web-bot forecasts big change to come for this year

[Quiet Storm]

U.S. National News

Probe Used as Practice for Asteroid Hit

Updated 8:58 PM ET September 7, 2004

- It is incoming, but it´s hardly big enough to be menacing and it even has parachutes to ensure a gentle landing on Earth.

Despite the space capsule´s diminutive size, asteroid watchers will be locking in on Genesis as it makes its descent on Wednesday - they need the practice.

"We sort of assume the spacecraft is an incoming asteroid," explained Donald Yeomans, manager of the Near-Earth Asteroid Program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "It´s not quite the real thing, but it is a true Earth impact."

In fact, the Genesis craft, which has collected particles from the solar wind, will never touch the ground on its own. Stunt helicopter pilots plan to snag the probe´s sample return with a giant fishing hook-like arm once it has released a parachute at 108,000 feet and then a parafoil at 20,000 feet above Earth.

The point of the gentle catch is to preserve the craft´s hexagonal wafers, made of pure silicon, gold, sapphire, diamond and other materials, which contain the precious cargo of solar wind particles.

"What a prize Genesis will be," said Don Burnett, principal investigator of the missions. "Our spacecraft has logged almost 27 months far beyond the moon´s orbit, collecting atoms from the sun."

It will be the first sample return from space since the last Apollo lunar mission returned with a cache of moon rocks in 1972. But Yeomans and his team are more interested in the probe´s homebound trajectory than its contents.

Imperfect Model

Just last March, an asteroid the size of a trailer zoomed by within 4,100 miles of Earth, making it the closest encounter ever recorded. Needless to say, scientists have yet to test their methods on an asteroid that actually smashes into Earth.

The scenario is unlikely, apart from smaller, less harmful objects that would likely burn up in the atmosphere before hitting Earth. But scientists figure they may as well be ready. By being able to calculate when and where an incoming object will land, they can potentially avert damage and loss of human life.

The closest the teams have come to monitoring an impact was watching as an object smashed into another planet. In 1994 Yeomans´ team mapped the path of a comet as it plunged into Jupiter.

"This is the first opportunity to apply the same calculations and programs to try and predict an in-fall onto Earth," said Alan Harris of the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.

Of course, watching the progress of a manmade probe is not quite like the real thing. For one, it has thrusters that occasionally steer it on course. Every time that happens, Yeomans and his crew need to reset their software. It´s also moving much more slowly than an asteroid or comet would while hurdling toward Earth.

"It´s a little unrealistic," said Harris. "But it´s the best we´ve got."

Tapping Amateurs

To track Genesis, Yeomans and his colleagues collect readings from an array of optical, Earth-based telescopes around the globe. The data is then fed into software that´s designed to precisely map the path and speed of an incoming object. Even amateur astronomers pitch in by e-mailing Yeomans their own readings of the craft´s coordinates.

"The spacecraft was not as bright as predicted and the location in the sky was on the edge of the Milky Way," reported Richard Fredrick, an amateur astronomer who kept an eye on Genesis and sent in a reading from the Powell Observatory in Kansas.

Soon, people like Fredrick could see monetary rewards for their contributions when it comes to scanning the skies for the real thing. Under legislation approved by the House of Representatives in March, people like Fredrick could receive $3,000 for discovering and tracking near-Earth asteroids.

It´s unlikely that the team in charge of the Genesis probe will actually use any of the information from the Near Earth Object program since they have access to much more reliable data. Genesis has a communication device on board and will be relaying its location on a regular basis to Earth through the Deep Space Network.

But for Yeomans, the data will be instructive, to say the least.

"We know it will hit," he said. "But we want to see how soon our software tells us this for sure."

This won´t be the only chance to test NASA´s tracking ability. Two more probes are due to return to Earth over the next three years and Yeomans plans to track them both as though they were incoming asteroids. The NASA spacecraft Stardust, which captured pieces of a comet, is due back in January 2006. And the Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa sampled pieces of an asteroid and should return to Earth in 2007.
http://dailynews.att.net/cgi-bin/news?e=pub&dt=040907&cat=us&st=usasteroid_practice_040907&src=abc
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Genesis spacecraft crash-lands in desert

CNN) -- The Genesis return capsule crashed in the desert on Wednesday after its parachutes failed to deploy. The craft missed a mid-air retrieval meant to save the spacecraft from impacting the Earth.

"The capsule has suffered extensive damage. It has broken apart on the desert floor," said an official on NASA TV. "Hopefully, there will be enough evidence to see what went wrong. Whether there will be enough science left inside remains to be seen."

