Arguments Against Abiotic Oil
Carbon Output Must Near Zero to Avert Danger, New Studies Say
Secrecy News
Panic in Market on Fear of Insolvency at Bear Stearns
Peak Coal
Peak Oil, True or False Michael Kane
Demand Destruction
GAO on Future Combat Systems
AP Finds Drugs in Drinking Water
As in the environmental disaster of 9/11, no effort is being made to calculate the cumulative, much less the synergistic effects of these multiple drugs that have appeared in drinking water around the country. The EPA is quick and relieved to report that little is known about synergy. But studies at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City have shown that if you're both a smoker and an asbestos worker, for instance, the effect is not merely twice as bad as being one OR the other. It's 80 or 90 times as bad. Jenna Orkin
US, China, Resigned to Taiwan Vote
Disinfo Agents Get to Marion Cotillard
As soon as a person in the limelight gets wind of the truth, the disinfo agents swoop in to steer him or her towards lunacy. Towards that end, the idea of a falsified moon landing is a particularly apt decoy. J.O.

First Seeds Arrive in Seed Vault
No one person has all the codes for entrance...

Already three-quarters of biodiversity in crops has been lost in the last century, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. Eighty percent of maize types that existed in the 1930s are gone, for example. In the United States, 94 percent of peas are no longer grown.
Follow-Up on Longyearbyen
My Forbidden Fruits (and Vegetables)
Jenkins' Humanure Handbook
The Pentagon's Ray Gun
Obama, Bush Offer Kiss of Death to Africa
China and Russia Cry Foul Over Satellite
FBI Documents Contradict 9/11 Commission Report
Radiation Dose Chart of Common Exposures
Of Cables and Conspiracies

The Easter Islanders Weren't So Dumb After All

Jenna Orkin

I've always been suspicious of the assertion that the Easter Islanders chopped down the last tree. It seemed more likely that they chopped down a number of trees while leaving others to germinate, if that's what trees do, but that by the time the tree population had gotten less robust, some blight came along and did away with the remaining ones.

A few nights ago, I talked to a woman who recently returned from Easter Island. She said the blight theory wasn't so far off. What actually did in the trees were rats from ships, possibly from Polynesia, who ate the trees' roots.

So the Easter Islanders weren't so dumb after all. But we still are.

Dept. Homeland Security Wants Cell Phones to Detect Chemicals, Radiation
Dropping Gulf Dollar Peg Would Ease Inflation: Greenspan
Pros Fear New Towers at WTC Site Have Security Gaps
Cuban Crude, Canada and the US Michael Kane
Laughing Gas Causes Food, Global Warming Dilemma
Constraints on Vaccines and Anti-Virals
Guinea-Bissau: One Step From Becoming First African Narco-State

Iran Opens Its First Oil Products Bourse
Note the word "first." There is talk of a second, to be priced, possibly, in rubles.
Paul Krugman on Peak Oil
Military Continues to Surround Cheyenne Mountain with Renewables
Peak Oil, Missing Oil Meters and an Inactive Pipeline: The Real Reason for the Invasion of Iraq?
Depression Risk Might Force U.S. to Buy Assets
GAO Head Leaves to Run Blackstone Chairman's Foundation
Iran/U.S. Meeting
China Denies U.S. Spying Charges
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed - Guilty?
Michael Kane blog.
Indonesian Tsunami Detector Severed
No Ocean Untouched by Hand of Man (New Study)

U.S. Establishment Lines Up Behind Obama
OPEC May Switch to Euro
Cashing Out of Billions Before 9/11
New evidence from the follow-the-money front.
Bibliography on assassinations, organized crime, terrorism etc.
Army rangers, medic, arrested on drugs, firearms charge
Chavez Fight With Imperial Exxon May Lift Support
European Union To Tighten Border Entry Rules

The Undersea Cable Caper
Connecting the Undersea Cable Dots
The Torture Question: PBS Series
Secret Ingredients: Enviro-Blog By Crusader-Journalist After 9/11 and in Libby, Montana
600 Professionals Call for End to Water Fluoridation

Problems with The Front Runners
Hillary
Obama
Elections
"I'm shocked that there's gambling in this casino!"

Tony Blair To Join JPMorgan
How the U.S. Secretly Helped Pakistan Build its Nuclear Arsenal
Largest U.S. Solar Array at Nellis AFB, Nevada
I.O.U.S.A.
Film Debut at Sundance
Government's Fiscal Exposures Approximately $75 Trillion

“About $895 billion, or 57 percent, of the federal government’s reported total assets as of September 30, 2007, and approximately $740 billion, or 25 percent, of the federal government’s reported net cost for fiscal year 2007…were disclaimed on or not audited...” Think about that statement for a minute. Some $740 billion is being spent each year without any audit or independent third-party review. Why?

As the Comptroller General explains: “The federal government did not maintain effective internal control over financial reporting (including safeguarding assets) and compliance with significant laws and regulations as of September 30, 2007.” He then goes on to highlight a particular problem; there exists “serious financial management problems at the Department of Defense”....

