Molecules behave like waves and particles. How can they be both?

"It took the modern theory of quantum mechanics to explain the results
by suggesting that particles exist in a state of uncertainty, rather
than at a specific time and place, until we observe them, forcing them
to choose. Thus, the particles traveling through the plate don't have to
select slit A or slit B; in effect, they travel through both."

"We're still in the strange situation that if you believe that quantum
physics is everything, then all of us are somehow quantum-connected,
which is hard to believe. But it's also hard to believe that quantum
physics ends at some point. That's why groups like us are trying to
increase the complexity [of our molecules] to see if there is a
threshold at some point."

The results of the research, led by Thomas Juffmann, also of the
University of Vienna, were published online March 25 in the journal
Nature Nanotechnology.

"Of course anyone reasonable would assume the complexities of what we're
made up of has all come about by chance, right? "Particles exist in a
state of uncertainty, rather than a specific time and place, until "we"
observe them." Why is this? What makes "us" the observer, so special?
What we discover in physics is far more complex than what people could
have ever imagined two hundred years ago. An evolutionist believes if we
could start over again humanity could not have come about, for our
existence is a chance that should not have been. If they knew anything
about quantum physics they would realize something even more unlikely;
the building blocks of life should not exist, and thus the existence of
the reality we know today should not be possible. Yet here we are... In
my personal opinion humanity is the one thing that does not make sense,
for we have nothing to offer the rest of existence."

Consul Nicholas Moore

Please read entire article at the following link-

http://news.yahoo.com/largest-molecules-yet-behave-waves-quantum-double-slit-184107270.html

Prominent Pakistani Acid Victim Commits Suicide

"Her life was a parched stretch of hard rock on which nothing bloomed,"
Durrani wrote in a column in The News after Younus' suicide.

More than 8,500 acid attacks, forced marriages and other forms of
violence against women were reported in Pakistan in 2011, according to
The Aurat Foundation, a women's rights organization. Because the group
relied mostly on media reports, the figure is likely an undercount.

"The saddest part is that she realized that the system in Pakistan was
never going to provide her with relief or remedy," Nayyar Shabana
Kiyani, an activist at The Aurat Foundation, said of Younus. "She was
totally disappointed that there was no justice available to her."

Durrani had to battle with both Younus' ex-husband and the government to
send her to Italy, where the Italian government paid for her treatment
and provided her money to live on and send her child to school.
Pakistani officials argued that sending Younus to Italy would give the
country a bad name, Durrani said.

Younus was happy when Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy won an Oscar for her
documentary about acid attack victims in February, but was worried about
being forgotten since she wasn't profiled in the film, said Durrani.

Durrani said Younus' case should be a reminder that the Pakistani
government needs to do much more to prevent acid attacks and other forms
of violence against women, and also help the victims.

"I think this whole country should be extremely embarrassed that a
foreign country took responsibility for a Pakistani citizen for 13 years
because we could give her nothing, not justice, not security," said
Durrani.

Please read entire article here-
http://news.yahoo.com/prominent-pakistani-acid-victim-commits-suicide-063149605.html

"I hope you share this news about Pakistan; the allies to the United
States, our friends who were harboring Osama Bin Laden. This government
is corrupt and if our founding fathers knew how we associated with the
corrupt governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan, and how much money we
gave them while our nation suffered, they would mourn for the fall of
their beloved nation, our nation."

Consul Nicholas Moore

How You Know You're Living In A Corrupt Land

Puerto Rico's police chief quit late Wednesday, less than a year after
being appointed to lead a department that federal agents have accused of
corruption, illegal killings and civil rights violations.

The resignation of Emilio Diaz Colon, a retired National Guard general,
came amid criticism that he did not do enough to combat violence that
resulted in more than 1,100 homicides last year.

Please read whole article here;
http://news.yahoo.com/puerto-ricos-police-chief-quits-amid-crime-spike-025430259.html

"What amazes me is how people who grow up in such a corrupt place and
witness the brutality every day have so much pride in who they are and
from where they have come."

Consul Nicholas Moore

Afghan Women Fleeing Abuse, Rape, or Attempted Murder Against Them Go To

KABUL (Reuters) - For Afghan women, the act of fleeing domestic abuse,
forced prostitution or even being stabbed repeatedly with a screwdriver
by an abusive husband, may land them in jail while their abusers walk
free, Human Rights Watch said.

Running away is considered a "moral crime" for women in Afghanistan
while some rape victims are also imprisoned, because sex outside
marriage - even when the woman is forced - is considered adultery,
another "moral crime".

"From the first time I came to this world my destiny was destroyed,"
17-year-old Amina, who has spent months in jail after being forced into
prostitution, told researchers from Human Rights Watch in a report
published on Wednesday.

Despite progress in women's rights and freedom since the fall of the
Taliban a decade ago, women throughout the country are at risk of
abduction, rape, forced marriage and being traded as commodities.

It can be hard for women to escape violence at home because of huge
social pressure and legal risks to stay in marriages.

"The treatment of women and girls accused of 'moral crimes' is a black
eye on the face of the post-Taliban Afghan government and its
international backers, all of whom promised that respect for women's
rights would distinguish the new government from the Taliban," the New
York-based group said.

"This situation has been further undermined by President (Hamid)
Karzai's frequently changing position on women's rights. Unwilling or
unable to take a consistent line against conservative forces within the
country, he has often made compromises that have negatively impacted
women's rights."

The influential rights organization said that there were about 400 women
and girls being held in Afghanistan for "moral crimes", and they rarely
found support from authorities in a "dysfunctional criminal justice
system".

The plight of a woman called Nilofar illustrates the problem. She was
stabbed repeatedly with a screwdriver in the head, chest, and arms by
her husband who accused her of adultery for inviting a man into the
house, the rights group said.

But afterwards, she was arrested, he was not.

"The way he beat her wasn't bad enough to keep him in jail. She wasn't
near death, so he didn't need to be in prison," the prosecutor of the
case told Human Rights Watch.
"HE WILL KILL ME"

The dire treatment of women was the main reason Western countries gave
for refusing to recognize the Taliban government as legitimate when it
was in power.

As Afghan and Western leaders seek a negotiated end to more than 10
years of war, the future for women is uncertain.

