Mon Aug 18, 7:35 AM
{PATNA, India (Reuters) - A state government in eastern Indian is encouraging people to eat rats in an effort to battle soaring food prices and save grain stocks.
Authorities in Bihar, one of India's poorest states, are asking rich and poor alike to switch to eating rats in a bid to reduce the dependence on rice. They even plan to offer rats on restaurant menus.
"Eating of rats will serve twin purposes -- it will save grains from being eaten away by rats and will simultaneously increase our grain stock," Vijay Prakash, an official from the state's welfare department, told Reuters.
Officials say almost 50 percent of India's food grains stocks are eaten away by rodents in fields or warehouses.
Jitan Ram Manjhi, Bihar's caste and tribe welfare minister, said rat meat was a healthy alternative to expensive rice or grains, and should be eaten by one and all.
"We are very serious to implement this project since the food crisis is turning serious day by day," Manjhi, who has eaten rats, told Reuters.
In Bihar, rat meat is already eaten by Mushars, a group of lower caste Hindus, as well as poorer sections of society.}
(Writing by Melanie Lee; Editing by Paul Tait)
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/080818/n_world_reuters/international_india_rats_dc
Monday, August 18, 2008
Sunday, August 17, 2008
A 'Frankenrobot' with a biological brain
Wed Aug 13, 3:24 PM
{PARIS (AFP) - Meet Gordon, probably the world's first robot controlled exclusively by living brain tissue.
Stitched together from cultured rat neurons, Gordon's primitive grey matter was designed at the University of Reading by scientists who unveiled the neuron-powered machine on Wednesday.
Their groundbreaking experiments explore the vanishing boundary between natural and artificial intelligence, and could shed light on the fundamental building blocks of memory and learning, one of the lead researchers told AFP.
"The purpose is to figure out how memories are actually stored in a biological brain," said Kevin Warwick, a professor at the University of Reading and one of the robot's principle architects.
Observing how the nerve cells cohere into a network as they fire off electrical impulses, he said, may also help scientists combat neurodegenerative diseases that attack the brain such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
"If we can understand some of the basics of what is going on in our little model brain, it could have enormous medical spinoffs," he said.
Looking a bit like the garbage-compacting hero of the blockbuster animation "Wall-E", Gordon has a brain composed of 50,000 to 100,000 active neurons.
Once removed from rat foetuses and disentangled from each other with an enzyme bath, the specialised nerve cells are laid out in a nutrient-rich medium across an eight-by-eight centimetre (five-by-five inch) array of 60 electrodes.
This "multi-electrode array" (MEA) serves as the interface between living tissue and machine, with the brain sending electrical impulses to drive the wheels of the robots, and receiving impulses delivered by sensors reacting to the environment.
Because the brain is living tissue, it must be housed in a special temperature-controlled unit -- it communicates with its "body" via a Bluetooth radio link.
The robot has no additional control from a human or computer.
From the very start, the neurons get busy. "Within about 24 hours, they start sending out feelers to each other and making connections," said Warwick.
"Within a week we get some spontaneous firings and brain-like activity" similar to what happens in a normal rat -- or human -- brain, he added.
But without external stimulation, the brain will wither and die within a couple of months.
"Now we are looking at how best to teach it to behave in certain ways," explained Warwick.
To some extent, Gordon learns by itself. When it hits a wall, for example, it gets an electrical stimulation from the robot's sensors. As it confronts similar situations, it learns by habit.
To help this process along, the researchers also use different chemicals to reinforce or inhibit the neural pathways that light up during particular actions.
Gordon, in fact, has multiple personalities -- several MEA "brains" that the scientists can dock into the robot.
"It's quite funny -- you get differences between the brains," said Warwick. "This one is a bit boisterous and active, while we know another is not going to do what we want it to."
Mainly for ethical reasons, it is unlikely that researchers at Reading or the handful of laboratories around the world exploring the same terrain will be using human neurons any time soon in the same kind of experiments.
But rats brain cells are not a bad stand-in: much of the difference between rodent and human intelligence, speculates Warwick, could be attributed to quantity not quality.
Rats brains are composed of about one million neurons, the specialised cells that relay information across the brain via chemicals called neurotransmitters.
Humans have 100 billion.
"This is a simplified version of what goes on in the human brain where we can look -- and control -- the basic features in the way that we want. In a human brain, you can't really do that," he said.
For colleague Ben Whalley, one of the fundamental questions facing scientists today is how to link the activity of individual neurons with the overwhelmingly complex behaviour of whole organisms.
"The project gives us a unique opportunity to look at something which may exhibit complex behaviours, but still remain closely tied to the activity of individual neurons," he said.}
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/080813/health/science_health_neurobiology_brain_robots
{PARIS (AFP) - Meet Gordon, probably the world's first robot controlled exclusively by living brain tissue.
Stitched together from cultured rat neurons, Gordon's primitive grey matter was designed at the University of Reading by scientists who unveiled the neuron-powered machine on Wednesday.
Their groundbreaking experiments explore the vanishing boundary between natural and artificial intelligence, and could shed light on the fundamental building blocks of memory and learning, one of the lead researchers told AFP.
"The purpose is to figure out how memories are actually stored in a biological brain," said Kevin Warwick, a professor at the University of Reading and one of the robot's principle architects.
Observing how the nerve cells cohere into a network as they fire off electrical impulses, he said, may also help scientists combat neurodegenerative diseases that attack the brain such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
"If we can understand some of the basics of what is going on in our little model brain, it could have enormous medical spinoffs," he said.
Looking a bit like the garbage-compacting hero of the blockbuster animation "Wall-E", Gordon has a brain composed of 50,000 to 100,000 active neurons.
Once removed from rat foetuses and disentangled from each other with an enzyme bath, the specialised nerve cells are laid out in a nutrient-rich medium across an eight-by-eight centimetre (five-by-five inch) array of 60 electrodes.
This "multi-electrode array" (MEA) serves as the interface between living tissue and machine, with the brain sending electrical impulses to drive the wheels of the robots, and receiving impulses delivered by sensors reacting to the environment.
Because the brain is living tissue, it must be housed in a special temperature-controlled unit -- it communicates with its "body" via a Bluetooth radio link.
The robot has no additional control from a human or computer.
From the very start, the neurons get busy. "Within about 24 hours, they start sending out feelers to each other and making connections," said Warwick.
"Within a week we get some spontaneous firings and brain-like activity" similar to what happens in a normal rat -- or human -- brain, he added.
But without external stimulation, the brain will wither and die within a couple of months.
"Now we are looking at how best to teach it to behave in certain ways," explained Warwick.
To some extent, Gordon learns by itself. When it hits a wall, for example, it gets an electrical stimulation from the robot's sensors. As it confronts similar situations, it learns by habit.
To help this process along, the researchers also use different chemicals to reinforce or inhibit the neural pathways that light up during particular actions.
Gordon, in fact, has multiple personalities -- several MEA "brains" that the scientists can dock into the robot.
"It's quite funny -- you get differences between the brains," said Warwick. "This one is a bit boisterous and active, while we know another is not going to do what we want it to."
Mainly for ethical reasons, it is unlikely that researchers at Reading or the handful of laboratories around the world exploring the same terrain will be using human neurons any time soon in the same kind of experiments.
But rats brain cells are not a bad stand-in: much of the difference between rodent and human intelligence, speculates Warwick, could be attributed to quantity not quality.
Rats brains are composed of about one million neurons, the specialised cells that relay information across the brain via chemicals called neurotransmitters.
Humans have 100 billion.
"This is a simplified version of what goes on in the human brain where we can look -- and control -- the basic features in the way that we want. In a human brain, you can't really do that," he said.
For colleague Ben Whalley, one of the fundamental questions facing scientists today is how to link the activity of individual neurons with the overwhelmingly complex behaviour of whole organisms.
"The project gives us a unique opportunity to look at something which may exhibit complex behaviours, but still remain closely tied to the activity of individual neurons," he said.}
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/080813/health/science_health_neurobiology_brain_robots
Friday, August 15, 2008
Guess what? Military funds mind-reading science
Fri Aug 15, 9:30 PM
By Alicia Chang, The Associated Press
{LOS ANGELES - Here's a mind-bending idea: The U.S. military is paying scientists to study ways to read people's thoughts.
The hope is that the research could someday lead to a gadget capable of translating the thoughts of soldiers who suffered brain injuries in combat or even stroke patients in hospitals. But the research also raises concerns that such mind-reading technology could be used to interrogate the enemy.
Armed with a $4 million grant from the Army, scientists are studying brain signals to try to decipher what a person is thinking and to whom the person wants to direct the message.
The project is a collaboration among researchers at the University of California, Irvine; Carnegie Mellon University; and the University of Maryland.
The scientists use brain wave-reading technology known as electroencephalography, or EEG, which measures the brain's electrical activity through electrodes placed on the scalp.
It works like this: Volunteers wear an electrode cap and are asked to think of a word chosen by the researchers, who then analyze the brain activity.
