Opit's LinkFest!: 5 April

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - MARCH 26: (EDITORS NOTE: Image is a digital composite) In this composite image the Luna Park entrance is seen before (top) and after the lights are switched off for Earth Hour on March 26, 2011 in Sydney, Australia. Earth Hour encourages individuals around the world to turn off their lights for one hour at 20:30 local time on March 26, 2011 to take a stand against climate change. The largest Earth Hour was in 2010 when 128 countries participated. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

“Consider your origin. You were not formed to live like brutes but to follow virtue and knowledge.” - Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy The New American Century - Full Length Documentary http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1aQGa2HwSk A brilliant film for all Military Personnel as well as those who still believe in Left/Right, Liberal/Conservative, Democrat/Republican paradigms, the bullshit findings of the 9/11 Commission and everyone else who sees their world through the eyes of corporate owned media. "The New American Century is a stunning film. It should be seen as widely as possible, in cinemas, bars, clubs, at meetings and, of course, through the internet. I'm sure the film will continue to be a source of debate and political education for many years." - Ken Loach. Fabled Enemies - Full Length Documentary http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/fabled-enemies/ Fabled Enemies by Jason Bermas is the latest film to question the events of September 11th 2001. Instead of the focus being on physical anomalies surrounding the attacks, it focuses on a vast intelligence network and how they were able to succeed almost 7 years ago. It begins with footage from the morning itself reminding everyone that in the court of public opinion Osama Bin laden was convicted on day 1, there were no other suspects. We then delve into the fact that many of the alleged hijackers were trained at U.S. military facilities, and still others had ties to the FBI. When others within the FBI tried to go after Bin Laden, and his financial supporters there investigations were impeded and shut down. Able Danger the Black Ops program that identified the hijackers prior to 9/11 had also tried to move the information to the FBI, but the FBI still was not interested for some reason. Anthony Shaffer who headed up this team later met with Phillip Zelikow, the Executive Director of the 9/11 Commission, to try and pass this information along after the fact. It was then covered up, not included in the report, and Shaffer and his team were gagged and slandered. The film then explores the mystery of those who were detained on the morning of September 11th. Several vans were stopped that morning containg Israeli citizens, who either seemed to have prior knowledge of the attacks, or had explosives in their vehicle. When investigators started looking into this network it was revealed they did indeed have a classified role in 9/11, and that two companies within the United States may have been helping them gain their intel. Invisible Empire: A New World Order Defined - Full Length Documentary http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/invisible-empire-new-world-order-defined/ In the tradition of his first Internet blockbuster, Loose Change, which has had over 100 million visits, Jason Bermas has created yet another outstanding documentary film, Invisible Empire: A New World Order Defined. This film documents very clearly that some of America’s most powerful elected officials, including all recent presidents, have been part of an international cabal to establish a socialist New World Order that would eradicate national sovereignty and many of the God-given freedoms vouchsafed in the Constitution of the United States, making all citizens mere slaves of the state. It has an amazing collection of video footage of these leaders stating their unabashed ambitions to establishing this New World Order. It also shows just who is behind this international cabal and their nefarious intentions and true sinister nature. It is deeply troubling and very important. Collateral Murderhttp://collateralmurder.com/ On July 6, 2010, Private Bradley Manning, a 22 year old intelligence analyst with the United States Army in Baghdad, was charged with disclosing this video (after allegedly speaking to an unfaithful journalist). The whistleblower behind the Pentagon Papers, Daniel Ellsberg, has called Mr. Manning a 'hero'. He is currently imprisoned in Kuwait. The Apache crew and those behind the cover up depicted in the video have yet to be charged. To assist Private Manning, please see bradleymanning.org. The video, shot from an Apache helicopter gun-sight, clearly shows the unprovoked slaying of a wounded Reuters employee and his rescuers. Two young children involved in the rescue were also seriously wounded. WikiLeaks wants to ensure that all the leaked information it receives gets the attention it deserves. In this particular case, some