Why Don’t We Build An Atoms-For-Peace Dirigible

(Mar, 1956)

Filed under: Aviation, Impractical — @ 1:45 am
Source: Mechanix Illustrated
Issue: Mar, 1956
More articles from this issue

Here is a bold plan for displaying peacetime uses of the atom to the peoples of the world.

By Frank Tinsley

EARLY last year, President Eisenhower asked the Congress for funds with which to build a fission-powered merchant ship for the global spread of peaceful atomic knowledge.

“Visiting the ports of the world,” the President stated, “the ship will demonstrate to people everywhere the peacetime use of atomic energy, harnessed for the improvement of human living.”

In Washington, the basic idea of a floating exhibit of American fission techniques was received with general approval by members of the Congress. Some of the plan’s technical aspects, however, generated a bit of discussion. To avoid protracted experimental research and thus speed the ship launching date, it was originally decided to fit the vessel with a duplicate of the power plant used in the atomic submarine Nautilus.

Read the rest of this at the wonderful modernmechanix site »

NZ dolphin rescues beached whales

Moko is well known locally for playing with swimmers in the bay Moko the dolphin

A dolphin has come to the rescue of two whales which had become stranded on a beach in New Zealand.

Conservation officer Malcolm Smith told the BBC that he and a group of other people had tried in vain for an hour and a half to get the whales to sea.

The pygmy sperm whales had repeatedly beached, and both they and the humans were tired and set to give up, he said.

But then the dolphin appeared, communicated with the whales, and led them to safety.

The bottlenose dolphin, called Moko by local residents, is well known for playing with swimmers off Mahia beach on the east coast of the North Island.

Mr Smith said he gave the dolphin a pat to say thank you

Mr Smith said that just when his team was flagging, the dolphin showed up and made straight for them.

"I don't speak whale and I don't speak dolphin," Mr Smith told the BBC, "but there was obviously something that went on because the two whales changed their attitude from being quite distressed to following the dolphin quite willingly and directly along the beach and straight out to sea."

He added: "The dolphin did what we had failed to do. It was all over in a matter of minutes."

Back at play

Mr Smith said he felt fortunate to have witnessed the extraordinary event, and was delighted for the whales, as in the past he has had to put down animals which have become beached.

He said that the whales have not been seen since, but that the dolphin had returned to its usual practice of playing with swimmers in the bay.

"I shouldn't do this I know, we are meant to remain scientific," Mr Smith said, "but I actually went into the water with the dolphin and gave it a pat afterwards because she really did save the day."

BBC

The Dubious Wartime Adventures of Jasper Maskelyne

"What an excellent thing history would be" , said Tolstoy, " if only it were true."

On stage I watched a handsome, slender man about six feet, four inches tall, a veritable model of the perfectly accoutered socialite in full evening dress. With his broad smile, clipped moustache and dashing manner, he reminded me of Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and Sr., the motion picture stars of yesteryear. He looked a little too refined ,however, to be swashbuckling. His style of working was light and humorous; the reason for his professional success was obvious."-John Booth

http://www.maskelynemagic.com/

A very long but very interesting story of a WW2 magician feats of deception against the Nazi's and some excellent detective work on discovering the truth Vs fiction

M o d e r n R u i n s

M o d e r n R u i n s

-P h o t o g r a p h i c E s s a y s-

A great collection of photographs by Shaun O'Boyle

Mysteries of computer from 65BC are solved

Ian Sample, science correspondent

· Mechanism hailed as more valuable than Mona Lisa
· Device with gear wheels tracked sun and moon

A reconstruction of the Antikythera mechanism. Photograph: Louisa Gouliamaki/AFP/Getty

A 2,000-year-old mechanical computer salvaged from a Roman shipwreck has astounded scientists who have finally unravelled the secrets of how the sophisticated device works.

The machine was lost among cargo in 65BC when the ship carrying it sank in 42m of water off the coast of the Greek island of Antikythera. By chance, in 1900, a sponge diver called Elias Stadiatos discovered the wreck and recovered statues and other artifacts from the site.

The machine first came to light when an archaeologist working on the recovered objects noticed that a lump of rock had a gear wheel embedded in it. Closer inspection of material brought up from the stricken ship subsequently revealed 80 pieces of gear wheels, dials, clock-like hands and a wooden and bronze casing bearing ancient Greek inscriptions.

Since its discovery, scientists have been trying to reconstruct the device, which is now known to be an astronomical calendar capable of tracking with remarkable precision the position of the sun, several heavenly bodies and the phases of the moon. Experts believe it to be the earliest-known device to use gear wheels and by far the most sophisticated object to be found from the ancient and medieval periods.

Using modern computer x-ray tomography and high resolution surface scanning, a team led by Mike Edmunds and Tony Freeth at Cardiff University peered inside fragments of the crust-encased mechanism and read the faintest inscriptions that once covered the outer casing of the machine. Detailed imaging of the mechanism suggests it dates back to 150-100 BC and had 37 gear wheels enabling it to follow the movements of the moon and the sun through the zodiac, predict eclipses and even recreate the irregular orbit of the moon. The motion, known as the first lunar anomaly, was developed by the astronomer Hipparcus of Rhodes in the 2nd century BC, and he may have been consulted in the machine's construction, the scientists speculate. ...More

Curious Expeditions

The Silk Rope and the Golden Cage

February 4th, 2008

“Bring me the fattest woman in the world.”

~Sultan Ibrahim the Mad~

The Ottoman Empire was one of the greatest powers the world has ever known. With territory spanning 3 continents and a reign of over 600 years the “House of Osman” was not to be trifled with. The empire was ruled by the all powerful Sultan, the king of kings, the khan of khans, he ruled by decree. Some Sultans were warriors, others thoughtful poets. But of the 36 or so Sultan’s that ruled during the empire, there is one who stands out to both the Turkish people and historians alike as…different from the rest. Sultan Ibrahim I, more commonly known as Ibrahim the mad.

