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Slavery

http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/627.html

Out of the dark came a stranger.

Donated by "JEFFH"

So, what is really wrong with this picture?? Huh?

What is the real minimum wage ?

Column: The money matrix

Posted on Tuesday, 12 May, 2009 | 5:20 | Comments: 34

Phillip Tilley: On July 24, 2009 the Federal Minimum wage is due to rise from $6.55 to $7.25 per hour. That does not sound like much and in fact it is not, but what should the real minimum wage be? To find out you need to first understand that this is the minimum wage as paid in Federal Reserve Note currency. The minimum wage in 1964 was $1.25 per hour. 1964 was the last year we used silver in our coinage and since according to the Coinage Act of 1792 the only real dollar is a one ounce silver dollar, that was the last year real dollars were used. With that in mind I will use 1964 as a comparison year for many things, but today we are concerned with the minimum wage, or at least you should be. At the time of this writing a one ounce silver coin can be purchased from my local coin shop for $14 in Federal Reserve Notes. For comparison one and a quarter ounces can be purchased for $17.50 in Federal Reserve Notes. That means that to be earning the same amount as the minimum wage was in 1964, you would have to be earning $17.50 per hour, or $36,360 per year in Federal Reserve Notes. If you earn less than $17.50 you really earn less than the real minimum wage. We sometimes laugh at people in foreign countries that work for 25 cents an hour, but if you earn the current Federal Minimum wage of $6.55, in equivalent 1964 dollars, that is 46 cents per hour. You are earning 37% as much, or actually the buying power of what you can purchase with $6.55 is 37% as much as someone could purchase with $1.25 in 1964. So if you can not figure out why you are unable to make ends meet, that is why. Inflation of Federal Reserve Notes out paced the minimum wage. Sure the minimum wage was raised in the past, but truly it never kept up with inflation. The Government could have made sure that it did, but that would have kept them from achieving their goal. That goal was to separate you from the wealth you should have been earning. It is easier to control a population that is barely keeping the wolf away from the door. If a real dollar is worth fourteen Federal Reserve Notes, that means a Federal Reserve Note dollar is worth only one fourteenth of a dollar, or seven cents. So if you earn $10 Federal Reserve Notes per hour, ten times seven cents equals seventy cents per hour. Still not even the $1.25 earned as a minimum in 1964. It costs seven cents to print a Federal Reserve Note, so they are barely worth the paper they are printed on. This is the reason you and your spouse both have to work and still can not make ends meet. The illusion that you earn more than you really do is one of the sinister mechanisms of the money matrix. On July 24, 2009 the Federal Minimum wage will rise to $7.25 per hour. Do you think anyone will notice? Wake up people, the money matrix has you. Phillip Tilley is author of The Money Matrix of the New World Order and other articles. Article Copyright© Phillip Tilley - reproduced without permission but I paid him minimum wage for it.

Classification of 5-Dimensional Space-Time with Parallel 3-Branes

PDF 30 pages

http://arabica.ecs.soton.ac.uk/examples/hep-th/9912182.pdf



MADPH-99-1150
Classification of 5-Dimensional Space-Time with
Parallel 3-Branes
Tianjun Li 1

Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706, U. S. A.
Abstract

If the fth dimension is one-dimensional connected manifold, up to di eo-
morphic, the only possible space-time will be M4 R1, M4 R1=Z2, M4 S1
and M4 S1=Z2. And there exist two possibilities on cosmology constant: the
cosmology constant is constant along the fth dimension, and the cosmology
constant is sectional constant along the fth dimension.
 
We construct the general models with parallel 3-branes on those kinds of the space-time and with constant/sectional constant cosmology constant, and point out that for compact fth dimension, the sum of the brane tensions is zero, for non-compact fth dimension, the sum of the brane tensions is positive. We assume the observable
brane which includes our world should have positive tension, and obtain that
in those general scenarios, the 5-dimensional GUT scale on each brane can be
identified as the 5-dimensional Planck scale, but, the 4-dimensional Planck
scale is generated from the low 4-dimensional GUT scale exponentially in our
world. We also give some simple models to show explicitly how to solve the
gauge hierarchy problem.

PACS: 11.25.Mj; 04.65.+e; 11.30.Pb; 12.60. Jv
Keywords: AdS5; Compactication; Brane; Scale; Hierarchy

Lucifer

Fear Man, and his convolutions, delusions, ego creations, fabrications and lies. Fear not my old friend Lucifer. He is not your "Satan" and he is surely NOT your man made devil or "Idem sonans-God".

Sheepy,

Physicists Prove That Vampires Could Not Exist

By Mark Strauss, 12:17 PM on Tue May 5 2009, 94,108 

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Two physicists have published an academic paper where they demonstrate, by virtue of geometric progression, that vampires could not exist, since they would almost immediately deplete their entire food supply (a.k.a, all of us).

If you've ever read Salem's Lot (or seen the lame Starsky and Hutch-era miniseries adaptation starring David Soul), then you know that after a vampire decides to settle in your town, the undead begin to multiply at an alarming rate (he bites two friends, who bite two friends, and so on, and so on…).

Putting aside for a moment the issue of how that would impact neighborhood property values, this phenomenon raises an even more pressing question: If vampires are indeed living (unliving?) among us, then shouldn't we have seen an undead population explosion by now?

Fortunately, our best minds are on the case. Physicists Costas Efthimiou and Sohang Gandhi's paper "Cinema Fiction vs. Physics Reality" offers a full explanation.

Efthimiou and Gandhi conduct a thought experiment: Assume that the first vampire appeared on January 1, 1600. At that time, according to data available at the U.S. Census website, the global population was 536,870,911. Efthimiou and Gandhi calculate that, once the Nosferatu feeding frenzy began, the entire human race would have been wiped out by June 1602 (thus forever changing the course of history by preventing the invention of the slide rule eighteen years later).

The physicists note:

Another philosophical principal related to our argument is the truism given the elaborate title, the anthropic principle. This states that if something is necessary for human existence, then it must be true since we do exist. In the present case, the nonexistence of vampires is necessary for human existence. Apparently, whomever devised the vampire legend had failed his college algebra and philosophy courses.

Oooh, snap! But, this gauntlet had been barely thrown down before it invited a rebuttal from mathematician Dino Sejdinovic. In his article, "Mathematics of the Human Vampire Conflict" (Math Horizons, November 2008) Sejdinovic faults Efthimiou and Gandhi's logic, since they have not "accounted for the birth-rate of non-vampires and death-rate of vampires (actually the death-death-rate since they are already dead, but when they die again they should stay dead but stop being living) due to close encounters with stakes, garlic and holy water." Moreover, "vampires are presented exclusively as greedy consumers: a rational strategy of managing their human resources is not considered."

