Eeyores news and view

Tests reveal some pet supplements skimp on meds
July 9, 2009 - 2:21pm
In this June 25, 2009 photo, Nicole Albino poses for a photograph with her pug Chakka at her home in New York. Albino said Chakka was constantly chewing and licking his knees until her veterinarian recommended glucosamine and chondroitin. (AP Photo/Tina Fineberg) By MARILYNN MARCHIONE AP Medical Writer
(AP) - Arthritis supplements bought by millions of pet owners for their dogs, cats and horses sometimes skimp on the ingredients the makers claim can help aching paws and aging joints, and some contain high amounts of lead, an independent laboratory found.
Four of the six joint supplements for animals tested by ConsumerLab.com lacked the amounts of glucosamine or chondroitin promised on their labels or had other flaws, such as lead. Wider testing by a trade group of 87 brands found that one-quarter fell short.
Over-the-counter dietary supplements for humans do not have to be proven safe or effective before they are sold, and pills for pets get even less scrutiny.
"There is and there always has been" a quality problem, although many companies do a good job, said Mark Blumenthal of the American Botanical Council, which tracks research on herbal products.
Even when these supplements contain what they claim, there is little evidence that they work, veterinary experts say. A large government study of people with arthritis found that glucosamine and chondroitin did no better than dummy pills in easing mild pain. Testing these supplements on pets is more difficult.
"You can't ask a dog or a cat to give you a subjective impression of how they're feeling after taking the product for several days. They can't say, 'On a scale of 1 to 5, I feel better or worse,'" Blumenthal said.
Giving supplements to an ailing pet can make its owner feel better, though. "The owner shelled out money for the pills and wants to believe they are helping," Blumenthal said.
Up to one-third of dogs and cats in the U.S. are given supplements, a government report estimates. Sales of pet supplements have roughly doubled since 2003, to nearly $1 billion a year in the United States, according to the Nutrition Business Journal. These supplements are sold over the Internet and at pet supply stores and some groceries.
Many pet owners believe they make a difference.
Nicole Albino, who lives in New York City, said her dog Chakka was constantly chewing and licking his knees until her veterinarian recommended glucosamine and chondroitin.
After taking the pills for a year, "he's definitely been licking his knees a lot less," she said. The dog resumed when she ran out of the stuff for a few weeks. "It just seems to help," Albino said.
Few high-quality studies have tested the effectiveness of animal supplements. The Food and Drug Administration says these products are not bound by quality rules for human ones.
In 2007, the FDA asked an expert panel to look into three popular pet supplements _ lutein, evening primrose oil and garlic _ but the group could not agree on a safe upper limit.
"Many people presume that supplements are safer than drugs, but the reality is that there is very limited safety data on dietary supplements for horses, dogs, and cats," the panel concluded.
That same year, 2007, pet food tainted with melamine sickened and killed thousands of cats and dogs. Melamine can mimic protein in some lab tests, and protein costs much more than melamine.
Similarly, certain substances can fool tests for chondroitin, an expensive joint-supplement ingredient, said Dr. Tod Cooperman, president of ConsumerLab.com. The company tests supplements for manufacturers that want its seal of approval, and publishes ratings for subscribers.
Chondroitin usually comes from pig and cow cartilage, though shark and chicken cartilage also can be used, as well as algae. Glucosamine usually comes from the shells of crabs. It is also sold in chemical forms _ something that might surprise people who think of these as "natural" products.
ConsumerLab.com's most recent tests of human joint supplements, released this week along with the pet pill results, found that five out of 21 brands failed to meet quality standards, usually because of too little chondroitin. Four of the six pet supplements tested also failed. One contained only 17 percent of the promised chondroitin.
The National Animal Supplement Council, a trade group in suburban San Diego, found that 28 percent of the 87 brands it tested in April did not contain what was claimed, said council president, William Bookout. The group doesn't name names, but uses the results to help members improve quality control.
"Sometimes a company doesn't even realize they have a problem, or a company can make an honest mistake," Bookout said.
He warns consumers not to expect too much from a pill: "There isn't any magic bullet out there. It is not hip replacement in a bottle."
Dr. Babette Gladstein, a vet who makes house calls for dogs and cats in New York City, said she uses alternative methods but not supplements, because there is not enough proof they work. For overweight pets with bad knees, she advises healthy diets and weight loss.
"I teach the clients how to massage their animal, how to stretch their animal, how to get better range of motion" Gladstein said.
For people who do give pets joint supplements, experts suggest:
_Check with a vet beforehand to see if it is safe.
_Look for a seal of approval by an independent lab or organization.
_Keep a log of your pet's behavior, such as its ability to go up and down stairs, before and after supplement use so you can tell if it helps.
_Don't exceed recommended doses. Too much can cause loose stools and gas pains.
_Watch for shellfish allergies if using glucosamine derived from seafood.
_Avoid versions in salt form (NaCl, or sodium chloride on the label) if the animal has high blood pressure.
_Do not use glucosamine or chondroitin with blood thinners, such as heparin or aspirin, unless a vet advises it. Some breeds, such as Doberman pinschers, are predisposed to bleeding problems.
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On the Net:
National Academy of Sciences report on supplements for animals: http://tinyurl.com/clmfff
American Botanical Council: http://tinyurl.com/lddnqq
National Animal Supplement Council: http://www.nasc.cc

Here is a combo of three articles that was on Survival Blog yesterday. Tamiflu does not appear to be the panacea that it was first reported to be. Back on July 4th i blogged about a case in Hong Kong being resistant to Tamiflu.
Canada: Tamiflu Resistance In Saskatchewan
http://www.recombinomics.com/News/07080902/H274Y_SK.html
Tamiflu Resistance in San Francisco
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/07/08/MNG318KL8K.DTL
Tamiflu Resistance in Hong Kong, Japan, and Denmark http://www.who.int/csr/disease/swineflu/newsbriefs/h1n1_antiviral_resistance_20090708/en/index.html
US State Department under cyberattack for fourth day
The US State Department said Thursday its website came under cyberattack for a fourth day running as it tried to prevent further attacks.
"I'm just going to speak about our website, the state.gov website. There's not a high volume of attacks. But we're still concerned about it. They are continuing," State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters.
"We are taking measures to deal with this and any potential new attacks," Kelly added.
According to computer security experts, a dozen US government websites, including those of the White House, Pentagon and State Department, were targeted in a coordinated cyberattack which also struck sites in South Korea.
South Korean lawmakers were quoted as saying Wednesday that South Korea's intelligence service believes North Korea or its sympathizers may have staged the attack.
But Kelly added: "I have no information... of North Korean involvement. I have... nothing that I can confirm."
He said that the site based at the US embassy in Seoul, South Korea was not shut down and was not materially affected by any of these attacks.
Kelly has said the US computer emergency readiness team is working with State Department experts, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and other government agencies to try to resolve the problem.
DHS is leading the probe, Kelly said.
The Department of Homeland Security confirmed earlier that US government and private sector websites had come under so-called "distributed denial of service" attack but declined to identify any of the targeted sites.
A denial of service attack attempts to paralyze a website by flooding it with traffic from an army of malware-infected computers known as a "botnet."
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.a6c27e3843e8f645f9e395649a3a85e5.c51&show_article=1

