- Signs of the Times Archive for Tue, 05 Jun 2007 -



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SOTT Focus

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Best of the Web
The Word You Need To Know Is Occupation

SOTT
David Rovics
2007-06-05 17:25:00

At right is then General and later Israeli PM, Yitzhak Rabin.
At center is then Israeli General Defence Minister cum hilarious eye-patched cartoon character or James Bond movie baddie (you choose), Moshe Dayan. At left is then Israeli general and later key member of the World Zionist Organisation, Uzi (9mm) Narkiss. The three psychopaths are seen entering Arab East Jerusalem after the "60 minutes blitz" aka "6 day war".


On this, the 40th anniversary of the Israeli "60 minutes war", fought by the Apartheid state of Israel against a non-existent enemy as a cover for the theft of even more Palestinian land, the only comment necessary is the words of the song "Occupation" by David Rovicks, (which you can listen to here):

Occupation

You ask me how it is
That I dare to take a side
You say I loathe myself
For pointing out that you have lied
You say it's tribal warfare
But I disagree
For the dynamics of the situation
Are not difficult to see
On the one side is the fighter jet
On the other is the stone
On the one side is the slave
On the other is the throne
For the many there are checkpoints
While foreign soldiers rule the street
For the one side there is victory
But the people don't accept defeat...

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40 Years Ago Today: The Truth about Israel's "Six Day War"

Quasimodo
wakeupfromyourslumber
2007-05-15 14:19:00

The GREATEST HOAX IN HISTORY was put over on the American people and the world, on JUNE 5, 1967

There is now an accumulating mass of evidence to suggest that the"SIX DAY WAR" was nothing but a 60 Minute BLITZ !

This is a report of the so-called "Six Day War" of an illegally conceived and unlawfully created "State of Israel", against the Christians and Moslems of the United Arab Republic. In reality, it was a 60-minute blitz carried out by utilizing the military might of the United States, and carried on by traitors to this nation in high governmental positions, Zionists who are loyal only to the "State of Israel", and who bleed the Christian American taxpayers to support a nation of Pharisees who persecute other Christians.

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Annals of Mendacious Punditry: When the Shill Enables the Kill

Jason Miller
Thomas Paine's Corner
2007-06-05 02:47:00



Jonah Goldberg is the living, breathing embodiment of virtually all that is pernicious in the malignant socioeconomic and political structures collectively known as the American Empire. Yet tragically, this scheming sycophant to the cynical, privileged criminals of the US plutocracy reaches countless millions through myriad corporate media conduits as he weaves his sophistic arguments supporting nearly every morally repulsive aspect of United States foreign policy.


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U.S. News
Fall Guy: Libby Sentenced to 30 months in Prison

Matt Apuzzo
Associated Press
2007-06-05 21:31:00

Former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter'' Libby was sentenced to 2 years in prison Tuesday for lying and obstructing the CIA leak investigation.

Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, stood calmly before a packed courtroom as a federal judge said the evidence overwhelmingly proved his guilt and left the courthouse without commenting.

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A Commentary on Robert S. Mcelvain's "The Great Depression"

Carolyn Baker
CarolynBaker.org
2007-06-01 14:36:00

...that quaint period, the thirties, when the huge middle class of America was matriculating in a school for the blind. Their eyes had failed them, or they had failed their eyes, and so they were having their fingers pressed forcibly down on the fiery Braille alphabet of a dissolving economy.

"The Glass Menagerie", by Tennessee Williams


William Faulkner famously stated that "good history is not was." By this Faulkner meant that history is a tapestry of interconnected events whose meaning and significance cannot be appreciated unless past causes, present manifestation, and future consequences are assessed. Robert S. McElvaine, author of The Great Depression, America 1929-1941, provides us with the kind of tapestry to which Faulkner was alluding as McElvaine analyzes the first momentous collapse that the United States ever experienced.

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White House Prepares for Possible Vacancy as Court Nears Summer Break

Jan Crawford Greenburg
ABC News
2007-06-01 14:21:00

The White House is developing a short list of possible Supreme Court nominees so President Bush can move swiftly if a justice retires at the end of June, when the Court breaks for its summer recess, according to sources involved in the selection process.

