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BUSHitler//
UPGRADEmag//
jan 23, 2002
AFTER 110 DAYS OF BOMMING, the first real signs of a crack at the heart of the western coalition appeared this week when tony blair allowed his foreign secretary jack straw to publicly complain to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals about the treatment of “nonregistered human dogs” at guantanamo bay (which america hijacked from cuba) (also revealed in this issue to be the leading organic producer in the world).H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H The UPGRADEmag (the Upgrade Emag, or just the "UP") is a global edutainment news round-up, ‘broadcast’ weekly to =[10,369]= Trance// New Age// Alternative// Activist// Zippy folks who have been recommended to the Parallel YOUniversity//Megatripolis Dance Dept as "showing signs of life". Since many recipients choose to forward it to their own lists, we estimate 27,000+ recipients. Further, because of its less 'specialist' content, it's increasingly being posted on a variety of sites worldwide, making a total weekly ‘readership’ of 275,000+ H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H * * * * * * * * * * astro energy snapshot for JAN. 23-29 * * * * * * * * * ASSERTION BRINGS BREAKTHROUGHS This is a dynamite week, with Friday being a super-aggressive day. Thursday - talk, Friday - Action, Saturday - love, Sunday - realizations, and Monday - full moon and more Action. Read more in Maya’s Daily Success Guide at www.daykeeperjournal.com * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * we have an anguished plea this week from terry waite, himself a hostage for 4 years in lebanon, asking whether it’s revenge or justice we seek. if we seek revenge and treat our enemies as less than human, then the other side will also, that should be clear enuff, and bush & the bully boys will continue to lead the charge downhill to global anarchy and terrorism. and to disprove the great american public’s reported feeling that this is all a fuss about nothing, we have a daily mirror reporter’s description of “living hell” wearing all that gear for a single hour! after all, it’s ‘our’ coalition which has invaded a foreign country and has now taken these unnamed and unidentified human beings hostage! you may have arguments against such a view but don’t have any doubt that that’s how most of the world sees it. and will inevitable react to it. i fail to give bush the benefit of the doubt?! well, we also have a background report on the leader of the Coalition detailing how the bush family fortunes were mostly built on TRADING WITH HITLER DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR, AND WITH THE BIN LADEN FAMILY SINCE HE LEFT COLLEGE WITH A BUSINESS DEGREE! yes, with the enron scandal merely the foothills of a himalaya of corruption beginning to unravel (about the entire ruling elite!) it’s all starting to fall apart for the bully boys who really don’t know where to go next. invade some more countries? nobody would back that except american citizens who’ve been fed such a constant stream of edited news that it is a disgrace to the whole human race. “Home of Freedom”? Home of Ignorance more like! to truly plumb the depths of ignorance of a large percentage of the american public, check out our PLANET EARTH VIEWED THROUGH A SUPERMARKET WINDOW pieces (actual comments from US travel agents......) DOES BUSH REALLY HAVE THE AMERICAN PUBLIC RIGHT BEHIND HIM? CHECK THIS RECENT POLL: QUESTION: How does the Enron debacle smell to you? 75% 14% 06% My nose is stuffed up 04% 01% Like a rose [Total Votes - 3,306] # A client called in inquiring about a package to Hawaii. After going over all the cost info, he asked, "Would it be cheaper to fly to California and then take the train to Hawaii?. PLANET EARTH VIEWED THROUGH A SUPERMARKET WINDOW (actual comments from US travel agents......) patriotism? somebody wrote to me that it all boils down to one question: all the high ideals of the american constitution etc are they just for americans or are they for the entire planetary community? if only the former then patriotism is a disgustingly dirty and fascistic thing. if the latter, patriotism in an american is the noblest thing. DISCUSS :) # I had someone ask for an aisle seat so that their hair wouldn't get messed up by being near the window. PLANET EARTH VIEWED THROUGH A SUPERMARKET WINDOW (actual comments from US travel agents......) ONE HOUR IN HELL US prison gear test is a nightmare by Stephen Moyes / Daily Mirror The darkness filled me with fear. The silence was deafening. And the light manacles made my limbs ache. But I couldn’t shout for help - for under the blacked-out goggles and swathed in a suffocating orange boiler suit, I could not speak, smell, hear or touch. My 60 minutes as a captive seemed to drag on for ever. But at least I would soon shed the prison clothing and go free, unlike the al-Queda suspects locked behind razor wire in Cuba. The Daily Mirror yesterday re-created the barbaric conditions in which America is keeping its prisoners and I wasn’t prepared for the shock. My blindfolded eyes refused to adjust to the dark void that engulfed me. I was instantly disorientated. It was terrifyingly claustrophobic. I couldn’t even grope in the dark, for my gloved hands were clamped in metal handcuffs and my arms locked in position. At first, my degrading uniform just felt uncomfortable, the handcuffs and straps around my head an irritating, numbing pain. But soon it became agonising. I could sense my eyes watering, sweat gathering on my brow. My limbs went dead. I gasped for air as I tried to breathe through my nose. I told myself not to panic. All I could smell was the nauseating material of the surgical mask. And I knew my moans of discomfort went unheard. Large ear muffs ensured that I couldn’t hear the faintest sound. Only crouching close to the ground seemed to ease the feeling of total isolation. With just flip flops on my feet, I flinched when someone trod on me. I felt utterly alone. I could have been three for three minutes of three hours. It was a blessed relief when my handcuffs were released and my attire removed. The harsh glare of light blinded me. For a few minutes I didn’t know where I was. Conversation deafened me. But at least I was free unlike the 100+ terror suspects now being held in basic conditions at Camp X-Ray. Their