UFO Club allows sighters to share without scorn
July 10, 2009 - 9:45am By RICARDO LOPEZ The Virginian-Pilot
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) - Mae Burdette knows that when she mentions UFOs and extraterrestrials, her statements often fall on skeptical or even deaf ears.
But at the second meeting of a newly formed UFO Club, Burdette found an audience willing to listen with an open mind.
She told a group of 20 people Wednesday night at the Princess Anne Area Library about her experiences with alien abductions, mysterious men in dark suits and her ability to foresee events, such as a neighbor's house fire.
"The club is about bringing people together and putting their experiences into perspective," said Burdette, 64, who lives in Chesapeake.
Cameron Pack, 25, created the UFO Club so people like Burdette can share their experiences and connect with others who have felt marginalized after speaking about peculiar events.
He began to advertise the club through fliers distributed at local holistic healing stores and in a classified ad. About a dozen people attended that first meeting.
"People have been wanting to have this for a long time," said Pack, a Virginia Beach resident.
Pack, who works part time in retail, is a local field investigator for the Mutual UFO Network. He became interested in UFOs after seeing a triangular object in the sky with many bright lights in 2003.
Pack is passionate about his investigative work. He receives assignments to look into UFOs from his director. He interviews witnesses, collects any evidence and updates the network's nationwide database with a completed report.
Pack carries a briefcase packed with reports, a camera and a field manual on how to conduct inquiries. He is not paid for his work, even though it takes up a lot of his time.
In a little more than a month on the job, he's worked on about 25 cases.
"Cameron is new, but he's very good," said, Susan Swiatek, the network's state director. "We're glad to have him aboard. He writes well, and he writes copious quantities in his reports."
Most of the sightings are reported directly to Mutual UFO Network on its Web site, but some are forwarded by Virginia Beach police dispatch, a practice that began in the 1970s.
A 1976 letter from the Advance Research of UFO Organization to then-Chief of Police William Davis requested that the Police Department forward UFO sighting reports to the organization. Shortly after, an internal memo sent to dispatchers instructed them to take reports and then call UFO Central to relay the information.
An officer is rarely sent out to investigate, said Sue Frazier, a dispatch supervisor.
Several dozen reports have come in to dispatch since then, and most people never figure out an object and keep silent, Swiatek said.
"When you experience something like that, what you believe to be alien spacecraft, you really start to question yourself," said Terrell Copeland, a Marine veteran who reported seeing a huge triangle-shape craft floating over a Suffolk shopping center in 2005. "You're just lost."
Copeland said people aren't open to talking about their experiences because they don't want to strain their relationships with coworkers, family or friends.
"This club was necessary because there's nothing like it in the area," Copeland said.
Wednesday's meeting included a diverse group _ 20-somethings, senior citizens, a married couple _ and all showed genuine interest in hearing Burdette's experiences.
When a pair of men in dark suits approached her at work in 1973 in downtown Norfolk, Burdette said, they knew her husband, where he worked, how many children she had and other personal information. They questioned her, but she became spooked and asked them to leave. They returned a few days later, she said, and requested that she not tell anyone about them.
"Then I saw the movie 'Men in Black,' and I made the connection," she told the group. "I still don't know who they were to this day, but I knew something was suspicious."
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Information from: The Virginian-Pilot, http://www.pilotonline.com

Eeyores news and view

For the last 6 years or so have gone to a certain camp in adjoining State and watched fireworks display, i would have to say this year was as good as it has been. Here are a few pictures.

The pictures were actually taken by my daughter this year, timing is hard but she got it. The ones from last years blog were mine.

North Korea fires 7 missilesSEOUL (AP) — North Korea launched seven ballistic missiles Saturday into waters off its east coast in a show of military firepower that defied U.N. resolutions and drew global expressions of condemnation and concern.
The salvo, confirmed by the South Korean government, also appeared to be a slap at the United States as Washington moves to enforce U.N. as well as its own sanctions against the isolated regime for its May 25 nuclear test.
The launches came on July 4, which is U.S. Independence Day. The display was similar to one that took place three years ago, also while Americans celebrated the Fourth of July during another period of tensions over Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program.
The number of missiles was the same, though in 2006 North Korea also launched a long-range rocket that broke apart and fell into the ocean less than a minute after liftoff.
South Korea said Saturday's missiles likely flew more than 250 miles, apparently landing in waters between the Korean peninsula and Japan.
South Korea and Japan both condemned the launches, with Tokyo calling them a "serious act of provocation." Britain and France issued similar statements.
Russia and China, both close to North Korea, expressed concern over an "escalation of tension in the region," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement after a meeting in Moscow.
In Washington, the White House had no immediate comment. But two senior officials in President Obama's administration, speaking in advance of the launches, said any reaction was likely to be muted to avoid giving attention to Pyongyang or antagonize it. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
North Korea has engaged in a series of acts this year widely seen as provocative. It fired a long-range rocket it said was a satellite in early April, and in late May it carried out its second underground nuclear test following the first in late 2006.
The country has also stoked tensions with rival South Korea and last month threatened "thousand-fold" military retaliation against the U.S. and its allies if provoked.
In addition, North Korea convicted two American journalists last month and sentenced them to 12 years hard labor for illegally entering the country. It is also holding a South Korean worker for allegedly denouncing its political system.
The secretive communist country is believed undergoing a political transition in which 67-year-old leader Kim Jong Il appears to be laying the groundwork to transfer power to one of his sons. Kim himself took over from his late father, the country's founder.
South Korean officials said Saturday's launches came throughout the day and were part of military exercises. The North, which had warned ships to stay away from waters off the east coast through July 10, also fired what are believed to have been four short-range cruise missiles Thursday.
Speculation had been building for weeks that the launches were coming. The key question has been whether the North might fire an intercontinental ballistic missile, as it vowed to do in late April.
Despite a Japanese newspaper report last month that one might be launched toward Hawaii in early July, U.S. officials have noted no such preparations, which are complex, usually take days and are often observable by spy satellites. Still, that hasn't stopped Washington from boosting missile defenses as a precaution.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency suggested launch activity may be winding down, at least for now. It reported late Saturday, citing an unidentified military official, that the North was pulling personnel from its missile launch site and allowing ships to sail again off the coast. The Defense Ministry said it could not confirm the report.
North Korea's state news agency did not mention the launches, so it was hard to grasp Pyongyang's true intentions. Officials and analysts, however, said they showed the country remains happy to stand up to the international community and appears unwilling to give in to efforts to punish it.
"I think it's a demonstration of their defiance and rejection of the U.N. Security Council Resolution 1874, for one thing, and to demonstrate their military power capabilities to any potential adversaries" as well as potential customers for its weapons, said Daniel Pinkston, a Seoul-based analyst for the International Crisis Group think tank.
Pinkston also said that there was "certainly a political aspect connected" to the launches and that July 4 was perhaps a "symbolic date," suggesting the timing was not a coincidence.
Resolution 1874, which was approved last month and which condemned the North's nuclear test, was the third to be passed by the U.N. Security Council against the country since 2006. All three ban North Korea from launching ballistic missiles.
A senior official in South Korea's presidential office said that while the launches were part of military exercises, "North Korea also appeared to have sent a message to the U.S.," though he did not elaborate.
Analysts have said North Korea's saber rattling is partially aimed at pressuring Washington to engage in direct negotiations. North Korea is believed to desire diplomatic relations and a peace treaty to formally end the 1950-53 Korean War.
Obama's administration has offered dialogue, but it says North Korea must return to stalled international talks on its denuclearization and stop engaging in what Washington sees as provocative behavior threatening allies South Korea and Japan.
Paik Hak-soon, an expert on North Korea at the Sejong Institute, a think tank near Seoul, rejected the idea that the North chose July 4 to confront or annoy the U.S. on its national day.
He said the launches were more likely a warning to the international community against enforcing U.N. sanctions, which call for searches of North Korean ships suspected of carrying banned items, such as nuclear or missile parts.
He said North Korea will continue to carry out more missile and nuclear tests in the future, as long as relations with the U.S. and South Korea remain tense.
"The structure of confrontation is there, intact," he said.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2009-07-03-nkorea-missiles_N.htm

Venezuela assumes control of Spanish-owned bank
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - President Hugo Chavez's government assumed control of Venezuela's third-largest bank on Friday - making the state the largest player in the nation's banking system.
The purchase of the Spanish-owned Banco de Venezuela gives Chavez's socialist government control over more than one-fifth of bank deposits as he tightens his grip over the economy.
The acquisition will "strengthen the public banking system," which favors sectors including agriculture, energy, housing and tourism, Finance Minister Ali Rodriguez said in a statement.
In May, the Venezuelan government agreed to pay Spain's Grupo Santander $1.05 billion for the bank, ending months of stalled negotiations.
At the time, Banco de Venezuela had 3.2 million clients, 10 percent of the country's deposits and 6,000 employees.
Combined with other state banks, the government will now control about 21 percent of deposits and 16 percent of loans, a payroll of 15,000 employees and 651 bank branches.
The deal went into effect on Friday with an initial payment of $630 million. The rest will be paid in two equal installments in October and December.
Like the rest of the economy, Venezuela's banking sector is already highly regulated, with the government dictating interest rates and commissions.
Under Chavez, Venezuela has nationalized major players in the steel, electricity and other sectors, including four major oil projects, since 2007.
The Venezuelan consulting firm Ecoanalitica calculates those nationalizations have cost Chavez's government some $23 billion.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090704/D997DI2G1.html

GBPPR Tech Bulletin #9 - Nuclear Electromagnetic Pulse (NEMP) Survival

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This was originally going to be a big long article on some myths/facts of nuclear electromagnetic pulse (NEMP) effects on modern communication gear. Well, it's just going to be some ramdom quotes and comments for awhile.

Excerpt from Gary, KE4ZV


>On the contrary, an EMP will not really affect people, but it will do
>a good job of destroying most unprotected transistor circuitry. Old
>tube technology is pretty much immune.