In the future, scientists hope to develop thought-recognition software that would allow a computer to speak or type out a person's thought.
"To have a person think in a free manner and then figure out what that is, we're years away from that," said lead researcher Michael D'Zmura, who heads UC Irvine's cognitive sciences department.
D'Zmura said such a system would require extensive training by people trying to send a message and dismisses the notion that thoughts can be forced out.
"This will never be used in a way without somebody's real, active cooperation," he said.
John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a Virginia-based defence research firm, said the technology is still too nascent to be of practical use for the military.
"They're still in the proof of principle stage," Pike said.
A message left with the Army was not immediately returned Friday.}
-
On the Net:
UC Irvine: http://www.uci.edu/
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/080815/koddities/oddity_mind_war
By Alicia Chang, The Associated Press
{LOS ANGELES - Here's a mind-bending idea: The U.S. military is paying scientists to study ways to read people's thoughts.
The hope is that the research could someday lead to a gadget capable of translating the thoughts of soldiers who suffered brain injuries in combat or even stroke patients in hospitals. But the research also raises concerns that such mind-reading technology could be used to interrogate the enemy.
Armed with a $4 million grant from the Army, scientists are studying brain signals to try to decipher what a person is thinking and to whom the person wants to direct the message.
The project is a collaboration among researchers at the University of California, Irvine; Carnegie Mellon University; and the University of Maryland.
The scientists use brain wave-reading technology known as electroencephalography, or EEG, which measures the brain's electrical activity through electrodes placed on the scalp.
It works like this: Volunteers wear an electrode cap and are asked to think of a word chosen by the researchers, who then analyze the brain activity.
In the future, scientists hope to develop thought-recognition software that would allow a computer to speak or type out a person's thought.
"To have a person think in a free manner and then figure out what that is, we're years away from that," said lead researcher Michael D'Zmura, who heads UC Irvine's cognitive sciences department.
D'Zmura said such a system would require extensive training by people trying to send a message and dismisses the notion that thoughts can be forced out.
"This will never be used in a way without somebody's real, active cooperation," he said.
John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a Virginia-based defence research firm, said the technology is still too nascent to be of practical use for the military.
"They're still in the proof of principle stage," Pike said.
A message left with the Army was not immediately returned Friday.}
-
On the Net:
UC Irvine: http://www.uci.edu/
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/080815/koddities/oddity_mind_war
Living simply provides economic shelter
By Martha Irvine, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
{CHICAGO - Keri Rainsberger isn't rich. She works in the non-profit world for a relatively low-profit salary. Yet, as many Americans are scrimping for every penny, she hardly feels the pinch.
She still tithes 10 per cent of her income to her church, even as other members have cut back. She rarely worries about rising gas and food prices. And she never bothers to balance her chequebook because she doesn't come close to spending what she has.
"I live so far below my means that it doesn't really register," says Rainsberger, a 31-year-old Chicagoan with a wiry frame and unusually sunny outlook. "I don't have to think about money."
How is this possible?
For starters, she has no car and commutes by bicycle each workday. She also has no mortgage payment and chooses to live in an "intentional community," a partly shared space where $775 a month covers everything from utilities to meals.
"In one fell swoop, I pay for the roof over my head, the food in my stomach and the lights to read by. That's a big advantage," says Rainsberger, whose high-rise living space is part of the residential program at the Keystone Ecological Urban Center in Chicago's Uptown neighbourhood.
Her private quarters - larger and a bit more expensive than some - are about 400 square feet, divided into a sitting room, a craft room and a small bedroom. She shares bathrooms, showers, a kitchen and a large dining room with 28 other residents whose ranks include young professionals, professors and retirees.
"It's like a college dormitory, but with better conversation," she often jokes.
Of course, the concept of sharing resources has been around since the beginning of time and is used today from Amish farms to the Israeli kibbutz. For low-income families, it's often simply a matter of survival.
But those who track consumer habits say a growing need to cut costs, along with a wish to be more environmentally and spiritually conscious, is causing even more people to pool their resources, whether defined as an intentional community or not.
"The economy starts to tank. People get tired of it," says Daniel Howard, an expert in consumer research and behaviour at the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University. "It's people saying, 'Let's get together and help one another.' And it works."
Few may have the desire or even the ability to live the Spartan lifestyle that Rainsberger learned from her Depression-era grandmother. Not everyone is willing to bicycle, for instance, in the stifling mugginess of a Chicago summer or the cold, blustery winds that sweep off Lake Michigan in winter.
But those who advocate a simpler, less consumer-driven life say there are lessons in the strategies she and other intentional communities use.
By buying their food in bulk, for instance, Rainsberger and her neighbours spend $100 to $150 per person each month for meals. (Consider that the U.S. Department of Agriculture "thrifty plan" for a single person is $200 a month.)
Some residents who own cars also share them, drastically cutting overall vehicle expenses.
While this particular intentional community has no children, similar communities trade childcare or keep costs low enough so more parents can stay home or work part-time.
The Fellowship for Intentional Community, a Missouri-based non-profit that began a steadily growing directory of such communities in 1990, estimates that at least 100,000 Americans now live in one. They define them as groups of people living together who share common values that are religious, economic, environmental, social or any combination of those. Sometimes they own property; others rent. About a third live in urban areas, while the remainder are rural.}
http://ca.lifestyle.yahoo.com/home-garden/articles/green-tips/cp/home_family-living_simply_provides_economic_shelter
{CHICAGO - Keri Rainsberger isn't rich. She works in the non-profit world for a relatively low-profit salary. Yet, as many Americans are scrimping for every penny, she hardly feels the pinch.
She still tithes 10 per cent of her income to her church, even as other members have cut back. She rarely worries about rising gas and food prices. And she never bothers to balance her chequebook because she doesn't come close to spending what she has.
"I live so far below my means that it doesn't really register," says Rainsberger, a 31-year-old Chicagoan with a wiry frame and unusually sunny outlook. "I don't have to think about money."
How is this possible?
For starters, she has no car and commutes by bicycle each workday. She also has no mortgage payment and chooses to live in an "intentional community," a partly shared space where $775 a month covers everything from utilities to meals.
"In one fell swoop, I pay for the roof over my head, the food in my stomach and the lights to read by. That's a big advantage," says Rainsberger, whose high-rise living space is part of the residential program at the Keystone Ecological Urban Center in Chicago's Uptown neighbourhood.
Her private quarters - larger and a bit more expensive than some - are about 400 square feet, divided into a sitting room, a craft room and a small bedroom. She shares bathrooms, showers, a kitchen and a large dining room with 28 other residents whose ranks include young professionals, professors and retirees.
"It's like a college dormitory, but with better conversation," she often jokes.
Of course, the concept of sharing resources has been around since the beginning of time and is used today from Amish farms to the Israeli kibbutz. For low-income families, it's often simply a matter of survival.
But those who track consumer habits say a growing need to cut costs, along with a wish to be more environmentally and spiritually conscious, is causing even more people to pool their resources, whether defined as an intentional community or not.
"The economy starts to tank. People get tired of it," says Daniel Howard, an expert in consumer research and behaviour at the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University. "It's people saying, 'Let's get together and help one another.' And it works."
Few may have the desire or even the ability to live the Spartan lifestyle that Rainsberger learned from her Depression-era grandmother. Not everyone is willing to bicycle, for instance, in the stifling mugginess of a Chicago summer or the cold, blustery winds that sweep off Lake Michigan in winter.
But those who advocate a simpler, less consumer-driven life say there are lessons in the strategies she and other intentional communities use.
By buying their food in bulk, for instance, Rainsberger and her neighbours spend $100 to $150 per person each month for meals. (Consider that the U.S. Department of Agriculture "thrifty plan" for a single person is $200 a month.)
Some residents who own cars also share them, drastically cutting overall vehicle expenses.
While this particular intentional community has no children, similar communities trade childcare or keep costs low enough so more parents can stay home or work part-time.
The Fellowship for Intentional Community, a Missouri-based non-profit that began a steadily growing directory of such communities in 1990, estimates that at least 100,000 Americans now live in one. They define them as groups of people living together who share common values that are religious, economic, environmental, social or any combination of those. Sometimes they own property; others rent. About a third live in urban areas, while the remainder are rural.}
http://ca.lifestyle.yahoo.com/home-garden/articles/green-tips/cp/home_family-living_simply_provides_economic_shelter
Georgian president signs truce, vows not to surrender to Russia
By Matthew Lee, The Associated Press
{TBILISI, Georgia - An emotional President Mikhail Saakashvili said Friday that he signed a ceasefire agreement to bring an end to a week of bloodshed he blamed on Russian aggression and international indifference.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, standing beside the pro-American Georgian leader, said she had been assured that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev also will sign an identical document.
She called on Russia to withdraw its troops from Georgian territory immediately as outlined in the ceasefire brokered earlier in the week.
"Georgia has been attacked. Russian forces need to leave Georgia at once," she said, calling for the "immediate and orderly withdrawal" of Moscow's military.
"With this signature by Georgia, this must take place - and take place now," Rice said.
