Tales of Disbelief

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-marry-for-money,0,6258658.story?coll=sns-ap-nation-headlines

Study Finds That Marriage Builds Wealth


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By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER
Associated Press Writer

January 18, 2006, 4:43 AM EST

WASHINGTON -- Marrying for money, it turns out, works. A study by an Ohio State University researcher shows that a person who marries -- and stays married -- accumulates nearly twice as much personal wealth as a person who is single or divorced.

And for those who divorce, it's a bit more expensive than giving up half of everything they own. They lose, on average, three-fourths of their personal net worth.

"Getting married for a few years and then getting divorced is clearly not the path to financial independence," said Jay Zagorsky, whose study divided married couples' assets so they could be compared with singles.

Zagorsky, a research scientist at OSU's Center for Human Resource Research, tracked the wealth and marital status of 9,055 people from 1985 to 2000. Those people have been participating in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, which has repeatedly interviewed them about various aspects of their lives since 1979.

The participants are now 41 to 49 years old, making them the youngest of the baby boomers.

Zagorsky cautioned that results could be different for older and younger Americans, who have faced different attitudes about marriage, divorce and living together without marriage.

Zagorsky's study, which is published in the current issue of the Journal of Sociology, defines wealth as the total value of a person's assets, such as real estate, stocks and bank accounts, minus liabilities, such as mortgages.

A big reason married people accumulate more wealth than others is simple economies of scale -- one household is cheaper to maintain than two, Zagorsky said. Divorce reverses those benefits, he said.

"Divorce looks like one of the fastest ways to destroy your wealth," Zagorsky said.

David Popenoe, co-director of the National Marriage Project at Rutgers University, said people become more economically productive after they marry.

"They work harder, they advance further in their job, they save more money, and maybe invest more wisely," Popenoe said. "That's because, one can speculate, they are now working for something larger than themselves. They are working for a family."

Zagorsky showed that single people slowly accumulated wealth during the study, going from a median of $1,500 at the start to $10,900 in the 15th year.

Married people accumulated wealth much faster, accumulating 93 percent more than single or divorced people over the life of the study, Zagorsky said.

People who divorced started losing net worth four years before their divorces were final, Zagorsky said. That could be because they had separated before divorcing, forcing them to support two households, he said.

The study found that men fared better than women after divorce, holding about 2 1/2 times the wealth. However, in dollars, it added up to a difference of only $5,124.

"While men come out slightly ahead, divorce destroys wealth dramatically for both sexes," Zagorsky wrote in his study.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17752119%255E601,00.html

Ice cores show warming 'natural'
Brendan O'Keefe
January 07, 2006

HUNDREDS of thousands of years worth of climate records in ice cores show there is nothing unusual in a global warming trend over the past 25 years.

Marine geophysicist Bob Carter, a professor at Queensland's James Cook University and leading climate change sceptic, said the effects of human activity would barely register in the long-term history of climate change.

He told The Weekend Australian that ice cores from Antarctica "tell us clearly that in the context of the meteorological records of 100 years, it is not unusual to have a period of warming like the one we are in at the moment".

Dr Carter disputed the theory that human activity was making a current - natural - warm period hotter: "Atmospheric CO2 is not a primary forcing agent for temperature change." He argues that "any cumulative human signal is so far undetectable at a global level and, if present, is buried deeply in the noise of natural variation".

Fellow sceptic William Kininmonth, a former director of the Bureau of Meteorology's National Climate Centre, agreed. He wrote in a 2004 book, Climate Change: A Natural Hazard that there was "every reason to believe that the variabilities in global temperature and other climate characteristics experienced over the past century are part of the natural variability of the climate system and are not a consequence of recent anthropogenic activities".

But other leading scientists, who blame human activity for climate change, say the "denialists" are a one-to-99 minority.

Will Steffen, director of the Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies at the Australian National University, said: "There is no debate. The debate is over." The evidence that human activity had increased emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, adding to natural warming, was "overwhelming", he said.

For scientist and University of Adelaide academic Tim Flannery there was also no argument: humans had turned up the heating and only humans could keep a lid on it. The argument that human activity did not contribute to global warming was "not a credible hypothesis to build policy on", he said.

http://www.christian-mommies.com/ages/tweens-and-teenagers/elephants-and-teenagers/

Elephants and Teenagers

Something eerily familiar happened in KwaZulu-Natal's Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Park in Africa recently.

The adult elephants were taken away and the orphaned youngsters were left to fend for themselves.

The youngsters started the path to sexual maturity. The young boys were going into lengthy 'musths', as a dog would go into heat, much longer than a normal elephant in a normal setting.

The boys ganged together. They started raping and killing white rhinos, an endangered species. They were displaying extreme aggression. The park authorities were very concerned.

Someone had the idea to bring in ten adult bulls to "straighten out" the gang of elephant thugs.

Sure enough, the mature males put the band of so called 'delinquent juveniles' in their place. The adults were reintroduced, and life turned back to normal. No more killings. The elephants and rhinos were at peace again.

Obviously, strong male and female presence's are needed in these elephants lives. The young elephants needed the adults from when they were defenseless babies through the time they were in their elephant 'teenage' years.

In the meantime, over in the United States of America there was another gang related murder in your city. Another fatherless, semi or fully orphaned teenager shot a man and then reported back to his or her gang of 'delinquent juveniles'.

Perhaps we should take a lesson from the elephants.

© Rachel Lower, 1999-present

Rachel is the founder of www.Christian-Mommies.com. Her main web site is rachellauer.com and her blog address is freelancing blog.com.

I feel incomplete.

I want to be a dad. I could have been one many times before, but... I always figured it would be with a good woman. Not one of those that hang out in bars getting drunk, and screwing anything they could get between there legs. I wanted someone that had respect for themselves. Someone that could truly smile.

Im empty and hollow.

I babysat a neighbours kid last night. I enjoyed helping him with his homework.

Ive felt this way for a long time.

I feel incomplete.

da Lizard

Im depressed!

Seriously I didn't want to come into work today. The thought of listening to IDOITS try to tell me what there problem is made me want to climb under the covers and stay there.

I didn't want to shower, change into my work clothes. NOTHING!

All I wanted was to think of that which was.

When I was in school, there was this woman. She was amazing. Up until I met her, I never wanted to be a dad, but I did when I met her. Shes dead now, killed by a drunk driver. I guess every woman Ive met since her I've subconsciously compared to her.

Ive met a lot of nice ladies since, but its never worked.

No wonder Im depressed. My head is stuck on a possibility that never will be.

da Lizard

Everyone in the world has probably posted this but any ways, here it is...

http://www.benstein.com/121805xmas.html

Herewith at this happy time of year, a few confessions from my beating heart:

I have no freaking clue who Nick and Jessica are. I see them on the cover of People and Us constantly when I am buying my dog biscuits and kitty litter. I often ask the checkers at the grocery stores. They never know who Nick and Jessica are either. Who are they? Will it change my life if I know who they are and why they have broken up? Why are they so important? I don't know who Lindsay Lohan is, either, and I do not care at all about Tom Cruise's wife.

Am I going to be called before a Senate committee and asked if I am a subversive? Maybe, but I just have no clue who Nick and Jessica are. Is this what it means to be no longer young. It's not so bad.

Next confession: I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are: Christmas trees. It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, "Merry Christmas" to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu. If people want a creche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship Nick and Jessica and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him?

I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where Nick and Jessica came from and where the America we knew went to.

http://www.theregister.com/2005/12/23/phone_throat/

Enraged woman vents by swallowing cell phone
A mobile mouthful
By Ashlee Vance in Mountain View
Published Friday 23rd December 2005 20:13 GMT

We've all been there. Your spouse or loved one drives you to the breaking point, and you have no other choice than to swallow their cell phone.

A Blue Springs, Missouri woman was the latest victim of cell phone rage. She swallowed her boyfriend's mobile in mid-argument because "she didn't want the boyfriend to have it," according to a report in The Kansas City Star. The phone became lodged in the lady's throat, and she was rushed to the emergency room.

"Police responded to a call about a non-breathing person about 4:50 a.m. in the 3000 block of Southwest U.S. 40," the paper reported. "Police arrived and found that the 24-year-old woman was having trouble breathing. Her identity was not released."

The poor lass still had the phone wedged in her throat when she got to the hospital. ®

http://kathymcmahon.blogspot.com/2005/12/infant-discovered-in-barn-child.html

INFANT DISCOVERED IN BARN, CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES LAUNCH PROBE

Those of you involved in mental health will appreciate this humor:

INFANT DISCOVERED IN BARN, CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES LAUNCH PROBE
Nazareth Carpenter Being Held On Charges Involving Underage Mother

Bethlehem, Judea - Authorities were today alerted by a concerned citizen who noticed a family living in a barn. Upon arrival, Family Protective Service personnel, accompanied by police, took into protective care an infant child named Jesus, who had been wrapped in strips of cloth and placed in a feeding trough by his 14-year old mother, Mary of Nazareth.

During the confrontation, a man identified as Joseph, also of Nazareth, attempted to stop the social workers. Joseph, aided by several local shepherds and some unidentified foreigners, tried to forestall efforts to take the child, but were restrained by the police.

Also being held for questioning are three foreigners who allege to be wise men from an eastern country. The INS and Homeland Security officials are seeking information about these who may be in the country illegally. A source with the INS states that they had no passports, but were in possession of gold and other possibly illegal substances. They resisted arrest saying that they had been warned by God to avoid officials in Jerusalem and to return quickly to their own country. The chemical substances in their possession will be tested.

