Global Nation Organization

It was on December 7, 1972 that Apollo 17 launched on a 12-day mission to the Moon. Settling into the dust along the northern rim of the Sea of Tranquility on December 11th and returning to Earth on December 19th, it marked the last of on the last of the lunar space missions for NASA. And the last time human’s walked the Moon.

That was thirty-five years ago. Since that time, humans have sadly not ventured beyond a low Earth orbit, flying at the most 250 miles above Earth. To you put that into perspective, the Moon is 238,900 miles away.

In 1996, twenty-four years after the last manned mission to the moon, the X Prize Foundation was established in the hopes of sending humans back to the Moon and beyond. They established a competition, offering a sweet monetary reward to anyone who could create a viable space transport vehicle. If you’ve clicked on the link I provided for X Prize you might have been struck by their motto; Revolution through Competition. Now that is exactly how to get the blood moving in the right direction—through a desire to achieve by outwitting an d outlasting all others. Really, is there any other valid reason for living?

Last week, on October 26-28, the Lunar Lander challenge for the X Prize cup took place at Holloman Air Force base in New Mexico. All eyes were on Armadillo Aerospace. Unfortunately, they crashed. However, a check of their website shows they are jubilant in their failure because every failure is one step closer to success.

If you are an engineer looking up into the heavens in the hopes of leaving Earth’s orbit and have a well thought out idea on how to accomplish such a dangerous mission, but are short on funding, you might want to speak to the people at Space Angel’s Network.

“Space Angels Network is the premier source of dealflow for investors and early-stage capital for space-related ventures across a wide spectrum of technologies, markets, and industries.”

If you have been reading my blog for a while you would know I view life as a series of opportunities leveraged by visionaries. Where better to begin formulating your vision than at an educational institution geared toward your exact field of study. If it is planetary science or a career in space travel and technology I would recommend a visit to the International Space University at the Isle of Man, U.K. From their website:

INTERNATIONAL SPACE UNIVERSITY is an institution founded on the vision of a peaceful, prosperous and boundless future through the study, exploration and development of Space for the benefit of all humanity.
ISU is an institution dedicated to international affiliations, collaboration, and open, scholarly pursuits related to outer space exploration and development. It is a place where students and faculty from all backgrounds are welcomed; where diversity of culture, philosophy, lifestyle, training and opinion are honored and nurtured.

ISU is an institution which recognizes the importance of interdisciplinary studies for the successful exploration and development of space. ISU strives to promote an understanding and appreciation of the Cosmos through the constant evolution of new programs and curricula in relevant areas of study. To this end, ISU will be augmented by an expanding base of campus facilities, networks and affiliations both on and off the Earth.

ISU is an institution dedicated to the development of the human species, the preservation of its home planet, the increase of knowledge, the rational utilization of the vast resources of the Cosmos, and the sanctity of Life in all terrestrial and extraterrestrial manifestations. ISU is a place where students and scholars seek to understand the mysteries of the Cosmos and apply their knowledge to the betterment of the human condition. It is the objective of ISU to be an integral part of Humanity’s movement into the Cosmos, and to carry forth all the principles and philosophies embodied in this Credo.

THIS, THEN, IS THE CREDO OF ISU. For all who join ISU, we welcome you to a new and growing family. It is hoped that each of you, as leaders of industry, academia and government will work together to fulfill the goals set forth herein. Together, we shall aspire to the Stars with wisdom, vision and effort.

Furthermore, Live Science has reported the ISU “has made a five-year commitment to establish and host the International Institute of Space Commerce - conceived of as the world’s leading authority on space commerce.”

So there you have it; innovation boosted competition, leads to commerce, spurring growth and a renewed sense of achievement. As always: World, keep innovating so we can keep driving forward at the speed of 1670 km/hr – times - 30 km/sec.

I know a lot of you are wondering how we at Global Nation Organization can support democracy, but rail against Islam. Simple: Islam is not a religion, but a totalitarian ideology masked as a religion. It is no different from Communism or Fascism. 

Tonight I spent most of the night looking over the American Congress For Truth website. I became intrigued by Brigitte Gabriel. Some where along the line I came across her video’s on YouTube. I realize it will take time for people to watch all seven of the videos recorded by The Heritage Foundation, but really…you must. Our freedoms are imperiled by Islamofascim, so please watch the videos. You can thank me later.

Video 1

Video 2

Video 3

Video 4

Video 5

Video 6

Video 7

For the past five years the world has been consumed with news from Iraq. Daily, we receive the latest death tally. Daily, we are bombarded with Arab and more objective media reports on the U.S. invasion on Iraq, referring to U.S. presence there as an occupation. I do not particularly care for the use of that word. It resonates with fascism. I am sure that is the objective of those who use it; hoping to shape our thinking on the U.S. involvement. And truthfully, that is all it is, a long drawn-out involvement.

Instead of just invading Iraq to remove a tyrant who threatened local and global relations and then leaving once the job was done, the U.S. chose to stay. Further engaging in an internal struggle for control of a region whose name for the past 69 years has been IRAQ.

Unfortunately for the American military personnel, as well as the Iraqi people, George Bush did not quite understand how Middle Easterners think. He seemed to believe the Iraqi people were waiting around for someone to come liberate them. And once liberated they would become a free and active democratic nation. No, not possible. Not at that time. What do Iraqi’s know of democracy? No other Muslim nation in the Middle East is democratic, so where is their role model?

Now I cannot fault Bush entirely, he wanted to show the Iraqi’s how to govern with fairness and trust. Perhaps thinking they would model their free nation, on a properous western-styled republic. In the end though, the Iraqi war has demonstrated, Might is Right. Unfortunately, it took George Bush five years to understand that concept. Five years and thousands of lives later the troop deployment is nearly sufficient to controll the anarchy. George Bush is finally playing by Muslim rules, Might is Right. What choice does he have?

My hope is still that the U.S. will leave Iraq immediately. Leave them to manage their own mess. Leave them to choose whether they want to slaughter each other or hammer out an agreement to establish a nation with common values; even if that choice is to separate into three new countries. Truth be told, they are stronger as one nation, with three states, than three nations that might then fracture even further.