That's the myth, but it has been pretty well discredited. For a normal low air burst or ground burst detonation, the EMP effects reach no further than the flash burn and blast effects, IE roughly 30 miles for the typical "city buster" bomb. In other words, if it cooks your radio, it'll cook you too.

For a very high altitude detonation, EMP effects can spread over a wide area outside the range of flash burn and blast effects. But to be damaged, electronic equipment needs to be connected to fairly long unprotected exposed conductors in order for enough voltage to be induced to cause breakdown. The ARRL published tests on a number of amateur radios, tested in a military EMP simulator, to see what would typically happen in such a case. Battery powered VHF/UHF equipment using a "rubber ducky" antenna was immune to damage. Equipment connected to unprotected mains power suffered power supply damage. And HF equipment connected to unprotected outside antennas suffered receiver front end damage. For solid state equipment, this damage was to the first RF stage transistor, for tube equipment, it was damage to the first stage grid resistor. No transmitters suffered damage.

And there is effective EMP protection available. EMP can be considered merely as a fast risetime form of nearby lightning strike. In both cases, an induced surge enters the equipment via a long exposed conductor. If you are using good lightning surge protection with fast risetime protectors, such as the EMP rated units sold by Polyphaser (and others), and have practiced the kind of station layout I've preached about here many times, there should be no more cause for concern about EMP damage than from lightning surge damage.

Thanks to inverse square effects, an EMP detonation at a 200 mile altitude, the ideal height to maximize EMP effects, has a field strength at your antenna about equivalent to a lightning strike at 7 miles. But the effect on very long exposed conductors, like the power grid or the telephone grid, is as if there were simultaneous lightning strikes 7 miles from *every* point of the grid. This causes a huge voltage to develop on these extended grids, and can cause severe damage to them. Your radio and antennas don't represent such a widespread grid, so they are only subjected to the equivalent of a single lightning surge.

In any case, if you were to suffer EMP damage, the receiver and mains power supplies would be the most likely candidates for damage. CW transmitters offer you no advantage in either of those cases since you still need a working receiver and power source to establish communications regardless of operating mode.

And frankly, for some time (perhaps years) after a massive exchange of nuclear weapons, HF would be useless thanks to disruption of the ionosphere. Only VLF would work for long range communications, which is why the military operates VLF stations for nuclear command and control. VHF+ would continue to work for short range communications. Since neither typically uses Morse, Morse knowledge would be virtually useless after a nuclear exchange.


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Excerpt from Phil, KA9Q

No, not HF CW. Try LF packet radio. Have you heard of the Ground Wave Emergency Network (GWEN)? It is specifically designed to work after the Big One is dropped.

You have to admit that for this application, packet has some nice advantages over CW. For example, it'll keep working after all the humans on the planet (yes, this includes all of the CW operators) have been killed off by radiation. (Remember "On the Beach"?)

I may not think much of the doomsday thinking that led to the construction of GWEN. But I must admit to being glad to have it around because I can use it to annoy the heck out of the "CW, vacuum tubes, blood and guts forever" types who keep insisting that they'll have a complete monopoly on communications after a nuclear war has toasted all of the more modern electronics... :-)


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Excerpt from Gary, KE4ZV

According to the ARRL test data in the Navy's NEMP simulator, that's not the case. The real hazard is to radios connected to long exposed unprotected conductors, IE mains power or HF antennas. In the tests, tube type HF rigs sustained damage to the front end coil assemblies. Battery powered VHF solid state radios sustained no damage. HF radios, solid state or tube, protected by suitable NEMP suppression (properly installed) suffered no damage. And no disconnected radio suffered any damage.

The high impedance of tube equipment tends to make it more susceptable to flashovers in the input circuitry. Since that's harder to change than a tube, the advantage of tubes is moot. NEMP protection is available today, and with that properly installed, there is no reason to fear NEMP.


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Excerpt from QST August 1986, "EMP and the Radio Amateur"

... condensed from NCS TIB 85-10 "EMP threat testing of protection devices for amateur / military affiliate radio systems equipment". I quote "The electric field strength remains fairly constant in the 10 kHz to 1 MHz band; it decreases by as factor of 100 in the 1 to 100 MHz band and continue to decrease at a faster rate for frequencies greater than 100 MHz" So, it appears that EMP field strength decreases by at least an order of magnitude for each decade of frequency above 1 MHz. So. Your quarter inch vent will resonate and allow radio wave to pass above about the 10 GHz range. 10 GHz is 4 decades above 1 MHz so:

The electric field strength transmitted through a quarter inch hole will be less than one ten thousandth the electric field strength in open air.


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Excerpt from the Nuclear Weapons FAQ

5.5 Electromagnetic Effects

The high temperatures and energetic radiation produced by nuclear explosions also produce large amounts of ionized (electrically charged) matter which is present immediately after the explosion. Under the right conditions, intense currents and electromagnetic fields can be produced, generically called EMP (Electromagnetic Pulse), that are felt at long distances. Living organisms are impervious to these effects, but electrical and electronic equipment can be temporarily or permanently disabled by them. Ionized gasses can also block short wavelength radio and radar signals (fireball blackout) for extended periods.

The occurrence of EMP is strongly dependent on the altitude of burst. It can be significant for surface or low altitude bursts (below 4,000 m); it is very significant for high altitude bursts (above 30,000 m); but it is not significant for altitudes between these extremes. This is because EMP is generated by the asymmetric absorption of instantaneous gamma rays produced by the explosion. At intermediate altitudes the air absorbs these rays fairly uniformly and does not generate long range electromagnetic disturbances.

The formation EMP begins with the very intense, but very short burst of gamma rays caused by the nuclear reactions in the bomb. About 0.3% of the bomb's energy is in this pulse, but it lasts for only 10 nanoseconds or so. These gamma rays collide with electrons in air molecules, and eject the electrons at high energies through a process called Compton scattering. These energetic electrons in turn knock other electrons loose, and create a cascade effect that produces some 30,000 electrons for every original gamma ray.

In low altitude explosions the electrons, being very light, move much more quickly than the ionized atoms they are removed from and diffuse away from the region where they are formed. This creates a very strong electric field which peaks in intensity at 10 nanoseconds. The gamma rays emitted downward however are absorbed by the ground which prevents charge separation from occurring. This creates a very strong vertical electric current which generates intense electromagnetic emissions over a wide frequency range (up to 100 MHZ) that emanate mostly horizontally. At the same time, the earth acts as a conductor allowing the electrons to flow back toward the burst point where the positive ions are concentrated. This produces a strong magnetic field along the ground. Although only about 3x10^-10 of the total explosion energy is radiated as EMP in a ground burst (10^6 joules for 1 Mt bomb), it is concentrated in a very short pulse. The charge separation persists for only a few tens of microseconds, making the emission power some 100 gigawatts. The field strengths for ground bursts are high only in the immediate vicinity of the explosion. For smaller bombs they aren't very important because they are strong only where the destruction is intense anyway. With increasing yields, they reach farther from the zone of intense destruction. With a 1 Mt bomb, they remain significant out to the 2 psi overpressure zone (5 miles).

High altitude explosions produce EMPs that are dramatically more destructive. About 3x10^-5 of the bomb's total energy goes into EMP in this case, 10^11 joules for a 1 Mt bomb. EMP is formed in high altitude explosions when the downwardly directed gamma rays encounter denser layers of air below. A pancake shaped ionization region is formed below the bomb. The zone can extend all the way to the horizon, to 2500 km for an explosion at an altitude of 500 km. The ionization zone is up to 80 km thick at the center. The Earth's magnetic field causes the electrons in this layer to spiral as they travel, creating a powerful downward directed electromagnetic pulse lasting a few microseconds. A strong vertical electrical field (20-50 KV/m) is also generated between the Earth's surface and the ionized layer, this field lasts for several minutes until the electrons are recaptured by the air. Although the peak EMP field strengths from high altitude bursts are only 1-10% as intense as the peak ground burst fields, they are nearly constant over the entire Earth's surface under the ionized region.

The effects of these field on electronics is difficult to predict, but can be profound. Enormous induced electric currents are generated in wires, antennas, and metal objects (like missiles, airplanes, and building frames). Commercial electrical grids are immense EMP antennas and would be subjected to voltage surges far exceeding those created by lightning, and over vastly greater areas. Modern VLSI chips are extremely sensitive to voltage surges, and would be burned out by even small leakage currents. Military equipment is generally designed to be resistant to EMP, but realistic tests are very difficult to perform and EMP protection rests on attention to detail. Minor changes in design, incorrect maintenance procedures, poorly fitting parts, loose debris, moisture, and ordinary dirt can all cause elaborate EMP protections to be totally circumvented. It can be expected that a single high yield, high altitude explosion over an industrialized area would cause massive disruption for an indeterminable period, and would cause huge economic damages (all those damaged chips add up).