The owner of the barn is also being held for questioning. The manager of Bethlehem Inn faces possible revocation of his license for violating health and safety regulations by allowing people to stay in the stable. Civil authorities are also investigating the zoning violations involved in maintaining livestock in a commercially-zoned district.

The location of the minor child will not be released, and the prospect for a quick resolution to this case is doubtful. Asked about when Jesus would be returned to his mother, a Child Protective Service spokesperson said, "The father is middle-aged and the mother definitely underage. We are checking with officials in Nazareth to determine what their legal relationship is.

Joseph has admitted taking Mary from her home in Nazareth because of a census requirement. However, because she was obviously pregnant when they left, investigators are looking into other reasons for their departure. Joseph is being held without bond on charges of molestation, kidnapping, child endangerment, and statutory rape.

Mary was taken to the Bethlehem General Hospital where she is being examined by doctors. Charges may also be filed against her for endangerment. She will also undergo psychiatric evaluation because of her claim that she is a virgin and that the child is from God.

The director of the psychiatric wing said, "I don't profess to have the right to tell people what to believe, but when their beliefs adversely affect the safety and well-being of others - in this case her child - we must consider her a danger to others. The unidentified drugs at the scene didn't help her case, but I'm confidant that with the proper therapy regiment we can get her back on her feet."

A spokesperson for the governor's office said, "Who knows what was going through their heads? But regardless, their treatment of the child was inexcusable, and the involvement of these others frightening. There is much we don't know about this case, but for the sake of the child and the public, you can be assured that we will pursue this matter to the end."

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=20677

Christianity and Islam in History
By Walter Brandmüller
Chiesa | December 27, 2005

I will address the topic of Christianity and Islam by limiting myself to a brief presentation of historical facts, without entering into the specifics of religious and theological dialogue. This seems useful to me, because the celebration of the fifth centenary of the birth of Pius V was a bit muted, especially in academic circles. The victor at Lepanto in 1571, this pope who had the courage and the energy to construct an alliance of almost all the Christian kingdoms against the Ottoman empire – which was advancing to threaten Europe and had already established dominion over the Balkans – today, precisely on account of the unhappy restoration of hostility between the two worlds – one formerly Christian, and to a certain extent still Christian, and the Muslim world – seems to many to be an obstructing presence best left in the shadows.

The so-called “secularism” that would silence all the monotheistic religions through accusations of fundamentalism, or that exalts dialogue by negating their differences, intends to blot out the age-old conflict that has pitted the two religious communities against one another. Above all, it intends to neutralize the Roman pontiff, who has shown himself capable of blocking the Islamic advance and saving Christian civilization.

Although the two monotheistic religions in question share, among other things and to different degrees, the Jewish tradition – a specialist like Samir Khalil Samir emphasizes how before Mohammed the Arab Jews and Christians called their God by the name of Allah – there are many differences between Christianity and Islam, and the differences are fundamental.

Since their very beginnings, there have been differences in how Christians and Muslims think of conversion and the use of violence.

For the Christians, conversion was something that must be voluntary and individual, obtained primarily through preaching and example, and this is how Christianity did in fact spread during its first centuries. Obviously, we must immediately note that this conception of early Christianity underwent changes in later eras, connected with the diffusion of a spirit of religious intolerance in Western culture. John Paul II himself acknowledged that in this regard the Church’s children “must return with a spirit of repentance [for] the acquiescence given, especially in certain centuries, to intolerance and even the use of violence in the service of truth.” (Tertio Millennio Adveniente, 35).

But on the part of the Muslims, from the earliest times, even while Mohammed was still alive, conversion was imposed through the use of force. The expansion and extension of Islam’s sphere of influence came through war with the tribes that did not accept conversion peacefully, and this went hand in hand with submission to Islamic political authority. Islamism, unlike Christianity, expressed a comprehensive religious, cultural, social, and political strategy. While Christianity spread during its first three centuries in spite of persecution and martyrdom, and in many ways in opposition to Roman domination, introducing a clear separation between the spiritual and political spheres, Islam was imposed through the power of political domination.

It therefore comes as no surprise that the use of force occupies a central place in Islamic tradition, as witnessed by the frequent use of the word “jihad” in many texts. Although some scholars, especially Western ones, maintain that jihad does not necessarily mean war, but instead a spiritual struggle and interior effort, Samir Khalil Samir again clarifies that the use of this term in Islamic tradition – including its usage today – is essentially uniform, indicating warfare in the name of God to defend Islam, which is an obligation for all adult Muslim males. Those who maintain that understanding jihad as a holy war constitutes a sort of deviation from the true Islamic tradition are therefore not telling the truth, and history sadly demonstrates that that violence has characterized Islam since its origin, and that Mohammed himself systematically organized and led the raids against the tribes that did not want to convert and accept his dominion, thus subjecting the Arab tribes one by one. Naturally, it must also be said that at the time of Mohammed warfare was part of the Bedouin culture, and no one saw anything objectionable about it.

The interpretation that Muslims today try to make of the crusades – an interpretation that finds many followers among Western historians – also fails to correspond to historical reality.

According to this representation, Western Christians were invaders in a peaceful region that was respectful of the different religions – the Holy Land, which back then was part of Syria – using religious motives to disguise imperialist ambitions and economic interests.

But the idea of the crusades emerged, above all, as a reaction to the measures that the Fatimid caliph Hakim bi-Amr Allah took against the Christians of Egypt and Syria. In 1008, al-Hakim outlawed the celebrations of Palm Sunday, and the following year he ordered that Christians be punished and all their property confiscated. In that same year of 1009, he sacked and demolished the church dedicated to Mary in Cairo, and did not prevent the desecration of the Christian sepulchers surrounding it, or the sacking of the city’s other churches. That same year saw what was certainly the most severe episode: the destruction of the Constantinian basilica of the Resurrection in Jerusalem, known as the Holy Sepulcher. The historical records of the time say that he had ordered “to obliterate any symbol of Christian faith, and provide for the removal of every reliquary and object of veneration.” The basilica was then razed, and Ibn Abi Zahir did all he could to demolish the sepulcher of Christ and any trace of it.

Today in many intellectual circles there is a lot of talk about the religious tolerance shown over many centuries by the Islamic authorities, because – while in terms of the pagan populations the saying “embrace Islam and your life will be spared” held true, and the pagans who did not convert were killed – the “people of the book,” the Jews and Christians, were able to continue practicing their religion.

In reality, the situation was much less idyllic: the Christians and Jews could survive only if they accepted Muslim political dominion and a situation of humiliation, which was aggravated by the obligation to pay increasingly burdensome taxes. So it’s no wonder that most of the Christians, even though they were not constrained by force, converted to Islam on account of the constant economic and social pressure. This led to the total disappearance of a form of Christianity that had flourished for more than half a millennium, as in the part of Africa ruled by the Roman empire, the land of Tertullian, saint Cyprian, Tyconius, and above all saint Augustine.

But the biggest difference between Christianity and Islam concerns the crucial issue of understanding the human person.

This is shown by the fact that many Islamic countries have not accepted the declaration of human rights promulgated by the United Nations in 1948, or have done so with the reservation of excluding the norms that conflict with Qur’anic law – which means practically all of them. From an historical point of view, therefore, it must be recognized that the declaration of the rights of man is a cultural fruit of the Christian world, even though these are “universal” norms, in that they are valid for all. In Islamic tradition, in fact, the concept of the equality of all human beings does not exist, nor does, in consequence, the concept of the dignity of every human life. Sharia is founded upon a threefold inequality: between man and woman, between Muslim and non-Muslim, and between freeman and slave. In essence, the male human being is considered a full titleholder of rights and duties only through his belonging to the Islamic community: those who convert to another religion or become atheists are considered traitors, subject to the death penalty, or at least to the loss of all their rights.

The most irrevocable of these inequalities is that between man and woman, because the others can be overcome – the slave can be freed, the non-Muslim can convert to Islam – while woman’s inferiority is irremediable, in that it was established by God himself. In Islamic tradition, the husband enjoys an almost absolute authority over his wife: while polygamy is permitted for men, a woman may not have more than one husband, may not marry a man of another faith, can be repudiated by her husband, has no rights to the children in case of divorce, is penalized in the division of the inheritance, and from a legal standpoint her testimony is worth half as much as a man’s.

So if Islam implied, and still implies, not merely religious membership, but an entire way of life, sanctioned even at the political level – a way of life that naturally involves and prescribes how to act with other peoples, how to behave in questions of war and peace, how to conduct relations with foreigners – it is very easy to understand how the victory of Lepanto guaranteed for the West the possibility of developing its culture of respect for the human person, for whom equal dignity regardless of his condition came to be guaranteed.

If this characterization of Islam is destined to remain unchanged in the future, as it has been until now, the only possible outcome is a difficult coexistence with those who do not belong to the Muslim community: in an Islamic country, in fact, the non-Muslim must submit to the Islamic system, if he does not wish to live in a situation of substantial intolerance.

Likewise, on account of this all-embracing conception of religion and political authority, the Muslim will have great difficulty in adapting to the civil laws in non-Islamic countries, seeing them as something foreign to his upbringing and to the dictates of his religion. Perhaps one should ask oneself if the well-attested difficulties persons coming from the Islamic world have with integrating into the social and cultural life of the West are not explained in part by this problematic situation.