Let Fate or Insufficiency provide
Mean ends for men who what they are would be:
Penned in their narrow day no change they see
Save one which strikes the blow to brutes and pride.
Our faith is ours and comes not on a tide:
And whether Earth's great offspring, by decree,
Must rot if they abjure rapacity,
Not argument but effort shall decide.
They number many heads in that hard flock:
Trim swordsmen they push forth: yet try thy steel.
Thou, fighting for poor humankind, wilt feel
The strength of Roland in thy wrist to hew
A chasm sheer into the barrier rock,
And bring the army of the faithful through.
– George Meredith

I have always seen an invention as something that isn’t so much created out of nothing, but is there, waiting to be discovered. Now an invention can be the result of visionary thinking; seeing the invisible. Or as shown in the following article, it can be a valuable improvement on something that already exists. Applying the principle of evolution to tools, methods and objects other than a living thing, is a clever way of inventing. It is in and of itself evolutionary in thinking, resulting in a smarter way of making things work better.

Don’t invent, evolve
Oct 3rd 2007
From Economist.com

The inventor’s trial-and-error approach can be automated by software that mimics natural selection

“I HAVE not failed. I have just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” So said Thomas Edison, the prolific inventor, speaking of his laborious attempts to perfect the incandescent light bulb. Although 10,000 trial-and-error attempts might sound a little over the top, an emerging technique for developing inventions knocks even Edison’s exhaustive approach into a cocked hat. Evolutionary design, as it is known, allows a computer to run through tens of millions of variations on an invention until it hits on the best solution to a problem.

As its name suggests, evolutionary design borrows its ideas from biology. It takes a basic blueprint and mutates it in a bid to improve it without human input. As in biology, most mutations are worse than the original. But a few are better, and these are used to create the next generation. Evolutionary design uses a computer program called an evolutionary algorithm, which takes the initial parameters of the design (things such as lengths, areas, volumes, currents and voltages) and treats each like one gene in an organism. Collectively, these genes comprise the product’s genome. By randomly mutating these genes and then breeding them with other, similarly mutated genomes, new offspring designs are created. These are subjected to simulated use by a second program. If a particular offspring is shown not to be up to the task, it is discarded. If it is promising, it is selectively bred with other fit offspring to see if the results, when subject to further mutation, can do even better.

The idea of evolutionary algorithms is not new. Until recently, however, their use has been confined to projects such as refining the aerodynamic profiles of car bodies, aircraft fuselages and wings. That is because only large firms have been able to afford the supercomputers needed to mutate and crossbreed large virtual genomes—and then simulate the behaviour of their offspring—for perhaps 20m generations before the perfect design emerges.

What has changed, in this as in so much else, is the availability and cheapness of computing power. According to John Koza of Stanford University, who is one of the pioneers of the field, evolutionary designs that would have taken many months to run on PCs are now feasible in days.

The result is that the range of applications to which the principles of evolutionary design are being applied is growing fast. Among those revealed at the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference held in London this summer were long-life USB memory sticks, superfast racing-yacht keels, ultra-high-bandwidth optical fibres, high performance Wi-Fi antennae (evolved to avoid patent fees), cochlear implants that can optimise themselves to individual patients and a cancer-biopsy analyser that was evolved to match a human pathologist’s tumour-spotting skills.

How can evolution help improve a USB stick? It turns out that the storage transistors in these flash-memory devices are prone to being gummed up with electrostatic charge that they cannot dissipate. That prevents them being erased, limiting the stick’s useful life. A team at the University of Limerick in Ireland therefore evolved new signal-timing patterns that minimise the build-up of the disabling charge. The result: USB sticks that last up to 30 times longer than their predecessors. At the University of Sydney, in Australia, Steve Manos let an evolutionary algorithm come up with novel patterns in a type of optical fibre that has air holes shot through its length. Normally, these holes are arranged in a hexagonal pattern, but the algorithm generated a bizarre flower-like pattern of holes that no human would have thought of trying. It doubled the fibre’s bandwidth.

Meanwhile, Pierrick Legrand of the University of Bordeaux has used the method to optimise individual devices to the user. The devices in question are cochlear implants, which help those hard of hearing to hear better. One of the hardest tasks facing those who fit these devices is working out the precise choreography of the voltages and timings that need to be applied to the 20 or so electrodes embedded in the auditory nerve, in order to make them work properly. The signals required vary from patient to patient and some people go many years before an audiologist gets it right. Dr Legrand, however, has developed an evolution-based system that works on the fly. It co-evolves several channels at a time, allowing a patient to tell his doctor how each pattern of electrode stimulation is faring. Dr Legrand says that one patient, who had experienced a decade of trouble with his implant, had it fixed in a couple of days by the evolutionary method.

Perhaps the most cunning use of an evolutionary algorithm, though, is by Dr Koza himself. His team at Stanford developed a Wi-Fi antenna for a client who did not want to pay a patent-licence fee to Cisco Systems. The team fed the algorithm as much data as they could from the Cisco patent and told the software to design around it. It succeeded in doing so. The result is a design that does not infringe Cisco’s patent—and is more efficient to boot. A century and a half after Darwin suggested natural selection as the mechanism of evolution, engineers have proved him right once again.

Every day, 10 new women and girls who have been raped show up at his hospital. Many have been so sadistically attacked from the inside out, butchered by bayonets and assaulted with chunks of wood, that their reproductive and digestive systems are beyond repair.

…the number of women abused and even killed by their husbands seemed to be going up and that brutality toward women had become “almost normal.”

…in one town, Shabunda, 70 percent of the women reported being sexually brutalized.

After reading the article below, of which I have selected three quotes above, my entire being tells me to kill the men who are raping all the girls and women in the Congo and across Africa. Just shoot them as you find them. No trial, no jury of their peers; just kill them on the spot.

It seems to me they have failed the ‘human’ fitness test. Savagery is neither animal nor human. It is some other life-form that has no place in society. To the boys and men who have reached this pathologic psychosis of murder and mayhem, life has no meaning. It is as if they are rabid dogs. Kill them because they will surely kill you or me. And for the survivors, round them up and immerse them in an education program that teaches boys and girls how to live with stress of being alive during hardship. A program that teaches respect for a life that is worth living for.

Brutality requires brutal measures.

October 7, 2007

Rape Epidemic Raises Trauma of Congo War

By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN

New York Times

BUKAVU, Congo — Denis Mukwege, a Congolese gynecologist, cannot bear to listen to the stories his patients tell him anymore.