A separate effect is the ability of the ionized fireball to block radio and radar signals. Like EMP, this effect becomes important with high altitude bursts. Fireball blackout can cause radar to be blocked for tens of seconds to minutes over an area tens of kilometers across. High frequency radio can be disrupted over hundreds to thousands of kilometers for minutes to hours depending on exact conditions.

Links

Radio Frequency Weapons and Proliferation: Potential Impact on the Economy

PolyPhaser Nuclear EMP Protection Devices

GWEN Ground Wave Emergency Network

The Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Contains a few errors, good overall

Engineering and Design - Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) and Tempest Protection for Facilities Proponent: CEMP-ET Straight from the U.S. Army. (Text)

Single Channel Ground and Airborne Radio System (SINCGARS) Radios designed to survive in a nuclear environment

SINCGARS Datasheet (1.2M PDF)

The Electromagnetic Bomb - A Weapon of Electrical Mass Destruction (909k PDF)

Bell System Nuclear Design Criteria (1969)
Notes

Atmospheric NEMP burst tend to be vertically polarized.

The Effects of Nuclear War, Office of Technology Assesment, OTA-NS-89, May 1979.

NEMP has a pulse shape corresponding to the NCS TIB-85-10.

Solid state electronics are more power efficient than legacy tube-type equipment, making for easier portable battery operation.
GBPPR HERF / EMP Projects

GBPPR Microwave Oven Experiments

GBPPR HERF Device

GBPPR Electromagnetic Pulse Experiments - Part 1

GBPPR Electromagnetic Pulse Experiments - Part 2

GBPPR Electromagnetic Pulse Experiments - Part 3

GBPPR 2.45 GHz Magnetron to Coax Assembly

http://www.qsl.net/n9zia/emp.html

Iran judiciary told to confront hostile satellite TV
TEHRAN (Reuters) - The head of Iran's judiciary called on Sunday for the prosecution of people working for increasingly influential anti-establishment satellite TV channels and websites, state television reported.
"The daily growth of anti-regime satellite channels and ... websites needs serious measures to confront this phenomenon," it quoted a circular issued by Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi-Shahroudi as saying.
Iran accused Western powers of interfering in its affairs, after the announcement that hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had won a landslide victory in the June 12 election prompted protests in which at least 20 people were killed.
The circular, addressed to branches of the judiciary, called for judicial personnel to be assigned to deal with such violations.
"Those who cooperate with such websites and television channels will face prosecution," Hashemi-Shahroudi said.
For the first time in Iran, foreign-based satellite TV channels, particularly the BBC's Persian TV, and blogs played a big part in providing news and comment about the election.
Iranians are more used to hearing political messages blared through loudspeakers on small trucks, seeing gaudy posters and being herded to campaign rallies.
The BBC launched its Persian TV service in January, funded with 15 million pounds ($25 million) a year of British government money. The BBC increased the number of satellites carrying the service after Iran interfered with transmission during the election.
Iran expelled the BBC's correspondent in Tehran because of the broadcaster's election coverage, and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called Britain the "most treacherous" of Iran's enemies.
Popular social networking and content-sharing site Facebook was blocked in Iran on May 23, joining political and human rights websites which had already been blocked. More than 150,000 Iranians are Facebook members.
More than 23 million of Iran's 70 million people have access to the Internet, and over 45 million have mobile phones.
Two losing contenders in the presidential election have unleashed fierce attacks on the official outcome of the vote.
Moderate former prime minister Mirhossein Mousavi and reformist cleric Mehdi Karoubi also say the government wants to force Iranians to rely on state-run media, which they say favour Ahmadinejad.
Both men issued statements on their websites saying Ahmadinejad's new government would be "illegitimate" -- even though Khamenei, the Islamic Republic's ultimate arbiter, has upheld the result and thrown his weight behind the president.
http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-40815420090705

The call for a Global currency is broadening.
India Joins Russia, China in Questioning U.S. Dollar Dominance
July 4 (Bloomberg) -- Suresh Tendulkar, an economic adviser to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, said he is urging the government to diversify its $264.6 billion foreign-exchange reserves and hold fewer dollars.
“The major part of Indian reserves is in dollars -- that is something that’s a problem for us,” Tendulkar, chairman of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, said in an interview yesterday in Aix-en-Provence, France, where he was attending an economic conference.
Singh is preparing to join leaders from the Group of Eight industrialized nations -- the U.S., Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy, Canada and Russia -- at a summit in Italy next week which is due to tackle the global economy. China and Brazil will also send representatives to the summit.
As the talks have neared, China and Russia have stepped up calls for a rethink of how global currency reserves are composed and managed, underlining a power shift to emerging markets from the developed nations that spawned the financial crisis.
“There should be a system to maintain the stability of the major reserve currencies,” Former Chinese Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan said in a speech in Beijing yesterday, highlighting China’s concerns about a global financial system dominated by the dollar.
Fiscal and current-account deficits must be supervised as “your currency is likely to become my problem,” said Zeng, who is now the head of a research center under the government’s top economic planning agency. The People’s Bank of China said June 26 that the International Monetary Fund should manage more of members’ reserves.
Russian Proposals
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has repeatedly called for creating a mix of regional reserve currencies as part of the drive to address the global financial crisis, while questioning the dollar’s future as a global reserve currency. Russia’s proposals for the Group of 20 major developed and developing nations summit in London in April included the creation of a supranational currency.
“We will resume” talks on the supranational currency proposal at the G-8 summit in L’Aquila on July 8-10, Medvedev aide Sergei Prikhodko told reporters in Moscow yesterday.
Singh adviser Tendulkar said that big dollar holders face a “prisoner’s dilemma” in terms of managing their holdings. “That’s why I’m telling them to do this,” he said.
He also said that world currencies need to adjust to help unwind trade imbalances that have contributed to the global financial crisis.
“The major imbalances which led to the current situation, the current account surpluses and deficits, have to be addressed,” he said. “Currency adjustment is one thing that suggests itself.”
Emerging-Market Dependence
For all the complaints about the dollar, emerging markets such as India remain dependent on the currency of the U.S., the world’s largest economy and a $2.5 trillion export market. The IMF said June 30 that the share of dollars in global foreign- exchange reserves increased to 65 percent in the first three months of this year, the highest since 2007.
Tendulkar said that the matter needs to be taken up in international talks, and that it emphasizes the need for those talks to go beyond the traditional G-8.
“They can meet if they want to,” he said. “The G-20 has a wider role, has representation of the countries that are likely to lead the recovery process.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aR7yfqUwTb4M

eeyores news and view

The Sin of the Tower of Babel
What was the real problem with the tower of Babel?
There are varying ideas about this. One movie I watched as a child showed the completion of the Tower and then a man (presumably Nimrod) shooting an arrow from the top of the tower “in to heaven.” Others say that the tower was a plan to “get to heaven” without God.
But the act of erecting a tall structure was not the problem. The Bible does not tell us that the people who built it thought they were going to reach God. It uses the phrase “let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven” (Gen 11:4) but when we look elsewhere in Scripture we find that this simply means the city and its tower was built very high:
Deuteronomy 1:28 Whither shall we go up? our brethren have discouraged our heart, saying, The people is greater and taller than we; the cities are great and walled up to heaven; and moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakims there.
So what, exactly, was the sin?
Like so many things, the Tower of Babel was an act of disobedience. It starts in Genesis chapter 9 just after the flood:
Genesis 9:1 And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.
Note the end of the command: replenish the earth.
Genesis 10 gives us genealogy, which ends with an explanation of God’s will for Noah’s progeny:
Genesis 10:32 These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations: and by these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood.
In chapter 11, we see man’s rebellion and disobedience:
Genesis 11:1-2 And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.
Notice that it starts with defiance to God’s commandment to replenish the earth and to emmigrate and form different nations. Instead of travelling to separate lands, they stopped in one place together.
Genesis 11:4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
And there is the crux of the matter. The people wanted to be “one people” and did not want to obey God’s will to spread across the earth. They wanted a single name for themselves. (I suppose they all figured they were “citizens of the world” and not of nations!)
God’s response to this disobedience has led some to come up with some wildly strange notions about the “Old Testament God” of the Bible.
Genesis 11:5-7 And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.
I’ve seen some strange interpretations of this passage, but the meaning is not so strange. Let’s go back to before the Flood:
Genesis 6:5 And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
The key word to compare here is imagination. Men are wicked and their hearts imagine evil. When it says “and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do” it does not mean that man would accomplish any task he set out to do (thus making God fearful of man!). It simply means that man would continually come together in disobedience and rebellion without restraint of wickedness.
Finally, we see God accomplishing his will:
Genesis 11:7-8 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech. So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
And there we see: God’s will was for men to spread over the earth, as he said in Genesis 9:1. The building of Babel was a collective act of defiance against God. That was the Sin of the Tower.
http://www.believingstudy.com/2009/04/10/the-sin-of-the-tower-of-babel/