Bush met with top advisers last month, and they discussed possible nominees if a Supreme Court vacancy occurs.

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Bush to welcome Putin at family home July 1-2


RIA Novosti
2007-05-30 14:15:00

U.S. President George W. Bush will welcome his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to his family's summer retreat in Maine on July 1-2, the White House said Wednesday.

At Walker's Point near the town of Kennebunkport, "the presidents will discuss a wide range of issues, including Iran, civil nuclear cooperation, and missile defense," a White House spokesman said.

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No Surprise! Democrats Hide Pet Projects From Voters

Andrew Taylor
AP
2007-06-03 14:07:00

After promising unprecedented openness regarding Congress' pork barrel practices, House Democrats are moving in the opposite direction as they draw up spending bills for the upcoming budget year.

Democrats are sidestepping rules approved their first day in power in January to clearly identify "earmarks" - lawmakers' requests for specific projects and contracts for their states.

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Unmanned Spy Planes Coming To USA Airports


TheDenverChannel.com
2007-06-04 13:43:00

Denver International Airport is being considered for a program in which unmanned spy planes could be used to thwart ground-based attacks on jetliners.

The Department of Homeland Security has chosen six airports of interest, including Denver; Los Angeles; Newark, N.J.; San Diego, Calif.; Las Vegas; and Washington, D.C.



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UK & Euro-Asian News
UK Deputy PM suffering from pneumonia


Reuters
2007-06-05 21:14:00

Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott is suffering from pneumonia and has been transferred to a specialist unit, his office said on Tuesday.

Prescott, 69, was admitted to hospital on Saturday suffering from chest pains and underwent tests for a suspected infection.

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The Russian Bear Awakes

Eric Margolis
EricMargolis.com
2007-06-05 16:57:00

As Washington and Moscow exchange increasingly angry accusations and rebukes these recent weeks, it is hard to avoid a sense of Cold War déjà vu.

Last Tuesday, Russia launched with great fanfare a new RS-24 intercontinental ballistic missile that it claimed could penetrate new US anti-missile defenses. President Vladimir Putin warned the Bush Administration's plans to deploy anti-missile radars and missiles in the Czech Republic and Poland would turn Europe into a "powder keg."

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G-8 debuts friendlier cast - leaders hide in Fortress

Joseph Curl and David R. Sands
Washington Times
2007-06-03 14:51:00

Heiligendamm, a tiny Baltic Sea resort town in what was once East Germany, has been turned into a fortress.

A 15-foot-high fence topped with razor wire encloses three sides, while warships are moving into place to secure the approach from the sea. About 17,000 police officers and soldiers have been stationed at 100-yard intervals along the town's perimeter.

The Germans have built the armed camp to host the annual Group of Eight (G-8) summit, which officially opens Wednesday. But some watchers of the contentious walk-up to the summit muse that the fence just might have been built to keep the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States in.

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'Despicable' fraudster admits Madeleine con


Daily Mail
2007-06-05 13:48:00

A bogus fundraiser ripped off donors who thought they were giving cash to help find missing Madeleine McCann.


The woman, 33, pocketed the cash from people who were told the money would be used to help fund the global search.


Her scam was uncovered after a suspicious resident alerted the police. She was arrested and admitted one offence but denied a campaign to con residents.


Police described it as a "despicable way to raise some quick money" and said they expected more people who had been tricked to come forward.


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Bush to Putin: 'Cold War is over'

Jennifer Loven
Associated Press
2007-06-05 06:20:00

U.S. President George W. Bush on Tuesday challenged Russia's criticism of a proposed American missile shield in Europe, saying Russia has nothing to fear from such a system and declaring "the Cold War is over."

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European Voters Say No Thanks to US Missile Plan

Tom Hundley
Chicago Tribune
2007-06-05 10:14:00

The outcome of Saturday's referendum was never in doubt. Residents of this postcard village in the forested hills of central Bohemia voted 728-10 in favor of a resolution that directs the local municipal council to take all necessary steps to block the U.S. government from installing an anti-missile radar in their back yard.

