those statistics. With unembedded camera crews in Falluja, both networks beamed footage of mutilated women and children throughout Iraq and the Arab-speaking world. 3) Clerics. The reports of high civilian casualties coming from journalists and doctors were seized upon by prominent clerics in Iraq. Many delivered fiery sermons condemning the attack, turning their congregants against US forces and igniting the uprising that forced US troops to withdraw.

US authorities have denied that hundreds of civilians were killed during last April's siege, and have lashed out at the sources of these reports. For instance, an unnamed "senior American officer", speaking to the New York Times last month, labelled Falluja general hospital "a centre of propaganda". But the strongest words were reserved for Arab TV networks. When asked about al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya's reports that hundreds of civilians had been killed in Falluja, Donald Rumsfeld, the US secretary of defence, replied that "what al-Jazeera is doing is vicious, inaccurate and inexcusable ... " Last month, US troops once again laid siege to Falluja - but this time the attack included a new tactic: eliminating the doctors, journalists and clerics who focused public attention on civilian casualties last time around.

Eliminating doctors

The first major operation by US marines and Iraqi soldiers was to storm Falluja general hospital, arresting doctors and placing the facility under military control. The New York Times reported that "the hospital was selected as an early target because the American military believed that it was the source of rumours about heavy casual ties", noting that "this time around, the American military intends to fight its own information war, countering or squelching what has been one of the insurgents' most potent weapons". The Los Angeles Times quoted a doctor as saying that the soldiers "stole the mobile phones" at the hospital - preventing doctors from communicating with the outside world.

But this was not the worst of the attacks on health workers. Two days earlier, a crucial emergency health clinic was bombed to rubble, as well as a medical supplies dispensary next door. Dr Sami al-Jumaili, who was working in the clinic, says the bombs took the lives of 15 medics, four nurses and 35 patients. The Los Angeles Times reported that the manager of Falluja general hospital "had told a US general the location of the downtown makeshift medical centre" before it was hit.

Whether the clinic was targeted or destroyed accidentally, the effect was the same: to eliminate many of Falluja's doctors from the war zone. As Dr Jumaili told the Independent on November 14: "There is not a single surgeon in Falluja." When fighting moved to Mosul, a similar tactic was used: on entering the city, US and Iraqi forces immediately seized control of the al-Zaharawi hospital.

Eliminating journalists

The images from last month's siege on Falluja came almost exclusively from reporters embedded with US troops. This is because Arab journalists who had covered April's siege from the civilian perspective had effectively been eliminated. Al-Jazeera had no cameras on the ground because it has been banned from reporting in Iraq indefinitely. Al-Arabiya did have an unembedded reporter, Abdel Kader Al-Saadi, in Falluja, but on November 11 US forces arrested him and held him for the length of the siege. Al-Saadi's detention has been condemned by Reporters Without Borders and the International Federation of Journalists. "We cannot ignore the possibility that he is being intimidated for just trying to do his job," the IFJ stated.

It's not the first time journalists in Iraq have faced this kind of intimidation. When US forces invaded Baghdad in April 2003, US Central Command urged all unembedded journalists to leave the city. Some insisted on staying and at least three paid with their lives. On April 8, a US aircraft bombed al-Jazeera's Baghdad offices, killing reporter Tareq Ayyoub. Al-Jazeera has documentation proving it gave the coordinates of its location to US forces.

On the same day, a US tank fired on the Palestine hotel, killing José Couso, of the Spanish network Telecinco, and Taras Protsiuk, of Reuters. Three US soldiers are facing a criminal lawsuit from Couso's family, which alleges that US forces were well aware that journalists were in the Palestine hotel and that they committed a war crime.

Eliminating clerics

Just as doctors and journalists have been targeted, so too have many of the clerics who have spoken out forcefully against the killings in Falluja. On November 11, Sheik Mahdi al-Sumaidaei, the head of the Supreme Association for Guidance and Daawa, was arrested. According to Associated Press, "Al-Sumaidaei has called on the country's Sunni minority to launch a civil disobedience campaign if the Iraqi government does not halt the attack on Falluja". On November 19, AP reported that US and Iraqi forces stormed a prominent Sunni mosque, the Abu Hanifa, in Aadhamiya, killing three people and arresting 40, including the chief cleric - another opponent of the Falluja siege. On the same day, Fox News reported that "US troops also raided a Sunni mosque in Qaim, near the Syrian border". The report described the arrests as "retaliation for opposing the Falluja offensive". Two Shia clerics associated with Moqtada al-Sadr have also been arrested in recent weeks; according to AP, "both had spoken out against the Falluja attack".