Teams are attempting to recover the craft. NASA has warned them that a "live mortar" or explosive charge designed to deploy the chutes may still be armed.

NASA officials at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California said that long-range cameras did not detect the parachutes that should have slowed the craft.

"There was no drogue chute or parafoil," said a JPL spokesman. "Under those condition, the Genesis capsule hit the ground at about 100 mph."

NASA officials located the spacecraft around noon on Wednesday after it dug into the desert soil. NASA footage shows the craft tumbling rapidly through the air before hitting the ground with enormous force.

The return of the Genesis capsule was supposed to be visible for many in the U.S. as the capsule made a fiery ride across the skies of Oregon, northeastern Nevada, southwestern Idaho and western Utah.

By 11:55 am EDT, it reached the roof of the atmosphere, about 410,000 feet, glowing like a streaking meteor.

NASA officials were optimistic about the mission in the days leading up to the return of the Genesis capsule.

"We are bringing a piece of the sun down to Earth," said Charles Elachi, the director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "That´s going to give us some fundamental understanding of our origins."

Scientists say the data will not only reveal the composition of the sun, but illuminate how our planet could have formed from clouds of stellar dust.

"Four and a half billion years ago, all of the matter of the solar system, including us, was part of a giant molecular cloud," said Don Burnett, principal investigator for the Genesis mission. "Genesis is providing the chemical composition of that solar nebula. ...The material is still stored for us in the surface of the sun."

Two helicopters will be poised above a Utah Air Force base to snag the Genesis spacecraft´s return capsule. The sturdy container contains atomic isotopes collected as particles streaming off the sun, known as the solar wind.

The unorthodox midair retrieval will snag the first extraterrestrial samples since the Apollo missions in the 1970s.

Genesis collected the particles over the last two years on special tiles made from silicon, diamond, gold, sapphire and other materials. The solar particles, embedded in the collector tiles, were ejected at about 280 miles per second (450 km/s) from the sun´s scorching corona or outer atmosphere.

Genesis will fill in an astronomical blank spot about its makeup.

"What we´ve been missing is a starting point," says Burnett. "These samples allow precise measurements of the abundance of elements and isotopes in the sun."

Our star accounts for 99 percent of the mass in the solar system. It is composed mostly of isotopes of hydrogen and helium and includes 60 other elements including neon, argon carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and iron.

In all, Genesis has collected the equivalent of a few grains of the material. Scientists say that is enough to keep researchers busy for decades.

"In some cases, we will be studying these one atom at a time," said Burnett who estimates there will be a "billion billion" atoms available for study.

"We´ll have a reservoir of solar matter," he said. "We can meet the requirements for (studying ) the solar composition through the 21st century."

Genesis mission
Launched in 2001 from Cape Canaveral, the Genesis spacecraft traveled beyond the protective cloak of Earth´s magnetosphere for two years before heading home. Because of Earth´s electromagnetic field, much of the sun´s deadly radiation and material never reaches the planet´s surface.

In April, the craft ejected a 500-pound return capsule for return to Earth.

It has been approaching the planet at a leisurely 600 mph. By the time it reaches Earth´s atmosphere, the craft will be racing toward the planet at more than 25,000 mph. It will use a series of parachutes to slow its descent.

On Wednesday, it is expected to enter the atmosphere at 11:55 am ET above Oregon and, just two minutes later, glide down over the Utah desert. The main parachute, a wing-like parafoil, will deploy during its decent and a helicopter will snatch the Genesis capsule when it is still about a mile off the ground.

This daring retrieval method will protect the samples and sensitive instruments during reentry. A crash landing, even at the capsule´s relatively slow speed of 9 mph, could ruin some of the data collected during the mission.

The prospects for success look good according to NASA´s retrieval partner in the mission, the aerospace firm Vertigo.

"If they can find it, the success rate is very high," said Vertigo official Roy Haggard.

A modified helicopter -- with a winch, hydraulic capture pole and hundreds of feet of line -- will follow the capsule by radar until it moves in and snags the parafoil. Because the Genesis capsule must repressurize in the upper atmosphere, scientists want to minimize the sample´s exposure to air and possible contamination.

Once it is secured at a NASA facility, scientists can breathe easier, said Burnett.