Every day, 10 new women and girls who have been raped show up at his hospital. Many have been so sadistically attacked from the inside out, butchered by bayonets and assaulted with chunks of wood, that their reproductive and digestive systems are beyond repair.

“We don’t know why these rapes are happening, but one thing is clear,” said Dr. Mukwege, who works in South Kivu Province, the epicenter of Congo’s rape epidemic. “They are done to destroy women.”

Eastern Congo is going through another one of its convulsions of violence, and this time it seems that women are being systematically attacked on a scale never before seen here. According to the United Nations, 27,000 sexual assaults were reported in 2006 in South Kivu Province alone, and that may be just a fraction of the total number across the country.

“The sexual violence in Congo is the worst in the world,” said John Holmes, the United Nations under secretary general for humanitarian affairs. “The sheer numbers, the wholesale brutality, the culture of impunity — it’s appalling.”

The days of chaos in Congo were supposed to be over. Last year, this country of 66 million people held a historic election that cost $500 million and was intended to end Congo’s various wars and rebellions and its tradition of epically bad government.

But the elections have not unified the country or significantly strengthened the Congolese government’s hand to deal with renegade forces, many of them from outside the country. The justice system and the military still barely function, and United Nations officials say Congolese government troops are among the worst offenders when it comes to rape. Large swaths of the country, especially in the east, remain authority-free zones where civilians are at the mercy of heavily armed groups who have made warfare a livelihood and survive by raiding villages and abducting women for ransom.

According to victims, one of the newest groups to emerge is called the Rastas, a mysterious gang of dreadlocked fugitives who live deep in the forest, wear shiny tracksuits and Los Angeles Lakers jerseys and are notorious for burning babies, kidnapping women and literally chopping up anybody who gets in their way.

United Nations officials said the so-called Rastas were once part of the Hutu militias who fled Rwanda after committing genocide there in 1994, but now it seems they have split off on their own and specialize in freelance cruelty.

Honorata Barinjibanwa, an 18-year-old woman with high cheekbones and downcast eyes, said she was kidnapped from a village that the Rastas raided in April and kept as a sex slave until August. Most of that time she was tied to a tree, and she still has rope marks ringing her delicate neck. The men would untie her for a few hours each day to gang-rape her, she said.

“I’m weak, I’m angry, and I don’t know how to restart my life,” she said from Panzi Hospital in Bukavu, where she was taken after her captors freed her.

She is also pregnant.

While rape has always been a weapon of war, researchers say they fear that Congo’s problem has metastasized into a wider social phenomenon.

“It’s gone beyond the conflict,” said Alexandra Bilak, who has studied various armed groups around Bukavu, on the shores of Lake Kivu. She said that the number of women abused and even killed by their husbands seemed to be going up and that brutality toward women had become “almost normal.”

Malteser International, a European aid organization that runs health clinics in eastern Congo, estimates that it will treat 8,000 sexual violence cases this year, compared with 6,338 last year. The organization said that in one town, Shabunda, 70 percent of the women reported being sexually brutalized.

At Panzi Hospital, where Dr. Mukwege performs as many as six rape-related surgeries a day, bed after bed is filled with women lying on their backs, staring at the ceiling, with colostomy bags hanging next to them because of all the internal damage.

“I still have pain and feel chills,” said Kasindi Wabulasa, a patient who was raped in February by five men. The men held an AK-47 rifle to her husband’s chest and made him watch, telling him that if he closed his eyes, they would shoot him. When they were finished, Ms. Wabulasa said, they shot him anyway.

In almost all the reported cases, the culprits are described as young men with guns, and in the deceptively beautiful hills here, there is no shortage of them: poorly paid and often mutinous government soldiers; homegrown militias called the Mai-Mai who slick themselves with oil before marching into battle; members of paramilitary groups originally from Uganda and Rwanda who have destabilized this area over the past 10 years in a quest for gold and all the other riches that can be extracted from Congo’s exploited soil.

The attacks go on despite the presence of the largest United Nations peacekeeping force in the world, with more than 17,000 troops.

Few seem to be spared. Dr. Mukwege said his oldest patient was 75, his youngest 3.

“Some of these girls whose insides have been destroyed are so young that they don’t understand what happened to them,” Dr. Mukwege said. “They ask me if they will ever be able to have children, and it’s hard to look into their eyes.”

No one — doctors, aid workers, Congolese and Western researchers — can explain exactly why this is happening.

“That is the question,” said André Bourque, a Canadian consultant who works with aid groups in eastern Congo. “Sexual violence in Congo reaches a level never reached anywhere else. It is even worse than in Rwanda during the genocide.”

Impunity may be a contributing factor, Mr. Bourque added, saying that very few of the culprits are punished.

Many Congolese aid workers denied that the problem was cultural and insisted that the widespread rapes were not the product of something ingrained in the way men treated women in Congolese society. “If that were the case, this would have showed up long ago,” said Wilhelmine Ntakebuka, who coordinates a sexual violence program in Bukavu.

Instead, she said, the epidemic of rapes seems to have started in the mid-1990s. That coincides with the waves of Hutu militiamen who escaped into Congo’s forests after exterminating 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus during Rwanda’s genocide 13 years ago.

Mr. Holmes said that while government troops might have raped thousands of women, the most vicious attacks had been carried out by Hutu militias.

“These are people who were involved with the genocide and have been psychologically destroyed by it,” he said.

Mr. Bourque called this phenomenon “reversed values” and said it could develop in heavily traumatized areas that had been steeped in conflict for many years, like eastern Congo.

This place, one of the greenest, hilliest and most scenic slices of central Africa, continues to reverberate from the aftershocks of the genocide next door. Take the recent fighting near Bukavu between the Congolese Army and Laurent Nkunda, a dissident general who commands a formidable rebel force. Mr. Nkunda is a Congolese Tutsi who has accused the Congolese Army of supporting Hutu militias, which the army denies. Mr. Nkunda says his rebel force is simply protecting Tutsi civilians from being victimized again.

But his men may be no better.

Willermine Mulihano said she was raped twice — first by Hutu militiamen two years ago and then by Nkunda soldiers in July. Two soldiers held her legs apart, while three others took turns violating her.