But to do justice to the story of Ibrahim the Mad, we must first tell the story of his mother, the beautiful greek concubine Maypeyker Kösem, and his father, the compassionate Sultan Ahmet.

The pressures of being prince aren’t easy in any royal family, and history is full of eccentric rulers, warped by a childhood spent under a golden thumb. But the stakes in the house of Osman were higher then in any other. Unlike other royal families which practiced primogeniture (the right of the first born son to rule) the Osman clan left things a bit more open ended. The Sultan often fathered anywhere from a dozen to over a hundred children during his rule, and upon his death, all were eligible for the throne. Truth is, for 9 out of a 10, being born to a Sultan was a death curse.

When the Sultan died a sort of deadly musical chairs for would-be Sultans began. Often, the son who was closest to the throne at the time of the Sultans death, literally the one nearest in physical distance from the throne, would become the new Sultan by jumping into the chair and declaring himself so. Upon ascending to the throne, the triumphant new Sultan would shout his first decree, usually something like “All my brothers are to be immediately killed.”

An army of deadly eunuchs would then be sent forth to do just that. All brothers, including infant children, and mothers carrying as of yet unborn brothers were quickly eliminated. (These eunuch assassins were curious in that, in addition to having been castrated, they had also had their eardrums poked out, so as not to hear the screams of their victims, and their tongues split, so that they could not speak of their dastardly deeds. The preferred method for royal fratricide was strangulation by silk rope…a classy way to go at least.)

Royal fratricide was the standard and regarded as simply part of the bargain. Sultan Mehmed III had some nineteen (although wikipedia puts it at an even higher 27) of his pre-teen brothers killed, and seven concubines pregnant with possible nephews stuffed in sacks and thrown into the Bosporus.

Sultan Selim the Grim had a couple brothers, a handful of nephews, and some five dozen other relatives offed. Earning his nickname “Grim” he even killed four out of his five sons so his favorite son Suleiman, would be sure to inherit the throne. (Suleiman went on to be a the great Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent.)

So far the policy of brother killing was working out great. But it had one major drawback; it nearly wiped out the Osman family line. Once the Sultan had killed all his brothers it was up to him to carry on the Osman name, a risky business. (No doubt one of the reasons for the creation of Sultan Paste, known today as Turkish Viagra, an herbal aphrodisiac and energy booster. Perfect for the Sultan, tired after a long day of fratricide.)

All of this changed in 1590 with the rule of Ahmet I. Ahmet’s (or Ahmed, depending) name is one familiar to most visitors in Istanbul. He is well known for commissioning the building of the the amazing Sultan Ahmet Mosque, aka the Blue Mosque. In fact, the entire old town of Istanbul is also known by his name, as the Sultanahmet district. Ahmet was a kind ruler, and was very much in love with a young and beautiful greek girl named Maypeyker Kösem. Kösem, however, was more then just beautiful, she was cunning, brilliant and hungry for power.

Sultan Ahmet I left another legacy besides the Blue Mosque. Ahmet was the first Sultan to break with the practice of royal fratricide. Ahmet had grown up with a slightly retarded brother named Mustafa. Ahmet was well known for his compassion, and when it came time to have his mildly retarded brother Mustafa done in, he just couldn’t do it.

Instead the childish Mustafa lived with his grandmother in a single room of the Harem known as the Kafe or the Golden Cage. A special room, it had windows only on the second floor, and a slot for delivering food. Though it was beautifully decorated on the inside, it was merely an exquisite prison cell.

For the first time in Ottoman history a royal brother was spared the silk rope and allowed to live. This simple act of kindness was to change the way the entire Osman line of succession worked and Mustafa would be the first of many royal brothers who would spent most of their lives in this gilded jail. Out of the silk noose, and into the golden cage. (One brother spent more then fifty years in the Kafe, and “at least one deposed sultan and one heir committed suicide in the Cage.”)

When Ahmet died of typhoid fever, Mustafa, despite being retarded or perhaps because of it, was installed to the throne. Another first, it was the first time in Osman house history, a Osman brother was made Sultan instead of a son. His rule didn’t last long.

After a few months the confused Sultan was sent on a hunting trip only to come back and find he had been deposed by his nephew Osman II and Mustafa was sent back to the golden cage. (This was the first deposing in Ottoman history.) The young Osman II was then himself deposed and killed. Mustafa was dragged back out of the golden cage, re-enthroned, only to be deposed again by his other nephew Murad IV. Mustafa was finally sent happily back to his safe Golden Cage where he could read in peace…before eventually being strangled by the silk rope.

The cause of all this conflict really lay between the Jannasaries (special soldiers, more on them soon) and the Greek beauty Maypeyker Kösem. Kösem, the widow of Ahmet I and mother of Murad IV was in league with the eunuch corp. Kösem and the eunuchs ruled through the mentally disabled Mustafa, while the Jannisaries ruled through Osman II… whom they decided they didn’t like after all, and killed. It was a time of firsts, this being the first regicide in Ottoman history. (When the Jannisaries killed Osman II they killed him by “compression of his testicles”, “a mode of execution reserved by custom to the Ottoman sultans.” They also cut off his ear and sent it to his mother Hadice show who was in charge.)

Kösem took the opportunity presented by the death of Osman II. Her oldest son Murad IV was only 11, still a minor, so when he took the throne, the seductive Kösem became official regent of the Ottoman empire. It is a notable peculiarity that the Turkish and Muslim empire was officially ruled by Kosem, a Greek woman, for over 9 years, and unofficially by her for another 20. Kösem was perhaps the most significant part of 130 Ottoman period known as the Sultanate of women, in which the ladies, the wives and mothers of the Sultans, held considerable power.