The United States and NATO - who are fighting an unpopular war as they
prepare to pull out most combat troops by the end of 2014 - have
stressed that any settlement must ensure the constitution, which says
the two sexes are equal, is upheld.

A law, passed in August 2009, supports equality for women, including
criminalizing child and forced marriage, selling and buying women for
marriage or for settling disputes, as well as forced self-immolation,
among other acts.

But women, especially in rural areas, lack shelters to flee abuse while
only one percent of police are female, according to the report based on
interviews from October to November with 58 women and girls as well as
prosecutors, judges, government officials and civil society.

The ordeal for women does not stop with jail though.

Once leaving prison, women and girls face strong social stigma in the
conservative country and may be killed in so-called "honor killings".

"I just want a divorce. I can't go back to my father because he will
kill me. All my family has left me behind," 20-year-old Aisha, who was
sentenced to three years for fleeing an abusive husband she was forced
to marry, told researchers.

(Reporting by Jack Kimball; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani and Robert
Birsel)

http://news.yahoo.com/jail-may-await-afghan-women-fleeing-abuse-rape-053842609.html


"Our NATO forces are doing nothing to help women's rights in Afghanistan
and since they're just looking the other way when they can do more to
help, then they are just as guilty as the perpetrators.
Consul Nicholas Moore

http://ezinearticles.com/?Alliances-With-Other-Nations-No-Longer-a-Gray-Area&id=6735484

Hard Times Means Fewer Baby Boys

Pregnant women are more likely to hear "It's a girl!" when giving birth
during famine conditions than when times are flush, according to a new
study of the 1959-1961 Great Leap Forward famine in China.

The study reveals a dip in the ratio of boys born per girl during the
famine years in the country, Shige Song, a demographer and sociologist
at Queens College of the City University of New York, reports today
(March 27) in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. It's not
entirely clear what causes this dip, but evolutionary theory suggests
that baby boys may be a genetic gamble for parents, and thus not the
best bet when times are lean.

"Investment on male children is a high-risk, high-return game, so you
want to do it only if you are in very good situation," Song told
LiveScience.

Boys and girls

This theory has been around since the 1970s. Males can father lots of
offspring, Song explained, so a successful male child has a good chance
of passing on genes. But when males fail to mate, they tend to do so
spectacularly - a non-dominant lion in a pride ruled by alpha male is
pretty unlikely to get a chance to pass on his genes even once, Song
said.

"In the evolutionary sense, the parental investment on these male lions
would be wasted," he said...

Read more here
http://news.yahoo.com/hard-times-mean-fewer-baby-boys-study-suggests-004
607178.html

Humanity Is By A Nearly Impossible Chance, Thus Intelligent Aliens Must

History's arbitrariness

Nevertheless, as Conway Morris noted, the "diversity of life on Earth is enormous." That humankind looks the way it does, or that an intelligent breed of spiders did not instead evolve to build cities and smartphones, is largely due to chance, other researchers maintain.

The late Stephen Jay Gould, a famous Harvard paleontologist, doubted
that if the tape of life on Earth were replayed a million times,
anything like our species would evolve again. "That we have four
appendages rather than six or three or five - that's an accident of
evolution," agreed Shostak.

Indeed, if you judge success by population size, the most successful
body plan on Earth involves an exoskeleton, rather than our
endoskeletons, and six appendages. The possessors of that robust form:
insects. "They did just fine with six," Shostak said. "There's nothing
magic about four."

Although not well-regarded for their wits as individuals, the remarkable
"hive minds" of bees and ants could point to another manner in which
alien intelligence arises - across many individuals acting collectively,
rather than as discrete beings.

"...aliens might indeed look like us, if to an extent we are them in
terms of basic cellular machinery."



"A verse in more than one religious text speaks of man being made in the
image of God... Is this less likely than us coming about by pure chance?
As the Harvard Paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould said, he "doubted human
life could evolve again by chance if the tape of life on Earth were
replayed a million times." It's worth stopping to think about what this
means. And Conway Morris noted, the "diversity of life on Earth is
enormous. That humankind looks the way it does, or that an intelligent
breed of spiders did not instead evolve to build cities and smartphones,
is largely due to "chance." There is that word again; "chance." Humanity
does exist, so perhaps the only reason we're here is because someone
very much like us designed us this way. A reasonable human should
believe there is a scientific explanation for everything, but when it
comes to intelligent life like humanity, our existence hardly makes
sense in the realm of science; humanity should be nearly impossible, yet
here we are."

Consul Nicholas Moore

Humanity, past tense

"Overall, it seems likely that intelligent creatures much like us are
out there, somewhere. Recent estimates put the planetary census (not
including moons) in the Milky Way alone at around 160 billion. "We think
there are billions of planets just in our galaxy with Earthlike
temperatures," Shostak said. Even if life is rare and intelligent life
still rarer, statistics suggest that other humanoids exist among the
billions of galaxies.

That being said, our thought experiments about alien life might come up
embarrassingly short, Shostak said. Humankind developed a few hundred
thousand years ago, but sentient alien races might have had billions of
years more to evolve, and in that time, and could have evolved an even
better body plan.

"It may be beyond our ability to say very much meaningful about all
these things," Shostak said. "It's sort of like asking trilobites, 'What
do you think will run the planet in 500 million years?'"

http://news.yahoo.com/science-fiction-fact-et-look-us-154109100.html

Long Hours but At What Cost?

Research shows that consistently working more than 40 hours a week is
simply unproductive.

For many in the entrepreneurship game, long hours are a badge of honor. Starting a business is tough, so all those late nights show how determined, hard working and serious about making your business work you are, right?

Wrong. According to a handful of studies, consistently clocking over 40 hours a week just makes you unproductive (and very, very tired).

That's bad news for most workers, who typically put in at least 55 hours a week, recently wrote Sara Robinson at Salon. Robinson's lengthy, but fascinating, article traces the origins of the idea of the 40-hour week and it's downfall and is well worth a read in full. But the essential nugget of wisdom from her article is that working long hours for long periods is not only useless – it's actually harmful. She wrote:

The most essential thing to know about the 40-hour work-week is that, while it was the unions that pushed it, business leaders ultimately went along with it because their own data convinced them this was a solid, hard-nosed business decision….

