House of Orange Crime Cartel

In the following article, we set out to trace the steps of two brothers, both of whom are grandsons of Bilderberg-founder Bernhard, who have now been destined to carry along the torch of treason. The objective: to dismantle the nation-state, strip the people of their self-determination and free will, and position themselves as sovereign rulers of the planet. Their common cause does not deviate from the age-old directive, but their means are custom-made to fit current times.
Children of the Dutch royal family are destined to carry along the torch of treason.

To those who feel that the quest for a worldwide grid, a prison-planet, is too great an effort to conceal from public scrutiny, we can say there's hardly any concealment on the part of the elite.
We can even say that the perpetrators are generally committing their acts in the full light of day, as they speak quite openly about their vision for the world.

Continues on True Conspiracies

Also see: Black nobility, house of orange, Frescobaldi on Above Top-Secret

No austerity measures for the Dutch Royal Family

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has called an agreement on austerity measures “a fantastic result”. Analysts had feared that if the government was unable to present a package of measures by Monday to bring down the budget deficit to three percent of Gross National Product, the Netherlands could lose its triple A credit status.

The government sees "no reason" to more cuts in the Royal House. (Elsevier) ‘How rich is Queen Beatrix?’ is then probably a valid question. No one knows the answer on this question.

The Queen’s Treasurer (in Dutch: de Thesaurier der Koningin) is most likely the person closest to ‘the secret’.
I would like to give you an explanation, based from a chapter about the Thesaurier der Koningin out of the book ‘Aan het Hof. De monarchie onder Koningin Beatrix’, (‘At the Court. The monarchy under Queen Beatrix’) by Remco Meijer (ISBN 90 5713 462 4).
‘How rich is Queen Beatrix?’ All publications, articles and magazines who claim to answer this intriguing question are unreliable. Main reason: those who have knowledge about it, maintain a stony silence. Every single Euro put down on Queen Beatrix is pure speculation and is also unreliable for two reasons. Until her death in 2004 Princess Juliana was the owner of the vast bulk of the Orange-Nassau fortune. No one knows exactly what did happen with her heritage. In the Netherlands, by law each child is treated equally and Queen Juliana had four daughters. There is no regulation possible in which the eldest child receives more than the other children.
The other reason is the fact that most of the valuables, the possessions, the art collections, the jewels, the inventories, the gold-, silver and crystal ware, etc. were put into family foundations. These foundations are legal entities on which no natural person can claim an ownership anymore. But all this does not take away that the Orange-Nassaus are one of Europe’s richest families.

The Royal Forums

Atheists chant at Muslim protesters

Some Muslims showed up at the 2012 Atheist Convention in Australia. This is what happened :)

London 2012 Olympic photo ban 'unenforceable'

Olympic bosses have admitted their ban on spectators posting videos and images on websites will be unenforceable. In the terms and conditions of ticket purchases for the London 2012 Games it states ticket holders cannot publish images, video or sound online.

However, Sir Keith Mills, deputy chairman of organisers Locog, said "we live in an internet world... and there's not much we can do about it". He said a "common sense approach" would be used to protect media rights. Spectators will be able to watch many events, including the cycle road race, triathlon and marathon, without a ticket.

But the ticket conditions as they currently stand prohibit ticket holders from posting photos and personal footage of the Olympics on sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

BBC News

Chinese dissident's escape sparks arrests

Authorities in China have started arresting people connected with activist Chen Guangcheng, who was under strict house arrest when he escaped last week.

Fellow activist Hu Jia has been detained, Hu's wife said Sunday on Twitter. There are also reports Chen's brother and nephew are among those who have been detained by police on suspicion that they helped the blind lawyer flee his heavily guarded house in Dongshigu village.

On Saturday, activists said Chen was under U.S. protection and suggested the only place he could be was inside the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, 600 kilometres from his home.

CBC News

1984

BBC Television's live production of George Orwell's "1984". Produced in 1954.

'Hate Speech' laws in Canada

Critics say that Hate Speech laws are not applied consistently in Canada as every day we see the mainstream media stigmatizing and dehumanizing Middle Eastern people with impunity. On the other hand those anti-racists who criticize Israel's policies of genocide and apartheid are finding their freedom of speech to do so increasingly challenged with powerful pro-Israel lobbyists seeking to conflate criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism.

