Open Your Eyes News - Edition 19

Health:
US backs statin use for children
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7496988.stm
Or alternatively stop feeding them junk, selling them "diet" drinks under the false premise that it will enable them to lose weight, and make sport a much bigger part of school life. Bet hey, where's the profit in that for pharmaceutical companies?

Four Out of Five Sunscreens May Be Hazardous to Your Health http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/07/01/four-out-of-five-sunscreens-may-be-hazardous-to-your-health.aspx?source=nl
The only way to be safe in the sun if you are fair skinned is to moderate your exposure and cover up. Rubbing a concoction of chemicals into your semi-permeable skin is not a recipe for success (unless you sell sun creams that is in which case roll up, roll up)

Civil Liberties:
Want some torture with your peanuts?
http://www.washingtontimes.com/weblogs/aviation-security/2008/Jul/01/want-some-torture-with-your-peanuts/#again
A truly charming piece of technology that I have highlighted in previous editions. But why stop at just having to wear it to fly? Why not make everyone wear it all the time? As many people love to say "Well I've got nothing to fear" - history tells me that that tends to be very wishful thinking - read the quote by Martin Niemöller in the right hand column.

Microwave Ray Gun Controls Crowds with Noise
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Technology/AheadoftheCurve/story?id=5305386&page=1
Crowd control 21st century style. How do you think technology like this will effect your decision whether or not to peacefully protest about something you feel passionately about?

Senate gives Bush what he wants in surveillance bill
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008043090_spying100.html
US civil liberties take another backward step, and the 4th Amendment is consigned to history. The totalitarian tip-toe in action. Step by tiny step the necessary steps are taken until wham, it's too late to stop it (read the 10 Steps to a Closed Society at the bottom of this page)

Italy rebuke on Roma fingerprints
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7500605.stm
They’ll still do it though “to protect” the minority. Expect similar measures, including micro-chipping, of other minorities and socially deprived groups.

Council uses terrorist snooping powers on 900 members of the public
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1034511/Council-uses-terrorist-snooping-powers-900-members-public.html
Only acting in the same way that all good bureaucrats would when presented with the opportunity to push their own little agenda's further to make themselves feel important. No different from the "ordinary" German's who ran the concentration camps with such efficiency in World War 2.

Big Brother could be your APS meter-reader
http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/valleyfever/2008/07/big_brother_could_be_your_aps.php
I wonder if they have read some books on how the East German Stasi used to run it's surveillance operations? The same is happening in the UK with warrent cards being issued to traffic warden's over the last few months "in case they are needed in a time of emergency and the police are stretched". The creation of a "paramilitary" force - Step number 3 in the creation of a closed society (see the bottom of the page for the full list)

Environment:
Cleaner skies explain surprise rate of warming
http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/mg19926634.800-cleaner-skies-explain-surprise-rate-of-warming.html?feedId=online-news_rss20
So cleaner, less polluted skies mean more climate change? I'm sure large corporations can do something to help there by off-shoring their manufacturing to countries with laxer pollution controls.

Doomed to a fatal delusion over climate change
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0%2C21985%2C23991257-25717%2C00.html
Some key quotes from the Garnaut Report which is the Australian Government's report on how to "tackle man made" climate change: "the rapid rate of the current warming is highly unusual in the context of the past millennium” (To a degree (if you’ve excuse the pun) it is, though there have been a few variations over the last 1000 years, but then again climate change is hardly thing that you base you entire assumptions over a microscopic timescale in the greater scheme of things, and the rate of change is certainly very slow by historical standards). There is also the "that there is a greater than 90% chance that the 'global average net effect of human activities since 1750 has been one of warming" - from the totally unbiased IPCC report, and even despite that there is therefore still a 10% chance that it is all to do with the sun like every on previous occasion. Basically it was an academic trying to cover his bases (“I never said it was definitely CO2”) for the day when there is serious and open debate on the subject again and he gets ridiculed for being wrong. However I somehow doubt his caveats will slow the politicians juggernaut….damn why the hell would they want to stop such a great money making scheme as carbon trading and carbon taxes that the public don’t even object to because they feel so guilty!