The bloodshed erupted last week when Georgia sent troops to the breakaway province of South Ossetia, a region that declared de facto independence in the early 1990s and has strong ties to neighbouring Russia.
Moscow responded by sending tanks and troops into South Ossetia and bombing Georgian military bases, hitting some Georgian towns just outside the separatist province.
An impassioned Saakashvili said ex-Soviet Georgia will "never, ever surrender" in the showdown with Russia. He accused the West of inviting Russian aggression by denying Georgia a door to NATO membership in April.
Saakashvili said Russia interpreted NATO's snub of Georgia as capitulation and began mobilizing military experts, troops and tanks for a planned invasion of Georgia's separatist regions.
"We told the world this is about starting an invasion," he said. "We screamed to the world: Stop it."
Hours earlier, U.S. President George W. Bush accused Russia of bullying ex-Soviet Georgia, saying: "Bullying and intimidation are not acceptable ways to conduct foreign policy in the 21st century."
He assured Georgia that the U.S. would not abandon the ally.
The ceasefire requires Russia to withdraw its combat forces from Georgia, but allows Russia to keep peacekeepers in South Ossetia and to temporarily carry out patrols in an area up to 10 kilometres outside the two provinces.
Officials say the expanded mandate would end as soon as a team of international monitors could be sent to observe. Rice said she was assured European monitors could be in place within days.
Rice said the eventual status of the two areas can be worked out later. Existing United Nations Security Council resolutions recognize South Ossetia and another separatist province, Abkhazia, as Georgian.
"This is not an agreement about the future of Abkhazia and the future of South Ossetia," Rice said earlier. "This is about getting Russian troops out."
Saakashvili did not appear enthusiastic about the ceasefire pact, but Rice defended it as a good way to return all forces to their prewar positions.
The two spent nearly five hours in talks and their joint news conference was delayed by more than three hours, a sign that the talks were difficult.
"This is not a done deal," Saakashvili said. "We need to do our utmost to deter such behaviour in the future."
He warned about a broader Russian agenda in the region.
"Unfortunately, today we are looking evil directly in the eye. And today, this evil is very strong, very nasty, and very dangerous for everybody - not only for us," he said.
"Let us write the next chapter together," he said in an impassioned plea for help in rebuilding his "badly damaged" country.
Rice said humanitarian aid was already being provided by the United States and other countries and said access for these supplies "must be immediate and unimpeded." Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said Friday that 80 tonnes of humanitarian supplies have been delivered to Georgia, with more flights expected through the weekend.
"When the security situation in Georgia is stabilized," Rice said, "we will turn immediately to reconstruction efforts."
Rice warned that Russia's action would have serious implications - for its relationship with Washington and with the West.
She said the time has come "to begin a discussion of the consequences of what Russia has done. This calls into question what role Russia really plans to play in international politics."}
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/080815/world/us_russia_georgia
{TBILISI, Georgia - An emotional President Mikhail Saakashvili said Friday that he signed a ceasefire agreement to bring an end to a week of bloodshed he blamed on Russian aggression and international indifference.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, standing beside the pro-American Georgian leader, said she had been assured that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev also will sign an identical document.
She called on Russia to withdraw its troops from Georgian territory immediately as outlined in the ceasefire brokered earlier in the week.
"Georgia has been attacked. Russian forces need to leave Georgia at once," she said, calling for the "immediate and orderly withdrawal" of Moscow's military.
"With this signature by Georgia, this must take place - and take place now," Rice said.
The bloodshed erupted last week when Georgia sent troops to the breakaway province of South Ossetia, a region that declared de facto independence in the early 1990s and has strong ties to neighbouring Russia.
Moscow responded by sending tanks and troops into South Ossetia and bombing Georgian military bases, hitting some Georgian towns just outside the separatist province.
An impassioned Saakashvili said ex-Soviet Georgia will "never, ever surrender" in the showdown with Russia. He accused the West of inviting Russian aggression by denying Georgia a door to NATO membership in April.
Saakashvili said Russia interpreted NATO's snub of Georgia as capitulation and began mobilizing military experts, troops and tanks for a planned invasion of Georgia's separatist regions.
"We told the world this is about starting an invasion," he said. "We screamed to the world: Stop it."
Hours earlier, U.S. President George W. Bush accused Russia of bullying ex-Soviet Georgia, saying: "Bullying and intimidation are not acceptable ways to conduct foreign policy in the 21st century."
He assured Georgia that the U.S. would not abandon the ally.
The ceasefire requires Russia to withdraw its combat forces from Georgia, but allows Russia to keep peacekeepers in South Ossetia and to temporarily carry out patrols in an area up to 10 kilometres outside the two provinces.
Officials say the expanded mandate would end as soon as a team of international monitors could be sent to observe. Rice said she was assured European monitors could be in place within days.
Rice said the eventual status of the two areas can be worked out later. Existing United Nations Security Council resolutions recognize South Ossetia and another separatist province, Abkhazia, as Georgian.
"This is not an agreement about the future of Abkhazia and the future of South Ossetia," Rice said earlier. "This is about getting Russian troops out."
Saakashvili did not appear enthusiastic about the ceasefire pact, but Rice defended it as a good way to return all forces to their prewar positions.
The two spent nearly five hours in talks and their joint news conference was delayed by more than three hours, a sign that the talks were difficult.
"This is not a done deal," Saakashvili said. "We need to do our utmost to deter such behaviour in the future."
He warned about a broader Russian agenda in the region.
"Unfortunately, today we are looking evil directly in the eye. And today, this evil is very strong, very nasty, and very dangerous for everybody - not only for us," he said.
"Let us write the next chapter together," he said in an impassioned plea for help in rebuilding his "badly damaged" country.
Rice said humanitarian aid was already being provided by the United States and other countries and said access for these supplies "must be immediate and unimpeded." Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said Friday that 80 tonnes of humanitarian supplies have been delivered to Georgia, with more flights expected through the weekend.
"When the security situation in Georgia is stabilized," Rice said, "we will turn immediately to reconstruction efforts."
Rice warned that Russia's action would have serious implications - for its relationship with Washington and with the West.
She said the time has come "to begin a discussion of the consequences of what Russia has done. This calls into question what role Russia really plans to play in international politics."}
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/080815/world/us_russia_georgia
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Amid shaky truce, Russia says 'forget Georgian territorial integrity'
By Christopher Torchia, The Associated Press
{GORI, Georgia - Russia's foreign minister declared Thursday that the world "can forget about" Georgia's territorial integrity, and American and Georgian officials said Russia appeared to be targeting military infrastructure - including radars and patrol boats at a Black Sea naval base and oil hub.
An AP Television News crew in the oil port city of Poti saw one destroyed Georgian military boat, and two Russian armoured vehicles and two Russian transport trucks. Soldiers who identified themselves as Russian peacekeepers blocked the crew from going further.
Russia's president met in the Kremlin with the leaders of Georgia's two separatist provinces - a clear sign that Moscow could absorb the regions. The comments from Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov appeared to come as a challenge to the United States, where President George W. Bush has called for Russia to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia."
The Russian refusal to withdraw from Georgia presents a challenge to the ceasefire agreement designed to end seven days of fighting. The European Union-sponsored accord had envisioned Russian and Georgian forces returning to their original positions.
In Washington, an American official said Russia appears to be sabotaging airfields and other military infrastructure as its forces pull back. The U.S. official described witness accounts for The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. The official said the Russian strategy seems like a deliberate attempt to cripple the already battered Georgian military.
The United States poured aid into the Georgian capital of Tbilisi on Thursday and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice launched emergency talks in France aimed at heading off a wider conflict.
Russia's deputy chief of General Staff Col.-Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn said he was not sure that the U.S. planes carried exclusively humanitarian cargo. "It causes our concern," he said.
At least 20 explosions were heard near Gori, along with small-arms fire. It could not immediately be determined if the blasts were a renewal of fighting between Georgian and Russian forces, but they sounded similar to mortar shells and occurred after a tense confrontation between Russian and Georgian troops on the edge of the city.
The strategically located city is 25 kilometres south of South Ossetia, the Russian-backed separatist region where Russian and Georgian forces fought a five-day battle. Russian troops entered Gori on Wednesday, after the two sides signed the ceasefire.
In Washington, a Pentagon official said U.S. intelligence had assessed that the number of Russians in Gori was small - about 100 to 200 troops. But the Russian presence in Gori, only 10 kilometres west of Tbilisi, was viewed as a demonstration of the vulnerability of the capital.
Nogovitsyn said Russian troops went to Gori to establish contact with local civilian administration and take control over military depots left behind by the Georgian forces. "The abandoned weapons needed protection," he said.
Georgian government officials who went into the city for the possible handover left unexpectedly around midday, followed by a checkpoint confrontation outside Gori which ended when Russian tanks sped toward the area and Georgian police quickly retreated.
A Russian general in Gori had said Wednesday it would take at least two days to leave the city.
Besides the hundreds killed since hostilities broke out, the United Nations estimates 100,000 Georgians have been uprooted; Russia says some 30,000 residents of South Ossetia fled into the neighboring Russian province of North Ossetia.