The covers the New Yorker rejected

For every distinctive illustration that the New Yorker puts on its cover each week, there are scores of ideas, sketches and fully realised designs that don't make the cut. Since 1993, when Françoise Mouly became art editor of the magazine, she has been collecting these never-rans – often rejected for being too outrageous – on her office wall. Now Mouly, who founded RAW magazine with her graphic novelist husband, Art Spiegelman, in the 80s, has gathered them into a coffee-table book called Blown Covers. Here she picks her favourite cover sketches that are as acute as they are provocative

The Observer - Blown Covers Website – New Yorker Website

Following the Starr report on the Clinton/Lewinsky affair, Art Spiegelman drew this sketch. The week it would have appeared, Larry Flynt, publisher of Hustler, threatened to expose the indiscretions of 11 congressional Republicans.

Wealth of richest grows to record levels

The combined wealth of the 1,000 richest men and women in Britain has risen to record levels in the past year, despite the country’s continuing economic slump. Their total fortune has risen by just under five per cent since 2011, to £414 billion, according to the latest Sunday Times Rich List.

That exceeds the previous record of £412.8 billion set in 2008, which came just a few months before the financial crash from which the wider British economy has yet to recover.

Heading the list for the seventh year running is the steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal, although his wealth has fallen £4,814m to £12,700m, placing him just £385m ahead of Alisher Usmanov, whose Metalloinvest is Russia’s biggest iron ore producer. Usmanov’s fortune has also fallen, in his case by £85m in the past year, in part because of charitable donations of £91m. Third placed Roman Abramovich, the owner of Chelsea FC has seen his wealth fall by £800m to £9,500m.

Telegraph

Fela Kuti in Concert

The Time Travelers

The Murder of Gareth Williams

Experts who tried and failed to lock themselves into a sports bag identical to that in which UK MI6 officer Gareth Williams was found believed it likely a third party was involved, his inquest heard, as it emerged he browsed self-bondage websites and videoed himself naked in boots.

The Guardian - Gareth Williams on WikiSpooks – Mail Online

Oh Amadou

Amadou & Mariam (feat. Bertrand Cantat)

China dissident Chen Guangcheng escapes house arrest

One of China's best known dissidents, Chen Guangcheng, has escaped from house arrest and released a video addressed to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao. In it he makes three demands, including one that Mr Wen investigate what Mr Chen calls the brutal beating up of his family members. Rights activists say Mr Chen slipped out of his home in Dongshigu town in Shandong province on Sunday. His whereabouts are unclear with some reports that he is in Beijing. Mr Chen had been under house arrest since he was released from a four-year jail sentence in 2010.

In the video posted online by Boxun, a Chinese dissident news website based in the United States, Mr Chen asks that:

• Premier Wen investigate and prosecute local officials Mr Chen says beat up his family members
• The safety of his family be ensured
• Corruption in general in China be dealt with and punished according to the law

The Chinese authorities have come under international criticism for their treatment of him. At one point his daughter was barred from school. Many sympathisers who have tried to visit his home say they have been beaten up.

BBC News

Destroy the nutritional value of food before eating it

Consumers are dying today in part because they continue to eat dead foods that are killed in the microwave. They take a perfectly healthy piece of raw food, loaded with vitamins and natural medicines, then nuke it in the microwave and destroy most of its nutrition.

Humans are the only animals on the planet who destroy the nutritional value of their food before eating it. All other animals consume food in its natural, unprocessed state, but humans actually go out of their way to render food nutritionally worthless before eating it. No wonder humans are the least healthy mammals on the planet.

Zen Haven

11 Surprising Facts and Myths About Microwave Ovens on The Daily Green

Bradley Manning judge warns military prosecutors in WikiLeaks case

The military judge in the court-martial of the US soldier accused of handing WikiLeaks the biggest trove of unauthorised state secrets in American history has put army prosecutors on notice that they must prove Bradley Manning knew he was helping the enemy or face the possibility that the most serious charge against him be dismissed.

Colonel Denise Lind refused to throw out the charge – "aiding the enemy" – as had been requested by Manning's defence lawyers. But she told the military prosecution that during the trial, now scheduled for the end of September, that they would have to prove that the intelligence analyst was fully aware that he was helping the enemy when he allegedly handed hundreds of thousands of secret US documents to WikiLeaks.

Aiding the enemy is the most serious in the list of 22 charges that have been brought against Manning. It carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.

The Guardian

Prince Philip quotes

More on Wikiquote – More Photos of Exposing The Truth

Farewell intercourse law

Egyptian husbands will soon be legally allowed to have sex with their dead wives - for up to six hours after their death. The controversial new law is part of a raft of measures being introduced by the Islamist-dominated parliament. It will also see the minimum age of marriage lowered to 14 and the ridding of women's rights of getting education and employment.

