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Image via WikipediaI keep coming back to the same Search terms as above that was the name of the article in the Panelist which they superseded by a video. Rick B made a post directly related
The World According to Monsanto Here's a film that's well worth watching. It's long, and the framing device of a woman Googling away her ignorance about one of the world's most powerful corporations is, I think, a little crass. But perhaps because the film maker seems so naive, she has been able to get some of the most important men behind the scenes of the pesticide and genetically modified seed business to explain how they came to wield such power. I doubt that a more polished film crew would have been able to draw out some of the confessions that appear in this nearly-two-hour documentary. Highly recommended.
During the United States-led invasion of Iraq, in March, 2003, the looting of Iraq’s national archeological museum received considerable attention, but almost no one noted that the country’s national seed bank was destroyed. The bank, in the town of Abu Ghraib, contained seeds of ancient varieties of wheat, lentils, chickpeas, and other crops that once grew in Mesopotamia. Fortunately, several Iraqi scientists had placed samples of the country’s most important crops in a cardboard box and sent them to an international seed bank in Aleppo, Syria. There they sit, on a shelf in a cold room, waiting for a time when Iraq is stable enough to store them again.
Afghanistan’s bank, which contained rare varieties of almonds and walnuts, and also fruits including grapes, melons, cherries, plums, apricots, peaches, and pears—many of which originated in the region—was destroyed in the 2001 overthrow of the Taliban.
Monsanto buys ‘Terminator’ Seeds CompanyF. William Engdahl, August 27, 2006 GlobalResearch, Financial Sense Online, 321 Gold)The United States Government has been financing research on a genetic engineering technology which, when commercialized, will give its owners the power to control the food seed of entire nations or regions. The Government has been working quietly on this technology since 1983. Now, the little-known company that has been working in this genetic research with the Government’s US Department of Agriculture-- Delta & Pine Land-- is about to become part of the world’s largest supplier of patented genetically-modified seeds (GMO), Monsanto Corporation of St. Louis, Missouri. The Gene Revolution is not about ‘solving the world hunger problem’ as its advocates claim. It’s about handing over control of the seeds for mankind’s basic food supply—rice, corn, soybeans, wheat, even fruit, vegetables and cotton—to privately owned corporations. The advent of commercial GMO seeds in the early 1990’s allowed companies like Monsanto, DuPont or Dow Chemicals to go from supplying agriculture chemical herbicides like Roundup, to patenting genetically altered seeds for basic farm crops like corn, rice, soybeans or wheat. For almost a quarter century, since 1983, the US Government has quietly been working to perfect a genetically engineered technique whereby farmers would be forced to turn to their seed supplier each harvest to get new seeds. The seeds would only produce one harvest. After that the seeds from that harvest would commit ‘suicide’ and be unusable.
There has been much hue and cry, correctly so, that this process, patented ‘suicide’ seeds, officially termed GURTs (Genetic Use Restriction Technologies), is a threat to poor farmers in developing countries like India or Brazil, who traditionally save their own seeds for the next planting. In fact, GURTs, more popularly referred to as Terminator seeds for the brutal manner in which they kill off plant reproduction possibilities, is a threat to the food security as well of North America, Western Europe, Japan and anywhere Monsanto and its elite cartel of GMO agribusiness partners enters a market.
As part of sweeping "economic restructuring" implemented by the Bush Administration in Iraq, Iraqi farmers will no longer be permitted to save their seeds, which include seeds the Iraqis themselves have developed over hundreds of years. Instead, they will be forced to buy seeds from US corporations.
( Iraq - Mesopotamia - had a heritage of thousands of years of selective breeding of seeds )
. Iraq’s agriculture is in a mess. Iraq’s agricultural heritage goes back to the time when mankind first domesticated wheat some ten thousand years ago. But this ancient land is fertile no more. The years of Saddam’s corrupt regime have taken their toll as have the crippling years of UN sanctions. Only about half of Iraq's million hectares of land are currently under cultivation. By 1980 Iraq imported about half of its food. By 2002, between 80 and 100 percent of many basic staples -- wheat, rice, sugar, vegetable oil, and protein meals -- were imported.
So the provider has become the importer. The task facing Dr. Al-Sharifi is to make Iraqi fertile again. To assist the Iraqis in their task, the Americans appointed Dan Amstutz, a former executive with the world’s largest grain company Cargill.Amstutz also served as an agricultural Under-Secretary during the Reagan administration, and chief agricultural negotiator for the US during the GATT trade talks.
So here is a man who understands the needs of America’s multi-billion agribusiness, helping the poor Iraqi farmer. It was hardly surprising that when his appointment was announced, it was met by outrage. “Putting Dan Amstutz in charge of agricultural reconstruction in Iraq is like putting Saddam Hussein in the chair of a human rights commission,” said Kevin Watkins, Oxfam’s policy director.
But now Dr. Al-Sharifi has another problem to deal with. “Order 81” is one of the hundreds or so orders left behind by the Coalition Provisional Authority. It may sound rather innocuous, but Order 81 that covers “Patent, Industrial Design, Undisclosed Information, Integrated Circuits and Plant Variety,” is causing a huge stir internationally. The controversy was started last October, when two non-governmental organisations, Focus on the Global South and GRAIN issued a report entitled: “ Iraq's new patent law: A declaration of war against farmers”
The report argued that the Coalition Provisional Authority had “made it illegal for Iraqi farmers to re-use seeds harvested from new varieties registered under the law. What it will actually do is facilitate the penetration of Iraqi agriculture by the likes of Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer and Dow Chemical - the corporate giants that control seed trade across the globe”.