Murad IV’s rule (and his mother Kösem’s by proxy) was iron fisted. He banned alcohol, tobacco, and coffee on pain of death. He also returned to the practice of brother killing, (and son killing if Mama Kösem was behind it) offing a couple of his brethren. But Murad IV didn’t kill all his brothers. History tends to repeat itself. Like his father Ahmet with his retarded brother Mustafa, Murad IV also had a slightly weird brother whom he allowed to live. His name was Ibrahim.

Murad IV was determined not to make the same mistake his father had with Mustafa. Murad IV ordered that upon his death, his weird brother Ibrahim was to be killed as well. All fine and well, except had these orders be carried out the Osman line would have ended. It seems Murad IV would have rather seen the end of the house of Osman, then have the mad Ibrahim as Sultan.

Murad died at the age of 27 of cirrhosis of the liver (Ironically, the prohibition crazy Murad may have been a closet alcoholic.) As Murad IV lay on his death bed his mother Kösem lied to him, saying that Ibrahim had already been strangled. Happy at the news, Murad IV died smiling. After Murad’s death Kösem promptly placed Ibrahim onto the throne.

Ibrahim was in no shape to rule a nation. Odd to begin with, it didn’t help that he had spent his entire life living as a prisoner in the golden cage, staring longingly out the unreachable stained glass windows. Inside the prince was kept company by a few deaf-mute servants, and a couple of harem girls, barren ones, to prevent him from fathering possible heirs to the throne. (The servants were, by default, prisoners as well.)

Ibrahim also lived under the constant and reasonable fear of deaf-mute eunuchs throttling him with a silk rope. So it makes sense that when guards showed up to bring him to the throne, he refused to go, thinking it was a trick. Ibrahim wouldn’t even open the door until Murad’s body was produced, and his mother Kösem had to “coax him out as if cajoling a kitten with food”. When Ibrahim was finally convinced that he was not about to be garroted to death, he ran deliriously through the halls screaming “the butcher is dead”, “the butcher of the empire is dead.”

Suddenly out of the cage and the supreme ruler of an enormous empire, Ibrahim barely knew what to do with himself. While his mom did most of the actual decision making, Ibrahim busied himself with his new harem. He first decorated his room with mirrors so that he might get a better view of himself in action. He then called the girls in. Dimitri Cantemir wrote in his History of the Growth and Decay of the Ottoman Empire,

“In the palace gardens he frequently assembled all the virgins, made them strip themselves naked, and neighing like a stallion ran amongst them and as it were ravished one or the other, kicking or struggling by his order.”

Ibrahim loved forbidden fruit and when he was refused the hand in marriage of the daughter of the Mufti, the highest religious authority in the empire, he decided he wasn’t going to take no for an answer. Ibrahim had the girl kidnapped, had his way with her, and sent her back to the mufti a few days later.

When not getting into lady trouble, the Sultan kept himself busy soaking his beard in expensive ambergris (nice smelling whale vomit, and a Curious Expeditions favorite), dressing himself in furs, feeding gold coins to the fish in the Bosphorus, and taking potshots at civilians with his royal crossbow…all was not well in the Ottoman empire.

Ibrahim’s harem was full of young, nubile, girls from around the world. But after a while, the slender things from Russia and the Balkans didn’t do it for him anymore. One day Ibrahim happened to see the genitalia of a female cow. Pleased by what he saw, Ibrahim had a gold cast made and, hoping to find a human match to the bovine privates, he ordered his aides to “bring him the fattest woman in the world.” They did their best, finding a 300 pound Armenian girl named “Sugar Cube” (Sechir Para or more literally translated “Sweet Lump of Sugar”).

Ibrahim loved her, and spent many a night curled in her large arms. It wasn’t long until the big woman had gained power over Ibrahim equal only to that of her girth. It would be Sugar Cube who would spell the final downfall of Ibrahim the Mad.

Read the rest of this story

at the fabulous

Curious Expeditions

site

BibliOdyssey

http://bibliodyssey.blogspot.com/
I would like to start off the year by paying homage to one of my favorite blogs

WAR IS A RACKET

WAR is a racket. It always has been.

It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.

A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small "inside" group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.

In the World War [I] a mere handful garnered the profits of the conflict. At least 21,000 new millionaires and billionaires were made in the United States during the World War. That many admitted their huge blood gains in their income tax returns. How many other war millionaires falsified their tax returns no one knows.

How many of these war millionaires shouldered a rifle? How many of them dug a trench? How many of them knew what it meant to go hungry in a rat-infested dug-out? How many of them spent sleepless, frightened nights, ducking shells and shrapnel and machine gun bullets? How many of them parried a bayonet thrust of an enemy? How many of them were wounded or killed in battle?

Out of war nations acquire additional territory, if they are victorious. They just take it. This newly acquired territory promptly is exploited by the few – the selfsame few who wrung dollars out of blood in the war. The general public shoulders the bill.

And what is this bill?

This bill renders a horrible accounting. Newly placed gravestones. Mangled bodies. Shattered minds. Broken hearts and homes. Economic instability. Depression and all its attendant miseries. Back-breaking taxation for generations and generations.

For a great many years, as a soldier, I had a suspicion that war was a racket; not until I retired to civil life did I fully realize it. Now that I see the international war clouds gathering, as they are today, I must face it and speak out.

Again they are choosing sides. France and Russia met and agreed to stand side by side. Italy and Austria hurried to make a similar agreement. Poland and Germany cast sheep's eyes at each other, forgetting for the nonce [one unique occasion], their dispute over the Polish Corridor.