Egypt's National Council for Women is campaigning against the changes, saying that 'marginalising and undermining the status of women would negatively affect the country's human development'. The subject of a husband having sex with his dead wife arose in May 2011 when Moroccan cleric Zamzami Abdul Bari said marriage remains valid even after death.

Mail Online

It’s A Hoax! - Middle East Institute Blog

OJ

Au website

Alive Inside

Old Man In Nursing Home Cobbe Hill Nursery Reacts To Hearing Music From His Era

Egypt comedian found guilty of offending Islam

An Egyptian court on Tuesday upheld a conviction against one of the Arab world's most famous comedians, sentencing him to jail for offending Islam in some of his most popular films.

The case against Adel Imam and others like it have raised concerns among some Egyptians that ultraconservative Muslims who made gains in recent elections after Hosni Mubarak's ouster last year are trying to foist their religious views on the entire country. Critics say the trend threatens to curb Egypt's vibrant film industry and freedom of speech.

Imam was sentenced to three months in jail and fined around $170 for insulting Islam in roles he played in movies such as "The Terrorist", in which he acted the role of a wanted terrorist who found refuge with a middle class, moderate family, and the film "Terrorism and Kabab. "

The actor was also found guilty for his 2007 role in "Morgan Ahmed Morgan," in which Imam played a corrupt businessman who tries to buy a university diploma. The film included a scene parodying bearded Muslim men wearing traditional Islamic clothing.

Newsday

The Fukushima Nuclear Disaster Is Far From Over

Spent reactor fuel, containing roughly 85 times more long-lived radioactivity than released at Chernobyl, still sits in pools vulnerable to earthquakes.

More than a year after the Fukushima nuclear power disaster began, the news media is just beginning to grasp that the dangers to Japan and the rest of the world are far from over. After repeated warnings by former senior Japanese officials, nuclear experts, and now a U.S. senator, it's sinking in that the irradiated nuclear fuel stored in spent fuel pools amidst the reactor ruins pose far greater dangers than the molten cores. This is why:

• Nearly all of the 10,893 spent fuel assemblies sit in pools vulnerable to future earthquakes, with roughly 85 times more long-lived radioactivity than released at Chernobyl

• Several pools are 100 feet above the ground and are completely open to the atmosphere because the reactor buildings were demolished by explosions. The pools could possibly topple or collapse from structural damage coupled with another powerful earthquake.

• The loss of water exposing the spent fuel will result in overheating and can cause melting and ignite its zirconium metal cladding resulting in a fire that could deposit large amounts of radioactive materials over hundreds, if not thousands of miles.

Robert Alvarez on The Huffington Post

Was Jesus Gay? Probably

Preaching on Good Friday on the last words of Jesus as he was being executed makes great spiritual demands on the preacher. The Jesuits began this tradition. Many Anglican churches adopted it. Faced with this privilege in New Zealand's capital city, Wellington, my second home, I was painfully aware of the context, a church deeply divided worldwide over issues of gender and sexuality. Suffering was my theme. I felt I could not escape the suffering of gay and lesbian people at the hands of the church, over many centuries. Was that divisive issue a subject for Good Friday?

For the first time in my ministry I felt it had to be. Those last words of Jesus would not let me escape. "When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to his mother, 'Woman behold your son!' Then he said to the disciple. 'Behold your mother!' And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home." That disciple was John whom Jesus, the gospels affirm, loved in a special way. All the other disciples had fled in fear. Three women but only one man had the courage to go with Jesus to his execution. That man clearly had a unique place in the affection of Jesus. In all classic depictions of the Last Supper, a favourite subject of Christian art, John is next to Jesus, very often his head resting on Jesus's breast. Dying, Jesus asks John to look after his mother and asks his mother to accept John as her son. John takes Mary home. John becomes unmistakably part of Jesus's family.

Continues on AlterNet – Picture from Jesús Gay: Circus Christi. La Exposición Prohibida De Fernando Bayona

Christopher Hitchens at his finest

Christopher Hitchens answers a stupid question – Much more on YouTube

Thank God for the Olympic sponsors

The Olympic games trundle ever closer, and already you can smell the excitement in the air, because it's being wafted in by gigantic corporate excitement blowers. Try as they might to engage us, we're not on tenterhooks yet. On paper it's virtually illegal to be anything other than thrilled to self-pissing point at the prospect of hours of running, jumping, swimming etc filling our minds and airwaves for several weeks, but in reality, the majority of Britons appear to be acknowledging the forthcoming games with little more than an offhand shrug. We're just not that arsed – not right now, anyway. That'll change the moment any of our athletes gets within sniffing distance of any kind of medal – then it'll be all cheering and jubilant BBC montages – but until then we're being very British about the whole thing by largely ignoring it, aside from the odd quiet moan about the negative effect it'll have on the traffic.

