ce399 | research archive

"The Displacement of the Ethical by the Aesthetic"

Filippo Tommaso Marinetti

It would now be timely to move away from the figure of Man toward that more central figure in Marinetti's work, the machine. I wish to examine here the functioning of the Futurist machine in its specifically political implications, in order to understand whether, and how,  a metaphysics of presence asserts itself in Marinetti's work at the political level

Of course, given the model of aestheticization of political life framing the work so far, it is impossible to isolate the political as a realm somehow sealed off from the aesthetic. However, before limiting our examinations to the perspectives opened up in Benjamin's analysis, it is important that we situate aestheticization as a socially and culturally potent ideology. At face value, aestheticization might be taken to mean a displacement of social, political and ethical concerns as the guidelines for political action and a replacement of these values by aesthetic criteria: for example, a political action is judged in terms of its beauty rather than its goodness or even efficacy. This displacement of the ethical by the aesthetic - if that is all that aestheticization might be taken to mean - begs the question of the constitution of  'the beautiful' itself, as a category replacing 'the good.' If aestheticization is to be understood on a purely semantic level - that is, as a replacement of one set of values by another - then it is incumbent upon theorists of aestheticization  to provide some content to the notion of the aesthetic itself.

Influenced, perhaps, by the fascist predilection for spectacle and its tendency toward cultural philistinism, those who work with this model - including Benjamin, as previously I argued - generally assume that 'the beautiful' means what it had always meant in the nineteenth century; that it dictated a reliance upon falsified principles of harmony, organic totality, and unity. On the one hand there would be decadence - the dark side of progress, as it were - and on the other simple philistinism. The fascist predilection for regimented spectacle, the adherence to nineteenth century aesthetic standards that, in light of the avant-garde, can surface only as kitch - all of these things tend to confirm the critical desire to equate fascism (as aestheticization) with cultural philistinism. This conflation of  political and aesthetic tendencies might stress the importance of outmoded notions of aesthetic harmony and balance to fascist notions of the organicist State. Aesthetic resolutions would serve to paper over cracks and fissures of an increasingly fragmented and noncohesive social totality. Thus, from  a broadly leftist perspective 'the aestheticization of political life' comes to mean the masking of class struggle under a facade of aestheticized social unity.

Fascist Modernism: Aesthetics, Politics and the Avant-Garde
by Andrew Hewitt.
Pgs. 134-135
ISBN# 0-8047-2117-3

Futurism: Manifestos and other Resources

Berlusconi's Characteristics Worsening with Age

In the constantly shifting sands of Italian coalition politics, one man more than most knows Silvio Berlusconi, the former prime minister, and warns that Italy faces a shift to the right and five more wasted years if he returns to power in April's elections.

Pier Ferdinando Casini, leader of a small Catholic party, had been an ally and even potential successor to the 71-year-old billionaire businessman for 14 years, but their political divorce in February has led to some bitter recriminations.

"Certain characteristics he always had are now worse," Mr Casini says in an interview with the FT, accusing Mr Berlusconi, a two-time former prime minister, of "regression not evolution" and adding: "With age they worsen instead of improving."

Casini Warms Italy of Shift to Right
Guy Dinmore
Financial Times
30Mar2008

http://us.ft.com/ftgateway/superpage.ft?news_id=fto033020082124466261

Silvio Berlusconi - Fascist Italian Prime Minister

Conspirator - Lucio Gelli's Prison Break (You Tube)

La P2 ieri. La sua vittoria oggi

Stretchable Circuits

Scientists have created a stretchable form of electronic circuit that might hold the key to new applications including wearable devices to monitor a person's health and systems. These could be wrapped around aircraft wings or fuselages to monitor structural stability.

Experiments involving electroconductive plastics are under way with a view to creating flexible circuitry.   What makes these devices, invented at the University of Illinois, Northwestern University and the Singapore Institute of High Performance Computing, remarkable is that they are based on silicon. "The notion that silicon cannot be used in such applications because it is intrinsically brittle and rigid has been thrown out of the window," said John Rogers, of the University of Illinois' materials research group.