Here, Sejdinovic cites the pioneering research conducted by Austrian mathematicians Richard Hartl and Alexander Mehlmann, who published the landmark 1982 paper, "The Transylvanian Problem of Renewable Resources," later followed up by "Cycles of Fear: Periodic Bloodsucking Rates for Vampires" (Journal of Optimization Theory and Application, December 1992). Hartl and Mehlmann argue that vampires would never be stupid enough to deplete their entire food supply, and by applying the Hopf-Bifurcation Theorem (don't ask), they demonstrate how vampires can adopt an optimal "cyclical bloodsucking strategy."

However, there is a serious flaw in the Hartl and Mehlmann model: The assumption that human beings would be docile prey. Their research provoked an outraged response from economist Dennis Snower, who in his article "Macroeconomic Policy and the Optimal Destruction of Vampires" (The Journal of Political Economy, June 1982), declared:

One wonders what conceivable interest the authors could have had in helping vampires solve their intertemporal consumption problem. The implicit assumption of the Invisible Hand (or Fang)-whereby vampires, in pursuing their own interests, pursue those of human beings as well-is of questionable validity. The study by Hartl and Mehlmann is not concerned with the macroeconomic implications of blood-sucking behavior modes. Nor does it consider the policy instruments whereby human beings can protect themselves from vampires. Instead, humans are modeled as passive receptacles of blood whose cultivation and harvest are left to vampire discretion.

Hooyah! Snower argues that the mortal world can manage its resources in a manner that keeps the undead population in check, while simultaneously promoting long-term economic growth:

A transfer of labor services from the widget sector to the stake sector reduces human welfare at present but may raise welfare in the future (since an increase in stake production reduces the vampire population and thereby increases the future labor force whereby future widgets may be produced).

Still, I'm not entirely confident in Snower's conclusions-not least because his complex mathematical proof indicates that the complete destruction of vampires would not be "socially optimal." (And you wonder why economics is known as the dismal science?)

In fact, all of these models rest upon the assumption that vampires are at the top of the undead food chain. Who says that the blood-sucking population is not kept in check by something that preys on vampires? Time to consult the zoology journals.

Mark Strauss is a senior editor at Smithsonian magazine.

What Does Your Credit-Card Company Know About You?

Thomas Hannich for The New York Times

A 2002 study of how customers of Canadian Tire were using the company's credit cards found that 2,220 of 100,000 cardholders who used their credit cards in drinking places missed four payments within the next 12 months. By contrast, only 530 of the cardholders who used their credit cards at the dentist missed four payments within the next 12 months.

By CHARLES DUHIGG

Published: May 12, 2009

Rudy Santana's day began recently, as almost all his working days begin, with a name on a screen. The name that April morning belonged to a Massachusetts man in his mid-30s. He owed money on a credit card and a second mortgage, the screen told Santana, and was separated from his wife. He was behind in paying back $28,900.97 in debt. Which was why he was on Santana's screen.

When Santana reached him by phone, the man quickly began talking about his ex-wife. "Listen," the man said. "I called her about this debt, and a guy picked up — a guy I've never heard before — and when I asked for her, he hung up on me. Can you believe that? We used that money to renovate the kitchen! And now she won't even talk to me! Who the hell was that guy who answered the phone?"

"So you've spoken to your wife?" Santana asked, his voice soft and gentle. "Were you able to have a good talk with her? Even when you're angry, it's important to talk. Did you talk about the debt?"

"Yeah, we talked about it," the man replied. He paused and released a small sob. "You know, she told me we would be together until we died. I know I have to pay this. But I'm not going to pay her half. I won't damn pay it."

"I know," Santana said. "This is difficult, and I'll be honest — I think you're doing a great job. You're really strong. But the thing is, to the bank, they don't make a distinction between you and your wife. To them, it's just debt. They just want to get paid.

"I think I can do something for you, though," Santana continued, glancing at his screen. It was filled with information about the man, including the fact that he had recently sold his home at a loss. Some of this information had been sent by the man's bank to Santana's employer, Sunrise Credit Services, which collects delinquent debts for companies like Citigroup, Bank of America and HSBC. Santana's company had added notes, too, including helpful tips — he is easier to reach in the mornings, for example — and new ways to contact him.

"Look," Santana said. "I know you're angry at your wife. One step to ending that anger is putting this debt behind you. It will really help you find peace. You owe about $29,000. How much do you think you can pay?"

"Well, how much are you gonna help me?" the man shot back. "These banks got all this taxpayer money from the government, and they're the ones who ruined the market for my house! I helped bail them out. I think the banks should be paying me, instead of trying to suck all the life out of us they can!"

It was the first of numerous blowups that Santana would confront that day. Bill collectors don't tend to encounter many pleasantries, even in the best of times. And these are nowhere near the best of times, for borrowers or for the banking and credit-card industries that lend to them. After two decades of almost constant expansion and profitability, card companies today are in deep trouble. Monstrous losses — estimated to top $395 billion over the next five years — are growing as cardholders, brought low by the recession, walk away from their debts. And Congress and President Obama are pushing for legislation that would make it much harder for companies to hike up interest rates and charge many of the sneaky fees that have been an easy source of revenue for years.

So credit-card firms are changing their business plans. Gone are the days of handing out cards willy-nilly and hoping that the cardholders who dutifully pay up will offset the losses from those who default. Today companies are focusing on those customers most likely to honor their debts. And they are looking for ways to convince existing cardholders that if they only have enough money to pay one bill, it's wiser to pay off their credit card than, say, the phone.

Put another way, credit-card companies are becoming much more interested in understanding their customers' lives and psyches, because, the theory goes, knowing what makes cardholders tick will help firms determine who is a good bet and who should be shown the door as quickly as possible.

Luckily for the industry, small groups of executives at most of the large firms have spent the last decade studying cardholders from almost every angle, and collection agencies have developed more sophisticated dunning techniques. They have sought to draw psychological and behavioral lessons from the enormous amounts of data the credit-card companies collect every day. They've run thousands of tests and crunched the numbers on millions of accounts. One result of all that labor is the conversation between Santana — a former bouncer whose higher education consists solely of corporate-sponsored classes like "the Psychology of Collections" — and the man from Massachusetts. When Santana contacted the man last month, he was armed with detailed information about his life and trained in which psychological approaches were most likely to succeed.

Eventually, the man from Massachusetts called Santana back with a proposal. He had spoken to his ex-wife, he said. They wanted to wipe out their debt by paying just $10,000 — only 35 percent of what they owed.

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Front Sight assets seized

May 15, 2009

BUSINESS AS USUAL?

Front Sight assets seized

By GINA B. GOOD
PVT

At 11 a.m. Monday, Front Sight Firearms Training Institute and its president, Ignatius Piazza, went into receivership.

All financial transactions involving the firearms training facility -- from accepting payment for classes to paying staff and vendors -- must take place through a court-appointed administrator.

