China's Olympic Weather Announcement and other International Weather Modifiers

According to Yahoo Singapore Sports (and many other sources), China's Weather Modification Office Plans Good Weather for 2008 Olympics:

"Beijing will use aircraft, missiles and cannon in what could amount to a massive umbrella over the city to keep athletes dry during next year's Olympics, state media reported Friday. The August 8-24 sporting extravaganza will happen during normally arid Beijing's rainy season when hail as well as water is often seen, the Beijing Times said. But the weather bureau plans to use advanced techniques to force rain clouds to unload as far away as 90 kilometres (56 miles) from the capital, the paper said."

According to North American Weather Consultants, Inc., "Attempts to modify the weather have been conducted for centuries. However, modern cloud seeding dates from the late 1940's, springing from a discovery at the General Electric labs in Schenectady, New York in 1946."

Utah Division of Water Resources even has a clever animation of cloud seeding on their website.

In California it is tastefully referred to as "Precipitation Enhancement" -- a program that "seriously began" in 1943 and has been conducted in Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, Kings River (central Ca.) to name a few sites.

Research activities are conducted by both private entities and public agencies. The list of search results is endless, but it clearly is an international phenomena. One has to wonder what are the environmental impacts of using these chemicals and what does this manipulation do to the regular weather cycles. Also, what advanced techniques and weather control programs are being researched and implemented without full disclosure to the public.

Some Random Links to Weather Modification Programs and Articles:
Nevada State Cloud Seeding Program
Wyoming
San Antonio, TX and in Texas WM is so popular the state has a licensing entity to regulate the business as do several other states.
Loza Weather Modification Rocket
New South Wales Snowy Mountain (UK)
Australia
India
Africa

The CIA Makes Science Fiction Unexciting

Almost one year ago a small zine appeared at the now closed Tower Records. The CIA Make Science Fiction Unexciting is printed by Microcosm Publishing in Portland, Oregon. The zine author indicates that the series is about CIA and FBI involvement in a variety of domestic and other affairs. Copies are available for $1- $1.50 each. Four issues have been released and two are available online.

#1 - The Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. [TEXT]

#2 - The AIDS virus and "cures" [PDF]

#3 - The PATRIOT act and post 9/11 security measures

#4 - The Death of Puerto Rican independence leader Filiberto Ojeda Rios

"Terrorist/ism" as defined by Alabama Training Module

The Alabama Department of Homeland Security has a terrorism awareness and prevention training module on their website (as do many other governmental departments). What is notable about this site is its explicit definitions and categorizations of groups. The site encourages citizens to participate in "their own security" through a variety of means, but does not encourage "spying on neighbors."

The module states that there is no clear definition of terrorism but highlights the FBI's version:
"THE UNLAWFUL USE OF FORCE OR VIOLENCE AGAINST PERSONS OR PROPERTY TO INTIMIDATE OR COERCE A GOVERNMENT OR CIVILIAN POPULATION, OR ANY SEGMENT THEREOF, IN FURTHERANCE OF POLITICAL OR SOCIAL OBJECTIVES." (Sounds a bit like US foreign policy?)

According to the website the terrorists goals include:
-Creating fear and panic
-Causing disruption
-Demoralizing citizens and shocking them into inaction
-Intimidation
-Mistrust
-Embarrassing our government (they display a photo of Card whispering into Bush's ear while he reads a book about a goat)
-Media attention

The module further describes WMDs, international, and domestic terrorists. For domestic threats they lump many diverse groups together:

Hate Groups (based in Alabama)
Anti-Government Groups
Anarchist Groups (the site states: The theme is always the same. Big is bad. Rich are using the poor to stay rich. Our government in particular is using its power immorally.)
Separatist Movements
Single Issue Extremists (the site lists: Environmentalists, Anti-GE Activists, Animal Rights, Anti-Nuclear, Anti-War, and Gay Rights Activists)

This is just one example, there are probably thousands of others...

Turkeys, Factory Farming, and Peaceful Alternatives

Factory farming regards animals and the natural world as commodities to be exploited for profit. In animal agriculture, this has led to institutionalized animal cruelty, environmental destruction and resource depletion, and animal and human health risks.

260-300,000,000 turkeys are raised and killed for their flesh every year in the United States. Of this total, approximately 45,000,000 are killed for Thanksgiving, and 22,000,000 are killed for Christmas.

Peaceful Alternatives:
http://www.gentlethanksgiving.org/
http://www.animaladvocacy.net/thanksgiving.html

Information about turkey factory farms:
http://www.adoptaturkey.org/industry.htm
http://www.goveg.com/factoryFarming_turkeys_farms.asp
http://www.farmsanctuary.org/newsletter/newslet6.htm

Peace is not just for people, it is for the earth and all its inhabitants.

On another note, here is another perspective on the American holiday known as thanksgiving: The American Thanksgiving: Rejoicing in Genocide and White Supremacy by the Black Agenda Report Executive Editor Glen Ford.

Shocking Timeline of U.S. Human Medical Experimentation

Last week a timeline of US human medical experimentation was published on this blog but the posting has disappeared likely due to a technical glitch (we hope).

News Target provides a variety of health information including a shocking timeline detailing the history of human medical experimentation. Originally published in March 2006.