We must also recognize the natural right of every society to defend its own cultural, religious, and political identity. It seems to me that this is precisely what Pius V did.

http://www.securityfocus.com/news/11365

Sober virus scares up child-porn confession
Robert Lemos, SecurityFocus 2005-12-20

A 20-year-old German man turned himself and his child-porn collection into authorities after believing a message propagated by the recent Sober virus that law enforcement officers were investigating his activities, Germany's Federal Criminal Investigation Office said on Monday.

The Sober.X, also known as Sober.Y, virus attempts to fool computer users into running the malicious program by attaching itself to an e-mail that seems to come from the FBI or its German counterpart, known as the Federal Criminal Investigation Office or Bundeskriminalamt (BKA). The message implies that the law enforcement agency is investigating the recipient and asks the user to open up an attachment and answer questions.

In reality, the attachment is the Sober virus, which quickly takes control of the victim's PC to send more copies of itself, said Mikko Hyppönen, chief research officer for antivirus firm F-Secure.

"I'm glad the guy was stupid enough to get caught," Hyppönen said. "If you have to write viruses, something like the type of message is not bad."

While a prior version of the Sober virus had a similar message, this is likely the first time that a message intended to convince the recipient to run the virus scared a wrongdoer enough to turn themselves in. The Sober virus has made headlines because its creator has used the program to spread right-wing German propaganda and messages of hate. The latest variant is expected to download a payload on January 5, the anniversary of the founding of the Nazi party, according to antivirus firms.

While consumers have gotten better about distrusting the e-mail messages produced by such viruses, the number of PCs that are currently infected and compromised by the control software, known as bot software, installed by such viruses is in the millions, according to recent investigations.

The Sober virus does not install sophisticated bot software, but does compromise a PC so that it will spread future versions of the virus, F-Secure's Hyppönen said.

"Every new version of Sober infects every single computer already infected by Sober. So the bigger a Sober infection gets, the bigger the next launch of the next Sober is," he said.

The English version of the latest variant of the Sober virus has a common collection of possible messages, including notes from administrators and e-mail bounce notifications. In addition, there is a message that appears to come from the FBI or the CIA.

The English version of the message states:

we have logged your IP-address on more than 30 illegal Websites. Important: Please answer our questions! The list of questions are attached.

The Paderborn, Germany resident read the bulk e-mailed message sent by the latest Sober virus, panicked and contacted the police to admit he possessed child pornography, the BKA said in a statement. A search of the suspect's hard drive allegedly turned up pornographic images of minors--pictures that the suspect also sent out through e-mail, the BKA stated.

The FBI did not immediately know if any similar cases had occurred in the United States.

Once again, further proof of just how corrupt this world is, if the color of skins had been reversed they would have made a movie staring Louis Gossett Jr. show just how bad whites are...

da lizard

http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/myrtlebeachonline/news/local/13420224.htm

2 going to prison on charge of carjacking
The Associated Press

FLORENCE - Two Hartsville men who pleaded guilty to federal carjacking charges in an incident in which a man was chained to a pickup truck and dragged through a field have been sentenced to prison.

Kenneth Smith, 41, was sentenced to 14 years in prison Wednesday by U.S. District Judge R. Bryan Harwell. Lamont McKay, 27, was sentenced to seven years.

Prosecutors sought the reduced sentence for McKay because they said he cooperated in the case.

Each man had faced a maximum of 25 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The two men began arguing with the victim over a drug deal at a Darlington County store in January, then struck him in the head and robbed him, prosecutors said.

The men forced the victim into his own pickup truck, ordered him to drive to a nearby field and made him take his clothes off, authorities said.

The victim was then beaten with a tire iron and burned with a cigarette lighter, chained to the truck and dragged up the road, prosecutors said.

The victim said he was able to escape when the men turned a corner.

The victim recovered from his injuries, which included cuts and bruises.

The Darlington County Sheriff's Office had charged the men with assault and battery with intent to kill, kidnapping and armed robbery.

The victim, who is white, said Smith and McKay, who are black, made racial slurs while chaining him to the truck.

Authorities said they do not doubt the comments were made but said the crime did not appear to be racially motivated, because the robbery occurred first.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/12/21/wice21.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/12/21/ixworld.html



Creation of 'hot ice' could explain cloud formation puzzle
By Nic Fleming, Science Correspondent
(Filed: 21/12/2005)

Scientists have created ice at room temperature, potentially explaining a mysterious variation in the temperature at which clouds form.

By exposing water to a weak electric field, they have produced what is being called "hot ice". The discovery could answer a question that has perplexed atmospheric scientists for years: why the temperature at which water droplets stick to dust and turn to ice to form clouds varies according to whether the dust particles have been through the process before.

South Korean researchers were surprised that the field needed to create ice at room temperature was only 106 volts per metre, a strength low enough to be found in nature.

If these "mini icebergs" are hiding in cracks in rocks and clay particles and in crevices in proteins in our bodies, their presence could help explain a number of natural processes.

Denys Wheatley, a cell biologist at Aberdeen University, said: "Ice at room temperature just should not happen.

"Water is the crucible of life. Everything else is buzzing around in it. It seems that this most common of liquids in our bodies is one of the least understood."

In 2003 a computer simulation carried out by Dutch biophysicists suggested that, by introducing an electric field, it should be possible to impose an orderly structure on the hydrogen and oxygen atoms in water molecules, freezing it at room temperature.

Eun-Mi Choi and colleagues at Seoul National University created ice at room temperature by trapping a thin layer of water between a metal plate and a thin metal tip. When the tip was moved downwards while a weak electric field was applied, it hit ice at 0.7 nanometres below the plate.

The research was published in the American journal Physical Review Letters and reported in this week's New Scientist.

http://www.disenchanted.com/dis/lookup.html?node=1860


Helacyton gartleri
The immortal remains of Henrietta Lacks.

When human body cells are removed and put into a cell culture, they weaken and die quickly, usually within about 50 divisions. Without the rest of the support structure—a heart, blood circulating, a digestive system and so-on—body cells can't survive. Body cells also age, so even if you were to simulate the body's environment in a test tube or petri dish, the cells would eventually perish anyway. The basic mortality of the cells reflect the basic mortality of the organism they comprise, which is why there's no fountain of youth or medicinal procedure that'll give you biological immortality.

There is, however, one human being who is biologically immortal on a technicality, and her name is Henrietta Lacks. In 1951 she showed up at John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, complaining of blood spotting in her underwear. Samples were taken of her cervical tissue and sent to a lab for analysis, which came back with a diagnosis of cervical cancer.

The cancer was caused by the Human papillomavirus, which is a sexually transmitted disease. Most variants of this virus are harmless, but some are known to cause cervical cancer, as in Henrietta's case. After her diagnosis and before attempts to treat the disease with radium, another sample from the tumor was sent to George Gey, who was the head of tissue culture research at Hopkins. Gey discovered that the cells from Henrietta's tumor would not only survive and multiply outside of her body, but they didn't age either. These cells were basically immortal.

And they're still alive, even though Henrietta herself died of the cancer on October 4th, 1951. Now, HeLa cells are about as common in biological research as the lab rat and the petri dish, and are still being grown in an unbroken lineage from the cells originally harvested from Mrs. Lacks in 1951. They're used in cancer research because a scientist can perform experiments on them that otherwise couldn't be done on a living human being. They were also used in the development of the Polio vaccine, making Henrietta somewhat of a posthumous hero to millions.

But say you're a scientist looking at HeLa cells under a microscope. They live independently of the body they came from. They reproduce (faster even than other cancerous cells). They consume, excrete, and do everything an independent living organism usually does. A thousand years from now there will still be HeLa cells multiplying and living, even some of the original cells sampled from Mrs. Lacks, even though Henrietta Lacks herself has long since passed away. Is this a new species?

In 1991 the scientific community decided it was, and blessed HeLa cells with its own genus and species: Helacyton gartleri, named by Van Valen & Maiorana.

That would make Helacyton gartleri an example of speciation, which is when a new species is observed developing from another. In this case, the development is from a chordate (homo sapien) to something that's more like an ameoba (a cross-phylum mutation), giving us an animal with a mostly human genotype, but which does not develop into a human-like phenotype. Since this event occurred in nature when the papillomavirus transformed Henrietta's cells, and not in the laboratory, it's a strong piece of evidence supporting Evolution (although not one that suggests you could go from an ameoba to a chordate, which would probably take more than one mutation).

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/13445527.htm

Workers' bias suit ends in win, slur
Jurors said a lawyer called them "crackers." The school district was told to pay four white men nearly $3 million.
By John Shiffman
Inquirer Staff Writer

Four white men fired by the Philadelphia School District have won a racial-discrimination lawsuit, and a federal jury awarded them nearly $3 million in damages.

After Friday's verdict, Carl E. Singley, a prominent African American lawyer who represented the school district, exchanged words with some members of the all-white jury as they rode a courthouse elevator. He called them "crackers," four jurors said in interviews.

Within 30 minutes, U.S. District Judge Harvey Bartle 3d brought Singley and five of the seven jurors in the case back into his courtroom. Singley, a former Temple Law School dean, promptly apologized.

"What I did and said was inappropriate," Singley said, according to a transcript. "I should not have disrespected you, and I do apologize."

Reached yesterday, Singley declined to comment.

In a statement last night, the school district's chief executive officer, Paul Vallas, said he had not yet spoken with Singley about the elevator incident but planned to pursue the matter.