Evan Robinson, a software engineer with a long interest in programmer productivity (full disclosure: our shared last name is not a coincidence) summarized this history in a white paper he wrote for the International Game Developers’ Association in 2005. The original paper contains a wealth of links to studies conducted by businesses, universities, industry associations and the military that supported early-20th-century leaders as they embraced the short week. 'Throughout the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s, these studies were apparently conducted by the hundreds,' writes Robinson; 'and by the 1960s, the benefits of the 40-hour week were accepted almost beyond question in corporate America. In 1962, the Chamber of Commerce even published a pamphlet extolling the productivity gains of reduced hours.'

What these studies showed, over and over, was that industrial workers have eight good, reliable hours a day in them. On average, you get no more widgets out of a 10-hour day than you do out of an eight-hour day.

Robinson does acknowledge that working overtime isn't always a bad idea. "Research by the Business Roundtable in the 1980s found that you could get short-term gains by going to 60- or 70-hour weeks very briefly — for example, pushing extra hard for a few weeks to meet a critical production deadline," she wrote. But Robinson stressed that "increasing a team’s hours in the office by 50 percent (from 40 to 60 hours) does not result in 50 percent more output...In fact, the numbers may typically be something closer to 25-30 percent more work in 50 percent more time."

The clear takeaway here is to stop staying at the office so late, but getting yourself to actually go home on time may be more difficult psychologically than you imagine.

As author Laura Vanderkam has pointed out, for many of us, there's actually a pretty strong correlation between how busy we are and how important we feel. "We live in a competitive society, and so by lamenting our overwork and sleep deprivation — even if that requires workweek inflation and claiming our worst nights are typical — we show that we are dedicated to our jobs and our families," she wrote recently in the Wall Street Journal.

Long hours, in other, words are often more about proving something to ourselves than actually getting stuff done.


http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/why-working-more-40-hours-120015838.html

Something Does Not Add Up

"One shooter..." We're being told, but the eye witnesses, some survivors
of the attack say there were more than one...

"Something is not adding up... How did he get off of the base twice with
no one noticing? There are armed guards in towers, along the outer
walls, and along the streets leading up to the gate, security gates are
closed/sealed shut, and there are lights shining on you. A deployed
soldier, or one who has been to Afghanistan understands the way security
is around the walls and at the gates of a military compound, and you
can't just leave the base whenever you feel like it. I doubt this
soldier tunneled his way out. There is a metal barrier at the gates
lifted to let you leave. Frankly it seems implausible that this soldier
did this alone... An investigation should be in the works..."

Consul Nicholas Moore

...Karilyn Bales has spoken to her husband by telephone twice since he
was detained. The soldier called his wife first from overseas shortly
after massacre, and then last week from Fort Leavenworth where the two
talked about family matters and "reaffirmed their love for each other,"
said her attorney, Lance Rosen.

Karilyn Bales said that during those phone calls she didn't ask her
husband about the accusations he faces, and whether he was involved.

"We couldn't discuss those details. He was ... seemed a bit confused, as
to where he was and why he was there."

She said she doesn't think she'll have to ask him what happened that
night in Afghanistan because "I think he'll tell me what happened, from
his point of view."

She said she can't believe he was involved in the killings...

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/envoy/wife-robert-bales-charges-unbelievable-not-130226552.html

NYPD says Iran has conducted surveillance in New York City

"People may act as if there was no warnings before the fact, like in the
case of 911, but the truth is there is always signs of a coming
disaster. People usually see what they want to see and avoid that which
makes them uncomfortable."


Iranians with ties to the Tehran government have been caught videotaping
and snapping photos of New York City landmarks several times over the
past decade, a top city police official testified Wednesday, as he
warned the city could be the "ideal target" for Iran if tensions
escalate.

Mitchell Silber, the NYPD's director of intelligence analysis, told
Congress that Iranians may be using "diplomatic cover" to conduct
"hostile reconnaissance" on America's biggest city.

Silber cycled a string of incidents where law enforcement questioned
Iranians, who turned out to be working with the Iranian mission to the
United Nations or otherwise tied to the government.


"Iran and/or Hezbollah remain deeply committed to striking against
Israeli and Western targets and they are willing to deploy a variety of
methods in order to do so," he said, citing recent attacks "plausibly
linked to Iran" in Georgia, India and Thailand.

"Given the recent alleged Iranian directed plot against a foreign
diplomat here in Washington, Iran's increasingly bellicose rhetoric and
its recent as well as long history of sponsoring terrorist attacks
abroad, the NYPD must remain vigilant in attempting to detect and
disrupt any attack by Iran or its proxies," Silber told the House
Homeland Security Committee...


Please read the whole article here-

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/03/21/nypd-says-iran-has-conducted-surveillance-in-new-york-city/

America's Most Corrupt States

Earlier this week, the Center for Public Integrity released a report
detailing the risk of corruption and lack of accountability in all 50
states. The findings of the report should worry anyone who believes
state governments are transparent and free of corruption. Of course, no
state is without flaws. Unfortunately, nearly every state received a
grade that would give residents cause for concern.

The Center for Public Integrity's report examined issues concerning
accountability and ethics in each state government. States were graded
on 330 separate metrics, which were grouped into 14 major categories.
Overall grades are based on the average grades in the major categories,
which included lobbying disclosure, political financing, internal
auditing, ethics enforcement agencies and redistricting...


Please see the list of the top eight most corrupt states in America at
the link provided;

http://www.foxbusiness.com/investing/2012/03/22/americas-most-corrupt-states/

Hunger Games, Battle Royale, And The Running Man.

We've all heard reality is stranger than fiction but what's even stranger is when fiction becomes our reality.

Some Say Hunger Games Is A Rip Off of Battle Royale, But The King Had The Idea Before Either Of These Books.


The state forces kids into a death match where only one is left standing. Is this the premise of "Hunger Games"? The exact same concept is in Takami's 600-page novel "Battle Royale" published in 1999. There was a little seen Japanese film made of the book twelve years before the "Hunger Games".

This is another case of there being nothing new under the sun. Both of these novels and movies were predated by Stephen King's novella-turned-blockbuster "The Running Man," which was about a reality-television death match run by a totalitarian government in a dystopian future.