The assassination of King Alexander of Jugoslavia [Yugoslavia] complicated matters. Jugoslavia and Hungary, long bitter enemies, were almost at each other's throats. Italy was ready to jump in. But France was waiting. So was Czechoslovakia. All of them are looking ahead to war. Not the people – not those who fight and pay and die – only those who foment wars and remain safely at home to profit.

There are 40,000,000 men under arms in the world today, and our statesmen and diplomats have the temerity to say that war is not in the making.

Continued....

Another Buddha destroyed

Another Buddha destroyed

—Vishakha N Desai
..Daily Times..

Despite repeated requests by Pakistani archeologists to the local authorities to protect the seated Buddha and other sites, especially after the first attack, no action was taken. In fact, militants were able to carry out their work in broad daylight

The world watched in horror when Taliban forces destroyed the monumental Buddha statues in Bamiyan, Afghanistan in 2001. Political and cultural leaders from around the globe condemned the attacks. Offers of help poured in. Everyone asked: will the world be ready next time?

Alas, the answer is a resounding “no.”

In northwest Pakistan’s Swat valley, armed Islamist militants recently attacked one of the oldest and most important sculptures of Buddhist art. Dating from around the beginning of the Christian era, and carved into a 130-foot-high rock, the seated image of the Buddha was second in importance in South Asia only to the Bamiyan Buddhas.

This, moreover, was the second attack in less than a month. Murtaza Razvi has pointed out that the image that was attacked was not in a remote area. In fact, it was next to the central road that runs through the valley.

Despite repeated requests by Pakistani archeologists to the local authorities to protect the seated Buddha and other sites, especially after the first attack, no action was taken. In fact, militants were able to carry out their work — drilling holes in the rock, filling them with explosives, and detonating them — in broad daylight.

They did this not once, but twice. The first time, the image escaped heavy damage because of the militants’ incompetence. The second time, they were more successful, destroying not only the sculpture’s face, but also its shoulders and feet. As if that were not enough, there are now reports of a third attack.

In 1995, I travelled through the Swat valley to study the area’s Buddhist treasures. Carved in the cliff side or protected in small beautiful museums, these remarkable objects were the pride and joy of local Muslims, followers of the faith for more than a millennium. As a non-Muslim, Indian woman, I was able to travel through the region without any fear and received warm support from local residents. People of all stripes welcomed me, and were often willing to take me to important Buddhist sites.

Today, little over a decade later, the atmosphere is so poisoned that neither local community leaders nor the local police came forward to protect these monuments or claim them as their own. Even sadder is that while Pakistani newspapers widely condemned these attacks and criticised local officials’ indifference, there has been almost no coverage in the international press.

Can it be that after the Iraq war, and the dismaying images of looting at the National Museum in Baghdad, we have lost our capacity to be outraged? Or is it that we have become so inured to bad news surrounding the war on terror that we have no desire to know more?

There is a vast number of important Buddhist sites in Swat and other areas of northwest Pakistan. At this point, all of them are under threat of destruction, thanks to the influential voice of the Islamist leader Mullah Fazlullah, whose father-in-law, Sufi Mohammad, founded one of the extremist orders.

This order was responsible for bringing more than 10,000 jihadi fighters to Afghanistan to fight alongside Taliban soldiers against the United States in 2001. While Mohammad is believed to be languishing in a regional jail, Mullah Fazlullah operates with impunity, using the radio to spread a message of hatred and intolerance.

More..

Penguins everywhere ! - A new Linux wallpaper

I couldn't resist ..

Amazing pictures as 10,000 penguins come to shore to breed

..Daily Mail..

It is one of the most extraordinary sights in nature: more than 10,000 King Penguins standing shoulder to shoulder at St Andrew's bay on the island of South Georgia, preparing to breed.

The 3ft tall creatures — part of a colony of more than 100,000 on the Atlantic island close to Antarctica — create a living landscape of breathtaking scale and colour.

Scroll down for more...

10,000 King Penguins stand shoulder to shoulder on a remote island near Antarctica preparing to breed

The King Penguins lay their eggs in late November, with a peak around mid-December.

They don't build nests — instead the male and female of each mating couple take it in turns to incubate a single egg on their feet over the course of two months.

When incubating they stand rooted to the spot just a flipper's length from the next one.

The childcare is surprisingly egalitarian: the male takes the first incubation shift of two weeks, then the female takes the next fortnight, after which they swap every three or four days.

But it's not just the urge to breed which impels penguins to come ashore at certain times of the year — sometimes they need to change their clothes.

Feathers wear out and lose their insulating properties, so their waterproof — and, for a bird which doesn't fly, surprisingly aerodynamic — suits must be replaced.

After about 12 days of moulting on shore, they have lost virtually all their vibrant plumage and stand almost naked.

...more

How China Could Crash the US Dollar on a Whim

October 15th, 2007

By Adam Kritzer

Over the last 30 years, China’s economy has grown at an average annualized rate of nearly 10%. While this statistic alone is jaw-dropping, what is more impressive is the extent to which the nominally Communist country’s economy has become intertwined in the global economy. China now exerts enormous influence over the economies of virtually every country in the world, and a slight change in its domestic economic policy has the potential to send shockwaves rippling throughout the world. Nowhere is this more apparent-and frightening-then in China’s economic relationship with the United States, which is very much at the mercy of China when it comes to prices, wages, interest rates, most importantly, the value of the Dollar.

The precariousness of this relationship is already the subject of significant publicity, redolent of the Japanaphobia of the 1980’s that saw American economists scare-mongering about Japanese control of the US economy. [Of course this later turned out to be unfounded, but that is beyond the scope of our discussion.] With regard to China, most of the analysis is focused on its growing foreign exchange reserves, the majority of which are held in Dollar-denominated assets. This article will go beyond forex reserves and discuss several other facets of China’s economy. From US house prices to global commodity prices, from interest rates to inflation rates, we will explore how China could cripple the US economy, both willfully and unintentionally, if so desired.