The silicon circuits can be compressed, folded or wrapped around a shape such as a sphere without affecting their electrical performance. The silicon circuit is laid down on rubber and plastic materials, which buckle during manufacture to yield wavy shapes that can be stretched and deformed.

[compiled from the online and print edition]

Stretchable Circuits Advance
Alan Cane
28Mar2008

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b4c89f90-fc68-11dc-9229-000077b07658.html

When the Crowd is Bigger than the Police Department

Peace activists accused San Francisco police of being overzealous in the way they treated protesters March 19 at daylong demonstrations marking the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war, although anti-war groups said the department acted proficiently, given the daunting task of policing a group of nearly 9,000 demonstrators.

Some demonstrators who said the police treated them unlawfully are considering lawsuits.

In response, the National Lawyers Guild is helping some of the 142 people who were arrested for misdemeanor crimes, such as civil disobedience and disturbing the peace. At least five protesters were charged with felonies, including resisting arrest and carrying a concealed weapon.

Guild attorneys were in Oakland on Monday and will be in San Francisco on Sunday to work with some of those arrested.

"We coordinated our nighttime march with the Police Department, they were very professional," said Bill Hackwell, organizer for the ANSWER coalition. "But the crowd naturally grew as people got off work, and that's when the police began acting very aggressively."

Hackwell said police were bumping into the crowd with motorbikes, pushing protesters into traffic lanes on Valencia and Mission streets. "They wanted to flex their muscle and send a big strong message that they were in charge," he said.

Police officials, however, justified the department's response, saying large demonstrations are unpredictable. They said they learn as they go, and policing immense crowds presents a challenge.

"When the crowd itself is bigger than the Police Department, there's a huge potential for violence," said Bob Stresak, a spokesman for the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training, a training group for law enforcement.

"People spread over a large geographic area could create a bottleneck if, for example, things turned bad, and an ambulance needed to get through the crowd."

Last week, demonstrators chained themselves to buildings and formed massive die-ins, where groups of people laid down in the middle of Market Street.

Police used saws to cut the chains, and arrested the people that were bound to buildings, including the Federal Reserve Bank in the Financial district.

"These are tense moments, when the police are controlling a conflict situation; they can't just sit by and watch," said Michael Reagan, spokesman for Direct Action to Stop the War, which coordinated the morning demonstration.

The goal of some anti-war groups is to create a scene, to draw attention to themselves and to get arrested.

They hope to send a message that they will do anything they can to end the war, even at their own expense.

"They were willing to risk arrest; that's the point," Reagan said. "I think the police may have acted more aggressively than what was needed, but in the end they were very professional and safe in what they were doing."

Some demonstrators said the police were overly aggressive.

"I saw the police pushing everyone on the street to the sidewalk," said San Francisco resident Moira Birss, 25. "The vibe was very aggressive as the police dispersed on the crowd."

She said she saw a police officer grab her friend and push him with his hands behind his back.

The friend is awaiting misdemeanor trial April 4 on charges of disturbing the peace. He is fighting the charge and has a lawyer.

"It's very difficult to control large groups," said Sgt. Steve Mannina, a San Francisco police spokesman. "When paint-filled objects are thrown about the crowd, like they were on (March 19), we need to act on the side of safety. Then it's appropriate to put on our riot gear."

He said in the past, objects such as bolts and broken bottles were also thrown at officers.

"We're here to protect people's lives and property," Mannina said. "And I feel we were successful in facilitating First Amendment rights at the same time."