The always uncanny Stephen King predicted the future obsession with reality T.V, and we have yet to see just how far this craze will go. As bad as the reality television concepts can be we have yet to see death matches, or children killing each other as entertainment on television. Something worth noting though, the inventor of the Atom Bomb, Leó Szilárd was inspired by the book "War of The Worlds", after reading about an ultimate weapon that could destroy a nation. Fiction can become reality as quickly as the tide changes.

                                                                                                                                 ~N. Moore~                               

Excerpt:

"A description of Koushun Takami's book, published in 1999, makes the similarities with Hunger Games clear. In a near-future dystopia, a despotic government selects teenagers by lottery to participate in the titular competition, in which the youths are thrown into the wilderness with a variety of weapons in order to participate in a televised death match. There are also commercial similarities: Battle Royale, too, made a successful jump to the big screen in a 2000 cult-classic release directed by Kinji Fukasaku. (Quentin Tarantino called it his "favorite movie of the last 20 years.")

Please read article at the following site;

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2012/0323/A-Battle-Royale-online-over-origin-of-The-Hunger-Games

Why The film Hugo Is So Special.

"When producers make all of the decisions in cinema than money rules and the magic is lost. More independent film makers should be supported. The innovators who care about feeding the imagination should be encouraged, the art and the magic should be sought after more than the money... or originality will be lost, and everything will eventually be counterfeit."
Consul Nicholas Moore

"What makes the movie so magical is the big truths in the story. The film explicates in the very feeling you have when watching, how we are losing the magic in cinema. Children have less mystery in life these days, and CGI is making everything seem explainable and counterfeit."

Georges Méliès was a prolific innovator in the use of special effects, accidentally discovered the substitution stop trick in 1896, and was one of the first filmmakers to use multiple exposures, time-lapse photography, dissolves, and hand-painted color in his work. Because of his ability to seemingly manipulate and transform reality through cinematography, Méliès is sometimes referred to as the first "Cinemagician". Two of his most well-known films are A Trip to the Moon (1902) and The Impossible Voyage (1904). Both stories involve strange, surreal voyages, somewhat in the style of Jules Verne, and are considered among the most important early science fiction films, though their approach is closer to fantasy. Méliès was also an early pioneer of horror cinema, which can be traced back to his Le Manoir du diable (1896). (Wikipedia)

One particular scene from the movie Hugo expound upon the meaning in how and why we're losing the magic in cinema;

Georges (the famous film maker) appears and explains how he came to make movies, invented the special effects, and how he lost faith in films when World War I began, being forced to sell his films to get money, and opening the toy shop to survive. He also believes the automaton he created was lost in the museum fire and nothing remains of his life's work...

"At one time the artists, the film makers did what they did for the beauty of it, the magic they created. When money becomes the driving force something very special is lost... you can feel the loss, as if the spirit of cinema is not there."

Consul Nicholas Moore

The History

The overall backstory and primary features of Georges Méliès' life as depicted in the film are largely accurate: he did become interested in film after seeing a demonstration of the Lumière brothers' camera, he was a magician and toymaker, he experimented with automata, he did own a theatre (Theatre Robert-Houdin), he was forced into bankruptcy, his film stock was reportedly melted down for its cellulose, he became a toy salesman at the Montparnasse station, and he was eventually awarded the Légion d'honneur medal after a period of terrible neglect. Many of the early silent films shown in the movie are Méliès's actual works, such as Le voyage dans la lune (1902). However, the film does not mention Méliès' two children, his brother Gaston (who worked with Méliès during his film making career), or his first wife Eugènie, who was married to Méliès during the time he made films (Eugènie died in 1913). The film shows Méliès as having been married to Jeanne d'Alcy during their film making period, when in reality they did not marry until 1925. (Wikipedia)

The automaton was inspired by one made by the Swiss watchmaker Henri Maillardet, which Selznick had seen in the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia,[36] as well as the Jaquet-Droz automaton "the writer".

Emil Lager, Ben Addis, and Robert Gill make cameo appearances as Django Reinhardt, the father of Gypsy jazz guitar, Salvador Dalí, the Spanish surrealist painter, and James Joyce, the Irish writer, respectively. The names of all three characters appear towards the end of the film's cast credit list.

The book that Monsieur Labisse gives Hugo as a gift, Robin Hood le proscrit, was written by Alexandre Dumas in 1864 as a French translation of a 1838 work by Pierce Egan the Younger in England. The book is symbolic, as Hugo must avoid the "righteous" law enforcement (represented by Inspector Gustave) to live in the station and later to restore the automaton both to a functioning status and to its rightful owner.
The Jaquet-Droz automata, among all the numerous automata built by the Jaquet-Droz family, refer to three doll automata built between 1768 and 1774 by Pierre Jaquet-Droz, his son Henri-Louis and Jean-Frédéric Leschot: the musician, the draughtsman and the writer. The dolls are still functional, and can be seen at the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire of Neuchâtel, in Switzerland. They are considered to be among the remote ancestors of modern computers.

The automata were designed and built by Pierre Jaquet-Droz, Henri-Louis Jaquet-Droz and Jean-Frédéric Leschot as advertisement and entertainment toys designed to improve the sales of watches among the nobility of Europe in the 18th century. They were carried around, and lost at several points. The History and Archeology society of Neuchâtel eventually bought them in 1906, for 75,000 francs in gold, and gave them to the museum, where they have been ever since.
The writer is the most complex of the three automata. Using a system similar to the one used for the draughtsman for each letter, he is able to write any custom text up to 40 letters long (the text is rarely changed; one of the latest instances was in honour of president François Mitterrand when he toured the city). The text is coded on a wheel where characters are selected one by one. He uses a goose feather to write, which he inks from time to time, including a shake of the wrist to prevent ink from spilling. His eyes follow the text being written, and the head moves when he takes some ink. This sort of complexity is lacking today, as CGI takes away much of the mystery and inovation.

"When producers make all of the decisions in cinema then money rules and the magic is lost. More independent film makers should be supported. The innovators who care about feeding the imagination should be encouraged, the art and the magic should be sought after more than the money... or originality will be lost, and everything will eventually be counterfeit."

