US gives $1bn to rebuild Georgia

The US has announced $1bn (£564m) of aid to Georgia for reconstruction after the conflict with Russia.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the aid would be used to rebuild houses and infrastructure - but not for military purposes. ...

Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev has also accused the US of helping Tbilisi build its war machine and called on America to review its relations with the Georgian authorities.

Faced with a chorus of international calls for Russia's isolation, Mr Medvedev has said Moscow does not fear being expelled from the G8 group of rich nations nor does it fear Nato cutting ties with his country. ... he warned that Moscow would respond to the growing presence of Nato warships in the Black Sea, where Russia's navy has a huge presence. - bbc

If we don't switch to alternative energy sources there will have to  be a showdown between the world powers eventually for the remaining oil. All sides have known this for years and we can expect all kinds of dirty plays and propaganda from Russia, the US, China and the EU as they jockey for position over the remaining oil reserves.

U.S. Troops Cross into Pakistan, Kill 20

 



... Helicopters carried U.S. and Afghan commandos many miles into Pakistan on Wednesday to stage the first U.S. ground attack against a Taliban target inside the country, Pakistani officials said. At least 20 local people died in the raid, according to the officials.

Pakistan filed a formal protest with the U.S. government, which had no comment on what appeared to be a new escalation of U.S. pressure on Taliban andal-Qaeda sanctuaries in Pakistan's mountainous border regions. ... U.S. forces based in Afghanistan have periodically conducted air and artillery strikes against insurgents across the border in Pakistani territory, and new hot-pursuit rules provide some room for American troops to maneuver during battle. But the arrival of U.S. helicopters in the village of Musa Nika, deep in undisputed Pakistani territory, would constitute a new tactic.

Mohammed Sadiq, a spokesman for Pakistan's Foreign Ministry, condemned a "gross violation of Pakistan's territory" and "a grave provocation." In a written statement, he said his office lodged a formal complaint with the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad.

... U.S. military officials in Afghanistan, at the Central Command in Tampa and at the Pentagon maintained a wall of silence, saying they had no comment on the Pakistani reports. 

... One of the homes belonged to local tribesman Pao Jan Ahmedzai Wazir, according to Anwar Shah, a resident of a neighboring village. Several women and children who were inside Wazir's house and two other homes nearby were killed when U.S. and Afghan troops fired on the buildings, he said. "The situation there is very terrible. People are trying to take out the dead bodies," Shah said. ... A NATO spokesman in Afghanistan said foreign forces are generally prohibited from mounting cross-border attacks into Pakistan. The spokesman, who gave his name only as Sgt. Yates, said NATO forces occasionally use artillery or missiles to target insurgents who attack foreign troops from Pakistani territory, but the rules of engagement are very precise. "Our area of operations stops at the border. We don't go over the border, period," Yates said.

In Afghanistan, NATO and U.S. military operations have recently come under scrutiny because of an airstrike that Afghan and U.N. officials said killed 90 civilians two weeks ago. On Wednesday, McKiernan said that he concurred with a U.S. military investigation that found that five civilians died in the incident. - washpost

Okay, confess, how many of you didn't even know that Afghanistan and Pakistan share a common border?

Black eyed kids, BEKs. Video: How to be one.

Are there beings or people among us whose sclera, pupils and iris are completely BLACK? ... Perhaps these black-eyed beings are one of the 63 races visiting Earth (this was the last total known according to a retired Air Force officer friend of mine.) Or maybe these beings have the ability to come and go from another dimension that co-exists with ours, which is hopefully not hell. - Ted Twietmeyer on rense

... The Black Eyed Kids reports are scattered around the internet and chances are that a great deal of them are fabrications derived from the first reported accounts. But if the Black Eyed Kids (BEKs) are real, then they certainly deserve a great deal of attention. And for those that are not familiar with the phenomena, a profile might be handy in order to get familiar with the subject. - more at ufodigest

Another way to get big, black eyes: contacts. - from snopes

Here is an interesting acount on abovetopsecret by an unnamed 16 year old.