Well, for starters we could make that fake smile frosty-white by brushing our teeth with an Oral-B electric toothbrush. "Oral-B is getting behind the London 2012 Olympics," cheers the Boots website. "Share the excitement with their Professional Care 500 floss action electric toothbrush." Yes: the exhilaration, the agony, the sheer elation experienced by athletes operating at the peak of their physical aptitude – all this can be yours in the form of a vibrating twig you stick in your mouth.

The Olympic rings have been whored around so much they've become valueless: a status symbol for a few corporations to tote like a badge for several weeks, impressing almost no one except themselves. It's bizarre, and it's increasingly far removed from the event itself, which, last time I checked, chiefly involves running around and jumping over things. And, if you're British, moaning about the traffic.

Charlie Brooker on The Guardian

Der Mussolini

Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft (DAF)

'They're killing us': world's most endangered tribe cries for help

The Awá are one of only two nomadic hunter-gathering tribes left in the Amazon. According to Survival, they are now the world's most threatened tribe, assailed by gunmen, loggers and hostile settler farmers.

Their troubles began in earnest in 1982 with the inauguration of a European Economic Community (EEC) and World Bank-funded programme to extract massive iron ore deposits found in the Carajás mountains. The EEC gave Brazil $600m to build a railway from the mines to the coast, on condition that Europe received a third of the output, a minimum of 13.6m tons a year for 15 years. The railway cut directly through the Awá's land and with the railway came settlers. A road-building programme quickly followed, opening up the Awá's jungle home to loggers, who moved in from the east.

It was, according to Survival's research director, Fiona Watson, a recipe for disaster. A third of the rainforest in the Awá territory in Maranhão state in north-east Brazil has since been destroyed and outsiders have exposed the Awá to diseases against which they have no natural immunity.

"The Awá and the uncontacted Awá are really on the brink," she said. "It is an extremely small population and the forces against them are massive. They are being invaded by loggers, settlers and cattle ranchers. They rely entirely on the forest. They have said to me: 'If we have no forest, we can't feed our children and we will die'."

But it appears that the Awá also face a more direct threat. Earlier this year an investigation into reports that an Awá child had been killed by loggers found that their tractors had destroyed the Awá camp.

The Observer

Call to Cancel F1 in Bahrain Amid Protests

The Bahrain Grand Prix will act as a unifying force amid the nation's unrest, the Bahraini government said Friday, while opposition activists accused the Gulf kingdom's rulers of cracking down on demonstrations. Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al-Khalifa told reporters that cancelling the race would play into extremists' hands, according to a report Friday in the state-run Bahrain News Agency. (CNN)

An anti-government protester has been found dead following clashes with riot police on the eve of the controversial Bahrain Grand Prix , according to opposition activists. (The Guardian)

The Three New Commandments

The late Christopher Hitchens, author of God is Not Great, delivers a lecture at the Royal Ontario Museum entitled "The Three New Commandments" in conjunction with the exhibit of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Christopher Hitchens' wit and warmth remembered as New York pays tribute (The Guardian)

How to argue with a Muslim

Richard Dawkins asks a Muslim the punishment for apostasy.

The Weight

The Band

Right Wing Billionaires Push Israel's Agenda in US 2012 Elections

The Real News Network

Only in America

Piers Morgan Has A Message For Police Officers "In Language Their Miniscule Brains Might.

Lawless Libya

Israeli celebrity enjoyed video of IDF attacking Danish activist because he looked like a Nazi

Author and talk-show celebrity Irit Linur explained how pleased she was to see the Israeli officer slam the butt of his rifle into the face of the (unarmed, nonviolent) Danish peace activist. She said his golden hair made him look like a member of the Hitlerjugend, and said about him and other activists: "they were born anti-Semites and will die anti-Semites" - a shameful slander, especially considering what the Danes, whose underground was granted a blanket designation as Righteous Among the Nations for their efforts during World War II to rescue the Danish Jews.

The shouts "anti-Semite!", which appear to be a recurring Israeli response to any and all opposition, are becoming comical - but slandering Danes like that is no joke.

Mondoweiss

CIA seeks new authority to expand Yemen drone campaign

The CIA is seeking authority to expand its covert drone campaign in Yemen by launching strikes against terrorism suspects even when it does not know the identities of those who could be killed, U.S. officials said.