Russian troops also appeared to be settling in elsewhere in Georgia.
"One can forget about any talk about Georgia's territorial integrity because, I believe, it is impossible to persuade South Ossetia and Abkhazia to agree with the logic that they can be forced back into the Georgian state," Lavrov told reporters.
The White House bluntly rejected Lavrov's message.
"Our position on Georgia's territorial integrity is not going to change no matter what anybody says," White House press secretary Dana Perino said Thursday. "And so I would consider that to be bluster from the foreign minister of Russia. We will ignore it."
Meanwhile, Canada's prime minister said Thursday he's deeply troubled by what he called Russia's Soviet era mentality to exert control over countries outside its borders.
Stephen Harper called it a worrisome development and said all democratic countries should speak out strongly against Russia.
"I must tell you that I am deeply troubled by a notion I see developing in Russia, and that is a notion that Russia somehow has a say or some control over countries outside of its borders," Harper said at press conference in Cupids, NL.
-With files from The Canadian Press.}
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/080814/world/georgia_russia
{GORI, Georgia - Russia's foreign minister declared Thursday that the world "can forget about" Georgia's territorial integrity, and American and Georgian officials said Russia appeared to be targeting military infrastructure - including radars and patrol boats at a Black Sea naval base and oil hub.
An AP Television News crew in the oil port city of Poti saw one destroyed Georgian military boat, and two Russian armoured vehicles and two Russian transport trucks. Soldiers who identified themselves as Russian peacekeepers blocked the crew from going further.
Russia's president met in the Kremlin with the leaders of Georgia's two separatist provinces - a clear sign that Moscow could absorb the regions. The comments from Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov appeared to come as a challenge to the United States, where President George W. Bush has called for Russia to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia."
The Russian refusal to withdraw from Georgia presents a challenge to the ceasefire agreement designed to end seven days of fighting. The European Union-sponsored accord had envisioned Russian and Georgian forces returning to their original positions.
In Washington, an American official said Russia appears to be sabotaging airfields and other military infrastructure as its forces pull back. The U.S. official described witness accounts for The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. The official said the Russian strategy seems like a deliberate attempt to cripple the already battered Georgian military.
The United States poured aid into the Georgian capital of Tbilisi on Thursday and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice launched emergency talks in France aimed at heading off a wider conflict.
Russia's deputy chief of General Staff Col.-Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn said he was not sure that the U.S. planes carried exclusively humanitarian cargo. "It causes our concern," he said.
At least 20 explosions were heard near Gori, along with small-arms fire. It could not immediately be determined if the blasts were a renewal of fighting between Georgian and Russian forces, but they sounded similar to mortar shells and occurred after a tense confrontation between Russian and Georgian troops on the edge of the city.
The strategically located city is 25 kilometres south of South Ossetia, the Russian-backed separatist region where Russian and Georgian forces fought a five-day battle. Russian troops entered Gori on Wednesday, after the two sides signed the ceasefire.
In Washington, a Pentagon official said U.S. intelligence had assessed that the number of Russians in Gori was small - about 100 to 200 troops. But the Russian presence in Gori, only 10 kilometres west of Tbilisi, was viewed as a demonstration of the vulnerability of the capital.
Nogovitsyn said Russian troops went to Gori to establish contact with local civilian administration and take control over military depots left behind by the Georgian forces. "The abandoned weapons needed protection," he said.
Georgian government officials who went into the city for the possible handover left unexpectedly around midday, followed by a checkpoint confrontation outside Gori which ended when Russian tanks sped toward the area and Georgian police quickly retreated.
A Russian general in Gori had said Wednesday it would take at least two days to leave the city.
Besides the hundreds killed since hostilities broke out, the United Nations estimates 100,000 Georgians have been uprooted; Russia says some 30,000 residents of South Ossetia fled into the neighboring Russian province of North Ossetia.
Russian troops also appeared to be settling in elsewhere in Georgia.
"One can forget about any talk about Georgia's territorial integrity because, I believe, it is impossible to persuade South Ossetia and Abkhazia to agree with the logic that they can be forced back into the Georgian state," Lavrov told reporters.
The White House bluntly rejected Lavrov's message.
"Our position on Georgia's territorial integrity is not going to change no matter what anybody says," White House press secretary Dana Perino said Thursday. "And so I would consider that to be bluster from the foreign minister of Russia. We will ignore it."
Meanwhile, Canada's prime minister said Thursday he's deeply troubled by what he called Russia's Soviet era mentality to exert control over countries outside its borders.
Stephen Harper called it a worrisome development and said all democratic countries should speak out strongly against Russia.
"I must tell you that I am deeply troubled by a notion I see developing in Russia, and that is a notion that Russia somehow has a say or some control over countries outside of its borders," Harper said at press conference in Cupids, NL.
-With files from The Canadian Press.}
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/080814/world/georgia_russia
At 4:11 p.m. ET on Aug. 14, 2003, Ontario and much of the northeastern U.S. were hit by the largest blackout in North America's history.
INDEPTH: POWER OUTAGEIntroductionCBC News Online August 20, 2003Updated November 19, 2003At 4:11 p.m. ET on Aug. 14, 2003,
{Ontario and much of the northeastern U.S. were hit by the largest blackout in North America's history. Electricity was cut to 50 million people, bringing darkness to customers from New York to Toronto to North Bay. Streetlights went out, subway trains stopped mid-tunnel and refrigeration equipment went dead. And while some electricity consumers had service restored by early the next morning, many areas remained in darkness well into the next day and even the one following. The cause of the blackout, according to Canada-U.S. joint task force, can be traced back to FirstEnergy Corp. of Ohio. Chaired by Natural Resources Minister Herb Dhaliwal and U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, the task force tabled its findings in Washington on November 19, 2003. They say FirstEnergy's EastLake plant shut down unexpectedly on August 14, 2003, triggering a series of problems on its transmission line that triggered a cascade effect that caused the cross-border blackout. Dhaliwal said this should be a wakeup call for utilities to upgrade their equipment.}
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/poweroutage/
{Ontario and much of the northeastern U.S. were hit by the largest blackout in North America's history. Electricity was cut to 50 million people, bringing darkness to customers from New York to Toronto to North Bay. Streetlights went out, subway trains stopped mid-tunnel and refrigeration equipment went dead. And while some electricity consumers had service restored by early the next morning, many areas remained in darkness well into the next day and even the one following. The cause of the blackout, according to Canada-U.S. joint task force, can be traced back to FirstEnergy Corp. of Ohio. Chaired by Natural Resources Minister Herb Dhaliwal and U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, the task force tabled its findings in Washington on November 19, 2003. They say FirstEnergy's EastLake plant shut down unexpectedly on August 14, 2003, triggering a series of problems on its transmission line that triggered a cascade effect that caused the cross-border blackout. Dhaliwal said this should be a wakeup call for utilities to upgrade their equipment.}
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/poweroutage/
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
The Invaders (1967)
The Invaders, alien beings from a dying planet. Their destination: the Earth. Their purpose: to make it their world.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Invaders#Inspiration,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oe-OW9oIHGo, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061265,
http://www.classictvhistory.com/EpisodeGuides/invaders.html
Some say that this world is dying.
The Canadian Press
August 13, 2008 at 11:31 AM EDT
{OTTAWA — A Canadian Medical Association study predicts that the number of deaths from air pollution is likely to skyrocket over the next two decades.
The association said that 21,000 Canadians will die this year from exposure to air pollution and that the death toll is expected to total 800,000 by 2031.
The study says the vast majority of deaths will be among people 65 and older because they are more vulnerable to heart disease.
Smog and poor air quality are also expected to strain Canada's medical system.
The study predicts that 18,000 people will be admitted to hospital suffering from the effects of air pollution in 2031, up from 11,000 this year, while emergency room visits will climb to 152,000 from 92,000 over the same period.
The study also says air pollution will send 940,000 people to doctors' offices in 2031, up from 620,000 visits this year.}
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080813.wcmapollution0813/BNStory/National/?page=rss&id=RTGAM.20080813.wcmapollution0813
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Invaders#Inspiration,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oe-OW9oIHGo, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061265,
http://www.classictvhistory.com/EpisodeGuides/invaders.html
Some say that this world is dying.
The Canadian Press
August 13, 2008 at 11:31 AM EDT
{OTTAWA — A Canadian Medical Association study predicts that the number of deaths from air pollution is likely to skyrocket over the next two decades.
The association said that 21,000 Canadians will die this year from exposure to air pollution and that the death toll is expected to total 800,000 by 2031.
The study says the vast majority of deaths will be among people 65 and older because they are more vulnerable to heart disease.
Smog and poor air quality are also expected to strain Canada's medical system.
The study predicts that 18,000 people will be admitted to hospital suffering from the effects of air pollution in 2031, up from 11,000 this year, while emergency room visits will climb to 152,000 from 92,000 over the same period.