Muslims attack fleeing Christians with acid
9 women, 4 children injured by rampage
Muslims apparently angered because a Christian man driving a tractor reportedly tried to pass a Muslim on a motorcycle have rampaged in one village in Pakistan, destroying Christians' homes and throwing acid on women and children as they fled, according to a new report from Barnabas Aid.
The ministry reported that the violence this week happened in the village of Bahmani Walla in Punjab state in Pakistan, which is dominated by Islamic influences.
The report said 600 Muslims used gasoline bombs to vandalize 117 homes belonging to Christians – including 48 damaged by fire, and sabotage water pumps and cut electricity.
According to the report, the violence apparently stemmed from an incident one night earlier, "in which a Christian man driving a tractor requested that a Muslim man riding a motorcycle allow him to pass."
"The request was refused and a disagreement ensued," said the Christian ministry that directs financial support to projects that help Christians "where they suffer discrimination, oppression and persecution as a consequence of their faith."
(continue reading at the following link)
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=102978

North Korea threatens foreign Christians
Warns of 'something bad' for group that sent Gospel via fax
North Korea, busy in recent weeks launching test missiles, exploding test bombs and warning the world it will respond with a barrage of weapons should it be attacked, is not neglecting its assault on Christianity.
The nation has responded to a campaign to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ around the world with a threatening fax sent to the Christian ministry Voice of the Martyrs.
The organization confirmed an anonymous fax apparently from the North Korean embassy in Finland promises workers affiliated with VOM that "something very bad will happen to you" if the ministry continues a special Gospel project.
"This fax is good news," said Todd Nettleton, VOM's director of media development and the author of a book on the history of Christianity in North Korea. "This means that (our) faxes are getting through, and they are being read. It is highly unlikely that this type of response would have been made from an embassy without some approval from Pyongyang."
The Voice of the Martyrs project has sent Gospel messages to as many fax-linked telephone numbers inside North Korea as possible.
(to read the rest of the article, follow the link)
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=102963

New 'American Patriot's Bible' sees USA's 'godly roots'
Americans looking to combine love of God with love of country this July 4th can quote the new American Patriot's Bible, which says God has influenced America through godly Founding Fathers, presidents and soldiers.
"This Bible is designed for the decent, hardworking core of America, the ordinary man or woman who loves this nation and believes it springs from godly roots," says Richard G. Lee, a Southern Baptist pastor from Georgia who served as the Bible's general editor.
"Christians have believed all along that this nation sprung from Judeo-Christian ethics. Now they can say, "Oh, now I know where this uniqueness comes from in our nation's history."'
More than two years in the making, The American Patriot's Bible is the latest entry in a line of niche and specialty Bibles that have been targeted at women, men, parents, students, ethnic groups or people struggling with depression, addiction, obesity or even breast cancer.
For mega-publisher Thomas Nelson, the new Patriot's Bible joins a catalog of bestselling audio Bibles and "BibleZines" that look and feel like glossy fashion magazines.
"It is my hope that this title can inspire people during a very turbulent time in our nation's history," says Wayne Hastings, senior vice president of Thomas Nelson's Bible division, which is promoting Lee's Bible with an "Honor An American Patriot" campaign.
In his introduction, Lee writes that "America stands without equal as a beacon of hope and freedom in a hurting world." The Patriot's Bible, he says, speaks to Americans who feel their conservative theology, politics and morals are under assault.
"We are at our lowest ebb at this particular time," he said in an interview. "Judeo-Christian principles are being beaten down. They're actually under attack. This has never happened before."
Lee is the founding pastor of the 4,000-member First Redeemer Church in Cumming, Ga. A registered Republican who's organizing an Independence Day-themed "Restoring America" conference featuring conservatives David Limbaugh and Oliver North, Lee said he's "disappointed" when politicians "use the word of God for the purpose of vote getting."
His goal was to create a "non-partisan" Bible, but he quotes Republican Ronald Reagan more times than Democrats Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Lyndon Johnson and John F. Kennedy combined.
In an interview, Lee said he doesn't even know if Carter, a fellow Georgian and longtime Baptist Sunday school teacher, is a Christian. As for President Obama? "I haven't seen any patriotism from him yet."
Lee sprinkles his Bible with some 300 articles about "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," the right to keep and bear arms, the war in Iraq and religious broadcasting.
While some have praised the Patriot's Bible— former House Speaker Newt Gingrich called it "fascinating" — others have condemned it as something akin to theological and political heresy.
"Get thee behind me, Satan," wrote "Crunchy Con" blogger Rod Dreher on Beliefnet. "To the extent that this Bible's publishers conflate serving Christ with patriotism … they are corrupt, and corrupters."
Evangelical author and pastor Greg Boyd's lengthy critique, posted on Christianity Today's website, calls Lee's Bible "idolatrous," saying, "There's not a single commentary in this Bible that even attempts to shed light on what the biblical text actually means."
Lee says such criticisms misunderstand the purpose of the Patriot's Bible, which is already in its second printing.
"Another study Bible is not needed," he said. "The purpose of this Bible is to go deeper in people's understanding of the nation in which we live, from whence it came, and where it is going unless we return to the Scriptures."
Lee isn't alone in seeking to repackage the Bible for a particular ideological audience. Some recent Bibles have targeted more liberal Christians, including The Poverty and Justice Bible, produced by the American Bible Society, and the eco-friendly Green Bible from HarperOne.
Indeed, there's nothing new about Christians seeking divine confirmation for their views. Northern and Southern Christians did as much during the Civil War: "Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other," Abraham Lincoln said in his Second Inaugural Address.
Today, both red- and blue-state Christians crave God's endorsement, said Larry Eskridge of Wheaton College's Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals.
"The problem for those who read The American Patriot's Bible is that their contemporary Christian peers on the left cite the same source to justify their view that America has much to repent for in its economic, cultural, and military relationships to the rest of the world," Eskridge said.
"Maybe, just maybe, the unadorned text of the Bible has something to say to both sides of the equation."
http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2009-07-01-patriots-bible_N.htm

Eeyores news and view

Joint Chiefs Chairman U.S. Adm. Mike Mullen outlines top U.S. threats
July 1, 2009 - 4:36am
Joint Chiefs Chairman U.S. Adm. Mike Mullen talks with WTOP's J.J. Green. WASHINGTON - A day after most U.S. troops have now left Iraq, the war in Afghanistan is the new principal focal point for the U.S. military.
WTOP asked Joint Chiefs Chairman U.S. Adm. Mike Mullen what it's going to take to win in Afghanistan:
"What it's going to take there to win is to provide security for the Afghan people, that would allow the Afghan people to develop confidence in their government, local government, provincial government, national government," Mullen says.
But winning also is going to require taking the fight to the Taliban.
"Clearly we're adding more troops there," Mullen acknowledges. "The fight is getting tougher. The Taliban is much more capable than they were last year and they've been evolving over the last three years, and that's one of the reasons we're putting the troops in."
Interestingly, Russia -- part of the Soviet Union that spent a decade trying to dominate Afghanistan -- is critical to U.S. plans to defeat the Taliban.
"Every Russian I've talked to does not want to see the Taliban return to running Afghanistan," Mullen says.
Mullen says part of the reason Russia does not want to see the Taliban return is the Afghan drug trade. It is dominated by the Taliban and runs right through Russia.
The U.S. and Russia have their differences, but Mullen says they have to put them aside to deal with common threats.
The U.S. and Russia have a had a few rough patches. In fact, Mullen's trip to Russia was planned with that in mind.
"In hopes that we can look to strengthen our relationship, which actually a year ago, or almost a year ago last August, you know fell on pretty hard times."
Mullen is referring to the Russian military dust-up with Georgia, which the U.S. supported.
One place where the U.S. and Russia are working together is off the coast of Africa.
"Facing this common challenge of piracy," Mullen says.
But right here in the U.S.'s own back yard, Russia has been very cozy with Venezuela, which by the declaration from its President Hugo Chavez, is no friend of the U.S. at this point.
"Every country gets to pick its relationships as they wish," Mullen says.
But when it comes to Russian relations in this hemisphere, Mullen pointed out, the Russians have been put on notice about U.S. concerns about certain Russian activities.
No doubt those activities have to do with U.S. enemies, such as Cuba, Venezuela and others.
http://wtop.com/?nid=778&sid=1706776