Forex Reserve Diversification

Let’s begin with an examination of China’s forex reserves, which is probably China’s biggest bargaining chip in its economic relationship with the US. Up until two years ago, China’s currency, the RMB or Yuan, was pegged to the Dollar. As with any peg, there often develops a discrepancy between the fixed value of the currency and the value that the market would assign if the currency were permitted to float. As China’s economy surged ahead, especially over the last five to ten years, tremendous pressure began to build under the RMB. In order to maintain the peg and hold down the value of the RMB, China began accumulating foreign exchange reserves by withdrawing foreign currency from circulation. Today, China’s foreign exchange reserves are massive, at $1.4 trillion as of September 2007.

In the eyes of American policy-makers, this presents a problem because the majority of these reserves are held in Dollar-denominated assets, namely in the form of US Treasury securities. The US government theoretically could not be happier that foreign Central Banks are willing to finance its perennial budget deficits. However, this borrowing has reached a point where foreigners now control over 40% of the US national debt. Moreover, long-term US interest rates are market-driven, based on the buying and selling of US government bonds. In other words, the US has gradually ceded control of its long-term interest rates to foreign Central Banks, namely China and Japan.

As the Dollar has depreciated over the last five years, many Central Banks have begun “diversifying” their forex reserves, by switching from Dollar assets to assets denominated in other currencies. This is problematic for the Dollar for two reasons. First, switching from US assets to European assets, for example, directly causes the Dollar to depreciate. Second, the bulk sale of US treasury securities (whether or not they are replaced with other US-assets) causes US bond prices to decline and hence, yields to increase. Thus, if China suddenly decided to diversify its reserves, for economic and/or political reasons, it could potentially crash the Dollar and send US long-term interest rates skyward. Since mortgage rates are tied directly to government bond yields, a rise in interest rates would probably also affect US real estate prices. Higher interest rates would make borrowing for a home more difficult, which would lower the demand for houses and thus, the value of American real estate.

In fact, China recently created the China Investment Co. Ltd., capitalized with almost $300 Billion, charged with investing its vast forex reserves in higher-yielding assets. However, the company’s inaugural investment was a stock purchase in the Blackstone group, an American private equity firm. Thus, while it seems likely that China will gradually discard some of its stock of US Treasury Securities, the affect on the value of the Dollar will be minimal. Besides, while China would certainly punish US businesses and consumers by unloading US Treasuries on the market, it would punish itself even more, since the value of the government bonds that it didn’t sell would decline. In short, it seems China will probably hold off on exercising its “nuclear option” for the time being.

Currency Manipulation

The second aspect of the China-US economic relationship which China could wield to its advantage is the RMB, itself. American public officials enjoy criticizing China for failing to allow its currency to appreciate more quickly. In fact, there is a bill that has been lying dormant in the US Congress, which threatens to slap a massive across-the-board tariff on all Chinese imports if China fails to allow the RMB to appreciate adequately against the Dollar. What policymakers don’t realize is that a rapid appreciation in the RMB would actually harm the US economy.

Coupled with its growing role as the world’s factory, China’s cheap currency has made Americans wealthier, by increasing their purchasing power. As production of labor-intensive goods was outsourced to China over the last decade, prices for finished products began to fall both in real terms and in nominal terms. While the effect on US employment trends is debatable, its effect on prices has been unambiguous. Thus, even while the American economy boomed, inflation remained relatively modest by historical standards. This allowed the Federal Reserve Board to hold interest rates down and foment economic growth.

As the RMB appreciates, Chinese producers will become ever-more forced to pass along some of the price increase to consumers. Now, if China was to suddenly revalue its currency by the 25%-30% that western policy-makers are demanding, prices on a whole host of Chinese products would jump up overnight. This would adversely affect American purchasing power and limit consumption to such an extent that the US would be in danger of slipping into recession. While the trade deficit that is the bane of American politicians’ existence might decrease in the long-term, it would skyrocket in the short-term. Besides, as many analysts have been quick to point out, there is not much overlap between Chinese and American production. Thus, a more expensive Yuan would send production to other parts of Asia, rather than back to America. While the US-China trade deficit might narrow, it would be offset by increased imbalance with the rest of Asia. Just like with the case of its foreign exchange reserves, however, China is unlikely to exercise this option because it would deal equal harm to itself. China’s ruling Communist party derives most of its legitimacy from the strength of its economy, and especially exports. If a more expensive Yuan forced producers to relocate to other parts of Asia, it would certainly spell trouble for the CCP!

Direct Competition with US Exporters

A more potent (and plausible) weapon would be to compete more directly with US exporters, by expanding into high-technology products. Currently, China specializes in manufacturing labor-intensive products, which have long since been manufactured outside of the United States. As previously stated, a revaluation of the Chinese Yuan would surely not return production to the US. However, if China were to expand into capital-intensive and/or high-technology products, it could easily steal marketshare and jobs from the US.

Limiting the Importation of US Products

Of course, there is also the imports side of the trade equation. China is quickly becoming one of the United States’ largest export markets; limiting the importation of US goods and services would certainly be felt in the US. In fact, China already requires multinational companies in many industries to form joint ventures with Chinese companies in order to produce and/or sell their wares in China. Other anti-competitive measures include tariffs, import taxes, quotas, or a simple ban on the importation of certain types of products. Each would have a devastating impact on the US trade deficit with China and would probably result in retaliatory sanctions by the US.