The facility and all assets have been seized by the court, down to the hundreds of firearms included as part of new members' benefits.

However, despite the ruling, this weekend at Front Sight everything was "business as usual," according to Operations Manager Rick Morello.

He said he knew nothing about the legal proceedings. "We have a big weekend coming up with a full schedule of classes," Morello said. "Business is booming."

The ruling, handed down by U.S. District Judge James Ware in San Jose, Calif., had its beginning in November 2005 when Stacy James, Bill Haag and Michael Schriber filed a class action suit against Piazza on behalf of themselves and other qualified Front Sight members.

The suit mentions "violations of RICO, unfair advertising and competition, Nevada Sale of Subdivided Land Act, fraudulent conveyances, Consumer Legal Remedies Act, Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act, breach of contract and fraud," all based on Piazza's sale of lifetime memberships.

RICO is the acronym for the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, originally used to target the Mafia and similar organizations.

The three men allege the price of the memberships they and the members of the class purchased were artificially inflated as a result of misrepresentations and non-disclosures.

On October 15, 2007, a settlement was reached and Ware dismissed the suit with the stipulation Front Sight live up to the negotiated terms. A settlement fund of $8,050,000 secured by a lien on Front Sight's assets would let the class foreclose if the fund was not fully funded by October 15, 2008.

Piazza was ordered to put 10 percent of Front Sight's monthly gross revenues into the settlement fund and provide financial documentation showing he was meeting his obligation. He complied, although according to the plaintiff's court filings, the payments were not timely, which comes as no surprise to former employees and suppliers in Pahrump.

The settlement also said Piazza had to allow members who were part of the suit to use their Front Sight memberships until the settlement fund was fully paid. Further, he was ordered by the court not to retaliate or make derogatory remarks against James, Haag and Schriber.

According to C. Keith Greer, attorney for the class, Piazza violated all the agreed upon terms.

At the end of the prescribed year, the fund was short by more than $5.4 million.

The day after the fund came up short, Piazza send a letter to everyone involved in the suit, saying Front Sight was no longer obligated to make additional monthly payments because the class action had forced the first mortgage holder on the property to foreclose.

"This is a lie as no one foreclosed on the property on that day or any day since," said Greer.

Piazza's letter also said Front Sight offered to increase its monthly contribution to the settlement fund from 10 to 20 percent.

Greer said bluntly, "That was also a lie."

But Piazza didn't stop there. He told class members they were "forever banned from Front Sight," which was another violation of the terms.

The same day Piazza sent a letter to non-class members, declaring:

"After they attended over 200 Front Sight Courses and pocketed $830,000 out of the first million dollars I paid timely into the Class Action Settlement Fund, the three malcontents and their ambulance-chasing attorney tried to kill Front Sight and terminate your membership by forcing us into foreclosure. So I cut them (and their followers) off at the knees!

"In this letter I reveal all the gory details and show you how the new Front Sight turned the tables on these back-stabbing saboteurs."

According to Greer, "Defendant Piazza also boasts that, in violation of the court order against encumbering the property, he created Front Sight Management II and signed a 99-year lease with the old Front Sight entity, leasing the land, water rights, entitlements, equipment, weapons, licenses, trademarks, copyrights, intellectual property, Internet sites, accounts, etc. Every asset the old Front Sight had is now leased by the new Front Sight entity."

Greer said it is clear Front Sight "violated every aspect of the court order and settlement agreement."

He added that Piazza did so "notoriously" and "in a manner that flaunts disrespect for the law and the judicial system."

Piazza's gorilla marketing technique of sending frequent e-mails with special price offers to prospective members give Greer and his clients easy access to information. They used Piazza's own words as evidence to show the court Piazza and Front Sight have the money to satisfy the settlement obligation.

On December 30, 2008, Piazza e-mailed members saying Front Sight had doubled in students, members and net worth each year for 12 years. He said, "While others are laying off people, we are hiring." He also said Front Sight had been offered a $25 million letter of credit.

Taking Piazza at his printed word, in March, the class asked to have Piazza appear in court with financial documentation Piazza agreed to supply in the settlement agreement.

In fact, Greer asked Piazza to live up to all the stipulations in the settlement, including paying the claims administrator and stopping interference with the membership rights of class members.

Greer also asked the court to order Piazza to stop publishing disparaging remarks about class members.

Ware granted the request, setting the hearing date for date for March 23.

Piazza did not appear, nor did he send any representative to appear on Front Sight's behalf. He did, however, fire his attorney at the last minute, which the judge called an "eleventh-hour dismissal" when he issued an order for Piazza to show cause why he should not be held in contempt of court and subject to sanctions for failing to appear.

That hearing to show cause was held Monday, resulting in Ware's decision that Front Sight had defaulted on its agreement with the class. All assets belonging to Front Sight and Piazza were seized by the court.

An administrator was appointed to run the organization.

Eruditio et institutio in bonas artes,homines humani vs homines barbari, conflict returns in new intense forms,the left must rethink rights.
Sheephogan™

LIFE WITH BIG BROTHER

'Electronic Police State' report cites U.S.
Ultimate Big Brother 'basics are in place'

---

Posted: May 10, 2009
9:05 pm Eastern

By Bob Unruh
© 2009 WorldNetDaily

In what may be the first assessment of its kind, a private company that offers a range of privacy products for computers and other technology is ranking the United States No. 6 in the world for having the most aggressive procedures for monitoring residents electronically.

The report, called The Electronic Police State, assesses the status of governmental surveillance in 52 nations around the globe for 2008.

The document was released Cryptohippie, Inc., which was set up in 2007 through the acquisition of several little-known but highly regarded providers of privacy technologies.

Not surprisingly, China and North Korea ranked No. 1 and No. 2, with Belarus and Russia following up. But the United Kingdom (England and Wales) ranked fifth followed by the United States.

"Most of us are aware that our governments monitor nearly every form of electronic communication. We are also aware of private companies doing the same. This strikes most of us as slightly troubling, but very few of us say or do much about it. There are two primary reasons for this," the report said.

"We really don't see how it is going to hurt us. Mass surveillance is certainly a new, odd, and perhaps an ominous thing, but we just don't see a complete picture or a smoking gun," the report continued. Also, "We are constantly surrounded with messages that say, 'Only crazy people complain about the government.'"

The report mapped the world, showing the most advanced electronic police states in red, orange reflecting strongly developing electronic police states and yellow showing nations that are developing, but lagging:

Red nations have the most advanced electronic police state capabilites

Company spokesman Paul Rosenberg told WND the biggest obstacle, however, is that the image of a "police state" dredges up visions of Nazi Germany's thugs breaking down doors in the middle of the night and hauling people off to blacked-out trains or Stalin's USSR rounding up "offenders" for imprisonment.

"That's how things worked during your grandfather's war – that is not how things work now," the report said. "An electronic police state is quiet, even unseen. All of its legal actions are supported by abundant evidence. It looks pristine," the report said.