“When I think about what happened,” she said, “I feel anxious and brokenhearted.”

She is also lonely. Her husband divorced her after the first rape, saying she was diseased.

In some cases, the attacks are on civilians already caught in the cross-fire between warring groups. In one village near Bukavu where 27 women were raped and 18 civilians killed in May, the attackers left behind a note in broken Swahili telling the villagers that the violence would go on as long as government troops were in the area.

The United Nations peacekeepers here seem to be stepping up efforts to protect women.

Recently, they initiated what they call “night flashes,” in which three truckloads of peacekeepers drive into the bush and keep their headlights on all night as a signal to both civilians and armed groups that the peacekeepers are there. Sometimes, when morning comes, 3,000 villagers are curled up on the ground around them.

But the problem seems bigger than the resources currently devoted to it.

Panzi Hospital has 350 beds, and though a new ward is being built specifically for rape victims, the hospital sends women back to their villages before they have fully recovered because it needs space for the never-ending stream of new arrivals.

Dr. Mukwege, 52, said he remembered the days when Bukavu was known for its stunning lake views and nearby national parks, like Kahuzi-Biega.

“There used to be a lot of gorillas in there,” he said. “But now they’ve been replaced by much more savage beasts.”

$5000.00 for every new baby born in America 

They heard your promise and they will come in droves 

With pregnant underbelly and ovens warm 

They will come to collect their share of our wealth 

The ignorant and unskilled 

The poor and the down trodden 

The uneducated migrant working masses 

An invasion is inevitable 

America is for sale 

If we elect Hillary Clinton 

2007 © T Sheridan 

I have to laugh whenever someone tries to talk me into religion. To think billions of people believe some supernatural being thought us into existence 6,000 years ago. It is so clear that the universe operates under certain natural laws. How those laws came into existence and what they truly are, THAT is a mystery. Everything in the universe changes state. From hydrogen atoms colliding within our Sun to form helium, to small imperceptible beneficial mutations in life-forms over billions of years that resulted in the human species.

To believe in a book (regardless of flavor) that was so clearly written by MEN to control people and to a greater extent, women, is nothing more than submission to oppression. Religion exists to fatten the wallets and the belly’s of the clergy. Nothing more.

I agree with the sentiments expressed in the following article and thought I should share it.

Homa Arjomand

www.nosharia.com

September 18, 2007-09-17

Personal Freedom and Religion speech at University of Toronto, Mississauga

I need to begin my speech with this statement “the more one distance from religion the more one can gain personal freedom”.

Historically human needed to create religion to explain the unknown phenomenon such as existence of life, reasons for death in order to provide comfort for the fear of unknowns. Religion also provides very simple answers “Only God Knows” to many complicated and complex questions and doubts. Despite the progress and knowledge in history, civilization and science, religion remains as a heavy leash on the man’s neck. The more mankind was able to explain the unknowns and the relationships of him to the nature, the more he was able to distance himself from religions clarification for the same phenomenon.

I believe a religious individual has no personal freedom as he surrenders himself over to a force that has no boundaries, no regulation and grounds. Philosophically and practically, those individuals do not value their influences in changing the world and they do not think they have will power to do so.

One may ask then how millions of religious individuals are in fact making some actual changes in the environment? My answer to this question is clear. These people in reality are not effectively religious during their actions they take to change the world. These individuals no longer expect their God to provide them with food, clothing and shelter as they take their own destiny in their own hand, they do not blindly follow most of the unreasonable commands from their religious leader; but despite the above mentioned facts, these religious individuals do not intend to make an effective change in their environment. As the result they hand over the
control to their worldly Gods. In some cases because of their real life situation and their ambition to end the injustice that they experienced, these individuals are forced to act against their own religions rules and actually do enforce some reforms by pushing back their religious boundaries, by engaging against the current politically and socially.

Once more, I need to emphasize that despite the fact that the above question may always be a subject for the academicians, nowadays the same question arises in a much larger scale across the entire society. Not too long ago if someone would ask what is the relation between personal freedom and religion? The answer was very clear for almost everyone except for Fundamentalists and that was religion and personal freedom contradicts each other. It was in fact part of everyone’s knowledge as the above-mentioned question was answered during a long process of progress of science since the Reno sans. At that time people found no need to resolve these contradictions but today because the domain of religion globally has been grown substantially, the above contradictions need to be clarified once more, or even needs to be proven how religion limits the personal freedom, We also need to be reminded of struggle that humanity took part for centuries to free mankind from religions and religious dogmas. Due to growth of conservatism and their support to the religious groups for the past three decades, this already answered old questions need to be spelled out once again.

My personal approach is since the answer to the question is obvious; it is up to the religious groups to prove that the religions are not contradicting personal, civil, scientific and political freedom. And they are the ones who have to explain their aggression against human, women, children and civil rights for the thousands of years. It is time for them to apologize and condemn their act.

To make the philosophy discussion short, I must say religion has limited my personal freedom along with millions of other individuals. In fact I should say religion has destroyed many of individuals’ personal rights and mine too.

In countries, where religions run the state, the personal freedom has no meaning at all; the personal freedom of millions are scarified directly by religious rules and its horrific state system. On one hand the religious state denies the fundamental rights of woman as an equal citizen and recognizes women as a second-class citizen, practically women legally have become the men’s slaves in those countries. Before I explain how the personal freedom being undermined by religion we need to define the personal
freedom first. In this discussion, I would use Islam as the base of my debate, mainly because I am more familiar with this religion in theory and in practice and also because Islam has not been challenged in any aspects. In addition I believe that all other religions would have similar and common elements.

The first and the most essential point I would like to discuss are about “personal and civil freedom”. My attempt is to provide a general definition of these rights.

In my opinion personal freedom is the one that provides the individuals to grow and enhance his ability. It also allows him to be distinguished and the same time to understand its unity with the society. An individual can demonstrate his talent and it empowers him to shape his destiny, at the same time the personal freedom is relative and it depends upon the stages of progress in the society.