"If the statement is true it is outrageous and hurtful to us all," Vallas said.

The unusual post-verdict hearing came at the end of a two-week trial during which the four white men alleged that they were wrongfully fired from the district's purchasing department in 2003. They alleged reverse racial discrimination and said that the district's chief purchasing officer, Kimberly Sangster, retaliated when the men initially complained of discrimination.

"What we stressed to the jury is that the law in America is that equal opportunity in employment applies to everyone," said lawyer Michael D. Homans, who represented the four plaintiffs with Lizanne V. Hoerst. "You can't discriminate against anyone based on race - white people, black people, Hispanics. Discrimination infected the decision-making of Kim Sangster."

In his statement, Vallas said the district was considering an appeal. "We vehemently disagree with the verdict," he said. "Kim Sangster is one of the finest public servants that I have had the pleasure to work with. Under her leadership, the procurement department has made it possible for the district to focus more dollars into the classroom. This case does not reflect in any way her professionalism and leadership."

At trial, Homans argued that Sangster set out to replace white managers with blacks and that she did not hire a white worker until the plaintiffs threatened to sue. The lead plaintiff, Robert Johnston, was rehired, but was assigned to a putrid basement office "where sewer water is standing," Homans said.

"They're out to get these guys no matter what," Homans told the jury. "They're ticked off because they had the nerve to sue for race discrimination."

In his closing argument, Singley told the jury that the plaintiffs had manipulated the evidence to falsely portray Sangster as a racist. He called her "the real victim."

"These men were playing the race card," Singley said. "And I told you what the steps in the race card are: You make the claim, manipulate the facts... and then you rely on people's racial fears and prejudices to reach the conclusion that you want to reach... . If we had the same facts, same gender, same race, there would be no case. Think about that. That's how the race-card strategy works."

The jury began deliberating late Thursday and returned the verdict about 3:15 p.m. Friday.

"We really worked hard at it," recalled Joanna Harrison, who lives in Berks County.

The jury foreman, Bruce Furman, who works in Feasterville, said the evidence showed that Sangster ignored federal discrimination laws and school district policies. Juror Joann Dickel of Lancaster said that Sangster's own notes showed illegal bias and that her testimony was not credible.

Shortly after the verdict, five jurors entered the elevator with Singley and other trial participants for the ride down from the 16th floor.

In interviews yesterday, four of the jurors in the elevator - Harrison, Furman, Dickel, and Patricia Lewis of Malvern - gave the following account.

Singley said: "I hope you can sleep tonight."

A juror replied: "I'll have no trouble sleeping at night, thank you."

Singley: "God bless America."

Another juror: "God bless America. That's why I'm glad I live here."

Singley: "You're just a bunch of crackers."

The fifth juror in the elevator could not be reached for comment. A member of the school district's defense team gave a slightly different account. That person said a juror addressed Singley first.

Juror to Singley: "How're you doing?"

Singley: "I hope you can sleep at night with the decision you rendered."

Juror: "I'll have no trouble sleeping at night, thank you. This is America. God bless America."

Singley: "That's only if you're crackers."

What happened next is not disputed. After Singley stepped off the elevator on the ground floor, the jurors decided to go back to see the judge.

"We thought it was rather rude," Harrison said. "He was obviously upset."

Dickel said she "was quite shaken up by it because he said it so unprofessionally and confrontationally... . I thought, 'Is this what happens all the time?' "

Bartle received the five jurors in his chambers, and, according to Furman, told them Singley's comments were inappropriate. Bartle declined to be interviewed yesterday.

Bartle then called Singley and the other lawyers back to his courtroom. The judge began to call the jurors to the microphone to explain what happened, but Singley said it was not necessary.

"I admit to making inappropriate comments," Singley said, according to a transcript.

The four plaintiffs in the case were each awarded $500,000 for "past, present and future mental anguish, pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, and humiliation." They also got their old jobs back, plus back pay.

Johnston, 54, of Philadelphia, a former director of material maintenance, was awarded $71,000 in back pay.

Jack Zubris, 57, of Holland, Bucks County, who joined the district in 1973 and specialized in technology, was awarded $203,000 in back pay.

Ed Pilosi, 65, of Bala Cynwyd, a purchasing manager and a 33-year employee, was awarded $302,000 in back pay.

Peter Bracchi, 55, of Philadelphia, a food-service manager, received $141,000 in back pay and $243,000 for future economic damages.

Their lawyer, Homans, said he expected to ask the judge to order at least an additional $400,000 for legal fees.

http://mensnewsdaily.com/blog/stix/archive/2005_10_01_archive.html

Tuesday, October 04, 2005
The Color of Crime
By Nicholas Stix


Imagine if one demographic group in America were 33 times more prone to commit crimes than another group. How would you feel about the relatively crime-prone group? The relatively crime-free group? Wouldn’t you want to know about such differences?

But we don’t have to imagine anything. The above contrast was not a hypothetical case, but rather the statistical relationship of black to Asian crime in America, as detailed in the ground-breaking new report, The Color of Crime, released by the New Century Foundation, the organization that sponsors American Renaissance magazine.

* “… between 2001 and 2003, blacks were 39 times more likely to commit violent crimes against whites than the reverse, and 136 times more likely to commit robbery.”

* Between 2001 and 2003, blacks committed, on average, 15,400 black-on-white rapes per year, while whites averaged only 900 white-on-black rapes per year.

* “Of the nearly 770,000 violent interracial crimes committed every year involving blacks and whites, blacks commit 85 percent and whites commit 15 percent.”

But there are five-and-one-half as many whites as blacks. If anything, the numbers should be reversed. After all, as leftists always tell us, all groups are supposed to be equally represented in all categories, for good or ill. (Well, not really. Leftists never call on the NBA and NFL to institute racial parity for white players.)

* Nationally, youth gangs are 90 percent non-white. “Hispanics are 19 times more likely than whites to be members of youth gangs. Blacks are 15 times more likely, and Asians are nine times more likely.”

* The only crime category in which Asians are more heavily represented than whites is illegal gambling.

* “Blacks commit more violent crime against whites than against blacks. Forty-five percent of their victims are white, 43 percent are black, and 10 percent are Hispanic. When whites commit violent crime, only three percent of their victims are black.”

But how can that be, when for years commentators of all political persuasions have insisted that the majority of the victims of black crime were themselves black? But it has been true for some time, because blacks increasingly target whites based on the color of the latter’s skin. The commentators have been guilty variously of lying and laziness.

* Far from being guilty of “racially profiling” innocent blacks, police have been exercising racial bias on behalf of blacks, arresting fewer blacks than their proportion of criminals: “… blacks who committed crimes that were reported to the police were 26 percent less likely to be arrested than people of other races who committed the same crimes.”

* “… police are determined to arrest non-black rather than black criminals.” (I have seen this practice in operation on the streets and subways of New York.)

* “[Blacks] are eight times more likely than people of other races to rob someone, for example, and 5.5 times more likely to steal a car.”

Well, as everyone knows, innocent blacks get rounded up by the police all the time, so we can safely ignore such statistics. After all, isn’t that what the NAACP, Village Voice, New York Times, and countless black “activists” and prominent academics have been saying for years? After all, although the folks insisting on racial profiling have no facts to back up their claims, they enjoy political prestige and moral authority. The Color of Crime, meanwhile, is based merely on lowly facts. As we shall see, prominent people are already saying that we should ignore The Color of Crime, because it wasn’t produced by the right sort of people. (And of course, “the right sort of people” doesn’t tell the truth about race and crime.)

* Charges of racial profiling, which maintain that police target innocent black motorists for traffic stops notwithstanding, a 2002 study by Maryland’s Public Service Research Institute found that police were stopping too few black speeders (23%), compared to their proportion of actual speeders (25%). In fact, “blacks were twice as likely to speed as whites” in general, and there was an even higher frequency of black speeders in the 90-mph and higher range.

* “… the only evidence for police bias is disproportionate arrest rates for those groups police critics say are the targets of bias. High black arrest rates appear to reflect high crime rates, not police misconduct.”

* Blacks not only commit violent crimes at far higher rates than non-blacks, but their crimes are more violent than those of whites. Blacks are three times as likely as non-blacks to commit assault with guns, and twice as likely as non-blacks to commit assault with knives.

* Blacks not only commit violent crimes at far higher rates than whites, but blacks commit “white collar” offenses -- fraud, bribery, racketeering and embezzlement, respectively -- at two to five times the white rate.

* The single greatest indicator of an area’s crime rate is not poverty or education, but race and ethnicity. Even when one controls for income and education, the black crime rate is much higher than the white rate.

Things are actually much worse than the above notes suggest. As The Color of Crime notes, the feds inflate white crime statistics by counting Hispanic offenders as white; at the same time, “Hispanics are a [hate crime] victim category but not a perpetrator category. If someone attacks a Mexican for racial reasons, he becomes a Hispanic victim of a hate crime. However, if the same Mexican commits a hate crime against a black, he is classified as a ‘white’ perpetrator. Even more absurdly, if a Mexican commits a hate crime against a white, both victim and perpetrator are reported as white.” Thus, the number of white perpetrators is bloated, while the number of white victims is constricted by the federal double-standard.

But things are even worse than the study shows. It fails to note, with black-on-white male prison rape an institutionalized sport among black inmates, that hundreds of thousands of white men have thus been victimized but never counted by the government. Meanwhile, white-on-black male prison rape is virtually non-existent.