The new patent law also explicitly promotes the commercialisation of genetically modified (GM) seeds in Iraq. And it is this that worries the experts. This month Dr. Al-Sharifi received an email. It was from the Independent Science Panel, whose members include some of the world’s leading scientists on agriculture and genetic engineering. These include Dr Tewolde Egziabher, the head of Ethiopia’s Environmental Protection Authority and Dr. Arpad Pusztai, one of the world’s leading independent researchers into the health effects of GM foods.
The purpose of the email was to “highlight the damage that Order 81 will do to Iraq’s agricultural future”. According to the scientists: “The Order promotes the view that GM varieties are really no different from ‘new’ varieties developed through conventional breeding programmes. This view is scientifically indefensible, and the many unique health and environmental hazards associated with GM crops and foods are now well documented in the scientific literature”. Their closing remarks to Dr. Al-Sharifi were stark: “We consider that the patrimony of your country is at stake here, and that your attitude to Order 81 will affect the lives of Iraqi people for generations to come.”
There is no doubt that Dr. Al-Sharifi will be under intense US pressure to keep Order 81. But will she side with the interests of Iraqi farmers or American agribusiness and the biotech giants? Because the two are not compatible. For biotech companies such as Monsanto, the zeal with which they have tried to impose GM crops and food on the world’s rich and poor alike is staggering. They are backed by the brutal force of the Bush Administration that wants millions of people the world over to eat GM food, whereas millions do not want to.
The corporate US House of Lords, aka Senate, passed Big Agra’s “Food Safety and Modernization Act” which aims to further impede the natural agriculture resurgence while shielding the real sources of food contamination, factory animal farms.
Comment from Pilarerecto (IP: 97.112.144.107) Time: December 11, 2010, 9:45 am
Let me re-title this commentary slightly to the following …
The Democrats Aren’t Spineless, They Are Conservative: Reflections on Chutzpah, Theirs and Ours
The purpose of this article is to give a brief outline of how the elites, and the Rockefellers in particular, are using food as a weapon.
Since the Rockefeller family came to power (especially after gaining a monopoly with Standard Oil) they have manipulated our government into ruining our financial system by way of the Federal Reserve, energy through oil dependency and food with GMOs (Genetically Engineered Organisms). The intention is to rob us blind and kill us. It’s time to wake up.
It the overarching blueprint for depopulation and total control over America and the rest of the world. There is no question that Americans are targeted for depopulation: GMO (Genetically Modified Organism) food has saturated American farmlands. GMOs are dangerous and the proliferation of corn crops (used as sweetener, animal feed, processed food, etc) in America is shortening our life spans.(1) Our water is polluted, containing over 60,000 chemicals, most of which have never been tested for safety.(2) Our air is toxic, and the US is one of the most targeted areas for chemtrails.(3) This is just the tip of the iceberg, the things we know about. The focus of this article is revealing the link between the Rockefellers and their intended use of food as a weapon, which is more powerful than military domination and energy control.
The official name of this program is Agenda 21 Sustainable Development.
We call it the Iraq War, as we did the Vietnam War, but America’s wars aren’t so-named in the host countries. It’s the Iraq Invasion, not War, and Afghanistan Invasion really, now Occupation, Decimation and Holocaust.
"The censorship is such on television in the U.S. that films like mine don't stand a chance."
John Pilger is a world-renowned journalist, author and documentary filmmaker, who began his career in 1958 in his homeland, Australia, before moving to London in the 1960s. (Excerpt from main website)
The Memphis Homeland Security fusion center has a map listing theTennessee ACLU as a “Terrorist Event.” Compound that with what a ranking senator (R-AL) has called the “ACLU DNA.” It goes beyond semantics when the label of terrorist means by executive order suspects can be detained without charges, indefinitely and without an enforceable standard of human rights. Think twice about those giving credence to Vice President Biden’s categorization of Wikileaks as more terrorism than journalism. On the lighter dark side, the CIA has set up a Wikileaks Task Force (WTF), prompting comedian Andy Borowitz to suggest the more apt Stop Terrorists From Uniting (STFU).
Monsanto Hired Mercenary Blackwater To Infiltrate Anti-GMO groups
As deaths from the cholera outbreak soar past 1,000, fear is taking hold in neighbourhoods that have been so deprived of any civic investment that sanitation infrastructure often amounts to little more than open sewers filled with rubbish and human excrement.
Despite the billions of dollars in international aid that flowed into this country before the earthquake, these neighbourhoods can be found in any town or city across Haiti. Ten months and more billions later, things are much worse, and after suffering in relative silence, with elections just a fortnight away, many here, it seems, have now had enough.
Chants such as “We refuse to vote while living under tarps”, have been replaced with “UN peacekeepers and cholera are brothers”. The difference now is that in some parts of the country the songs are accompanied by burned-out cars, flaming tyres, broken glass and the coffins of cholera victims blocking movement, forcing aid workers to suspend operations and leaving people to die in the street.