Part I
Human medical experimentation in the United States: The shocking true history of modern medicine and psychiatry (1833-1965)
Part II
Human medical experimentation in the United States: The shocking true history of modern medicine and psychiatry (1965-2005)

Excerpt from Introduction Part I:

"The United States claims to be the world leader in medicine. But there's a dark side to western medicine that few want to acknowledge: The horrifying medical experiments performed on impoverished people and their children all in the name of scientific progress. Many of these medical experiments were conducted on people without their knowledge, and most were conducted as part of an effort to seek profits from newly approved drugs or medical technologies."

Note: the blog author does not agree that animals are acceptable substitutes for experimentation and is disturbed that animals are bred to be and used as laboratory subjects. For more information on the connection between nature, animals, and humankind, visit the website for the film Earthlings.

Global Climate Change or Weather Warfare?

The weather is much different than in recent years. Hurricanes and tornadoes are occurring in areas where they had not previously been reported. Trees and flowers are budding and blooming earlier. On the west coast many trees are dropping their leaves much later and in some instances deciduous trees and shrubs are not shedding all their leaves. Many notice a constant hazy sky. Many have noted a much higher incidence of static electricity.

Weather warfare is a topic few are willing to conceptualize let alone discuss, but the reality exists. Full spectrum dominance requires full control from military power, to space, to electronic communication and surveillance, to the weather. Few know that this threat has existed for decades and was such a concern that a treaty was signed in Geneva on May 18, 1977, Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques

In his October 31, 2006, article titled "Beneath the Debate on Climate Change: Weather Warfare and the Manipulation of Climate for Military Use," Michel Chossudovsky has composed a new introduction to repost his article from September 27, 2004, "The Ultimate Weapon of Mass Destruction: Owning the Weather for Military."

The article begins with the following quote:
"Weather-modification offers the war fighter a wide-range of possible options to defeat or coerce an adversary... In the United States, weather-modification will likely become a part of national security policy with both domestic and international applications. Our government will pursue such a policy, depending on its interests, at various levels." (US Air Force, emphasis added. Air University of the US Air Force, AF 2025 Final Report, http://www.au.af.mil/au/2025/)"

Sourcewatch has posted the following definition of Environmental Warfare in addition to key articles on the topic:

Environmental warfare is "defined as (1) the intentional modification of a system of the natural ecology, such climate and weather, earth systems such as the ionosphere, magnetosphere, tectonic plate system, and/or the triggering of seismic events (earthquakes) (2) to cause intentional physical, economic, and psycho-social, and physical destruction to an intended target geophysical or population location, (3) as part of strategic or tactical war.

A key aspect of the Weather Warfare strategy is the High-Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) based in Gokona, Alaska, that has been in existence since 1992. HAARP is part of a new generation of sophisticated weaponry under the US Strategic Defense Initiative; it is operated by the Air Force Research Laboratory's Space Vehicles Directorate, and is a system of powerful antennas capable of creating "controlled local modifications of the ionosphere" [upper layer of the atmosphere].

From Killer Spinach to Gamma Ray Greens

For weeks, they searched for the source of contamination of spinach grown in San Juan Bautista, California. Now the topic has dropped from the headlines and likely from the minds of consumers. Initially it was logical to believe that the filth of factory farming was to blame by contaminating the water supply; however, there are farms everywhere that come in contact with water sources, so why hasn’t this occurred more frequently? It was also interesting to note that no one found it odd that the FBI became involved in the “investigation.”

At first one could attribute the spinach scare to the greater fear campaign that is waged daily on the American public. Although, generally, most issues that receive such exaggerated news attention have an alternative motive. In this instance, that motive is to mobilize support for food irradiation. The suspicion was confirmed upon reading the US FDA’s page Nationwide E. Coli O157:H7 Outbreak: Questions & Answers (http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/spinacqa.html). Following is one question from their Q&A page:

Can irradiation be used as a means to control microbial contamination in produce? http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/spinacqa.html#irrad

To date, FDA has not received a specific request (petition) from industry to allow for the irradiation of fresh produce for the purpose of controlling microbial contamination. FDA does have a petition under review to permit the irradiation of multi-ingredient foods, including prepackaged (bagged) fresh produce, for the purpose of controlling microbial contamination. This petition, if approved, would permit the irradiation of prepackaged fresh spinach at specified doses. Note, however, that the suitability and efficacy of the irradiation of foods for microbial control must be examined by industry on a product-by-product basis.

Then there are Op/Ed pieces such as one that ran on September 26, 2006, in the Baltimore examiner that claim “Group’s opposition to food irradiation is a threat to life.” The piece, written by Jay Ambrose, labels those who have concerns about governmental misuse of science as anti-modernist, back-to-nature extremists. In his piece he practically begs the powers that be to take needed steps in government, in business, and in science, to protect our food.

Again on October 2 another Op/Ed piece appeared in the Baltimore Examiner that declared: “Food irradiation needed to protect consumers.”

Additional research found a statement from Ruth Kava, Ph.D., R.D., Director of Nutrition at the American Council on Science and Health , that notes although Food Irradiation was “intended” for meat products, consumers should consider pressing “the FDA and other overseers of the nation's food supply to extend protective food irradiation to produce such as spinach and other salad greens.” http://www.acsh.org/factsfears/newsID.845/news_detail.asp

For information about food irradiation and groups working against food irradiation please visit:
Organic Consumers Association
Sustainable Table
Public Citizen, Food Irradiation
Food Irradiation Watch (Australia)