Society's Child

US: World's Last Radio Telescope Searching for Aliens Closed Due to Funding Cuts

The Daily Mail, UK
Thu, 05 May 2011 10:03 UTC

It's a question which has always fascinated humans: Are we alone in the universe?

But the search for other intelligent life in space has been dealt a devastating blow which means we may never find out the answer.

The planet's only radio telescopes dedicated to searching for other life has been shut, the victim of U.S. government spending cuts.

© unknown
Closure: The Allen Telescope Array, the world's last radio telescopes, are to be mothballed due to U.S. government spending cuts

The Allen Telescope Array in California has been mothballed after funding ran out, said senior astronomer Seth Shostak.

US: In Alabama, A Shortage Of Shelter For Storm Survivors

Debbie Elliott
NPR
Wed, 04 May 2011 00:00 UTC

Residents who were left homeless after last week's tornado find shelter at the Belk Activity Center on Monday in Tuscaloosa, Ala.

For survivors of last week's deadly tornadoes in Alabama and other parts of the South, shelter is the paramount concern. With thousands left homeless, the challenge is finding temporary housing for displaced residents while the region rebuilds.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency says some 30,000 people have registered for assistance, and more than 3,000 National Guard members are on the ground conducting search and rescue, security and debris removal.

Home these days for Starkey Armistead of Tuscaloosa, Ala., is one of dozens of cots lined up on the gym floor at the Belk Activity Center where he has stayed since a tornado destroyed his apartment.

"It's a little different sharing a bedroom with a hundred people, but you get used to it," he said.

Across the South, more than 800 people are staying in shelters like this one set up by the Red Cross. Others are staying with family and friends, or even in their damaged homes. Residents in Tuscaloosa on Tuesday scrambled to get broken windows boarded up and tarps over roofs before a cold rain set in.

US: There is nothing normal about celebrating death

Jody McIntyre
The Independent
Tue, 03 May 2011 08:58 UTC

I thought justice was about bringing people to trial for crimes they have committed, not targeted assassinations. It seems I was wrong. I thought disdain for Britain and the US was born from our imperialist foreign policy, not one man recording video messages. It seems I was wrong. First, NATO bomb Libya and kill three of Gaddafi's grandchildren, and people celebrate. What were the crimes of those children? Or is it acceptable to celebrate their deaths because they are 'the devil's spawn'?

Today, we are celebrating the death of former CIA employee Osama Bin Laden. Why are there no photographs of his body? Why was he buried in the sea? Why is he not on trial? Of course, we are not encouraged to question the official line.

Can one man be solely responsible for atrocities that kill thousands of people? As with Saddam Hussein, as with Muammer Gaddafi, the complete dehumanisation of Osama Bin Laden as an individual has served as the pretext for the killing of hundreds of thousands of people. If we were to follow the logic that the killing of one man called Bin Laden comprises 'justice' for the thousands of victims of 9/11, then what would 'justice' for the estimated one million Iraqis dead since the US and British-led invasion of Iraq entail?

US: Radioactive Water Pumped Into Mississippi River

WJTV
Mon, 02 May 2011 00:00 UTC

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is investigating a radioactive release into the Mississippi River from the Grand Gulf Nuclear Plant in Port Gibson.

A spokesperson from Grand Gulf tells News Channel 12 that they found standing water in an abandoned unit.

In an effort to remove the standing water, Entergy began pumping the water out and into a drain that emptyed into the Mississippi River.

A censor went off detecting the chemical "tritium" in the standing water.

Corn planting lags by 53 percent from 2010

porkNetwork
Mon, 02 May 2011 09:29 UTC

Thirteen percent of the corn in the top 18 producing states has been planted according to the USDA's Crop Progress report released May 2. Although it is a four-percent improvement from last week, nationally the 2011 corn planting is 27 percent behind the five-year average and 53 percent behind 2010's progress.

North Carolina (88 percent) and Texas (79 percent) continue to lead the states in planting. Colorado (18 percent), Kansas (41 percent), Kentucky (17 percent), Missouri (32 percent), Nebraska (15 percent) and Tennessee (38 percent) reported percentages above the national average. Nine states fall below the national average of 13 percent. North Dakota is the only state to have yet to begin planting. More than half of the reporting states indicated less than 1 percent improvement from last week's report. Planting is more than 70 percent behind last year's pace in Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois.

Corn has emerged in five percent of the states, which is four percent behind the five-year average and 13 percent behind 2010's pace. North Carolina (59 percent) and Texas (57 percent) reported the highest percentages of emerged corn. North Carolina is the only state to report a higher percentage of corn emerged than both its state's 2010 report and five-year average. Of the nine states reporting emerged corn, just three - Illinois (3 percent), Nebraska (1 percent) and Ohio (1 percent) - fell below the national average.

Propaganda Alert! J'lem imam: Obama will soon hang

Elior Levy
Ynet News
Thu, 05 May 2011 08:31 UTC

Al-Aqsa Mosque imam vows to avenge killing of Osama bin Laden in Youtube video. 'Dogs should not rejoice too much for killing lions'

An imam from the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem vowed to take revenge over "the western dogs" for killing Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan on Sunday.

In a Youtube video uploaded by the imam he said: "The western dogs are rejoicing after killing one of our Islamic lions. From Al-Aqsa Mosque, where the future caliphate will originate with the help of God, we say to them - the dogs will not rejoice too much for killing the lions. The dogs will remain dogs and the lion, even if he is dead, will remain a lion."

The imam then verbally attacked US President Barack Obama saying: "You personally instructed to kill Muslims. You should know that soon you'll hang together with Bush Junior."

"We are a nation of billions, a good nation. We'll teach you about politics and military ways very soon, with god's help," he vowed.