Japanese and Canadian miners' $500m bet on uranium
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,24001991-2702,00.html
Businesses don’t gamble with that kind of money. Very soon Western Australia’s “incorruptible” politician’s, and Federal Environment Minister (ex-Midnight Oil singer and anti-nuclear campaigner, Peter Garrett) will be “persuaded” to remove their ban on the mining uranium to “save the planet from CO2 emissions

PWC says business needs carbon pricing quickly
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/07/07/2296915.htm
I’m not being cynical or anything but do you think the real reason why PWc (and the other accounting firms) want this is a/ because they care about the planet despite the dubious scientific basis for carbon trading, or b/ because their consultancy fees have plummeted now that all their Sarbanes Oxley, IFRS and Y2K work is completed?

NZ emissions plan upsets farmers
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7492587.stm
I can’t imagine why they are getting upset with having to bear the brunt of tackling “man made” climate change. This is clearly the only time ever in the earth’s history that there have been animals emitting methane after-all.

Bees' disappearance may lead to higher food cost
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080711/bees_dying_080711/20080711?hub=SciTech
No Bees = No food. By amazing co-incidence the population collapses usually happen soon after GM crops are introduced to an area (not that Monsanto would like that to become common knowledge - could you imagine what it would do to profits?).

Science & Technology:
Earth's Core, Magnetic Field Changing Fast, Study Says
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/06/080630-earth-core.html
There is no recorded precedent of what could happen if the earth's geo-magnetic field reverses with North becoming South etc. Suffice to say when it one day happens expect things to get quite chaotic in our technological world. And that day may be sooner than we would like to think....

Breakthrough: Artificial DNA Could Power Future Computers
http://www.livescience.com/technology/080705-artificial-dna.html
AI coming soon? What will the moral, ethical and security issues of that be?

Organic dye lets window panes harvest the Sun
http://technology.newscientist.com/channel/tech/dn14293-organic-dye-lets-window-panes-harvest-the-sun.html?feedId=online-news_rss20
I hate to be a cynic, but as so often with inventions like this which will have a benefit for all mankind, this will probably disappear from view after being bought by a car or oil firm. A combination of solar power, wave energy and geo-thermal energy could easily solve all the worlds energy problems, and thus stop the endless wars for raw materials that have plagued the earth for the last half century, and erase a large proportion of our pollution (which is much worse than the boogey man that is CO2). But where’s the profit margin in that. As Lavoisier’s Law of Conservation of Mass says “Matter can be neither created or destroyed” There is an abundance of energy out there, we just need to will to harness it.

Education:
Schools used for 'social engineering', claims head-teacher
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/education/2258882/Schools-used-for-%27social-engineering%27%2C-claims-headteacher.html
The more parents abdicate responsibility the more the state step's into the gap. Lucky they only have our best interests at heart always eh?

Common wildlife 'alien' to many British kids
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/07/08/2298144.htm
Let's face it, if we are abdicating responsibility to the state we had better be prepared for the consequences, and a woeful breadth of education is just one of them

New legal threat to school science in the US
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/opinion/mg19926643.300-new-legal-threat-to-school-science-in-the-us.html?feedId=online-news_rss20
It is as if the Reformation never happened. The slow descent away from reason back towards bronze age religious dogma is underway in the "Land of the Free".

Children as young as three should be reported for 'racism', Government-funded group claims
http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/news/article-1032650/Children-young-reported-racism-Government-funded-group-claims.html
Yes let’s start branding toddlers so that we know what future crimes they will commit. In fact, why stop there? Why not brand and risk categorise them even before they are born after looking at their parents? Oh no wait, we’re already doing that. Sounds just like the kind of thing that a free and democratic society would do.

U.K. to Begin Micro-chipping Prisoners
http://www.naturalnews.com/023481.html
As I predicted a while back another flurry of articles worldwide on micro-chipping different sections of society is beginning. Expect more pieces on the benefits of chipping children / the elderly / minorities, from your local media outlet soon.

Finance & Economics:
Dow Jones dives as Hank Paulson rules out rescue of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/07/12/cndow112.xml
When Fannie or Freddie do go bust, then the US tax payer will end up picking up the tab (about equal in size to the current and already massive US national debt) just as the British taxpayers have been paying to bail out Northern Rock and B&B. When that happens expect a considerable and concerted campaign to persuade the US people to ditch the dollar and take up the "Amero" a joint currency union with fellow NAFTA members Canada and Mexico. And the FM's meanwhile will be snapped up on the cheap by one of the big private banks that own the Federal Reserve. In fact exactly the same way that those same banks consolidated their dominance during the 1930's Great Depression when they snapped up smaller banking assets on the cheap.