To create the rankings, which also included Singapore, Israel, France and Germany in the top 10, his organization searched its worldwide sources for information, checked against a number of other published reports, and assigned a value of 1 to 5 to 17 different factors:

1. Daily documents: How much is required day-to-day for residents to present state-issued identity documents or registration.
   
   
2. Border issues: What is demanded for a border entry.
   
   
3. Financial tracking: The state's ability to search and record financial transactions.
   
   
4. Gag orders: The penalties for revealing to someone else the state is searching their records.
   
   
5. Anti-crypto laws: Bans on cryptography.
   
   
6. Constitutional protections: Either a lack of protections or someone overriding them.
   
   
7. Data storage: The state's ability to record and keep what it uncovers.
   
   
8. Data search: The processes to search through data.
   
   
9. ISP data retention: The demand for ISPs to save customers' records.
   
   
10. Telephone data retention: States' requirements for communications companies to record and save records.
    
    
11. Cell phone records: The saving and using of cell phone users' records.
    
    
12. Medical records: Demands from states that medical records retain information.
    
    
13. Enforcement: The state's ability to use force (SWAT teams) to seize someone.
    
    
14. Habeus corpus: Either an absence of such rights or someone overriding them.
    
    
15. Police-Intel barrier: the absence of a barrier between police and intelligence organizations.
    
    
16. Covert hacking: State operatives meddling in data on private computers covertly.
    
    
17. Loose warrants: Warrants that are being issued without careful review of police claims by a truly independent judge.

The listings of China, North Korea, Belarus and Russia, all known for their repression of freedom, weren't surprising. Nor was the listing of the United Kingdom with its recent programs to copy and store virtually every telephone call, e-mail and text message within its borders.

But Rosenberg said there's more going on in the United States than many believe want to believe.

The nation's "basic system of gathering evidence and sorting it later is really dangerous," he said. "It's permanent. It's not going to go away."

It goes so far that a person's alcohol consumption actually could be tracked by government agents, if they chose, through credit card documentation, he told WND.

"In an Electronic Police State, every surveillance camera recording, every e-mail you send, every Internet site you surf, every post you make, every check you write, every credit card swipe, every cell phone ping… are all criminal evidence, and they are held in searchable databases, for a long, long time," the report said.

"Whoever holds this evidence can make you look very, very bad whenever they care enough to do so. You can be prosecuted whenever they feel like it – the evidence is already in their database," the report continued. "Perhaps you trust that your ruler will only use his evidence archives to hurt bad people. Will you also trust his successor? Do you also trust all of his subordinates, every government worker and every policeman?

"If some leader behaves badly, will you really stand up to oppose him or her? Would you still do it if he had all the e-mails you sent when you were depressed? Or if she has records of every porn site you've ever surfed? Or if he knows every phone call you've ever made? Or if she knows everyone you've ever sent money to?" the report asks.

"This system hasn't yet reached its full shape, but all of the basics are in place and it is not far from complete in some places," the report said.

Rosenberg told WND the organization also sought input on the status of electronic surveillance around the world from organizations including the the Electronic Privacy Information Center, Reporters Without Borders, Freedom House, the Ludwig von Mises Institute and The Heritage Foundation.

Following the top 10 were: 11. Malaysia, 12. Ireland, 13. United Kingdom, Scotland, 14. Netherlands, 15. South Korea, 16. Ukraine, 17. Belgium, 18. Australia, 19. Japan, 20. New Zealand, 21. Austria, 22. Norway, 23. India, 24. Italy, 25. Taiwan, 26. Denmark, 27. Hungary, 28. Greece, 29. Canada, 30. Switzerland, 31. Slovenia, 32. Poland, 33. Finland, 34. Sweden, 35. Latvia, 36. Lithuania, 37. Cyprus, 38. Malta, 39. Estonia, 40. Czech Republic, 41. Iceland, 42. South Africa, 43. Spain, 44. Portugal, 45. Luxembourg, 46. Argentina, 47. Romania, 48. Thailand, 49. Bulgaria, 50. Brazil, 51. Mexico, 52. Philippines.

Ten Billion Times Stronger Than Steel

Star Crust is Ten Billion Times Stronger Than Steel

Ker Than
for National Geographic News

May 13, 2009

Move over, Superman.

The Man of Steel has nothing on the collapsed cores of massive snuffed-out stars, scientists say.

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A new computer model suggests that the outer crusts of so-called neutron stars are the strongest known material in the universe.

To determine the breaking point of a neutron star's crust, the team modeled magnetic field stresses and crust deformation for a small region of the star's surface.

The results showed that the crust of a neutron star can withstand a breaking strain up to ten billion times the pressure it would take to snap steel.

"It sounds dramatic, but it's true," said study team member Charles Horowitz of Indiana University.

Breakable

Neutron stars are the second densest objects in the universe after black holes. A teaspoonful of neutron star matter would weigh about a hundred million tons.

Unlike normal stars, neutron stars have solid outer shells that hold a soup of superdense subatomic particles, astronomers believe.

Even though a neutron star's crust is incredibly strong, it can crack due to stress from the star's powerful magnetic field, experts say.

Astronomers think that crust cracks can create "magnetar flares," extremely energetic gamma-ray bursts from strongly magnetized neutron stars.

(Related picture: "Pulsar Creates Cosmic 'Hand.'")

Stellar Goose Bumps

The model also has implications for the height of neutron star "mountains," irregularities on the surfaces of the stars that are thought to help create gravitational waves.

The waves are theoretical ripples in the fabric of space-time that race outward at light speed from massive spinning objects.

The new calculations suggest the mountains are more like stellar goose bumps than giant peaks.

For instance, the mountains can be a few kilometers wide but only about a centimeter (0.39 inch) high, Horowitz said.

The research will be detailed in an upcoming issue of Physical Review Letters.

Sunday's Prize Capture!!

Look Out, Spock!

Pentagon Works on Real-Life Phasers

• By David Hambling
• May 7, 2009  | 
• 9:44 am  | 
• Categories: Bizarro, Lasers and Ray Guns, Less-lethal

As J.J. Abrams' reboot of the Star Trek franchise boldly goes into cinemas, it's time for us to go looking for real-life phasers. While warp drive and transporters clearly belong to the far future, the American military has been working hard to turn sci-fi's favorite ray gun into a reality.

The famous "set phasers to stun" command sums up the weapon's two key advantages: It has several different modes, and it can be used to knock out a target without harming them. Both of these are capabilities that the military has been seeking ever since they got serious about non-lethal arms in the 1990's. The fictional phaser has always been a benchmark for nonlethal weapons, and it has inspired numerous directed energy projects.