life must be a living hell. # A woman called and said, "I need to fly to Pepsi-cola on one of those computer planes." I asked if she meant to fly to Pensacola on a commuter plane. She said, "Yeah, whatever." . PLANET EARTH VIEWED THROUGH A SUPERMARKET WINDOW (actual comments from US travel agents......) JUSTICE OR REVENGE? by TERRY WAITE who, as a hostage in Beirut for 5 years, was chained to a wall, beaten and denied all human rights. I can recognise the conditions that prisoners are being kept in at the US camp at Guantanamo Bay because I have been there. Not to Cuba’s Camp X-Ray, but to the darkened cell in Beirut that I occupied for five years. I was chained to a wall by my hands and feet, beaten on the soles of my feet with cable, denied all my human rights and contact with my family for five years, and given no access to the outside world. Because I was kept in very similar conditions, I am appalled at the way we countries that call ourselves civilised are treating these captives. Is this justice or revenge? My diet was very similar to that being given to these men bread, cream cheese, rice, beans. I was adequately “watered and fed”, but not luxuriously, and I lost a lot of weight.. The greatest difficulty was never having any exercise in the whole period. I had five minutes a day to go to the bathroom, for the rest of the time I had to use a bottle. What I experienced makes me all the more determined when I say that prisoners of whatever description must be treated humanely and justly. I would stand up for the rights of the alleged terrorist or any other individual facing serious charges. I am not soft on terrorism I have had too many dealings with it to be so but I am passionate that we must observe standards of justice. I fear that unless firm action is taken to institute just and fair procedures, the long-term results for the US will be catastrophic. Terrorism is not ultimately defeated by the force of arms; you have to deal with the root causes and ask what makes people act in such extreme ways. When it comes to trial, these men are entitled to basic defence rights and ought to be tried under the auspices of the UN. It is vital that we uphold standards of international law for the protection of the innocent, and for the protection of American or European subjects who may find themselves in difficult circumstances in the future. For once, morality and pragmatism go hand in hand H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H
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H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H HYOUR VERY OWN BIZNESS WEB SITE OR HOME PAGE FOR £100 ($165)!!!!!! designed to fit the requirements & whims of entrepreneurs, craftspeople, artists and travelers by the YOUniversity’s very own cyber profs! (STICK IT ON YOUR BIZNESS CARD, APPEND IT TO YOUR EMAIL, FLAUNT YOUR LOGO / MISSION, OR ANNOUNCE YOUR PLANS FOR SOCIETY TO THE WORLD!) (makes the perfect late gift :) INCLUDES: - - - - - - ORDERS & ENQUIRIES: fraser@parallel-youniversity.com H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H JAN 11 27 Tibetan monks from the Drepung Monastery are currently in Washington, DC making a very large sand mandala to purify and heal America. They are part of an outreach team in Atlanta, Georgia. From the link below you can - see them working live between 10:30am and 16:30pm Washington time - watch time elapsed photography of the progress They began on January 11, and the mandala will be destroyed on January 27, and poured into the Potomac River. http://www.asia.si.edu/exhibitions/mandala/default.htm # I got a call from a woman who wanted to go to Capetown. I started to explain the length of the flight and the passport information when she interrupted me with "I'm not trying to make you look stupid, but Capetown is in Massachusetts”. Without trying to make her look like the stupid one, I calmly explained, "Capecod is in Massachusetts, Capetown is in Africa." Her response ... click. . PLANET EARTH VIEWED THROUGH A SUPERMARKET WINDOW (actual comments from US travel agents......) STILL THINK IT’S ALL OVER? BUSHitler BUllSHitter?! BESIDES BEING PART OF THE SOCIAL, POLITICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL FOUNDATION OF THE VERY GLOBAL TERROR NETWORK HE CLAIMS TO BE FIGHTING, IS GEORGE BUSH ALSO PART OF ITS FINANCIAL FOUNDATION?! when george bush made his "strike on the financial foundation of the global terror network” by signing an executive order to freeze the US financial assets of corporations doing business with Osama bin Laden or any terrorist network ... ... he didn't tell the American people that the terrorist mastermind’s late brother was an investor in their president's former oil business ... and he didn't tell the American people about his own financial connections to a swamp of shady Saudi characters involved in drug cartels, gun smuggling, and terrorist networks. DOING BUSINESS WITH THE ENEMY NOTHING NEW TO THE BUSH FAMILY! Much of the Bush family wealth came from supplying needed raw materials and credit to Adolf Hitler!!! Several business operations managed by Prescott Bush the president’s grandfather, were seized by the US government during World War II under the Trading with the Enemy Act. - on October 20, 1942, the federal government seized the Union Banking Corporation in New York City as a front operation for the Nazis. Prescott Bush and E. Roland Harriman were directors. - on October 28, 1942, two other corporations managed by Prescott Bush were seized. The Holland-American Trading Corporation and the Seamless Steel Equipment Corporation, both managed by the Bush-Harriman bank, were accused by the US federal government of being front organizations for Germany. - on November 8, 1942, the federal government seized Nazi-controlled assets of Silesian-American Corporation, another Bush-Harriman company doing business with Hitler. ANOTHER ‘WAR’ ANOTHER ENEMY TO DO BUSINESS WITH? Doing business with the bin Laden empire, therefore, is only the latest extension of the Bush family's financial ties to unsavoury individuals and organizations. Now that thousands of American citizens have died in terrorist attacks and the nation has killed far more innocents in Afghanistan than in the original attacks, the American people should know about George W. Bush's relationship with the family of Osama bin Laden. Salem bin Laden, Osama's