Josef Hruby, mayor of Zajecov and a retired ambulance driver, smiles sheepishly when he admits that there's not much the municipality can do to stop the U.S. project, but the referendum is a fair measure of the grass-roots opposition that will greet President Bush this week as he travels to the Czech Republic and Poland to promote the missile defense shield.

Several other villages in the vicinity of the proposed radar installation have held referendums with similar outcomes. In the Hvozdany municipality, which consists of six villages, 95 percent of voters said "no" to the radar. In Visky, 30 of the tiny hamlet's 31 eligible voters participated in a referendum and unanimously opposed the radar.

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Around the World
When Myopia Becomes a Crime: Canada in Afghanistan

Michael Neumann
Counterpunch
2007-06-05 16:21:00

For many Canadian partisans of The Mission in Afghanistan, Canada is just fighting the good fight. Their attitudes are curiously anachronistic, as if our boys have gone off to stick it to Jerry. There are yellow-ribbon support-our-troops stickers on many cars; there's home town pride. Embedded correspondents produce little more than a stream of human interest pieces, as if Afghanistan was some enormous Katrina aftermath. You'd probably find something similar in Norway, Finland, and other Nice Countries that have sent troops over there. Perhaps Americans would feel the same way were the whole Afghanistan question not obscured by the much more spectacular disaster of Iraq.


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Why Cuba Is Exporting Health Care to the U.S.

Sarah van Gelder
AlterNet
2007-06-05 14:00:00

Cubans say they offer health care to the world's poor because they have big hearts. But what do they get in return?

They live longer than almost anyone in Latin America. Far fewer babies die. Almost everyone has been vaccinated, and such scourges of the poor as parasites, TB, malaria, even HIV/AIDS are rare or non-existent. Anyone can see a doctor, at low cost, right in the neighborhood.

The Cuban health care system is producing a population that is as healthy as those of the world's wealthiest countries at a fraction of the cost. And now Cuba has begun exporting its system to under-served communities around the world -- including the United States.

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Ten dead in Australia train crash

Jenny Booth
The Times
2007-06-05 13:55:00

Ten people were killed and up to 50 injured today in Australia's worst rail crash in 30 years when a truck collided with a passenger train at an ungated level crossing, police said.


Witnesses reported that the semi-trailer vehicle smashed into the side of the second carriage of the Melbourne-bound train as it crossed the Murray Valley Highway.


The force of the impact cut the train in two, nearly derailing it and leaving "a big gaping hole" in the side of one carriage. "The number of confirmed fatalities has now risen to 10," said Leigh Wadeson, a Victoria state police spokesman.


At least 12 of the wounded were said to be badly hurt, among them the driver of the semi-trailer, who was taken to hospital in a serious condition. Some reports claimed that up to 13 people remained unaccounted for, although police refused to confirm this.


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Worries about global warming are growing: survey


Reuters
2007-06-05 13:04:00

Worries about global warming have increased around the world this year and many people want more government action to slow climate change, a survey showed on Tuesday.

Sixteen percent of more than 26,000 Internet users in 47 nations surveyed in March said climate change was a "major concern" against just 7 percent in a survey in October, according to the report by the Nielsen Company and Oxford University.

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Cuba: US Needs Shift to Democracy


Prensa Latina
2007-06-05 11:30:00

The Cuban newspaper "Granma" reported Monday that the United States needs a democratic transition and will fail in its attempt to build an international siege against the island.

In an extensive article, the daily responded to statements against the Cuban Revolution by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, during her recent visit to Spain.

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UN Study Confirms Fidel Castro Warnings


Prensa Latina
2007-06-05 11:23:00

A new study on children"s malnutrition in Central America, carried out by independent UN agencies, has confirmed Cuban President Fidel Castros warnings against the dangers threatening humankind.

Since March 28 and in his reflections on the US campaign to turn food into biofuels, the Cuban president warned that three billion people would die of hunger and thirst as a result of that policy.

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Big Brother

No new articles.