"It's the closest thing we have right now to the phasers on the television series 'Star Trek,'" Marine Colonel George Fenton told National Defense magazine in 2002, talking about the Pulsed Energy Projectile (PEP). Colonel he said. "Remember how Capt. Kirk was always saying 'set your phasers on stun?' The projectile works like that."

Well, not exactly. The PEP fires a short, intense laser pulse. This vaporizes the surface of the target, creating plasma which absorbs the rest of the laser energy — and detonates with a flash, bang and electromagnetic pulse. The idea was that the PEP could be used on low power to warn or stun, or on high power to kill. Things got more interesting when it turned out that stunning effects were caused by the effect of the electromagnetic pulse on the nervous system, making it possible to tune it to cause excruciating pain, or 'Taser-like' effects.

In 2002, Fenton was convinced the PEP would be on battlefields within the decade. Alas, it wasn't meant to be. The PEP was shelved after six years and $14.2 million. The program was criticized in a recent Government Accountability Office report as one of six programs where the military "did not make timely decisions about when to discontinue its research efforts when several years have passed without substantive progress." The PEP hasn't quite disappeared, though, as Danger Room recently revealed. Although considered unsuitable as a non-lethal weapon, PEP-like technology has been taken on by U.S. Special Operations Command; they're developing it to shoot down small unmanned aircraft.

Other nonlethal weapons taking their cue from Star Trek include the chunky laser rifle known as "Personnel Halting and Stimulation Response," or PHaSR. This incorporates two different lasers: one is a distracting "dazzler," the other an infra-red device which heats up the skin causing a "repel effect." (More pain, in other words.) It's an interesting idea, although laser dazzlers are not new, and the repel effect only works on exposed skin. It might be useful for stopping someone from advancing, or forcing them to drop a knife, but has obvious limitations. At any rate, it's the one you're most likely to face, as the NIJ are developing the technology for police forces.

An altogether more ambitious weapon is a device for projecting ball lightning at high speed, which goes by the name "Phased Hyper-Acceleration for Shock, EMP, and Radiation." (Yup, PHASER. )

Inventor Paul Koloc says that the device "can be used for a range of purposes from stunning personnel to destroying the functionality of electronically operated devices, smaller rockets and vehicles… this dial-able PHASER weapon can be set on 'Stun' or dialed down, selecting a non-lethal level for persons needed for later interrogation."

However, a key aspect of the technology — generating a stable ball lightning that can then be compressed and fired — is still under development and funding is being sought.

Almost any non-lethal directed energy weapon invites comparisons with the Phaser, but sometimes this isn't too convincing. The Pentagon's Active Denial System or "pain beam" currently weights nine tons and has a warm-up time of sixteen hours; plus it only has one setting, "painful heating."

But in one sense, the Active Denial System really is the closest thing to a Phaser. According to the production notes for the original Star Trek series, the name "phaser" was a contraction of "Photon Maser." The Maser (a name formed from the acronym Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission of radiation) was invented before the laser; lasers were originally known as "optical masers." Masers were initially more powerful than lasers and the makers of Star Trek at least thought they had more weapons potential. At the heart of the Active Denial System is a Gyrotron – a free electron Maser. So, while it can't stun or disintegrate, the Active Denial System is at least a maser and it does fire photons making it a Phaser in one sense.

But there are more sophisticated weapons on the horizon. Take the Multimode Directed Energy Armament System (MDEAS) research project. If it works, it really will be phaser-esque — with both lethal and non-lethal settings. MDEAS relies on an ultrashort laser pulse (one measured in million millionth of a seconds) to create an ionized channel through the air. This channel can then be used to conduct a powerful electric shock to the target to stun or kill. The channel can also act as a waveguide for an intense pulse of microwave energy which can burn out electronics — useful for stopping vehicles and defeating roadside bombs. Even better, at least one version of the device will be portable enough for Kirk and company to carry around with them.

The Multimode Directed Energy Armament System is still at the laboratory stage, but by the end of 2011 there should be a rugged prototype which works in a realistic environment.

Then they need to start work on those starships …

[Photo: Artasylum.com]

New, Fast-Evolving Rabies Virus Found -- And Spreading

Anne Minard
for National Geographic News

May 4, 2009

Evolving faster than any other new rabies virus on record, a northern-Arizona rabies strain has mutated to become contagious among skunks and now foxes, experts believe.

The strain looks to be spreading fast, commanding attention from disease researchers across the United States (U.S. map).

It's not so unusual for rabid animals to attack people on hiking trails and in driveways, or even in a bar—as happened March 27, when an addled bobcat chased pool players around the billiards table at the Chaparral in Cottonwood.

Nor is it odd that rabid skunks and foxes are testing positive for a contagious rabies strain commonly associated with big brown bats.

What is unusual is that the strain appears to have mutated so that foxes and skunks are now able to pass the virus on to their kin—not just through biting and scratching but through simple socializing, as humans might spread a flu.

Usually the secondary species—in this case, a skunk or fox bitten by a bat—is a dead-end host. The infected animal may become disoriented and even die but is usually unable to spread the virus, except through violent attacks.

(See pictures of infectious animals.)

Skunks have already been proven to be passively transmitting the strain to each other, as documented in a 2006 study in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.

Genetic studies suggest foxes are also spreading the new strain to each other, though the results have not yet been peer reviewed.

Unprecedented Evolution

When a skunk in Flagstaff, Arizona, died of rabies in 2001, wildlife specialists thought it was a "freak accident"—due to a one-off, run-of-the-mill bat bite—said Barbara Worgess, director of the Coconino County Health Department.

Lab tests later showed that the virus had adapted to the skunk physiology and become contagious within the species.

"It shouldn't have been able to pass from skunk to skunk," Worgess said. Rabies has continued to crop up in skunks for eight years now, despite periodic vaccination campaigns. And so far this year, county officials have documented 14 rabid foxes in the Flagstaff area.

Now laboratory studies at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta appear to confirm that the fox and skunk rabies viruses are mutated forms of the bat strain.

"We can see degrees of relatedness and patterns in their genetic codes," said Charles Rupprecht, chief of the rabies program for the CDC.

This sort of rapid evolution is exactly what worries public health officials when it comes to all manner of viruses. Virologists haven't seen such fast adaptation to a new species in rabies before.

"That's why Flagstaff is such an interesting story worldwide," said David Bergman, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's state director for Arizona.

"We're watching evolution in action on the ground."

Could Rabies Become Contagious in Humans?

The Arizona rabies situation is risky, because the infected species live so close to people.

Flagstaff's sprawl in recent decades has created a perfect opportunity for rabies to mutate into species-hopping forms, the CDC's Rupprecht said.

New-home construction, often in wooded areas, has actually increased habitat and food sources for bats, skunks, and foxes. Skunks live under houses, for example, and as diggers, make themselves at home on golf courses. Bats, meanwhile, are adept at living in attics and under loose shingles.