"After that we can take our time, and we will see what we have," he said.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/09/08/genesis.entry.cnn/index.html
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Capsule Crashes As ´Catch´ Fails

DUGWAY PROVING GROUND, Utah, Sept. 8, 2004


Genesis hit the desert floor without the parachute opening. (Photo: CBS)


"We´re going to get the pieces out. It´s going to be a lot tougher to sort out the pieces of broken material."
Roger Wiens,
payload leader for Los Alamos National Laboratory


Genesis falls to Earth. (Photo: CBS)


Helicopter pilot Cliff Fleming, right, never really had a chance to ´catch´ the capsule. (Photo: AP)



(CBS/AP) The Genesis space capsule, which had orbited the sun for more than three years in an attempt to find clues to the origin of the solar system, crashed to Earth on Wednesday after its parachute failed to deploy.

It wasn´t immediately known whether the cosmic samples had been destroyed. NASA officials believed the fragile disks that held the atoms would shatter even if the capsule hit the ground with a parachute.

"There was a big pit in my stomach," said physicist Roger Wiens of Los Alamos National Laboratory, which designed the atom collector plates. "This just wasn´t supposed to happen. We´re going to have a lot of work picking up the pieces."

Hollywood stunt pilots had taken off in helicopters to hook the parachute, but the refrigerator-sized capsule — holding a set of fragile disks containing billions of atoms collected from solar wind — hit the desert floor without the parachute opening.

The capsule was returning after more than three years in space as part of six-year project that cost $260 million.

The impact drove the capsule halfway underground. NASA engineers feared the explosive for the parachute might still be alive and ready to fire, keeping helicopter crews at bay.

"That presents a safety hazard to recovery crews," said Chris Jones, solar system exploration director for NASA´s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

The copters were supposed to snatch the capsule´s parachute with a hook as it floated down at 400 feet a minute, or more than 6 feet per second. But the capsule tumbled out of control. It was supposed to be spinning at 15 revolutions a minute to slice evenly through the atmosphere, but camera images showed it tumbling instead.

"Everyone was thrilled as they saw the pictures of the spacecraft coming back, and it just changed — it was like a 180-degree turnabout as it suddenly crashed on the surface of the Earth," reports CBS News Correspondent Steve Futterman. "There was just dead silence here."

Scientists hoped the capsule´s charged atoms — a "billion billion" of them — would reveal clues about the origin and evolution of our solar system, said Don Burnett, Genesis principal investigator and a nuclear geochemist at California Institute of Technology.

"We have for years wanted to know the composition of the sun," Burnett said before the crash. He said scientists had expected to analyze the material "one atom at a time."

Genesis had been moving in tandem with Earth outside its magnetic shield on three orbits of the sun.

Cliff Fleming, the lead helicopter pilot, and backup pilot Dan Rudert had replicated the retrieval in dozens of practice runs. Fleming and Rudert, stunt pilots by trade, were drafted for the mission because of their expertise flying high and capturing objects. Fleming has swooped after sky surfers in the action movie "XXX" and towed actor Pierce Brosnan through the air in "Dante´s Peak." He just worked on "Batman 4."

The Genesis mission, launched in 2001, marked the first time NASA has collected any objects from farther than the moon for retrieval to Earth, said Roy Haggard, Genesis´ flight operations chief and CEO of Vertigo Inc., which designed the capture system.

Together, the charged atoms captured over 884 days on the capsule´s disks of gold, sapphire, diamond and silicone were no bigger than a few grains of salt, but scientists say that would be enough to reconstruct the chemical origin of the sun and its family of planets.

Scientists had expected to study the material for five more years.


http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/09/08/tech/main641846.shtml

[Quiet Storm]

IVAN WILL FINISH FLORIDA OFF

Hurricane Ivan will be the third hurricane to hit Florida in a 30 day period. With all the military troops occupying the southern part of Florida - below the line from Tampa to Daytona Beach first called the MICKEY MOUSE LINE - another destructive hurricane will put this former state in open and complete military control (Martial Law) for the "good" of the citizens. Homeland Security will have its first major test of widespread control.

The MOUSE LINE is nothing new as it was established in the later 1960´s by military strategists before the current FEMA ever became a Federal executive department. FEMA originally stood for Federal Emergency MILITARY ACTION. The scenario since day one [not long after the Cuban Missile Crisis] was that if "national security" warranted it, everything below the MOUSE LINE would be a military zone... a civilian "no-man´s land."

What can be expected? When a FEMA truck showed up with ice in Southeastern Florida 2 nights ago, a clash took place between the local Chief of Police and FEMA officials. The townspeople had been waiting in line for up to 7 hours for ice at a FEMA emergency distribution point when the truck showed up, but FEMA officials insisted it be distributed the next morning. The local Police Chief said that if it wasn´t distributed immediately, he would instruct his armed police officers to distribute it. FEMA caved in to avoid an open conflict.