of the people killed were journalists that were simply doing their jobs: putting their lives at risk in order to report on war. Iraq is a very dangerous place for journalists: from 2003- 2009, 139 journalists were killed while doing their work. US Marine Spared Jail Over Deaths of Unarmed Iraqishttp://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/25/us-marine-haditha-case-spared-jail?fb=native&CMP=FBCNETTXT9038 Sgt. Frank Wuterich admitted to leading Marines into two civilian homes in Haditha, Iraq in 2005, massacring 24 civilians including women, children and an elderly man confined to a wheelchair. He was charged with Involuntary Manslaughter, received no jail time and given a pay cut. "I was expecting that the American judiciary would sentence this person to life in prison and that he would appear and confess in front of the whole world that he committed this crime, so that America could show itself as democratic and fair," said survivor Awis Fahmi Hussein. Outrage as Footage Emerges from Afghanistan of Man Beating to Death a Sheep with a Baseball Bat While U.S. Soldiers Stand Around Laughinghttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2074550/Outrage-footage-emerges-man-beating-death-sheep-baseball-bat-U-S-soldiers-stand-laughing.html Henry Kissinger - "Military Men Are Just Dumb, Stupid Animals To Be Used As Pawns In Foreign Policy"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYzJLzTZduk&feature=share Showing the Crimes of the Industrial Military Complex and War Machine, Please Do Your Part To Make This Video Viral and then become active in each moment FROM this point onwards to stop this MADNESS!! Disturbing Footage!! Combat PTSD Vets Know Price They Paid – For A False Dream by Allen L Roland of Veterans Today http://www.veteranstoday.com/2011/11/14/combat-ptsd-vets-know-price-they-paid-for-a-false-dream/#.TsJupiRunXg.facebook Only a heart centered approach can reach a combat veteran with PTSD because not only have they experienced death first hand as few others ever will ~ but they have bonded with their brothers in the process and that love lies beneath the cold embers of their wounded hearts as well as the longing for true service and justice. A Veteran Commits Suicide Every 80 Minutes, Center for a New American Security Study Reveals http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/02/suicide_n_1070491.html?ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false WARNING: Supporting the War in Iraq Will Make You Sound Like a Fucking Moron http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=eKscDhAWPWg The Reagan-Saddam Connection: "We Create These Monsters And When It’s Not Convenient We Cover Them Up" http://www.democracynow.org/2004/6/9/the_reagan_saddam_connection_we_create Journalist Alan Friedman author of Spider’s Web: The Secret History of How the White House Illegally Armed Iraq discusses how Reagan normalized U.S. relations with Iraq and sold chemical weapons to Saddam Hussein. [Includes transcript] 9/11 ANALYSIS: From Ronald Reagan and the Soviet-Afghan War to George W Bush and September 11, 2001 by Michel Chossudovsky http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=20958 The existence of an outside enemy sustains the illusion that the "war on terrorism" is real. It justifies and presents military intervention as a humanitarian operation based on the right to self-defense. It upholds the illusion of a "conflict of civilizations". The underlying purpose ultimately is to conceal the real economic and strategic objectives behind the broader Middle East Central Asian war. Iraq War: U.S. Soldier Strips Off His Medals and Ribbons and Quits http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6hp8HMstkE War On Drugs Revealed as Total Hoax - US Military Admits to Guarding, Assisting Lucrative Opium Trade in Afghanistan http://www.naturalnews.com/034289_Afghanistan_opium_trade.html After 9/11, the US military-industrial complex quickly invaded Afghanistan and began facilitating the reinstatement of the country's poppy industry. According to the United Nations Drug Control Program (UNDCP), opium cultivation increased by 657 percent in 2002 after the US military invaded the country under the direction of then President George W. Bush. U.S. Soldiers Poisoned By Their Own Government http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJ2B3Nyz-6M "Part of the point of the video was to reveal a completely corrupt government contractor called Haliburton, (Cheney's company) who is one of the main profiteers of the war. They are given billion dollar no bid contracts, and steal the money and make soldiers sick. The point is not what you can take, but that US companies are guilty of stealing taxpayers money to make their own soldiers sick. And of course, our government blithely ignores". On the Dark Side in Al Doura - A Soldier in the Shadowshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiNmerP32xk WARNING: Graphic and disturbing photos between 38:47 and 40:00. U.S. Army Ranger John Needham, who was awarded two purple hearts and three medals for