... I was skateboarding at around 10:30 last night and i had stopped to take a rest when i was approached by two kids one with blonde hair and a baseball cap pointed and a skateboard painted all black on the bottom and the other slightly less intimitdating as he look to be around 8 he had blonde hair also and was wearing a spiderman shirt the older one spoke to me as i had my head hanging low. " Hey, kid can you help us were lost we need to use a phone can you take us to your house?" I looked up at them and immediatly felt Dread and dispair i stood up quickly sensing something was wrong " Uh, you can use my cellphone if you want" the older kid seemed annoyed then and look me in the eyes it was then that i noticed they were black all black not in white i could see

" Hey cool contacts where did you get them" i asked  " There not Contacts" he said flatly " Yea well sorry i couldn't help you guys out but im going inside" i turned around and started to ride but somehow the older kid caught up with me and grabbed my sholder " YOU will let us use your phone WE NEED TO GO INSIDE BUT WE CAN"T IF YOU DON"T TAKE US TO YOUR HOUSE" it was at this point i hit him in the face and ran up the stairs to my house and shook for hours later when i was on the computer i looked outside my window and the kids were staring at the window i told my mother and of course she didn't belive me - abovetopsecret

This COULD be done by human pranksters. See this:



Greg Bishop writes:

"... this phenomenon seems to have appeared ... starting with a 1998 account by reporter Brian Bethel..." - ufomystic

One wonders if the freaky contact lenses were also available in 1998.  It seems possible since soft contact lenses were approved by the FDA in 1971 and the were continually improved.

Sarah Palin Bikini Pictures: Fake Photos Hit The Web

No, it's not really her. This is the original according to the huffington post.



I'm not sure what to make of this, but it may be in the future that all political candidates must appear in swimwear on the Internet.

O’Hanlon: Bush deserves credit for Iraq being free of WMD.

Last night, CBS News reviewed President Bush’s legacy and noted that it will largely be defined by his misguided invasion of Iraq. During its report, Iraq war apologist Michael O’Hanlon recalled that Bush went to war in a “deliberately cavalier way,” but added that Americans should “be fair” and give Bush credit for their being no WMD in Iraq:

O’HANLON: But let’s also be fair. Iraq now seems to be a quasi-functioning democracy, without weapons of mass destruction, without genocides against its own citizens or attacks against its neighbors. So, to some extent, we’ve got to give the president his due.

Note to O’Hanlon: The fact that Iraq didn’t have WMD is what made Bush’s invasion of Iraq “deliberately cavalier.” - thinkprogress

Oil is obviously a WMD and we went in to free Iraq of it. We are still working on that, because as Palin says, the Iraq war is a task from God.

Concrete-jet 'printers' to build houses, Moonbases in hours

Most readers will be aware of so-called "3D printing" techniques, in which solid objects can be constructed automatically from computer models. Researchers in California intend to scale the process up radically, using "contour crafting" concrete extrusion to erect buildings in a matter of hours.

"Instead of plastic, Contour Crafting will use concrete," says Behrokh Khoshnevis of the University of Southern California. Khoshnevis and his colleagues have just announced funding for their efforts from Caterpillar, the construction-equipment globocorp.



Contour Crafting equipment, apparently, can already create a six-foot concrete wall without any human input. It does this by putting down smooth, neatly-trimmed layers of concrete one on top of another "in a process analogous to inkjet printing". Rather than ink, however, the heads on this equipment dispense "concrete, clay or adobe", which is smoothed as it goes along using an array of trowel attachments. The gear was designed at the USC Center for Rapid Automated Fabrication Technologies (CRAFT), ... And there's no need for boring old boxy shapes, either. The equipment can happily create domes, vaults or any other shape that can be drawn in CAD software and support its own weight - at no added expense. Normally, anything other than right angles and verticals costs like crazy, so this latter feature is thought to have architects salivating. - theregister

'Rare' mammoth skull discovered

The "extremely rare" fossilised skull of a steppe mammoth has been unearthed in southern France.

The discovery in the Auvergne region could shed much needed light on the evolution of these mighty beasts.

Many isolated teeth of steppe mammoth have been found, but only a handful of skeletons exist; and in these surviving specimens, the skull is rarely intact.

Palaeontologists Frederic Lacombat and Dick Mol describe this skull specimen as being well preserved.

It belongs to a male steppe mammoth (Mammuthus trogontherii) that stood about 3.7m (12ft) tall and lived about 400,000 years ago, during Middle Pleistocene times.  The animal was about 35 years of age when it died, the researchers estimate. - bbc

Where is the mammoth skull, behind that big rock? Oh, it IS that big rock.

Mummy was a daddy, says expert

Tutankhamen is the most important figure in Egyptology and the treasures that were unearthed have captivated the world, drawing millions to the Valley of the Kings.

But what is less well known is that, when explorer Howard Carter discovered his virtually intact burial chamber in Luxor in 1922, he also found two foetuses.

Egyptologists have long debated whether these mummies were the stillborn children of the teenage Pharaoh and his wife Ankhesenamun. Or if they were placed in the tomb as an offering to help the boy king's passage into the afterlife.