Anti-war protesters weigh suit against police: Activists disagree over whether authorities used excessive force
By Angela Hart
26March2008

http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_8701397?source=rss

Oaxaca, Mexico 2006

SS-Haganah Negotiations of 1936-1937

Haganah  ('The Defense') 1936

...the revolt of the Palestinian Arab masses in 1936 made Berlin re-think the implications of their pro-Zionist policies. Intense unrest had been aroused in October 1935 by the discovery of weapons in a cement cargo bound for Tel Aviv, and the situation became feverish in November when Shaykh Izz al-Din al-Qassam, a popular Muslim preacher, took to the hills with a guerrilla band. British troops soon killed him, but his funeral developed into a passionate demonstration. The crisis dragged on for months before it finally exploded on the night of 15 April 1936, when a remnant of Qassam’s band stopped traffic on the Tulkarm road, robbing travellers and killing two Jews. Two Arabs were slain in reprisal the next night. The funeral of the Jews turned into a right-wing Zionist demonstration and the crowd started marching on Arab Jaffa. The police opened fire, four Jews were shot and, again, Arabs were attacked on the streets of Tel Aviv in retaliation. A counter-march soon started for Tel Aviv. The revolt was on. A spontaneous general strike developed and the pressure from below forced the rival cliques within the Arab establishment to unite in an Arab Higher Committee under the leadership of the Mufti. However, the Higher Committee feared that the continuation of the rising would put the peasantry permanently beyond its leaders’ control, and finally prevailed upon the strike committees to call off the protest on 12 October, pending the outcome of a British Royal Commission’s investigation.

Until the Arab revolt, the Nazis’ patronage of Zionism had been warm but scarcely committed, as we have seen. However, with the political turmoil in Palestine and the appointment of the Peel Commission, the WZO saw their chance to persuade the Nazis to make a public commitment to them in Palestine itself. On 8 December 1936 a joint delegation of the Jewish Agency, the highest body of the WZO in Palestine, and the Hitachdut Olei Germania (the German Immigrants Association), went to the Jerusalem office of Doehle, the German Consul-General. The Zionist scholar, David Yisraeli, has related the incident.

They sought through Doehle to persuade the Nazi government to have its Jerusalem representative appear before the Peel Commission, and declare that Germany was interested in an increased immigration to Palestine because of its eagerness to have the Jews emigrate from Germany. The Consul, however, rejected the proposal on the spot. His official reasons were that considerations of increased immigration from Germany would inevitably bring out the matter of the transfer which was detrimental to British exports to Palestine. [3]

Characteristically, the Zionists were more eager to extend their relationship than the Nazis, but Doehle’s rejection of their request did not stop them from further approaches. The outcome of the Peel Commission’s expedition was thought crucial to the Zionist endeavour and it was therefore the Haganah, then the military arm of the Jewish Agency (de facto the Labour Zionist militia), that obtained Berlin’s permission to negotiate directly with the Sicherheitsdienst (SD), the Security Service of the SS. A Haganah agent, Feivel Polkes, arrived in Berlin on 26 February 1937 and was assigned Adolf Eichmann as his negotiating partner. Eichmann had been a protege of the pro-Zionist von Mildenstein and, like his mentor, had studied Hebrew, read Herzl and was the SD’s specialist on Zionism. The Eichmann-Polkes conversations were recorded in a report prepared by Eichmann’s superior, Franz-Albert Six, which was found in the SS files captured by the American Army at the end of the Second World War:

Polkes is a national-Zionist He is against all Jews who are opposed to the erection of a Jewish state in Palestine. As a Haganah man he fights against Communism and all aims of Arab-British friendship ... He noted that the Haganah’s goal is to reach, as soon as possible, a Jewish majority in Palestine. Therefore he worked, as this objective required, with or against the British Intelligence Service, the Sureté Generale, with England and Italy ... He declared himself willing to work for Germany in the form of providing intelligence as long as this does not oppose his own political goals. Among other things he would support German foreign policy in the Near East. He would try to find oil sources for the German Reich without affecting British spheres of interest if the German monetary regulations were eased for Jewish emigrants to Palestine. [4]

Six definitely thought that a working alliance with the Haganah would be in the Nazis’ interest. They still needed the latest inside information on the various Jewish boycott groups and on Jewish plots against the lives of prominent Nazis. He was eager to allow the SS to help the Zionists in return.

