CONSERVATIVES VS LIBERALS: ALL IN THE BRAIN?

We spend so much emotion and energy trying to convince others to see it our way.  Taken to extreme, some arguments even have a way of transforming into lethal quarrels.  Forget it.  Indeed, such may just be a waste of time and saliva because evidence seem to prove that political persuasions are hardwired in our genes.  You have conservative views because that’s how your brain is structured.  I am a liberal because that how my neural wirings behave.  So let’s stop fooling ourselves we’ll ever come to a meeting of the mind. Ever.

POLITICAL LEANINGS ALL IN THE GENES?

UPDATES ON MY OTHER BLOG

New posts on my other blog.

THIS MADE ME SHED A TEAR

God, this is heart-rending: Groom waits for bride from sunken ferry.

LEADERS AND TRAGEDIES

You are in a leadership training seminar and you are asked the following question:

You are a president of a country and you are to board your plane in eight hours for an official visit to the United Sates.  A supertyphoon has just entered your country and by the early hours  with its display of strength and fury, by calculation, a major devastation is expected along its trail.  In fact, a ferry carrying hundreds has been heard to have sunk in the seas.  Will you proceed or cancel?

The answer will tell us easily whether you are a leader or not, or at least what kind of leader you are.

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Technology has its limitations.  Let’s illustrate.

You are in bed terribly ill.  Your mama and papa are busy people, bigwigs in business and politics.  They have important businesses to attend to, they say. They get you good doctors and nurses. To be sure, they get a teleconferencing equipment inside your room set up so they can check on you and talk to you and the medical team from time to time.  Your fever is sky high;  you are pale and vomiting  when they leave you in a rush.  They kiss you in the cheek and whisper into your ears: “this is for your future, son.”  You complain but they tell you: “in this age and time, my son, it’s like we are sitting by your bedside”.

If you were the child, would you call them ideal parents?  If you were the parent, how the hell could you?

Postscript: (courtesy of The Equalizer at ellentordesillas.com)

The Australian:

Gloria Arroyo ‘fiddles as Rome burns’

REVISITING THE LAMITAN SIEGE

Remember the Lamitan siege? The shameful incident comes to mind again owing to the recent kidnapping of ABS-CBNs Ces Drilon by the dreaded Abu Sayyaf group. (The release of Drilon and company is said to have been secured through payment of ransom and the negotiators themselves are now being accused as accomplices to the crime). Lamitan was the story of a rescue operation gone crazy amid shocking allegations of complicity between government officials and Abu Sayyaf kidnappers over ransom payments.

I am posting the following links for future reference:

Probe into the Lamitan hospital siege suggesting collusion between AFP and Abu Sayyaf (link courtesy of John Marzan)

The central figure in the controversy, Lt. Gen. Romeo Domingez’s, giving his side in the comment section of this entry by Tom and Frayed

Asia Times Online has Philippines on Trial Over Hostage Tale. This is the story of how the Philippine government twisted Gracia Burnham’s testimony to the effect that she was exonerating the armed forces from allegations of collusion with the bandit group

Several times while on the stand, Burnham was asked by defense lawyers if she thought there was “connivance” between the military and Abu Sayyaf. Even before she had a chance to answer, the three government prosecutors stood up and made objections to the question, all of which the judge immediately sustained.

While Burnham was prohibited from speaking with the press and was quickly whisked out of the country, her book gives the real answers to the questions asked.

The day after her testimony, government officials were proclaiming that Burnham had cleared the military of any wrongdoing.

The article quotes extensively from Burnham’s book In the Presence of My Enemies:

On pages 222-223, Gracia writes about how, after months on the run and being exhausted and hungry, the group’s food supply suddenly changed for the better.

“The armed forces were feeding us!” she writes. “A group of them [army] met our guys [Abu Sayyaf] and handed over quantities of rice, dried fish, coffee and sugar. This happened several times over the course of a few weeks. Why in the world did President Arroyo’s troops provide the Abu Sayyaf with their daily bread? We were told that it was because Sabaya [the Abu Sayyaf's spokesman] was wheeling and dealing with the AFP [army] general of that area over how to split up any ransom that might be paid. Arlyn de la Cruz [a television reporter from Manila who had managed to find the group to do a story] had warned us about that. ‘You know, this is going to be a really big deal,’ she [Arlyn] said, ‘and everybody is going to expect their share’,” Burnham writes.

