romunov’s blog et al

Does anyone remember the Somali pirates from a few weeks ago? Doesn’t matter, here is a new set of pirates you won’t hear about at all. They’re not far from Somalia, but in the Mediterranean:

On June 30, the government of Israel committed an act of piracy when the Israeli Navy in international waters illegally boarded the “Spirit of Humanity,” kidnapped its 21-person crew from 11 countries, including former US Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and Nobel Laureate Mairead MaGuire, and confiscated the cargo of medical supplies, olive trees, reconstruction materials, and children’s toys that were on the way to the Mediterranean coast of Gaza. The “Spirit of Humanity,” along with the kidnapped 21 persons is being towed to Israel as I write.

Read the rest of the article here.

From Prisonplanet.com:

Under Level 6 conditions, the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HSS) is able to declare mandatory vaccination under the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (PREP). There is no criteria listed stating what constitutes a threat.

And you would imagine there’s a Catch 22. Yes, there is:

The HHS web site says the Secretary may “issue a declaration…that provides immunity from tort liability (except for willful misconduct) for claims of loss caused, arising out of, relating to, or resulting from administration or use of (vaccine or other pharmaceutical) countermeasures to diseases, threats and conditions determined by the Secretary to constitute a present, or credible risk of a future public health emergency…” This means that if you or your child is harmed by a vaccine during these conditions, there is nothing you can do about it.

The Big Daddy (the govt) puts corporate interests ahead of those of individuals and the population.

This means it is time to stop giving the government your blind faith. It is time to become educated about flu vaccines.

We need to enforce that the science behind the vaccines is solid, without strings attached. We should push for more safeguards, even though there is always a chance a person will have a (fatal) reaction to a vaccine.

Another way is giving nature its course. The remaining population will be immunized against a particular virus and all will be well. This is the way nature works, has worked and will continue to work even after we’ve gone down in toxic waste.

I remember reading previous reports about the swine flu virus being released from a laboratory. Here’s another article fromm The Independent, suggesting laboratory origins:

(1) “Careful study of the genetic origin of the [1977] virus showed that it was closely related to a 1950 strain, but dissimilar to influenza ‘A’ (H1N1) strains from both 1947 and 1957. This finding suggested that the 1977 outbreak strain had been preserved since 1950. The re-emergence was probably an accidental release from a laboratory source,” according to the study published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Continuing further down:

This outbreak affected 230 military personnel, killing one person, but it was successfully contained and was almost certainly caused by the direct transmission of swine flu from pigs. Nevertheless, the global anxiety caused by the Fort Dix outbreak led to a surge in research into H1N1 around the world, with experiments on frozen samples of the virus stored in labs since the 1950s, Dr Zimmer said.

“I would imagine that most labs researching into influenza would have had the 1950s strain. We cannot actually pinpoint which lab had it or accidentally released it, but the re-emergence of H1N1 in 1977 made it potentially a man-made pandemic,” she said.

I went to our biggest shopping center (in Slovenia) to restock our tiny fridge and have the ingredients ready for tomorrows dinner. After shuffling through a stand of vegetables, I couldn’t find a single carrot that has been produced in Slovenia. Major vegetable importers here are Italy and Spain. I find supporting our local growing very important but am too lazy or is too inconvenient to go to the bazaar and buy from a local farmer. I’m willing to pay extra to see home articles in my local market. I don’t think that’s too much to ask for.

There you have it, the House passed a bill on “clean energy”, regulating more or less every aspect of an average person’s life. Did representatives read it? Hardly, there was a copy at speaker’s desk or online (and they would have to leave to access it). Just a note to all the people who put all their money on the Democrats. They’re all the same. I recommend visiting the link and at least watching the 10 minutes long video by Boehner (R-Ohio).

And here it is, HR 2454, 1201 pages of unread material passed the House. Congratulations to all the involved and beneficiaries!