Pressure can be put on the Reich Representation of Jews in Germany in such a way that those Jews emigrating from Germany go exclusively to Palestine and not go to other countries. Such measures lie entirely in the German interest and is already prepared through measures of the Gestapo. Polkes’ plans to create a Jewish majority in Palestine would be aided at the same time through these measures. [5]

Lenni Brenner
Zionism in the Age of the Dictators
Chapter 8. Palestine – The Arabs, Zionists, British and Nazis

--

ce399 note:

Heinz Höhne in The Order of the Death's Head: The Story of Hitler's SS also writes about the proposed SS-Haganah military alliance in the mid-1930s which was considered during this (above) planned visit by Eichmann and entourage in 1937.

Zionist collaboration with fascism/Nazism in the 20th Century has been documented in extensive detail by such historians as Lenni Brenner in 51 Documents: Zionist Collaboration with the Nazis (the quintessential work on this subject) , Zionism in the Age of Dictators (also by Brenner and available online in html format) Hannah Arendt's Eichmann in Jerusalem, Edwin Black's The Transfer Agreement: The Dramatic Story of the Pact Between the Third Reich and Jewish Palestine, Francis R. Nicosia's The Third Reich and the Palestine Question, Rudolf Vrba and Alan Bestic's I Cannot Forgive, and Rafael Medoff's The Deadening Silence: American Jews and the Holocaust.

From Lenni Brenner's 51 Documents : Zionist Collaboration with the Nazis:

Zionist factions competed for the honor of allying to Hitler. By 1940-41, the "Stern Gang," among them Yitzhak Shamir, later Prime Minister of Israel, presented the Nazis with the "Fundamental Features of the Proposal of the National Military Organization in Palestine (Irgun Zvai Leumi) Concerning the Solution of the Jewish Question in Europe and the Participation of the NMO in the War on the Side of Germany."

Mae Brussell's program number 837 (? free sample available online) makes reference to the Haganah assisting Martin Bormann's escape to South America and subsequent liaison via ODESSA networks with Allen Dulles. How much of the current geo-political turmoil was preplanned by Dulles-Bormann-Stern Gang (Shamir/Begin), with Pres. Truman as proto-Bush National Security Act puppet? And what was the real intention behind the formation of the Jewish State by the Zionists?

IDF Razes Toilets of Palestinian Cave Dwellers in West Bank

ce399.2006

The Civil Administration on Wednesday knocked down 13 structures - most of them toilet facilities - donated by Christian groups to Palestinians living in two cave communities in the West Bank.

The Civil Administration, a branch of the Israel Defense Forces that deals with civilian issues in the territories, sent troops Wednesday afternoon to knock the buildings down.

The facilities serve dozens of residents of the Mrar al-Abid and Safieh communities, which are otherwise not connected to a water supply or any electrical grid.

The cave dwellers have previously suffered from harassment by the IDF, which has in the past destroyed their homes and sealed up water sources as well as restricting their freedom of movement. Local residents have also been victims of settler intimidation.

The High Court of Justice, however, has prevented the cave dwellers' expulsion from their communities.

The Civil Administration said the structures were demolished because they were constructed without building permits in accordance with the law.

The South Hebron Hills region coordinator for the Ta'ayush Arab-Jewish organization, Ezra Nawi, said he believes the demolition of the structures is connected to a planned move by the government to evacuate illegal settlements in the area. Nawi said the state is attempting to show it is confronting the phenomenon of illegal Palestinian construction just as it is facing off against illegal settlement outposts.      

Mijal Grinberg
Haaretz
31May2006
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=721882

Readiness Solutions: Martial Law 2010

Download CTC_1_21_08.pdf

McCain Will Declare Martial Law By 2010

Justice is incidental to law and order - J. Edgar Hoover

KBR awarded Homeland Security contract worth up to $385M

KBR, the engineering and construction subsidiary of Halliburton Co.  (HAL:Halliburton Company) , said Tuesday it has been awarded a contingency contract from the Department of Homeland Security to supports its Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities in the event of an emergency.

...