As experts wait on the results of DNA paternity tests being carried out in Cairo, the Pharmacy and Medicine in Ancient Egypt Conference at the University of Manchester has been told that they were probably Tutankhamen's twin offspring. - bbc

Alien? What alien? I only see a mummy.

Swedish magazine recalled after faulty recipe poisons 4

Ten thousand copies of a food magazine were recalled in Sweden after a mistake in one of its recipes left four people poisoned, the magazine said Thursday.

"There was a mistake in a recipe for apple cake. Instead of calling for two pinches of nutmeg it said 20 nutmeg nuts were needed," Matmagasinet's chief editor Ulla Cocke told AFP.

"We know that four adults ate one cake made from this recipe, and they didn't feel well," she said, adding that "this is obviously very regrettable." - canada.com

Microsoft has been granted a patent on 'Page Up' and 'Page Down' keystrokes.

The software giant applied for the patent in 2005, and was granted it on August 19, 2008. US patent number 7,415,666 describes "a method and system in a document viewer for scrolling a substantially exact increment in a document, such as one page, regardless of whether the zoom is such that some, all or one page is currently being viewed".

The patent's listed 'inventors' are Timothy Sellers, Heather Grantham and Joshua Dersch. However, Page Up and Page Down keyboard buttons have been in existence for at least quarter of a century, as evidenced by this image of a 1981 IBM PC keyboard. 

See above.

... Microsoft has a long history of applying for, and being granted patents for, inventions that many argue--and can sometimes demonstrate--were based on earlier work carried out by others, or based on a common, self-evident idea.

One example is the company's patent on a mouse wheel that can scroll up and down; another is its patent on double-clicking buttons. The company received its 5,000th patent from the US Patent and Trademark Office in March 2006, and is currently approaching the 10,000 mark. - zdnet

I will rule the world once my patent is approved. I'm patenting the wheel.

The See-Through Skyscrape

“Transparency” is the architectural watchword of the era, almost guaranteed to appear in any reference to contemporary glass-clad towers.

But real buildings usually look a lot different than the clear plastic models and crystalline renderings shown at news conferences and ribbon cuttings.

Once in a while, however, when the light and the angles are just right, a skyscraper can come close to vanishing.

That happened last Thursday, when the 52 floors of 7 World Trade Center faded into the cloud-flecked blue of a late summer afternoon. Its masonry neighbors (140 West Street and 90 West Street) stood out in contrast. - nytimes

Japanese Police Get Fooled, By "Mannequin Murder"

... Investigators found what seemed like a body in a forest in Izu City, a seaside resort in central Japan, after an anonymous caller reported seeing it, police said. Investigators felt it from outside but never actually looked inside, and bought it back to the city police station for a post-mortem examination, she said.. Apparantly no one doubted a human body was inside until a medical examiner unwrapped it and found a doll there. The Asahi newspaper said the doll was sophisticated and life-sized, and wore a brown wig, a blouse and a skirt. It appeared to have been wrapped or enclosed in a dark green sleeping bag. - mystery

Secretive Right-Wing Group Vetted Palin

Last week, while the media focused almost obsessively on the DNC's spectacle in Denver, the country's most influential conservatives met quietly at a hotel in downtown Minneapolis to get to know Sarah Palin. The assembled were members of the Council for National Policy, an ultra-secretive cabal that networks wealthy right-wing donors together with top conservative operatives to plan long-term movement strategy.

CNP members have included Tony Perkins, James Dobson, Grover Norquist, Tim LaHaye and Paul Weyrich. At a secret 2000 meeting of the CNP, George W. Bush promised to nominate only pro-life judges; in 2004, then-Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist told the group, "The destiny of the nation is on the shoulders of the conservative movement." This year, thanks to Sarah Palin's selection, the movement may have finally aligned itself behind the campaign of John McCain.

Though Dobson and Perkins reportedly attended the recent CNP meeting in Minneapolis, a full roster of guests would be nearly impossible to require. The CNP deliberately operates below the radar, going to excessive lengths to obscure its activities. According to official CNP policy, "The media should not know when or where we meet or who takes part in our programs before or after a meeting." Thus the CNP's Minneapolis gathering was free of reporters.

I learned of the get-together only through an online commentary by one of its attendees, top Dobson/Focus on the Family flack Tom Minnery. (Watch it here) Minnery described the mood as CNP members watched Palin accept her selection as John McCain's Vice Presidential pick. "I was standing in the back of a ballroom filled with largely Republicans who were hoping against hope that something would put excitement back into this campaign," Minnery said. "And I have to tell you, that speech by Alaska Governor Sarah Palin -- people were on their seats applauding, cheering, yelling... That room in Minneapolis watching on the television screen was electrified. I have not seen anything like it in a long time."