heroism, wrote to military authorities in 2007 reporting war crimes that he witnessed being committed by his own command and fellow soldiers in Al Doura, Iraq. His charges were supported by atrocity photos which, in the public interest, are now released in this video. John paid a terrible price for his opposition to these acts. His story is tragic. CBS reported obtaining an Army document from the Criminal Investigation Command suggestive of an investigation into these war crimes allegations. The Army's conclusion was that the "offense of War Crimes did not occur." However, CBS also stated that the report was "redacted and incomplete; 111 pages were withheld." This video is placed with the context of Vice President, Dick Cheney, insistence that this nation's efforts "must go to the dark side;" which included ignoring the Geneva Conventions. John's story is told, here, by his father, Michael Needham. It is produced in the spirit of the public interest and towards promoting justice foundational to the rule of law. Obama at Fort Bragg: A Hypocritical Embrace of a Criminal War by Bill Van Auken of Global Research, December 15, 2011http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=28220 "In another passage, he told the assembled soldiers: “Never forget that you are part of an unbroken line of heroes spanning two centuries—from the colonists who overthrew an empire, to your grandparents and parents who faced down fascism and communism, to you—men and women who fought for the same principles in Fallujah and Kandahar, and delivered justice to those who attacked us on 9/11.” This is all nonsense and lies. Do the White House speechwriters really expect anyone to believe that 170,000 American troops were deployed in Iraq to give Iraqis “a chance to forge their own destiny” with no thought for the 112 billion barrels of oil within the country—the second largest proven reserves in the world? (thank you Betsy Metzy) America’s Death Pornography Culture: Celebrating brutal deaths of Qaddafi and Saddam by Wayne Madsen of Global Research http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=27430 The United States government and military revels in death and pornographic intimidation. The videos and photographs of howling Iraqis celebrating the hanging of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein after his U.S.-administered kangaroo court trial in Iraq and the physical abuse, alleged sodomizing, and execution of Libya’s Muammar Qaddafi by NATO-armed and directed rebels after his convoy in Sirte was reportedly struck by a U.S. drone-launched missile, exemplify America’s fixation with pornographic death scenes… Howard Zinn: "On Human Nature and Aggression."http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=subwDAZtEN0 Not a revolutionary socialist by far, here's Howard Zinn putting the boot into the idea that humans are naturally aggressive. He clearly articulates the idea that humans do not readily go to war, that workers have to be persuaded via massive propaganda campaigns and when that inducement fails then coercion, via the draft, is the only option. Zinn then argues that when human aggression does manifest itself, the cause is rooted in environmental factors. An updated Zinn talk on the subject could well have cited the number of soldiers who desert, who commit suicide (in the US its reached epidemic proportions among Iraq War vets), and who suffer mental breakdown (The Pentagon recently repotrted that some 40% of front lien troops have mental health problems). Anti-war Muhammad Ali puts Barack Obama the Warmonger to Shame www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhv_WPKOXR4 Boxer Muhammad Ali went to jail rather than be drafted in the US Army to fight in Vietnam: "My conscious won't let me go shoot my brother, or some darker people, or some poor hungry people in the mud for big powerful America. And shoot them for what? They never called me nigger, they never lynched me, they didn't put no dogs on me, they didn't rob me of my nationality, rape and kill my mother and father... Shoot them for what? ...How can I shoot them poor people, Just take me to jail." What Muhammad Ali said about the Vietnam war could be applied just as much to the wars Barack Obama is fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere, and the wars he is threatening to start in Iran and Syria. "Blood on the Tracks": Brian Willson's Transformation from Vietnam Vet to Pacifist. 