Harlem Transforms Into Neverland East
Eyes Of World On NYC As Fans Flock To Famous Harlem Theater For Public Remembrance, Thousands Line 125th St.
Fans from all over gathered to pay tribute to Michael Jackson at Harlem's historic Apollo Theater on Tuesday, where more than 40 years ago, the Jackson Five launched its career, and effectively, a new era in pop music with the introduction to Michael.
Thousands lined up along West 125th Street with many adorned in large black sunglasses and fedora hats, while dressed in multicolored sequined vests or Jackson's trademark sparkling white glove.
Tuesday's memorial, which began at 2 p.m., featured a eulogy by the Rev. Al Sharpton. A moment of silence was called at 5:26 p.m., the time East Coast fans learned that Jackson had died.
Sharpton told the crowd that Jackson "broke down race barriers." He and Director Spike Lee urged the audience to revel in Jackson accomplishments and disregard what they characterized as negative news coverage of the star.
"Michael made young men and women all over the world imitate us," Sharpton said. "Before Michael, we were limited and ghettoized. But Michael put on a colorful military outfit, he pulled his pants up, he put on the one glove, and he smashed the barriers of segregated music."
Sharpton then showed his own colorful dance moves to the crowd, dancing up a storm with Lee, DJ Chub Rock, and another woman while Jackson's music blared.
Shenia Rudolph, a fan from the Bronx, joined many who have been waiting for more than 12 hours outside the theater just to honor the King of Pop.
"He has made history. He is a legend in our own times," Rudolph says. "As from now, he is going to be remembered from here till tomorrow."
Many brought beloved scrapbooks and memorabilia while some were totally decked out just like Michael.
... (to continue reading go to the link)
http://wcbstv.com/cbs2crew/michael.jackson.apollo.2.1065167.html

Suspected NKorean ship changes course
By PAULINE JELINEK – 16 hours ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. officials said Tuesday that a North Korean ship has turned around and is headed back toward the north where it came from, after being tracked for more than a week by American Navy vessels on suspicion of carrying illegal weapons.
The move keeps the U.S. and the rest of the international community guessing: Where is the Kang Nam going? Does its cargo include materials banned by a new U.N. anti-proliferation resolution?
The ship left a North Korean port of Nampo on June 17 and is the first vessel monitored under U.N. sanctions that ban the regime from selling arms and nuclear-related material.
The Navy has been watching it — at times following it from a distance. It traveled south and southwest for more than a week; then, on Sunday, it turned around and headed back north, two U.S. officials said on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence.
Nearly two weeks after the ship left North Korea, officials said Tuesday they still don't know where it is going. But it was some 250 miles south of Hong Kong on Tuesday, one official said.
Though acknowledging all along that the Kang Nam's destination was unclear, some officials said last week that it could be going to Myanmar and that it was unclear whether it could reach there without stopping in another port to refuel.
The U.N. resolution allows the international community to ask for permission to board and search any suspect ship on the seas. If permission for inspection is refused, authorities can ask for an inspection in whichever nation where the ship pulls into port.
North Korea has said it would consider any interception of its ships a declaration of war.
Two officials had said earlier in the day Tuesday that the Kang Nam had been moving very slowly in recent days, something that could signal it was trying to conserve fuel.
They said they didn't know what the turnaround of the ship means, nor what prompted it.
The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, said Sunday that Washington was "following the progress of that ship very closely," but she would not say whether the U.S. would confront the Kang Nam.
The sailing of the vessel — and efforts to track it — set up the first test of a new U.N. Security Council resolution that authorizes member states to inspect North Korean vessels. The sanctions are punishment for an underground nuclear test the North carried out in May in defiance of past resolutions.
Meanwhile on Tuesday, the Obama administration imposed financial sanctions on a company in Iran that is accused of involvement in North Korea's missile proliferation network.
In the latest move to keep pressure on Pyongyang and its nuclear ambitions, the Treasury Department moved against Hong Kong Electronics, a company located in Kish Island, Iran. The action means that any bank accounts or other financial assets found in the United States belonging to the company must be frozen. Americans also are prohibited from doing business with the firm.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gPE2T6srY36AqSumfp9KStLWUnAQD9956V482
Harrisburg chapter of NAACP urges martial law
The Harrisburg Chapter of the NAACP is calling on Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell to suspend some civil liberties and impose martial law in the city to halt the wave of recent lawlessness.
Chapter President Stanley Lawson also called on Rendell to bring in the state National Guard for at least 30 days and to impose a curfew. In June, there have been at least 12 shootings, many of them in the daytime, including a man killed Wednesday at a busy city intersection during the lunch hour.
"The Guard is for floods and natural disasters. I don't know any more of a natural disaster than of our young people being killed," he said at a general membership meeting of about 25 people at Capitol Presbyterian Church, 14th and Cumberland streets.
"It's time for some real action," he said. "Right now the important thing is to stop this madness."
"We're beyond what the Harrisburg police department can do. We need help," Lawson said.
Martial law is a system of rules that takes effect when the military takes control of the normal administration of justice, normally in times of emergency.
At about the same time Lawson was speaking, Rendell was at another community meeting in Harrisburg where he promised to have state police patrol city streets to increase the presence of law enforcement.
Lawson noted that there was historical precedent for the Guard to step in, recalling the race riots in 1968 following the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King in Memphis, Tenn.
Lawson said that many reasons have been given for the wave of shootings, such as drugs, robberies and neighborhood turf wars. Fear is the bigger reason, he suggested.
"The young men, it's fear, it's just fear. They think: 'I'm going to get them before they get me,'" he said.
When one man noted the presence of the Guardian Angels from York coming to Harrisburg, Lawson responded: "I appreciate the Guardian Angels, but I see what's going on in York, Lancaster and Philadelphia. It's everywhere. I'm concerned about what is going on in Harrisburg."
Member and attorney Stanley Mitchell noted the civil rights organization is asking for a short suspension of some civil rights, but added: "We have the civil rights not to be shot."
http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2009/06/harrisburg_chapter_of_naacp_ur.html
White House Reporters Grill Gibbs Over ‘Prepackaged’ Questions for Obama
Go to the site for the video, but if it upset Helen Thomas a self professed Liberal, then it must have real stunk the place up. Here is her quote
"The point is the control from here. We have never had that in the White House. And we have had some control but not this control. I mean I'm amazed, I'm amazed at you people who call for openness and transparency and have controlled..." veteran White House reporter Helen Thomas said Wednesday.
http://www.breitbart.tv/white-house-reporters-grill-gibbs-over-selected-questions-for-obama/

Eeyores news and view

The above cartoon is great to post one the one year aniversry of the Heller case against DC ans for the people.

There is a lot of unrest around the world right now. Here are a few articles today