“Considering this projected gap in social insurance, in addition to reported liabilities (e.g., debt held by the public and federal employee and veterans benefits payable) and other implicit commitments and contingencies that the federal government has pledged to support, the federal government’s fiscal exposures [i.e., its aggregate direct and indirect debt obligations] totaled approximately $53 trillion as of September 30, 2007, up more than $2 trillion from September 30, 2006, and an increase of more than $32 trillion from about $20 trillion as of September 30, 2000. This translates into a current burden of about $175,000 per American or approximately $455,000 per American household.”

Philip Agee Dead at 72

I encourage all who are interested in Agee's legacy to find back copies of Covert Action Quarterly (www.covertactionquarterly.org). CAQ, in its heyday, was THE CIA whistleblowing publication before the Bush apparatus shut it down. In its more recent incarnations, it has been watered down considerably, and was co-opted by new (asset-infested) contributors, and split apart. Louis Wolf, one of the original editors, is still at it.

Larry Chin, Online Journal

Next Time, Evacuees Subject to Criminal Checks
Perfecting the M.O.
$2500 Cars = $200 Oil?

AFRICA:
From Slate Magazine:
A good resource on the energy conflicts in Africa is the book:John Ghazvinian, "Untapped: The Scramble for Africa's Oil," Harcourt (2007)four excerpts were published by Slate magazine:Untapped: The Scramble for Africa's Oilfrom: John GhazvinianPosted Tuesday, April 3, 2007, at 1:35 PM ETThe United States now imports more of its oil from Africa than it does from Saudi Arabia. How is oil and the money it brings to the continent's treasuries transforming Africa? For his new book, Untapped: The Scramble for Africa's Oil, John Ghazvinian traveled from the parched dust bowls of Chad and Sudan to the swamps and jungles of Nigeria and the Congo, and from the corridors of Washington to the gleaming offices of "Big Oil." Does oil-producing Africa live up to the hype? Why is it impossible to buy bananas in Gabon, when they grow in profusion in the nation's virgin rainforest? Can an underdeveloped country like Sao Tome and Principe learn from other nations' mistakes and avoid the "curse of oil"? What effect does the establishment of an oil-company compound in the middle of Chad have on the neighboring land and people? This week, we are publishing four excerpts from Untapped that answer these questions.

Does it Measure up to the Hype?
Will Oil Change Sao Tome and Principe?
When Exxon Mobil Came to Chad
Yes, We Have No Bananas

Sharia Banking's Attack on Western Finances

Subject: NYC Premiere of Escape From Suburbia plus panel discussions a fund raiser for permaculture scholarships

Local Energy Solutions is pleased to present the New York City Premiere of Escape From Suburbia: Beyond the American Dream followed by a discussion with the filmmakers and local activists.

Event Details:
Friday, February 1 and Saturday, February 2, 6:30 – 10:00 pm
Wollman Auditorium at Cooper Union
51 Astor Place
$20, $15 for students (ID required)
Purchase tickets at the door or online at: www.brownpapertickets.com/event/25997
A moderated panel discussion and drawings for books and dvds will follow each screening.

Escape from Suburbia is the long awaited sequel to End of Suburbia, the movie that introduced the issue of Peak Oil to millions of people. With Escape From Suburbia, director Greg Greene and producer Dara Rowland, pick up where End left off: asking how peak oil and climate change are affecting us.

Following the film, Martha Ma, editor of Eater’s Digest, will conduct a discussion among panelists. Appearing both nights will be Greene and Rowland and from the film Tom Nielsen, Sara Williford of Regeneration Farm CSA, and Abu Talib and Bobby Watson of Taqwa Community Garden. Following the discussion, audience members will be able to question the panel.

Friday nights panelists:
§ Andrew Faust – Biohome Permaculture
§ Dan Holmes – Restoration Farm, Bethpage, L.I.
§ Eli Ishchayll – Black Socialist Organization
§ Paula Lukats – Just Food
§ Karen Washington – NYC Community Garden Coalition
Saturday night panelists;
§ Cleo Jones – For A Better Bronx
§ Ian Marvy- Added Value Farms, Brookyn
§ Owen Taylor – City Farms Training
§ Carol Zakaluk – Friends of Brook Park

Unfortunately one of our invited speakers, Mike Ruppert of “From the Wilderness” and author of “Crossing the Rubicon” was unable to attend the invite, but he sent a special message to be prior to the screening.