Minnery added that his boss, Dobson, has yearned for a conservative female leader like Margaret Thatcher to emerge on the American scene. And while Palin is no Thatcher, "she has not rejected the feminine side of who she is, so for that reason, she will be attractive to conservative voters."

The members of the Council for National Policy are the hidden hand behind McCain's Palin pick. With her selection, the Republican nominee is suddenly -- and unexpectedly -- assured of the support of a movement that once opposed his candidacy with all its might. Case in point: while Dobson once said he could "never" vote for McCain, he issued a statement last week hailing Palin as an "outstanding" choice. If Dobson's enthusiasm for Palin is any indication, he may soon emerge from his bunker in Colorado Springs to endorse McCain, providing the Republican nominee with the backing of the Christian right's single most influential figure. - thenation

More on the CNP:

When Steve Baldwin, the executive director of an organization with the stale-as-old-bread name of the Council for National Policy, boasts that "we control everything in the world," he is only half-kidding. Half-kidding, because the council doesn't really control the world. The staff of about eight, working in a modern office building in Fairfax, Va., isn't even enough for a real full-court basketball game.  But also half-serious because the council has deservedly attained the reputation for conceiving and promoting the ideas of many who in fact do want to control everything in the world. - abcnews

US hands security of Anbar to Iraqi forces

American and Iraqi troops have taken part in a ceremony transferring security control of the province of Anbar to the government of Iraq.

Anbar was once the centre of the Sunni insurgency, with more than a quarter of all US soldiers killed in Iraq having died in Anbar. The province has been relatively stable since late 2006, after local Sunni leaders turned against the insurgents and set up their own security patrols, known as "Awakening Councils", with US support. These patrols began the task of driving Al Qaeda from Iraq. Iraqi forces will now control security in 11 of the country's 18 provinces. The commander of US forces in western Iraq, Major John Kelly, said security must be matched by economic development to prevent a return to violence. - bbc

Economic development is difficult when different groups are fighting for the area's resources.

One more year I didn't go to Burning Man. Photos

A performer spins a fire rope in front of the "Wheel of Thwarted Ambition" that also throws off sparks at Burning Man 2008. (Frederic Larson / The Chronicle)

[caption id="attachment_5011" align="aligncenter" width="586" caption="(Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times) Burning Man 2008"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_5012" align="aligncenter" width="586" caption="(Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times) Burning Man 2008"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_5013" align="aligncenter" width="586" caption="(Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times) Burning Man 2008"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_5014" align="aligncenter" width="586" caption="(Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times) Burning Man 2008"][/caption]

While looking at Burning Man photos I found some taken from the air with a camera suspended by a Kite.

[caption id="attachment_5015" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="scotthaefner.com (2006)"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_5016" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="scotthaefner.com (2006)"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_5017" align="alignnone" width="600" caption="scotthaefner.com (2006)"][/caption]

This kite photograhpy is very interesting. Here is how it is done:

The rig is used to attach the camera to the kite line and it enables me to aim the camera in any direction. I can pan, tilt and rotate (switch between portrait and landscape modes), all from the ground using an RC transmitter for a model airplane. Of course, I can also snap a picture using the radio controller. I use a gentLED to fire the camera, a special IR light made by fellow KAPer, James Gentles.

The rig is made of woven carbon plates fastened together by aluminum corner braces, with steel rods and aluminum gears for the rotation axes. Carbon plates are ideal because they are light-weight and stiff, and they relatively are easy to cut, sand, and work with. The total flying weight is 1 kg (2.2 pounds) - link

Greenland icesheet could melt faster

SCIENTISTS yesterday said they could no longer rule out a fast-track melting of the Greenland icesheet — a prospect that would see much of the world's coastline drowned by rising seas.

The researchers found that the great Laurentide icesheet that smothered much of North America during the last Ice Age melted far swifter than realised, dumping billions of tonnes of water into the ocean. ...

The discovery raises worrying questions about the future stability of Greenland's icesheet, for the Laurentide melt occurred thanks to a spurt of warming that could be mirrored once more by the end of this century, they said.

Although scientists are confident Antarctica has so far escaped major damage from global warming, they are less sure about Greenland, whose icesheet holds enough water to drive up sea levels by seven metres.- theage

The hour is getting late. If we want to fix this, it is time to do something extreme and risky.