Many accuse the Nepalese UN troops of dumping cholera-infected fecal matter into the Artibonite river, and are now demanding the departure of all UN forces. Officials claim the protests are a politically motivated attempt to disrupt an election timetable they continue to cling to in the face of disaster. If the vote is ultimately postponed, as it surely should be, the international media will no doubt dismiss Haitians as unfit for democracy, still in the grips ofDuvalierest dictatorship or too deeply entrenched in anarchy to organise and manifest their popular will.
It’s a familiar pattern – in the 1980s, when Aids first came to the world’s attention, Haitians were stigmatised as one of the four Hs – homosexuals, hemophiliacs, heroin users and Haitian – having brought the disease to the US. But, like cholera, Aids was not indigenous to Haiti and is only now ravaging the country because somebody else brought it in. And, while Haitians face stigmatisation from their neighbours once again, the world must take its share of the blame.
The real question is: why? Why is there crippling poverty? Why no water, sanitation or medical infrastructure?
few companies or researchers have dared to apply genetic engineering to plants that provide an essential strut of the U.S. economy, trees.
International Paper Co. and MeadWestvaco Corp. are planning to transform plantation forests of the southeastern United States by replacing native pine with genetically engineered eucalyptus. the fertility system used by ArborGen, which, according to leading scientists, has never been rigorously studied in multiyear trials to prove that it can effectively control plants' spread.
More research must be conducted before such systems are relied upon to restrict pollen and seed spread, they say.
Genetically Modified Forest Planned for U.S. Southeast
Here’s a great idea: Let's bring into our country a genetically-engineered, non-native tree that is known to be wildly invasive, explosively flammable,and insatiably thirsty for ground water. Then let's clone thousands of these living firecrackers and plant them in forested regions across seven Southern states, allowing them to grow, flower, produce seeds, and spread into native environments.
ArborGen also refuses to confirm the genetically engineered traits of these trees, thereby blocking scientists from fully evaluating the "confidential" threats they pose. http://ga3.org/campaign/arbor_gen/i3bgn3s2o3mt7b5?
Koalas up a gum tree as turns eucalyptus poisonous
http://news.scotsman.com/scitech/Koalas-up-a-gum-tree.4061347.jp
Prof Hume, who has written books on the future of marsupials, discovered the leaves became more toxic as the level of carbon dioxide inside a greenhouse was increased.As carbon dioxide increased, the eucalyptus trees started producing more anti-nutrients than nutrients, meaning the leaves became poisonous to koalas.
Officials Hid Truth of Immigrant Deaths in Jail http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/10/us/10detain.html?em
Silence has long shrouded the men and women who die in the nation’s immigration jails. For years, they went uncounted and unnamed in the public record. Even in 2008, when The New York Times obtained and published a federal government list of such deaths, few facts were available about who these people were and how they died.
107 deaths in detention counted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement since October 2003, after the agency was created within the Department of Homeland Security. Documents show how officials — some still in key positions — used their role as overseers to cover up evidence of mistreatment, deflect scrutiny by the news media or prepare exculpatory public statements after gathering facts that pointed to substandard care or abuse.
The Americanization of Mental Illness http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/10/magazine/10psyche-t.html?em
For more than a generation now, we in the West have aggressively spread our modern knowledge of mental illness around the world. We have done this in the name of science, believing that our approaches reveal the biological basis of psychic suffering and dispel prescientific myths and harmful stigma. There is now good evidence to suggest that in the process of teaching the rest of the world to think like us, we’ve been exporting our Western “symptom repertoire” as well. That is, we’ve been changing not only the treatments but also the expression of mental illness in other cultures. Indeed, a handful of mental-health disorders — depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and anorexia among them — now appear to be spreading across cultures with the speed of contagious diseases. These symptom clusters are becoming the lingua franca of human suffering, replacing indigenous forms of mental illness.
Organic Sector Opposed To GE Animals http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/SC0912/S00049.htm Press Release: SOIL and HEALTH Assn of NZ
Organic sector members opposed to AgResearch’s continuing efforts to experiment on genetically engineered (GE) animals have taken a look at the facility that threatens to further tarnish New Zealand’s clean green 100% Pure branding. (1)
With the knowledge that the Environmental Risk Management Authority (ERMA) was both consenting non-notified applications for GE cattle and goats within the AgResearch Ruakura containment buildings, and was to consider further outdoor field trials there, attendees at the Organics Aotearoa New Zealand (OANZ) conference in Hamilton in November took a spontaneous look at the current GE cattle grazing nearby. writers and consumers expressed disappointment that inhumane and risky GE science was being government funded, although threatening the advantages of clean and sustainable production such as organic.
“While the GE cattle grazing at Ruakura looked healthy, they were the few GE experimental animals that had survived the less than 5% embryo success, still births, and gross birth deformities that AgResearch don’t want to be open about,” said Soil & Health spokesperson Steffan Browning.