Axis of Evil
U.S. terror trials in doubt after Khadr

PAUL KORING
Globe and Mail
2007-06-05 13:12:00

A no-nonsense military judge lobbed a bombshell into the Bush administration's controversial terrorist tribunals, dismissing all charges against Canadian Omar Khadr Monday because prosecutors failed to label him an "unlawful" combatant.

"Charges are dismissed without prejudice," Colonel Peter Brownback said brusquely, putting an abrupt end to Mr. Khadr's trial - at least for the moment.

The stunning ruling won't free Mr. Khadr, 20, from his Caribbean island gulag, but it could sink the already discredited tribunals set up to try detainees like him who are accused of terrorism.

Comment: All charges are dismissed, but he's still going to remain in a tiny cage Guantanamo.




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Humiliation and Child Abuse at Israeli Checkpoints - Strip-Searching Children

ALISON WEIR
Counterpunch.org
2007-06-05 12:48:00

Israeli officials have been regularly strip-searching children for decades, some of them American citizens.

While organizations that focus on Israel-Palestine have long been aware that Israeli border officials regularly strip search men and women, If Americans Knew appears to be the first organization that has specifically investigated the policy of strip searching women. In the course of its investigation, If Americans Knew was astonished to learn that Israeli officials have also been strip searching young girls as young as seven and below.

Comment: Sick bastards...




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For the War Party, it's always 1940

Justin Raimondo
Antiwar.com
2007-06-04 12:17:00

[This is the text of a speech given at the Future of Freedom Foundation conference "Restoring the Republic: Foreign Policy and Civil Liberties" on June 1.]

To listen to the public spokesmen of the War Party, one would think that the 9/11 attacks tore a hole in the space-time continuum and landed us in an alternate universe, a world where World War II never ended - where Winston Churchill, Neville Chamberlain, and, most of all, Adolf Hitler, seem not to have died - where the atmosphere of crisis, of intellectual conformity, and of outright panic that suffuses the air in wartime has been lovingly recreated, like a remake of an old war movie.

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Guantanamo trials in doubt after Khadr

Paul Koring and Gloria Galloway
The Globe and Mail
2007-06-05 09:00:00

A no-nonsense military judge lobbed a bombshell into the Bush administration's controversial terrorist tribunals, dismissing all charges against Canadian Omar Khadr Monday because prosecutors failed to label him an "unlawful" combatant.

"Charges are dismissed without prejudice," Colonel Peter Brownback said brusquely, putting an abrupt end to Mr. Khadr's trial - at least for the moment.

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Allied Assassins? Explosives found in Albania's capital ahead of Bush visit

Julia Gorin
Front Page Magazine
2007-06-05 09:57:00

As George W. Bush and Condoleezza Rice court Albania and Albania-to-be (Kosovo) - discussing Albania's entry into NATO, Kosovo's independence and any number of other cooperative military, intelligence and economic agreements -
explosives were found Wednesday in two places in downtown Tirana, one close to the U.S. Embassy, days before the U.S. president is due to visit, police said.

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Flashback: US military pondered love not war


BBC
2005-01-15 09:29:00

The US military investigated building a "gay bomb", which would make enemy soldiers "sexually irresistible" to each other, government papers say.

Other weapons that never saw the light of day include one to make soldiers obvious by their bad breath.


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Middle East Madness
Iran president sees "countdown" to Israel's end


Reuters
2007-06-03 14:47:00

Iran's president said on Sunday the Lebanese and the Palestinians had pressed a "countdown button" to bring an end to Israel.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who triggered outrage in the West two years ago when he said Israel should be "wiped off the map", has often referred to the destruction of the Jewish state but says Iran is not a threat.

Comment: Ahmadinejad never said, "wiped off the map". What he actually said was the "occupation regime over Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time". Juan cole discusses this here:

So, I have a suggestion for my readers. Every time you see a newspaper article that alleges that Ahmadinejad said that Israel should be wiped off the face of the map, please write the editor. Say that this idiom does not exist in Persian, and that what Ahmadinejad actually said was, "This occupation regime over Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time." And you can cite me.