"We don't do body counts," said General Tommy Franks of US Central Command. The question is: what happens to the people who insist on counting the bodies - the doctors who must pronounce their patients dead, the journalists who document these losses, the clerics who denounce them? In Iraq, evidence is mounting that these voices are being systematically silenced through a variety of means, from mass arrests, to raids on hospitals, media bans, and overt and unexplained physical attacks.

Mr Ambassador, I believe that your government and its Iraqi surrogates are waging two wars in Iraq. One war is against the Iraqi people, and it has claimed an estimated 100,000 lives. The other is a war on witnesses."

Additional research by Aaron Maté www.nologo.org

[My emphasis above - N]

Source: Information Clearing House

Fallujah: Life and Death in the Kill Zone

By Dahr Jamail:

"Men now seeking refuge in the Baghdad area are telling horrific stories of indiscriminate killings by US forces during the peak of fighting last month in the largely annihilated city of Fallujah.

"In an interview with The NewStandard, Burhan Fasa'a, an Iraqi journalist who works for the popular Lebanese satellite TV station, LBC, said he witnessed US crimes up close. Burhan Fasa'a, who was in Fallujah for nine days during the most intense combat, said Americans grew easily frustrated with Iraqis who could not speak English.

"'Americans did not have interpreters with them', Fasa'a said, 'so they entered houses and killed people because they didn't speak English. They entered the house where I was with 26 people, and [they] shot people because [the people] didn't obey [the soldiers'] orders, even just because the people couldn't understand a word of English.'

"Fasa'a further speculated, 'Soldiers thought the people were rejecting their orders, so they shot them. But the people just couldn't understand them'.

"Fasa'a says American troops detained him. They interrogated him specifically about working for the Arab media, he said, and held him for three days. Fasa'a and other prisoners slept on the ground with no blankets. He said prisoners were made to go to the bathroom in handcuffs, using one toilet in the middle of the camp.

"'During the nine days I was in Fallujah, all of the wounded women, kids and old people, none of them were evacuated', Fasa'a said. 'They either suffered to death, or somehow survived.'

"Many refugees tell stories of having witnessed US troops killing already injured people, including former fighters and noncombatants alike.

"'I watched them roll over wounded people in the street with tanks', said Kassem Mohammed Ahmed, a resident of Fallujah. 'This happened so many times.'"

Continue here

"Dahr Jamail is originally from Anchorage, Alaska. He has spent a total of 5 months in occupied Iraq, and has now returned to continue reporting on the occupation. One of only a few independent reporters in Iraq, Dahr will be using the DahrJamailIraq.com website and mailing list to disseminate his dispatches and will continue as special correspondent for Flashpoints Radio. This article first appeared in The NewStandard."

The best free tag board I have found for my websites
Wilson's Almanac has a Tagger tag board in two places:
http://www.wilsonsalmanac.com/corrigenda.html
and here at the Blogmanac.
This free, self-hosted, ad-free Luxury Edition tag board
is designed by Brian Benzinger of venture nine solutions
http://venturenine.com/
It is excellent, and so is Brian's support.
This is an unsolicited endorsement.

This trick really works

Lift your Right Foot off the floor.

Rotate it in a clockwise direction for about 10 seconds...

While your foot is spinning, use your Right Hand to draw an invisible 6 in the air...

Involuntarily, and quite immediately, your Right Foot will begin a counter-clockwise spin, and there's nothing you can do about it.
Source, sent in by Kayla, that maniac of Almaniacs from CA, USA>. [It needs explanatory notes for the words 'clockwise' and 'counter-clockwise' for anyone under 30.]

Honey 'could help fight cancer'

"Honey and royal jelly could become part of the arsenal of weapons against cancer, researchers say.

"A team from the University of Zagreb, in Croatia, found a range of honey-bee products stopped tumours growing or spreading in tests on mice ...

"But they said the products should be considered for use along with, not instead of, chemotherapy treatment."