The study also says air pollution will send 940,000 people to doctors' offices in 2031, up from 620,000 visits this year.}
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080813.wcmapollution0813/BNStory/National/?page=rss&id=RTGAM.20080813.wcmapollution0813
Friday, August 8, 2008
08-08-08: Russia - Georgia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_%28country%29
Russia becomes officially involved in war against Georgia
Russian tanks enter South Ossetia to oust Georgian troops
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
The Occult Horizon
Vectors into the Occult Horizon.
This isn't a monster movie, but it gets very monstrous at times.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Event_Horizon_(film)#Plot ,
http://www.moviemistakes.com/film427
Some people might want to put on some adult diapers when watching this very intense movie.
http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/16308/looking-back-at-event-horizon
It will scare the shit out of some people.
Some interesting observations about this monstrous movie from 1997.
http://www.fearnet.com/news/news-article/unseen-event-horizon
Beyond the Shining Code ,
http://the-multiverse-perspective.blogspot.ca/2013/01/shining-through-kubricks-odyssey.html
More about, The Occult Horizon.
http://multiverseextra.blogspot.ca/2008/08/multiverse-what-is-reality.html
http://multiverseextra.blogspot.ca/2008/08/extraordinary-things-to-mundane-etm.html
This isn't a monster movie, but it gets very monstrous at times.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Event_Horizon_(film)#Plot ,
http://www.moviemistakes.com/film427
Some people might want to put on some adult diapers when watching this very intense movie.
http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/16308/looking-back-at-event-horizon
It will scare the shit out of some people.
Some interesting observations about this monstrous movie from 1997.
http://www.fearnet.com/news/news-article/unseen-event-horizon
Beyond the Shining Code ,
http://the-multiverse-perspective.blogspot.ca/2013/01/shining-through-kubricks-odyssey.html
More about, The Occult Horizon.
http://multiverseextra.blogspot.ca/2008/08/multiverse-what-is-reality.html
http://multiverseextra.blogspot.ca/2008/08/extraordinary-things-to-mundane-etm.html
Index of Subjects and Topics
Not always arranged in alphabetical order.
disclosure-etc., gort-tdtess, nick-pope, ufo-hunters
modern-toilet-restaurant, the-toilet-chef.html
About, multiverseextra.blogspot.ca
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_X_Files_%28film%29
Exclusive: Carter, Spotnitz Defend The X-Files 2 "We've given the fans what they wanted."
http://movies.ign.com/articles/895/895696p1.html
disclosure-etc., gort-tdtess, nick-pope, ufo-hunters
modern-toilet-restaurant, the-toilet-chef.html
About, multiverseextra.blogspot.ca
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_X_Files_%28film%29
Had the movie been released in October with a little more budget & story tweaking, it could have been more popular. Regardless, it will end up being part of the X-Files DVD entertainment universe.
Some interesting observations can be found at this blog.
Exclusive: Carter, Spotnitz Defend The X-Files 2 "We've given the fans what they wanted."
http://movies.ign.com/articles/895/895696p1.html
Will there be an XF3? Perhaps because the storyline is set to continue.
How brainwashing came to life and thrived
Jeff Stryker
Sunday, August 1, 2004
{Director Jonathan Demme fiddles with the classics again. After a remake of "Charade," he now offers up "The Manchurian Candidate" for a nervous, post Sept. 11 era.
The original 1962 film featured Angela Lansbury as a political Svengali and Frank Sinatra as an Army major who tracks down Laurence Harvey, an American soldier captured during the Korean War and programmed through hypnotism for assassination by Chinese Communists. The film was based on a 1959 best-selling book by Richard Condon. For all the critical acclaim and subsequent political attention (Did Lee Harvey Oswald see it or not?), the movie flopped initially and was withdrawn from release after John F. Kennedy's assassination.
"The Manchurian Candidate" remake brings to a wider audience questions about the role of the state in brainwashing and mind control, a topic usually reserved for the "nutters" on the Internet, as a character in the new movie puts it succinctly.
Updating the politics of the era, the Communist evil empire has been replaced by a multinational corporation, Manchurian Global. Updating the science, hypnosis and brainwashing have been augmented with electrodes in the brain, microchips implanted in the body and electroshock.
The term "brainwashing" was first popularized by Edward Hunter, in his 1951 book, "Brainwashing in Red China." Brainwashing was his translation for a Chinese term "hsi-nao," meaning, roughly, "cleansing of the mind." "It is practically impossible to fight something until it has been given a name," Hunter wrote, saying that brainwashing had a more "flesh-and-blood" quality than a more clinical alternative, "menticide," which means murder of the mind.
The fear of brainwashing was rooted in wartime, fueled by anti-communist fervor and tinged with racism and xenophobia. Some U.S. prisoners of war in Korea renounced their citizenship in radio broadcasts and many signed confessions against American interests, including charges, still debated today, that the United States was engaged in germ warfare with anthrax.
For Americans to abandon their ideals, the Communists must have devised some nefarious new means of thought control -- or so it was thought.
The Army conducted shipboard interviews with more than 4,000 returning American prisoners of the Korean conflict. Robert Jay Lifton, one of the psychiatrists who conducted the interviews, analyzed them in his 1961 classic book, "Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism."
Lifton concluded that the Chinese interrogation techniques were merely time-honored methods of psychological coercion: isolation, humiliation and the repetition of propaganda. But by this time, it was too late. The "flesh-and- blood" term brainwashing had come to life and refused to be contained, never really losing its power.
George Romney's 1967 comment that he had been "brainwashed" about the Vietnam War put the kibosh on Romney's run for the presidency, prompting opponent Eugene McCarthy to quip that a "light rinse would have done."
The question of whether religious cults were brainwashing adherents kept the notion alive through the 1960s and '70s. Brainwashing was claimed as a defense in a number of American court cases, but without much success (It did not work for Patty Hearst, for example). In recent years, claims of brainwashing have been asserted for sniper Lee Boyd Malvo, the American Taliban soldier John Walker Lindh and kidnap victim Elizabeth Smart.
"Today, the notion surfaces in court mostly in child custody disputes, where one parent accuses the other of 'brainwashing' -- more as a rhetorical flourish rather than any real scientific claim," said Alan Scheflin, a professor of law at Santa Clara University and author of "The Mind Manipulators."
To update the science of brainwashing for the new "Manchurian Candidate," Demme, the director, turned to Jay Lombard, a physician who treats brain disorders in Nyack, NY.
Lombard said it wasn't a big stretch to think that as scientists got better and better at understanding how the brain works, they could eventually use that knowledge to influence behavior. As an adviser to Demme, he said he "put on my devil's cap and used my own fantasies as to what might be possible. "
Other experts in neurosciences asked about the technology in "The Manchurian Candidate" agreed that true mind control -- the ability to create specific thoughts or memories with brain chips or electromagnetic waves -- is still the stuff of science fiction. But the movie's theme of medical technology morphing into nefarious military applications resonated nonetheless.
"The same thing that might help a fighter pilot control his plane by brain waves might also help a spinal cord patient control his environment," said Martha Farah, a scientist with the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania, who is an exponent of the burgeoning field known as "neuroethics," a term coined by New York Times columnist William Safire.
The worry that research in the neurosciences might get out of hand is not without historical precedent.
Helen McGonigle, a Connecticut lawyer who represents victims of trauma and sexual abuse, knows she sounds like one of the nutters on the Internet when she talks about the history of military involvement in mind control.
When asked if she thinks the government is still in the business of mind control, McGonigle responded without skipping a beat. "Absolutely," she said. "The history of the Bluebird, Artichoke and MKULTRA definitely raise the bar of suspicion," McGonigle said, ticking off a series of government experiments involving hypnosis, sleep deprivation and the use of psychotropic drugs.
MKULTRA, underway from 1953 to 1966, involved research into mind-control agents at scores of prestigious institutions by prominent psychologists. MKULTRA scientists attempted to determine whether LSD could be aerosolized effectively; the CIA even hired a magician to teach field agents how to slip LSD into the drinks of unwitting subjects.
Other experiments involved various forms of sleep deprivation and hypnosis. Consider a research question posed in CIA documents from the Bluebird experiments in the 1950s: "Could we seize a subject and in the space of an hour or two by post-H[ypnotic] control have him crash an airplane, wreck a train, etc.?"
The techniques of Cold War mind control experiments -- slipping unwitting subjects a Mickey Finn -- seem quaint from the perspective of today's high-tech approaches. Indeed, many of the bits and pieces of neuroscience in the new movie are already science fact, even if they don't necessarily add up neatly.
Microchips have long been used to track animals and to tag surgical implants. Today's microchips, which are about the size of a grain of uncooked rice, can now be linked to Global Positioning System equipment for surveillance and equipped with technology to relay information about vital signs remotely. A "brain fingerprinting" technique is already accepted by some courts; scalp-measured brain waves can detect so-called guilty knowledge, such as familiarity with people, objects or even terrorist training. Just a few weeks ago, the Food and Drug Administration approved the first implant to treat a mood disorder: an electrode placed on the vagus nerve to treat depression.
