Blackwater -yep, seems they are at it again - or at least whatever the Cheney administration wants them too… Wired reports today that Blackwater has been busy buying military aircraft…

An Embraer Super Tucano was placed on the U.S. civil aircraft registry on February 21, 2008 under the name of EP Aviation LLC. Additionally, 28 other aircraft have been registered to this obscure company, most over the past few months. The list includes 14 Bell 412 helicopters, as well as a number of fixed wing aircraft.

All I want to know is WHY? This is a military role - not a contractors.

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While FEMA is trying to be responsive to the Nation’s needs, especially the California forest-fire victims, it seems that instead of planning a conference properly, with ample notice for the press corps to get into place - instead, FEMA announced a press conference 15 minutes in advance - then held it without any real media in attendance, and instead had FEMA employees posing as reporting asking the questions.

Pretty lame? Seem not possible? Well, not only is it possible, it’s completely true - and at least they are admitting it was all a charade. FEMA, as the primary agency of Homeland Security, isn’t happy either.

A spokeswoman for Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, who has authority over FEMA, called the incident “inexcusable and offensive to the secretary.” [Source: Reuters Alertnet]

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Tasers are getting more and more coverage in the news with what seem to be innocent college students, and others, who are caught in their spark. Today, while asking John Kerry a question, a student was forcibly removed from the microphone and when he couldn’t quite understand why he was being led away forcibly, he was further detained, slammed to the ground, then with seven officers holding him down, he was taser-ed.

People - it’s time to let everyone know - this is OUR government and the police work for us. Although the incident is now under Police review - the community standard applies - and that would be you, me and the community. This was a horrible act on an innocent student. How much longer can we let these things happen?

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Most people have at least heard the name “Kathmandu” at some point in their life, however most people don’t even know where it is. Even fewer may be aware that animal sacrifices are still a part of their culture. This may only be coming clear with the advent of the internet. Today’s blogosphere is alive with the story of two goats being sacrificed by the state-run airline of Nepal to appease the Hindu sky god, Akash Bhairab.

Now that the Boeing 757 (1 of 2 the country operates) is back-in-the-air, it makes things a little different. We are all comfortable and content in our world - our world currently ripped apart by war, in-fighting and hate. Our country, the one we love and believe in the words our founding fathers wrote - is slowly being drained of all it’s assets by the current Administration for now and long into the future. We have military installations across the world - and we aren’t under threat, we think we are in charge!

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When you least expect it, YouTubers are pitching in to the 2008 Presidential elections - in droves. During a top video review today, a video entitled ‘Ron Paul Needs to Wake Up - Stop Dreaming! Ron Paul Exposed!’ was listed. With all the current political scene awash in ‘exposures’ of the candidates, and with Ron Paul’s message being censored by some media groups, I decided to see how they debunked his statements.

Then I realized that the YouTubers behind the Ron Paul movement had created a title to lure those who think Ron Paul is full of crap. Reverse psychology in the title - creative marketing for today’s generation. We all love a scandal - and a scandal video is even better! Good work creative minds!

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With the ever increasing rise in worldwide belief that we are not alone, but are visited by others from beyond on a regular basis, it’s an appropriate time to wonder why the story of a UFO crash 12,000 years ago in remote China hasn’t been more thoroughly researched.

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While speculation surrounding the possible death of Osama Bin Laden encircles the global leaders, in a recap of the UK Times article entitled each of Osama’s broadcasts and/or audio tapes with a predominant quote from each. While we have continued to kill innocent Iraqis in the ‘war against terrorism,’ I say we are doing nothing less.

We are terrorizing the Iraqi people unlike they have had in over 10 years. While video from Sept. 11, 2001 show a peaceful state of Iraq, we all see on the television what it’s like today - from our air conditioned homes. If Osama has offered not once, but several times, as noted below, to make peace - why haven’t we? That’s all I want to know.

January 19, 2006 audiotape offered truce “to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan�

April 15, 2004 audiotape said: “Stop spilling our blood so we can stop spilling your blood�

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Saturn’s new ring. Image credit: NASA/JPL/SSI
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Cassini recently passed behind Saturn, so that the Ringed Planet completely obscured the Sun from view. This revealed intricate details in the planet’s environment, including a brand new ring. This newly discovered ring is outside Saturn’s main rings, but inside the G and E rings - the moons Janus and Epimetheus orbit within it. During its pass behind Saturn, Cassini also captured an image of the Earth, from a vantage of nearly 1.5 billion km (930 million miles) away..

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The rim of Victoria crater. Image credit: NASA/JPL
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NASA’s Opportunity rover is close enough to spot the edge of the massive Victoria crater; its destination for almost 2 years. The crater is roughly 750 metres (.5 mile) across and up to 70 metres (230 feet) deep. Once the rover gets inside, it’ll be able to examine exposed rock on the crater walls. Scientists are still gathering evidence of past water conditions on the surface of Mars, and this view will be one of the best “opportunities” they’ve had so far.

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Astrophoto: NGC 7048 Image by: Stefan Heutz
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The ability for convex and concave transparent objects to enlarge or reduce had been known since Antiquity and by the end of the thirteenth century; quality glass was relatively inexpensive, particularly in Italy. At the same time, techniques for grinding and polishing had reached a high state of relative precision in Venice. So, handheld magnifying glasses became relatively common. During the fourteenth century, the craftsmen of Venice began producing small double-sided convex glass disks that could be mounted and worn in a frame- the first reading glasses. By the middle of the fifteenth century the Italians were also producing spectacles that corrected for nearsightedness. Therefore, around 1450 the ingredients to produce the first telescope were in place but it would be another 150 years before children would trigger its invention and change everything.

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