Some of the study’s many sources were the FBI’s uniform crime reports (UCRs); the feds’ National Crime Victimization Study (NCVS), in which 149,000 people across the country, in statistical proportion to all demographic groups, were called; the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS); Supplemental Homicide Reports (SHRs); State Court Processing Statistics (SCPS); National Youth Gang Survey; Federal Justice Statistics Program (FJSP); and National Corrections Reporting Program (NCRP). The succinct report slays dragons in the course of mere footnotes, such as its nailing of tenured California State University criminology professor Phyllis B. Gerstenfeld, who in her book Hate Crimes: Causes, Controls and Controversies, the reality of interracial violence be damned, depicted whites only as perpetrators, and not as the victims of hate crimes.

The Color of Crime – not to be confused with a 1998 piece of propaganda of the same name by tenured University of Maryland professor of criminology, Katheryn K. Russell -- is the most scientifically rigorous research on crime and race available. It’s the state of the art.

The mainstream media will surely be anxious to publicize and discuss The Color of Crime. After all, hasn’t the public been inundated since the late 1990s (and ultimately, since the 1960s) with dubious charges of racism (“racial profiling”) against law enforcement and the justice system? And don’t the MSM always tell us that they will report on anything newsworthy? After all, the New York Times claims to be “the newspaper of record.”

In a future column, we shall see just how the MSM has responded to The Color of Crime.

In any event, the report gave in precise numbers what any sentient being over the age of twenty and living in the United States has long known. A 75-year-old Irish neighbor of mine is a retired nurse who was run out of a once-lovely Brooklyn neighborhood forty years ago by “integration” (read: brazen black crime in broad daylight). During a friendly conversation during a quiet morning on our peaceful street last spring she said, “The problem is … you know what the problem is.”

http://www.afromerica.com/knowledge/justice/hatecrimes/tricks.php

Racist Tricks

Steven Stroud and Randy Blazak have worked with members of hate groups for over ten years and have learned many of the rhetorical tricks they use to convince young people of the rightness of their simplistic world-view. Blazak is a professor of sociology and criminology and Stroud actually spent time as a Nazi skinhead. Here they easily debunk some hate group myths.

Myth #1: There is going to be a race war, so you better only have white friends, because your non-white friends will become your enemies.

Reality: Racist terrorists have been trying to start a race war for decades and have failed miserably. This was The Order's and Timothy McVeigh's goal and the dream of every two-bit Klansman, but it will never happen. America is a melting pot nation. Most "white" people have heritage that includes Africans, Irish, Mexicans, Native Americans, Italians, Greeks, Jews, and many other non-Aryans.

The die-hard Nazis believe that anyone who isn't blonde-haired and blue-eyed will be the enemy in a race war. The REALITY is that if there were a race war, the majority of white Americans would fight AGAINST the racists, as would the rest of the people of Earth.
> Nazis are twits... There is a war going on, whites are being systematically being portayed as evil racist devils and they have no way of countering this claim in the PC world <
Myth #2: After the "race war" or the expulsion of minorities, America will be a better place.

Reality: Who would want to live in a land where everyone looked and thought just like them? No Mexican restaurants, no Jewish comedians, no rock or jazz music. Just a bunch of Nazis marching around, listening to Wagner and eating waffles. Besides, "White America" would be isolated by the rest of the world and probably provoke a third world war. The international response to Hitler's Germany, South Africa during apartheid and Serbia in the 1990s should give you a clue. America run by and for racists would be a very boring and lonely place. America is a cultural melting pot by its very nature. For a great example, read Ralph Linton's short essay, 100% American.

> I would, the chances of being robbed or having my wife raped would drop dramatically <

Myth #3: America was built by white men.

Reality: Who could possibly believe this? There were millions of white women, African slaves, Indians, Arabs, Chinese and others who helped to build this country. Huge chunks of America used to belong to Mexico. The nuclear power that drives much of America, the penicillin that heals America, and the movie industry that entertains America and exports its culture to the world are the result of the work of Jewish innovators. Since most white Americans' ancestors immigrated to this country between 1880 and 1940 and most black Americans can trace their family roots back to slavery (1609-1865), who is more American?

> Bull Shit, from whos mind did the modern world come from? From whos mind that all people should be free come from? Hate to say it but the white man created the modern world and is unfortunately giving it away... <

Myth #4: Blacks are more criminal than whites.

Reality: True, African-Americans are over-represented in the arrest statistics. But this shows us the natural bias in policing toward arresting poor, urban criminals. For example, according to the FBI Uniform Crime Report, the typical arrest for rape is of a young black man. But if you look at anonymous victimization data (which includes all the UNREPORTED and UNARRESTED rape cases), rapists are overwhelmingly white and known to the victims (only 22% are rapes by strangers).

A white woman is much more likely to be raped by her white boyfriend or white relative than by a black man. Here's another example. Self-report data shows us that whites are as likely to use drugs as blacks, but blacks are four times more likely to be arrested for drugs than whites. Many people believe the "War on Drugs" is really a war on blacks, warehousing them in America's prison system.

> Wrong, Wrong, Wrong and Wrong. This totally ignores the fact that BLACKS are committing more crimes than whites. How about murder, robbery etc. Im not up on rates of rape, but I would love to see how the nubmers work on a per capita basis. "War on Drugs" is a war on blacks? Really, if thats the only way blacks can make money I guess it is.. <

Myth #5: Gay men want to molest children and rape straight men.

Reality: All statistics on child abuse show that molesters are disproportionately heterosexual and known to the victim. Outside of prison, the rape of males is extremely rare and is typically done by homophobes who are assaulting gay men in hate crimes. Gay men respect their friends just like straight men do and probably don't want to have sex with you.

> If a person has desire to have some form of sexual relation with a person of the same sex then that person is either a fag/dyke or bisexual. Either way this is just a dumb attempt of trying to victimize us straight guys. <

Myth #6: There is a secret Jewish conspiracy controlling the U.S. government.

Reality: This is one of the oldest tricks in the book. It was used to explain the French Revolution, the Russian Revolution and the German Weimar Republic. The so-called "Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion" that discusses the Jewish plot to rule the world is a work of fictitious anti-Semitic propaganda (for the evolution of the conspiracy theory, see the book Blood In The Face: The Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nations, Nazi Skinheads, and the Rise of a New White Culture by James Ridgeway).

The high percentage of Jews in President Clinton's cabinet reflects the Jewish culture's emphasis on literacy and education, not an evil plot. Jews generally find this conspiracy theory hilarious (but frightening, since Hitler used it so effectively).

> I actually agree with this one <

Myth #7: Whites are genetically superior.

Reality: Tell that to Michael Jordan and Albert Einstein! Adolf Hitler tried to promote the idea that Aryans were physically superior and failed miserably. At the 1936 Olympics, he removed all Jews from the German Olympic team to promote his Aryan Ubermen. They were stomped into the race track, by Jesse Owens, black American.

The few American Jews that defied the boycott and traveled to Berlin also did well against the Germans. In the wake of the dominance of black athletes, racists shifted their case to claim that whites are intellectually superior. Standard IQ tests, which are culturally biased in favor of whites, still produce higher scores for Asian-Americans.

> Whites are better atheletes, just look at who wins most of the medals at the olympics. <

Myth #8: Minorities, women and homosexuals want special privileges.

Reality: Civil rights are not special rights, they are for all Americans, including straight white Christian males. Allowing groups who have been traditionally discriminated against to organize (black student organizations, women's groups, gay rights parades) is an attempt to right history's wrongs.

We don't need a "White History Month" because, traditionally, every month has been a white history month. We don't need a "masculinist" movement, because men have always held the controls of power in America. We don't need a "National Association for the Advancement of White People" or a "Straight Rights Parade" because straight whites have always had their interests supported by the status quo.

> So I have to watch what ever I say but they can say whatever they feel like? Must be nice. We dont need a white history month? Really, I guess blacks really did invent things like air conditioning, peanut better etc. <

Myth #9: Calling black people "African-American" proves that they aren't true Americans.

Reality: Most non-black Americans are aware of their ethnic identity through their last names. Our names are Scottish or German or French or Italian. Johnson, Jefferson and Jordan are not African names. They are slave names. But blacks' history doesn't begin with slavery. There were hundreds of cultures and ethnicities in Africa before the slave trade. While Europeans were still living in caves, Africans were making leather shoes, building structures and calculating mathematics on paper. The term "African-American" is an attempt to connect black Americans with their pre-slavery history. We don't mind when Irish-Americans use the hyphen.

> I agree with this myth... this does nothing but divide people... <

Myth #10: All non-whites do is complain about America.

Reality: Ever been to a Klan rally? It's just a bunch of whining white guys. Americans have the right to peacefully protest. Where would we be if our forefathers never complained about taxation without representation?

> That is all they ever do... gimme gimme gimme <

Myth #11: America would be better off if the races were separate.

Reality: According to polls, the vast majority of Americans enjoy the diversity that is America. We enjoy our Asian silk and our Arabian coffee. We don't want to give up soul music, bagels or burritos. And, most importantly, we love our friends of various ethnicities. "White Separatism" isn't even possible.

What if you were biracial? Where would you go? Would Italian-Americans have to be separated from Franco-Americans? What about whites with brown hair? Are they REALLY white? Could you have a Chinese restaurant, as long as the food was cooked and served by whites? Would white kids be allowed to listen to rock 'n' roll, which is black music? Who would pay to move the races to separate areas? Our attempt to do this with American Indians was a huge failure. America would be better off if the races learned to respect and appreciate each other.