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Columnist-Author Alterman released after being arrested in Spin Room


CNN
2007-06-03 14:18:00

Columnist and author Eric Alterman has been released after being arrested Sunday night inside the debate spin room. He was charged with criminal trespass after police say he refused repeated orders to leave.

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Turkish army says troops harassed in northern Iraq


Reuters
2007-06-05 12:40:00

Turkey's military said its troops had been verbally harassed by local armed forces in northern Iraq and warned that any repeat incident would draw a tough response.

The army chief of general staff said in a statement late on Friday that vehicles carrying Turkish troops in civilian dress had been stopped by armed local forces, who verbally abused the soldiers.




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Zionist regime should not repeat last year crimes again, Ahmadinejad


IRNA
2007-06-05 12:15:00

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday that the Zionist regime should not repeat the unmanly crimes it committed in Lebanon last year.

Ahmadinejad made the remarks in a news conference with a number of foreign reporters on his recent address to the regime, saying, "In my statement I gave a warning to the Zionist regime not to repeat the crimes it perpetrated in Lebanon last year."

Israeli regime carried heavy air raids on Lebanese civilian areas last July-August killing over 1,000 innocent civilians mainly women and children.

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Was Mossad Behind 1976 Air France Hijacking?

Dan Parkinson
BBC News
2007-06-05 12:11:00

It has been seen as a daring raid by crack Israeli troops to rescue dozens of their countrymen held at the mercy of hijackers.

But newly released documents contain a claim that the 1976 rescue of hostages, kidnapped on an Air France flight and held in Entebbe in Uganda, was not all it seemed.

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Amnesty: Israel killed more than 650 Palestinians in 2006

Kristoffer Larsson
IMEMC
2007-06-05 12:08:00

In May the human rights group Amnesty International released its 2007 report on "Israel and the Occupied Territories," summarising 2006. During the year Israel killed more than 650 Palestinians, which is "a threefold increase in killings of Palestinians by Israeli forces." 120 of the murdered Palestinians were children. The high number, Amnesty writes, was due to the fact that "Israeli forces carried out frequent air and artillery bombardments against the Gaza Strip, often into densely populated refugee camps and residential areas."



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The Loan Gunmen
Got Money? The price of milk is rising, and expected to climb higher

Beth Fitzgerald
The Star-Ledger
2007-06-05 12:28:00

Merri Fogel went to the supermarket last week with a simple strategy for coping with rising milk prices.

"I only buy milk that's on sale. That's how I deal with higher prices," Fogel said as she packed grocery bags into her car at the ShopRite in Springfield. The store happened to be running a sale on skim milk, and so it was the skim milk that landed in Fogel's cart.

Retail milk prices have crept higher in recent months, echoing dramatic spikes on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, where millions of dollars in milk, cheese, butter and other dairy commodities are sold each day and eventually find their way into chocolate bars and boxes of macaroni and cheese. The price of a 40-pound block of cheddar hit $185.50 on the exchange Thursday -- up 53 percent from $121 a year earlier.

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Is Big Business Buying Out the Environmental Movement?

Phil Mattera
AlterNet
2007-06-05 09:05:00

With Big Business going green, is it a sign that environmental campaigns have prevailed and are setting the corporate agenda? Or have enviros been duped into endorsing what may be little more than a new wave of corporate greenwashing?

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Bush's 'Magic' Economic Formula: The Rich Get Richer; Regular People Lose Ground

Larry Beinhart
Alternet
2007-06-05 03:43:00

The economy keeps growing, as does the enormous largesse of the wealthy, while the average person makes less than they did when Bush took Office. This is Bush's magic economic formula.


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Pfizer sued for $8 billion over deadly drug test

AFP
Sydney Morning Herald
2007-06-05 00:04:00

Nigeria has filed a lawsuit for $US7 billion ($A8.4 billion) in damages from Pfizer over a drug test in which about 200 children were either killed or deformed, court officials in Abuja said today.

The federal government suit says the children suffered various degrees of adverse effects ranging from deafness to muteness, paralysis, brain damage, loss of sight, slurred speech, while 11 died.