On other hand religion basically defines human as being created by super natural power, where its essence has been ordained by God, as the result human being has no control over his destiny and has no rights, therefore he is considered to be a being who is obliged to obey the law of God in order to gain and enjoy his prosperous in the after life. The above definition can be explained by the following instances:

. The first instance is the right to live and be immune of any violence against body and mind, while in Islam execution, dismember,
bloodshed and even assault on children are acceptable and allowed which is define as punishment of a crime in relate to blasphemy, rubbery and permitting marriage to children of 9 years old. As one can clearly see the right to live, Immunity of body and mind against any violation is simply being undermined in Islam

. The unconditional freedom of speech, expression and believes are the rights that have never been acknowledged in any religions, specifically in Islam. The only political party allowed is the party of God and that is Hezbollah. Any criticism to Islam or the holly book of Koran is considered heresy and punished by Islamists. Selman Rushdie and Danish caricaturist have not been forgotten. One does not need to remind you how Islamists treated Jews and Bahaeis and there is hardly any need to mention about the atheists. The Islamists ( the political Islam) saw the seeds of hatred against other groups. This is because in their view Islam is the last and the most complete religion in the world. And for the ones who do not intend to convert to Islam, the least punishment is to pay religious tax. All these violation can be multiplied when it comes to women and children’s rights in Islam. In Islam the rights to divorce for women has no meaning, men have the custody of the children. Women receive half of inheriting compare to men. The witness of two women is equivalent to one man. Beating women is permitted in Islam. Women will be stoned to dead if they have relationship out of marriage. In Islam men can have four wives, and abortion is heavily punished.

. In the instance of National sovereignty, Islam only recognizes one nation and that is the nation of Islam, therefore independency cannot be accepted.

. In Islam exploitation and slavery are not being condemned. All Imams and profits had slaves. Child abuse, child labour and child exploitation is permitted in Islam.

. When it comes to music and entertainment, there are many of restrictions or conditions apply, specifically where women are involved. Dancing is prohibited. Women involve in sports is strongly condemned in Islam.

. Where science and scientific advancement are concerned a huge conflict arises. The animosity of Islam with science cannot be exactly portrait, because within last centuries there were not many frontiers and scientists who brought new idea in science and advancement in order to see the reaction of Islamic leader. But this is the nature of all the religions and Islam not to accept any scientific theory. In this instance Christianity has darker history. Nobody, even the one who did not study the history knows
the fate of Jordano Bruno and Galilae and the burning of witches.

One can add pages to this list in such way that at the end we will not see any light to the end of tunnel, as it was in the dark ages.

But human being found his way to persuade and guaranty the individual, social and political freedom. French revolution was one of the greatest and goriest example for people to follow, even in twenty first century the citizens of many countries are enjoying the fruit of this revolution. Experience and aftermath of the revolution suggest that we need to have such a radical progressive movement in order to up root the religious from the education, justice system and state. This is our task, the task of civilization to regain personal freedom, peace and comfort. And this cannot be possible without challenging the religion industries. Freedom seeker and we as a secular have enormous responsibility to unite and motivate the whole society toward this goal.

A friend of mine has some very interesting things being posted on his blog over in his corner of the Internet. If you have an interest in Photovoltaic Solar Energy I highly recommend his blog at Double Glazing Insulating Glass Blog

Anyway, he has been posting lots of videos on magnetic motors and solar energy. Makes sense, he is an industrial engineer focusing on the insulating glass sector. One video which started me on this entire post was from Robert McMann of Australia. In that video he brought up a good point: Solar Energy requires storage batteries.

I wondered to myself, is solar truly the way to go? What other drawbacks are there to a solar based energy supply? For example, what finite materials go into the manufacture of solar cells? Obviously, the glass is renewable, so that shouldn’t be a problem. But what else is in there? Well, I do know newer, less expensive (as in more cost effective using today’s energy dollars) solar panels have a polymer layer. Such as the one’s produced by Konarka Technologies.

Hopefully, we won’t run out of oil before we build out all those solar cells, because polymers are manufactured from oil. So, when considering the best alternative to oil, gas or coal energy supplies, we have to look at the entire supply chain.

Now Harald had a very interesting video on a mirror solar cell test facility in the Negev that concentrates energy into a small collector in the center.

Quite frankly, I am a little surprised to see so little coming from Israel in the way of solar energy. I would think the Israeli’s would be more heavily involved in researching alternative energy since they have no energy resources of their own. And they have no vested interest in assisting to perpetuate the oil monopoly. Plus, there is the added benefit of thumbing their noses at the Muslims. While Muslims are busy looking for more inventive ways to destroy civilization and force the world to submit to Islamic oppression, Israel could be improving on or discovering alternative energies. One destroys, while the works towards establishing freedom from oil tyranny.

That led me to wonder: What else are the smart, hard-working people of Israel working on? I found this article on an Israeli company that has discovered a way to convert radioactive waste into clean energy:

In case you don’t feel like clicking the link here is a reprint of the full article.

Israeli discovery converts dangerous radioactive waste into clean energy
19 Mar 2007
An Israeli firm has taken the laws of science and turned them into a useful invention for mankind - a reactor that converts radioactive, hazardous and municipal waste into inert byproducts such as glass and clean energy.

By Karin Kloosterman - ISRAEL 21C

The laws of conservation of energy and mass say that energy or mass cannot be created or destroyed - only change form. With the help of Russian scientists, Israeli firm Environmental Energy Resources (EER), has taken the laws of science and turned them into a useful invention for mankind - a reactor that converts radioactive, hazardous and municipal waste into inert byproducts such as glass and clean energy.

The problem of radioactive waste is a global one, and getting increasingly worse. All countries in the industrialized world are waking up to the need for safer hazardous waste disposal methods.

“In the beginning, nobody believed that we could do it,” says Itschak Shrem, chairman of investment company Shrem, Fudim and Keiner representing EER at a press briefing announcing the innovation last week in Tel Aviv.

Shrem, himself an invoker of small miracles through the founding of one of Israel’s most lucrative venture capital funds - Polaris (now Pitango) - points to a chunk of black, lava-like rock sitting on the table in front of everyone’s coffee cups.

The journalists cautiously eye Shrem as he assures them that the shiny dark material, emitted from EER’s pilot waste treatment reactor near Karmiel in the north, is safe to touch.

“It also makes a good recyclable material for building and paving roads,” he assures them. Earlier, Shrem told ISRAEL21c that EER can take low-radioactive, medical and municipal solid waste and produce from it clean energy that “can be used for just about anything.”