1 of 3http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPGcViL2svY 2 of 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BPL1w3QW8U&feature=relmfu 3 of 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoSpn4fBa3s&feature=relmfu Democracy Now! airs an extensive interview with a man who put his life on the line twice: Once when he served in the Vietnam War and again when he came back. On September 1, 1987, Brian Willson took part in a nonviolent political action outside the Concord Naval Weapons Station in California. He sat down on the train tracks, along with two other veterans, to try to stop a U.S. government munitions train sending weapons to Central America during the time of the Contra Wars. The train didn't stop. Willson suffered 19 broken bones, a fractured skull and lost both of his legs. "Before, I had spent many months in Nicaragua in the war zones and I had been to El Salvador talking to guerrillas and to talking human rights workers. Understanding incredible extent of murders that were going on and maimings and displacements cause of fear of being murdered," Willson said. I decided that I had to "at least escalate my own non-violent occupation, if you will, of the tracks. ... "Well I regret that I lost my legs, but I don't regret that I was there. I did what I said I was going to do. ... Following orders, I discovered, is not what I'm about." Today, he is traveling the country visiting solidarity protests with Occupy Wall Street, where some of his fellow protesters are also veterans. He's also been talking about his new memoir, "Blood on the Tracks: The Life And Times of S. Brian Willson." On the West Coast he completed much of the tour on his hand cycle. Private Bradley Manning Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize http://ecolocalizer.com/2012/02/04/private-bradley-manning-nominated-for-nobel-peace-prize/ Here is the Icelandic group’s letter to the Nobel Peace Prize Committee: We have the great honor of nominating Private First Class Bradley Manning for the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize. Manning is a soldier in the United States army who stands accused of releasing hundreds of thousands of documents to the whistleblower website WikiLeaks. The leaked documents pointed to a long history of corruption, war crimes, and imperialism by the United States government in international dealings. These revelations have fueled democratic uprising around the world, including a democratic revolution in Tunisia. According to journalists, his alleged actions helped motivate the democratic Arab Spring movements, shed light on secret corporate influence on our foreign policies, and most recently contributed to the Obama Administration agreeing to withdraw all U.S.troops from the occupation in Iraq. Bradley Manning has been incarcerated for well over a year by the U.S. government without a trial. He spent over ten months of that time period in solitary confinement, conditions which experts worldwide have criticized as torturous. Juan Mendez, the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on Torture and Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment, has repeatedly requested and been denied a private meeting with Manning to assess his conditions. The documents made public by WikiLeaks should never have been kept from public scrutiny. The revelations – including video documentation of an incident in which American soldiers gunned down Reuters journalists in Iraq – have helped to fuel a worldwide discussion about America’s overseas engagements, civilian casualties of war, imperialistic manipulations, and rules of engagement. Citizens worldwide owe a great debt to the WikiLeaks whistleblower for shedding light on these issues, and so I urge the Committee to award this prestigious prize to accused whistleblower Bradley Manning. Sincerely, Birgitta Jónsdóttir Margrét Tryggvadóttir Þór Saari Iraq Combat Veteran challenges Spielberg, Nimoy and James Cameron to the Venus Project movie.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCz-AMcb8WY

Magnetosphere Structure (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

First ever "Earthrise" photograph, taken from lunar orbit during Apollo 8 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Size comparison of terrestrial planets (left to right): Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Description of relations between Axial tilt (or Obliquity), rotation axis, plane of orbit, celestial equator and ecliptic. Earth is shown as viewed from the Sun; the orbit direction is counter-clockwise (to the left). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Composite image of the Earth at night. Français : Image composite de la Terre la nuit. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Earth seen from Apollo 17. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

UNIQUE PICTURE: Earth as seen from the outer Solar System (Photo credit: Icarus Kuwait)

BERLIN, GERMANY - MARCH 31: A volunteer lights one of 5000 blue and green candles in an eight-meter shape of Planet Earth in front of the Brandenburg Gate during Earth Hour 2012 on March 31, 2012 in Berlin, Germany. According to organizers, Earth Hour 2012 has participants including individuals, companies and landmarks in 147 countries and territories and over 5,000 cities agreeing to switch off their lights for one hour. The Brandenburg Gate, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Big Ben Clock Tower in London, the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro and the Empire State Building in New York are among the monuments whose operators have agreed to participate in the demonstration. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)