Consul Nicholas Moore

Afghanistan vs Obama

"...The only way to think about Afghanistan is to ask the question
directly and without prejudice: "is it in America's vital interests to
fight on in Afghanistan?" To me, the answer is an unequivocal "No."
Bashing the Taliban and al Qaeda was vital 10 years ago after 9/11. But
since then, the war against terrorists has become global, and
Afghanistan is but a small piece of that. As for the link between
Afghanistan and Pakistan, little or nothing that happens in Afghanistan
can materially affect the stability of that far, far larger, divided,
and nearly ungovernable nation. And no one has a good idea how to cope
with Pakistani nuclear weapons. Thus, there is no serious case that
Afghanistan is vital to U.S. security.

No matter the absence of vital interests; there is no chance of faster
U.S. withdrawals this year. It's far too risky politically. And besides,
Obama believes his strategy is reasonable."


Please read the whole article at the following link-

http://news.yahoo.com/afghanistan-vs-obama-084500617.html

Karzai slams U.S. over massacre

"A series of blunders by the United States, including the killings in
Kandahar province on Sunday and the inadvertent burning of copies of the
Koran at a NATO base last month, has further strained already tense
relations between the countries.

"This has been going on for too long. You have heard me before. It is by
all means the end of the rope here," Karzai told reporters at the
heavily fortified presidential palace.

"The army chief has just reported that the Afghan investigation team did
not receive the cooperation that they expected from the United States.
Therefore these are all questions that we'll be raising, and raising
very loudly, and raising very clearly," Karzai said.

Karzai appeared to back the belief of the villagers, and many other
Afghans including the country's parliament, that one gunman acting alone
could not have killed so many people, and in different locations some
distance apart.

"They believe it's not possible for one person to do that. In (one)
family, in four rooms people were killed, women and children were
killed, and they were all brought together in one room and then put on
fire. That one man cannot do," Karzai said.

With twin investigations still underway by both U.S. and Afghan
officials, any discovery of more than one soldier involved in the
massacre would be a disaster for NATO, with Western leaders needing to
win over Afghans ahead of a withdrawal by most foreign combat troops in
2014.

Civilian casualties caused by NATO forces hunting insurgents are a major
source of friction between the Afghan government and its Western
backers, and have damaged efforts to win the "hearts and minds" of
locals in the decade-old war.

"Our families are finished and our houses are destroyed," said a furious
Hajji Abdul Samad Aka, who lost 11 members of his family in the killings
in two villages of Panjwayi district.

On Thursday, Karzai called for NATO troops to leave Afghan villages and
confine themselves to major bases, underscoring fury over the massacre
and clouding U.S. exit plans.

He also demanded the handover of security to Afghan police and soldiers
by 2013, a year ahead of schedule.

Such a move could undercut U.S. President Barack Obama's strategy for
Afghanistan and hamper efforts to mentor Afghan police and help with
local governance.

In a further blow to NATO hopes of a negotiated end to the decade-old
war, the Afghan Taliban said they were suspending nascent peace talks
with the United States, following the massacre and ahead of the
traditional summer fighting months.
"The Taliban leadership were and may still be serious about talks, but
instead of discussing how to end the war, they will now be persuading
the rank and file to go out again this year and fight," Kate Clark of
the Afghanistan Analysts Network said.

"That another round of fighting and killing is now on the agenda is a
difficult prospect to face," she wrote in a blog."


http://news.yahoo.com/us-soldier-upset-comrades-injury-rampage-074315700.html

Technology and Intelligence, hand in hand? Dependence on technology isn't a very good thing...

The GPS was to blame for these tourists driving into the ocean... No,
seriously.

Three Japanese tourists in Australia, misled by their GPS device.
Fairfax Media/Getty Images
Three Japanese tourists in Australia found themselves in an embarrassing
situation after their GPS navigation system lured them down the wrong
path.

The three, who are students from Tokyo, set out to drive to North
Stradbroke Island on the Australian coast Thursday morning, and mapped
out their path on their GPS system.

The road looked clear, at low tide - but the map forgot to show the 9
miles of water and mud between the island and the mainland.

As the three drove their rented Hyundai Getz into Moreton Bay, they
found the GPS device guiding them from a gravel road into thick mud.
They tried to get back to solid ground, but as the tide rose they were
forced to abandon their car. Passengers on passing ferries watched in
amazement.

"It told us we could drive down there," Yuzu Noda, 21, told the local
Bayside Bulletin. "It kept saying it would navigate us to a road. We got
stuck . . . there's lots of mud."

Noda and her friends made it about 50 yards offshore before they
realized they were stranded. A tow truck driver eventually gave them a
lift back to the mainland. The students decided not to have the car
repaired because of the damage. The car was insured, though Noda will
still have to pay about $1,500 that was not covered.

The students will fly back home to Tokyo this weekend, but they said
they plan to try a trip to the island again sometime in the future.

"We want to come back to Australia again," Noda told the Times.

"Everyone is very nice, even today."


http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/03/gps-tracking-disaster-japanese-tourists-drive-straight-into-the-pacific/

Biggest Bankruptcy In American History

First there was Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Then, Jefferson County,
Alabama. Now, hold onto your hats folks -- we could be just days away
from seeing the biggest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history.

In California, the city of Stockton boasts a population of almost
300,000 ... and a fiscal emergency. The first number means that if
Stockton winds up filing for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection, as its
officials are threatening to do, it will be the most populous U.S.
municipality ever to declare bankruptcy. And the fiscal emergency? Such
problems are going to become increasingly common as city after city
follows the downward path that Harrisburg, Jefferson Co., and Stockton
have blazed.

A city in decline

Eighty miles to the east of San Francisco, in the 19th century Stockton
was a hub of the California gold rush. But by the end of the 20th
century, a gold rush of a different sort had arrived. Amidst a
nationwide housing boom, Stockton rode high on a wave of mortgage
refinancings, building fees, and property tax collections. As the city's
vice mayor explained, money was "pouring into the city coffers for
development fees and permits. Property taxes were going through the
roof. It was boom time."

Then the Great Recession hit...

If Stockton does declare bankruptcy, it may be the biggest in U.S.
history -- but it won't be the last.

By Rich Smith


Please read the whole article at the link provided-

http://news.yahoo.com/biggest-bankruptcy-american-history-211237504.html

A Good Man, A Family Man, A Crazed Killer?