“Sabaya was willing to give the general 20% of the action. But the messenger reported back that this wasn’t enough. The general wanted 50% – when his own government steadfastly condemned the ransom concept altogether.”

How shameful. How degenerate.

WATER IN MARS

There is water in Mars.

Bright Chunks at Phoenix Lander’s Mars Site Must Have Been Ice

TUCSON, Ariz. – Dice-size crumbs of bright material have vanished from inside a trench where they were photographed by NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander four days ago, convincing scientists that the material was frozen water that vaporized after digging exposed it.

“It must be ice,” said Phoenix Principal Investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson. “These little clumps completely disappearing over the course of a few days, that is perfect evidence that it’s ice. There had been some question whether the bright material was salt. Salt can’t do that.”

LINK

CROP CIRCLE: PI ILLUSTRATED

How could this happen? Or how did they do that? And who’s making them?

Take a look at the Most Complex Crop Circle Ever Discovered…

HOSTAGE!

As I write this post Ces Drilon and company together with Loren Legarda are holding a press conference. Drilon and company were set free by their hostage-takers several hours earlier. Good. A life saved is always something to be thankful for whatever the circumstances.

But it’s something to also contemplate about. While daring and courage never fail to draw awe and admiration, as when one enters dangerous territories defenseless for a mission, there is a line dividing bravery and foolhardiness, of daring and recklessness. of bold adventure and inconsiderate caper. The risks to this kind of undertakings are not confined to just life and limb. Life and limb are personal treasures; when one gambles them for a noble reason, yes indeed, we should all stand up in recognition of such a rare gallantry. However, a popular personality like Ces Drilon walking into a place like the wilderness of Sulu where hostage-taking is a cottage industry to conduct an interview, that is a different story altogether. Ces Drilon, by virtue of her stature, is a walking package of golden opportunities, a mobile vault full of cash, a strolling stockpile of treasure. She walks in there inside enemy territory, she walks in there like a mobile vault full of cash or a rolling cartful of treasure delivered to the enemy, additional funds a-plenty to buy an armory, to buy more supply to wage a war, to finance another series of bombing expeditions to kill and maim many more.

No ransom was paid?! Oh, come on.

Ransom is big business in Sulu. In fact, it always has been a very profitable one for all those involved, or so it is said.

So please, Ces, next time, before you embark on another dangerous mission in search for news, consider too that the next bomb to explode in a crowded place, or the bullet that would pierce another loved one’s body, could very well be bought by the ransom paid to gain your safety today.

(image from www.abs-cbni.com)

THE MAKING OF A GLOBAL SUPER BRAIN

As a little boy learning to read, I remember encountering a comics character named ESBoy in one local comics mag. He was a boy with a head so big, because his brain was extra large, it tilted to one side all the time. The first letters ESB meant electronic super brain. The boy was supposed to know all the answers to every imaginable question in this world. You know it when you’re young, you believe anything is possible. Then you outgrow the fantasy as you mature. But it seems childhood fantasies would come revisit in strange ways. He’s not a boy or a person but a configuration of interconnected computer machines we today call  internet or the  web. Try. Think of any inquiry. Just about any: from philosophical questions like what is consciousness, to mundane like a recipe for bopis, the habits of ants, etc. or to any complicated mathematical formula.   If you know how to search, you are likely to find an answer— from the ridiculous to the sublime. Now, I was about forming the idea into a blog entry when I stumbled on this article:

We Are The Web

In the beginning there was Vannebar Bush who outlined the idea of hyperlinked pages, then a Ted Nelson who has a scheme of organizing and hyperlinking all of humanity’s knowledge. This was the genesis of a system that has since morphed into a part-human-part-machine thinking process. As any new technology, first it was mocked at and disparaged but when the floodgates in 1995 were opened, the bursting abundance was totally unexpected. Ten years since, “(i)n fewer than 4,000 days, we have encoded half a trillion versions of our collective story and put them in front of 1 billion people…”

Today, at any Net terminal, you can get: an amazing variety of music and video, an evolving encyclopedia, weather forecasts, help wanted ads, satellite images of anyplace on Earth, up-to-the-minute news from around the globe, tax forms, TV guides, road maps with driving directions, real-time stock quotes, telephone numbers, real estate listings with virtual walk-throughs, pictures of just about anything, sports scores, places to buy almost anything, records of political contributions, library catalogs, appliance manuals, live traffic reports, archives to major newspapers – all wrapped up in an interactive index that really works.

This view is spookily godlike.