It has been close to nine years since the blunder in the States began. Perhaps not many people still remember the good old 2000 and the Florida hanging chad debacle with Bush and Gore. The media took a big bite and swallowed. Then there was Ohio 2004 and the recount mess, the media bit again, swallowing whole. Not only that, they asked for seconds. And so people of the World (and the States) still remain clueless about the events of 2000 and 2004. At least that would explain how they still remain silent when their president waves his finger at Iran for having a rigged elections. Oh, and forget the fact that 400 million US dollars was poured into Iran (vive la recession) by the CIA (just in time for elections), who is notorious for destabilizing regions, countries and continents. I wonder where the hypocrisy (I call it hypocrazy) ends.

Check out this C-SPAN video with Flynt Leverett (Penn state). What he’s saying is that there is no evidence that the elections in Iran were rigged (favoring Ahmadinejad). Couple that with the way BBC tries to smear Ahmadinejad, you can see that someone is drumming up for war. Dumping the dollar may have something to do with it, among other things.

WHO has issued a pandemic warning level 6 yet little media outlets are pumping it up the way they have a few weeks ago when all this kadoongle started. What’s up with that?

Regular flu kills about 30.000 people in the States alone. Think about that when a few people die of some “new” disease (like the bird or swine flu). It’s laughable to me that they classify a disease as dangerous (sensu bird flu) when 100 people die in Asia, where population is four billion (out of six billion total).

Ever wondered what happens if you pour 10 tonnes of cement down an ant hill?

Let the quote speak for itself:

Russia’s Prime Minister Putin arrived in the town of Pikalyovo, the Leningrad region, after crowds of the local residents took to the streets and blocked a motorway protesting over unpaid salaries. Three major enterprises of the town were shut down, and nearly all of the townsfolk found themselves unemployed.

Putin harshly criticized the authorities of the Leningrad region upon his arrival in the town.

“If you can’t come to an agreement with each other to solve the problem, it will be done without you,” Putin said addressing top officials and the governor of the Leningrad region.

Putin forced the local authorities to pay the salary debts entirely - 41.2 million rubles - within only one day.

When the three major enterprises of the town were shut down, the locals lost their jobs and had their homes cut from hot water supplies: the boiler-house was shut down too.

“Why did you make everything look like a dump here?” Putin asked local officials during the tour of the troubled enterprises – the cement, alumina and the chemical works. The enterprises belong to different owners with Oleg Deripaska’s Bazel being the largest one of them (Deripaska used to be ranked as Russia’s richest men).

“The worst thing that they could do not to make me go there was to start violating the law. I think that it was done in collusion with those who did not want me to arrive in the town,” Putin said later during a meeting with representatives of trade unions in Moscow .

Oleg Deripaska, whose fortune was evaluated at $28 billion last year, was being very nervous during the meeting with Putin in Pikalyovo. He forgot to sign the contract about the delivery of supplies for idle enterprises to resume operations.

“Has Oleg Vladimirovich (Deripaska) signed? I do not see his signature. Come here and sign it,” Putin said, throwing a pen onto the table.

Deripaska signed the document, stood up and left holding the pen in his hand.

“Give the pen back!” Putin told him.

“You have made thousands of people hostage to your ambitions, your lack of professionalism - or maybe simply your trivial greed,” Putin told Deripaska and two other businessmen who own cement and alumina factories in Pikalyovo.

link

I think this is a sound, newsworthy news from Downunder.

Senator Fielding said he wanted to talk to the government’s environmental scientists about solar flares and their impact on global warming before he cast his vote.

“What I want to do is take the information that I’ve currently got and give it to the Rudd Government and their scientists and see what they say about it,'’ he said.

“If the answer is ‘look, it’s just rubbish and we’re just going to discount it’, well I think that’s not good enough.

“You need to argue your case on a scientific basis because this is a huge issue that if we get it wrong it’s going to actually end up costing Australia very, very dearly.'’

Spot on (emphasis mine)!

link

I wonder if this article is true or fake?