> Whites would have to put up with a lot less crime <

Myth #12: Love for the white race is not "hate".

Reality: It's possible to love the uniqueness of being a white American. Most whites love the privilege that comes along with their racial status (i.e., racism is someone else's problem). The reality is that most "pro-white" groups spend most of their time discussing their hatred for other groups who they think want to take away their racial privilege. People who are "pro-black" are not usually anti-white, just anti-racist. Unfortunately, the converse is rarely true. Being proud of being white is not the same as being proud of your Irish, German, Mexican or Swedish heritage. "White pride" is associated with bigotry.

> White equals privilage and that is wrong... Black = slave... deal with it <

Myth #13: The Bible says gay men should be killed.

Reality: The Bible also says people who work on the Sabbath should be killed. The Christian Bible has thousands of interpretations. The Presbyterians, Baptists and Methodists all have different takes on it. Martin Luther King, Jr. used The Bible as a civil rights manual. Some people believe that God is white, others show evidence that Jesus was black. In America, everyone has the constitutional right to interpret The Bible any way they want. You can believe that Adam & Eve were from Mars! But when you use your interpretation to violate the rights of other Americans, including gay Americans, then you are a dangerous religious fanatic.

> Jesus was black??? Guess I should not have started looking up hebrew definitions of words. Jesus was WHITE... deal with it. <

Myth #14: All crimes are hate crimes.

Reality: Actually, most crimes are committed over domestic disputes. Many crimes are motivated by financial need, not hate. While most crimes are intraracial (white-on-white, black-on-black, etc.) the overwhelming majority of black-on-white crimes are motivated by a need for money. Hate crimes target and victimize whole categories of people. Targets are picked simply for their symbolic value. Hate crimes undermine the fabric of our society.

> This is a myth, but blacks commit hates crimes as well. Some day the FBI will start keeping track of when white are victims of hate crimes and by whom <

Myth #15: The white race is in danger of extinction.

Reality: The white race isn't going anywhere! According to the 1990 U.S. census, there were 209,180,000 white people in America, 83.9% of the population. Using birth rates and immigration trends, the Census Bureau has projected what America will look like in the future. In 2050, it is predicted that there will be 213,782,000 white Americans, 75.7% of the projected population, still an overwhelming majority! High birth rates are associated with poverty. If racists really cared about preserving their 83.9%, they would work to reduce urban poverty in America.

> This is a myth <

Commentary from Dr. Blazak: Bigots are masters of manipulating the facts. They can convince kids that there is a Jew or a black rapist under every bed, just like they used to with communists. The reality is that a white woman is much more likely to be raped and killed by her white husband, but the racists won't tell you that.

They'll ignore all the white serial killers and schoolyard shooters and all the horrible acts done by whites and focus on the horrible acts done by minorities, ignoring the vast majority of law-abiding minorities. It's called "selective perception" and it's a flimsy basis for a world-view that is easily taken apart.

> IGNORE WHITES WHO ARE SERIAL KILLERS? Actually the reverse is true, it is so common for blacks to kill multiple people that it rarely makes a headline, but so rare for whties that is is big news <

It is not enough for people to say that they aren't racist, sexist or homophobic. They must be anti-racist and anti-sexist and anti-homophobic. When someone makes a bigoted comment, we must refuse to accept it.

> Does this apply when a black makes a racist comment? <

Blame WHITEY! It seems like a national pasttime nowadays...

da Lizard

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=20571

Race Was No Factor In Who Died from Hurricane Katrina
By Nathan Burchfiel
CNSNews.com | December 16, 2005

Statistics released by the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals suggest that fewer than half of the victims of Hurricane Katrina were black, and that whites died at the highest rate of all races in New Orleans.

Liberals in the aftermath of the storm were quick to allege that the Bush administration delayed its response to the catastrophe because most of the victims were black.

Damu Smith, founder of the National Black Environmental Justice Network, in September said that the federal government "ignored us, they forgot about us ... because we look like we look."

Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan in October said that the Federal Emergency Management Agency wasn't fit to help the storm's victims because "there are not enough blacks high up in FEMA" and added that, "certainly the Red Cross is the same."

Rapper Kanye West used his time on NBC's telethon for the hurricane victims to charge that, "George Bush doesn't care about black people."

But the state's demographic information suggests that whites in New Orleans died at a higher rate than minorities. According to the 2000 census, whites make up 28 percent of the city's population, but the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals indicates that whites constitute 36.6 percent of the storm's fatalities in the city.

African-Americans make up 67.25 percent of the population and 59.1 percent of the deceased. Other minorities constitute approximately 5 percent of the population and represented 4.3 percent of the storm's fatalities.

Overall for the state, 658 bodies have been identified. Forty-seven percent were African-American and 42 percent were Caucasian. The remaining bodies were either non-black minorities or undetermined.

An additional 247 victims have not been identified, so their demographic information has not been released.

The data showed that the majority of Katrina's victims lived in the Orleans parish. The nearby St. Bernard and Jefferson parishes had 91 and 25 victims, respectively.

The storm also did not discriminate based on gender. Fifty percent of the victims were male and 49 percent were female, with 1 percent being undetermined.

Calls requesting comment from Damu Smith and the Nation of Islam were not returned Wednesday.

An extremely fascinating article, not sure how true it is...

da Lizard

http://www.pureenergysystems.com/news/2005/03/17/6900069_Acetone/

Acetone In Fuel Said to Increase Mileage

Readily-available chemical added to gas tank in small proportion improves the fuel's ability to vaporize completely by reducing the surface tension that inhibits vaporization of some fuel droplets.

by Louis LaPointe
Adapted by Sterling D. Allan and Mary-Sue Haliburton
with LaPointe's permission for Pure Energy Systems News

Acetone (CH3COCH3) is a product that can be purchased inexpensively in most locations around the world, such as in the common hardware, auto parts, or drug store. Added to the fuel tank in tiny amounts, acetone aids in the vaporization of the gasoline or diesel, increasing fuel efficiency, engine longevity, and performance -- as well as reducing hydrocarbon emissions.

How it Works

Complete vaporization of fuel is far from perfect in today's cars and trucks. A certain amount of residual fuel in most engines remains liquid in the hot chamber. In order to be fully combusted, the fuel must be fully vaporized.

Surface tension presents an obstacle to vaporization. For instance the energy barrier from surface tension can sometimes force water to reach 300 degrees Fahrenheit before it vaporizes. Similarly with gasoline.

Acetone drastically reduces the surface tension. Most fuel molecules are sluggish with respect to their natural frequency. Acetone has an inherent molecular vibration that "stirs up" the fuel molecules, to break the surface tension. This results in a more complete vaporization with other factors remaining the same. More complete vaporization means less wasted fuel, hence the increased gas mileage from the increased thermal efficiency.

That excess fuel was formerly wasted past the rings or sent out the tailpipe but when mixed with acetone it gets burned, though the engine still thinks it is running straight gas.

Acetone allows gasoline to behave more like the ideal automotive fuel which is PROPANE. The degree of improved mileage depends on how much unburned fuel you are presently wasting. You might gain 15 to 35-percent better economy from the use of acetone. Sometimes even more.

How Much to Use

Add in tiny amounts from about one part per 5000 to one part per 3000, depending on the vehicle -- just a few ounces per ten gallons of gas. This comes to between 0.0003 % to 0.0025 % acetone maximum or approximately 1/15th of one-percent. Note that is around .78 cc per liter or one ounce per 10 gallons. Not more than three oz. per 10 gallons.

After you first find the best gasoline in your area, then try the acetone amount for your car per ten gallons, and if you are happy with your newfound mileage, you might want to try stopping the use of acetone for a couple of tanks. Watch the drop in mileage. It will amaze you. That reverse technique is one of the biggest eye openers concerning the use of acetone in fuel.

In a 10-gallon tank of gasoline, use one to three ounces of pure acetone to obtain excellent mileage improvements. In a ten-gallon tank of diesel fuel, use from 1 to 2 ounces of acetone. Performance goes up too. Use about a half-teaspoon of acetone in the fuel tank of a 4-cycle lawnmower or snowblower. Or you can apply it with an eyedropper.

Where to Get Acetone

The pure acetone label is the only additive suggested and is easily available from most drug stores in 16-ounce plastic bottles and in one-gallon containers from some large fleet farm supply stores. But any acetone source is better than none. Containers labeled acetone from a hardware store are usually okay and pure enough to put in your fuel. We prefer cans or bottles that say 100-percent pure. The acetone in gallons or pints we get from Fleet Farm are labeled 100 % pure. The bottles from Walgreen say 100 % pure. Never use solvents such as paint thinners or unknown stuff in your gas. Toluene, benzene and xylene have been okay if they are pure but may not raise mileage except when mixed with acetone. However the aromatics also raise octane.

Adding Acetone to Your Tank

When you fill up with fuel, note the number of gallons added, then calculate the right amount of acetone to add. Less is more. Remember all gasoline is different. Some will work better than others in the presence of acetone which is strictly a vaporization tool, rather than a fuel additive that alters combustion. The car computer still thinks it is running straight gasoline. None of your settings are altered. None of your engine parts are affected. Check out ScanGauge for an inexpensive MPG device.

Some stores sell acetone in metal cans of various sizes, which are safe to keep indoors. However, it is difficult to pour from these cans, which have a flat top and short neck from which spillage is inevitable. In any case, while handling acetone, you should be wearing rubber gloves.