But after IVAN hits Florida, FEMA will no longer cave in to any local civil authority as they will have open Federal "authority" from both the BUSH BROS to rule all local towns and counties below the MOUSE LINE. CAMP CHARLIE in Charlotte County has done this already whereby local EMS, EOS, and law enforcement must answer to FEMA-Homeland Security. Florida is currently designated as a Federal Disaster Area and the Federal Military already has full authority to "occupy" and rule over all local authorities.

If you don´t think this amounts to anything, wait until IVAN hits. The roadblocks are already in place below the MOUSE LINE. People are already complaining about being denied access to their own property because they don´t have sufficient ID.

What all of us who live here have experienced since August 13 is called a FEDERAL POLICE STATE. When IVAN hits between 9-11 and 9-13, the Federal Emergency Military Action will be in total open control. [}:)][}:)][}:)]

and I thought this one was interesting: "RUSSIAN SCHOOL SEIZURE WAS PLANNED IN WASHINGTON AND LONDON." http://www.surfingtheapocalypse.net/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?read=13660

fun fun fun! []

[Aileron]

Huh, I completely spaced on the coming dates of Ivan if it does in fact, hit the states. Thats really weird if it does on the anniversary of 9/11.
People are hoping that it dies down below the coast before it gains too much momentum, but personally, it just makes too much sense for it to be the third in a row.

If FEMA really can and does take military control of florida if Ivan does hit, though it is horrible for everyone living there, really, how many people are gonna want to go back? Ive already heard enough comments through newpapers, family and friends of people who are going to give up and move away if Ivan hits florida.
Can you imagine the devestation on the state of that happens? Not only will there be damages up the arse, but the population will have decreased, perhaps potentially decimating the states economy. Not to mention imagining the horrible scene that would take place at disney world. Can you see it? FEMA officers riding Space mountain?
Standing guard over the epcot center?
(Shivers) weeeeeiiiird!

[Adam]

Seems like September's turnin' out to be the month, innit? []

[Aileron]

Genesis SMASHED into the salt flats.
Too bad. I kinda feel bad for the all those space geeks looking foreward to studying it without the mess they now have.

[Palehorse]

Yeah, I couldn't imagine spending 3 years' work and $280 million on something, only to have it crash into the desert.  Yikes.

On another note... does anyone else think this movie "What the @#$%^ do we Know?!" might be part of whatever is supposed to come in September?  I haven't seen it yet, but it seems to be getting pretty big, and is scheduled for wide release tomorrow, so it seemed to me like that very well could be.

[Aileron]

widely released already? Wow, I did not know that. All I have heard is promising things so I know Ill be watching for it. Otherwise I couldnt tell ya much about it beyond the fact that it is supposedly pretty intense in its philosophy and subjectivity.

[Jenadots]

I just wonder how much more of this the average person in Florida can handle....and people get very panicky and raging when so tired, and hot and hungry and thirsty and sleeping on gym floors.  

I had been thinking of Florida as a possible retirement place for me later in life, but I doubt I could handle what the people there are trying to cope with.  I love the ocean and being near it, but 3 really bad hurricanes in such a short period of time is more than anyone should have to cope with.  

Part of what I don't understand is why, after so many hurricanes, they don't have building codes that require all power lines to be below ground.  And obviously, some buildings are more solid than others so it would seem to me if there is any rebuilding, they have to quickly do something about the building codes.

I even thought that maybe the people in mobile homes could use bungee cords anchored in cement to hold their homes down.  If these can stand the weight, gravity and force of someone going off a bridge or a building, it just might work to hold down buildings and roofs.  

Anyway, let's all be as generous as we can be and make donations to the Red Cross which is always on the scene with as much help as they can muster.  I support my local chapter and know that any amount of money is helpful to supply food and water and blankets to those who have none in this kind of disaster.  

Maybe if they hadn't allowed most of the Everglades to be drained, these things wouldn't be so bad.  Nature always gets its way and all that water is sure filling up the drained areas of the Everglades now.

I don't know how I feel about the military and Fema spreading out there.  I was appalled at the stories of looters going into some of the most decimated areas and robbing people of whatever was salvageable.  But I am sure it is also frustrating and a bit scary if you didn't grab the right documents to prove who you are and where you live.  

Could be any of us in some other kind of disaster.  One wants protection but not interference.  A difficult balance.  

Hope you and your family come out of it all safe, Quiet Storm.  

Jena

[no_leaf_clover]

We watched a video on Andrew today in ecology, and it said towards the end that scientists were pointing to evidence that a new 'cycle' of major hurricane activity would be directed at Florida in the future, starting with Andrew (1992). Apparently they weren't far off.