As more rabies-susceptible animals congregate in the region, more infections can take place. And each infection is an opportunity for the virus to mutate into a more virulent form—literally upping the odds of a new strain developing.

"That's a pattern that we see all over the United States," Rupprecht said. Similar suburban development in the eastern U.S. in the late 1970s, he noted, led to the spread of raccoon rabies from the Canadian border to the Deep South.

The risk of such a virulent strain jumping to people "should be a major concern," said Hinh Ly, a molecular virologist at the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, who is not involved in studies of the Arizona outbreak.

But no one is expecting the rabies strain to become a contagious, swine flu-like epidemic among humans.

Flu viruses, for one thing, tend to infect people fast, so "vaccination after exposure would be too late to prevent infection," said Elisabeth Lawaczeck, the Arizona Department of Health Services' public health veterinarian.

Rabies takes its time before going from incubation to infection, so post-exposure rabies vaccinations tend to be effective at stopping the virus. If untreated, though, rabies, which attacks the central nervous system, is often fatal in humans.

What Next?

Rabies cases among animals are expected to increase as the spring and summer mating seasons bring potential pairs and rivals together. (Related: "Bat Rabies Threat Rises With Summer Temperatures.")

Already, Flagstaff has declared a 90-day pet quarantine—all dogs on leashes and all cats indoors—which began in April.

A wildlife vaccination plan could stem the virus's spread. Local and state officials enacted vaccination programs in northern Arizona in 2001 and 2005 but discontinued each effort after two years without rabies reports—the World Health Organization's standard for declaring an area rabies-free.

Now state vaccination funds have been reallocated, the USDA's Bergman said, and emergency funds are increasingly rare due to the recession.

Adding to the worries, Lawaczeck, the Arizona veterinary official, said she and other public heath officials were "very unsettled" when the first rabid fox reports came in from Flagstaff this year—and not just because of the evolutionary implications for rabies.

"This means a much wider spread of rabies," she said, "because [foxes] travel so much farther."

White Tea: Solution To Obesity Epidemic?

ScienceDaily (May 7, 2009) — Possible anti-obesity effects of white tea have been demonstrated in a series of experiments on human fat cells (adipocytes). Researchers have now shown that an extract of the herbal brew effectively inhibits the generation of new adipocytes and stimulates fat mobilization from mature fat cells.

Marc Winnefeld led a team of researchers from Beiersdorf AG, Germany, who studied the biological effects of an extract of white tea – the least processed version of the tea plant Camellia sinensis. He said, "In the industrialized countries, the rising incidence of obesity-associated disorders including cardiovascular diseases and diabetes constitutes a growing problem. We've shown that white tea may be an ideal natural source of slimming substances".

After treating lab-cultured human pre-adipocytes with the tea extract, the authors found that fat incorporation during the genesis of new adipocytes was reduced. According to Winnefeld, "The extract solution induced a decrease in the expression of genes associated with the growth of new fat cells, while also prompting existing adipocytes to break down the fat they contain".

White tea is made from the buds and first leaves of the plant used to make green tea and the black tea most commonly drunk in Western countries. It is less processed than the other teas and contains more of the ingredients thought to be active on human cells, such as methylxanthines (like caffeine) and epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) – which the authors believe to be responsible for many of the anti-adipogenic effects demonstrated in their study.

---

Journal reference:

1. Jörn Söhle, Anja Knott, Ursula Holtzmann, Ralf Siegner, Elke Grönniger, Andreas Schepky, Stefan Gallinat, Horst Wenck, Franz Stäb and Marc Winnefeld. White Tea extract induces lipolytic activity and inhibits adipogenesis in human subcutaneous (pre)-adipocytes. Nutrition & Metabolism, (in press)

Adapted from materials provided by Nutrition and Metabolism, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Provided by
Sheepy

Will.easygreen@gmail.com
Operations Director
Seed and Grain Technologies, inc.
1171 W. Gold Dust Lane
Pahrump, Nevada 89048
775-537-2552
We Twitter; @growsprouts

Big Solar Flare Portends Sun's Return to Normal

related:

Perfect Space Storm Could be Catastrophic on Earth, Study Concludes Power Grids in Peril NASA Warns of 'Space Katrina' Radiation Storm Power Grids in Peril Sun's Massive Explosion Upgraded to X45 – flashback Sun Shoots Monster Flare at Earth – flashback Space Storm Hits, Earth Survives – flashback Evolution of a Massive Solar Storm – photos

May 6, 2009
By Alexis Madrigal
Wired News

The sun has a new spot, and it could signal the long-awaited beginning of the next solar cycle.

Solar flares rise and fall on an 11-year cycle, and last year marked what scientists thought was the solar minimum. But through the beginning of 2009, the sun stayed unusually quiet. That changed yesterday, when a major sunspot appeared on the backside of the sun, where it was captured by NASA's STEREO instrument.

"This is the biggest event we've seen in a year or so," said Michael Kaiser, research scientist with the heliophysics division at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. "Does this mean we're finished with the minimum or not? It's hard to say. This could be it. It's got us all excited."

People have been counting sunspots since Galileo first observed one in the early 17th century. Through the 28 cycles that have been well-documented, stretching from 1745 to today, the average cycle length has been 11 years, but shorter and longer cycles have been observed. (The polarity of solar storms also alternates, so technically, a full cycle is 22 years.)

For unknown reasons, the current solar minimum has lasted longer than normal.

"It's been a long solar minimum, the longest and deepest one through the last hundred years, but not out of the extreme ordinary," Kaiser said.

Sunspot activity causes magnetic storminess around Earth and is correlated with the total amount of energy we receive from the sun. That connection caused some speculation in the media about the implications of the extended solar minimum on climate change, like yesterday's FoxNews.com article, "Quiet Sun May Trigger Global Cooling."

If the new solar flare is indeed a sign of the resumption of the normal cycle, it should put all that to rest.

Kaiser is sure this sunspot is part of the new cycle because it appeared at about 30 degrees of latitude. This is typical early in the solar cycle when sunspots appear closer to the poles. Toward the solar minimum they show up closer to the equator. To date, a few minor sunspots have shown up in the higher latitudes, but none with the intensity or size of the new spots.

"We have seen a few events in the new cycle, but they've all been pretty timid compared to this one," Kaiser said. "In angular size, this one wasn't spectacularly big, but it was certainly pretty bright."

STEREO picked up the event around the backside of the sun, but it won't come fully into view from Earth until May 8. Still, solar photographers are already pointing their telescopes at the sun, hoping to catch a glimpse of the new event.

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/05/solarcycle/

Federal Felony To Use Blogs, the Web, Etc. To Cause Substantial Emotional Distress Through "Severe, Repeated, and Hostile" Speech?

Posted on May 6, 2009 by duo

By Eugene Volokh

Federal Felony To Use Blogs, the Web, Etc. To Cause Substantial Emotional Distress Through "Severe, Repeated, and Hostile" Speech?

