Around the World
AFP
Dec 20, 2005
AFP
Dec 20, 2005
Tue, 20 Dec 2005 12:00 EST
WELLINGTON - Volunteers and conservation staff battled Tuesday to save more than 120 pilot whales stranded on a beach on New Zealand's South Island.
The whales became stranded on Puponga Beach near Farewell Spit in the north of the South Island on Tuesday as the tide went out, said John Mason, a local conservation department official.
AFP
Dec 19, 2005
AFP
Dec 19, 2005
Tue, 20 Dec 2005 12:00 EST
Moscow - Russia has signed a preliminary agreement to sell a dozen Sukhoi fighter jets to Thailand, traditionally a US arms client, in an unprecedented deal worth 500 million dollars, The Moscow Times daily reported Monday.
NBC6.net
6:01 am EST December 20, 2005
NBC6.net
6:01 am EST December 20, 2005
Tue, 20 Dec 2005 12:00 EST
MIAMI BEACH, Fla. -- A seaplane carrying 20 people crashed into the water within sight of this city's high-rises Monday, killing 19 people, authorities said. The other person has not been found. Witnesses said the plane exploded in the air.
www.chinaview.cn 2005-12-20 15:52:53
www.chinaview.cn 2005-12-20 15:52:53
Tue, 20 Dec 2005 12:00 EST
CANBERRA, Dec. 20 (Xinhuanet) -- An earthquake measuring 6.2 on the Richter scale rocked the Pacific seabed between the island groups of Micronesia and Guam on Tuesday, the U.S. Geological Survey Web site said.
December 19, 2005
ExpressIndia
December 19, 2005
ExpressIndia
Tue, 20 Dec 2005 12:00 EST
Mumbai: At least 136 tremors were recorded all over the world by seismologists between December 9 and 16 and these shocks were concentrated all along plate boundaries and majority of them along the Pacific and Indian ones.
Compared to earlier years, the earth is showing a pattern not experienced by humans although such unusual phenomena is not uncommon to the planet, Prof Chandrasekharam, Earth Science department of IIT here said while explaining the earthquake record for the period.
"This apparently shows the dynamic changes that the earth is undergoing internally. A large amount of scientific data is pouring-in with respect to such changes taking place within the earth," he said.
One of the most interesting phenomena noticed recently, is the shifting of the present magnetic pole of the earth towards Russia. A major shift of the pole was recorded by palaeomagnetist Joseph Stoner from Oregon State University, who announced it last week.
By KATIE HAFNER and SARITHA RAI
NY Times
20 Dec 2005
By KATIE HAFNER and SARITHA RAI
NY Times
20 Dec 2005
Tue, 20 Dec 2005 12:00 EST
When Google introduced Google Earth, free software that marries satellite and aerial images with mapping capabilities, the company emphasized its usefulness as a teaching and navigation tool, while advertising the pure entertainment value of high-resolution flyover images of the Eiffel Tower, Big Ben and the pyramids.
But since its debut last summer, Google Earth has received attention of an unexpected sort. Officials of several nations have expressed alarm over its detailed display of government buildings, military installations and other important sites within their borders.
Comment: Comment: Note this comment from the above article:
"It was in the 1990's that the federal government started allowing commercial satellite companies to make and sell high-resolution images, to allow American companies to compete in a growing market. But a number of security restrictions apply to those companies. For instance, United States law requires that images of Israel shot by American-licensed commercial satellites be made available only at a relatively low resolution."
Now our question is: Why is there a United States law that forbids the release of high-resolution images of Israel? Is this really a US law or is it an Israeli law, and in any case, is there any real difference?
December 17, 2005
By Dennis Hans
December 17, 2005
By Dennis Hans
Mon, 19 Dec 2005 12:00 EST
Before the war when it mattered I documented the Bush team's "techniques of deceit," but the major media weren't interested.
Comment: Comment: Well, join the club. There are a lot of us who were right. Problem is, we aren't part of the "psychopathic elite."
December 19, 2005
CNN
December 19, 2005
CNN
Mon, 19 Dec 2005 12:00 EST
WASHINGTON -- Democratic House leaders called Sunday for an independent panel to investigate the legality of a program President Bush authorized that allows warrantless wiretaps on U.S. citizens, according to a letter to House Speaker Dennis Hastert.
"We believe that the President must have the best possible intelligence to protect the American people, but that intelligence must be produced in a manner consistent with our Constitution and our laws, and in a manner that reflects our values as a nation," the letter says.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi; Minority Whip Steny Hoyer; Rep. John Conyers, the ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee; and Rep. Henry Waxman, the ranking member on the House Committee on Government Reform, signed the letter.
December 19, 2005
Les Visible
SmokingMirrors
December 19, 2005
Les Visible
SmokingMirrors
Mon, 19 Dec 2005 12:00 EST
Shakespeare said something along the lines that, There is a destiny that shapes our ends. I cant argue with that. History shows me that both people and nations can fail in spectacular fashion; the only drawback to that is that it often takes longer than we wish it to. Most of us hope that blackguard nations and individuals would go direct to the compost heap without the necessity of the agonizing, protracted drama of lives injured in the process.
Were the American people always this stupid? Is it a generational thing; do certain generations back up over a metaphorical La Guardia of reincarnation and chomp at the bit for their chance to perform before the world? I often wonder if there might not be a conveyor belt that moves through dimensional space, sorting and labeling characters for their moment to strut and fret their hour upon the stage. I wonder about a lot of things because I dont get the payoff. I have yet to see where being exposed as an idiot and a liar is a good career move; but wait a minute
it seems like it is.
December 18, 2005
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
December 18, 2005
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Mon, 19 Dec 2005 12:00 EST
The Bush administration is continuing its assault on Americans' privacy and freedom in the name of the war on terrorism.
267,454 people have viewed this page since Tue, 19 Dec 2006
Emails sent to Signs of the Times, Ark, Laura, or Cassiopaea become the property of Quantum Future Group, Inc and may be republished without notice.
Some icons appearing on this site were taken from KDE-look.org, Afterglow, Mayosoft, Everaldo, IconDrawer, VisualPharm, IconFactory, Klukeart, Icons-land, TpdkDesign.net, and IconShock.com.
Remember, we need your help to collect information on what is going on in your part of the world!
Send your article suggestions to: 
Original content © 2009 by SOTT.net/Signs of the Times. See: Fair Use Policy
![[Valid Atom 1.0]](/images/valid-atom.png?1222505720 "Validate my Atom 1.0 feed")
![[Valid RSS 2.0]](/images/valid-rss.png?1222505756 "Validate my RSS 2.0 feed")
"It was in the 1990's that the federal government started allowing commercial satellite companies to make and sell high-resolution images, to allow American companies to compete in a growing market. But a number of security restrictions apply to those companies. For instance, United States law requires that images of Israel shot by American-licensed commercial satellites be made available only at a relatively low resolution."
Now our question is: Why is there a United States law that forbids the release of high-resolution images of Israel? Is this really a US law or is it an Israeli law, and in any case, is there any real difference?