Full text: BBC

Nice parent

Grandfather's ghost for sale on e-bay. Well spotted, Baz 'I Would Never Sell My Grandfather's Ghost But I Didn't Say I Wouldn't Sell My Grandmother' le Tuff.

End of Email Era?

"The email era is coming to an end because replacement communication means such as Internet messengers, mini-homepages (dubbed 'one-man media'), and SMS are wielding their power. As a consequence, the stronghold of email, once the favorite of the Internet, is being shaken from its roots."
Source: Chosun

Oz Gov't won't oppose US torture evidence

Wake up, Australia!

Australia: "The Federal Government says that while torture is inappropriate, it has no intention of fighting plans by the United States Government to use evidence gained through torture in the trial of Guantanamo Bay detainees.

"A court in Washington has been told that military panels at the prison in Cuba can use evidence obtained through torture."
Source: ABC Oz

[I can't believe I'm reading this about Australia and the USA, especially as their political leaders affect "values". Not until Bush was torture on the agenda of these two countries. If the citizens don't stop this madness, just imagine where it will end. Don't forget the new, extreme "security powers" the respective governments have legislated recently.

Which nations will remain to influence other nations for the better? Then what? Bush & Co will be dead and buried before long, as will you and I, but what about our children and grandchildren? Let's not sit by and allow this slide into barbarity which threatens to spread throughout the world. Pass it on!]

Dow Bhopal hoax hits wrong mark

Don't get me wrong, I like hoaxes. I've done hoaxes, some that were a good idea at the time, and others that were not.

The hoax that the Yes Men pulled on the BBC this week was brilliantly executed, but they hit the wrong guys. The Beeb is one of the few major media outlets that is likely to show any real support for the victims of Bhopal. The Beeb is also reeling from immense criticism over recent events and needed this blow and all the criticism from reactionary media pundits like a hole in the heart.

The Yes Men are wonderful, and I've supported them here before, but to do this to the BBC was stupid beyond words. (It also briefly inflated the hopes of the Bhopal survivors.) They should have hit CNN, CBS, NBC, Fox ...

No, Yes Men. Better luck next time.

Read The Times on the hoax that backfired

Read about the Bhopal tragedy, yesterday in the Book of Days

Almanac on radio

Next week I will be heading to a recording studio to begin the process of putting on disk 365 daily Almanac spots for radio. Each one will be one or two minutes long and I will record them throughout 2005. It will be "On This Day" with a difference: the pick of the Book of Days featuring global celebrations and so on, just like the daily Almanac ezine.

From January 1, Radio 2BBB-FM in Australia will be airing Wilson's Almanac once or twice in their morning programming.

I'm looking into the possibility of these recordings being available for radio stations (commercial and community) both in Australia and internationally.

Station WNMC-FM in northern Michigan, USA is also commencing a daily Almanac spot. If you'd like the Almy on your station, I would be grateful if you'd forward this email to station managers, or drop me a line if you like. I'll see what can be done.

US lawyer wants inquiry into Hicks trial process

"The lawyer defending Australian terror suspect David Hicks has called for an inquiry into whether the military commission hearing the case meets legal standards.

"The American military lawyer appointed to defend Hicks says his client will not get a fair hearing from an American military commission.

"Major Michael Mori is leading a defence team of Australian lawyers and is in Melbourne for a seminar on legal tactics.

"Major Mori says the commission system has been condemned internationally but Australia has yet to voice any dissatisfaction with the process.

"Major Mori wants an inquiry into the fairness of the commission system.

"'I would really like to see a sort of public inquiry into the actual commission process and does it meet international legal standards... the type of standards of justice we'd expect for anyone around the world,' he said.

"'England has come out very strong condemning the commission system and has said their citizens can not go through the commission process, and the US won't let its citizens go though the commission process, but Australia seems to be satisfied with it.'"
Source: ABC Oz

Google david hicks guantanamo

Eureka Stockade sesquicentenary

... I think [Eureka] may be called the finest thing in Australasian history. It was a revolution – small in size, but great politically; it was a strike for liberty, a struggle for a principle, a stand against injustice and oppression. It was the Barons and John over again; it was Hampden and Ship-Money; it was Concord and Lexington ... It was another instance of a victory won by a lost battle.

Mark Twain, on Australia's Eureka Stockade; More Tramps Abroad

December 3, 1854 The Battle of Eureka Stockade, an uprising of gold miners against the State of Victoria, Australia; six troopers and 22 miners died in the civil revolt by gold miners against the officials supervising the gold-mining regions of Ballarat.