Wrye Sententia monitors these developments, fighting the good fight for "cognitive liberties" as the executive director of the Center for Cognitive Liberties & Ethics in Davis. "We say 'cognitive liberties' rather than 'freedom of thought,' because cognitive liberties marks the intersection of brain science and policy," she said. The center is not out to stop brain research, but believes the Constitution and other legal protections should guarantee both the right to be free from unwarranted mental intrusions and to have access to new neurotechnologies, for those who want them.
"The Manchurian Candidate"-style advances have prompted the center to expand its mission to monitor military activities, including the government's "weaponizing of psychoactive drugs." According to reports in Mother Jones last year and the New York Times magazine last week, university and government scientists interested in "non-lethal weapons" are considering the use of psychoactive drugs, such as ecstasy or Valium, as "calmative" weapons to subdue unruly crowds.
It sounds like something out of a Hollywood blockbuster.
Jeff Stryker does commentaries for Public Radio International's "Marketplace."
This article appeared on page E - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle}
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/08/01/INGRR7UIJ31.DTL
-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Manchurian_Candidate,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_MKUltra, http://www.wanttoknow.info/050626mkultra,
http://science.discovery.com/stories/mkultra.html
Sunday, August 1, 2004
{Director Jonathan Demme fiddles with the classics again. After a remake of "Charade," he now offers up "The Manchurian Candidate" for a nervous, post Sept. 11 era.
The original 1962 film featured Angela Lansbury as a political Svengali and Frank Sinatra as an Army major who tracks down Laurence Harvey, an American soldier captured during the Korean War and programmed through hypnotism for assassination by Chinese Communists. The film was based on a 1959 best-selling book by Richard Condon. For all the critical acclaim and subsequent political attention (Did Lee Harvey Oswald see it or not?), the movie flopped initially and was withdrawn from release after John F. Kennedy's assassination.
"The Manchurian Candidate" remake brings to a wider audience questions about the role of the state in brainwashing and mind control, a topic usually reserved for the "nutters" on the Internet, as a character in the new movie puts it succinctly.
Updating the politics of the era, the Communist evil empire has been replaced by a multinational corporation, Manchurian Global. Updating the science, hypnosis and brainwashing have been augmented with electrodes in the brain, microchips implanted in the body and electroshock.
The term "brainwashing" was first popularized by Edward Hunter, in his 1951 book, "Brainwashing in Red China." Brainwashing was his translation for a Chinese term "hsi-nao," meaning, roughly, "cleansing of the mind." "It is practically impossible to fight something until it has been given a name," Hunter wrote, saying that brainwashing had a more "flesh-and-blood" quality than a more clinical alternative, "menticide," which means murder of the mind.
The fear of brainwashing was rooted in wartime, fueled by anti-communist fervor and tinged with racism and xenophobia. Some U.S. prisoners of war in Korea renounced their citizenship in radio broadcasts and many signed confessions against American interests, including charges, still debated today, that the United States was engaged in germ warfare with anthrax.
For Americans to abandon their ideals, the Communists must have devised some nefarious new means of thought control -- or so it was thought.
The Army conducted shipboard interviews with more than 4,000 returning American prisoners of the Korean conflict. Robert Jay Lifton, one of the psychiatrists who conducted the interviews, analyzed them in his 1961 classic book, "Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism."
Lifton concluded that the Chinese interrogation techniques were merely time-honored methods of psychological coercion: isolation, humiliation and the repetition of propaganda. But by this time, it was too late. The "flesh-and- blood" term brainwashing had come to life and refused to be contained, never really losing its power.
George Romney's 1967 comment that he had been "brainwashed" about the Vietnam War put the kibosh on Romney's run for the presidency, prompting opponent Eugene McCarthy to quip that a "light rinse would have done."
The question of whether religious cults were brainwashing adherents kept the notion alive through the 1960s and '70s. Brainwashing was claimed as a defense in a number of American court cases, but without much success (It did not work for Patty Hearst, for example). In recent years, claims of brainwashing have been asserted for sniper Lee Boyd Malvo, the American Taliban soldier John Walker Lindh and kidnap victim Elizabeth Smart.
"Today, the notion surfaces in court mostly in child custody disputes, where one parent accuses the other of 'brainwashing' -- more as a rhetorical flourish rather than any real scientific claim," said Alan Scheflin, a professor of law at Santa Clara University and author of "The Mind Manipulators."
To update the science of brainwashing for the new "Manchurian Candidate," Demme, the director, turned to Jay Lombard, a physician who treats brain disorders in Nyack, NY.
Lombard said it wasn't a big stretch to think that as scientists got better and better at understanding how the brain works, they could eventually use that knowledge to influence behavior. As an adviser to Demme, he said he "put on my devil's cap and used my own fantasies as to what might be possible. "
Other experts in neurosciences asked about the technology in "The Manchurian Candidate" agreed that true mind control -- the ability to create specific thoughts or memories with brain chips or electromagnetic waves -- is still the stuff of science fiction. But the movie's theme of medical technology morphing into nefarious military applications resonated nonetheless.
"The same thing that might help a fighter pilot control his plane by brain waves might also help a spinal cord patient control his environment," said Martha Farah, a scientist with the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania, who is an exponent of the burgeoning field known as "neuroethics," a term coined by New York Times columnist William Safire.
The worry that research in the neurosciences might get out of hand is not without historical precedent.
Helen McGonigle, a Connecticut lawyer who represents victims of trauma and sexual abuse, knows she sounds like one of the nutters on the Internet when she talks about the history of military involvement in mind control.
When asked if she thinks the government is still in the business of mind control, McGonigle responded without skipping a beat. "Absolutely," she said. "The history of the Bluebird, Artichoke and MKULTRA definitely raise the bar of suspicion," McGonigle said, ticking off a series of government experiments involving hypnosis, sleep deprivation and the use of psychotropic drugs.
MKULTRA, underway from 1953 to 1966, involved research into mind-control agents at scores of prestigious institutions by prominent psychologists. MKULTRA scientists attempted to determine whether LSD could be aerosolized effectively; the CIA even hired a magician to teach field agents how to slip LSD into the drinks of unwitting subjects.
Other experiments involved various forms of sleep deprivation and hypnosis. Consider a research question posed in CIA documents from the Bluebird experiments in the 1950s: "Could we seize a subject and in the space of an hour or two by post-H[ypnotic] control have him crash an airplane, wreck a train, etc.?"
The techniques of Cold War mind control experiments -- slipping unwitting subjects a Mickey Finn -- seem quaint from the perspective of today's high-tech approaches. Indeed, many of the bits and pieces of neuroscience in the new movie are already science fact, even if they don't necessarily add up neatly.
Microchips have long been used to track animals and to tag surgical implants. Today's microchips, which are about the size of a grain of uncooked rice, can now be linked to Global Positioning System equipment for surveillance and equipped with technology to relay information about vital signs remotely. A "brain fingerprinting" technique is already accepted by some courts; scalp-measured brain waves can detect so-called guilty knowledge, such as familiarity with people, objects or even terrorist training. Just a few weeks ago, the Food and Drug Administration approved the first implant to treat a mood disorder: an electrode placed on the vagus nerve to treat depression.
Wrye Sententia monitors these developments, fighting the good fight for "cognitive liberties" as the executive director of the Center for Cognitive Liberties & Ethics in Davis. "We say 'cognitive liberties' rather than 'freedom of thought,' because cognitive liberties marks the intersection of brain science and policy," she said. The center is not out to stop brain research, but believes the Constitution and other legal protections should guarantee both the right to be free from unwarranted mental intrusions and to have access to new neurotechnologies, for those who want them.
"The Manchurian Candidate"-style advances have prompted the center to expand its mission to monitor military activities, including the government's "weaponizing of psychoactive drugs." According to reports in Mother Jones last year and the New York Times magazine last week, university and government scientists interested in "non-lethal weapons" are considering the use of psychoactive drugs, such as ecstasy or Valium, as "calmative" weapons to subdue unruly crowds.
It sounds like something out of a Hollywood blockbuster.
Jeff Stryker does commentaries for Public Radio International's "Marketplace."