Artificial clouds to reflect away sunlight, creating colossal blooms of oceanic algae, and the global use of synthetic carbon-neutral transport fuels - just three of the climate-transforming technologies in need of urgent investigation, according to leading scientists. The group argues that, with governments failing to grasp the urgent need for measures to combat dangerous climate change, radical - and possibly dangerous - solutions must now be seriously considered. - guarduk

The incredible journey taken by our genes

Sixty thousand years ago, a small group of African men and women took to the Red Sea in tiny boats and crossed the Mandab Strait to Asia. Their journey - of less than 20 miles - marked the moment Homo sapiens left its home continent. ... Now scientists are completing a massive study of DNA samples from a quarter of a million volunteers in different continents in order to create the most precise map yet of mankind's great diaspora. Last week, in Tallinn, Estonia, they outlined their most recent results. 'As the ultimate ancestor begat son, who begat son and so on, they picked up mutations in their DNA that we can now pinpoint by gene analysis,' said project leader Dr Spencer Wells. 'When we look at these markers' distributions we can see how our ancestors moved about.' ...

'We can also see that just before humans left Africa, about 70,000 years ago, mankind was brought to the brink of extinction when Mount Toba, in Sumatra, erupted,' said Wells. 'It was the most powerful volcanic eruption for two million years and dropped thick ash and killed vegetation across the globe. Our research now shows Homo sapiens numbers dropped alarmingly at this time and we only just hung on as a species.'

Nevertheless, humanity bounced back, evolving new creative and intellectual gifts under the extreme selective pressures it then had to endure. ...
One study by project scientists Pierre Zalloua and Chris Tyler-Smith has discovered a genetic marker typical of Europeans in modern Lebanese men. The inference is clear they say: this distinctive Y-chromosome was left behind by 11th-century Crusaders when they invaded Lebanon and then settled in the country. A similar sort of genetic legacy has been detected in regions where Gengis Khan ruled and which has been linked to the many male descendants he produced.

As for Africa, it has the most genetically diverse population of all the continents, as would be expected of humanity's birthplace. And of those living today, the Khoisan people of southern Africa are probably the closest, genetically, to the founding mothers and fathers of humanity, say project scientists. - guardian

Dalai Lama released from hospital

The Dalai Lama has been discharged from the hospital in the Indian city of Mumbai (Bombay) where he was admitted with stomach pains last Thursday.

He is in good condition but has been advised to rest, a spokesman said.

The 73-year-old exiled Tibetan spiritual leader has cancelled all his international trips, saying he is suffering from exhaustion. The Dalai Lama has lived in Dharamsala, in northern India, since fleeing Tibet after an abortive uprising in 1959. ...

"He is feeling good and he will be resting for the next few days," his aide Chhime Chhoekyapa was quoted by news agency Reuters as saying. He said the Dalai Lama would remain in Mumbai for the time being. ... He shook hands with the hospital staff before leaving in a bullet-proof car, he said. The Tibetan leader was admitted to the Lilavati Hospital in Mumbai after complaining of pain in his abdomen.

He had earlier cancelled two forthcoming trips to Mexico and the Dominican Republic, according to his advisers suffering fatigue.

The Dalai Lama had just returned from an 11-day trip to France, one of a number of foreign trips he has made this year to highlight the issue of Tibet. China has stepped up its verbal attacks on the Nobel peace prize-winner since violence broke out against Chinese rule in Tibet in March. Beijing has accused the Dalai Lama of stirring up unrest, a charge he denies. - bbc

North Pole Becomes an 'Island'

It's now a fact. The North Pole has become an "island" for the first time in history, courtesy global warming. NASA's satellite images have revealed that the melting ice has facilitated the opening up of both the north-west and north-east passages, making it possible for marine vessels to circumnavigate the Arctic ice cap.

In fact, the images suggest the north-west passage opened last weekend while the final blockage on the east side of the ice cap, an area of sea ice stretching to as far as Siberia, dissolved a few days later.

"The passages are open. It's an historic event. We are going to see this more and more as the years go by," according to Professor Mark Serreze, a sea ice specialist at National Snow and Ice Data Centre (NSIDC) in the US.

However, he has warned that the images indicated that the Arctic may have entered a "death spiral" caused by global warming, British newspaper 'The Daily Telegraph' reported.

But shipping companies are smiling all the way to the bank as they plan to exploit the first simultaneous opening of the routes since the beginning of the last Ice Age 125,000 years ago.

According to the Beluga Group in Germany, it will send the first ship through the north-east passage, around Russia, next year, cutting 4,000 miles off the voyage from Germany to all the way to Japan.

It may be mentioned that last year, the extent of sea ice in the Arctic had reached a record low, that also prompted scientists to caution that the ice cap could vanish altogether during summer in years' time. PTI

Okay.... not good. When the Ice all melts, warming accelerates and we fry.

Life is short.

This video cracked me up.