Wage Pressure

Next, there is the impact that China has exerted on global wages. When Deng XiaoPing’s famous tour of the South in 1979 ignited three decades of dizzying growth, hundreds of millions of Chinese were added to the global labor pool overnight. Yet, the majority of China’s population remains concentrated in rural areas. In fact, there are perhaps 500 million Chinese peasants that have yet to join the modern labor force, which means the full effect of China’s economic explosion has yet to be fully realized by the rest of the world. Already, there is no hope of unskilled work that has already been outsourced returning to the US. If/when China begins to expand into the production of high-technology goods and more complex services, it will encroach on the territory of American businesses. Unfortunately for the US, China will likely make these undercapitalized sectors of its economy more of a priority in its next five year plan.

One popular method for estimating GDP is the income approach, which as its name suggests, represents a summation of the reported incomes of a given country’s domestic population. Logic dictates that downward pressure on the wages of skilled American workers would negatively impact US GDP, and at the very least, would curtail the purchasing power of American consumers. This would also limit US exports to China, since Chinese would have homegrown alternatives to choose from.

Raw Material Pricing

In addition, there is the impact that China’s economic growth has exerted on global raw material prices. It has been said that 25% of the world’s construction cranes are currently located in China, to support the country’s building boom. These massive development and infrastructure projects require proportionally massive quantities of raw materials, namely cement and steel. Unfortunately, China is especially inefficient at converting raw materials into finished products. Combined with the CCP’s emphasis on the near-term (which inherently prioritizes low cost over efficiency), this is placing a tremendous strain on global energy supplies, driving prices skyward.

Competition for Energy

The global prices for oil and coal are already at record highs and China only consumes 1/15 the amount of per-capita energy as the US! Chinese energy companies are becoming increasingly visible, scouring the globe for stable supplies of energy and often coming head-to-head with American energy companies. Conveniently, China does not recognize the ethical issues which arise from purchasing energy from dictatorships and corrupt regimes, whereas US companies are limited from doing business in these places. From Sudan to Myanmar to Kazakhstan, Chinese companies have set up join ventures where US companies could not. While energy prices have certainly risen in the US, they have not kept pace with global energy prices. In this way, China is able to ensure that its citizens and its businesses have the oil, coal, and natural gas that they require, while their American counterparts may be forced to conserve.

Two years ago, the Chinese National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC) attempted to purchase an American energy company, Unocal, for over $18 Billion. However, the deal was blocked by the US Congress, which feared Unocal’s energy reserves would be supplied to China at the expense of Americans. It did not help CNOOC’s case that 70% of the Company was effectively owned by the CCP. Needless to say, Chinese government officials were not happy with the outcome; (Unocal was ultimately sold to Chevron for a lower price). China has already shown its willingness to use extreme tactics to secure an adequate energy supply. It seems reasonable to expect its energy policy will continue to oppose and inconvenience the US.

Conclusion

In short, China has several economic “weapons” at its disposal for countering the US, ranging from the manipulation of its currency to the diversification of its burgeoning stock of forex reserves. It also has several less blunt options to choose from, such as enabling Chinese companies to compete more directly and effectively with US companies, and opposing the US in securing a domestic energy supply. On all of these fronts, the US is essentially being held hostage, since it has become so dependent on China as the world’s factory. Ultimately, it seems unlikely that China will deliberately butt heads with the US unless it is first provoked, but America should nonetheless be on its guard, since its economy hangs in the balance.

currencytrading.net

The hidden history of the United Nations

Dan Plesch

Dan Plesch rediscovers a forgotten story of the 1940s: how the United Nations was forged, beat the Nazis and established a lasting peace.

18 - 05 - 2005

The history told about the defeat of Nazism and the founding of the United Nations in the 1940s has become distorted. A false view of the past is being used today to shape how we think about our future. The military power of the victorious wartime allies is offered as a model for running the world, while the UN’s supposed utopianism is seen as ineffective and irrelevant. This is a travesty of the facts (see the boxed timeline below). We are taught that the UN began with the signing of the Charter in 1945. In fact, that agreement was the culmination of a complex military and political effort that began in 1941. Understanding the UN’s wartime origins provides a powerful and much-needed reminder that the UN is not some liberal accessory but was created out of hard, realistic political necessity.

The historical records show how Winston Churchill and Franklin D Roosevelt created the United Nations to win the war both militarily and politically, and to create the foundations for a lasting peace. Their first expression of Anglo-American policy was in the Atlantic Charter of 1941; this included freedom from want, social security, labour rights and disarmament as well as self-determination, free trade and freedom of religion. Churchill himself remarked during the height of the fighting in 1944 that the “United Nations is the only hope of the world”.

In the documentary records of the war years, countless references demonstrate the UN’s origin as a strategic engine of victory in the second world war. The document that formalised the Nazi defeat in the war includes the words: “This Act of Military Surrender is without prejudice to, and will be superseded by, any general instrument of surrender imposed by, or on behalf of, the United Nations on Germany…” President Truman broadcast on 8 May that: “General Eisenhower informs me that the forces of Germany have surrendered to the United Nations”.

These references may seem odd today. But at the time, it was normal to talk about the United Nations fighting the war. Major George B Woods, chaplain to a “band of brothers” in the 82nd Airborne Division, gave an address for the burial of the dead at Wobbelin concentration camp. He explained that “these crimes were never clearly brought to light until the armies of the United Nations overran Germany”.

A real coalition

The “United Nations” had been the official name for the coalition fighting the axis powers since January 1942, when Roosevelt and Churchill had led twenty-six nations, including the Soviet Union and China, in a “Declaration by United Nations”.

The declaration committed the twenty-six not to cut separate peace deals with the Nazis and to subscribe to the principles of the Atlantic Charter for the post-war world. The Charter provided the political basis for countering Nazi ideology; it caught the imagination of people around the world, including the young Nelson Mandela and other anti-colonial activists.