This article appeared on page E - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle}
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/08/01/INGRR7UIJ31.DTL
-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Manchurian_Candidate,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_MKUltra, http://www.wanttoknow.info/050626mkultra,
http://science.discovery.com/stories/mkultra.html
THE MULTI-DIMENSIONAL UNIVERSE OF LOREN COLMAN
Loren Coleman is an extensive & insightful researcher & writer.
http://copycateffect.blogspot.com/2008/08/decapitations-in-greece-and-canada.htmlhttp://www.cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/dark-curse/
The Copycat Effect: How the Media and Popular Culture Trigger the Mayhem in Tomorrow's Headlines (Paperback)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0743482239/ref=ase_cryptozoologi-20/
CRYPTOZOOLOGY
http://www.cryptomundo.com/cryptozoology/cryptozoo-news/
LC is an impressive cryptozoologist & has been on coasttocoastam.com many times over the years. http://www.lorencoleman.com
Roger Tolces: Mind Harrasment
{Private investigator specializing in electronic counter-measures, Roger Tolces discussed how surveillance and harassment has shifted from hardware to bio-coded directed energy. After viewing secret Russian spy documents, he believes the US is now using DNA sequencing to develop new mind control techniques, which can target individuals as well as specific ethnic groups. Tolces said many of his clients suffer from what is called voice-to-skull technology (V2K)-- a relentless set of voices talking inside a person's head. These non-stop voices can lead to physical and psychological problems for the victim. Marcia Lee appeared for a segment discussing her case of 24/7 voice bombardment, which centered around her apartment in New York City. She described hearing her neighbors' voices in her head, telling her to do things against her will, such as turning over the keys to her apartment and car to them. The voices would also repeat things she had just said.Tolces was able to help her with shielding techniques, such as an "electrostatic egg." He advises people who are having such problems to not sleep on a mattress that has metal in it, as the metal can conduct or amplify signals, and disturb sleep patterns. When he works with new clients he puts them through a number of tests, such as a "spectrum analyzing system" to determine the frequency and wave forms of the disturbance. A number of callers shared their accounts of being harassed by voices. Tolces also addressed the issue of data mining, and the deterioration of privacy rights in America in recent years.}
http://www.coasttocoastam.com/shows/2008/08/05.html
http://www.coasttocoastam.com/guests/599.html
{Related Articles
http://emotiv.com/INDS_2/inds_2_2.html
Mind Control Headsets A new headset device allows people to run computer programs with just their thoughts. A product of Emotiv, a San Francisco start-up, the headset uses wireless sensors to interpret brain signals. More at Business Week.}
http://multiverseextra.blogspot.ca/search?q=shows+and+programs
http://www.coasttocoastam.com/shows/2008/08/05.html
http://www.coasttocoastam.com/guests/599.html
{Related Articles
http://emotiv.com/INDS_2/inds_2_2.html
Mind Control Headsets A new headset device allows people to run computer programs with just their thoughts. A product of Emotiv, a San Francisco start-up, the headset uses wireless sensors to interpret brain signals. More at Business Week.}
http://multiverseextra.blogspot.ca/search?q=shows+and+programs
AV Ex
This is essentially a personal AV reference blog with occasional comments & observations from my self. Although this blog uses Wikipedia a lot, Wikipedia should only be considered as one of a plethora of reference sources. Wikipedia is OK for a general level of reference, but more comprehensive sources should be referenced. Virgil_Griffith`s, WikiScanner certainly helps, but checking several sources is always better.
Sometimes I just might want to provide a link for general reference. Other times when I discover something more fascinating or of key interest, I want to provide a direct reference link to their website. Some posts will be updated with newer data over time. There is a spectrum of various ideas & concepts from the mysterious & esoteric to science & fiction. As with all websites & medial in general, its up to the individual to draw their own conclusions about the data being presented.
At one level there can be a lot of coincidence. Sometimes the coincidence is more interconnected or meaningful & becomes synchronicity. It all depends upon your level of interest & perception about various things.
The-mvex-project is mostly at this part of the blog. http://mvextra.blogspot.com
https://multiverseextra.blogspot.com/search?q=AVI
Sometimes I just might want to provide a link for general reference. Other times when I discover something more fascinating or of key interest, I want to provide a direct reference link to their website. Some posts will be updated with newer data over time. There is a spectrum of various ideas & concepts from the mysterious & esoteric to science & fiction. As with all websites & medial in general, its up to the individual to draw their own conclusions about the data being presented.
At one level there can be a lot of coincidence. Sometimes the coincidence is more interconnected or meaningful & becomes synchronicity. It all depends upon your level of interest & perception about various things.
The-mvex-project is mostly at this part of the blog. http://mvextra.blogspot.com
https://multiverseextra.blogspot.com/search?q=AVI
The Tesla Energy Shield & The Earth Grid
Nikola_Tesla
http://shadowboxent.brinkster.net/TeslaShieldReview.html
http://www.lifetechnology.org/teslashield.htm
http://shadowboxent.brinkster.net/lemurlinks.html
http://www.lifetechnology.org/teslashield.htm
http://shadowboxent.brinkster.net/lemurlinks.html
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http://www.rense.com/general6/egy.htm
http://divinecosmos.com/index.php/start-here/books-free-online/18-the-shift-of-the-ages/68-the-shift-of-the-ages-chapter-12-becker-hagens-the-global-grid-solution
UFO Hunters (2008)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UFO_Hunters
Quite an interesting TV series that was canceled way too soon.
http://www.ufo-blogger.com/2009/05/history-channel-confirmed-nazi-ufos.html
Quite an interesting TV series that was canceled way too soon.
http://www.ufo-blogger.com/2009/05/history-channel-confirmed-nazi-ufos.html
Audio Video Ex (AVEx)
Audio+Video Extra: AVEx is an intersection of various subjects and topics in news and entertainment...
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/extraordinary ,
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/extraordinary ,
http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/extraordinary
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/mundane ,
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mundane ,
http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/mundane
MULTIVERSE: WHAT IS REALITY?
http://bedejournal.blogspot.ca/2008/11/multiverse-agony-aunt.html
This blog was originally intended to be just about the Extraterrestrial_Hypothesis (ETH) & then it branched into all sorts of human intersections with the-OCCULT, the paranormal & metaphysics, technology, science & fiction. http://multiverseextra.blogspot.ca/2012/04/when-aliens-attack-2011.html
Posts might vary from a few times each month to occasionally a few each week. Some posts might have new data added over the course of months or years.
I always like to regularly visit these very popular sites.
http://www.earthfiles.com, http://www.unknowncountry.com/dreamland/revelations, http://www.williamhenry.net, http://www.grahamhancock.com, http://www.coasttocoastam.com
http://illuminatiwatcher.com, http://www.prometheanreach.com
(TMP)
MVET & MVEX is about exploring various concepts and realities. ET & Earth technology in science & fiction. Please visit history.com/shows/ancient-aliens, secretsinplainsight.com & theuniversesolved.com for excellent observations & fascinating data. Are we in a holographic void where so much remains unperceived?
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/extraordinary ,
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/extraordinary ,
http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/extraordinary
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/mundane ,
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mundane ,
http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/mundane
MULTIVERSE: WHAT IS REALITY?
http://bedejournal.blogspot.ca/2008/11/multiverse-agony-aunt.html
This blog was originally intended to be just about the Extraterrestrial_Hypothesis (ETH) & then it branched into all sorts of human intersections with the-OCCULT, the paranormal & metaphysics, technology, science & fiction. http://multiverseextra.blogspot.ca/2012/04/when-aliens-attack-2011.html
Posts might vary from a few times each month to occasionally a few each week. Some posts might have new data added over the course of months or years.
I always like to regularly visit these very popular sites.
http://www.earthfiles.com, http://www.unknowncountry.com/dreamland/revelations, http://www.williamhenry.net, http://www.grahamhancock.com, http://www.coasttocoastam.com
http://illuminatiwatcher.com, http://www.prometheanreach.com
(TMP)
MVET & MVEX is about exploring various concepts and realities. ET & Earth technology in science & fiction. Please visit history.com/shows/ancient-aliens, secretsinplainsight.com & theuniversesolved.com for excellent observations & fascinating data. Are we in a holographic void where so much remains unperceived?
That implies a tremendous amount of organization of structure & energy that interactively records & plays various life experiences.
Sephirot#Iggulim-Circles & Restrictions_of_Divine_Light This sure looks like a symbolic record to me.
Saturn#Outer_rings, http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/01/space-photo-of-the-day-2/?pid=6056
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The Akashic Multiverse & Cosmic Hard Drive Theory, etc. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090203130708.htm,
The Matrix, The Universesolved & The Multiverse are all big interesting concepts to explore & ponder.
A wheel is used to depict various life experiences through reincarnation.
The implication is that time & space are part of a vast interactive recording for consciousness to experience life in. Reincarnation#Buddhism
See the Dazu Rock_Carvings,
The rings of Saturn are a fine example of how nature formed a big disc around a planet. So metaphorically, the universe could be like an immense holographic record or DVD.