The contract, which is effective immediately, provides for establishing temporary detention and processing capabilities to expand existing ICE Detention and Removal Operations Program facilities in the event of an emergency influx of immigrants into the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs, KBR said. The contract may also provide migrant detention support to other government organizations in the event of an immigration emergency, as well as the development of a plan to react to a national emergency, such as a natural disaster, the company said.

The Endgame

Where in the past the US Immigration authorities have detained their prisoners in various holding facilities, to include County Jails, Municipal Jails, Federal Prisons, they have embarked upon this ‘ENDGAME’ plan which will make them the largest jailer of human beings in all of history. The Department of Homeland Security and its bureau, ICE, are planning to build temporary cities that will hold millions of undocumented aliens.

Download Endgame.pdf

Operation Garden Plot

"Under this plan for the deployment of Operation Garden Plot, the use of CIDCON-1 will be mandatory. This direct support of civil disturbance control operations is to be used by the Army, USAF, Navy, and Marine Corp. with an airlift force to be comprised of MAC Organic Airlift Resources, airlift capable aircraft of all other USAF major commands, and all other aerial reconnaissance and Airborne Psychological Operations. This is to include control communications systems, aero medical evacuation, helicopter and Weather Support Systems. If any civil disturbance by a resistance group, religious organization, or other persons considered to be non-conformist takes place, under Appendix 3 to Annex B of Plan 55-2 hereby gives all Federal forces total power over the situation if local and state authorities cannot put down said dissenters. Annex A, section B of Operation Garden Plot defines tax protesters, militia groups, religious cults, and general anti-government dissenters as Disruptive Elements. This calls for the deadly force to be used against any extremist or dissident perpetrating any and all forms of civil disorder."

Abuses of Census Data : From Counterinsurgency to Genocide

The Origins of the American Military Coup of 2012

(written by Charles J.Dunlap, U.S. Army War College student of Colin Powell)

Finally, I would tell our classmates that democracy is a fragile institution that must be continuously nurtured and scrupulously protected. I would also tell them that they must speak out when they see the institution threatened; indeed, it is their duty to do so. Richard Gabriel aptly observed in his book To Serve with Honor that

    when one discusses dissent, loyalty, and the limits of military obligations, the central problem is that the military represents a threat to civil order not because it will usurp authority, but because it does not speak out on critical policy decisions. The soldier fails to live up to his oath to serve the country if he does not speak out when he sees his civilian or military superiors executing policies he feels to be wrong.[96]

Gabriel was wrong when he dismissed the military's potential to threaten civil order, but he was right when he described our responsibilities. The catastrophe that occurred on our watch took place because we failed to speak out against policies we knew were wrong. It's too late for me to do any more. But it's not for you.

Best regards,

Prisoner 222305759

Nightmare Culture (mp3 file)

ce399. 2007

War & Occupation of Iraq:  Five Years

The threat to men of great dignity, privilege and pretense is not from the radicals they revile; it is from accepting their own myth. Exposure to reality remains the nemesis of the great - a little understood thing. - John Kenneth Galbraith

Download nightmare_culture_edit.mp3 (1.2 mb) Steve Ignorant (Crass) - 'vocals'

Track: Killy Kill Killy (A Fire Sermon).

From split 12" by Current 93 and Sickness of Snakes - Nightmare Culture (1985). Members: John Balance, Peter Christopherson, (Sickness of Snakes/Coil) Boyd Rice (Sickness of Snakes/ NON), David Tibet, Ruby Wallis, (Current 93) Steven Stapleton (Nurse with Wound), John Murphy (Current 93/SPK/Lustmord),  Steve Ignorant (Crass).

The Return of IG Farben: Bayer Knowingly Sold AIDS Tainted Products

IG Farben consisted of the following major companies and several smaller ones.