Using a system called plasma gasification melting technology (PGM) developed by scientists from Russia’s Kurchatov Institute research center, the Radon Institute in Russia, and Israel’s Technion Institute - EER combines high temperatures and low-radioactive energy to transform waste.

“We go up to 7,000 degrees centigrade and end at 1,400 centigrade,” says Moshe Stern, founder and president of the Ramat Gan-based company.

Shrem adds that EER’s waste disposal rector does not harm the environment and leaves no surface water, groundwater, or soil pollution in its wake. The EER reactor combines three processes into one solution: it takes plasma torches to break down the waste; carbon leftovers are gasified and inorganic components are converted to solid waste. The remaining vitrified material is inert and can be cast into molds to produce tiles, blocks or plates for the construction industry.

EER’s Karmiel facility (and its other installation in the Ukraine) has a capacity to convert 500 to 1,000 kilograms of waste per hour. Other industry solutions, the company claims, can only treat as much as 50 kilograms per hour and are much more costly.

According to the journal Research Studies (Business Communications, Inc.), ‘The production of nuclear weapons/power in the US has left a 50-year legacy of unprecedented volumes of radioactive waste and contaminated subsurface media and structures… Nuclear waste generators include the national laboratories, industrial research facilities, educational and medical institutions, electrical power utilities, medical diagnostics facilities, and various manufacturing processes.’

In the US alone, Research Studies predicts that this year’s market for radioactive waste-management technologies in America will cap $5.5 billion.

EER was founded in 2000 and has maintained a low profile until revealing its reactor last week.

“We spent our time on R&D and building up the site in Israel which we started constructing in 2003. We realized that nobody was going to believe us unless we started doing the process physically. They always said it sounded too good to be true, so we had to prove it to them,” said Shrem.

Back in 2004, the Ukrainian government put out a tender searching for a solution that would provide safer hazardous waste disposal methods. At that time, the country was looking for a way to treat its low-radioactive waste zones resulting from the Chernobyl explosion. EER sent in their proposal, and their technology won the bid.

According to Stern, the former Soviet Union was the first to build nuclear plants. Over the years they have generated “huge amounts of low-radioactive waste. They came to us looking for a solution,” he said.

The Chernobyl nuclear meltdown on April 26, 1986 - was beyond a doubt the largest civil nuclear explosion in the world and one still linked to thousands of deaths. More than 20 years after the explosion, tens of kilometers around the reactor is still highly radioactive; and some 30,000 radioactive homes remain buried along with household appliances, food and clothing, explained Stern.

“The European community is afraid of what is happening there,” notes Stern, warning that it is time for the clean up to begin, even if it means making only a small dent in the massive pile. “The low-radioactive waste is slowly contaminating the water and will continue to do so over the 300 years it takes to break down.”

And since new conventions have been set by The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal, first world countries are no longer permitted to traffic their hazardous waste to third world nations - forcing Western countries to drum up immediate and responsible solutions.

With a strict eye over its operations by Israel’s Ministry of Environmental Protection, EER revealed its proof-of-concept to Israeli and foreign dignitaries in Aeblin, near Karmiel last week, showing how it can take mountains of municipal waste and reduce it to a pile of black rubble.

“We are not burning. This is the key word,” Shrem said. “When you burn you produce dioxin. Instead, we vacuum out the oxygen to prevent combustion.”

EER then purifies the gas and with it operates turbines to generate electricity. EER produces energy - 70% of which goes back to power the reactor with a 30% excess which can be sold.

“In effect, we are combining two of the most exciting markets in the US - the environment and clean energy,” says Stern, “We also reduce the carbon footprint.”

The cost for treating and burying low-radioactive nuclear waste currently stands at about $30,000 per ton. The EER process will cost $3,000 per ton and produce only a 1% per volume solid byproduct.

In the US, EER is working to treat low-radioactive liquid waste and recently contracted with Energy Solutions, the largest American company in the field with 75% of the US market.

Based on the financial forecasts, EER is certainly giving a fresh meaning to the expression - one man’s garbage is another man’s treasure. But in EER’s case, ones man’s hazardous waste may very well be EER’s goldmine.

Campaign for Real Beauty as part of the Dove Self-Esteem Fund

WORLD, please stop torturing our girls into believing they need to be a certain height, a certain weight; a certain skin color; have certain eye or hair color; wear expensive clothes; or behave like Paris Hilton in order to be appreciated and accepted by society.

Beauty should be valued most when seen from the inside, out. So, get an education, discover the thing that makes you the great person you are inside, and demand the same from others.

It was forty-eight years ago when my family immigrated to the United States. I was only two, so I do not remember any of it, but my brothers have told a dramatic story of sailing into New York harbor and seeing the Statue of Liberty.

My parents knew a little English, my brothers and I none. Wishing to be part of American society we all set out learning the language. For my parents it was a little more difficult with their time being consumed by raising a family and work, but they did learn English quite well. Within a few years we all applied for citizenship. I remember them giving me a booklet with information on American history, the government and the Constitution as a study guide. At seven my mother took me into Manhattan. I sat in a government office, my examiner sat at his desk across from me. He started asking me questions. I was so nervous, but I must have passed because soon after that I received my naturalization certificate.

On September 27, 2007, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officially completed a redesign of the citizenship exam to “create a more standardized, fair, and meaningful naturalization process.” The new exam was designed to better test Civics and American History in the hope it will offer new citizens an opportunity to show they clearly understand American democracy, as well as the “rights and responsibilities of citizenship.”

The citizenship exam questions are drawn from a pool of 100 questions. Below are those questions and their answers. Even if you were born in the U.S., or lived here for dozens of years, this is a good refresher on the basics of American governance, American History and Civics.

AMERICAN GOVERNMENT

A: Principles of American Democracy
1. What is the supreme law of the land?
▪ the Constitution
2. What does the Constitution do?
▪ sets up the government
▪ defines the government
▪ protects basic rights of Americans
3. The idea of self-government is in the first three words of the Constitution. What are these words?
▪ We the People
4. What is an amendment?
▪ a change (to the Constitution)
▪ an addition (to the Constitution)
5. What do we call the first ten amendments to the Constitution?
▪ the Bill of Rights
6. What is one right or freedom from the First Amendment?*
▪ speech
▪ religion
▪ assembly
▪ press
▪ petition the government
7. How many amendments does the Constitution have?
▪ twenty-seven (27)
8. What did the Declaration of Independence do?
▪ announced our independence (from Great Britain)
▪ declared our independence (from Great Britain)
▪ said that the United States is free (from Great Britain)
9. What are two rights in the Declaration of Independence? ▪ life
▪ liberty
▪ pursuit of happiness
10. What is freedom of religion?
▪ You can practice any religion, or not practice a religion.
11. What is the economic system in the United States?* ▪ capitalist economy
▪ market economy
12. What is the “rule of law”?
▪ Everyone must follow the law.
▪ Leaders must obey the law.
▪ Government must obey the law.
▪ No one is above the law.