Current GE cattle are from previous consented AgResearch GE field trials that ERMA have allowed to remain pending new applications for GE experiments to be processed. The expectation that ERMA would tick the AgResearch application’s through, regardless of public and scientific concern, was not met when an appeal to the High Court by GE Free NZ had the applications declared invalid in June this year. Although AgResearch has in turn appealed the High Court decision, to be heard 25 January, AgResearch and ERMA have continued to try and allow the AgResearch contractual obligations with overseas GE companies to be met, and both non-notified indoor applications and another outdoor GE field trial application including cattle, sheep and goats have been lodged. (2,3)
“While the High Court process is still running, it is a mockery of the judicial system for ERMA to allow further applications for essentially the same purpose, and to have the public excluded from decisions allowing GE experimental animals to the mercy of scientists already proven to fail the animal welfare and ethical standards expected by the community.”
“With no public consultation ERMA has also now allowed indoor GE goats to become bioreactors at Ruakura, although in direct contradiction of the findings of the Royal Commission on Genetic Modification (RCGM) that recommended food-animals not be used as ‘bioreactors’. The ethical considerations have also been marginalised.”(4)
Groups such as the Soil & Health Association (5), GE Free NZ, Physicians and Scientists for Global Responsibility (PSGR), Sustainable Future and many individual’s, including organic farmers, have also submitted to ERMA against AgResearch’s latest notified application for GE animal experiments on cattle, sheep and goats. Submissions closed on Friday 18 December.
“Genetic engineering of plants or animals is one of the biggest threats to our organic producers and New Zealand’s rapidly growing international trade in organic products.” said OANZ Chair Derek Broadmore.
“The growing organic sector presents the best possible image for New Zealand primary production overseas and leads in sustainable practices, yet it has to compete for funding with risky science that promotes products that consumers the world over have firmly rejected.”
“New Zealand and overseas consumers appreciate our clean green 100 % Pure NZ certified organic foods, why would we compromise that by allowing GE plants and animals into the New Zealand environment?”“AgResearch GE field trial animals, milk and effluent is disposed of at the Ruakura site, with risk of contamination into surrounding land, stock and waterways,” said Mr Browning.
“Organic standards and production rules such as BioGro, have zero tolerance for GE, and any risk of contamination by GE animals or plants should be eliminated.”
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/SC0912/S00047.htmPress Release: GE Free NZ
All three of the GM maize variants recently discovered to be toxic in long-term tests have been approved for sale by authorities in New Zealand and Australia.
The three types of maize: MON810, MON863 and NK603, are all listed as "approved" in the official list of FSANZ Approved Gene Technology Foods.
The results of a 2-year study published earlier this month (1) confirm that the short-term data used to originally gain official approval of the products had obscured their toxicity.
The study published in the International Journal of Biological Sciences demonstrates the toxicity of the three genetically modified corn varieties from U.S. seed company Monsanto. "Each time, for all three GMOs, the kidneys and liver, which are the main organs that react to a chemical food poisoning, had problems," indicated Gilles-Eric Séralini, an expert member of the Commission for Biotechnology Reevaluation, created by the EU in 2008.
The discovery provides proof for the first time that not only should these 'legally approved' GM foods be withdrawn, but that FSANZ's approach to approving such foods is wrong and is putting the public at risk.
"If this new study proving liver and kidney damage doesn't prompt immediate action from FSANZ it will signal a serious breakdown in the regulatory system," says Jon Carapiet from GE Free NZ in food and environment.
"It is not known how much of each of these GM crops is being allowed into New Zealand, but there is clearly a need for FSANZ to ban these products and comprehensively rethink their approval system in the face of potential public health emergency. Nothing less is scientifically or ethically justified."
Until action is taken by government officials, consumers - especially pregnant woman, the very young and those with suppressed immune systems, should avoid food from manufacturers using GM maize. People should opt for companies committed to a policy of using GM-free, NZ- grown or certified organic ingredients.
Experts on safety of pesticide residue in foods http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/SC0912/S00035.htm Press Release: Science Media Centre
Safe food campaigner Alison White has compiled a list of commonly consumed foods that contain pesticide residue and claims there are "various serious long term effects associated with particular pesticides found in our food".
The list, which found celery to be the most likely food to contain pesticide residue, ranked foods based on "the percentage of samples with pesticide residues and the number of pesticides detected in the total samples," and was based on data from the New Zealand Food Safety Authority.
Ian Shaw, Professor of Toxicology, Department of Chemistry, University of Canterbury comments:
"It is not the percentage of a particular crop found to contain pesticide residues that matters, but the levels of the pesticides. As analytic techniques get more and more sensitive there is no doubt that the percentage of analytical samples that are positive is going to increase.
"In order to assess the risk to the consumer we need to assess the health impacts of the residues; this is done by comparing the intake to the Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) for a particular pesticide. The ADI is calculated based on the toxicology of the pesticide and relates to the maximum amount that can be ingested daily for an entire lifetime without no ill effects. I would be very surprised indeed if any of the celery pesticide residues exceeded the ADI.
"There is a little naughtiness around the references given in support of some of the statements - the writer quotes a paper (ref 2) about chlorothalonil and dieldrin being associated with an increased risk of cancer. This paper is about sprayer occupational exposure which is a very much greater level of exposure.
"Clearly the writer does not fully understand the distinction between hazard (the intrinsic danger of a chemical) and risk (the chance of it causing harm). Risk = Hazard x Exposure. If exposure is low (as in the case of pesticide residues in food) the risk will be concomitantly low. This is perhaps best illustrated by potassium cyanide. If I took a gram of KCN I would die, but if I drank a few milliliters of a 0.000001% KCN solution I would suffer no ill effect whatsoever. The risk is low because the dose is low, even though the hazard of KCN is high!