Reports of vans packed with explosives were confirmed at the World Trade Center on September 11th, 2001 as well as sub level explosions, among many other explosions. Vans were also discovered around the area, one had been exploded, one had been stopped for having a picture on the side of it with a plane flying into the World Trade Center, one had been stopped and found with explosives in it, and many others. The FBI actually had confirmed that a device was found in the complex and the building had begun to evacuate. It was this evidence that made the Federal Agency to speculate that a van packed with explosives was parked in the garage which was detonated to help weaken the structure.

link.

You hear politicians talk ALL the time how science is important in our state of affairs, with all the global warming hype and other problems pestering our society, but you rarely see them do anything about it. I’ve found another piece of inaction showing the State is subject to lobbying and nothing more. I have gotten the feeling there is no long term plan for anything other than how to transfer money from taxpayers to a few already loaded coffers.

If you look at the budget for 2009 of Slovenia (only in Slovenian) you will notice that there is little (ok, no) mention of scholarships for natural sciences by responsible Ministries. There are, however, predicted 50.732,00 € for scholarships for study of law by the Faculty of law. I fail to see how we need to encourage study of law, given that this faculty receives a lion’s share of new souls each year.
Then there’s the Ministry for culture giving whooping 667 k € for scholarships. I can’t find any other scholarships by specific Ministries financing students for natural sciences specifically. There are predicted scholarships for gifted and poor people, but that’s it.

Had a few minutes and I went photohunting. I have a bush of Philadelphus coronarius next to my garden and this is what I managed to capture on a photo cell.

Above mentioned bush in full bloom.

Hopefully Maarten will be able to chip in the species. I still don’t have a dissection microscope and haven’t been able to ID it. It’s a hoverfly (Syrphidae).

Possibly a muscid (Muscidae).

Another muscid-like fly.

“Rainbow child spider” (Araniella sp., det.: M. Gregorič).

I must admit, I wasn’t surprised when I learned that Merck started a phony journal with support from Elsevier. This is also why we must promote Open Access journals to exclude the greedy corporations from tinkering in the machine named Science.

I did not know that Islamic banking does (did?) not allow charging interest. This article gives some basic information. Basically, in the West, if you want to buy a car, you go to a bank, agree to a loan (with interest) upon which you receive your share of worthless papers (or electronically). In Islamic banking, the bank buys the car and sells it to the customer at a higher price but without interest. That way, the bank takes the risk as well. I see this as a more or less predatory lending proof system.

Here we go… again.

Israeli president has agreed to discuss the creation of the Palestinian state.

Mr Netanyahu, who leads a coalition government dominated by Right-wing parties, faces a new US effort to broker a Middle East settlement.

In the next four to five weeks, President Barack Obama’s administration is expected to publish an outline peace plan.

The crux of this proposal will be the creation of a Palestinian state - something that Mr Netanyahu and most of his coalition partners oppose. (link)

As you might have noticed, the government coalition opposes the creation of such state.

It would come with no surprise if during or just before the talks, a muslim-nazi-commie-hippie radicals launched two rockets towards Israel which would yield a response from IDF and end the talks rather abruptly. I will return to this post as soon as anything new over this happens.

I guess you can’t wait more than a few years and some scandals before another outbreak of deadly (insert factor) erupts. The last one was Avian flu virus and before that, BSE. People are panicking and it’s not all their fault. Large burden is upon the WHO and media outlets who faithfully reprint their statements. And it’s sad to see state and federal officials do their bidding without trying to do real hard science and base their decisions on those findings. I bet you didn’t know that in the last scare, Tamiflu was the preferred “cure” of choice, but scientific community has expressed what they hold reservations regarding this product (see here and follow links).

We’re witnessing another scare. Tamiflu manufacturer has announced a prediction of 500% in increase of sales of the product. The media is spilling out mass death scenario regardless that the WHO has corrected its 150 dead figure to 7. This is hardly the mortality you would expect from a deadly virus that was rampant in 1918 and killed about 50 million people. This is not even as strong as the “regular” flu that kills several factors of magnitude more people a year.