These storms weren't just the usual storms to hit Florida, either, as we even felt them up here in Virginia, which isn't usual. The corpse of Charley dragging through our area was enough to have school end early in our county, but many other schools in the area were closed before the school day even started, and by the time I got home the local news seemed to be displaying closings for about every school in the region. In Roanoke the streets were already flooding after just the first night of rain, and I heard on the way up, it had spawned a large number of tornados in North and South Carolina, which also caused over a score of deaths in just South Carolina.

I'm just waiting to see what Ivan does. Here's a government-run, yet probably nonetheless accurate site giving constant updates on all storms in the Atlantic and eastern Pacific that could hit the US: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/

[Quiet Storm]

I'm pretty chill about hurricanes, mostly because I haven't had a bad experience of them so far. When hurricane andrew came by I actually went through the eye. It was a cool experience. I was in a really strong house and it went through it without a scratch. I remember coming outside when the eye was right over the house. It matched up with the circle of the corner of the dead end street. Very calm, and then *swisssssh* the wind kicks up again all of a sudden and then it starts pourin once again.

About Ivan: Im intending to make the ride smoother however I do it and I know there are others doing the same, however they decide to do it.

I think there is the potential that FEMA and Homeland Security will attract some displeasing situations on their part and the civilians, especially now in the times we are in.

The media has doing a good job at suggesting certain emotions to their viewers. Get this: NBC is going to play "The Perfect Storm" on Sunday, just before Ivan makes landfall. [B)]

[Aileron]

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - A large explosion rocked the northern part of North Korea, sending a huge mushroom cloud into the air on an important anniversary of the communist regime, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported Sunday.

Citing an unidentified source in Beijing, Yonhap said the explosion happened on Thursday in Yanggang province near the border with China. The damage and crater left by the explosion in Kim Hyong Jik county was big enough to be noticed by a satellite, the source said.

"We understand that a mushroom-shaped cloud about 2.2 miles to 2.5 miles in diameter was monitored during the explosion," Yonhap quoted an unidentified diplomatic source in Seoul as saying.

North Korea was founded on Sept. 9, 1948. Leader Kim Jong Il uses the occasion to stage performances and other events to bolster loyalty among the impoverished North Korean population.

Experts have speculated that North Korea might use a major anniversary to conduct a nuclear-related test, though there was no immediate indication that the reported explosion on Thursday was linked to Pyongyang's efforts to develop nuclear weapons.

Kim Hyong Jik is reported to hold a major missile base. North Korea, which has a large missile arsenal and more than a million soldiers, is dotted with military installations.

South Korea's Unification Minister Chung Dong-young said Sunday the government is in the process of confirming reports that there were signs of an explosion in North Korea.

"I am not aware of details such as the size of the damage," he was quoted as saying by Yonhap after a National Security Council meeting.

On Saturday, North Korea said recent revelations that South Korea conducted secret nuclear experiments involving uranium and plutonium made the communist state more determined to pursue its own nuclear programs.

The South Korean experiments, conducted in 1982 and 2000, were likely to further complicate the already stalled six-nation talks aimed at dismantling the North's nuclear development. South Korea has said the experiments were purely for research and did not reflect a desire to develop weapons.

On April 22, train wagons at a railway station exploded in the North Korean town of Ryongchon, killing 160 people and injuring an estimated 1,300, according to some estimates. The blast was believed to have been sparked by a train laden with oil and chemicals that hit power lines.

The source in Beijing that told Yonhap about the explosion last week said it was reportedly bigger than the train explosion in Ryongchon.

[Quiet Storm]

There was alot of disinformation that came with the 'intelligence' of this event that happened North Korea. Several sources said it was a forest fire, with no mention of a gigantic mushroom cloud. Others said it was a small explosion. And other IMO more accurate sources said it was a huge explosion, a mushroom cloud being miles high and 2 miles in radius, like one from a nuke and caused a crater that can be seen from a satellite. Some of them say the nuke was part of a nuclear test Kim had done to promote him as a badass to intimidate the people of the country to submit to his power. A source I read said Kim regularly does "scare tactics" like these just to scare the people to submit to him and fear him even more than what they already do. I say that smells like bullshyt. I know he might want to scare the people regularly to submit to him and crap but I don't think he'd do a random show of force and technology with a FVCKING NUKE just to gain an ego boost. [?][?][?][}:)]

Unless an Amerikan authority figure had something to do with it.

There was another source that said it was a nuclear plant or facility or something and it just blew up for an as yet unknown reason.

There's no mention of terrorism yet, at least from the many sources I have read from.