Honduras torn between ousted leader, replacement
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) - Honduras is now torn between two presidents: one legally recognized by world bodies after he was deposed and forced from the country by his own soldiers, and another supported by the Central American nation's congress, courts and military.
Presidents from around Latin America were gathering in Nicaragua for meetings Monday to resolve the first military overthrow of a Central American government in 16 years, and once again Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez took center stage, casting the dispute as a rebellion by the region's poor.
"If the oligarchies break the rules of the game as they have done, the people have the right to resistance and combat, and we are with them," Chavez said in the Nicaraguan capital, Managua.
There is a deep rift between the outside world - which is clamoring for the return of democratically elected, but largely unpopular and soon-to-leave-office President Manuel Zelaya - and congressionally designated successor Roberto Micheletti.
Micheletti rejected any outside interference and declared a two-night curfew, while Chavez vowed that "we will overthrow (Micheletti)."
Zelaya was seized by soldiers and hustled aboard a plane to Costa Rica early Sunday, just hours before a rogue referendum Zelaya had called in defiance of the courts and Congress, and which his opponents said was an attempt to remain in power after his term ends Jan. 27.
The Honduran constitution limits presidents to a single 4-year term, and Zelaya's opponents feared he would use the referendum results to try to run again, just as Chavez reformed his country's constitution to be able to seek re-election repeatedly.
Micheletti said the army acted on orders from the courts, and the ouster was carried out "to defend respect for the law and the principles of democracy." But he threatened to jail Zelaya and put him on trial if he returned. Micheletti also hit back at Chavez, saying "nobody, not Barack Obama and much less Hugo Chavez, has any right to threaten this country."
Earlier, Obama said in a statement he was "deeply concerned" about the events, and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Zelaya's arrest should be condemned.
"I call on all political and social actors in Honduras to respect democratic norms, the rule of law and the tenets of the Inter-American Democratic Charter," Obama's statement read.
For those conditions to be met, Zelaya must be returned to power, U.S. officials said.
Two senior Obama administration officials told reporters that U.S. diplomats were working to ensure Zelaya's safe return.
The officials said the Obama administration in recent days had warned Honduran power players, including the armed forces, that the U.S. would not support a coup, but Honduran military leaders stopped taking their calls.
Zelaya said soldiers seized him in his pajamas at gunpoint in what he called a "coup" and a "kidnapping." The United Nations, the Organization of American States and governments throughout Latin America called for Zelaya to be allowed to resume office.
"I want to return to my country. I am president of Honduras," Zelaya said Sunday before traveling to Managua on one of Chavez's planes for regional meetings of Central American leaders and Chavez's leftist alliance of nations, known as ALBA.
Zelaya's call for civil disobedience and peaceful resistance appeared to gain only modest support in Honduras, where a few hundred people turned out at government buildings to jeer soldiers and chant "Traitors!"
Some of Zelaya's Cabinet members were detained by soldiers or police following his ouster, according to former government official Armando Sarmiento. And the rights group Freedom of Expression said leftist legislator Cesar Ham had died in a shootout with soldiers trying to detain him.
A Honduran Security Department spokesman said he had no information on Ham.
Armored military vehicles with machine guns rolled through the streets of the Honduran capital and soldiers seized the national palace, but no other incidents of violence were reported.
Sunday afternoon, Congress voted to accept what it said was Zelaya's letter of resignation, with even the president's former allies turning against him. Micheletti, who as leader of Congress is in line to fill any vacancy in the presidency, was sworn in to serve until Zelaya's term ends.
Micheletti belongs to Zelaya's Liberal Party, but opposed the president in the referendum.
Micheletti acknowledged that he had not spoken to any Latin American heads of state, but said, "I'm sure that 80 to 90 percent of the Honduran population is happy with what happened today."
The Organization of American States approved a resolution Sunday demanding "the immediate, safe and unconditional return of the constitutional president, Manuel Zelaya."
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the coup and "urges the reinstatement of the democratically elected representatives of the country," said his spokeswoman, Michele Montas.
The Rio Group, which comprises 23 nations from the hemisphere, issued a statement condemning "the coup d'etat" and calling for Zelaya's "immediate and unconditional restoration to his duties."
And Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou canceled a planned visit to Honduras, one of just 23 countries that still recognize the self-governing island.
Coups were common in Central America for four decades reaching back to the 1950s, but Sunday's ouster was the first military power grab in Latin America since a brief, failed 2002 coup against Chavez. It was the first in Central America since military officials forced President Jorge Serrano of Guatemala to step down in 1993 after he tried to dissolve Congress and suspend the constitution.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090629/D99493GO0.html

Chavez threatens military action over Honduras coup
CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Sunday put troops on alert after a coup in Honduras and said he would respond militarily if his envoy to the Central American country was kidnapped or killed.
Chavez said Honduran soldiers took away the Cuban ambassador and left the Venezuelan ambassador on the side of a road after beating him during the army's coup against his leftist ally, Honduran President Manuel Zelaya.
The Honduran army ousted Zelaya and exiled him in Central America's first military coup since the Cold War, after he upset the army by trying to win re-election.
Chavez said on state television if his ambassador to Venezuela was killed, or if troops entered the Venezuelan Embassy, "that military junta would be entering a de facto state of war. We would have to act militarily ... I have put the armed forces of Venezuela on alert."
Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa, part of a coalition of leftist governments headed by Chavez that includes Honduras, said he would support military action if Ecuador's diplomats or those of its allies were threatened.
The socialist Chavez has in the past threatened to use his armed forces in the region but never followed through. He said that if a new government is sworn in after the coup it would be defeated.
"We will bring them down, we will bring them down, I tell you," he said, while hundreds of red-shirted supporters gathered outside Venezuela's presidential palace in solidarity with Zelaya.
HISTORY OF COUPS
The United States has long accused the Venezuelan former soldier of being a destabilizing force in Latin America. Chavez himself tried to take power in a coup in 1992 and was briefly ousted in a 2002 putsch but was reinstated after protests.
Chavez, who accused the administration of former U.S. President George W. Bush of backing his removal, said there should be an investigation into whether Washington had a hand in Zelaya's ouster.
"They will have to get to the bottom of how much of a hand the CIA and other imperial bodies had in this," he said.
The White House denied any U.S. participation in the coup. "There was no U.S. involvement in this action against President Zelaya," a White House official told Reuters.
President Barack Obama said he was deeply concerned by the events in Honduras and Secretary of State Hilary Clinton condemned the action taken against Zelaya. A senior U.S. official said Washington recognizes only Zelaya as president.
The United States supported a number of military coups in Central America during the Cold War and used Honduras as a base for its counter-insurgency operations in the region in the 1980s.
Washington still has several hundred troops stationed at Soto Cano Air Base, a Honduran military installation that is also the headquarters for a regional U.S. joint task force that conducts humanitarian, drug and disaster relief operations.
Chavez and other Latin American leaders from his ALBA coalition, including Ecuador's President Rafael Correa and Bolivia's President Evo Morales, were headed to Nicaragua on Sunday to discuss what action to take over Honduras.
ALBA's nine members also include Cuba, Honduras and Nicaragua. Ecuador said Sunday it will not recognize any new government in Honduras.
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE55R1S820090628?sp=true

NKorea criticizes US missile defense for Hawaii
SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea criticized the U.S. on Monday for positioning missile defense systems around Hawaii, calling the deployment part of a plot to attack the regime and saying it would bolster its nuclear arsenal in retaliation.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said he ordered the deployment of a ground-based, mobile missile intercept system and radar system to Hawaii amid concerns the North may fire a long-range missile toward the islands, about 4,500 miles away.
"Through the U.S. forces' clamorous movements, it has been brought to light that the U.S. attempt to launch a pre-emptive strike on our republic has become a brutal fact," the North's main Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in a commentary.
The paper also accused the U.S. of deploying nuclear-powered aircraft and atomic-armed submarines in waters near the Korean peninsula, saying the moves prove "the U.S. pre-emptive nuclear war" on the North is imminent.
... (more of the article at the link)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/29/AR2009062900307_pf.html

Russia Holds Major War Games In Caucasus
Russia Holds Largest War Games Since War With Georgia _ In Signal To Georgia, And To US
Thousands of troops, backed by hundreds of tanks, artillery and other heavy weaponry, began rumbling through the North Caucasus on Monday, as Russia began its largest military exercises since last year's war with Georgia.
The Caucasus 2009 war games are being seen by many experts as a warning shot for nearby Georgia, where the government says it has rearmed armed forces and where NATO recently wrapped up its own exercises.
Experts say the exercises may also be signal to the United States that Russia will give no ground on its efforts to maintain an exclusive sphere of influence in Georgia and other former Soviet republics. The games run through July 6 _ the day that President Barack Obama arrives in Moscow for a highly anticipated summit with Russia's Dmitry Medvedev.
Defense Ministry official say more than 8,500 troops will take part, along with nearly 200 tanks, armored vehicles, 100 artillery units and several units from Russia's Black Sea naval fleet.
... (read more of the story at this link)
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/06/29/ap/europe/main5120564.shtml

China's banks are an accident waiting to happen to every one of us
Fitch Ratings has been warning for some time that China's lenders are wading into dangerous water
China's banks are veering out of control. The half-reformed economy of the People's Republic cannot absorb the $1,000bn (£600bn) blitz of new lending issued since December.
Money is leaking instead into Shanghai's stock casino, or being used to keep bankrupt builders on life support. It is doing very little to help lift the world economy out of slump.
Fitch Ratings has been warning for some time that China's lenders are wading into dangerous waters, but its latest report is even grimmer than bears had suspected.
"With much of the world immersed in crisis, China appears to be one of the few countries where the financial system continues to function largely without a glitch, but Fitch is growing increasingly wary," it said.
"Future losses on stimulus could turn out to be larger than expected, and it is unclear what share the central and/or local governments ultimately will be willing or able to bear."
... (more of the article is at the following link)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/5675198/Chinas-banks-are-an-accident-waiting-to-happen-to-every-one-of-us.html