One option is to get a small graduated cylinder (available from science supplies store or some pharmacies). The small ones have larger intervals between markings so that it is easier to fill them to the level desired. The narrow cylinder can be held to the neck of the can to catch all drips. Then from the cylinder you can pour neatly into the tank. The small pouring spout suitable for laboratories prevents drips onto the paint.

Being etched with neat lines at each milliliter, these graduated cylinders are also good for measuring precise amounts -- in ounces or milliliters.

Additional Benefits

In addition to increased mileage acetone added to fuel boasts other benefits such as increased power, engine life, and performance. Less unburned fuel going past the rings keeps the rings and engine oil in far better condition.

A tiny bit of acetone in diesel fuel can stop the black smoke when the rack is all the way at full throttle. You will notice that the exhaust soot will be greatly reduced and your truck or car runs smoother.

Acetone can reduce hydrocarbon emissions up to 60 percent. In some older cars, the HC readings with acetone in a 1986 GMC went from 440 PPM to 195, as just one example. Though mileage gains taper off with too much acetone, hydrocarbon emissions are nevertheless greatly reduced. Pure acetone is an extremely clean burning fuel that burns in air with a pretty blue, smokeless flame.

Acetone reduces the formation of water-ice crystals in below-zero weather which can damage the fuel filter. Change that fuel filter every year to protect injectors.

There are no known bad effects and every good reason to use acetone in your fuel. I have never seen a problem with acetone, and I have used ACETONE in gasoline and diesel fuel and in jet fuel (JP-4) for 50 years. I have rigorously tested fuels independently (with burns all over me) and am considered an authority on this important subject.

Cautions

eep acetone away from painted surfaces, such as the paint on your car under the gas tank opening. Acetone is the key ingredient in paint remover. In addition to paint, fuels, including acetone, gasoline alone can also dissolve asphalt and most plastics.

Never allow skin contact with it. It may damage clothing as well. Don't breathe it. Keep children away from all dangerous chemicals. Read the directions on the container.

Acetone is a highly flammable liquid, as is gasoline. Do not expose it near a flame or spark. Acetone should be stored outside, with proper ventilation, not inside your house. Gasoline and/or acetone will dissolve cheap plastics, so be sure the container you store it in will not deteriorate. Read all the precautions on the labels.

No Issues with the Engine Parts

I have soaked carburetor parts in acetone for months and even years to see if there is any deterioration. Any parts made to run with gasoline will work with acetone just fine. I presently have parts soaking in 1, 2, 5, and 10 % acetone/gasoline mixes as well as just gasoline. That is 20 to 200 times too much just to be sure. The 30R7 rated parts are in perfect condition. All my tests have been run with Texaco gasoline. I tested the gas stations in my area to FIRST find the best gasoline BEFORE putting acetone in the tank. But I have no idea from a pragmatic view what other gasolines do except that when I attempt to use them, my MPG drops like a rock. So for purely monetary reasons, I run the best available gasoline. When my dyno is built this summer, I will test all the gasolines in my area and publish the results on the web. I hear from engineers out West that Chevron gas is very good. I used it and it was fine during trips to California. I attach more credence to engineers who report things of interest to me because of their training and knowledge of testing methods. You may want to look up Science and Testing Methods in my site.

Contrast with Alcohol

In contrast, alcohol has been shown to be corrosive in an engine, yet they put THAT into gasoline. Alcohol in general is anti-mileage. Alcohol is no good in fuels. In Brazil, millions of engines and fuel systems were ruined by alcohol. Yet they are talking of doubling the amount of alcohol in gasoline.

Furthermore, alcohol increases surface tension, producing the opposite effect from acetone. Alcohol in fuel attracts water. This hurts mileage because water acts like a fire extinguisher. Some cars may run badly and even quit due to the incombustible nature of the water-laden fuel. We know of a dozen cars that recently stopped running due to water in the alcohol and gas mixture. In my Neon, it frequently has cut the MPG in half on trips when I take pot luck at the pump.

In below-zero weather, the water and alcohol can form abrasive, icy particles that may damage fuel pumps and clog injectors.

Has Not Been Warmly Received

Questions asked of someone in the petroleum industry regarding ACETONE will often automatically trigger a string of negative reactions and perhaps false assertions. We may have heard them all. The mere mention of this additive represents such a threat to oil profits that you may get fabricated denials against the successful use of acetone in fuels.

The author has never found any valid reason for not using acetone in gasoline or diesel fuel. Plus it takes such a tiny amount to work. No wonder they fear this additive.

Political Action

You might Email this article to your government representative. After sufficient data has been collected, and that data supports the conclusions presented here, ACETONE should be ordered by Federal Law to be present in all fuels. While you're at it, request that vehicles be equipped with a MPG read-out to make it easier for consumers to know what is and is not working to improve their mileage.

If You Want to Do Independent Testing

For those of you who like to see the data yourself, there is a great little device available to check your exact gas mileage and more. See ScanGauge for an instrument that fits any car 1996 or newer. And some 1995 models. It measures your real-time MPG, inlet and coolant temperatures and many more details as you drive. This inexpensive tool should end a lot of debate over what works for mileage and what does not. We use the TRIP function to average the MPG at a steady 50 MPH both ways.

Since the fuel from every gas station is different from the next, the MPG performance will also vary. Then there exist a wide variety of additive choices at the terminals that affect quality. Also other variables in the cars performance such as warm external temperature versus cold external temperature, using the AC or not, headlights or not, incline of drive, etc. Try to eliminate as many of these variable as possible in your comparative testing.

Be consistent where you buy your gasoline because different gasolines vary tremendously. The best gas and the worst gas in your neighborhood will likely have a 30-percent spread in mileage. Same for diesel fuel. In my experience with repeated test results, I found that Texaco, Chevron and Canadian Shell deliver excellent gasoline mileage. Try to keep down the number of variables wherever you gas up by using the same station, same pump, same grade or same octane before testing. This is important.

Incidentally, in almost all cases, the lowest octane is best for mileage. Most modern vehicles do not have high enough compression to justify using high octane fuels. The testing indicates best mileage is usually obtained with 85 or 87 octane gasoline. Too much octane causes a loss of power and economy. BUT too little octane causes the same things plus knocking. Listen carefully to your engine for tell-tale knocks or clicks when you start out from a light. The best mileage points to the correct octane when the engine is properly tuned. See your owners manual.

The ScanGauge enables you to notice differences and then check variations with and without acetone added in various proportions. Roughly 1/20 to 1/10 of one percent. On the dyno I never exceeded 1/4 of a percent. There was no point.

Report Your Findings

PES Network Inc. has created an index page at PESWiki where you can report your findings. PESWiki is a publicly editable website where you can post a summary of your results, or create a full page, with all the details you wish to report, with images and links to video or spreadsheet data.

Other Additives Exist

There are of course other additives that improve mileage (which also have had less than a favorable reception by the petroleum industry). Certain octane improvers for example also aid mileage. We recently proved that Carb Medic from Gunk can raise mileage when 3 oz. are used with 2 oz. of acetone per 10 gallons of gasoline, even in cold weather. Acetone seems to help cars start easier in winter.

Many products claiming to improve mileage are expensive and do not really help much. Others are fakes. For instance, a SMOOTH flow of air into a carburetor or injector is far better for mileage than turbulent air. Turbulence is bad. Yet many people deliberately introduce turbulent air into their engines. There are many silly myths floating around the car industry to fool the average person. Another is that cold intake air improves mileage. NO. Warm air improves mileage.

Test for yourself. Take a mileage check for each and every tank of gas or diesel fuel like we do. Your actual mileage is NOT that of a single tank full but the average of perhaps five tanks. To be accurate, you should not miss any checks. This takes discipline to get reliable results. Someday your car will do it for you with a factory MPG gauge on the dash. But for now, YOU ought to keep tabs on your mileage for all our sakes.

# # #

SOURCES

The above story was adapted with permission from a story reported at:
http://www.lubedev.com/smartgas/additive.htm

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8429

Big brain means small testes, finds bat study

* 12:16 07 December 2005
* NewScientist.com news service
* Gaia Vince

The brainier male bats are, the smaller their testicles, according to a new study. Researchers suggest the correlation exists because both organs require a lot of energy to grow and maintain, leading individual species to find the optimum balance.

The analysis of 334 species of bat found that in species where the females were promiscuous, the males had evolved larger testes but had relatively small brains. In species, where the females were monogamous, the situation was reversed. Male fidelity appeared to have no influence over testes or brain size.

Both brain tissue and sperm cells require a lot of metabolic energy to produce and maintain. The different species appear to have evolved a preference for developing one organ more than the other, presumably determined by which will help them produce more offspring.

“An extraordinary range of testes mass was documented across bat species - from 0.12% to 8.4% of body mass. That exceeds the range of any other mammalian order,” says Scott Pitnick, from Syracuse University in New York, US, one of the research team. Primate testes vary between species from 0.02% and 0.75% of body mass.
Energy knife-edge

Efficient use of energy is crucial for bats, says Pitnick: “Bats really exist on an energy knife-edge: they are small with a large surface area, and they need to fly around, particularly during the mating season.”

Pitnick and his colleagues had predicted that, in species with promiscuous females, males would require bigger brains in order avoid being cuckolded. So they were surprised to find the opposite: “Perhaps monogamy is more neurologically demanding.”

Harry Moore, a sperm researcher at the University of Sheffield, UK, says that testis size is normally related the amount of sperm produced.