The idea that was thought insane a decade or so ago became a collaborative project of the whole humanity. A super brain machine is in the making, “… a megacomputer that encompasses the Internet, all its services, all peripheral chips and affiliated devices from scanners to satellites, and the billions of human minds entangled in this global network.”

Today, the Machine acts like a very large computer with top-level functions that operate at approximately the clock speed of an early PC. It processes 1 million emails each second, which essentially means network email runs at 1megahertz. Same with Web searches. Instant messaging runs at 100 kilohertz, SMS at 1kilohertz. The Machine’s total external RAM is about 200 terabytes. In any one second, 10 terabits can be coursing through its backbone, and each year it generates nearly 20 exabytes of data. Its distributed “chip” spans 1 billion active PCs, which is approximately the number of transistors in one PC.

This planet-sized computer is comparable in complexity to a human brain. Both the brain and the Web have hundreds of billions of neurons (or Web pages). Each biological neuron sprouts synaptic links to thousands of other neurons, while each Web page branches into dozens of hyperlinks. That adds up to a trillion “synapses” between the static pages on the Web. The human brain has about 100 times that number – but brains are not doubling in size every few years. The Machine is.

The whole article is here.

(image from arimaa.com)

HOW NIÑEZ CAME INTO TROUBLE

John Marzan tries to make sense of Niñez Cacho-Olivarez’s libel suits by sequencing the events and probable circumstances that led to it: How It Happened. Apparently, the Tribune was scooping the rest of major publications by then with its series of articles itself written by Olivarez and all the while, someone’s reputation and feelings were being hurt. As it is, when Fraport finally filed an arbitration request, the allegations in the series were confirmed. The major papers followed suit.  But no other libel suits were filed similar to Ninez’s.

How’s this for libel? As far as my logic tells me, if Olivarez were guilty, so should the rest be. So why no libel cases were filed against the rest? Because NCO’s came ahead of “confirmation” and the rest, after?

Anyway, here’s abogadomo.com on Libel Laws of the Philippines:

Under Article 353 of the Revised Penal Code of the Philippines, libel is defined as a public and malicious imputation of a crime, or of a vice or defect, real or imaginary, or any act, omission, condition, status or circumstance tending to discredit or cause the dishonor or contempt of a natural or juridical person, or to blacken the memory of one who is dead. Thus, the elements of libel are: (a) imputation of a discreditable act or condition to another; (b) publication of the imputation; (c) identity of the person defamed; and, (d) existence of malice.

Point of contention is existence of malice:

It is important to remember that any of the imputations covered by Article 353 is defamatory and, under the general rule laid down in Article 354, every defamatory imputation is presumed to be malicious, even if it be true; if no good intention and justifiable motive for making it is shown. There is malice when the author of the imputation is prompted by personal ill-will or spite and speaks not in response to duty but merely to injure the reputation of the person who claims to have been defamed. Truth then is not a defense, unless it is shown that the matter charged as libelous was made with good motives and for justifiable ends. (underscoring mine)

So there, truth is no defense. I find this odd but so be it.

But the future of a nation’s gateway, its main airport— that  is not a justifiable end? Saving our premier airport from the claws of undue personal interest would not pass for good motives?

Ahh, it must be shown! I see. So it must be Ninez’s perpetual insolent smirk that made her lose: Who is she to think she has in her any streak of patriotism or sense of duty with that look that could only mean malice!  If anything, all else are incidental.

I have been saying, so-called principles only follow intentions: tell me what, then I’ll choose which principles are useful and which to ignore or downplay.

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John says: “Libel, my ass!”

Haha, have more respect for your ass, John. That thing closes out of pique, you’re in big trouble.

TECHNOLOGIES THAT CHANGED THE WORLD

Top ten disruptive technologies, according to Livescience.com:

1. The Internet 2. Flight 3. Nuclear fission 4. Electricity 5. The microprocessor 6. X-rays 7. Rubber 8. Iron smelting 9. Gun powder 10. Magnetic stripe card

Some technologies have little impact on the world around us, while others are like major earthquakes on the seismographs of history.

(image from inventorspot.com)

THE JOURNEY OF ARNEL PINEDA

Arnel Pineda is the Filipino singer/frontman of the rock group Journey.

OLIVAREZ’S LIBEL, VILLARAZA’S HURT, AND AN AIRPORT THAT WOULD NOT OPEN

The following was lifted in toto from John Marzan’s blog, Ninez Cacho-Olivarez’s column Frontline on Philippine Daily Tribune (which could not be accessed on Internet since Monday, at least, where I am).  It is about the libel case of which she was lately been convicted.