[Jenadots]

Quiet Storm, Of course he would...the man is nutso and has a massive ego.  He has absolute power there.  So did his father.  

His people are starving to death and he wants to play macho-dude. Anyone who complains about the starvation and deaths, gets put in prison, regularly tortured, and never seen or heard from again. He doesn't care how many of his people die as long as he stays in power. Any food aid that is sent gets distributed to his huge military before the children see any of it.  In the past, he has used his attempts to make nukes as a means of blackmailing other countries into giving him food and fuel.    

He has made it quite clear that when he has them, he will use them on Japan, China, South Korea and probably Alaska or California if he can get them there.  No doubt, he also wants to sell them to terrorist groups as well.

Of course, the South Koreans are trying to make nice, but they could be looking at their own future.  He wants their wealth and will decimate them and his own people to get it.  

Of course, it could be a test run that backfired on them.  In that country, anything is possible.

[Aileron]

Correct me if Im wrong with any of this info, but we cant forget this happened only days after it become widely known(As in wider distribution of the information, not that it was not known) that South Korea has been trying to get their nuclear development in better progress for what they are saying is only for their power sources.
N. Korea has been debating about with this issue because they are accusing S. korea of trying to build arms.

Issues issues

looks like the reign of red days to me....

[Quiet Storm]

Isn't something like this supposed to happen during October?

http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200409/200409030023.html

N. Korea to Conduct Nuke Test in October?
Grand National Party Lawmaker Park Jin, who is currently attending the U.S. Republic Party national convention, said Thursday that North Korea may conduct a nuclear experiment in October, and this intelligence was quietly making its way around Washington political circles. Moreover, a high-ranking U.S. government official recently met with a North Korean diplomatic official in New York and official conveyed concerns over this intelligence, Park said.

While he was visiting the headquarters of the New York-based Wall Street Journal on Thursday, too, Park was asked by a high-ranking member of the paper´s editorial staff whether he knew of the "October Surprise." The editor said that talk of a North Korean nuclear test in October was going around Washington political circles and high-ranking government officials, and such talk had even made it to the New York media.

Park said that through inquiries to high-ranking U.S. Defense Department officials and White House beat reporters from major media companies, he was able to reconfirm that such talk was, in fact, going around.

Park did not reveal who conveyed U.S. concerns to North Korea through New York diplomatic channels, but he did say that a high-ranking U.S. government official officially expressed concern over a possible "October Surprise," and North Korea showed no response.

[Aileron]

You know whats even more disturbing, is the fact that I have not heard a single thing about this "so-called" blast from the politicians. It seems like its not being made in to such a big deal even though it is being played off as a massive potential threat to the world in many ways.

Alright, lets look at some key players in global headlines and potential for any type of world change.

We got;
Arab/African, N. Korea/S. Korea, Isreal/Palestine, Chechnya/Russia, America/Iraq.

These are the biggest I can think of off the top of my head. Add any that might be of interest.

Imagine the conflict that would arise if different sections begin increasing even more so, the hostilities towards one another.
I can only imagine what might happen if all these places divided and condensed into two main hostiles.
I can see the US playing off both sides.

our world through the glossy haze of possible hazards.

[Palehorse]

India/Pakistan is another one that comes to mind.

[Adam]

The whole thing with North Korea fits into a pattern that the US govt has played out, if IMO you see the melody they dance to. It infuriates me, but it does not suprise me... remember that these players want chaos!! It's about divide and conquer, divide and conquer...

I'm glad that the transition stuff is going down soon... seems like it's in the nick of time, eh? []

[no_leaf_clover]

Seems like the media's trying to make an enemy out of France too, or at least Fox News is :/

Pretty much anybody that didn't support Bush's trip to Iraq is too low for the US to even deal with.

[Quiet Storm]

Haven't we seen enough of this:

   World Trade Press
   Beware of the End of the World (Wide Web),Says Intel
   09.10.04, 12:04 PM ET

   Sep 10, 2004 (financialwire.net via COMTEX) -- (FinancialWire) Remember those End of the World signs? Well, Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) says it may be nearer than we think. Except the sign says End of the World Wide Web.

   It's a vision apparently shared by Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO), Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) and AT&T Corp. (NYSE: T), all of whom are working feverishly, either together or apart to save the World Wide Web, which Intel and others see as becoming so overloaded it will eventually break.

   At Intel's technical conference, CTO Patrick Gelsinger said the Internet will begin to collapse as millions of new computer users from developing nations begin to sign on.

   "We're running up on some architectural limitations," Gelsinger was quoted as saying.