I_Ching & Terence_McKenna, http://fusionanomaly.net/terencemckenna.html,
www.levity.com/eschaton/waveexplain.html Sure TM didn't have all the answers, but in his own way he was on a path to enlightenment. http://fusionanomaly.net/timewavezero.html
http://fusionanomaly.net/vedicphilosophy.html, http://fusionanomaly.net/shamanism.html
The Kabbalah seems to be partially linked to The Bible & is also like its own work. The Dead_Sea_Scrolls haven't officially become part of The Bible & might be considered to be just as mystical as the Kabbalah#Mystic_elements_of_the_Torah. These books were interpreted & formed in the same general part of the world.
www.levity.com/eschaton/waveexplain.html Sure TM didn't have all the answers, but in his own way he was on a path to enlightenment. http://fusionanomaly.net/timewavezero.html
http://fusionanomaly.net/vedicphilosophy.html, http://fusionanomaly.net/shamanism.html
The Kabbalah seems to be partially linked to The Bible & is also like its own work. The Dead_Sea_Scrolls haven't officially become part of The Bible & might be considered to be just as mystical as the Kabbalah#Mystic_elements_of_the_Torah. These books were interpreted & formed in the same general part of the world.
http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/Biblical-history-by-Astle/a/03-18-11-CW-Numbers-in-the-Bible.htm
The Bible remains as one of the many sacred-texts found in various parts of the world.
www.sacred-texts.com/eso/nop/index.htm,
http://bret1111.blogspot.ca/2010/09/mystical-numbers.html,
www.falasha-recordings.com/points%20of%20interest/numbers/Mystical%20numbers.html,
www.mathgym.com.au/history/pythagoras/pythnum.htm,
Of course people can be skeptical & yet curious about a cosmic Akashic database.
www.skepdic.com/akashic.html, As it so happens, humanity with technology is building a global database that in theory, could eventually record almost everything around the earth.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recorded_Future, www.wired.com
The Bible remains as one of the many sacred-texts found in various parts of the world.
www.sacred-texts.com/eso/nop/index.htm,
http://bret1111.blogspot.ca/2010/09/mystical-numbers.html,
www.falasha-recordings.com/points%20of%20interest/numbers/Mystical%20numbers.html,
www.mathgym.com.au/history/pythagoras/pythnum.htm,
Of course people can be skeptical & yet curious about a cosmic Akashic database.
www.skepdic.com/akashic.html, As it so happens, humanity with technology is building a global database that in theory, could eventually record almost everything around the earth.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recorded_Future, www.wired.com
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Many believe that a person is only here to live one life on one world & there is nothing like a cosmic quantumhologram. That a creator or the universe has no need to allow reincarnation. That its only necessary or possible to have one life & there only needs to be one living world. Of course regardless of any set belief system, some people still seek to find more clues about reality & compare data. Religion is heavily compartmentalized & so is science. This conveniently causes many to do less cross referencing about several concepts & possibilities. Reincarnation#Islam
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Science isn't bound by any set religion & can in theory, discover more clues about the cosmos. However, some corporations & governments & religions still might not want too many people to connect more of the dots. That's why individual study can allow one to pursue things that aren't necessarily sanctioned by science or religion.
Skepticism can certainly enable one to filter out & dismiss a lot of things. Here are some sites to compare. csicop.org/si, skeptic.com, theskepticsguide.org, skepdic.com
Many people like to remain open minded & examine reality from various perspectives & sometimes their imagination & curiosity propels them.
Thus a general perception of Reality & Quantum_physical_views_of_reality remain open to interpretation to each observer. Religion, science or the skeptic in between, can all filter out plenty of things. The genuine curiosity approach means that one can observe all sorts of POVs.
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Some believe that humanity may have made the climb from stone age to space age more than once. Perhaps many times on this world & others. If that's the case then the powers that be are suppressing a tremendous amount of history & data...
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/01/gallery-mars
http://fusionanomaly.net/alien.html, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_(franchise)#Prometheus,
http://www.wired.com/underwire/2013/01/prometheus-video, http://io9.com/5919306/another-theory-about-the-meaning-of-prometheus?tag=prometheus, http://www.prometheus2-movie.com, http://www.projectprometheus.com, http://www.prometheusnews.net, http://io9.com/5931023/prometheus-2-is-moving-forward-so-cue-the-albino-chorus-line?tag=prometheus
http://www.ufodigest.com/news/0509/hypothesis.php, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hy9e_Qf62Bc
This is certainly one of the best sites around. http://inexplicata.blogspot.com,
http://www.examiner.com/article/interview-with-scott-corrales-of-inexplicata-the-journal-of-hispanic-ufology
There are so many interesting sites to explore.
http://silverscreensaucers.blogspot.com, http://www.nuforc.org/index.html, http://www.nationalufocenter.com, http://rense.com/ufo6/filersdata.htm, http://www.ufoevidence.org/documents/doc1147.htm
http://www.waterufo.net/things.php, http://www.waterufo.net/item.php?id=1197,
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/11/baltic-sea-anomaly-now-rumored-to-have-nazi-origin_n_1872393.html,
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2197489/So-Baltic-Sea-UFO-alien-saucer-underwater-Nazi-base-No--just-rocks-claim-debunkers.html,
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1330566/Hitlers-secret-flying-saucer-Did-Fuhrer-plan-UFO-attack-London-NY.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_UFOs, http://www.ufocasebook.com/naziufos.html, http://www.naziufos.com, http://naziufos.blogspot.com,
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/ufo_aleman/esp_ufoaleman_9.htm, http://exonews.org/33233,
http://www.examiner.com/article/did-us-navy-battle-ufos-protecting-nazi-antarctic-sanctuary-1947
The_Star_Trek:_Enterprise TV series provides a depiction of aggressive & sinister beings corrupting some Europeans to take over the world.
http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Storm_Front,_Part_II,
http://www.startrek.com/database_article/storm-front-part-ii
Jay Weidner has his take on some nefarious beings he refers to as, the Archons.
http://www.jayweidner.com/Archons.html, http://radio.rumormillnews.com/podcast/2011/10/20/jayweidner,
http://illuminatiwatcher.com/?p=4714, http://www.unknowncountry.com/revelations/archons-masters-world,
http://www.disclose.tv/action/viewvideo/134649/Jeff_Rense_amp_Jay_Weidner__Stanley_Kubrick_amp_Our_Archon_Overlords
Like on the earth, the universe could contain a vast spectrum of beings & entities with various agendas.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UFO_Hunters, http://www.history.com/shows/ufo-hunters,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1411095, http://www.youtube.com/channel/HCmT2XunfgEY8,
http://www.mysteryportals.com/Underwater_UFO_Base_in_S__California.html
http://multiverseextra.blogspot.ca/2008/08/the-occult-horizon.html
index-of-subjects-and-topics
http://multiverseextra.blogspot.ca/search?q=Big+Data
http://fusionanomaly.net/alien.html, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_(franchise)#Prometheus,
http://www.wired.com/underwire/2013/01/prometheus-video, http://io9.com/5919306/another-theory-about-the-meaning-of-prometheus?tag=prometheus, http://www.prometheus2-movie.com, http://www.projectprometheus.com, http://www.prometheusnews.net, http://io9.com/5931023/prometheus-2-is-moving-forward-so-cue-the-albino-chorus-line?tag=prometheus
http://www.ufodigest.com/news/0509/hypothesis.php, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hy9e_Qf62Bc
This is certainly one of the best sites around. http://inexplicata.blogspot.com,
http://www.examiner.com/article/interview-with-scott-corrales-of-inexplicata-the-journal-of-hispanic-ufology
There are so many interesting sites to explore.
http://silverscreensaucers.blogspot.com, http://www.nuforc.org/index.html, http://www.nationalufocenter.com, http://rense.com/ufo6/filersdata.htm, http://www.ufoevidence.org/documents/doc1147.htm
http://www.waterufo.net/things.php, http://www.waterufo.net/item.php?id=1197,
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/11/baltic-sea-anomaly-now-rumored-to-have-nazi-origin_n_1872393.html,
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2197489/So-Baltic-Sea-UFO-alien-saucer-underwater-Nazi-base-No--just-rocks-claim-debunkers.html,
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1330566/Hitlers-secret-flying-saucer-Did-Fuhrer-plan-UFO-attack-London-NY.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_UFOs, http://www.ufocasebook.com/naziufos.html, http://www.naziufos.com, http://naziufos.blogspot.com,
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/ufo_aleman/esp_ufoaleman_9.htm, http://exonews.org/33233,
http://www.examiner.com/article/did-us-navy-battle-ufos-protecting-nazi-antarctic-sanctuary-1947
The_Star_Trek:_Enterprise TV series provides a depiction of aggressive & sinister beings corrupting some Europeans to take over the world.
http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Storm_Front,_Part_II,
http://www.startrek.com/database_article/storm-front-part-ii
Jay Weidner has his take on some nefarious beings he refers to as, the Archons.
http://www.jayweidner.com/Archons.html, http://radio.rumormillnews.com/podcast/2011/10/20/jayweidner,
http://illuminatiwatcher.com/?p=4714, http://www.unknowncountry.com/revelations/archons-masters-world,
http://www.disclose.tv/action/viewvideo/134649/Jeff_Rense_amp_Jay_Weidner__Stanley_Kubrick_amp_Our_Archon_Overlords
Like on the earth, the universe could contain a vast spectrum of beings & entities with various agendas.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UFO_Hunters, http://www.history.com/shows/ufo-hunters,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1411095, http://www.youtube.com/channel/HCmT2XunfgEY8,
http://www.mysteryportals.com/Underwater_UFO_Base_in_S__California.html
http://multiverseextra.blogspot.ca/2008/08/the-occult-horizon.html
index-of-subjects-and-topics
http://multiverseextra.blogspot.ca/search?q=Big+Data
AVEx is a semi-private blog.
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