Then, in the middle of the night last Sunday, shots rang out in a pair
of villages within walking distance of the base. Soon after, a
surveillance camera mounted to a blimp captured an image of a soldier
the Army identifies as Bales returning in the dark. A traditional Afghan
shawl was draped over the gun in his hands. As he reached the gates of
the base, the man in uniform lay the weapon down. He raised his arms in
surrender.

Browne said he did not know if his client had been suffering from
post-traumatic stress disorder, but said it could be an issue at trial
if experts believe it's relevant. Experts on PTSD said witnessing the
injury of a fellow soldier and the soldier's own previous injuries put
him at risk.

"We've known ever since the Vietnam war that the unfortunate phenomenon
of abusive violence often closely follows the injury or death of a buddy
in combat," said Dr. Roger Pitman, a Harvard Medical School psychiatrist
who heads the PTSD Research Laboratory at Massachusetts General
Hospital. "The injury or death of a buddy creates a kind of a blind
rage."

On Friday evening, Bales' neighbors said they did not know what to
think. They gazed toward the soldier's home, where overflowing boxes
were piled on the front porch and a U.S. flag leaned against the siding.

"I just can't believe Bob's the guy who did this," Wohlberg said. "A
good guy got put in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Associated Press writer Rachel La Corte reported from Lake Tapps, Wash.
and AP National Writer Adam Geller reported from New York. AP writers
Gene Johnson in Seattle, National Security Writer Robert Burns in
Washington, Phuong Le in Seattle, Haven Daley and Manuel Valdes in Lake
Tapps, Wash. Lisa Cornwell in Evendale, Ohio, Dana Fields in Kansas
City, Mo., and John Milburn in Lawrence, Kan. contributed to this story.

http://news.yahoo.com/soldier-accused-killings-family-man-074238121.html

"What Happened to Families in Our Nation?

"A few of us our blessed with unbroken homes, but the truth is still so apparent.

Not since Germany post World War 1 has there been a nation with such a lack of fathers.
After the first Great World War Germany was the nation which suffered
the most losses and this nation was mostly fatherless after the cause.

Children grew up needing a father figure and this is how someone like
Hitler became persuasive and was able to gain power; he became that
father figure his nation needed, the one many in Germany believed could
unite them.

 How could this happen?

We shouldn't judge the hearts of that generation; for the scary truth is that today America is
 lacking more fathers than Germany did before World War 2... Families are broken and
 since only one percent in our nation is in the military we cannot blame
the war this time for such a decrease in fathers.

What can we do to help our nation have a chance at true recovery?

We start in our homes. The best we can do and be is the best Father and Mother we can be.
If we fail at this we don't just fail ourselves and our children, we fail our
future... And the children will look elsewhere for the parent, for the
leader.

Our generation is desperate for answers, we as parents must
provide those answers."

Consul Nicholas Moore

Royal Raymond Rife And The Cure For Cancer

"One of those things, you know... Another sad story. Not really a
revelation to us, just a confirmation of the depressing truth we already
know, but we usually try not to dwell on; the greedy ones with wealth and power have always run this world, they determine who is lifted up and who is
brought down... And they are only ever out for their own best interest
feeding off those they see as sheep."

Consul Nicholas Moore


Like Nikola Tesla was brought down by the greedy and wealthy, Royal
Raymond Rife suffered the same fate, and so did the rest of world
because of the $$. (Rife found the cure for cancer; this was documented
and then made to be nearly forgotten... the records are there to see
still though.) He was going to cost The American Medical Association
millions, so he had to go and all of his work was destroyed. Those who
made this happen figured in a few generations at the most he would be
forgotten much like Tesla. $$$ rules the world.

Please read the following excerpts and the complete bio of this man in
the link provided at the bottom.

"These successful tests were conducted over 400 times with experimental
animals before any attempt was made to use this frequency on human cases
of carcinoma and sarcoma."

In the summer of 1934,16 terminally ill people with cancer and other
diseases were brought to the Scripps 'ranch'. There, as Rife and the
doctors worked on human beings for the first time, they learned much. In
1953 when Rife copyrighted his book, he made the real report of what
happened in 1934. He wrote:

"With the frequency instrument treatment, no tissue is destroyed, no
pain is felt, no noise is audible, and no sensation is noticed. A tube
lights up and 3 minutes later the treatment is completed. The virus or
bacteria is destroyed and the body then recovers itself naturally from
the toxic effect of the virus or bacteria. Several diseases may be
treated simultaneously.

"The first clinical work on cancer was completed under the supervision
of Milbank Johnson, MD, which was set up under a Special Medial Research
Committee of the University of Southern California. 16 cases were
treated at the clinic for many types of malignancy. After 3 months, 14
of these so called hopeless cases were signed off as clinically cured by
the start of five medical doctors and Dr Alvin G. Foord, MD, pathologist
for the group. The treatments consisted of 3 minutes duration using the
frequency instrument which was set on the mortal oscillatory rate for
"BX" or cancer (at 3-day intervals). It was found that the elapsed time
between treatments attains better results than the cases treated daily.
This gives the lymphatic system an opportunity to absorb and cast off
the toxic condition which is produced by the devitalized dead particles
of the "BX" virus. No rise of body temperature was perceptible in any of
these cases above normal during or after the frequency instrument
treatment. No special diets were used in any of this clinical work, but
we sincerely believe that a proper diet compiled for the individual
would be of benefit" Date: December 1,1953.

Other members of the clinic were Whalen Morrison, Chief Surgeon of the
Santa Fe Railway; George C. Dock, MD, internationally famous; George C
Fischer, MD, Children's Hospital in New York; Arthur I. Kendall; Dr
Zite, MD, Professor of Pathology at Chicago University, Rufus B. Von
Klein Schmidt, President of the University of Southern California.

Dr Couche and Dr Carl Meyer, PhD, head of the Department of
Bacteriological Research at the Hooper Foundation in San Francisco, were
also present Dr Kopps of the Metabolic Clinic in La Jolla signed all 14
reports and knew of all the tests from his personal observation.
In 1956, Dr James Couche made the following declaration:

"I would like to make this historical record of the amazing scientific
wonders regarding the efficacy of the frequencies of the Royal R. Rife
Frequency Instrument..."