"If the use of pesticides had been considered on environmental rather than human health ground I would be concerned. I do not think that the amount of pesticides necessary to grow some crops (e.g. celery) is warranted because of their environmental impact It would be far better to concentrate on this argument rather than the human health argument if ones raison d'etre is reducing pesticide use."
Dr John Reeve, toxicologist at the New Zealand Food Safety Authority comments:
"There are at least 500,000 identified natural chemicals that are present in all foods, including natural pesticides that work to protect the plant or animal from attack or from loss of nutrients. Very few of those chemicals have been tested. There are about 500 agricultural compounds used as pesticides. They have been extensively tested and internationally accepted, including by the World Health Organization, as safe when used as they are meant to be.
"We are three-quarters of the way through a total diet survey and have found nothing that would suggest any possible health risk. We detect residues at extremely low levels as a result of improved detection limits and so it is not surprising that we find them. The bottom line is that none are at levels that could even remotely be considered to be a health risk.
"The claimed effect of pesticide combinations has been studied and what is clear is that only when residues are at levels that are close to those which could have an individual effect do we see an effect of the combination, and the levels we have found are so low that this is not a possibility.
"The only worry people should have about fresh fruit and vegetables is that they are eating enough.
Peter Beaven, Chief Executive, Pipfruit New Zealand comments:
"The Apple Futures programme is an orchard production system introduced over a three year period for apple and pear growers. It is just entering its third year.
It was introduced in response to supermarket demand in Europe in particular where our suppliers were facing requirements for residue levels that were as low as 30% of currently allowable country MRLs.
"Although the time to measure residues from a consumer perspective is when the fruit is export boxes, we wanted to understand what impacted on residues around harvest time, and as a result of water dumps and packing processes. In consequence the residue testing programme to underpin the Apple Futures research has examined residue levels 10 days before harvest, at harvest and after packing to develop profiles to use as predictors.
"In the 2009 season, more than 900 residue tests were conducted, and this year we will carry our more than 1000 tests - a robust sampling regime!
"If we look just at residues after packing from the 2009 season, we find that the vast majority of residues measured are at the limits of detection - we are measuring at a few parts per billion. At these levels, we are getting a few false readings related to the residue extraction methodologies. We can only account for these by assuming some of the residues are naturally occurring in the fruit itself. The highest (worst) residue we found in this year's testing was a mere 13% of allowable MRL for Europe.
"Hence the Pipfruit industry has high levels of confidence in the results attainable from Apple Futures. Already 65% of the land area is under the programme.
"This programme is sufficiently well regarded that it has been entered in the innovation category competition as a new product at Fruit Logistica in Berlin next February. This is the world's largest fresh produce conference.
Willow adds new fuel to bioethanol debate http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/SC0911/S00031.htm Press Release: University of Auckland
The humble willow tree is being investigated as a source of biofuel by researchers at The University of Auckland’s Faculty of Engineering.
Alan Macfarlane has completed a doctoral study looking at better ways to convert components of wood into valuable chemicals, including bioethanol. His study was based on willow grown on a farm in Wairoa.
Bioethanol, unlike petroleum, is renewable and carbon neutral. Growing crops to produce it absorbs as much carbon as it releases as a fuel. However, its production from corn has been the subject of a fierce ethical debate over the use of valuable food crops as fuel.
“Woody material, however, can be grown with little energy input, no fertiliser and on marginal land that doesn't compete with food production,” Dr Macfarlane says. “It can also be converted to bioethanol, which can be blended with petrol, is cleaner burning and has the potential to improve the sustainability of the transport energΌ sector.�
The problem facing researchers is that the cellulose component of wood is the main source for ethanol production, and separating the cellulose is costly and difficult, requiring high temperatures or acid treatments.
Dr Macfarlane has developed a simple, low energy method to isolate cellulose from wood, but also to speed up the removal of another element called lignin. The 27-year-old found controlling pH was the most important factor in his research being successful.
“Producing a high-quality lignin as a by-product from the process makes good economic and environmental sense. Lignin can be used in place of petroleum products in the manufacture of some types of resin, so there is potential for it to be on sold and further reduce reliance on oil,” he said.
Dr Macfarlane has submitted his thesis, and is continuing to investigate the method under lower temperatures and acid levels, to further reduce the energy use of the process. The findings of his research will be published in 2010.
Dr Macfarlane’s research was completed in the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering under the supervision of Professor Mohammed Farid and Professor John JJ Chen.
World first in bio-crude oil 18 Nov 2009 http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/SC0911/S00030.htm Press Release: NIWA
World’s largest wastewater algae to bio-crude oil demonstration puts CO2 to good use.
This week will see the Minister of Energy Hon Gerry Brownlee open the largest wastewater algae to bio-crude oil demonstration project in the world.
The bio-crude from wastewater algae system is a technology for the future – it enables renewable fuel production while achieving low cost, energy efficient wastewater treatment, nutrient recovery, and greenhouse gas abatement.
The project combines NIWA’s scientific expertise on advanced wastewater treatment and algal production pond technology with Solray’s bio-crude oil conversion technology and is hosted by Christchurch City Council at the Christchurch Wastewater Treatment Plant.