B: System of Government

13. Name one branch or part of the government.*
▪ Congress
▪ legislative
▪ President
▪ executive
▪ the courts
▪ judicial
14. What stops one branch of government from becoming too powerful?
▪ checks and balances
▪ separation of powers
15. Who is in charge of the executive branch?
▪ the President
16. Who makes federal laws?
▪ Congress
▪ Senate and House (of Representatives)
▪ (U.S. or national) legislature
17. What are the two parts of the U.S. Congress?* ▪ the Senate and House (of Representatives)- - * If you are 65 years old or older and have been a legal permanent resident of the United States for 20 or more years, you may study just the questions that have been marked with an asterisk.
18. How many U.S. Senators are there?
▪ one hundred (100)
19. We elect a U.S. Senator for how many years?
▪ six (6)
20. Who is one of your state’s U.S. Senators?*
Answers will vary. [For District of Columbia residents and residents of U.S. territories, the answer is that D.C. (or the territory where the applicant lives) has no U.S. Senators.]
21. The House of Representatives has how many voting members?
▪ four hundred thirty-five (435)
22. We elect a U.S. Representative for how many years?
▪ two (2)
23. Name your U.S. Representative.
▪ Answers will vary. [Residents of territories with nonvoting Delegates or resident Commissioners may provide the name of that Delegate or Commissioner. Also acceptable is any statement that the territory has no (voting) Representatives in Congress.]
24. Who does a U.S. Senator represent?
▪ all people of the state
25. Why do some states have more Representatives than other states? ▪ (because of) the state’s population
▪ (because) they have more people
▪ (because) some states have more people
26. We elect a President for how many years? ▪ four (4)
27. In what month do we vote for President?*
▪ November
28. What is the name of the President of the United States now?*
▪ George W. Bush
▪ George Bush
▪ Bush
29. What is the name of the Vice President of the United States now? ▪ Richard Cheney
▪ Dick Cheney
▪ Cheney
30. If the President can no longer serve, who becomes President?
▪ the Vice President
31. If both the President and the Vice President can no longer serve, who becomes President?
▪ the Speaker of the House
32. Who is the Commander in Chief of the military?
▪ the President- - * If you are 65 years old or older and have been a legal permanent resident of the United States for 20 or more years, you may study just the questions that have been marked with an asterisk. www.uscis.gov
33. Who signs bills to become laws?
▪ the President
34. Who vetoes bills? ▪ the President
35. What does the President’s Cabinet do?
▪ advises the President
36. What are two Cabinet-level positions?
▪ Secretary of Agriculture
▪ Secretary of Commerce
▪ Secretary of Defense
▪ Secretary of Education
▪ Secretary of Energy
▪ Secretary of Health and Human Services
▪ Secretary of Homeland Security
▪ Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
▪ Secretary of Interior
▪ Secretary of State
▪ Secretary of Transportation
▪ Secretary of Treasury
▪ Secretary of Veterans’ Affairs
▪ Secretary of Labor
▪ Attorney General
37. What does the judicial branch do?
▪ reviews laws
▪ explains laws
▪ resolves disputes (disagreements)
▪ decides if a law goes against the Constitution
38. What is the highest court in the United States?
▪ the Supreme Court
39. How many justices are on the Supreme Court? ▪ nine (9)
40. Who is the Chief Justice of the United States?
▪ John Roberts (John G. Roberts, Jr.)
41. Under our Constitution, some powers belong to the federal government. What is one power of the federal government?
▪ to print money
▪ to declare war
▪ to create an army
▪ to make treaties- - * If you are 65 years old or older and have been a legal permanent resident of the United States for 20 or more years, you may study just the questions that have been marked with an asterisk.
42. Under our Constitution, some powers belong to the states. What is one power of the states? ▪ provide schooling and education
▪ provide protection (police)
▪ provide safety (fire departments)
▪ give a driver’s license
▪ approve zoning and land use
43. Who is the Governor of your state?
▪ Answers will vary. [Residents of the District of Columbia and U.S. territories without a Governor should say “we don’t have a Governor.”]
44. What is the capital of your state?*
▪ Answers will vary. [District of Columbia residents should answer that D.C. is not a state and does not have a capital. Residents of U.S. territories should name the capital of the territory.]
45. What are the two major political parties in the United States?*
▪ Democratic and Republican
46. What is the political party of the President now? ▪ Republican (Party)
47. What is the name of the Speaker of the House of Representatives now?
▪ (Nancy) Pelosi

C: Rights and Responsibilities
48. There are four amendments to the Constitution about who can vote. Describe one of them.
▪ Citizens eighteen (18) and older (can vote).
▪ You don’t have to pay (a poll tax) to vote.
▪ Any citizen can vote. (Women and men can vote.)
▪ A male citizen of any race (can vote).
49. What is one responsibility that is only for United States citizens?*
▪ serve on a jury
▪ vote
50. What are two rights only for United States citizens?
▪ apply for a federal job
▪ vote
▪ run for office
▪ carry a U.S. passport
51. What are two rights of everyone living in the United States?
▪ freedom of expression
▪ freedom of speech
▪ freedom of assembly
▪ freedom to petition the government
▪ freedom of worship
▪ the right to bear arms- - * If you are 65 years old or older and have been a legal permanent resident of the United States for 20 or more years, you may study just the questions that have been marked with an asterisk.
52. What do we show loyalty to when we say the Pledge of Allegiance? ▪ the United States
▪ the flag
53. What is one promise you make when you become a United States citizen?
▪ give up loyalty to other countries
▪ defend the Constitution and laws of the United States
▪ obey the laws of the United States
▪ serve in the U.S. military (if needed)
▪ serve (do important work for) the nation (if needed)
▪ be loyal to the United States
54. How old do citizens have to be to vote for President?*
▪ eighteen (18) and older
55. What are two ways that Americans can participate in their democracy? ▪ vote
▪ join a political party
▪ help with a campaign
▪ join a civic group
▪ join a community group
▪ give an elected official your opinion on an issue
▪ call Senators and Representatives
▪ publicly support or oppose an issue or policy
▪ run for office
▪ write to a newspaper
56. When is the last day you can send in federal income tax forms?* ▪ April 15
57. When must all men register for the Selective Service?
▪ at age eighteen (18)
▪ between eighteen (18) and twenty-six (26)