Footnote:
Biophysicists have now shown that there exists a crucial natural
interaction between living matter and photons. This process is
measurable at the cellular (bacterium) level. Other research has
demonstrated that living systems arc extraordinarily sensitive to
extremely low-energy electromagnetic waves. This is to say, each kind of
cell or micro-organism has a specific frequency of interaction with the
electromagnetic spectrum. By various means, Rife's system allowed
adjusting the frequency of light impinging on the specimen. By some
insight he learned that the light frequency could be 'tuned' into the
natural frequency of the micro-organism being examined to cause a
resonance or feedback loop. In effect, under this condition, it can be
said the micro-organism illuminated itself.

Rife extrapolated from his lighting technique, which we may be certain
he understood, that specific electromagnetic frequencies would have a
negative effect on specific bacterial forms. There can remain no doubt
that Rife demonstrated the correctness of his hypothesis to himself and
those few who had the courage to look and the perceptual acuity to see!
The same new discoveries in biophysics not only explain Rife's principle
of illumination; they also explain his process for selective destruction
of bacteria. The latter phenomenon is similar to ultrasonic cleaning,
differing in delicate selectivity of wave form and frequency. Recently,
researchers whose findings have been suppressed, have caused and cured
cancer in the same group of mice by subjecting them to certain
electromagnetic fields. Rife's work was far more sophisticated. He
selected specific microscopic targets, and actually saw the targets
explode.

A body of recognized scientific evidence now overwhelmingly supports the
original cancer theories articulated and demonstrated by Rife fifty
years ago. This includes modern AIDS research.

http://www.whale.to/v/rife.html

Meaning & Purpose In America

"A vision or a will in life should never be about wealth, pleasure, or power, but this is how most Americans' view life. It is no revelation to the world that most Americans' always want the nicer car, bigger TV, more attractive partner, and a more exuberant home. They are never satisfied, always wanting more, and never really appreciating what they do have. The rich do get richer in this country and the poor do get poorer but they both have the same misunderstanding of what the American Dream was originally meant to be. The misunderstanding of true purpose to life or a vision to live by is why our nation is in the predicament that we are in today. During the Great Depression many families understood that they needed to be grateful for what they had, for as long as they had each other and could keep each other alive and hopeful, then life was worth living. Parents during the Great Depression saw their children as the future, and many of these parents struggled through life with the hope that their children would have a better tomorrow. Even through the toughest times many parents found a way to save for their children's future, and struggled to keep their family together; they understood the "will to meaning." In the least they had a dream worth living for...so they lived."



To read the rest of this article, click on the link below:

http://www.articlesbase.com/culture-articles/meaning-purpose-in-america-2653788.html

When Will Our Tsunami Hit?

The existence of slow-slip events, which scientists discovered only
recently, is turning out to be especially important for accurate
forecasting. In a slow-slip event, movement is gradual enough not to
create detectable ground motion, but the energy release can be the
equivalent of a normal magnitude 6 earthquake. The big question is
whether these events may transfer stress to portions of a subduction
zone most prone to a violent jolt, Dieterich explained in a recent talk
on the UC Riverside campus.

He pointed out that scientists reviewing the seismic recordings from
Japan in early 2011 noted a slow-slip event occurred between the main
shock on March 11 and its foreshock.

Analysis of the 1960 Chile earthquake revealed that there appeared to be
a slow slip even between it and its largest aftershock. And dozens of
slow-slip events have been detected in the Cascadia Subduction Zone deep
beneath Washington and Oregon.

So does that increase the chances for another great Cascadia quake?
That's exactly what Deiterich and his colleagues at UCR, Brown
University, Columbia University, the University of Southern California,
San Diego State University, UC San Diego and the US Geological Survey
hope to discern.

Their motives are simple: an increasing fraction of the world's
population lives in regions where great earthquakes occur and is exposed
to high seismic risk as a result. While preparedness is crucial to
dealing with earthquakes, better forecasting of these natural disasters
can save more lives.

Read more:

http://news.discovery.com/earth/nw-earthquake-and-tsunami-threat-120309.html

Are You Prepared?

Billionaire Donald Trump says the U.S. economy is poised for "massive
inflation" and is warning investors to take steps now to protect
themselves.

In the gripping CNBC interview, Trump also told investors they should not trust official government statistics.

He even questioned the "official unemployment" numbers. "It's over 20 percent. It's not 8.3 percent," Trump said.

Trump also thinks skyrocketing oil prices will cripple the U.S. economy.
"Right now, [oil] is at an all-time record for this time of the year, in the summer they predict $5 gasoline, maybe $6."

But Trump isn't the only expert warning the U.S. economy may go off the
cliff. Robert Wiedemer, author of the New York Times best-selling book
Aftershock, stated in a recent interview, "The data is clear, 50%
unemployment, a 90% stock market drop, and 100% annual inflation . . .
starting in 2012."

This wasn't the first time Wiedemer's predictions hit a nerve. In 2006,
he and his team of economists accurately predicted the four-bubble

meltdown in the housing, stock, private debt, and consumer-spending markets that almost sank America.

Regardless of his warnings and survival advice, Bernanke and Greenspan were not about to support Wiedemer publicly, nor were the mainstream media.

The question Americans need to ask themselves is this: Even if half of Trump and Wiedemer's predictions come true, ARE YOU PREPARED?

Read more: Massive Inflation Coming, Warns Donald Trump

http://www.newsmax.com/NewsWidget/Trump-warns-massive-inflation/2012/03/13/id/432355?PROMO_CODE=E67E-1

Outrage over suicide of Moroccan teen forced to marry rapist

A minister in Morocco's Islamist government on Thursday called for a change to a law allowing a rapist to marry his victim after a 16-year-old teenager forced into such a union committed suicide.

Bassima Hakkaoui, Minister for Women and Families and the only woman in the cabinet, called for a debate to reform the law, in comments to state television channel 2M.

Her predecessor in the post Nouzha Skalli also declared herself shocked by the affair and called for the law to be changed.

Amina al-Filali, 16, drank rat poison last week in Larache, near Tangiers in the north, after being forced to marry the man who raped her.He had sought to escape prison by invoking an article of the penal code that authorises the rapist to marry to escape prosecution.

This is something to which the families of such victims often agree because the loss of a woman's virginity outside of marriage is considered a dishonour to her family.