“The reality is that no one in the world has done anything on this scale. Our trial aims to show that this complete process can be cost effective and efficient”, says pioneering NIWA Algal Pond Scientist, Dr Rupert Craggs.
The process creates value at every step - it treats wastewater, recovers wastewater nutrients as fertiliser, removes carbon dioxide from flue gas, and creates biofuel.
The Christchurch wastewater treatment plant has 230 hectares of polishing ponds that are currently used to provide disinfection of the treated wastewater prior to discharge.
It is in one of these ponds that five hectares have been cordoned off by NIWA and converted into a series of specially designed High Rate Algal Ponds with carbon dioxide (CO2) addition.
“Adding CO2 into the ponds enhances wastewater treatment and doubles algal production – biofuel production could be a great co-benefit for the community from its wastewater treatment” says Dr Craggs.
Another advantage of High Rate Algal Ponds is that the algae growing in these systems can be easily harvested by simple gravity settling – the harvested algal biomass can then be used as either a fertiliser or feed for livestock and aquaculture, or, as is this case with this demonstration, be converted to biofuel and the residue used as fertiliser.
The algae is collected from the harvesters and pumped to Solray’s specially designed “Super Critical Water Reactor” where pressure and heat converts it to bio-crude oil. The bio-crude, like fossil crude oil, can then be refined into LPG, petrol, kerosene, diesel, bitumen, and other oil based products.
“This process is essentially the same as nature used many millions of years ago to create the oilfields of the world we are currently rapidly depleting”
says Chris Bathurst, Solray Energy Ltd.
The Foundation for Research Science and Technology funded three year trial is in its first year and may in time generate fuel that the Christchurch City Council can use to power facilities in the city.
The aim of the project is for NIWA to produce between 150 and 300 tonnes of algae per year from the 5 hectares of wastewater treatment High Rate Algal Ponds. After harvesting and dewatering, this algae could potentially be converted into 45,000 - 90,000 litres (275 - 550 barrels) of bio-crude oil by Solray.
This bio-crude oil would normally be converted into a variety of products such as LPG, petrol, kerosene, diesel and bitumen, but if this amount were completely converted to petrol, it would power between 22 and 45 cars per year.
Christchurch City Council, Unit Manager City Water and Waste, Mark Christison says “The City Council is very interested in the project, both in terms of how the High Rate Algal Ponds can remove nutrients from the wastewater and the energy efficiency of Super Critical Water Reactor conversion of algal biomass into bio-crude oil.”
This trial is the culmination of over twelve years of research into High Rate Algal Pond wastewater treatment by NIWA and will demonstrate the commercial feasibility of algal biofuel production from these advanced wastewater treatment ponds which are a cost-effective way to upgrade the oxidation ponds currently used to treat the wastewater from many New Zealand communities.
A team led by chief researcher Fumio Inagaki have already confirmed that the bacteria exists in the crust deep under the seabed off the northern tip of Japan's main island, a spokesman for the institute told AFP.
But the project faces a big challenge to develop a method of activating the bacteria and accelerating the speed of methane gas generation, a spokesman for the agency acknowledged.
In the natural environment, the bacteria turn CO2 into methane gas very slowly, over billions of years, he said.
The researchers hope to develop technology within about five years to activate the bacteria and shorten the transformation time to about 100 years, he said.
The Wrecking Crew
From the most astute political scoffer since H. L. Mencken, the definitive account of the conservative reign of misrule and corruption
Hailed as a “hunk of dynamite” (Salon) and celebrated for its “satiric wit” (The New York Times Book Review) and “delighted outrage” (The New Republic), The Wrecking Crew supplies the first and—lacking future fact-finding commissions—probably the only full reckoning of what conservatism has wrought.
Casting his eyes from the Bush administration’s final months of plunder to the earliest days of the Republican revolution, Thomas Frank uncovers the deep logic behind the graft and incompetence of conservatives in power. He shows how leaders dedicated to a doctrine of government by entrepreneurship proceeded to sell off the state, channeling the profits to cronies and loyalists. He surveys the federal agencies doomed to failure by the inept and even hostile staff appointed to run them. He charts the practice of wholesale deregulation and the devastating results now clear for all to see. From political scandal to mortgage meltdown, Frank documents the consequences of enshrining the free market as the logic of the state.
As conservatives retreat to lick their wounds and a new administration prepares to undo the years of misgovernment, The Wrecking Crew makes clear the challenges before the nation. A brilliant and audacious stocktaking—now thoroughly revised and updated—this is Frank’s most revelatory work yet.
( O.K. I brought my own bag of salt for this one. I can recall reading descriptions from the 1950's of various alien spacecraft complete with diagrams ; and descriptions of different alien races. Also kidnapping is a wildly common theme : mixed with breeding programs as a rationale for alien abduction. The eugenics-style Prussian-Celtic mix propaganda work of hatemongering in Perception Alteration is an interesting twist on this : Celtics and Gaelic being a supposed throwback to a superior genetic pool of rulers and their tongue. 'Communion' and its companion pieces by Whitley Streiber { co-Author of 'WarDay' } harken to ongoing hidden intervention by a timeshifting alien species - as does 'the 4400' and 'Home' by Spielberg. But : von Daniken correctly pointed out we have always had angels, demons, djinni and more as legends. Presupposing that minds have been hypnotically messed with to make testimony ridiculous but fitting into cultural prejudices isn't a technologically difficult jump after secret research in the 1960's. Here's a 'Men in Black' or '2012' style selection. ) David Icke- Humans transform to Reptiles, WTF?! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAGTJErVNBU&feature=related
Operation Northwoods Exposed (MUST-SEE VIDEO!!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rp3P2wDKQK4
Comments - appatel
Our biggest enemy is our own creation, CIA & military industrial complex. These two institutions sucks billions of our tax money & are not accountable us, The American. They are bankrupting our nation. They spread the lie & we stupid buy it. Third one is our love for autos. Wake up America, wealth is not for ever.