AMERICAN HISTORY

A: Colonial Period and Independence
58. What is one reason colonists came to America?
▪ freedom
▪ political liberty
▪ religious freedom
▪ economic opportunity
▪ practice their religion
▪ escape persecution- - * If you are 65 years old or older and have been a legal permanent resident of the United States for 20 or more years, you may study just the questions that have been marked with an asterisk.
59. Who lived in America before the Europeans arrived?
▪ Native Americans
▪ American Indians
60. What group of people was taken to America and sold as slaves?
▪ Africans
▪ people from Africa
61. Why did the colonists fight the British?
▪ because of high taxes (taxation without representation)
▪ because the British army stayed in their houses (boarding, quartering)
▪ because they didn’t have self-government
62. Who wrote the Declaration of Independence?
▪ (Thomas) Jefferson
63. When was the Declaration of Independence adopted?
▪ July 4, 1776
64. There were 13 original states. Name three.
▪ New Hampshire
▪ Massachusetts
▪ Rhode Island
▪ Connecticut
▪ New York
▪ New Jersey
▪ Pennsylvania
▪ Delaware
▪ Maryland
▪ Virginia
▪ North Carolina
▪ South Carolina
▪ Georgia
65. What happened at the Constitutional Convention?
▪ The Constitution was written.
▪ The Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution.
66. When was the Constitution written?
▪ 1787
67. The Federalist Papers supported the passage of the U.S. Constitution. Name one of the writers.
▪ (James) Madison
▪ (Alexander) Hamilton
▪ (John) Jay
▪ Publius- - * If you are 65 years old or older and have been a legal permanent resident of the United States for 20 or more years, you may study just the questions that have been marked with an asterisk.
68. What is one thing Benjamin Franklin is famous for?
▪ U.S. diplomat
▪ oldest member of the Constitutional Convention
▪ first Postmaster General of the United States
▪ writer of “Poor Richard’s Almanac”
▪ started the first free libraries
69. Who is the “Father of Our Country”?
▪ (George) Washington
70. Who was the first President?*
▪ (George) Washington
B: 1800s
71. What territory did the United States buy from France in 1803?
▪ the Louisiana Territory
▪ Louisiana
72. Name one war fought by the United States in the 1800s.
▪ War of 1812
▪ Mexican-American War
▪ Civil War
▪ Spanish-American War
73. Name the U.S. war between the North and the South.
▪ the Civil War
▪ the War between the States
74. Name one problem that led to the Civil War.
▪ slavery
▪ economic reasons
▪ states’ rights
75. What was one important thing that Abraham Lincoln did?*
▪ freed the slaves (Emancipation Proclamation)
▪ saved (or preserved) the Union
▪ led the United States during the Civil War
76. What did the Emancipation Proclamation do?
▪ freed the slaves
▪ freed slaves in the Confederacy
▪ freed slaves in the Confederate states
▪ freed slaves in most Southern states
77. What did Susan B. Anthony do?
▪ fought for women’s rights
▪ fought for civil rights- - * If you are 65 years old or older and have been a legal permanent resident of the United States for 20 or more years, you may study just the questions that have been marked with an asterisk.
C: Recent American History and Other Important Historical Information
78. Name one war fought by the United States in the 1900s.*
▪ World War I
▪ World War II
▪ Korean War
▪ Vietnam War
▪ (Persian) Gulf War
79. Who was President during World War I?
▪ (Woodrow) Wilson
80. Who was President during the Great Depression and World War II?
▪ (Franklin) Roosevelt
81. Who did the United States fight in World War II?
▪ Japan, Germany, and Italy
82. Before he was President, Eisenhower was a general. What war was he in?
▪ World War II
83. During the Cold War, what was the main concern of the United States?
▪ Communism
84. What movement tried to end racial discrimination?
▪ civil rights (movement)
85. What did Martin Luther King, Jr. do?*
▪ fought for civil rights
▪ worked for equality for all Americans
86. What major event happened on September 11, 2001 in the United States?
▪ Terrorists attacked the United States.
87. Name one American Indian tribe in the United States.
[Adjudicators will be supplied with a complete list.]
▪ Cherokee
▪ Navajo
▪ Sioux
▪ Chippewa
▪ Choctaw
▪ Pueblo
▪ Apache
▪ Iroquois
▪ Creek
▪ Blackfeet
▪ Seminole
▪ Cheyenne
▪ Arawak
▪ Shawnee
▪ Mohegan
▪ Huron-0-
▪ Oneida
▪ Lakota
▪ Crow
▪ Teton
▪ Hopi
▪ Inuit

INTEGRATED CIVICS

A: Geography
88. Name one of the two longest rivers in the United States.
▪ Missouri (River)
▪ Mississippi (River)
89. What ocean is on the West Coast of the United States?
▪ Pacific (Ocean)
90. What ocean is on the East Coast of the United States?
▪ Atlantic (Ocean)
91. Name one U.S. territory.
▪ Puerto Rico
▪ U.S. Virgin Islands
▪ American Samoa
▪ Northern Mariana Islands
▪ Guam
92. Name one state that borders Canada.
▪ Maine
▪ New Hampshire
▪ Vermont
▪ New York
▪ Pennsylvania
▪ Ohio
▪ Michigan
▪ Minnesota
▪ North Dakota
▪ Montana
▪ Idaho
▪ Washington
▪ Alaska
93. Name one state that borders Mexico.
▪ California
▪ Arizona
▪ New Mexico
▪ Texas

* If you are 65 years old or older and have been a legal permanent resident of the United States for 20 or more years, you may study just the questions that have been marked with an asterisk. www.uscis.gov