older brother, was an investor in Arbusto Energy, the Texas oil company started by George W. Bush. Salem bin Laden died in an airplane crash in Texas in 1988. Sheik Mohammed bin Laden, the family patriarch and founder of its construction empire, also died in a plane crash. Upon his death in 1968, old man bin Laden left 57 sons and daughters, sired from 12 wives in Saudi Arabia, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan. About a dozen brothers manage Bin Laden Brothers Construction one of the largest construction firms in the Middle East. Fresh out of Harvard Business School, young George W. Bush returned to Midland, Texas, in the late 1970s to follow his dad’s footsteps in the oil business. Beginning in 1978, he set up a series of limited partnerships Arbusto 78, Arbusto 79, and so on to drill for oil. One of his earliest financial backers was James Bath, a Houston aircraft broker, who served with him in the Texas Air National Guard. Bath has a mysterious connection to the Central Intelligence Agency. According to a 1976 trust agreement, Salem bin Laden appointed James Bath as his business representative in Houston. Revelations about Bath's relationship with the bin Laden financial empire and the CIA was made public in 1992 by Bill White, a former real estate business partner with Bath. White informed federal investigators in 1992 that Bath told him that he had assisted the CIA in a liaison role since 1976, the same year former President George Herbert Walker Bush served as its director. During a bitter legal fight between White and Bath, the real estate partner disclosed that Bath managed a portfolio worth millions of dollars for Sheik Khalid bin Mahfouz and other wealthy Saudis. Among the investments made by Bath with Mahfouz’s money was the Houston Gulf Airport. BCCI BANK REMEMBER THEM?! A powerful banker in Saudi Arabia, Mahfouz was one of the largest stockholders in the Bank of Credit and Commerce International. BCCI was a corrupt global banking empire operating in 73 nations and was a major financial and political force in Washington, Paris, Geneva, London, and Hong Kong. Despite the appearance of a normal banking operation, BCCI was actually an international crime syndicate providing banking services to the Medellin drug cartel, Pamama dictator Manuel Noriega, Saddam Hussein, terrorist mastermind Abu Nidal, and Khun Sa, the heroin kingpin in Asias Golden Triangle. Washington during the first Bush White House. The bank was accused of laundering money for drug cartels, smuggling weapons to terrorists, and using Middle Eastern oil money to influence American politicians. President George W. Bush has now appointed Robert Mueller as the new Director of the FBI! White told a Texas court in 1992 that Bath and the Justice Department had blackballed him professionally and financially because he refused to keep quiet about his knowledge of an Arabic conspiracy to launder Middle Eastern money into the bank accounts of American businesses and politicians. Later, in sworn depositions, Bath admitted he represented four wealthy Saudi Arabian businessmen as a trustee, using his name on their investments and receiving, in return, a 5% stake in their business deals. BUSH-BCCI CONNECTIONS Although George W. Bush's Texas oil ventures were financial failures, his financial backers recovered their investments through a series of mergers and stock swaps. He changed the Arbustos name to Bush Exploration, then merged the new firm into Spectrum 7 Energy Corporation in 1984, and finally the Bush-controlled oil business ended up being folded into Harken Energy Corp., a Dallas-based corporation. Mr. Bush joined Harken as a director in 1986 and was given 212,000 shares of Harken stock. Bush used his White House connections to land a lucrative contract for the obscure Harken Energy Corp. with the Middle Eastern government of Bahrain. On June 20, 1990, George W. Bush sold his Harken stock for $848,000. Shortly after, Harken's fortunes nose-dived when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. Some critics claim young George was tipped off in advance by his father about the soon-coming Gulf War. George W. Bush, however, worked wonders for Harken Energy Corp. before the stock collapsed. Using the Bush family name, he managed to bring much-needed capital investment to the struggling firm. He travelled to Little Rock, Arizona, to attend a meeting with Jackson Stephens a powerful Arkansas tycoon who was also deeply involved in the BCCI scandal by helping the corrupt bank take control of First American Bank in Washington, DC. Perhaps he was thanking him for the money he’d provided young George. He’d arranged for a $25 million investment from the Union des Banques Suisses. The Swiss Bank held the minority interest in the Banque de Commerce et de Placements, a Geneva-based subsidiary of BCCI. Ah ha! “THE KING’S TREASURER” The BCCI connection, therefore, links George W. Bush with Saudi banker Khaled bin Mahfouz. Known in Arab circles as “The Kings' Treasurer”, Mahfouz held a 20 percent take in BCCI between 1986 and 1990. Nor is he any stranger to the Bush family. He was a big investor in the Carlyle Group, a defence-industry investment group with deep connections to the Republican Party establishment. Former President Bush is a former member of the company's board of directors. George W. Bush also held shares in Caterair, a Carlyle subsidiary. Sami Baarma, a powerful player in the Mahfouz-owned Prime Commercial Bank of Pakistan, is a member of the Carlyle Groups international advisory board. Africa, Khaled bin Mahfouz and other wealthy Saudis were funnelling tens of millions of dollars each year into bin Laden's bank accounts. Five top Saudi businessmen ordered the National Commercial Bank to transfer personal funds and $3 million pilfered from a Saudi pension fund to the Capitol Trust Bank in New York City. The money was deposited into the Islamic Relief and Blessed Relief - Islamic charities operating in the US and Great Britain as fronts for Osama bin Laden. THE ARAB-TEXAS ‘MAFIA’ STILL THINK IT’S ALL OVER? There exists to this day an Arab-Texas connection. - Khalid bin Mahfouz, financier of both George W. Bush and Osama bin Laden, still maintains a palatial estate in Houston, Texas, where former President George Bush lives. - James Bath, Texas political confidant of George W. Bush, managed to obtain a $1.4 million loan from Mahfouz in 1990. Bath and Mahfouz, along with former Secretary of Treasury John Connally, were also co-investors in Houston's Main Bank. - Bath was also president of Skyway Aircraft Leasing Ltd, a Texas air charter company registered in the Cayman Islands. According to published reports in the early 1990s, the real owner was bin Mahfouz. - When Salem bin Laden, Osama’s brother, died in 1988, his interest in the Houston Gulf Airport was transferred to bin Mahfouz. Since September 11, the federal government has moved quickly to freeze bank accounts connected to Osama bin Laden, Khalid bin Mahfouz, and a host of Islamic charities. Perhaps federal agents should freeze the financial assets of the Bush family too. It would not be the first time Bush-family assets were seized by the US government for trading with the enemy. Rick Wiles. Copyright: American Freedom News http://www.americanfreedomnews.com/afn_articles/bushsecrets.htm # A man called, furious about a Florida package we did. I asked what was wrong with the vacation in Orlando. He said he was expecting an ocean-view room! I tried to explain that is not possible, since Orlando is in the middle of the state. He replied, "Don't lie to me. I looked on the map and Florida is a very thin state." . PLANET EARTH VIEWED THROUGH A SUPERMARKET WINDOW (actual comments from US travel agents......) Fraser keep on sowing those seeds of change! Love the UPGRADe! Plig london # I got a call from a man who asked, "Is it possible to see England from Canada?" I said, “No." He said, "But they look so close on the map." . PLANET EARTH VIEWED THROUGH A SUPERMARKET WINDOW (actual comments from US travel agents......) don’t argue with a woman who can read. she can probably think too! A couple went on a vacation to a fishing resort up north. The husband liked to fish at the crack of dawn. The wife liked to read. One morning the husband returned after several hours of fishing and decided to take a short nap. Although she wasn't familiar with the lake, the wife decided to take the boat. She rowed out a short distance, anchored, and returned to reading her book. Along came a conservation officer in his boat. He pulled up along side her and said, "Good morning, Ma'am. What are you doing?" "Reading my book" she replied, thinking to herself, "duh -- isn't it obvious?" "You're in a restricted fishing area" he informed her. "But officer, I'm not fishing. Can't you see that?" ”Yes, Ma'am, but you have all the equipment. I'll have to take you in and write you up.” "If you do that, I'll have to charge you with rape," snapped the irate woman. "But, I haven't even touched you,” groused the officer. "Yes, that's true,” she replied, “but you have all the equipment." [xaviera hollander] # savearticrefuge.org MARTIN SHEEN - President Bartlet on NBC-TV's "The West Wing" - is asking all americans to urge their senators to vote against drilling in the pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The Senate will vote in February, so please act today - and forward this e-mail to your friends and family so they also can help stop Big Oil from harming this precious wildlife refuge. For the text of Martin Sheen's statement and link to take action: http://www.savearcticrefuge.org # This guy asked if he could rent a car in Dallas. When I pulled up the reservation, I noticed he had a 1-hour lay-over in Dallas. When I asked him why he wanted to rent a car, he said, "I heard Dallas was a big airport, and I need a car to drive between the gates to save time." . PLANET EARTH VIEWED THROUGH A SUPERMARKET WINDOW (actual comments from US travel agents......) //YOU FEEDBACK to all our american readers, especially any in jail, try to remember you are simply TRAPPED IN A TIME WARP WHICH WILL PASS SOONER THAN YOU DREAM :) Thanks for the words of encouragement. I am sure you are right. larry / san diego # hi fraser thought this new UP was really inspired - especially the interweaving of enron & afghanistan & the breast screening thingy was a hoot! it gets betta & betta! also the new futuregroupmind discussion-board on the //YOU site looks pretty whizzy penny gray oxford/india # A nice lady just called. She needed to know how it was possible that her flight from Detroit left at 8:20am and got into Chicago at 8:33am. I tried to explain that Michigan was an hour ahead of Illinois, but she could not understand the concept of time zones. Finally I told her the plane went very fast, and she bought that! . PLANET EARTH VIEWED THROUGH A SUPERMARKET WINDOW (actual comments from US travel agents......) //YOU FEEDBACK: GLOBAL WARMING Global Warming: Science is going for the Let’s Control The Weather option - they say its the only way because people will not stop emitting greenhouse gasses! One emerging idea is to feed the world’s plankton with iron, giving rise to the statement "GIMME A SUPER TANKER FILLED WITH IRON AND I’LL GIVE YOU A NEW ICE AGE"! :( Sounds like a new terrorist weapon to me. Just the sort of madness that caused BSE and the like. Jonathan www.newagegossip.co.uk # FEB 1 - 4 f2pm EST. until 2pm February 4th at Vinyl Frontier in Orlando, Florida (www.vinylf.com) DJ Martin Boss of Orlando, Florida, will attempt the 72-hour record. [www.DJMartinBoss.com] This event will be broadcast live over the internet, both audio and video, by Groovefactory [www.groovefactory.com] The promotion will be geared towards raising awareness about the voting process and encouraging young people to get involved politically with respect to the electronic music community. Sponsors for the Guinness Book of World Records event include: Groove Factory, 180 Energy Drink, Karmaloop, Astralwerks, Bonzai/Lighting Records, Star 69 Records, Soul Phusion Records, Audiopimps, Cool junkie, Djwap.net, Only For DJ’s and many more. # I just got off the phone with a man who asked, "How do I know which plane to get on?" I asked him what exactly he meant, to which he replied, "I was told my flight number is 823, but none of these darn planes have numbers on them." . PLANET EARTH VIEWED THROUGH A SUPERMARKET WINDOW (actual comments from US travel agents......) SHOULD UN OBSERVERS BE SENT TO ISRAEL? CNN is taking a poll whether UN observers should be sent to Israel. It takes only 10 seconds to vote. Click onto the site below and vote "YES”!! Also, please pass on this message to others. Currently voting stands at: Yes: No: http://home.netscape.com/ex/shak/international/packages/mideast/ STILL THINK IT’S ALL OVER? # //YOU FEEDBACK WATERGATE ON ACID? What is being suggested here, makes me think that Osama Bin Laden launched his attacks against the US because he was opposed to the pipeline, and to stop the Taliban making a deal with the US government. which would certainly fit in with his wish to remove all american military from the holy lands. In which case it was a suicidal policy, but then, suicide is where they're at, isn't it? It remains to be seen, of course, if the current government will accept the pipeline. But of course they might miss out on a massive aid package, not to mention dollar jobs. They'd have no good reason not to.. george firsoff / greenleaf org # most disheartening A very few years ago, doing many workshops with kids in America, I unfortunately did not find that more kids were going into service or trying to make a difference. It was most disheartening to find wealth and the pursuit of wealth to be the primary goal in these young imaginations. At first I thought I was in too many inner city schools, and that these attitudes would change when going to rural schools. But not only did the attitudes not change in rural communities, but I surprisingly found just as many violent images (probably the second most common image) in rural as in metro areas. And in creative writing festivals for teens, I encountered so many suicidal tendencies (as did the other writers conducting workshops) that I truly thought they needed psychiatric counseling with creative outlets as back-ups. I don't mean to sound negative, but this was encountered from place to place through the various age groups of 9-18 year olds. This is when it became very clear to me that the culture of media and the culture of education were both failing dismally. And my being given 40-minute stints to create miracles was misleading and probably a source of further frustration if the delving into creativity was not reinforced in their daily routines. cristina # THE SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION THEORY Is it really true that anyone in the world can reach anyone else through a chain of just six friends? Sociologist Stanley Milgram created the "small world phenomenon," in 1967 - the idea that every person in the United States is connected by a chain of six people at most. Milgram's "six degrees of separation" theory has trickled down through popular culture, inspiring renditions such as the Kevin Bacon game. But Milgram's theory has gone largely unproven for more than 30 years and hasn't yet been repeated with any success. UNTIL NOW. Now 2 separate research projects are using electronic communication to test the small world phenomenon. ONE Sociologists at Columbia University are testing Milgram's theory on a global scale by tracing e-mails one chain at a time. Columbia's Small World Research Project is enlisting people from all around the world to send thousands of e-mail messages to reach target individuals using only personal contacts. While Milgram selected roughly 300 people to reach a single target person, Columbia researchers are aiming for tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of participants to reach as many as 20 targets. "This is great stuff for sociology," Peter Sheridan Dodds, a Columbia research scientist, said. "We can now run experiments that will have very strong statistical worth on a par with what is the norm in disciplines like physics." Columbia researchers are collecting demographic data to find out what barriers make it difficult for messages to get through and to deduce what strategy participants use to reach their intended target. TWO In a separate project, researchers at Ohio State are attempting to create a social map of the Internet. If successful, this map will reveal how different types of people are connected, how information moves through society and just how small social networks really are. Backed by a grant from the National Science Foundation, The Electronic Small World Project seeks to identify the strongest strings emanating from a large sample of people, and then show how those strings connect together to form the full Web. "This is the first attempt to map, in a person-to-person sense, the social patterns of e-mail," said Ohio State University sociologist James Moody, who is leading the project. "Milgram's theory was an innovative idea, but it was only a first step," Moody said. "We hope to fill in the holes." Participants complete an online survey about their demographics, e-mail use and the nature of their e-mail relationships. So far, more than 800 people have completed the survey. The ambitious goal is to gather a half-million responses. Researchers will contact participants a year after they have completed the survey to find out how their e-mail relationships have changed over time and whether they differ from offline relationships. "We know that face-to-face relationships tend to be pretty unstable," Moody said. "With e-mail, (relationships) could be much more stable." The project will also test assumptions about online communication, such as the idea that the Internet transcends barriers of race, sex and economics. While racial and economic divisions may persist in online relationships, it's likely that e-mail is making the world a smaller place for some people, Moody said. The notion that millions of people are just a few small steps away from each other seems intuitive in today's digital world, when a computer virus like the Love Bug can shut down half the world's corporations in a single day by infiltrating e-mail address books. But even if these short connections exist, that doesn't necessarily mean that the people in the network can find them. While the Web has increased the speed with which people can look each other up, actually locating a person through a social network may be just as difficult today as it was 30 years ago. "It's not necessarily any easier than it was in Milgram's day," said Duncan Watts, an assistant professor of sociology at Columbia University, who is leading the project. "You're still just using your friends. It doesn't change the nature of the problem. "This is not just a question of there being short paths. The question is, how do people act to figure out who to send it to. It's not just the network that they exist in but how