   FULL ARTICLE:
   http://www.forbes.com/execpicks/feeds/general/2004/09/10/generalcomtex_2004_09_10_ir_0000-5884-KEYWORD.Missing.html

[James S]

I think Intel's just p*ssed because at the moment for the same price you can get a kick-butt AMD64 which romps all over current intel CPUs

The internet won't break. It'll just keep getting bigger and bigger, more out of control, and more full of annoying commercial crap than it already is.

More business, more porn, more scams, more popups, more viruses......

End of the world? Yeah baby...bring it on!
The place needs a bit of a clean-up anyway.

Y'know, for all the time I spend on my PC playing games, on the internet, etc.....when it all goes pear-shaped, I don't really think I'm going to miss computers at all!

[8D]
- James.

[Aileron]

Ban on Assault Weapons Expiration Today

BOISE, Idaho (AP) - The expiration Monday of a 10-year federal ban on assault weapons means firearms like AK-47s, Uzis and TEC-9s can now be legally bought _ a development that has critics upset and gun owners pleased.

The 1994 ban, signed by President Clinton, outlawed 19 types of military-style assault weapons. A clause directed that the ban expire unless Congress specifically reauthorized it, which it did not.

Studies done by pro- and antigun groups as well as the Justice Department show conflicting results on whether the ban helped reduce crime. Loopholes allowed manufacturers to keep many weapons on the market simply by changing their names or altering some of their features or accessories.

Gun shop owners said the expiration of the ban will have little effect on the types of guns and accessories that are typically sold and traded across their counters every day.

At the Boise Gun Co., gunsmith Justin Davis last week grabbed up a black plastic rifle resembling the U.S. military's standard issue M-16 from a row of more than a dozen similar weapons stacked against a wall.



The civilian version of the gun, a Colt AR-15 manufactured before 1994, could be sold last week just as easily as it can be sold this week. "It shoots exactly the same ammo at exactly the same rate of fire," said Davis.

Many states _ including California, Massachusetts, New York and Hawaii _ have passed their own laws curbing the use of assault weapons. Some of those are more stringent than the federal ban.

U.S. Rep. Butch Otter, R-Idaho, trumpeted the end of the federal law.

"President Clinton's so-called 'assault weapons' ban was nothing more than a sop to antigun liberals," Otter said Friday in a written statement. "It provided only the illusion of reducing gun violence, but it did real damage to our liberties."

But advocates for the ban, including the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, point to some particularly vicious shootings in which military-style weapons were used _ including the 10 killings in the sniper shooting spree that terrorized residents in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., in 2002.

National police organizations such as the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the International Brotherhood of Police Officers and the Fraternal Order of Police all support the renewal of the ban. President Bush has said he would sign such a bill if Congress passed it.

Idaho State Police spokesman Rick Ohnsman said troopers have had no significant problems with assault style weapons and his agency has not taken a position for or against the federal legislation.

"Of course, the legitimate owners of guns register them. Unfortunately, whether there is a ban or not, some individuals will find ways to get weapons that are illegal."

The expiration of the assault weapons ban does not mean the end of federal background checks. The 1993 Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act is separate legislation from the assault weapons ban, said Daniel Wells, chief of the FBI unit charged with overseeing the background checks system.

"The change in law relating to assault weapons has no impact on the Brady Law," Wells said.

Davis predicted the biggest change in his business will be the ability of manufacturers and importers to market higher capacity ammunition magazines _ the removable "clip" that holds and feeds bullets through guns.

Under the 1994 ban, the maximum capacity of a magazine was set at 10 rounds. That sent the price of high-capacity magazines through the roof, Davis said, even though magazines manufactured before the ban were protected by a "grandfather" provision and could still be sold.

Now, some gun manufacturers are planning to give away high-capacity magazines as bonuses for buying their weapons. Sales of formerly banned gun accessories, such as flash suppressors and folding stocks, are also expected to take off.

___

On the Net:

National Rifle Association: http://www.nra.org

Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence: http://www.bradycampaign.org

Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may

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My own opinion?

Well it seems like this is well timed, with terrorist action reaching certain peaks in some places, and the paranoia spreading even more, what better quasi-catalyst for extremists to go off the paranoic action than the allowance of assault weapons reentering the mainstream.

Many of those manufacturing these weapons know that there will not be a surge of buyers coming forth like many fear, but it is not the surge by many people that we should worry about, it is those extremists we should now be worried about. This is a great excuse to see extremely dangerous weapons legally fall into the wrong hands.

But is it to weed out those who may trigger violence, or is it an attempt to create an ever more nervous society which is already on edge because of foreign terrorists. Now we are going to have to worry about the nut sitting next to us.