Securing permission to use these “signature strikes” would allow the agency to hit targets based solely on intelligence indicating patterns of suspicious behavior, such as imagery showing militants gathering at known al-Qaeda compounds or unloading explosives.

The practice has been a core element of the CIA’s drone program in Pakistan for several years. CIA Director David H. Petraeus has requested permission to use the tactic against the al-Qaeda affiliate in Yemen, which has emerged as the most pressing terrorism threat to the United States, officials said.

If approved, the change would probably accelerate a campaign of U.S. airstrikes in Yemen that is already on a record pace, with at least eight attacks in the past four months.

The Washington Post

Upgrades to Killer Drone Could Make It Fly for 2 Days Straight – Wired Danger room

Minister in 'racist circumcision outrage'

Swedish minister of culture Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth's participation in a "racist spectacle" in which she carved up a cake depicting a naked black woman has sparked outrage and prompted calls for the minister's dismissal.

"In our view, this simply adds to the mockery of racism in Sweden," Kitimbwa Sabuni, spokesperson for the National Afro-Swedish Association (Afrosvenskarnas riksförbund) told The Local. "This was a racist spectacle."
Sabuni's comments come following Adelsohn Liljeroth's participation in an art installation that took place at Stockholm's Moderna Museet in connection with World Art Day on April 15th.

More on The Local

Things

1979 - Split Enz

Secret prisons in Europe

Six years after the first revelations about the abduction, torture and detention on European soil of terrorism suspects by the CIA, the European Parliament is preparing a new report about the scandal. Hearings were organised with NGO’s and human rights institutions to gather additional data about some member-states governments alleged complicity in the rendition programme. The report investigated claims arrangements existed in Lithuania, Romania, Poland, Denmark, Finland and Britain.

“Nothing has been done in member states to truly investigate and get to the bottom of the problem. There is an obligation not only not to torture or to be an accomplice in torture, but there is an obligation to investigate, to ensure accountability,” said Gerald Staberock, Secretary General of the World Organisation Against Torture.

EuroNews

La La Blues

Pokey La Farge and the The South City Three

Arctic Climate Change Opening Region To New Military Activity

To the world's military leaders, the debate over climate change is long over. They are preparing for a new kind of Cold War in the Arctic, anticipating that rising temperatures there will open up a treasure trove of resources, long-dreamed-of sea lanes and a slew of potential conflicts. By Arctic standards, the region is already buzzing with military activity, and experts believe that will increase significantly in the years ahead.

Last month, Norway wrapped up one of the largest Arctic maneuvers ever – Exercise Cold Response – with 16,300 troops from 14 countries training on the ice for everything from high intensity warfare to terror threats. Attesting to the harsh conditions, five Norwegian troops were killed when their C-130 Hercules aircraft crashed near the summit of Kebnekaise, Sweden's highest mountain.

The U.S., Canada and Denmark held major exercises two months ago, and in an unprecedented move, the military chiefs of the eight main Arctic powers – Canada, the U.S., Russia, Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland – gathered at a Canadian military base last week to specifically discuss regional security issues.

Huffington Post - Planet Ark (2009) – CBC News

US choice named World Bank chief

Selection of Korean-born Jim Yong Kim draws criticism from other candidates over alleged US dominance of powerful post. The World Bank has named a Korean-American medical doctor, Jim Yong Kim, as its next president, despite criticism of the selection process by his rivals for the job.

While the US nominee faced a challenge for the first time ever, the World Bank's most powerful shareholders, the US, Europe and Japan, came out in support on Monday for Kim who now holds the powerful job of providing loans and grants to developing countries. Before the meeting of World Bank directors, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigeria's finance minister and a veteran of the institution who had also been nominated as a candidate, criticised the way the US had dominated the appointment process since the organisation was launched in 1944.

Al Jazeera's Alan Fisher, reporting from Washington, DC, said there was some dissent from member states over Kim's qualifications. "He's not an economist, but then again, now is the time that people say the World Bank needs to look at other issues such as climate change, food supply, water [scarcity] and diseases like bird flu," our correspondent said, pointing out that Kim has significant experience in developing countries. "Even so, there is a growing feeling that the process needs to be opened up, so that the US doesn't always get the post."

Al Jazeera English

Stop Making Sense

Talking Heads

Propaganda's founding father, Edward Bernays

Brasscheck.tv

Web freedom faces greatest threat ever, warns Google co-founder

The principles of openness and universal access that underpinned the creation of the internet three decades ago are under greater threat than ever, according to Google co-founder Sergey Brin.