That's what a House of Representatives bill, proposed by Rep. Linda T. Sanchez and 14 others, would do. Here's the relevant text:

Whoever transmits in interstate or foreign commerce any communication, with the intent to coerce, intimidate, harass, or cause substantial emotional distress to a person, using electronic means to support severe, repeated, and hostile behavior, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both….

["Communication"] means the electronic transmission, between or among points specified by the user, of information of the user's choosing, without change in the form or content of the information as sent and received; …

["Electronic means"] means any equipment dependent on electrical power to access an information service, including email, instant messaging, blogs, websites, telephones, and text messages.

No ransom demand, no motive in Calif. abduction

• 
  

AP – This undated photo provided Monday, May 4, 2009 by the San Bernardino County, Ca. Sheriff's Department …

• Play Video Video:Rare Kidnapping Leads to Desperate Search ABC News
• Play Video Video:Boy, 3, Kidnapped By Gunmen From Home CBS 2 / KCAL 9 Los Angeles

2 hrs 13 mins ago

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. – Investigators trying to find a 3-year-old kidnap victim, snatched from his home by armed robbers who threatened to kill him, have received dozens of tips but no solid leads, officials said Tuesday.

There was no ransom demand 48 hours after the abduction, and San Bernardino County sheriff's Lt. Rick Ells said detectives were worried that news vans outside the home could be deterring the kidnappers from making contact.

"Every minute, every second that passes, is critical," Sgt. Doug Hubbard said at a news conference. "But we are remaining positive and investigating it as if we just went on scene."

Two gunmen burst through the family's front door Sunday and tied up 3-year-old Briant Rodriguez, four of his siblings and their mother, Maria Rosalina Millan, then ransacked the house, stealing money and other property, the Sheriff's Department said.

After about 20 minutes, the men left with Briant, ordering his mother and the other children not to call police, the department said in a statement.

"They grabbed my kid, told me `I'm going to take the kid to Mexico and I'm going to kill him,'" the distraught Millan said in Spanish to reporters gathered in her front yard Monday night. "I said `Why? Don't take my kid,' and he told me to `turn around, I'm going to shoot you. Stop talking.'"

No motive had been established and federal and local investigators were looking at several theories, including that the Spanish-speaking kidnappers were from Mexico and may have had ties to organized crime there.

Authorities along the Mexican border were put on alert and FBI agents were helping in the investigation.

Sheriff's spokeswoman Cindy Beavers said investigators were considering all possibilities but had no substantial leads.

"They've been looking at many, many avenues," she said.

Briant's older brother said the men tried to steal the family car but got mad when they couldn't find the keys.

"They took my little brother. He didn't know what was happening so he wasn't crying," 14-year-old Benjamin Barasa told KNBC-TV.

One of the children — an 8-year-old boy — wiggled free from his ties and freed the rest of the family, authorities said. Briant is the youngest of Millan's seven children. Her 16-year-old son was not home and an adult child does not live at home.

The boy's father was at work at the time and the initial investigation pointed to the kidnappers being strangers to the family, Ells said. The gunmen stole Millan's cell phone, so she had to make the emergency call from a nearby liquor store, Ells said.

The California Highway Patrol didn't issue an Amber Alert for Briant until about nine hours after the family called San Bernardino County authorities. According to the CHP Web site, one requirement for activating an Amber Alert is that information be available that could assist in a child's safe recovery. In this case, however, police said they had no witness descriptions of the abductors' vehicle that could be posted on highway information signs to help locate the suspects.

CHP Officer Daniel Hesser in San Bernardino said the agency received the request for an Amber Alert about 7 1/2 hours after the kidnapping.

The family lives in a modest, single-story home in a mainly lower-income area abutting the city of San Bernardino, about 60 miles east of Los Angeles.

Retired Marine Sergeant Major writes............

Contributed by Jack!

Let's see if I can make up for the one in ten - I'm publishing...

Sheepy

Retired Marine Sergeant Major writes............



(Too bad we don't have folks on Capitol Hill willing to speak out like this. J.D. Pendry is a retired Marine Sergeant Major who writes for Random House. He is eloquent, and as taught by the Marines, he seldom beats around the bush..



'The Axis of Idiots'



Jimmy Carter, you are the father of the Islamic Nazi movement. You threw the Shah under the bus, welcomed the Ayatollah home, and then lacked the spine to confront the terrorists when they took our embassy and our people hostage. You're the runner-in-chief.



Bill Clinton, you played ring around the Lewinsky while the terrorists were at war with us. You got us into a fight with them in Somalia and then you ran from it. Your weak-willed responses to the USS Cole and the First Trade Center Bombing and Our Embassy Bombings emboldened the killers. Each time you failed to respond adequately, they grew bolder, until 9/11/2001.



John Kerry, dishonesty is your most prominent attribute. You lied about American Soldiers in Vietnam . Your military service, like your life, is more fiction than fact. You've accused our military of terrorizing women and children in Iraq . You called Iraq the wrong war, wrong place, wrong time, the same words you used to describe Vietnam . You're a fake. You want to run from Iraq and abandon the Iraqis to murderers just as you did to the Vietnamese. Iraq , like Vietnam , is another war that you were for, before you were against it.



John Murtha, you said our military was broken. You said we can't win militarily in Iraq . You accused United States Marines of cold-blooded murder without proof and said we should redeploy to Okinawa . Okinawa, John? And the Democrats call you their military expert! Are you sure you didn't suffer a traumatic brain injury while you were off building your war hero resume? You're a sad, pitiable, corrupt and washed up politician. You're not a Marine, sir. You wouldn't amount to a good pimple on a real Marine's butt. You're a phony and a disgrace. Run away, John ..



Dick Durbin, you accused our Soldiers at Guantanamo of being Nazis, tenders of Soviet style gulags and as bad as the regime of Pol Pot , who murdered two million of his own people after your party abandoned Southeast Asia to the Communists. Now you want to abandon the Iraqis to the same fate.. History was not a good teacher for you, was it? Lord help us! See Dick run.



Ted Kennedy, for days on end you held poster-sized pictures from Abu Ghraib in front of any available television camera. Al Jazeera quoted you saying that Iraqi's torture chambers were open under new management. Did you see the news, Teddy? The Islamic Nazis demonstrated another beheading for you. If you truly supported our troops, you'd show the world poster-sized pictures of that atrocity and demand the annihilation of it. Your legislation stripping support from the South Vietnamese led to a communist victory there. You're a bloated, drunken fool bent on repeating the same historical blunder that turned freedom-seeking people over to homicidal, genocidal maniacs. To paraphrase John Murtha, all while sitting on your wide, gin-soaked rear-end in Washington .



Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Carl Levine, Barbara Boxer, Diane Feinstein, Russ Feingold, Hillary Clinton, Pat Leahy, Barack Obama, Chuck Schumer, the Hollywood Leftist morons, et al, ad nauseam: Every time you stand in front of television cameras and broadcast to the Islamic Nazis that we went to war because our President lied, that the war is wrong and our Soldiers are torturers, that we should leave Iraq, you give the Islamic butchers - the same ones that tortured and mutilated American Soldiers - cause to think that we'll run away again, and all they have to do is hang on a little longer. It is inevitable that we, the infidels , will have to defeat the Islamic jihadists.. Better to do it now on their turf, than later on ours after they have gained both strength and momentum.



American news media, the New York Times particularly: Each time you publish stories about national defense secrets and our intelligence gathering methods, you become one united with the sub-human pieces of camel dung that torture and mutilate the bodies of American Soldiers. You can't strike up the courage to publish cartoons, but you can help Al Qaeda destroy my country. Actually, you are more dangerous to us than Al Qaeda is. Think about that each time you face Mecca to admire your Pulitzer.



You are America 's 'AXIS OF IDIOTS.' Your Collective Stupidity will destroy us. Self-serving politics and terrorist-abetting news scoops are more important to you than our national security or the lives of innocent civilians and Soldiers. It bothers you that defending ourselves gets in the way of your elitist sport of politics and your ignorant editorializing. There is as much blood on your hands as is on the hands of murdering terrorists. Don't ever doubt that. Your frolics will only serve to extend this war as they extended Vietnam . If you want our Soldiers home as you claim, knock off the crap and try supporting your country ahead of supporting your silly political aims and aiding our enemies..



Yes, I'm questioning your patriotism. Your loyalty ends with self. I'm also questioning why you're stealing air that decent Americans could be breathing. You don't deserve the protection of our men and women in uniform. You need to run away from this war, this country. Leave the war to the people who have the will to see it through and the country to people who are willing to defend it.



Our country has two enemies:Those who want to destroy us from the outside and those who attempt it from within.



Semper Fi,



J. D. Pendry - Sergeant Major, USMC, Retired



This is a savvy man. He has nailed it down pretty good. Too bad it won't do any good. There won't be 1 in 10 that receive it that will forward it.

New gun law aimed at asserting sovereignty

By KAHRIN DEINES - Associated Press - 04/16/09

Gov. Brian Schweitzer has signed into law a bill that aims to exempt Montana-made guns from federal regulation, adding firepower to a battery of legislative efforts to assert states' rights across the nation.

"It's a gun bill, but it's another way of demonstrating the sovereignty of the state of Montana," Democrat Schweitzer said.

Since the law applies only to those guns that are made and kept in Montana, its impact is limited. The state is home to just a handful of specialty gun makers, known for recreating rifles used to settle the West, and most of their customers are out-of-state.

But supporters of the new law hope it triggers a court case testing the legal basis for federal rules governing gun sales.

"What we need here is for Montana to be able to handle Montana's business and affairs," bill sponsor Rep. Joel Boniek, a Republican and wilderness guide from Livingston, told fellow lawmakers during the bill's House debate.

The measure is one of many introduced by state lawmakers across the nation seeking to confront what some see as a federal overreach into state matters that will be extended with the national stimulus plan.

Along with the gun bill, Montana legislators are considering a resolution that affirms the 10th Amendment principle that the federal government only has those powers that are specifically given to it by the U.S. Constitution.

"The whole goal is to awaken the people so that we can return to a properly grounded republic," Rep. Michael More, R-Gallatin Gateway and the Montana resolution's sponsor, said at a House committee hearing Wednesday.

As many as fifteen other Legislatures have also been mulling resolutions that buck federal control in states such as New Hampshire, South Carolina, Missouri and Oklahoma.

"The balance has swung far to the extreme to the empowerment of the federal government, and to the harm of the individual states," More said.

Opponents of the state sovereignty bids, however, warn they could give legitimacy to the kind of anti-government ideas that fueled the militia movement in Montana and elsewhere.

"When you really actually get in and look at it there is a lot of what we feel is very dangerous, very anti-government language that reads very similar to posters for the militia movement in the 1990s," said Travis McAdam, the interim director of the Montana Human Rights Network, a group formed to oppose racism and extremism.

One of the few state Senators who voted against the gun bill — Sen. Christine Kaufmann, D-Helena — is that group's director when the Legislature is not in session. She ties the bills' proliferation to fears about the Democratic administration of President Barack Obama and stimulus spending.

"I do think that there is a kind of renewed vehemence to this kind of right-wing rhetoric being spewed by conservative talk show hosts to rile the troops and they are using the fact that we have a Democratic, black president as one of their rallying calls," Kaufmann said.

The Montana bills are being sponsored by freshman legislators who ran as part of a broader effort to oust more moderate Republicans in last spring's elections.

House Resolution 3, the one sponsored by More, follows another states' rights declaration that deadlocked in the same committee earlier this session, although the committee's chairman said it may have a shot on its second try.

House Bill 246, the Montana-made gun bill, cleared the Legislature easily before reaching the governor's desk.

Its supporters next plan to find a "squeaky clean" Montanan who wants to send a note to the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives threatening to build and sell about 20 rifles without federal dealership licensing. If the ATF says it's illegal, the gun bill's backers plan to file a lawsuit in federal court with the goal of launching a legal showdown that lands in the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Montana Shooting Sports Association, which drafted the bill, has said it will raise the money to pay for any legal costs.

"It doesn't cost us any money and I like guns," Schweitzer said after signing the bill.

"I like big guns, I like little guns, I like pistols, I like rifles, and I would like to buy a gun that's made in Montana," Schweitzer said.

The World's Most Dangerous Hacker?

In a way, I must agree, if you teleport yourself, or essence to another land, you should be responsible to obey the laws of that land. But! Nothing MORE of your essence that was transported, should be tried or held responsible. In this case just his digital presence. (And the results of that) YES indeed, lets trial this case on the world wide web!

Sheepy

Lloyd-Evans

In 2002 Gary McKinnon was arrested in the UK for illegally accessing US military and NASA computers. McKinnon, who describes himself as a "bumbling computer nerd," claims to have exploited lax security systems by using a simple script that searches machines to find blank passwords. Apparently inspired by the Disclosure Project, he was looking for evidence of suppressed alien technologies, evidence which he claims to have found.

McKinnon recently sought to lodge an appeal against his extradition with the European Court of Human Rights, arguing that as his crime was commited on British territory he should be tried in Britain. The ECHR refused to hear his case.  McKinnon's legal representative noted that the case highlights "a worrying trend where UK citizens are at the mercy of the
ever-increasing tendency of overseas prosecutors to extend their
jurisdiction to crimes allegedly committed in this country."

Dubbed the "world's most dangerous hacker" by US authorities, McKinnon risks facing charges related to terrorism and up to seventy years in prison.

More information on the case can be found here.