The United Nations was a real entity, not a spin-doctored slogan offering a gullible public the promise of world peace at the end of the war. The allies fought the war as the United Nations and created organisations in its name and on its foundation. The British Library holds scores of wartime publications by or about the United Nations. It was celebrated in music, prayer and exhibitions. Anthologies were published of the exploits of “Heroes of the United Nations”.

In Europe, General Eisenhower accepted the surrender of Fascist Italy in September 1943, declaring: “Hostilities between the armed forces of the United Nations and those of Italy terminate at once. All Italians who now act to help eject the German aggressor from Italian soil will have the assistance and the support of the United Nations.” He was soon sent to Britain to begin planning for D-Day. His orders told him to do so in “conjunction with the other United Nations”.

Eisenhower’s broadcast to the troops aboard their landing craft reminded them that “the United Nations have inflicted upon the Germans great defeats, in open battle, man to man”. Even the unit shoulder-patch of his Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force included a light blue band representing the peace offered to the enslaved peoples of Europe by the United Nations.

United Nations political bodies were also created during the war. Their work can still be found in the records of the wartime organisations and the earliest archives of the post-war UN. In 1942, United Nations information boards with offices and organisations were established in New York and London, producing documents on Nazi atrocities and publicity about the Allied war effort and plans for the peace. The New York office’s mail was franked with the slogan “United Nations: in War and Peace.”

In 1943, the United Nations War Crimes Commission and the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration were created. By 1944, planning for the post-war had gathered momentum and United Nations conferences were organised at Dumbarton Oaks and Bretton Woods to tackle the financial and political issues.

A Times headline reported that the economist John Maynard Keynes was flying to America to create a “United Nations Bank”. This is just one example of thousands of wartime references to the United Nations in the pages of the Times that are now available through its digital archive.

In 1945, the United Nations Conference on International Organisation opened in San Francisco, which the United States postal service marked with a stamp and special commemorative envelopes.

A lost history

Today, the United Nations is all too often regarded as an unnecessary bauble attached to the allied victory. At the time, the UN organisation created in San Francisco was regarded as the grand culmination of the war effort.

George W Bush and Tony Blair seek to persuade their citizens that other nations are just too intransigent to deal with in their campaign to make the world free and safe. They would have us believe that Vladimir Putin and Jacques Chirac are tougher customers than Joseph Stalin and Charles De Gaulle.

Roosevelt and Churchill had both experienced the first world war and seen the failure of the League of Nations. They did not respond to fascism with a doctrine of pre-emptive war and totalitarian neo-liberalism. Quite the opposite: just three weeks after the surprise attack upon Pearl Harbour, they set about creating an agenda that, in modern terms, is left-wing social democracy. In doing so, they knew that hard bargaining and unpleasant compromise might be necessary. They understood that cooperation was essential to survival: a lesson learnt even before the invention of the atomic bomb. Today, that lesson has almost been forgotten in America and Britain – though not elsewhere.

Reasserting the reality that the United Nations is a realist necessity rather than a liberal accessory becomes much easier once we remember that it was to the United Nations that the Nazis surrendered.

Why has this history been lost? I have no clear answer, but I can offer some suggestions. The new UN organisation wanted a clean start unencumbered by the wartime experience. The many new nations created as the British and French empires collapsed regarded the UN as a new organisation, whose wartime origins seemed of little relevance. Everyone knew the UN had been created out of the ashes of the war; there was no need to labour the point.

More importantly, the creation of images of competing evil empires in the cold war meant that neither right nor left wanted to remember that they fought the axis together. American conservatives in particular, who had opposed US involvement in the second world war and never supported the UN, have been keen to eradicate all reference to the Democrat Roosevelt’s work. Nowadays, journalists assigned to prepare anniversary coverage may come across the occasional reference to the United Nations and omit it as an oddity – or even a mistake.

In 2005, as the sixtieth anniversaries of the end of the second world war and the signing of the UN Charter are commemorated, rediscovering the role of the United Nations in war and peace is doubly crucial. It can reinforce the importance of the modern United Nations and strip away the spurious moral authority the present Anglo-American alliance tries to claim from the wartime experience.

The signing of the UN Charter in 1945: a timeline

• The UN Charter, Article 3,
  records that the original members of the UN includes those states that
  had signed the “Declaration by United Nations” in Washington on 1 January 1942.
• 14 August 1941: Churchill and Roosevelt issue the Atlantic Charter
  of political objectives for the post-war world. These include freedom
  from want, social security, labour rights, disarmament,
  self-determination, freedom of religion, free trade and a new
  international security system
• 1 January 1942: Declaration by United Nations. Twenty-six
  nations agree to make no separate peace with the axis of Germany, Japan
  and Italy, and subscribe to the Atlantic Charter
  
• 18 March 1942: General Douglas MacArthur takes command of United Nations forces in southwest Asia
  
• 14 June 1942: United States flag day becomes United Nations
  flag day in the US, the British Empire and Commonwealth, and other
  states. A great parade at Buckingham Palace for United Nations Day
  
• 1942: United Nations Information Board creates an organisation that opens offices in New York (and in London in 1943)
  
• December 1942: United Nations statement about Nazi atrocities against Jews in Poland
  
• 14 June 1943: United Nations flag day parades. US issues stamp of “Nations United” with “United Nations” first day covers
  
• September 1943: Italy surrenders to General Dwight D Eisenhower acting for the United Nations
  
• October 1943: United Nations War Crimes Commission created
  
• November 1943: Council of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilation Administration meets in Atlantic City, US
  
• 1944: United Nations conferences create World Bank and
  financial system at Bretton Woods, and set framework for new
  international organisation at Dumbarton Oaks
  
• February 1944: Eisenhower ordered to liberate Europe with the other United Nations
  
• 1944: Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania surrender, agreeing to stop
  aggression against United Nations; Soviet generals accept their
  surrenders on behalf of the United Nations
  
• 1944: world leaders (Dwight D Eisenhower, Franklin D Rooseveltand Winston Churchill) make speeches and broadcasts describing the victories and great armies of the United Nations
  
• April 1945: United Nations conference on international organisation opens in San Francisco; US issues commemorative stamp
  
• May 1945: Nazis surrender and accept the authority of the United Nations over Germany in Article IV of the surrender document
  
• 26 June1945: United Nations Charter signed; enters into force 24 October.

opendemocracy.net

Top Mafia Figure, Tony Gambino, Implicates Vatican And Bush in Prior Knowledge And Complicity in 9/11

The grandson of Lucky Luciano,Gambino,63, just released from prison also sets the record straight about the JFK and Hoffa assassinations.