MASSHOLEvids
Alex Jones left out on important fact that president John F Kennedy was against operation nothwood's he fired Gen Lyman Lemnitzer who proposed operation Northwoods. if you want to find out who the Kennedys really where then read the book Brothers the Hidden history of the Kennedy years by David Talbot. the Kennedys where Not hawks they repeatly stood up against there own military establishment CIA, Joint Cheifs of staff pushing for war In Cuba and Vietnam. they paid the price for it
How Americas Most Powerful News Media Worked Hand in Glove with the Central Intelligence Agency and Why the Church Committee Covered It Up http://tmh.floonet.net/articles/cia_press.html
WORKING PRESS — CIA STYLE
(from CIA and the Media, by Carl Bernstein, originally published in Rolling Stone, October 20, 1977)
To understand the role of most journalist‑operatives, it is necessary to dismiss some myths about undercover work for American intelligence services. Few American agents are “spies” in the popularly accepted sense of the term. “Spying” — the acquisition of secrets from a foreign government—is almost always done by foreign nationals who have been recruited by the CIA and are under CIA control in their own countries. Thus the primary role of an American working undercover abroad is often to aid in the recruitment and “handling” of foreign nationals who are channels of secret information reaching American intelligence.
Many journalists were used by the CIA to assist in this process and they had the reputation of being among the best in the business. The peculiar nature of the job of the foreign correspondent is ideal for such work: he is accorded unusual access by his host country, permitted to travel in areas often off‑limits to other Americans, spends much of his time cultivating sources in governments, academic institutions, the military establishment and the scientific communities. He has the opportunity to form long‑term personal relationships with sources and—perhaps more than any other category of American operative—is in a position to make correct judgments about the susceptibility and availability of foreign nationals for recruitment as spies.
WORDS OF DISGUISE
(from CIA and the Media, by Carl Bernstein, originally published in Rolling Stone, October 20, 1977)
Part of the confusion surrounding the use of American journalists by the CIA stems from semantic distinctions peculiar to the intelligence‑gathering profession. By carefully (and often misleadingly) using such spyspeak terms as “contract employee,” “agent,” “control capability,” “unilateral memo of understanding,” “agent of opportunity” and “intelligence asset,” the Agency has made it virtually impossible for almost any layman—including reporters experienced in covering intelligence activities and senators accustomed to being briefed by intelligence officers—to determine the exact nature of many relationships maintained by the CIA over the years with individual journalists. The Agency has also managed to obscure the most elemental fact about the relationships detailed in its files: i.e., that there was recognition by all parties involved that the cooperating journalists were working for the CIA—whether or not they were paid or had signed employment contracts.
The problem of determining the precise role of individual journalists has been compounded by the CIA’s use of equally technical terms peculiar to the profession of journalism—among them “stringer, “ “accredited correspondent,” “editorial employee,” “general circulation,” “freelance” and even “reporter.” CIA officials, particularly Colby, have consistently entangled in a semantic thicket the answers to such seemingly simple questions as, “Has Stewart Alsop ever worked for the CIA?” or “Has the Agency ever used Time magazine correspondents as undercover operatives?” The answer to both questions is yes, although Colby has refused to answer either.
Federal government tries to keep Tamil Tigers locked up
At the conclusion of the hearing, the migrants are entitled to only a general report of the allegations against them.
The move by Ottawa came after the IRB ordered the release of 35 men, all ethnic Tamils, who arrived in a boat off the coast of Vancouver Island in October.
Don't Mess with Yemen http://www.alternet.org/world/144892/don
We are the Awaleq
Born of bitterness
We are the sparks of hell
He who defies us will be burned
This is the tribal chant of the powerful Awaleq tribe of Yemen, in which they bid defiance to the world. Its angry tone conveys the flavour of Yemeni life and it should give pause to those in the US who blithely suggest greater American involvement in Yemen in the wake of the attempt to destroy a US plane by a Nigerian student who says he received training there.
Yemen has always been a dangerous place. Wonderfully beautiful, the mountainous north of the country is guerrilla paradise. The Yemenis are exceptionally hospitable, though this has its limits. For instance, the Kazam tribe east of Aden are generous to passing strangers, but deem the laws of hospitality to lapse when the stranger leaves their tribal territory, at which time he becomes "a good back to shoot at".
The Awaleq and Kazam tribes are not exotic survivals on the margins of Yemeni society but are both politically important and influential. The strength of the central government in the capital, Sanaa, is limited and it generally avoids direct confrontations with tribal confederations, tribes, clans and powerful families. Almost everybody has a gun, usually at least an AK-47 assault rifle, but tribesmen often own heavier armament.