At each screening, attendees will also have the opportunity to enter a raffle for two gift packages containing books and DVDs by Richard Heinberg, Stephen Leeb, Bill Mollison, David Jacke, and John Howe. Winners will be announced prior to the panel discussion and must be present to claim their gift package.
This event is sponsored by Local Energy Solutions, a project of the Five Borough Institute (A Not For Profit Organization). A portion of ticket sales will be used for scholarships for low-income students for a Permaculture Design Certificate Course scheduled from March 2008 to February 2009. For more information about this course and Local Energy Solutions, visit our website at: www.localenergysolutions.org

AN OPEN LETTER TO NEW SOCIETY PUBLISHERS

Jan 25, 2008


Chris and Judith Plant
New Society Publishers
P.O. Box 189
Gabriola Island
BC, Canada V0R 1X0


Dear Chris and Judith:

For more than two years, based upon the expert advice of my agent, Ken Levine; a well-known Beverly Hills law firm specializing in literary and entertainment law; and ultimately a New York agent representing major authors. I held the belief that New Society had seriously underpaid me royalties for my book "Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil".

In the summer of 2006 I openly charged New Society with underpaying me on my website, http://www.fromthewilderness.com, based upon what were then two separate, professional evaluations of your own accounting statements. Both of those evaluations concluded that I had been underpaid by close to $40,000. This was due to the fact that New Society commingled books sold to me with actual book sales, something that is such a deviation from normal accounting practices in the publishing industry that people with decades of experience didn’t even consider it.

I was quite outspoken about my dissatisfaction with New Society in the Peak Oil community based upon this and previous experiences. After paying several thousand dollars for accountings, including a recent one with the Claudia Menza, literary agency in NY, which initially concluded that I had been underpaid more than $59,000, I learned that we were all wrong when Claudia finally discovered your unusual accounting practices.

Inasmuch as I have been the victim of very serious and unfounded allegations about my own personal conduct and ethics, I know how painful such incorrect allegations can be, no matter how they originated. Now that I am certain that I was not underpaid I am correcting the record.

Sincerely,


Michael C. Ruppert

France to Establish Military Base in UAE
Just in case buying on the open market gets too hard.
State of Siege in Pakistan as "Al Qaeda" Tightens Grip [quotation marks added]
The War on Drugs (Iraq)
Guess how it's going since we got there.
Work for the government? Is your head one of the ones about to roll? Call now!
Global Warming Speeds up Race for North Pole
“There is a risk that the Northwest Passage will become attractive to those who wish to traffic in weapons of mass destruction, missile components, centrifuges and other things of both national and global security concern,” said Michael Byers, an Arctic expert at the University of British Columbia.
...there is no ban on weapons in the Arctic as there is in Antarctica. "
Dragonfly or Insect Spy?
Robobugs
Presidential Charade Promises Deepening of Criminality and Expansion of War
Presidential Charade Part 2: White House Bought by Big Money

Timber Thieves
NYC Evacuation Plan: Flotilla to New Jersey
How about a flotilla to Spain instead?
Big Bird Flu
Brought to you by the letter P for Pandemic

New York CIty Council Bill Would Prevent Independent Environmental Disaster Testing

Jenna Orkin*


It is by now a truism that at the height of the environmental disaster of 9/11, the federal government proclaimed, "The air is safe to breathe." New York City's Department of Health followed suit, telling residents to clean their apartments using a wet rag. As a result of these fatally seductive lures, tens of thousands of Ground Zero workers are now sick as are uncounted residents, office workers and students. Some victims have already died.

What was the excuse for the government's lies to the public? Repeatedly, we have been told of the need to prevent "panic" and "anxiety."

Using the same rationale, a bill before the New York City Council would ensure not only that history repeats itself; it goes beyond that, plugging those leaks that allowed fragments of truth to seep out in the fall of 2001.

In the chaos following the attacks, when the world was focussed on the devastation of Lower Manhattan and the rallying cry was to "show the terrorists" by getting back to business as usual, relatively few people focussed on the environmental conditions that prevailed.

But independent testing performed by the New York Environmental Law and Justice Project, among other organizations, led to a seminal cover story in the Daily News which laid out the hideous truth, thereby landing its author, Juan Gonzalez, in journalistic purgatory (the next article this writer saw by him was on page 32) for the next several years.

A bill before the New York City Council, Intro 650, is designed to ensure that should another terrorist attack occur and should the government once more determine that the public's ignorance is bliss or at least better than the alternative, no one will be allowed to redeem the situation.

In order to prevent "excessive false alarms and unwarranted anxiety," Intro 650 would require the New York Police Department to okay any independent environmental testing with permits.

The bill does not discuss what to do when the anxiety is warranted. As pointed out in testimony by the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (NYCOSH) and the New York City Central Labor Council, "neither press reports nor the scientific literature nor the city's own web site provides any support for the assertion that the 'excessive alarms and unwarranted anxiety' have been or are real-world problems."

Just how wrongheaded is Intro 650? It would render immediately illegal tens of thousands of safety devices including carbon monoxide detectors and legally required smoke detectors.

The sheer brazenness of submitting Intro 650 at the epicenter of one of the greatest environmental disasters in the history of this country and with the government's recklessly indifferent history in handling that disaster, is alarming in itself. The bill is a scaled down environmental equivalent of the Patriot Act. The difference is that we're not fresh from a terrorist attack; there's no 'emergency' now. We have no excuse to allow the wool to be pulled over our eyes.


*Jenna Orkin is one of twelve original plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit against the EPA.