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The Living Planet
Jungle For Sale: Going... Going...


Sky News
2007-06-05 15:09:00

A charity is appealing for people to buy up small patches of rainforest to help prevent it disappearing forever and combat climate change.


Every year, the destruction of tropical land releases more climate-warming carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than the entire USA.


The trees are felled for logging and farming.


Cool Earth - launched today - leases and maintains endangered land, giving local people access.


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Bali suffers climate change effects


Malaysian Sun
2007-06-05 12:41:00

Bali's tourist pulling-power may be a thing of the past.

In the West Bali National Park, the once common sight of vibrantly-colored clown fish swimming among healthy pink anemones is becoming rare. And larger fish are increasingly uncommon.

Rising sea temperatures are aiding the bleaching process on coral reefs.

Experts say climate change is hitting Bali's coral reefs hard, turning once vibrant diving locations into bleached shadows of their former glory.

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Boy Hooks Piranha-Like Fish From Ohio River


WLWT.com
2007-06-04 12:39:00

Kyle Owens has a fish tale straight from the waters of the Ohio River.

The 10-year-old Chilo boy went fishing for catfish this past weekend but caught something he was not expecting.

©WLWT.com.


"I thought it was like a 10-pound catfish, reeling it in," said Owens. "I thought, 'It's a big blue gill,' and I was about to stick my thumb into its mouth and then I saw its teeth."


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Cyclone Gonu heads for Oman


AFP
2007-06-05 11:02:00

Cyclone Gonu packing winds of up to 260km an hour advanced on Tuesday towards the oil-producing Gulf state of Oman where it was expected to make landfall within 24 hours.

The sultanate's weather service said the cyclone formed in the Indian Ocean and reached the Gulf of Oman on Monday, some 280km off the east coast of Oman.

©Weather Underground


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Update! 180,000 displaced after strong quake hits SW China city


Xinhua
2007-06-05 02:35:00

About 180,000 people have been displaced and 90,000 houses have collapsed following the earthquake in Yunnan Province, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

At least three people, including a four-year-old boy, were killed and 313 injured in the quake which hit the tea-producing Pu'er City and its surrounding area early on Sunday morning, when most people were in bed. Twenty-eight seriously injured people arestill receiving treatment in hospital.

Comment: Though it doesn't get much attention in Western media, it still has affected many people.

Imagine for instance if an earthquake in the US displaced 180000 and collapsed 90000 houses. It would be covering the news for weeks round the clock.


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Magnitude 5.3 quake jolts Philippine capital, no damage or injuries reported


AP
2007-06-04 23:57:00

An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.3 shook the Philippine capital's seaside tourist district and outlying rural regions late Sunday, but was not strong enough to cause any injuries or damage, officials said.

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Health & Wellness
Are chemicals behind drop in boys' birth rate?

WILLIAM LOWTHER
Daily Mail
2007-06-05 16:20:00

'Gender-bending' chemicals could be to blame for a worrying drop in the proportion of boys born in the U.S. over the past 30 years, scientists have claimed.

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Autism vaccine claims to get their day in court


Associated Press
2007-06-05 14:36:00

Science has spoken when it comes to the theory that some childhood vaccines can cause autism. They don't, the Institute of Medicine concluded three years ago.


Soon, it will be the courts turn to speak.


More than 4,800 claims have been filed against the federal government during the past six years alleging that a child contracted autism as a result of a vaccine. The first test case from among those claims will be the subject of a hearing that was to begin Monday in a little-known "People's Court" - the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. A special master appointed by the court will hear the case.


For the parents filing a claim, there is the potential for vindication, and for financial redress.


The test case addresses the theory that the cause of autism is the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine in combination with other vaccines containing the preservative thimerosal. That preservative, which contains a form of mercury, is no longer in routine childhood vaccines. However, it is used in influenza vaccines.


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Drugmaker to pay if cancer treatment fails

Nicholas Timmins
Financial Times
2007-06-03 14:11:00

A British-based drugmaker has made a groundbreaking offer to the National Health Service to cover the cost of a £25,000 cancer drug if a patient using it failed to show adequate progress.