While this may turn out to be a genuine pandemic with devastating effects, there is still little evidence to insinuate in that direction. Perhaps when pigs fly.

I shamefully reprint the entire story here, however I take no credit for it. With this, I would like to illustrate the duality of the West. Saying one thing but in reality, doing something else, often the exact opposite. This fits with the current administration that talks the talk but doesn’t walk the walk.

At the final reception for Poland’s visiting Gomulka, stubby Nikita Khrushchev planted himself firmly with the Kremlin’s whole hierarchy at his back, and faced the diplomats of the West, and the satellites, with an intemperate speech that betrayed as much as it threatened.
More Related

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“We are Bolsheviks!” he declared pugnaciously. “We stick firmly to the Lenin precept—don’t be stubborn if you see you are wrong, but don’t give in if you are right.” “When are you right?” interjected First Deputy Premier Mikoyan—and the crowd laughed. Nikita plunged on, turning to the Western diplomats. “About the capitalist states, it doesn’t depend on you whether or not we exist. If you don’t like us. don’t accept our invitations, and don’t invite us to come to see you. Whether you like it or not. history is on our side. We will bury you!”

Just the day before, ambassadors of twelve NATO nations had walked out on a Khrushchev tirade that lumped Britain, France and Israel as bandits. Now Khrushchev was off again.

The Kremlin men cheered. Gomulka laughed. Red-faced and gesticulating, Nikita rolled on: “The situation is favorable to us. If God existed, we would thank him for this. On Hungary—we had Hungary thrust upon us. We are very sorry that such a situation exists there, but the most important thing is that the counterrevolution must be shattered. They accuse us of interfering in Hungary’s internal affairs. They find the most fearful words to accuse us. But when the British. French and Israelis cut the throats of the Egyptians, that is only a police action aimed at restoring order! The Western powers are trying to denigrate Nasser, although Nasser is not a Communist. Politically, he is closer to those who are waging war on him. and he has even put Communists in jail.”

“He had to,” offered Soviet President Kliment Voroshilov. Khrushchev turned on him and said: “Don’t try to help me.”

“Nasser is the hero of his nation, and our sympathies are on his side. We sent sharp letters to Britain, France and Israel —well, Israel, that was just for form, because, as you know, Israel carries no weight in the world, and if it plays any role, it was just to start a fight. If Israel hadn’t felt the support of Britain, France and others, the Arabs would have been able to box her ears and she would have remained at peace. I think the British and French will be wise enough to withdraw their forces, and then Egypt will emerge stronger than ever.”

Turning again to the Westerners, Khrushchev declared: “You say we want war, but you have now got yourselves into a position I would call idiotic” (”Let’s say delicate,” offered Mikoyan) “but we don’t want to profit by it. If you withdraw your troops from Germany, France and Britain —I’m speaking of American troops—we will not stay one day in Poland. Hungary and Rumania.” His voice was scornful as he added: “But we, Mister Capitalists, we are beginning to understand your methods.”

By this time, the diplomats—who, in turn, have come to understand Mister Khrushchev’s methods—had already left the room.

Just like with the bovine spongiformn encephalitis (BSE) and the bird flu, the journalistic profession has shifted into higher gear to hype everything up. Over the past week we’ve been flooded with the body count due to the newly emerged swine flu, virus H1N1.
However, WHO maintains there is only 7 confirmed deaths due to influenza virus. More people die from masochistic sex, but that doesn’t keep functionally illiterate people from hyperventilating.

A member of the World Health Organisation (WHO) has dismissed claims that more than 150 people have died from swine flu, saying it has officially recorded only seven deaths around the world.

But I’m sure Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney are enjoying the scare due to sky-rocketing sales of Tamiflu (they’re expecting 500% increase).