they think about it." Already, Columbia researchers have found that some short paths exist, such as one successful attempt to reach a target in Siberia from participants as distant as the United States and Australia. Both research projects could yield substantial benefits, such as helping understand how viruses spread and how knowledge is disseminated through internal networks. "We all know not to open attachments from people we don't know," Moody said. "By mapping what that network (of people we trust) looks like, we'll get a better sense of the shape of that network.” "If people can find these paths, and depending on how they do it, then that will tell us not only about the networks, but also about how we use ideas of social space to navigate through them with imperfect information," Watts said. Watts hopes that his research will create models for decentralized networks that will improve upon peer-to-peer networks like Gnutella and to provide alternatives to search engines like Google, which serve centralized directories. "As the Web gets bigger, we may not always have these services," Watts said. "We need to find other ways to search these big networks." # A business man called and had a question about the documents he needed in order to fly to China. After a lengthy discussion about passports, I reminded him he needed a visa. "Oh no I won't, I've been to China many times and never had to have one of those." I double checked and sure enough, his stay required a visa. When I told him this he said, "Look, I've been to China four times and every time they have accepted my American Express." . PLANET EARTH VIEWED THROUGH A SUPERMARKET WINDOW (actual comments from US travel agents......) AN ALL MONKEYS JAZZ BAND that woulda caught your attention in your IN-BOX, no? inside it was selling me porn. and, when i looked at the sender, i shoulda been warned: sensitive@freehotcoeds.com :) # CUBA LEADS THE WORLD in organic farming, with the island becoming almost entirely pesticide-free over the past 15 years. Havana alone has 28,000 urban farms and community gardens run by individual groups. Every patio, rooftop and balcony is used to grow food and herbs. Overall organic food production grew from 40,000 tonnes in 1995 to 115,000 in 1998. In addition to the US embargo, Cuba has lost 80% of its income since the collapse of the Soviet economies 10 years ago. Without the ability to import pesticides, Cuba needed to find another way to feed its people. ³It is the largest conversion from conventional agriculture to organic or semi-organic farming that the world has ever known² says the Institute for Food and Development Policy. (Project Censored, Hugh Warwick, Third World Resurgence) # THE WTO IS ILLEGAL! The World Trade Organisation, a stand-alone body that polices global trade, has never been formally ratified by national governments. The WTO was formed following the signing, in 1994 in Morocco, of a “technical document² negotiated behind closed doors. Even the heads of the delegations involved in the agreement were not completely informed of its statutes. The instatement of the WTO as a world body was done without the consultation of citizens, or even representatives of the nations. Yet membership of the WTO requires total acceptance of its precepts. The WTO will have its biannual meeting in Doha, Qatar [or Singapore] from November 9 to launch a new round of trade liberalisation talks. Previous talks, in Seattle, US, collapsed amid mass protests. [Project Censored, Michel Chossudovsky, Covert Action Quarterly, Spring-Summer 2000] # violence always has the appeal of providing quick relief and seeming success. but what it really does is store up problems till they burst forth much huger later like the twin terrors? here’s a study another downside of the afghan slaughter that u can be sure none of the bully boys has once considered: AFGHANISTAN: THE ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS STILL THINK IT’S ALL OVER? A new catastrophe faces Afghanistan - the US bombing campaign is conspiring with years of civil conflict and drought to create an environmental crisis. While humanitarian and political concerns dominate the headlines, this masks the disappearance of the country's once rich habitat and wildlife, which are quietly being crushed by war. In February the UN is dispatching a team of investigators to the region to evaluate the damage. "A healthy environment is a prerequisite for rehabilitation," says Klaus Töpfer, head of the UN Environment Programme. Much of south-east Afghanistan was once lush forest watered by monsoon rains. Forests now cover less than 2% of the country. "The worst deforestation occurred during Taliban rule, when its timber mafia denuded forests to sell to Pakistani markets," says Usman Qazi, an environmental consultant based in Quetta, Pakistan. And the intense bombing intended to flush out the last of the Taliban troops is destroying or burning much of what remains. The refugee crisis is also wrecking the environment, and much damage may be irreversible. Forests and vegetation are being cleared for much-needed farming, but the gains are likely to be only short-term. "Eventually the land will be unfit for even the most basic form of agriculture," warns Hammad Naqi of the World Wide Fund for Nature in Pakistan. Refugees - around four million at the last count - are also cutting into forests for firewood. The hail of bombs falling on Afghanistan is making life particularly hard for the country's wildlife. Birds such as the pelican and endangered Siberian crane cross eastern Afghanistan as they follow one of the world's great migratory thoroughfares from Siberia to Pakistan and India. But the number of birds flying across the region has dropped by a staggering 85%. "Cranes are very sensitive and they do not use the route if they see any danger," says Ashiq Ahmad, an environmental scientist for the WWF in Peshawar, Pakistan, who has tracked the collapse of the birds' migration this winter. Mountain hideout The rugged mountains also usually provide a safe haven for mountain leopards, gazelles, bears and Marco Polo sheep - the world's largest species. "The same terrain that allows fighters to strike and disappear back into the hills has also, historically, enabled wildlife to survive," says Peter Zahler of the Wildlife Conservation Society, based in New York. But he warns they are