In an interview with the Guardian, Brin warned there were "very powerful forces that have lined up against the open internet on all sides and around the world. I am more worried than I have been in the past," he said. "It's scary."

The threat to the freedom of the internet comes, he claims, from a combination of governments increasingly trying to control access and communication by their citizens, the entertainment industry's attempts to crack down on piracy, and the rise of "restrictive" walled gardens such as Facebook and Apple, which tightly control what software can be released on their platforms.

The Guardian

With a perfect storm of security, child protection and sexualisation and copyright enforcement we may be sleepwalking into the end of freedom online as we know it.  The Commentator

Rock Lobster

1979 - The B-52's on YouTube – Official The B52’s Site

Milk

In this case in the USA, but it ‘s the same everywhere.. Dairy cows are the hardest worked farm animals. and mothers. The only reason they produce milk is to feed their calves... but we steal their milk and deprive their calves of the love and affection, security that is their right as living, breathing creatures. They suffer abuse, neglect, illness. Separated from all the calves they give birth to. Dairy cows living in a happy healthy environment can live for up to 25 years. But because of their hard lives, they are worn out by 4 or 5 years old. They will be sent to slaughter, where many cannot even stand up anymore.

PETA - Dairy Cruelty Australia – YouTube

Spanish King Elephant-Hunting Trip Causes Outrage

Spain's 74-year-old king came under scathing criticism Sunday for going on an expensive elephant hunting trip in Botswana amid the nation's deep financial woes. Making matters worse, an accident on the trip sent King Juan Carlos into surgery. Doctors said Sunday that he was recovering well after a hip replacement but would not be able to resume full duties for more than a month.

Tomas Gomez, Madrid's regional Socialist party leader, said the time had come for the head of state to choose between his public responsibilities "and an abdication that would allow him to enjoy a different lifestyle."' Spanish newspapers were filled with accounts of how hunting trips to Botswana, where Juan Carlos fell, cost more than most Spaniards earn in a year. El Pais, Spain's leading newspaper, said the cost to arrange a hunting trip in Botswana to kill an elephant usually comes in at (EURO)44,000 ($57,850), about twice the country's average annual salary.

Huffington Post

Kim Jong-un uses first public speech to call for push to 'final victory'

North Korea's new leader, Kim Jong-un, has delivered his first public speech at a military parade to celebrate of the birth of the country's founder, his grandfather Kim Il-sung. Kim, the third from his family to rule North Korea, read monotonously from a script in Pyongyang, calling for a push to "final victory".

The speech suggested Kim would stick to his father and grandfather's "military-first" policy. But the fact that he spoke at all was a surprise after years of silence from his father when he presided over similar events. Kim Jong-un inherited power when Kim Jong-il died in December.

He praised his grandfather and father as the "founder and the builder of our revolutionary armed forces". "Let us move forward to final victory," the twentysomething leader urged tens of thousands of military and civilians, who applauded throughout his speech of more than 20 minutes.

The Guardian

Sunday

(Psychic Conversation #9) by Crocodiles

Nasa Scientists find life on Mars and kill it, 36 years ago

Nasa chiefs are believed to have found tiny Martians — but KILLED them by boiling them alive. Two spacecraft that landed on the Red Planet in 1976 are now thought to have detected live microbes in Martian soil.

Scientists at the time failed to spot the signs of life — and COOKED the bugs at 160°C during experiments. Now an international team has used modern techniques to re-examine data collected by the two unmanned Viking probes. Biologist Joseph Miller, of the University of Southern California, said: “I’m 99 per cent sure there’s life there. To paraphrase an old saying, if it looks like a microbe and acts like a microbe — then it probably is a microbe.”

The Sun - phenomenica.com

The Menace of Underage Hand-Holding

Like any state legislature dealing with 8 percent unemployment and thousands of its residents facing disenfranchisement, the Tennessee Senate (Nashville, Tennessee, USA) is targeting the menace of underage hand-holding. Last week, the Senate passed SB 3310, a bill to update the state’s abstinence-based sex education curriculum to define holding hands and kissing as “gateway sexual activities.” Just one senator voted against the legislation; 28 voted in favor.

Since the bill specifically bans teachers from “demonstrating gateway sexual activity”, educators would be prohibited from even demonstrating what hand-holding is. Breaking these laws could result in a lawsuit, as Hunter from Daily Kos notes: If your teacher teaches you anything about sex that isn’t specifically on the approved curriculum, like demonstrating “holding hands” for the class instead of quietly tsking about the dangers it poses, they can be sued.

