Burning Bush discovered on Mount Hegemon
Reports coming in state that a burning bush has been discovered. Though the bush is clearly on fire witnesses say the bush seems whole, undamaged by the flames, and is cool to the touch. Some reports state that a voice has been heard in the heart of the bush, but these are unconfirmed as yet. Religious investigators are flying from the Temple of the White Mount to assess the veracity of the claims, but already large crowds have gathered to keep a vigil on what many are saying is a sign of the new millenium and a new coming. Several marching bands have also flown in and they are keeping the crowds entertained with renditions of 'And the Bushes keep marching on".
Rice lacks the basic decency to say "Sorry Iraq"
Quoted from the Washington Times:
"The Iraqis lack certain capacities, and if we focus in this next period after the election on helping them to build those capacities beyond where they are now, I think we will have done a major part toward the day when less coalition help is needed."
CONDOLEEZZA RICE
What's she saying? The US has reduced Iraq to a rubble and she has the cheek to suggest this. Does she know that Iraqis are having to wait all day to get petrol for their cars, to get essential cooking oils and basics. And this in a country that has some of the largest oil reserves!
And who is she going to help? US companies or the Iraqi on the street?
Another Inauguration, another term for Mr Bush
Another 4 years; listening to president Bush's speech it seemed that he was genuinely concerned with freedom around the globe, but is it not hypocrisy to suggest he is for freedom when his government is supporting regimes who are only too willing to crush the voices of their citizens. How will he push freedom into the prisons of Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and most of the Middle East where the US needs to maintain open oil routes?
And if he wants freedom then perhaps he can open the borders to Mexico, and legalise all those aliens employed in the US market. It's about time that Western leaders started to think through their words rather than employ them as headline catchers. The US is a great country, but it needs to clear it own backyard before it starts to clean up the world; perhaps signing up to the Kyoto Accord may be a start.
Japanese art of bathing
Is there anyone out there who can give me some information on the art of bathing in Japan? I am writing a book in which there is a Japanese character and I want authentic background info. Thanks
Tsunami Pledges fall short
Guardian Unlimited: Martin Bright, Nick Mathiason and Nico Hines
Sunday January 16, 2005
The Observer
http://www.guardian.co.uk/tsunami/story/0,15671,1391606,00.html
Intro to the article:
Western nations lauded for their generosity following the south east Asian tsunami disaster are failing to honour pledges of aid, leaving shortfalls of millions of pounds in the recovery programme.
Despite the huge response by international governments when the tidal wave hit on Boxing Day, the United Nations humanitarian appeal is still underfunded by a third, with just $723 million received out of a total of nearly $1 billion originally demanded and pledged.
According to an Oxfam report to be published this week, donations have followed the same pattern as pledges to other recent disasters such as the Bam earthquake in Iran and Hurricane Mitch in central America, where initial promises were not honoured.
//follow the link to read the full article
Tsunami or Not Tsunami.
AFP | Re-posted January 7 2005
Top secret wartime experiments were conducted off the New Zealand coast to perfect a tidal wave bomb believed to be potentially as effective as the atom bomb, a report said yesterday citing declassified files.
Auckland University professor Thomas Leech set off a series of underwater explosions triggering mini-tidal waves at Whangaparaoa, just north of Auckland, in 1944 and 1945, the New Zealand Herald reported.
His work was considered so significant that US defense chiefs said if the project had been completed before the end of the war it could have played a role as effective as that of the atom bomb.
Details of the tsunami bomb, known as Project Seal, are contained in 53-year-old documents released by the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Papers stamped "top secret" show the US and British military were eager for Seal to be developed in the post-war years too. They even considered sending Leech to Bikini Atoll to view the US nuclear tests and see if they had any application to his work.
He did not make the visit, although a member of the US board of assessors of atomic tests, Dr. Karl Compton, was sent to New Zealand.
"Dr. Compton is impressed with Professor Leech's deductions on the Seal project and is prepared to recommend to the Joint Chiefs of Staff that all technical data from the test relevant to the Seal project should be made available to the New Zealand Government for further study by Professor Leech," said a July 1946 letter from Washington to Wellington.
Leech, who died in his native Australia in 1973, was the university's dean of engineering from 1940 until 1950.
News of his being awarded a CBE in 1947 for research on a weapon led to speculation in newspapers around the world about what was being developed.
Though high-ranking New Zealand and US officers spoke out in support of the research, no details of it were released because the work was on-going.
A former colleague of Leech, Neil Kirton, told the New Zealand Herald that the experiments involved laying a pattern of explosives underwater to create a tsunami.
Small-scale explosions were carried out in the Pacific and off Whangaparaoa, which at the time was controlled by the army. It is unclear what happened to Project Seal once the final report was forwarded to Wellington Defense Headquarters late in the 1940s.
The bomb was never tested full scale, and Kirton doubts the public would have noticed the trials.
"Whether it could ever be resurrected ... Under some circumstances I think it could be devastating," he said.
This mirrors the state of my thinking; always red, synapses aglow! 
Help with Toni Morrison
Have a study of Beloved to complete and barely out of the blocks!
The question is: How have the characters in the novel destroyed themselves in order to preserve themselves.
Yep, that's it. I choose it, so it's my fairly and squarely in my plate. But I need help. HELP! Are there any Morrison scholars out there?
Nothing is Free
Boxing day, 2004:
One of the largest earthquakes in recorded history (measuring 8.9 on the Richter Scale), struck just off Sumatra, Indonesia, in a fault line running under the sea. The rupture caused massive waves, or tsunamis, that hurtled away from the epicenter,
reaching shores as far away as Africa. Over 150,000 people were killed (as of writing — this final figure is expected to rise further) and the livelihoods of millions were destroyed in over 10 countries. This has been one of the biggest natural disasters in recent human history.
Today’s top tsunami aid donors
Country/region Government* Private donations (Million dollars)
Australia 815.50 Asian Development Bank 675.00**
Germany 660.0 EU 529.30
Japan 500.00 USA 350.00
World Bank 250.00 Norway 181.90
Britain 96.00 Italy 95.00
China 83.00 Sweden 80.00
Canada 80.00 Denmark 76.83
Spain 68.02
UN OCHA spokesman, Robert Smith, told the Guardian:
“We should be very cautious about these figures [of massive aid pledges]. Let's put it this way. Large-scale disasters tend to result in mammoth pledges which... do not always materialise in their entirety. The figures look much higher than they really are. What will end up on the ground will be much less.”
Recent disasters
HURRICANE, Central America 1998
Pledged: £4.8bn
Delivered: £1.6bn
FLOODS, Mozambique 2000
Pledged: £214m
Delivered: £107m
EARTHQUAKE, Bam, Iran 2003
Pledged: £17.1m
Delivered: £9.5m
Some poor countries are told by the IMF and World Bank to pay around 20 to 25 percent of their export earnings towards debt repayment. Yet, “[n]o European country including Britain, France and Italy is repaying its loans at levels higher than four percent.
Relief organizations have calculated that as much as 75% of foreign aid is directly tied to trade access or other economic and political strategies. Some comes with so many strings attached, including preferential tendering on contracts and the hiring of consultants, that only 30-40% of dollar value is ever realized.
US policy dictates that much foreign aid be spent on costly imported medicines, weapons, agricultural produce or manufactured goods. Some European nations have a similar approach.
Total Third World debt continues to rise, despite ever-increasing payments, while aid is falling. The developing world now spends $13 on debt repayment for every $1 it receives.