The final Globalization of the US Banking System
http://www.newswithviews.com/Veon/joan54.htm
Don't ever forget that the US Federal Reserve (& the Bank of England too) is a privately owned bank (if you don't believe me do your own research, and read the 1913 Federal Reserve Act). They are not in this for yours or the nation's benefit. They are a corporation, and there is only one agenda and that is securing long term profit by whatever means necessary.

OPEC's Khelil rules out oil price decline
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSL0656781420080706?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews
Plus why the hell would we want to reduce our profits when you suckers are prepared to pay that much for it?

Oil hits new high on Iran fears
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7501939.stm
When the bombing starts it will get up to its "target" level over over $250 per barrel. It won't be any more expensive to extract, and in fact potential supply will be bigger as more remote areas (e.g.: the Arctic) are plundered....but just think of those profit's. What a motivation to keep them there in perpetuity.

Democracy & International Diplomacy:
Brussels to open its own police stations in UK
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/2265431/Brussels-to-open-its-own-police-stations-in-UK.html
Do you still really think that the UK is a sovereign democracy and its parliament reigns supreme over the populous? Step by tiny step that independence has drifted away and now the majority of laws come in the form of directives from the very un-democratic EU. So much for a free trade area only that you voted for back in the 1970's. The totalitarian tip-toe in all its glory, and now it is probably too late to stop the tide. Residents of other sovereign nations please take note.

Scepticism abounds on Mediterranean club
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d09b27cc-4e9a-11dd-ba7c-000077b07658,dwp_uuid=70662e7c-3027-11da-ba9f-00000e2511c8.html
40 years ago there was scepticism that the then EEC would ever be able to persuade more countries to join, and the existing countries to give up their sovereignty, and yet look at where we are today

Over caviar and sea urchin, G8 leaders mull food crisis
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/over-caviar-and-sea-urchin-g8-leaders-mull-food-crisis-862051.html What is the fuel and food costs associated with having the conference, as they jet to Japan on ½ full planes, Japan spends hundred’s of millions hosting and policing it, then they will feast at sumptuous banquets and wash it down with large quantities of the world’s finest wines. And this while preaching about “making the world a safer place” when they are the all in the top 10 arms producers in the world. Hypocrisy perchance? What is guaranteed will be that, arms sales will keep going up, third world debt will continue to rise, the oil price will keep rising, millions more will go hungry, and GM crops will increasingly be sold to you as the “solution” to the food crisis.

Fury as Zimbabwe sanctions vetoed
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7503135.stm
You didn't really ever expect China to harm one of it's best customers for weapons, especially when they've recently signed deals to snaffle up Zimbabwe's mineral wealth too did you?

The War on Terror:
Afghan strike 'hit wedding party'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7492195.stm
Winning “hearts & mins” US military style

US military deaths in Iraq war at 4,118
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gqgQCcv26kB1dkgZRZNHmbn_1J8gD91RUHD00
That figure of course doesn't include the hundred's who have committed suicide after returning home...or the ten's of thousands of Iraqi's who have died....or the hundred's of thousands of Iraqi's who will die as a result of all the depleted uranium we have been depositing all over their country.

The Next War:
Iran to "hit Tel Aviv, U.S. ships" if attacked
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSLYO82850220080708?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews
A "straightforward" one sided military encounter like the last 2 Gulf Wars this won't be.

Iran missile test 'provocative'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7498214.stm
Unlike bombing Iraq back to the stone age for failing to give back WMD it never had then? As I have said since the very first edition this war is coming soon, most probably during the Olympics or in between the US election and Inauguration. The wheels are in motion, the motive is there and it serves the great agenda - that is to control the oil supply and therefore keep prices high, to keep selling weapons and "reconstruction" service, and to create such instability that your democratic rights and civil liberties need to be massively eroded "for your own protection". This is happening now. If we all do not stand up soon it will be game over, just as the German opposition found in 1933.

Israel 'ready to act' over Iran
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7500342.stm
Well of course they are. They just need a whip up worldwide "anger and fear" over Iran a little more first.

U.S., Israel take dangerous steps
http://www.torontosun.com/News/Columnists/Margolis_Eric/2008/07/05/6077376-sun.php
I hate to tell you this but starting a war is exactly the intention. Great for business after-all (as long as you are a religious zealot, in the defence industry, the Oil industry, or a Halliburton shareholder that is).


Quotation of the Week:

The past should never be forgotten, since we can always learn from it
– ancient Chinese proverb