By Greg Szymanski
Sept. 26, 2007


Tony Gambino of the infamous Gambino New York crime family said besides Mob Bosses, the outfits that benefit most from organized crime are the corrupt Vatican and U.S. government.

The grandson of Lucky Luciano, Gambino made a guest appearance Tuesday on Greg Szymanski's radio show,The Investigative Journal on Liberty Radio
at www.libertyradiolive.com The entire interview can be heard at
www.arcticbeacon.com as well as Liberty Radio.

The high-level former mobster talked openly for an hour, indicting top Vatican and U.S. government officials with complicity in high crimes,treason and assassinations as they worked together "like a tight-knit happy family" with the Gambino and other Mafia families.

With America's fascination of the Mafia, Gambino's statements should shake the halls of St.Peter's Basilica, as well as Capitol Hill, since he talked about his first hand knowledge of George Bush, the Pope and other high level Jesuits complicity and knowledge of 9/11.

"When you grow up in "The Family" like I did, you learn right off the bat that protection comes from everywhere, including the CIA, FBI and blessings from the Vatican who are at the top of the ladder when it comes to benefiting from Mafia street crime," said Gambino, who became a "Made Man" at the age of five, a Mafia term used for their top street captains.

"The Vatican officials, federal judges, top politicians all used to get regular pay-offs from the Gambino Family and, in fact, the Vatican and U.S. government make more money off the illegal drug trade then we did.

"That is why I am talking after just getting out of jail after 20 years. I am talking because people need to know the U.S. government and the Vatican are more dangerous and corrupt then the Mafia ever was.

"For example, I know for a fact the Cardinal in Palermo runs the Sicilian
mob and former Cardinal Spellman of New York was considered the Vatican's American Godfather since he pulled the strings and had his hands deep into organized crime.

"I know for a fact Bush, the Pope and other top Vatican and U.S. government leaders had prior knowledge and help organize 9/11. They did it for many obvious reason, one being instigating the war in Iraq. But they also did it to get their hands on all the gold that was hidden below in the Twin Towers.

"My grandfather's construction company built the Twin Towers and after it was completed, I know they went in and put in big underground vaults to house an enormous amount of gold which is now in Bush's and Vatican hands in order to fund the war."

Besides implicating the Vatican and Bush in 9/11, Gambino set the record straight about the JFK assassination, saying he was in Dallas when Kennedy was shot and the fatal bullet came from a shooter located in an underground storm drain.

"I was there when he was shot and I know for a fact Rosselli was in the storm drain doing the shooting and Frank Sturgiss was also part of the hit team," said Gambino. "The same group of guys we have talked about in the Vatican and U.S. government gave the orders and asked the Mafia families for help in taking down Kennedy."

Growing up on the streets of New York in one of the top crime families, Gambino recalls getting his first lesson of Mafia life at the age of 13.

"My grandfather was Lucky Luciano so I had it made," said Gambino, now 63 and living on the East Coast with a probation stipulation that he can't associate or talk with any organized crime figures. "Lucky had all the politicians and even the Vatican heads in his pocket. He was making $55 to $100 million a week and when Vegas opened the money really started to
roll in.

"He got Frank Sinatra and many others like Marylin Monroe, Tony Bennett, Dean Martin, Clint Eastwood, Sammy Davis started in Hollywood. He then would take a percentage of their earnings and this went on for their entire careers.

"Remember, the horse's head being cut-off in Godfather I and then put in the Hollywood producer's bed? That really happened and it had to do with forcing a Hollywood producer to star Sinatra in one of his movies."

Gambino also had inside information about how union boss Jimmy Hoffa was really killed, saying his time ran out when a huge Mafia debt wasn't repaid.


"Hoffa was working behind the scenes with crack head and truck hi-jacker, John Gotti," recalls Gambino. "That's all Gotti was good at and when they brought in a $5 million drug truckload, Hoffa got deeper in debt to the other Mafia bosses.

"He never gave his courtesy calls to the bosses for repayment and finally his time ran out so he was killed. They picked him up, put him in a body bag alive and then dumped his body in one of the concrete abutments at the George Washington Bridge while the concrete was being poured. All
they did was pay the concrete man $150,000 and the whole thing has been covered up. But that is where Hoffa's body is today and I know that for a fact."

Although Gambino knows he's crossing a sensitive line for going public about the inner-workings of the Mafia and its complicity with the Vatican and U.S. government, he added that it's important for Americans to finally understand how things "really work on the streets" and how Church, State and big business are working together to destroy America.

And if there remains any doubters that the Vatican and Jesuit Order have had its dirty hands in organized crime in order to destroy the moral and financial fabric of the U.S., Gambino's confessions should lay that to rest.

"If you don't believe the hard facts and the hundreds of researchers who have implicated the Vatican to the demise of America, then believe Gambino because he learned it fist hand from being on the streets and working with the top crime bosses. He has nothing to gain from lying
since he has already served his time and wants to set the record straight once and for all regarding who are the real controllers of the New World Order," said one patriot close studying and alerting America of Vatican and Jesuit intrigue.
www.arcticbeacon.com