The NHS would only pay for the new drug, Velcade, when patients responded well to it, under a joint proposal from Janssen-Cilag the drugs maker, and the National Institute for Clinical Excellence, the body that recommends which treatments the NHS should adopt.

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Polish man wakes from coma after 19 years


Xinhuanet
2007-06-04 11:21:00

Jan Grzebski, a 65-year-old Polish railwayman who fell into a coma following an accident regained consciousness 19 years later, Polish media reported on Saturday.

In 1988, Grzebski fell into a coma after sustaining head injuries as he was attaching two train carriages. Doctors also found cancer in his brain and said he would not live. Grzebski's wife Gertruda Grzebska took him home.

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Docs: Many Men Have 'Small-Penis Syndrome'

Daniel DeNoon
WebMD
2007-06-05 03:37:00

Eighty-five percent of women are pleased with their partner's penis proportions - yet many normal men suffer "small-penis syndrome," urologists report.

Small-penis syndrome is the anxiety of thinking one's penis is too small - even though it isn't. It's a totally different condition from having a truly tiny tinkler, a condition known by the cold, clinical name of micropenis.

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Behind the Label: Diet Coke

Pat Thomas
The Ecologist
2007-06-01 23:12:00

Diet Coke was first introduced in the US in July 1982 and today it is the fourth most commonly consumed carbonated beverage in the world.

Apart from being the beverage of choice for sugar-phobic individuals the world over, Coca-Cola is one of the longest standing 'corporate partners' (since 1974) of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). In 1998 the company signed an unprecedented eight-year agreement to sponsor FIFA events - not just the prestigious World Cup, but also the Women's World Cup, the Confederation Cup, various youth championships and the upcoming World Cup Trophy Trip, a roadshow that will take the FIFA World Cup Trophy on tour to cities throughout the world.

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Science & Technology
Drought uncovers artifacts in Fla. lake

Matt Sedensky
Associated Press
2007-06-05 14:06:00

A drought that has bared parts of the bed of Florida's largest lake has exposed human bone fragments, pottery and even boats - and archaeologists are trying to evaluate the artifacts before water levels rise again.


Archaeologists said there have been no large-scale digs in Lake Okeechobee; most of the finds have been easily spotted along the surface, some by passers-by who called in what they found.


Palm Beach County Archaeologist Chris Davenport said scores of bone fragments ranging from only a few inches to 8 inches long have been spotted in Lake Okeechobee, the second-largest freshwater lake in the continental U.S., behind Lake Michigan. The lake is at its lowest level since record keeping began in 1932, at about 8.96 feet deep on Monday. That's about 4 to 5 feet below normal, exposing many areas for the first time in years.


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Creating History: Israel Museum displays rare manuscript

Ben Hubbard
Associated Press
2007-06-05 13:58:00

A rare Old Testament manuscript some 1,300 years old is finally on display for the first time, after making its way from a secret room in a Cairo synagogue to the hands of an American collector.


The manuscript, containing the "Song of the Sea" section of the Old Testament's Book of Exodus and dating to around the 7th century A.D., comes from what scholars call the "silent era" - a span of 600 years between the third and eighth centuries from which almost no Hebrew manuscripts survive.


It is now on public display for the first time, at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.


"It comes from a period of almost darkness in terms of Hebrew manuscripts," said Stephen Pfann, a textual scholar at the University of the Holy Land in Jerusalem. Scholars have long noted the lack of original biblical manuscripts written between the time of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the latest of which come from the third century, to texts written in the ninth and 10th centuries, Pfann said.


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Archaeologists unearth 'oldest' human decorations - South Africa


Adfero Ltd
2007-06-05 13:20:00

A collection of tiny perforated shell beads dates back 75,000 years and appears to be the oldest human ornament ever found.

Archaeologists claim to have discovered the world's oldest beads, dating back around 75,000 years.

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Brown dwarf star delights astronomers

Pia Harold
BBC News
2007-06-04 13:14:00

Astrophysicists have found a star-like object with a surface temperature just one tenth that of the Sun.