Still, this anti-hand-holding push may only be the second-worst bill passed in Tennessee this month. Nearly a century after the Volunteer State played host to the Scopes Monkey Trial, the legislature has now enacted a new law allowing educators to teach creationism alongside evolution.

ThinkProgress

Sex Pistols Decline to Perform at London Olympics Closing Ceremony

Britain’s legendary punk outfit The Sex Pistols is reportedly just as rebellious after all these years. According to the Guardian, the band said a curt “no thanks” to London Olympics organizers who asked them to participate in a commemorative closing ceremony.

Spokespeople for the surviving Sex Pistols, who are led by frontman John Lydon (the erstwhile Johnny Rotten), have refused to comment, possibly supporting the Telegraph’s claim that this is a “snub to the establishment.”

TIME.com

Kazak Rules

The National Fanfare of Kadebostany (Uncensored Official Video) on Vimeo

Bloodshed feared as Bahrain Formula One grand prix given go-ahead

Human rights activists fear further bloodshed and a violent crackdown by authorities in Bahrain after race organisers gave the green light to next weekend's Formula One grand prix in the troubled Gulf kingdom.

As the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) said it was satisfied that all proper security measures were in place for the race on 22 April, Nabeel Rajab, from the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR), said: "I'm afraid we might see local people who will be killed in the coming days because of the F1."

Anti-government protesters have called for the event to be cancelled, arguing that it lends legitimacy to a regime which continues to perpetrate human rights abuses.

The FIA, the sport's governing authority, confirmed that it would go ahead, with beefed-up security, after receiving reassurances. John Yates, the former assistant commissioner of the Met who is in Bahrain advising on police reform, wrote to the FIA president, Jean Todt, to say he felt safer living in Bahrain "than I have often felt in London".

The Guardian – BBC - Bahrain Center for Human Rights

Freedom Needs YOU!!!

The Love Police

Stuxnet Loaded by Iran Double Agents

The Stuxnet virus that damaged Iran’s nuclear program was implanted by an Israeli proxy — an Iranian, who used a corrupt “memory stick.32,” former and serving U.S. intelligence officials said. In the continuing battle to hold off the Iranian nuclear program, Iranian proxies have also been active in assassinating Iran’s nuclear scientists, these sources said.

These sources, who requested anonymity because of their close proximity to investigations, said a saboteur at the Natanz nuclear facility, probably a member of an Iranian dissident group, used a memory stick to infect the machines there. They said using a person on the ground would greatly increase the probability of computer infection, as opposed to passively waiting for the software to spread through the computer facility. “Iranian double agents” would have helped to target the most vulnerable spots in the system,” one source said. In October 2010, Iran’s intelligence minister, Heydar Moslehi said an unspecified number of “nuclear spies” were arrested in connection with Stuxnet.33 virus.

Former and senior U.S. officials believe nuclear spies belonged to the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK), which Israel uses to do targeted killings of Iranian nationals, they said. “The MEK is being used as the assassination arm of Israel’s Mossad intelligence service,” said Vince Cannistraro, former head of the CIA’s Counterterrorism. He said the MEK is in charge of executing “the motor attacks on Iranian targets chosen by Israel. They go to Israel for training, and Israel pays them.” Other former agency officials confirmed this.

Industrial Safety and Security Source

The Science of Fox News: Why Its Viewers are the Most Misinformed

In June of last year, Jon Stewart went on air with Fox News’ Chris Wallace and started a major media controversy over the channel’s misinforming of its viewers. “Who are the most consistently misinformed media viewers?” Stewart asked Wallace. “The most consistently misinformed? Fox, Fox viewers, consistently, every poll.”

Stewart’s statement was factually accurate, as we’ll see. The next day, however, the fact-checking site PolitiFact weighed in and rated it “false.” In claiming to check Stewart’s “facts,” PolitiFact ironically committed a serious error—and later, doubly ironically, failed to correct it. How’s that for the power of fact checking?

See the facts at AlterNet - This is an excerpt from Chris Mooney’s new book The Republican Brain: The Science of Why They Deny Science and Reality.

Walking with a Ghost

The National Fanfare of Kadebostany

Who needs a $30,000 watch?

The Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church was caught on camera wearing a $30,000 Breguet watch. I can think of little that’s more worthless than spending the entirety of a middle-class working person’s yearly salary on an ostentatious geegaw that has no function that isn’t served as well as a $10 throwaway or the ubiquitous cell phone…no function other than showing off that you’re more profligately wealthy than anyone else, that is. You know, if someone gave me something that trivial and that overpriced, I would thank them, quietly sell it, and then find a cause on Foundation Beyond Belief that could make better use of the money than being tied up in flashy bling. But what do I know. I’m a godless atheist, he’s the moral leader of millions.