Filali's funeral took place Sunday in the northern town of Larache.

On Thursday, 300 protesters staged a sit-in outside the local court that had approved the marriage, a demonstration organised by Morocco's Democratic League for Women's Rights.It was the League that publicised Filalai's suicide as part of its campaign against the law.

On Wednesday the League's president Fouzia Assouli condemned the relevant article of the law, saying that while it ostensibly defended family values it did not uphold the rights of women.
"The law treats the raped minor like a criminal even if she was the victim of violence," Skalli told 2M television during an extended programme on the affair.

"We have to reform the criminal code to adapt to the new constitution, which forbids violence against women and ensures the equality of the sexes."

The affair has also provoked an explosion of outrage in the news media and on the Internet. Activists have set up an online petition calling for the law to be changed, which within hours attracted hundreds of signatures.

Under Moroccan law, rape is punishable by five to 10 years in prison -- or between 10 and 20 years if the victim is a minor.

http://news.yahoo.com/outrage-over-suicide-moroccan-teen-forced-marry-rapist-171033094.html

Manchurian Candidate Comes To Mind...

SEATTLE (AP) - The U.S. soldier accused of slaughtering 16 Afghan
villagers last weekend had been reluctant to leave on his fourth
deployment and surprised to be deployed to Afghanistan, where soldiers
at his base were shaken by the serious injury of a comrade a day before
the shooting rampage, his lawyer said Thursday.

Browne declined to release his client's name, citing concerns for the
soldier's family, which is under protection on Joint Base Lewis-McChord,
near Tacoma. But he said the soldier has two young children, ages 3 and
4.

The soldier, a 38-year-old father of two who is originally from the
Midwest, deployed last December with the 3rd Stryker Brigade, and on
Feb. 1 was attached to a "village stability operation." Browne described
him as highly decorated and said he had once been nominated for a Bronze
Star, which he did not receive.

He and the rest of his brigade had initially been told they wouldn't
have to go to Afghanistan, Browne said.

Browne and his co-counsel, Emma Scanlan, said they had met with the
soldier's wife and other family members, and Browne said he spoke
briefly by phone with the soldier, whom he described as stunned and
distant.

His family was shocked: "They were totally shocked," he said. "He's
never said anything antagonistic about Muslims. He's in general very
mild-mannered."

Browne said he knew little of the facts of the shooting, but disputed
reports that a combination of alcohol, stress and domestic issues caused
him to snap. He said the family said they were unaware of any drinking
problem, and described the couple's marriage as "fabulous."

The soldier is suspected of going on a shooting rampage in villages near
his base in southern Afghanistan early Sunday, killing nine children and
seven other civilians and then burning some of their bodies. The
shooting, which followed a controversial Quran-burning incident
involving U.S. soldiers, has outraged Afghan officials.

The suspect was flown out of Afghanistan on Wednesday evening to what
officials describe as a pretrial confinement facility in Kuwait.
Officials have anonymously described him as a father of two who has been
in the military for 11 years. He has served three tours in Iraq and
began his first deployment to Afghanistan in December.


http://news.yahoo.com/lawyer-afghanistan-suspect-loath-deploy-211017201.html 

Who is He Kidding?

Karzai is confident that Afghan security forces know "a thousand times
better than any foreign troops the culturally sensitive ways of
dealing with their own people," Mosazai said.

If the NATO troops did pullback, it would leave vast areas of the
country unprotected and essentially mean the end of the strategy of
trying to win hearts and minds by working with and protecting the
local populations.

The American accused of killing 16 civilians on Sunday was stationed
on just such a base, where a small group of soldiers worked with
villagers to try to set up local defense forces and strengthen
government.

Leaving rural areas would also mean pulling back U.S. forces from the
border areas with Pakistan.

Karzai told Panetta that the weekend shootings in southern Afghanistan
were cruel and that everything must be done to prevent any such
incidents in the future. He said that was the reason he was demanding
the pullout from rural areas now and early transfer of security.

President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron said
in Washington on Wednesday that they and their NATO allies were
committed to shifting to a support role in Afghanistan in 2013.

Obama gave his fullest endorsement yet for the mission shift, but he
said the overall plan to gradually withdraw forces and hand over
security in Afghanistan will stand.

The call for an immediate exit from rural areas is a new demand
however, and it is unclear how it will affect the transition strategy
and ongoing talks with the U.S. about how to manage a long-term U.S.
military presence in the country.

Karzai is known for making dramatic demands then backing off under
U.S. pressure. Even if he eventually changes his tone, the call for a
pullback will likely become another issue of contention between the
Afghans and their international allies at a time of growing war
weariness in the United States and other countries of the
international coalition.

The Taliban said it was suspending talks with the U.S. because the
Americans failed to follow through on their promises, made new demands
and falsely claimed the militant group had entered into multilateral
negotiations.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said in a statement that they had
agreed to discuss two issues with the Americans: the establishment of
the militant group's political office in Qatar and a prisoner
exchange. The Taliban said the U.S. initially agreed to take practical
steps on these issues, but then "turned their backs on their promises"
and came up with new conditions for the talks.

Karzai is known for making dramatic demands then backing off under
U.S. pressure. Even if he eventually changes his tone, the call for a
pullback will likely become another issue of contention between the
Afghans and their international allies at a time of growing war
weariness in the United States and other countries of the
international coalition.


http://news.yahoo.com/karzai-tells-nato-pull-back-taliban-us-talks-135534088.html

Hijacked

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is safe after a hijacked truck rushed
an airfield runway ramp as his plane was landing in southern
Afghanistan Wednesday, Pentagon officials and journalists traveling
with him report.

"An Afghan civilian stole a military pickup truck, rammed through a
fence, and crashed into a ditch by a runway around the time that
[Panetta's] plane" landed in southern Afghanistan, the Washington Post
reported.

The NATO-led force in Afghanistan "is aware of a stolen vehicle
incident today at Camp Bastion, which resulted in the injury of one
coalition service member," the International Security Assistance Force
command (ISAF) said in a statement Wednesday. "The alleged perpetrator
was apprehended by base security personnel. We are currently
investigating to determine more facts."

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/envoy/panetta-safe-truck-charges-helmand-airfield-while-plane-185428063.html