The cold object is known as a brown dwarf: a "failed" star that never achieved the mass required to begin nuclear fusion reactions in its core.

This one - called J0034-00 - is thought to have a surface temperature of just 600-700 Kelvin (up to 430C/800F).

It is the coldest solitary brown dwarf ever seen, according to the British team that discovered it.

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Swedish satellite Odin helps us understand our climate and our environment


Swedish Space Corporation
2007-06-05 13:10:00

At the present international space symposium in Visby, Sweden, one of the topics is the Swedish satellite Odin, which is now on its seventh year of operations. Quite recently, scientists have discovered that Odin's measurements can be used also to study the presence of clouds and aerosols in the stratosphere. Clouds and aerosols may have a cooling effect on our planet, as against the warming effect of carbon dioxide.

Today, scientists do not have sufficient knowledge about the possible cooling effect of clouds. Measurements made in space could determine how much of the sunlight is reflected back into space by clouds. Odin has measured, and is still measuring, the amount of clouds, both visible and invisible to the human eye, and Odin data have indicated significant divergence from existing forecast models. This kind of information could help us improve our knowledge about the processes of global warming. We need more knowledge about our climate, and we need it soon, in order to improve exisiting models in this field.

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82,000 year old jewellery found in Morocco

Fran Bardsley
Oxford Mail
2007-06-04 12:56:00

Archaeologists from Oxford have discovered what are thought to be the oldest examples of human decorations in the world.

The international team of archaeologists, led by Oxford University's Institute of Archaeology, have found shell beads believed to be 82,000 years old from a limestone cave in Morocco.

©Unk
At work in the limestone caves in Morocco


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Our Haunted Planet
Dead or Alive? Million pound reward offered for Loch Ness monster


Reuters
2007-06-05 15:01:00

A British bookmaker offered a one million pound ($2 million) reward on Monday to anyone who can prove that Scotland's legendary Loch Ness monster does actually exist.


Bookmakers William Hill are supplying up to 50,000 instant cameras to fans attending a Loch Ness pop festival next weekend.


"We are hoping the one million pound bounty will help to solve one of the great enigmas of modern times," William Hill spokesman Rupert Adams said.


The winner will have to offer proof that satisfies experts at London's Natural History Museum.


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Don't Panic! Lighten Up!
Paris Hilton in Prison


Cagle
2007-06-05 13:55:00

Three cartoons in honor of Paris Hilton - that fabulously talented social butterfly who is overly abused by a legal system run amok... we're rootin' for ya!




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Stomach Upset? Try Eating Live Frogs and Rats


Reuters
2007-06-05 13:49:00

A man in southeast China says 40 years of swallowing tree frogs and rats live has helped him avoid intestinal complaints and made him strong.

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The Evils of Religion


The Sleaze
2007-06-05 13:05:00



"This cult has to be the most evil organisation I've ever encountered - children are exposed to graphic images of a near-naked man being tortured, and told that eating his flesh and drinking his blood are some kind of passport to paradise," says a shocked Chris Rooty, an undercover reporter who spent six months infiltrating a sinister religious movement which has been insinuating itself into every aspect of British life, including schools, social clubs and even the armed forces, in its relentless quest for converts. "Worse still, they encourage these same children to confess their 'sins' - which can include anything from supposedly impure thoughts to sexual experimentation - to the cult's priests, invariably older men, for their vicarious pleasure!" Indeed, Rooty strongly suspects that the priests derive some form of perverted sexual gratification from these confessions, fuelling their own warped fantasies of underage sex. "I have no doubt that they sit in those confessionals whacking off to those kids giving up their secrets," he says, although he admits that doesn't have any actual proof that this has ever occurred.

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'French Spiderman' expelled from China


AFP
2007-06-05 02:46:00

An intrepid climber dubbed the "French Spiderman" was expelled from China Tuesday after five days in prison for illegally climbing the country's tallest building, a French official said.

Alain Robert was arrested Thursday after having scaled and descended the 430-metre (1,410 feet) Jin Mao Tower in Shanghai, dressed in his trademark Spiderman costume and without any ropes or safety equipment.

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