One can expect Gloria’s mouthpiece, Toting Bunye, to revel in my libel conviction, which is on appeal and the harsh jail sentence, plus fine of P4 thousand, plus actual and moral damages in the amount of some P5 million and P33 thousand.

After all, he and Gloria jumped for joy when F. Arthur Villaraza filed 48 counts of libel that were rejected for consolidation by the state prosecutors and the lawyers of Villaraza. Besides, Bunye himself has close ties with the law firm, since his daughter works for that firm and in fact became the spokesman of the First Gentleman in the early days.

Besides, Bunye really had no call to pontificate about getting the facts right, considering that he not only gave out a completely false report and showed a clear and reckless disregard for the truth when he came up in a press conference on the “Hello Garci” tapes, but even also manufactured evidence! And he dares speak of getting the facts right relating to my case?

But for Chay Hofilena and a Newsbreak magazine writer to say that journalists must get their facts right and to verify the report, obviously referring to my report, perhaps shows just how they judge without getting all the facts right and without having clear grasp of what the law says on libel cases, as it takes the version of the Villaraza version, which was adopted by RTC judge Winlove Dumayas.

Chay Hofilena and Newsbreak, and on record described the Firm as “well-connected” and in an article entitled Firmly in Power: The Villaraza law firm’s tentacles extend to the judiciary and the executive. Critics are up in arms.” If she believes that one should be careful in writing about private persons why did she write about the firm? Obviously because they could not have been private but public figures.

What my article said about Villaraza was nothing compared to that Newsbreak article. In my piece, only once was Villaraza mentioned, and referred to as the President’s personal lawyer, which certainly was no defamatory at all. The other instance where the word Villaraza was mentioned was in the sentence saying: “With all eyes focused on the Carpio-Villaraza-Cruz combine and its hold on the Arroyo administration’s legal arena, as well as its pervasive power and influence in the country’s judiciary.” This statement is libelous, malicious and defamatory?

As for the Newsbreak writer Carmela Fonbuena, she claimed I did not verify the report, saying that the deputy ombudsman in Luzon, Vic Fernandez did not work in the Firm.

In the first place, Newsbreak did not get my side of the story in that report. In the second place, if Fonbuena read the memorandum submitted by my lawyer, Alex Medina of Pecabar, copies of which were given to the media on the day of the conviction, or even got hold of the court transcript of my testimony, she would have found out that I had testified to the fact that I never said Vic Fernandez, the deputy Ombudsman, was a partner of the Villaraza law firm but I did write he was connected with the firm and clarified in court that being connected to the firm meant he was a satellite lawyer. This was not rebutted by the lawyers.

In truth, the firm does have satellite lawyers. Two counsels I had approached earlier to handle my libel case begged off, saying they can’t touch this case, as they also work from time to time with the Firm on certain cases.

It is also on record, something which Dumayas and the junior lawyers of the Firm seem to ignore is the fact that I had testified to all this and that my testimony was not rebutted, as the Firm’s lawyers did not cross-examine me.

On the matter of my not having verified the statements made in my report, why on earth should I bother to verify with Villaraza or his firm when the story was not about him, or the Firm but on the former lawyers of the firm who were now in the Ombudsman’s office and in the executive branch?

This is something that should be gotten right. The information lodged against me does not charge me of libel against the Villaraza and Angcangco law offices. The private complainant in this instance is Villaraza, not the firm. And that article was certainly not about Villaraza and the firm but about their former lawyers and how the AEDC complaint was being handled. Section 6, Rule 110 of the Rules of Court were violated by the judge and the lawyers of the complainant.

No matter what Dumayas says in his decision, malice, actual and presumed, was never proved and we will prove that it was never established and proved.

Neal Cruz, this is for you: The high court has defined “actual malice” and malice in fact’ as an act that may be shown by proof of ill-will, hatred or “purpose to injure.” This was never proved by Villaraza.

I could not have been held liable civilly for actual and moral damages because the prosecution failed to adduce any admissible evidence to prove actual or compensatory damages.

The document shown by the prosecution was hearsay, given the fact that the person who prepared it (Villaraza) did not testify in court.

All this was brought out in court, but clearly ignored — for inexplicable reasons by Dumayas.

But that’s not the end of it because the case goes all the way to the appellate court and the Supreme Court.