    * AGFA (Aktien-Gesellschaft für Anilin-Fabrikation), Berlin
    * Cassella, Frankfurt
    * BASF (Badische Anilin und Soda Fabrik), Ludwigshafen
    * Bayer, Leverkusen
    * Farbwerke Hoechst (now Sanofi-Aventis), Höchst
    * Chemische Werke Hüls, Marl (founded in 1938)
    * Chemische Fabrik Kalle, Biebrich

--

An examination of internal Bayer company documents by The New York Times reveals that the company was engaged in unsavory, probably criminal marketing practices. The documents reveal that Bayer continued to sell contaminated blood plasma causing thousands of hemophiliac patients to be infected with AIDS. The company continued to sell the contaminated blood in Asia for over a year when it had already introduced a safer, heated blood plasma version in the US and Europe in February 1984.

The documents examined by the Times provide evidence of unrestrained corrupt practices by a pharmaceutical industry giant. According to The Times, records suggest that the reason for continuing to sell an AIDS infected blood product, was to get rid of inventory and "the company hoped to preserve the profit margin from 'several large fixed-price contracts.'

Bayer Documents: AIDS Tainted Blood Killed Thousands of Hemophiliacs

http://www.ahrp.org/infomail/0503/22.php

Bayer Knowingly Sold AIDS Tainted Products

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTKjX_ioNVM

Eurozone Now World's Biggest Economy

The dollar's plunge has made the eurozone the world's biggest economy by one measure and has underscored shifts that are reorienting the 15-nation bloc towards Asia, Russia and oil-rich Gulf states, analysts say.

"With the euro now trading around 1.56 against the dollar, the size of its annual output (at market value) has exceeded that of the United States," US investment bank Goldman Sachs estimated last week.

"Brief as the development may prove to be, European policy makers will no doubt derive some pride" from the event, it said.
...

Meanwhile, the economy of 320 million people -- which churns out 15 percent of global gross domestic product -- has slowed but shown a degree of resiliency to the US slump that few would have counted on just a few years ago.

Historically thrifty German consumers helped the national retail sector gain 2.7 percent in January, with the trend continuing in February according to the HDE sector association.
...

Talk of an economic decoupling of Europe from the United States has risen as a result, but policymakers and analysts are quick to point out that global economies are interlinked, even though they move through separate cyclical phases.

"We are in a largely interdependent world so anything that happens in Europe has an influence on the US, I am happy to to tell you, and anything that happens in the US has an influence in Europe," ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet said early this month.

He nonetheless added that "we have our own economies, they are not the same. "We are in different universes."

The eurozone universe has broken free of some rigid structures that hobbled it in the past, Bank of America economist Holger Schmieding told AFP.
...

"Few regions have gained more from globalization than the eurozone," he wrote last week in the Wall Street Journal Europe.
...

Schmieding said that "apart from the housing market correction in Spain and Ireland, the eurozone has no major domestic problem," while Jennifer McKeown at Capital Economics noted: "The eurozone hasn't built up the same kinds of imbalances that we've seen in the US and the UK, too."

She summed up the eurozone experiment by saying: "So far, so good in that everything's still together. It's not falling apart as some people had feared."
...

Schmieding said it was "basically good news for the United States that the rest of the world is a little less dependent on the US.

"It will give the US a better chance to export its way out of domestic trouble."

Dollar's plunge pushes eurozone past US, Goldman Sachs says

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080316033355.g2dcr3am&show_article=1

Dollar falls to record low

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/273f77a8-f168-11dc-a91a-0000779fd2ac.html

Conception 2.0

ce399.2008

Womb on a Chip 

Teruo Fujii of the University of Tokyo in Japan and his colleagues are building a microfluidic chip to nurture the first stages of pregnancy. They hope, eventually, to create a fully automated artificial uterus in which egg and sperm are fed in at one end and an early embryo comes out the other, ready for implanting in a real mother. They say using such a device could improve the success rate of IVF.

Womb-on-a-chip may boost IVF successes
Linda Geddes
NewScientist
26July2007

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19526146.200-wombonachip-may-boost-ivf-successes.html

Brave New Babies

The children of the future may be conceived and spend their first few days of development on a computer-controlled chip.