US: New York prosecutors agree not to call Viktor Bout 'Merchant of Death'

RIA Novosti
Thu, 05 May 2011 06:02 UTC

New York prosecutors issued a memorandum on Thursday in which they agreed not to refer to suspected Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout as "the Merchant of Death."

The announcement came as a response to an appeal by Bout's defense lodged on April 19. Among many other provisions, the 50-page document asks the court to end Bout's case as the U.S. government does not have jurisdiction to consider criminal cases over the offenses that have been committed outside the United States.

In their 60-page response to the appeal, prosecutors said they were ready to avoid labeling Bout as "the Merchant of Death" as a compromise, but demanded the court turn down all other requests by the defense.

Comment: Viktor Bout is an interesting character that may have witnessed, or may have knowledge about quite a few true key players in the 9/11 tragedy.

From The Real Bogeyman: To What Extent Was Mossad Involved in the Events Leading to 9/11?:

The joint Israeli-Saudi support for "al Qaeda' was well-known to the Sharjah and Ras al Khaimah-based aviation network of the now-imprisoned Russian, Viktor Bout, jailed in New York on terrorism charges. The presence of Mr. Bout in New York, a hotbed of Israeli intelligence control of US federal prosecutors, judges, as well as the news media, is no accident: Bout knows enough about the Mossad activities in Sharjah (in support of the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, where Bout also had aviation and logistics contracts) to expose Mossad as the actual mastermind behind 9/11. Bout's aviation empire also extended to Miami and Dallas, two areas that were nexuses for the Mossad control operations for the "al Qaeda' flight training operations of the Arab cell members in the months prior to 9/11.

Bout's path also crossed with "al Qaeda's' support network at the same bank in Sharjah, HSBC. Mossad's phony Muslim Brotherhood members from Egypt and Yemen controlled financing for "al Qaeda' through the HSBC accounts in Sharjah. Mossad's Dominik Suter also dealt with HSBC in the United States. The FBI's chief counter-terrorism agent investigating al Qaeda, John O'Neill, became aware of these "unique' funding mechanisms for al Qaeda. It was no accident, therefore, that O'Neill was given the job as director of security for the World Trade Center on the eve of the attack. Conveniently, O'Neill perished in the collapse of the towers.

Also read Is this really what happened? Arms Trafficking, Stolen Missiles, Soviet Submarines, Nuclear Detonations and 9/11: Interview with Dimitri Khalezov to learn more about the real reason for Viktor Bout's arrest:

Dimitri Khalezov is the first person in the world to have uncovered the true reasons for the United States government's dogged pursuit of Victor Bout. Mr. Bout´s arrest is directly linked to 9/11, and Mr. Khalezov, because of his unique vantage point as a former member of the Soviet "atomic" and later "nuclear" intelligence says that he knew about the in-built so-called "emergency nuclear demolitions scheme" of the Twin Towers as long back as early 1980´s, while serving in the Soviet Special Control Service.

US: Average Gas Price Poised To Hit $4 A Gallon This Week

Mark Huffman
ConsumerAffairs.com
Tue, 03 May 2011 00:00 UTC

The psychological price-point of $4 a gallon is looming straight ahead, and will likely be hit before the end of the week, based on the rate of recent price escalation.

The national average price of self-serve regular today is $3.967 a gallon, according to AAA's Fuel Gauge Survey. That's nearly a dime a gallon more than seven days ago.

Already, motorists in many parts of the country are paying well in excess of $4 a gallon. For example, the average price of gas has hit an all time high in Chicago, $4.39 a gallon. The average price is over $4 a gallon now in 14 states; Alaska, California, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, Washington, Wisconsin and West Virginia.

US: White House asked California paper to take out unflattering remark about first lady

Mike Riggs
The Daily Caller
Tue, 03 May 2011 12:03 UTC

A small weekly paper in California claims that a White House official asked it to remove a sentence from a "benign" feature about Marine One because it reflected poorly on first lady Michelle Obama.

In an email to The Daily Caller, Gina Channell-Allen, president of the Pleasanton Weekly in Pleasanton, California, said that her paper "received a call from the White House asking us to take out part of the story because it reflected poorly on the First Lady."

The story in question was a soft feature about Marine One titled, "Inside Marine One, President Obama's helicopter," that ran in the paper on April 20. Pleasanton staffer Amory Gutierrez "didn't get to ride in 'Marine One,'" she wrote in her story, "but I did get the VIP tour and took photographs of the otherwise unseen aircraft."

She also wrote a sentence that the White House thought made FLOTUS look snooty.

US: Four looting suspects arrested in Pleasant Grove posing as relief workers

Sherrel Stewart
The Birmingham News
Mon, 02 May 2011 04:58 UTC

© Special/Jefferson County Sheriff's Office
The Pleasant Grover looting suspects are, from top left, Anthony Haislip and Christopher Elmore, from bottom left, Christopher Ramsey and Jon Berube.

Four Florida men posing as relief workers have been arrested and charged with looting in Pleasant Grove, authorities said.

Shortly before noon today, a person in Pleasant Grove alerted Jefferson County Sheriff deputies after seeing the men taking property from houses and loading it into a truck. The witness gave the deputies a description of the suspects and their vehicle.

Jefferson County deputies, along with Baldwin County deputies, went to the area where the suspects were reported to be in the 800 block of 5th Street in Pleasant Grove.

Taken into custody were: Anthony Dale Haislip , 31, Sarasota, Fla.; Christopher Don Elmore, 36, Bradenton, Fla.; Jon Robert Berube, 24, Sarasota, Fla.; and Christopher Bryant Ramsey, 21, Sarasota, Fla.