In the meantime, I got my facts right, and those who bought the Villaraza lawyers spiel, should look at themselves first, before they judge and write.

As a backgrounder, the following, containing some of the sleazy little details of greed and power-tripping in the corridors of power, is from the same blog in another entry:  DID NIÑEZ KNOWINGLY LIE ABOUT THE FIRM’S ROLE IN THE FRAPORT.

And here: the transcript of a wiretapped conversation that talked about certain local personalities like (in the order of appearance) Avelino Cruz, Pancho Villaraza, Secretary Gloria Tan-Climaco, an Attorney Nuval, the Chengs of Piatco, the Executive Secretary, Ricky Razon,  and Joseph Chua (son-in-law of Lucio Tan), someone calling somebody a “crook”, and a $50 M.

This is libel?

I am not a lawyer, thank God, so let’s leave the details that could be proven in court to them lawyers.

But to a layman like me and the rest of us, it is about an airport that would not fucking open, for God’s sake!  We badly need an airport for a thousand urgent reasons but there it lies idle, unmoving, undisturbed,  in early stages of decay—and not a single passenger serviced four years since it was supposed to start operation.  From where we ordinary people sit, it is a story of greed and pride so common in these islands, of a few bastards imposing a naked absurdity, holding hostage an entire nation with the help of highly paid attorneys-at-law.

Ahh, you must remember, we are a nation of laws, as lawyers love to remind us— what can we do?

Shame.

FLAGS

All set for the Independence Day celebration.

BIOFUELS FROM THE SEA

Take biofuel crops off the land and grow them at sea

The dream of tackling climate change with biofuels has been tarnished by the rush to produce them on land. Not only are there serious environmental costs, including deforestation, water use, production of greenhouse gases, and energy-efficiency limitations, but there are rising concerns about the effects on the world’s poor. Already the price of food is being driven up as land is taken away from food production, increasing the cost of food and nutrition for those who can least afford it.

It is curious then that, bar a brief mention in a recent paper on sustainable biofuels by the UK-based Royal Society, the potential for biomass production at sea is largely ignored.

The oceans are the largest active carbon sink on the planet, covering more than 70 per cent of its surface area, and are predicted to grow as sea levels rise. Our seas also receive a larger proportion of the world’s sunshine than land does, particularly in the tropical and subtropical belt where land is more scarce….

Until now, seaweed has been valued mainly as food, but also as fertiliser, animal feed, and recently for a growing phycocolloid industry producing algin, agar and carrageenan. But it could also be a major fuel.

Macro-algae (seaweeds) are cultivated at sea, mainly by simply tying them to anchored floating lines. Seaweeds do not require soil, and are already provided with all the water they need, a major advantage over land production of biofuels since water is the most limiting factor for most agricultural expansion, especially with climate change…

Read more.

HUMORING THE ENEMY

Today’s Inquirer editorial wrestles over Secretary Raul Gonzalez’s surprising, even shocking, confirmation by the Commission on Appointments as Justice Secretary after 19 past rejections. Why, he even drew praises from the unlikeliest persons: Senators Panfilo Lacson and Jinggoy Estrada. Here goes:

Gonzalez’s performance has certainly been remarkable, but for all the wrong reasons. He has shown a breathtaking vindictiveness in the administration of justice; he has eroded the people’s faith in the very rule of law he is supposed to uphold. In a word, he politicized his office to an extent not seen in a generation. He has been the most partisan justice secretary since the democratic restoration in 1986—and he doesn’t care if it shows.

Lacson and Estrada do not seem to understand that the reason the so-called long arm of the law has failed to catch erring officials like fugitive “Joc-Joc” Bolante is precisely because partisan officials like Gonzalez have learned how to limit its reach. Now they’re saying that because Gonzalez has had four years of practice at emasculating our institutions—a remarkable performance, indeed—he should be rewarded with a confirmation. This is all a bad joke, but unfortunately it’s on all of us.

This is what Lacson said of Gonzales:

A journey, no matter how long and hard, should reach the crossroads. And we should decide as a collegial body on the fate of the nominee. We may not be the best of friends…But you know, levity aside, barely recuperating from a transplant operation, you were raring to go back to work and you strike me as a person who loves his job. If only for that we reached this point that we are making a decision whether to reject you as an appointee of the President or recommend you to the plenary.

And Estrada:

I have noticed and monitored his work and his job as secretary of justice after he was discharged from the hospital. And I have noticed his remarkable performance as secretary of justice.