now under intense pressure from the bombing and invasions of refugees and fighters. For instance, some refugees are hunting rare snow leopards to buy safe passage across the border. A single fur can fetch $2000 on the black market, says Zahler. Only 5000 or so snow leopards are thought to survive in central Asia, and less than 100 in Afghanistan, their numbers already decimated by extensive hunting and smuggling into Pakistan before the conflict. Timber, falcons and medicinal plants are also being smuggled across the border. The Taliban once controlled much of this trade, but the recent power vacuum could exacerbate the problem. Bombing will also leave its mark beyond the obvious craters. Defence analysts say that while depleted uranium may have been slightly less used in Afghanistan than in the Kosovo conflict, conventional explosives will litter the country with pollutants. They contain toxic compounds such as cyclonite, a carcinogen, and rocket propellants contain perchlorates, which damage thyroid glands. Fred Pearce http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991733 © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd. # A woman called to make reservations, "I want to go from Chicago to Hippopotamus, New York" The agent was at a loss for words. Finally, the agent said,: "Are you sure that's the name of the town?" "Yes, what flights do you have?" replied the customer. After some searching, the agent came back with, "I'm sorry, ma'am, I've looked up every airport code in the country and can't find a Hippopotamus anywhere." The customer retorted, "Oh don't be silly. Everyone knows where it is. Check your map!" The agent scoured a map of the state of New York and finally offered, "You don't mean Buffalo, do you?" "That's it! I knew it was a big animal!" . PLANET EARTH VIEWED THROUGH A SUPERMARKET WINDOW (actual comments from US travel agents......) A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A ADVERTISING G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G Herbs of the Northern Shaman by Steve Andrews Plants and fungi that affect mental states have been a part of all civilizations since early man first noticed that plants could alter awareness in an extraordinary way. The ancient holy men and healers used these psychoactives to explore non-physical realms and so expand their abilities to minister to the clan. Healers found their abilities to treat physical ailments greatly increased, some plants having sedative or calming effects while others are narcotic painkillers. Shamans, per-forming the functions of doctor and priest, also found them to be useful tools in their spiritual and practical ministering. Today, we use these plants in much the same way, and also recreationally, to escape the pressures of our modern world. In Herbs of the Northern Shaman, Steve Andrews describes in clear, understandable terms the plants, their active constituents, dosages, and effects on the human mind and body. Many photos and illustrations. Besides the expected plants like Cannabis, Datura, and Peyote, the unexpected effects of Buttercup, Sassafras arid Water Lily are also illuminated. Author Steve Andrews, Member of The Council of British Druid Orders and Affiliate Member of the Highway Poets Motorcycle Club, has plumbed his lifelong interest in and experience with plant culture to produce - Herbs of the Northern Shaman: A Guide to Mind-Altering Plants of the Northern Hemisphere. Loompanics ISBN 1-55950-211-8 Availability: Steve Andrews, 22 Parker Place, Ely, Cardiff, CF5 4NS, Wales, UK. bardofely@ntlworld.com Loompanics Unlimited, P.O. Box 1197, Port Townsend, WA 98368, USA. www.loompanics.com $14.95. Please check the Loompanics site for shipping costs. All mail-orders receive a free catalogue (normally priced @ $5.00) of 800 very unusual books. Visa, MasterCard and Discover accepted. publicity@loompanics.com Also available at Amazon UK and Amazon USA. A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A ADVERTISING G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G G strasbourg, europe LOCAL MEP ON EU FOOT & MOUTH INQUIRY Caroline Lucas, the South East's Green MEP, is to sit on the European Parliament's new Committee of Inquiry into the Foot & Mouth epidemic, which was launched in Strasbourg this week. Unlike it's UK counterpart, the investigation will be held in public. "I very much welcome the establishment of this Committee of Inquiry” she said. “It’s vital that we learn the lessons of the past 11 months, and ensure that such a devastating outbreak and response never happen again. "A key question is why a disease that does no permanent harm to humans and from which most animals recover in a matter of weeks was allowed to shut down the countryside, downgrade vaccination in favour of massive slaughter of healthy animals, and cripple our rural economy - particularly since it appears to have been in order to protect the export market of a commodity in which our country is already a net importer. "Our Labour Government has refused an independent public inquiry in the UK,butit is in all of our interests to know what went on, and ensure that the same mistakes are never made again." At the height of the outbreak last year, Dr Lucas published a widely praised report, Stopping the Great Food Swap, which examined the role that the international food trade played in the spread of Foot and Mouth Disease. This is one of the issues she is hoping to explore further in her position on the new Inquiry Committee. Caroline's constituency covers Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Sussex, Surrey, Kent, Berkshire, Oxfordshire & Bucks. MORE INFO: Steve Rackett on 0776 997 0691 # The Tommy Hilfiger thing is a hoax! thankyou tas and several others. WE WUZ WRONG! :( and thankyou for pointing us to an excellent site which tells you in a minute if the latest rumour is true or not: http://www.snopes2.com/quotes/hilfiger.htm here’s what it said on this very useful site: RACIST TOMMY HILFIGER - DON’T BUY HIS CLOTHES! CLAIM: Designer Tommy Hilfiger shocked the world when he appeared on Oprah and said, "If I knew that Blacks and Asians were going to wear my clothes, I would have never designed them." STATUS: False. ORIGINS: Rumors that Tommy Hilfiger made a racist remark exploded onto the Internet in the fall of 1996 after a news article purporting to be from a Philippines tabloid began