Did U.S. Forces Execute Kids in Afghanistan? http://www.alternet.org/world/144955/did_u.s._forces_execute_kids_in_afghanistan
The Taliban suicide attack that killed a group of CIA agents in Afghanistan was big news in the U.S. over the past week. The attack took place on a base that was directing U.S. drone aircraft used to attack Taliban leaders. The airwaves and front pages were filled with sympathetic stories referring to the fact that the female station chief, who was among those killed, was the "mother of three children."
But the apparent mass murder of Afghan school children, including one as young as 11 years old, by U.S.-led troops, was pretty much blacked out in the American media. Especially blacked out was the claim by UN investigators that the students had not just been killed but executed, many of them after having first been rousted from their bedrooms and handcuffed.
..................................... report on the incident that ran in the Times of London
In a telephone interview last night, the headmaster [of the local school] said that the victims were asleep in three rooms when the troops arrived. "Seven students were in one room," said Rahman Jan Ehsas. "A student and one guest were in another room, a guest room, and a farmer was asleep with his wife in a third building.
"First the foreign troops entered the guest room and shot two of them. Then they entered another room and handcuffed the seven students. Then they killed them. Abdul Khaliq [the farmer] heard shooting and came outside. When they saw him they shot him as well. He was outside. That's why his wife wasn't killed."
A local elder, Jan Mohammed, said that three boys were killed in one room and five were handcuffed before they were shot. "I saw their school books covered in blood," he said.
The investigation found that eight of the victims were aged from 11 to 17. The guest was a shepherd boy, 12, called Samar Gul, the headmaster said. He said that six of the students were at high school and two were at primary school. He said that all the students were his nephews.
A radical Islamic group has cancelled plans to hold an anti-war march through a town famous for honouring the UK's servicemen and women killed abroad.
The News of the World reported on Sunday that Home Secretary Alan Johnson would outlaw the group on Monday.
The newspaper said comments made by senior members of Islam4UK and on websites breached the Terrorism Act.
A Home Office spokesman said the final decision on whether to ban the group rested with Mr Johnson but he would not confirm the plan.
The whole announcement was to get media coverage
James Gray MP
"Proscription is a tough but necessary power to tackle terrorism," he said.
"Decisions on proscription must be proportionate and based on evidence that a group is concerned in terrorism as defined in the Terrorism Act 2000." http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8451014.stm ( Yes sir, one must close down peaceful demonstrations against organized murder as terrorism. One must especially not stir up bigots in their home territory. That is deliberately confrontational ! )
Загадочная пирамида подвисла над Кремлем. Mysterious pyramid podvisla over the Kremlin.Видео Video
19.12 06:32 MIGnews.com19.12 06:32 MIGnews.com
Россия не перестает быть источником новостей, странных и удивительных. Russia did not cease to be a source of news, weird and wonderful.Не успел отгреметь скандал, связанный с очередным неудачным запуском ракеты "Булава", разрисовавшим голубыми спиралями небо Норвегии и оставившем ее население в состоянии ступора, как в интернете появилась новая российская напасть. No time to die down scandal associated with the unsuccessful launch of another missile "Bulava", painted sky blue spirals of Norway, and left its people in a state of stupor, as the Internet is a new Russia's attack.
Самым популярным видеоклипом российского интернета стали ночные съемки Красной площади, датированные 9 декабря. The most popular internet video clip of Russia began the night shooting of Red Square, dated December 9.На них ясно виден подвисший над Кремлем странный объект в форме гигантской пирамиды. They are clearly visible podvisshy over the Kremlin strange object in the form of a giant pyramid.
Власти пока не смогли дать вразумительного ответа, что это такое. The authorities have not been able to give a credible answer, what it is.Критики уверяют, что это – не более, чем иллюзия, вызванная плохо протертыми линзами камеры, производившей съемку. Critics assert that this is - no more than an illusion, caused by bad wiped lens camera, took pictures.В России, однако, нашлись сотни свидетелей, подтвердивших, что собственными глазами видели висящую пирамиду. In Russia, however, found hundreds of witnesses who confirmed that his own eyes have seen hanging pyramid.
Специалисты по НЛО в шоке. Specialists in UFOs in shock.Они утверждают, что ширина пирамиды превышает 1,5 км. They argue that the width of the pyramid more than 1,5 km.Бывший эксперт департамента министерства обороны Британии по НЛО Ник Поп говорит:" Это самый экстраординарный клип про НЛО. Который я когда либо видел". Former judge of the Department of the Ministry of Defense UK UFO Nick Pop said: "This is an extraordinary video about UFOs. I've ever seen."
Since its origins, the IPCC has been open and explicit about seeking to generate a ‘scientific consensus’ around climate change and especially about the role of humans in climate change
I've been 'around' for a few years now, pursuing the shifting goal of a sharable home-made surfers resource site focused on ease of use and variety of mostly adult ( whoa : I didn't say prurient ) content.
Image via WikipediaI keep coming back to the same Search terms as above that was the name of the article in the Panelist which they superseded by a video. Rick B made a post directly related
Image via Wikipedia
Image via Wikipedia
Image via Wikipedia‘Doomsday’ seed vault opens in Arctic
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Time: December 11, 2010, 9:45 am