“In species with promiscuous females, the males are competing to fertilise her eggs and so need to produce a lot of sperm," he told New Scientist. “And this may be especially true in some species of bats where the females store sperm for several months.”

Journal reference: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2005.3367)

http://www.azcentral.com/ent/pop/articles/1207nudists1207-CR.html#

Christian nudists to build village in Florida

Phil Barnoti Wahba
Columbia News Service
Dec. 6, 2005 06:29 PM

Jonathan Palmiter was enjoying a recent Sunday morning stroll through a lush yard full of trees and Spanish moss--naked as was Adam in the Garden of Eden.

A 59-year-old born-again Christian, Palmiter was visiting Natura, a development 40 miles north of Tampa, Fla., that, when it opens up next summer, will become the first nudist community for devout Christians in North America.

Natura is being developed over five years and will house as many as 200 people in 50 family houses on 100 acres of land, with room for up to 100 recreational vehicles, according to Daniel Bellows, chief executive of the development. He even envisions a self-contained village with home-schooling and a strip mall.
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Christian nudism might sound like an oxymoron, but for thousands of devout followers, living and worshipping naked is at the core of their faith.

No one knows how many Christian nudists there are in North America, but the advent of Natura will increase their visibility.

Bill Martin, the driving force behind Natura, runs the Naturist-Christians Web site, which has 19,000 registered users and averages 35,000 hits a day. His Yahoo group--where members discuss biblical passages rather than the etiquette to follow in nude social settings--has 6,000 users.

While Bellows believes "naturism and faith are one," other Christians disagree. Bellows, 44, said he gets e-mail messages warning him of eternal damnation, while Allen Parker, from Virginia, said, "Many Christians attack us on many fronts, but the love Jesus shows us sustains us."

For many, nudism is the lifestyle that dare not speak its name. In Ohio, Rob L., who asked that his last name not be used, is a self-proclaimed fundamentalist who practices nudism in seclusion, fearing criticism and misunderstanding within his religious community.

Martin said he doesn't want Natura to be only a haven for these Christian nudists--or naturists, a term many prefer. Instead, he wants Natura to make the bold statement that nudism is not only healthy, but sanctioned by God.

"Naturism was quite normal for the first few 100 years of Christianity," said Martin, a 67-year-old Quaker. He blames puritanical Victorianism and what he calls America's sexually obsessed culture for society's qualms about nudity. "The culture has to be shown that naturism doesn't lead to promiscuity. Natura will show them that."

But the idea of raising kids in a nude environment can raise eyebrows--even Rob L.'s wife doesn't want him nude at home when their daughter is around.

Martin and Bellows contend nudism is healthy for all. They believe it helps to correct a poor body image in children, which they believe is at the root of low self-esteem, depression and drug addiction. And they believe nudism diminishes sexual curiosity by "demystifying" the body. They point to the lower incidences of sexually transmitted diseases and lower pregnancy rates in Europe, where more relaxed attitudes prevail.

The compatibility of Christianity and nudism is detailed in "Nakedness and the Bible," a self-published book by Canadian author Paul Bowman. The book cites key biblical events, including God's order to the prophet Isaiah to go naked for three years, and states that, contrary to popular belief, Jesus was naked when he washed the feet of his disciples, when he was baptized and when he was crucified and resurrected.

"Nakedness and the Bible" states that nothing forbids nonsexual nudity and that misinterpretations of the Bible stem from faulty translations of ancient Hebrew words for nudity.

For example, Jim T., Natura's spiritual adviser, and his wife, Shirley, believe the apostle Paul's call for modesty targeted ostentation, not nudity. Besides, said Shirley, 55, women in church wearing "designer clothes and $90 haircuts" are the immodest ones.

Christian nudists have long organized their own services and prayer groups. Carolyn Hawkins of the American Association for Nude Recreation, which was founded in 1931, said most of its 270-member clubs offer Sunday services, including one in North Carolina where they are led by a member who is a Baptist minister.

Nathan Powers, a 50-year-old Texan, begins his day praying naked in his backyard. Nakedness intensifies his dialogue with God, he said. "I feel closer to God. It's an act of humility. It is absolutely spiritual." To reconcile being a good Christian with their need to be nude, many of the faithful turn to prayer and follow their own spiritual path. Some are led away from their particular denominations.

Parker, who organizes the annual "Christian Nudist Convocation" in Virginia, a coming-out event for closeted nudists, was raised a Southern Baptist. He is now independent, turned off by Sunday sermons he said were "too hypocritical for one afternoon."

Jim T. let God do the talking. "As a conservative Christian, I had to let the Bible be my guide. I'm the one who'll have to answer to God," he said.

Secular culture has helped the cause of Christian nudists by "spawning the contemporary social nudist movement," said John Kundert, editor of the Fig Leaf Forum, a leading Christian nudist newsletter with a circulation of 1,300 that he runs from Winnipeg, Manitoba. In turn, Kundert said he offers the Gospel to secular nudists "willing to receive" it.

Christian naturists are particularly mortified by the caricature of the nudist as a randy middle-aged swinger. Parker and his wife attend many naked parties that he insists are wholesome. Some of the most spiritual conversations they've had have been in hot tubs with other couples, he said.

"You can admire beauty, but lust is wrong," said Rob L., the Ohio fundamentalist. On his Web site, he describes his first co-ed nudist experience. At a nude swim years ago, he bumped into an attractive woman in the changing room. When he didn't get an erection, he knew he could separate nudity from sex.

Indeed, nudist Christians said faith helps them resist temptation. "God created us as sexual beings, and gave us coping mechanisms," said Jim T. In any case, said Shirley, people are "sexier" in Victoria's Secret lingerie.

The lifestyle of these Christians doesn't necessarily make them lefties of the 1960s free-love, live-and-let-live mold. They tend to be deeply conservative on issues like homosexuality and premarital sex, and Republican, differing only from other Christians in their need and desire to be naked whenever possible.

For Bellows, the ideal society would be clothing-optional, but he isn't holding his breath waiting for that to happen. As much as Christian nudists advocate for naturism, they put faith above all else.

"I am a Christian first, a naturist second," Palmiter said.

http://www.newscientist.com/channel/fundamentals/mg18825293.700

Nobel laureate admits string theory is in trouble

* 10 December 2005

"WE DON'T know what we are talking about." That was Nobel laureate David Gross at the 23rd Solvay Conference in Physics in Brussels, Belgium, during his concluding remarks on Saturday. He was referring to string theory - the attempt to unify the otherwise incompatible theories of relativity and quantum mechanics to provide a theory of everything.

Gross - who received a Nobel for his work on the strong nuclear force, bringing physics closer to a theory of everything - has been a strong advocate of string theory, which also aims to explain dark energy. "Many of us believed that string theory was a very dramatic break with our previous notions of quantum theory," he said. "But now we learn that string theory, well, is not that much of a break."

He compared the state of physics today to that during the first Solvay conference in 1911. Then, physicists were mystified by the discovery of radioactivity. The puzzling phenomenon threatened even the laws of conservation of mass and energy, and physicists had to wait for the theory of quantum mechanics to explain it. "They were missing something absolutely fundamental," he said. "We are missing perhaps something as profound as they were back then."
From issue 2529 of New Scientist magazine, 10 December 2005, page 6

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/12/08/state/n125444S24.DTL&hw=magnetic+pole&sn=002&sc=844

Earth's north magnetic pole could shift to Siberia in 50 years

By ALICIA CHANG, AP Science Writer

Thursday, December 8, 2005

Earth's north magnetic pole is drifting from North America at such a clip that it could end up in Siberia in the next 50 years, scientists said Thursday.

Despite accelerated movement over the past century, the possibility that Earth's fading magnetic field will collapse or that the magnetic poles will flip is remote. But the shift could mean that Alaska may no longer be able to see the high-altitude shimmering displays of colorful lights known as auroras.

Scientists have long known that magnetic poles migrate and in rare cases, swap places. But exactly why this happens is a mystery.

"This may be part of a normal oscillation and it will eventually migrate back toward Canada," said Joseph Stoner, a paleomagnetist at Oregon State University.

Results were presented Thursday at an American Geophysical Union meeting.

Previous studies have shown that the strength of the Earth's protective magnetic shield has decreased 10 percent over the past 150 years. During the same period, the north magnetic pole wandered about 685 miles out into the Arctic, according to a new analysis by Stoner.

The rate of the magnetic pole's movement has increased in the last century compared to fairly steady movement in the previous four centuries, the Oregon researchers said.

At the present rate, the north magnetic pole could swing out of northern Canada into Siberia. If that happens, Alaska could lose its Northern Lights, which occur when charged particles streaming away from the sun interact with different gases in Earth's atmosphere.

Earth's magnetic poles are different from its geographic poles, which indicate the rotation axis around which it spins. The invisible magnetic field is formed by liquid, molten iron spinning in the Earth's core.

The north magnetic pole was first discovered in 1831 and when it was revisited in 1904, explorers found that the pole had moved 31 miles since it was first found.

Pole reversals are uncommon, happening at intervals of several hundred thousands years. The last time the poles flip-flopped was about 780,000 years ago.

In the study, Stoner examined the sediment record from several Arctic lakes.

Since the sediments record the Earth's magnetic field at the time, scientists used carbon dating to track changes in the magnetic field.

They found that the north magnetic field shifted significantly in the last thousand years. It generally migrated between northern Canada and Siberia, but it sometimes moved in other directions, too.