But he does have some shame. After the photo appeared, the church quickly whipped out a copy of photoshop and doctored the image to hide the jewelry. Can’t have the peons witnessing the church’s conspicuous consumption!

Pharyngula

Breaking the Silence

Breaking the Silence the Rwandan version or: ‘you’re not alone’  has got its blessings! Some 600 people visited the two first performances in Kigali and have approved its right to be.

There is a difference caused by the opposite governmental policy after genocide. While Cambodian government, till now, is frustrating the open debate on (the Khmer Rouge) genocide and its juridical aftermath, Kagame has been provoking every citizen to speak up during the gacaca’s. He has found it necessary to dictate strict rules to the debate – like to forbid to speak about Tutsi’s and Hutu’s and to make jokes about the genocide. The audience did speak up and proved to be very interested in the history of the Cambodians – and how it does and does not mirror their own experiences.

More on Breaking the Silence blog – Cambodian (radio) version

The Long Awaited

The Long Awaited, 2008 by Patricia Piccinini. Sculptures By Patricia Piccinini on Avax News

US Military Prepare Alien Invasion

What would we do if earth was invaded by aliens? Could they be preparing the public for a possible false flag attack by a superior Alien war machine? ADG Facebook

U.S. Sends Loaded Warship To Iran! "Ready If Obama Orders Military Action..."

April 09, 2012 CNN - MOXNews.com

New EU rules to ban hairdressers from wearing jewellery and high heels

Hairdressers could be banned from wearing high heels, jewellery and even watches under barmy new Brussels rules.

They would have to don “suitable clothes” and face a strict limit on the number of haircuts they can do each day. And to prevent them suffering “emotional collapses”, bosses would be ordered to meticulously plan their working day so staff can have regular natters with each other.

The Sun

Chinese activist jailed for fraud and 'making trouble'

Chinese lawyer Ni Yulan, disabled after police beating, and her husband Dong Jiqin have been jailed a year after they were detained. Ms Ni was sentenced to two years and eight months, while her husband was handed a two-year term.

The couple are known for providing legal help to people whose homes have been seized by the government. They were jailed on charges of "picking quarrels, provoking trouble and wilfully destroying private and public property", a court spokesman said. The couple were detained last April as authorities rounded up scores of activists amid online calls for protests similar to those taking place at the time in the Arab world.

BBC News - The Guardian - CNN

Riots may be controlled with chemicals

UK Police look at firing chemical irritants at rioters in search for 'less lethal' weapons, such as plastic bullets, to deal with civil disorder. Future riots could be quelled by projectiles containing chemical irritants fired by police using new weapons that are now in the final stages of development. The Discriminating Irritant Projectile (Dip) has been under development by the Home Office's centre for applied science and technology (Cast) as a potential replacement for plastic bullets.

Documents obtained by the Guardian reveal that last summer's riots in England provided a major impetus to Home Office research into new-generation riot control technology, ranging from the Dip to even more curious weaponry described by Cast technicians as "skunk oil".

The briefing by Cast for the Police Service of Northern Ireland says that last year's disorder sparked a surge of ideas to the Home Office from the public as well as companies manufacturing police technology. To capitalise on the interest, Cast convened a "brainstorming" event in October. Participants included police from London and Northern Ireland, the Police Federation, the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) and the Ministry of Defence's Defence Science and Technology Laboratory.

The Guardian

Saudi Arabia to execute 25 Indonesian maids for alleged crimes

The Saudi Arabian regime has ruled to execute 25 Indonesian maids working in the kingdom over alleged crimes, a report says.

According to a report published by Lebanese Ad-Diyar Arabic daily on Sunday, 22 other Indonesian maids have been acquitted and deported from the kingdom.
Meanwhile, the Indonesian government plans to send a delegation to Riyadh for negotiations over the death sentences. Indonesian Embassy officials in Riyadh say six of the maids sentenced to death worked in the capital. About 1,700 Indonesian nationals are in prison in Saudi Arabia, the Indonesian Embassy says.

PressTV

Legal loophole could let billionaires BUY other planets before human settlers arrive

Private companies should be able to buy land on The Moon or other planets for tourism, mining or even to sell property, a space policy expert has said.

Rand Simberg said that if governments started to provide property rights then entrepreneurs and billionaires might pile in and invest - and added that the 'time is ripe'. He has proposed a law that would circumvent the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which states no individual or government can have sovereignty over any body in space.

Mail Online