Although the revolt failed, it has endured in the collective social consciousness of Australia.

Eureka has been variously described as the birthplace of Australia's democracy, republicanism and multiculturalism. It is often regarded as being an event of equal significance to Australian history as the storming of the Bastille was to French history, or the Boston Tea Party or Battle of the Alamo to the history of the USA. Its heroes include an Italian writer, a freed American slave, a former German soldier and sundry American democrats, Irish rebels and British chartists.

The miners held a series of huge peaceful meetings demanding fairer treatment (their main complaint was about miners’ taxes), but following the murder of a miner, those calls for non-violence were pushed aside. A 27-year-old Irishman, Peter Lalor, who'd never before addressed a public meeting was thrust into leadership; his first word: "Liberty" ... [more]

The Eureka flag
At left is shown the Eureka flag, the tattered original of which is still in existence. Showing the constellation of the Southern Cross, a stellar feature that dominates the night sky in Australia, it is favoured by many Australians as a replacement for the national flag which still shows Britain's Union Jack even after 103 years of independence. However, many conservative elements oppose the Eureka flag, for obvious reasons, and there will likely be no change in the foreseeable future. One hopes that the sesquicentenary will further raise consciousness about this anachronism.

This is just a snippet of today's stories, and links to Australia's Eureka celebrations. Read all about today in folklore, historical oddities, inspiration and alternatives, with many more links, at the Wilson's Almanac Book of Days, every day. Click today's date (or your birthday) when you're there.

Cannabis "increases risk of psychosis"

"Teenagers and young adults who frequently use cannabis are increasing their risk of suffering from psychotic symptoms such as bizarre behaviour and delusions later in life, Dutch scientists say.

"Young people with a family history, or pre-existing susceptibility to mental instability, are particularly vulnerable to the negative effects of the drug.

"'Cannabis does not act in the same fashion on psychosis risk for everybody. There is a group that is particularly susceptible', Professor Jim van Os, of Maastricht University in the Netherlands, told a news conference on Wednesday.

"He and his colleagues studied 2,437 young people aged 14-24 and identified those with a predisposition for psychosis. They also questioned them about their cannabis use and followed them up for four years.

"'The results show that in the group without vulnerability to psychosis, there was a small effect of cannabis on the onset of psychotic symptoms four years later', Van Os said. 'But this risk was four times bigger in individuals who had a personal vulnerability to psychosis'." [My emphasis - N]

Source

Paisley and Adams on the brink of the deal to end all deals?

"Old enemies in Northern Ireland were edging towards a deal last night that could break the year-long stalemate in the peace process and pave the way for a lasting settlement.

"Months of poring over scores of differences have brought the two sides --­ the republican movement led by Gerry Adams and the Rev Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionists --­ within sight of a deal that a year ago seemed impossible ...

"Any political agreement will have to be festooned with safeguards, assurances and guarantees to make up for the almost complete lack of trust between the two sides. All negotiations between them, in fact, are being conducted at one remove since the DUP will not speak to Sinn Féin directly."

Full text here

Amnesty Calls for Taser Suspension

"New York (Reuters) - Human rights group Amnesty International called on U.S. law enforcement agencies on Tuesday to suspend use of Taser electric-shock weapons, demanding an independent inquiry into the devices, which Amnesty says have contributed to more than 70 deaths.

"The call comes amid booming sales of the weapons, which deliver a 50,000-volt shock that causes victims to lose control of their muscles ...

"According to Amnesty, U.S. police are using Tasers routinely on unarmed suspects, where lethal force would never be justified. It says the weapons have been used on children under age 16, as well as on old and mentally ill people.

"Amnesty also claims the weapons raise the risk of heart failure in cases where people are agitated or under the effects of drugs or have underlying health problems. It claims more than 70 people have died in the United States and Canada in the past four years in Taser-related incidents."

Full text

Amnesty International's report on the use of tasers in the USA also cites several cases in which parents have been prosecuted for child cruelty after using stun weapons to discipline their children. Stun weapons have also been reportedly used during the commission of crimes, or as instruments of torture or abuse, including of women by abusive partners or former partners. Amnesty International's report recommends that the sale of stun weapons for private use be subject to strict controls.

[My emphasis above - N]