Huh, whatever happened to this world that Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales should now merit commendations from, of all people, Lacson and Estrada. Did Inquirer miss something and I am just having a malicious mind? Somebody should have closely followed the two if they were not indeed exchanging high fives amid howls of laughter afterward in some private place.

Couldn’t recall now who wrote about the inside track on the botched major reorg of GMAs cabinet. It seemed it was Secretary Gonzales who was the main reason the reorg never pushed through. The story went that GMA wanted Gonzales to retire from his present post for another assignment, a post kinder on his failing health and friendlier on his wallet. The real reason was to create a vacancy for the present Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro. The Defense portfolio, of course, was rumored even then as being readied for the then-retiring Chief of Staff General Hermogenes Esperon. Gonzales though would not budge because, in the words of Lacson, “he loved his job so much”, so no movement could be effected because Teodoro too could be convinced to move out of Defense only for the Justice portfolio. Because of this, General Esperon, GMAs beloved general, could not get his most-coveted position and has since been parked on an unwanted post in restless waiting.

You see, a rejection by the CA for the nth time would have provided GMA a stronger hand to push out Gonzales simply by non-reappointment. With appointment papers for a financially rewarding sinecure and plenty of diplomacy, she could have gotten rid of Gonzales in her Cabinet and secured the happiness of Esperon.

That was not to be so because Lacson and Estrada did what Malacañang least expected: confirmed Gonzales and even offered him praises! Haha, now, she’s stuck with an old, diseased, and cantankerous Justice secretary who, though rabidly loyal and whose loyalty was very useful in the past, had been lately often a source of major embarrassments. Who’s the President who could afford a Raul Gonzales for his justice secretary for another year, you wonder. It’s about image, of course, for as far as images go for a government so wanting, Raul Gonzales is too much of an added aggravation. Just take a look at him on tv if you still need convincing: pale-faced boorish old man with a hideous stare buried there in piles and piles of papers stuttering legal nonsense. GMA knows for sure that in the present scheme of things, he’s more of a liability now than an asset; out he must go.

But naughty Lacson and Estrada have just foiled the well-laid out plans and must be laughing their hearts out now. The joke’s on Malacañang!

DELUSIONS AND DISASTERS

An interview with President GMA by the International Herald Tribune.  (Got the link from Manila Bay Watch).

To summarize, this was what she was saying:

The government is doing everything to curb corruption.  The country is making a headway as evidenced by the high growth rate.  The Ombudsman is doing a far better job now.  As to why her family is often accused of corruption, she doesn’t know.  How the economy would fare in the face of a slowing down of the US economy: (confidential?)  the economy is strong so it would easily weather the downturn.  The Philippines is experiencing a very high growth rate, higher than our neighbors, due mainly to infrastructure spending.  On political killings, her government is doing a great job reducing them despite a long tradition of political violence.  Her very low popularity rating does not reflect the sentiments of the average Filipino.  The people working to disrupt our progress are out of touch.  That includes Cory Aquino.

She’s out of touch.

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Do you know that humans themselves could cause earthquakes?  In fact, there are fears that human activities could have triggered some of the deadliest ones recently.

TOP 5 WAYS TO CAUSE A MAN-MADE EARTHQUAKE

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The deadly earthquake in Sichuan, China could have been triggered by a nuclear explosion.

Boxun News, a Chinese-language Web site based outside China, reported that an unnamed expert has claimed that there was a nuclear explosion near the epicenter of the Sichuan earthquake, based on witness reports and the discovery of concrete rubble believed to have come from an underground military installation. The news of this nuclear explosion has raised questions about the cause of the earthquake.

Mr. He, a local resident, stated that when the earthquake occurred on May 12, people saw something erupt from the top of a mountain next to the valley, “It looked like toothpaste being squeezed out,” said He. “No, it wasn’t [magma]. It was these concrete pieces. The eruption lasted about three minutes.”

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“BLAME THE SUN, NOT MAN”

Global warming is not due to man; it is caused by solar fluctuations and sun cycle, claims a Dr. Bruce West of US Army Research Office.  If true, then all these human efforts to reverse the trend were useless, one humongous waste of time and resources.

Army: Sun, Not Man, Is Causing Climate Change

WHAT NOW, JOCJOC?

Hear ye people!

US denies Bolante appeal for political asylum

He should be brought home pronto and skinned alive.   Rotarians miscalculate the rot this gentleman has inflicted on the name of their organization.