Eeyores news and view

Sign of the times, in which we are living in

Government Land-Grab Moves Forward
The nation took a step closer to the largest federal land grab in the nation’s history last week, according to the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA).
That’s thanks to passage of the Clean Water Restoration Act (CWRA) by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
In basic terms the CRWA (S. 787) would grant the federal government authority of all water – both navigable, which it now presides over, as well as non-navigable.
Without defining and confining federal authority to navigable waters, an NCBA spokesman said, “…the CWRA would expand federal regulatory control to unprecedented levels – essentially putting stock tanks, drainage ditches, any puddle or water feature found on family farms and ranches – potentially even ground water – under the regulatory strong-arm of the federal government.”
Though the bill was amended last week, NCBA officials explain, “The amendment is a smoke screen that allegedly takes care of agricultural concerns by exempting prior-converted croplands from federal jurisdiction. Cattle are generally not grazed on prior-converted croplands, so this amendment does nothing to mitigate the potential damage to livestock production from this legislation. The amendment is a diversion from the real issue, which is the removal of the word ‘navigable’ from the definition of waters.”
NCBA and Public Lands Council oppose the legislation because it obviously infringes on private property rights, but also because it limits the state partnerships and flexibility that have made the current Clean Water Act successful.
http://beefmagazine.com/beefstockertrends/0623-government-land-grab-moves-forward/

On Nixon Tapes, Ambivalence Over Abortion, Not Watergate
WASHINGTON — On Jan. 23, 1973, when the Supreme Court struck down laws criminalizing abortion in Roe v. Wade, President Richard M. Nixon made no public statement. But privately, newly released tapes reveal, he expressed ambivalence.
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Nixon worried that greater access to abortions would foster “permissiveness,” and said that “it breaks the family.” But he also saw a need for abortion in some cases — like interracial pregnancies, he said.
“There are times when an abortion is necessary. I know that. When you have a black and a white,” he told an aide, before adding, “Or a rape.”
Nine months later, Nixon forced the firing of the special prosecutor looking into the Watergate affair, Archibald Cox, and prompted the resignations of Attorney General Elliot L. Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William D. Ruckelshaus. The next day, Ronald Reagan, who was then governor of California and would later be president, told the White House that he approved. Reagan said the action, which would become known as the “Saturday Night Massacre,” was “probably the best thing that ever happened — none of them belong where they were,” according to a Nixon aide’s notes of the private conversation.
Those disclosures were among the revelations in more than 150 hours of tape and 30,000 pages of documents made public on Tuesday by the Nixon Presidential Library, a part of the National Archives. The audio files were posted online, as were a sampling of the documents.
The tapes were recorded by the secret microphones in the Oval Office from January and February 1973. They shed new light on an intense moment in American history, including Nixon’s second inauguration, the Vietnam War cease-fire, and the trial of seven men over the break-in at the Democrats’ headquarters at the Watergate complex amid mounting revelations about their ties to the White House.
The tapes also capture more mundane details of life in the White House — conversations about what to pack for a trip, when to schedule a trip to the barber, whether the president’s wife would enjoy going to Trader Vic’s for dinner.
Most segments of the tapes relating to the Watergate scandal, which would lead to Nixon’s resignation 20 months later, have already been released. But there are some new materials that were previously held back because the audio quality was so poor that archives officials could not be certain whether they contained discussion of any classified topics. Improvements in audio technology have allowed archives staff to clear additional ones.
They include a Jan. 5, 1973, conversation between Nixon and his aide Charles W. Colson in which they discussed the possibility of granting clemency to E. Howard Hunt Jr., one of the Watergate conspirators, according to a log compiled by archives staff. Scholars say the same topic was addressed in several other tapes that were previously made public.
The documents also include nine pages of handwritten notes by a domestic policy aide about plans for what the White House would say about the dismissal of the Watergate special prosecutor, Mr. Cox.
The tapes also provide new material about the circumstances surrounding the Paris treaty to end the United States’ military involvement in Vietnam.
A call between Nixon and Mr. Colson just after midnight on Jan. 20 showed that Nixon anticipated, when the treaty was announced, that he would be vindicated for continuing to bomb North Vietnam. He especially relished the hit that he believed members of Congress who opposed the war — whose public statements he pronounced “treasonable” — would suffer.
Several conversations center on the pressure Nixon placed on South Vietnam’s president, Nguyen Van Thieu, to accept the cease-fire agreement. Ken Hughes, a Nixon scholar and research fellow at the Presidential Recordings Project at the University of Virginia, said he was struck by listening on one of the new tapes to Nixon’s telling his national security adviser, Henry A. Kissinger, that to get Thieu to sign the treaty, he would “cut off his head if necessary.”
Mr. Hughes said the conversation bolstered his view that Nixon, Thieu and Mr. Kissinger knew at the time that the cease-fire could not endure, and that it was not “peace with honor,” as Nixon described it, so much as a face-saving way for the United States to get out of the war. In 1975, North Vietnam would violate the cease-fire and conquer South Vietnam.
The tapes also include a phone call from February 1973 between Nixon and the evangelist Billy Graham, during which Mr. Graham complained that Jewish-American leaders were opposing efforts to promote evangelical Christianity, like Campus Crusade. The two men agreed that the Jewish leaders risked setting off anti-Semitic sentiment.
“What I really think is deep down in this country, there is a lot of anti-Semitism, and all this is going to do is stir it up,” Nixon said.
At another point he said: “It may be they have a death wish. You know that’s been the problem with our Jewish friends for centuries.”
The documents also include three newly declassified pages from a National Security Council brief discussing secret Israeli efforts to build a nuclear weapon.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/24/us/politics/24nixon.html?_r=1

Md. officials announce swine flu-related death
June 23, 2009 - 2:30pm
BALTIMORE - Maryland health officials are announcing the state's first confirmed swine-flu related death.
The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said Tuesday that an elderly Baltimore-area resident with a swine flu infection and serious underlying medical conditions has died.
Health officials say that swine flu was a contributing factor in the death, but they will not release personal details about the case, including specific underlying health conditions.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 87 people who contracted swine flu have died.
Maryland officials have confirmed 370 swine flu cases, but say it is likely a fraction of the total cases statewide as many people are not tested and recover within a week.
http://wtop.com/?nid=25&sid=1702853

NKorea threatens US; world anticipates missile
SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea threatened Wednesday to wipe the United States off the map as Washington and its allies watched for signs the regime will launch a series of missiles in the coming days.
Off China's coast, a U.S. destroyer was tailing a North Korean ship suspected of transporting illicit weapons to Myanmar in what could be the first test of U.N. sanctions passed to punish the nation for an underground nuclear test last month.
The Kang Nam left the North Korean port of Nampo a week ago with the USS John S. McCain close behind. The ship, accused of transporting banned goods in the past, is believed bound for Myanmar, according to South Korean and U.S. officials.
The new U.N. Security Council resolution requires member states to seek permission to inspect suspicious cargo. North Korea has said it would consider interception a declaration of war and on Wednesday accused the U.S. of seeking to provoke another Korean War.
"If the U.S. imperialists start another war, the army and people of Korea will ... wipe out the aggressors on the globe once and for all," the official Korean Central News Agency said.
The warning came on the eve of the 59th anniversary of the start of the three-year Korean War, which ended in a truce in 1953, not a peace treaty, leaving the peninsula in state of war.
The U.S. has 28,500 troops in South Korea to protect against an outbreak of hostilities.
Tensions have been high since North Korea launched a long-range rocket in April and then conducted its second underground atomic test on May 25.
Reacting to U.N. condemnation of that test, North Korea walked away from nuclear disarmament talks and warned it would fire a long-range missile.
North Korea has banned ships from the waters off its east coast starting Thursday through July 10 for military exercises, Japan's Coast Guard said.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported Wednesday that the North may fire a Scud missile with a range of up to 310 miles (500 kilometers) or a short-range ground-to-ship missile with a range of 100 miles (160 kilometers) during the no-sail period.
A senior South Korean government official said the no-sail ban is believed connected to North Korean plans to fire short- or mid-range missiles. He spoke on condition of anonymity, citing department policy.
U.S. defense and counterproliferation officials in Washington said they also expected the North to launch short- to medium-range missiles. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence.
South Korea will expedite the introduction of high-tech unmanned aerial surveillance systems and "bunker-buster" bombs in response to North Korea's provocations, the Chosun Ilbo newspaper said, citing unidentified ruling party members.
Meanwhile, a flurry of diplomatic efforts were under way to try getting North Korea to return to disarmament talks.
Russia's top nuclear envoy, Alexei Borodavkin, said after meeting with his South Korean counterpart that Moscow is open to other formats for discussion since Pyongyang has pulled out of formal six-nation negotiations.
In Beijing, top U.S. and Chinese defense officials also discussed North Korea. U.S. Defense Undersecretary Michele Flournoy was heading next to Tokyo and Seoul for talks.
South Korea has proposed high-level "consultations" to discuss North Korea with the U.S., Russia, China and Japan.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090624/ap_on_re_as/as_koreas_nuclear_91