What is the government creating but brittle edges of sanity with terrorist alerts, expiring gun laws, wider media coverage of frightening world wide events, stricter laws, less privacy, degrading peace between countries, political propaganda, and potential military changes in constant flux.

We are being herded like cattle towards the exit, and a vast majority are looking at their feet unaware of where they are headed.

[no_leaf_clover]

quote:It's a vision apparently shared by Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO), Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) and AT&T Corp. (NYSE: T), all of whom are working feverishly, either together or apart to save the World Wide Web, which Intel and others see as becoming so overloaded it will eventually break.

What a bunch of bs. Anybody that knows anything about how servers work and how many there are knows what a crock this is. Just like that guy on Fox News last night that said the hurricanes Florida has been seeing is just a unique case of strange weather in the world and doesn't have anything to do with global warming. Just ignore the heat wave in Europe that killed some 30,000, the hurricane that hit Brazil, ancient parts of the Antarctic breaking off in chunks...

[xx(]

[Jenadots]

Oh, goody...I can just imagine the assault guns in the hands of the street gang members in Chicago.  As if they don't already wreck havoc with drive by shootings.  Its nuts.  

And this latest nuke race amongst smaller countries seems almost like a contest to see who gets to nuke us first.  Oh, well.  I suppose we can take some small consolation in the fact that if the Korean dictator uses them on us, there will be no more North Korea 30 minutes later.  Iran would likely just lob them over to Israel which, of course will send a bunch back.  And India and Pakistan will finally solve their over-population problems by nuking each other.

Dismal scenarios and one can only guess at what effect it might have on the planet as a whole.  I don't think the people who are so hell bent on having these weapons see them as horrible as they are.  And they somehow think they can survive the devastation once something like that is let loose in their part of the world.  

I know I wouldn't survive it.  I don't understand what they think they can gain by it except death, destruction, and absolute misery for any who do manage to survive.  

Talk about bad karma!  Not enough of a peace consciousness loose in the world.  At least not yet.  I fear that, unfortunately, it may take these kinds of disasters for that to truly happen.  

2005 and 2006 could be extremely violent years.  

We certainly don't need more crazy folks with assault weapons loose on the streets and in the backwoods of America.  Its not as if they don't already have a stockpile of all other kinds of weapons.  If they only killed each other with them, who would care?  But that doesn't happen.  There always seem to be a lot of innocent people just going about their daily business that get shot because they happen to be in the way.  

Please medidate peaceful thoughts and intentions -- lots of them.  Send off clouds of them into the air and care not where they settle.  Where ever they settle, they will be needed.  And keep sending them.  Don't stop.  There needs to be a counterbalance to the killing sickness that seems to be infecting more and more of our people.

Peace.....Jena

[Adam]

quote:Originally posted by Jenadots

Oh, goody...I can just imagine the assault guns in the hands of the street gang members in Chicago.  As if they don't already wreck havoc with drive by shootings.  Its nuts.  

And this latest nuke race amongst smaller countries seems almost like a contest to see who gets to nuke us first.  Oh, well.  I suppose we can take some small consolation in the fact that if the Korean dictator uses them on us, there will be no more North Korea 30 minutes later.  Iran would likely just lob them over to Israel which, of course will send a bunch back.  And India and Pakistan will finally solve their over-population problems by nuking each other.

Dismal scenarios and one can only guess at what effect it might have on the planet as a whole.  I don't think the people who are so hell bent on having these weapons see them as horrible as they are.  And they somehow think they can survive the devastation once something like that is let loose in their part of the world.  

I know I wouldn't survive it.  I don't understand what they think they can gain by it except death, destruction, and absolute misery for any who do manage to survive.  

Talk about bad karma!  Not enough of a peace consciousness loose in the world.  At least not yet.  I fear that, unfortunately, it may take these kinds of disasters for that to truly happen.  

2005 and 2006 could be extremely violent years.  

We certainly don't need more crazy folks with assault weapons loose on the streets and in the backwoods of America.  Its not as if they don't already have a stockpile of all other kinds of weapons.  If they only killed each other with them, who would care?  But that doesn't happen.  There always seem to be a lot of innocent people just going about their daily business that get shot because they happen to be in the way.  

Please medidate peaceful thoughts and intentions -- lots of them.  Send off clouds of them into the air and care not where they settle.  Where ever they settle, they will be needed.  And keep sending them.  Don't stop.  There needs to be a counterbalance to the killing sickness that seems to be infecting more and more of our people.

Peace.....Jena

Lucky for Oazaki and his gang, eh Jena? [][]