making the online rounds. These self-same rumors had been in circulation at least nine months earlier, but the appearance of this article brought them to critical mass. According to Cristina Peczon (author of the article), the revealing remark happened on CNN Style with Elsa Klensch, during an interview with both Hilfiger and Ralph Lauren on the latest fashion trends: Hilfiger then supposedly butted in then with a comment, something like it is one thing for one's label to go popular worldwide, but there are some people who just don't look well in "their" designer clothes. Hilfiger then allegedly named several Asian races, apparently saying that he preferred if "these people" wouldn't wear their line -- particularly Filipinos! Though many were up in arms about this article (there were calls for a boycott of Hilfiger products), no one was ever quite sure what the designer had said, who he'd said it to, or even which ethnic group he'd slammed. One version had him saying, "If I knew that Blacks and Asians were going to wear my clothes, I would have never designed them." More colorful renditions had him making his shocking revelation on national TV and Oprah Winfrey then throwing him off her show. (Oddly enough, the same story has been told about Liz Claiborne since 1991, that Oprah threw her off the show after Liz claimed she didn't design for Black women as "their hips are too big." That didn't happen either. See our Liz Biz page for more about that rumor, and the one that she gives part of the company's profits to the Church of Satan.) # FRANKENCORN AND MICE: AMAZING TALES!! Concerned that industry and government have failed to carry out proper scientific studies on the safety of GE corn and other Frankenfoods, a young Dutch science student, Hinze Hogendoorn, recently decided to take matters into his own hands, and, in December 2001, Dr. Mae Wan-Ho, a British geneticist and world renowned critic of biotechnology, reported the results of this simple, yet remarkable animal-feeding experiment on her website www.i-sis.org Here are excerpts from Dr. Ho's report: A Dutch farmer left two piles of maize in a barn infested with mice, one pile GM (genetically modified), the other non-GM. The GM pile was untouched, while the non-GM pile was completely eaten up. Incredible! Young undergraduate Hinze Hogendoorn, from University College, Utrecht, devised his own laboratory tests and confirmed the finding, and more. An activist group (Jongeren Milieu Aktief) presented the report Hinze has written to the Dutch parliament on December 11, 2001 and is featuring it on their new website (www.talk2000.nl). Hinze couldn't find a single scientific report on animals being tested for preference of GM versus non GM food on the web when he began. On extending his search to effects of GM foods on animals, he came across reports from companies developing GM foods, all declaring there were no adverse impacts. But he also came across independent reports of harmful effects, including Dr. Arpad Pusztai, who found GM potatoes damaged the kidney, thymus, spleen and gut of young rats. Hinze was stumped at first, because he would have needed to go through a lot of bureaucracy to experiment on animals. However, he managed to rescue 30 female six-week old mice bred to feed snakes from a herpetology centre. Hinze gave them a staple food along with the two foods [GM and non-GE corn and soya] that were to be compared, so they could really show their preference without being starved. Large cages were used so the mice had plenty of room to move around. At the beginning, all the mice were weighed before they were put into the cage[s]. The mice had not eaten for some time, but amazingly, they [immediately] showed very definite food preferences [preferring the non GM corn and soya]. For the next [nine] week[s], Hinze continued to give the mice GM and non GM maize or soya chunks. the mice consumed 61% non GM and 39% GM food when given free choice. For the next experiment, Hinze tested for the [health] effects of GM food. Over the next 10 days, he kept track of the amount of food that the two groups consumed each day, and weighed the mice, halfway through and at the end of the experiments. The group fed GM ate more, probably because they were slightly heavier on average to begin with, but they gained less weight. By the end, they actually lost weight. In contrast, the group fed non GM ate less and gained more weight, continuing to gain weight until the end of the experiment. The results were statistically significant. That was not the only difference observed. There were marked behavioral differences. The mice fed GM food "seemed less active while in their cages." The most striking difference was when the mice were weighed at the end of the experiment. The mice fed GM food were "more distressed" than the other mice. "Many were running round and round the basket, scrabbling desperately in the sawdust, and even frantically jumping up the sides, something I'd never seen before." They were clearly more nervous than the mice from the other cage. "For me this was the most disconcerting evidence that GM food is not quite normal." Another "interesting result" is that one of the mice in the GM cage was found dead at the end of the experiment. Hinze concluded, "At the end of everything, I must admit that the experiment has done nothing to soothe my qualms concerning genetically enhanced food." ##################### BOX ADS (£10pw, 2 week minimum). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . LONDON STUDIO SPACE NEEDED Nuroptics, (well, little old me), has run out space and are in need of new premises. I`m ideally looking for cheap and dark . . . 400~1000 square feet. Live/work (well unoffically live, which has been the case in every studio I`ve been in). I stress the cheap, I don`t live a life of luxury. We will quite happliy convert some hole into a studio. If anybody can help there’s a shandy in it for you, Jason: eye@nuroptics.co.uk H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H YOUR PLANET NEEDS //YOU! this HipList grows by recommendation. RECOMMEND SOMEONE 2DAY!!!!!!!!!! * TO DEBATE ANYTHING in the UPGRADE, visit the GroupMind Debating Board on www.parallel-youniversity.com * WE NEVER HAVE SPACE to publish everything, so check the EMAG on our site for the longer, deeper stuff * YES, YES, SEND US EDUTAINING NEWS’N VIEWS no need to ask! :-) |