In a move recalling Aldous Huxley's famous production lines for making babies in Brave New World, researchers in the US are building a "chip" that can automatically carry out all the steps involved in IVF, from fertilising eggs to preparing embryos for implantation. Ultimately, such devices—which amount to artificial reproductive tracts—may even be able to sort and test embryos for genetic flaws.

So far researchers David Beebe and Matthew Wheeler have built prototypes that can carry out the major steps involved in IVF, though not all on the same chip. Far more mouse embryos develop successfully on these devices than by traditional methods.

The researchers say they expect the technology will first be used for livestock production, but their eventual aim is to use it for human embryos.

Brave New Babies
Anil Ananthaswamy
NewScientist
26May2001

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg17022920.300

Moving the Chip Inside

...scientists are working on the holy grail of microbiology - an in vivo lab-on-a-chip [or Micro Electro Mechanical Systems MEMS].

...researchers are developing technology that could lead to tiny machines that, when implanted in the body - could monitor hormone levels - release drugs periodically and even record data. Such devices...could also serve as birth control by preventing ovulation, or facilitate an entire pregnancy by helping to fertilize the egg and monitor the growing embryo.

...

Internal embryo monitors of the future would have to be self-contained in the uterus, and they'd have to be able to detect the smallest changes.

Once scientists have mastered these micromachines, the female reproductive system may be the best place to try them out. ...the uterus is 'immune privileged,' meaning it's unusual tolerant of foreign material - which includes not only sperm, but also tiny silicon machines.

...in the future, getting pregnant might involve handpicking an egg fertilized by prescreened sperm on a controlled  dynamic chip and monitoring it with microscopic mechanical nurses.

Conception 2.0
mental_floss magazine edition
Mar-Apr.2008

Unattended Briefcase Forces Evacuation of San Francisco Ferry Building

An unattended item prompted a bomb scare at San Francisco's Ferry Building today, forcing the suspension of ferry service and the evacuation of the ferry terminal area for about an hour, passengers and Coast Guard personnel said.

Fire trucks, police and Coast Guard crews with bomb sniffing dogs descended on the Ferry Building for what ultimately turned out to be a false alarm that delayed some commuters during the after-work rush hour.

The bomb scare about a mile away from AT&T Park, where Major League Baseball's All-Star Game was being played.

Joann Piccardo, a paralegal from Novato who works in San Francisco, was in line at about 5:45 p.m. for the Larkspur ferry when she noticed the boat that she was supposed to be boarding for a 5:55 p.m. departure sat idling offshore.

"They had diverted all the incoming boats from the pier," Piccardo said. "Then the loudspeaker came on, but you couldn't understand what they were saying, so people were very confused about what was happening. Someone in the crowd said, 'They said we need to evacuate.' "

Passengers were directed around the far side and front of the Ferry Building, Piccardo said.

"We decided to go across the street because you never know," she said with a laugh.

A Coast Guard officer at the scene who declined to give his name said the suspicious item turned out to be a brief case with papers and some kind of satchel. Security teams swept the area, including bringing a bomb sniffing dog onto at least one docked Baylink ferry. A team of coast guard officers with a dog left the boat at about 7:30 p.m. A Coast Guard spokesperson could not immediately be reached for comment.

By 7:15 p.m., Piccardo was back in line with about 150 other passengers who boarded the Larkspur ferry after service resumed.

   

John Cote
San Francisco Chronicle
July10.2007
Bomb Scare Forces Evacuation of SF's Ferry Terminal

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/07/10/BAGGIQUG9A5.DTL

Note:

Apparently there was another identical bomb scare story at the SF Ferry Building during the week of March 10, 2008, but search engine queries yielded zero results.  Or was this a  recycled news item?

Has the Pentagon Weaponized Demonolatry?

ce399. 2006

Operation Often: Satanism in the CIA

This operation was based on Dr. Cameron's earlier research into the supernatural. Operaton Often was going to go further, exploring the world of black magic. In Dr. Gottlieb's mission statement the intention was to "harness the forces of darkness and challenge the concept that the inner reaches of the mind are beyond reach. The project will aim to create a new kind of psycho-civilized human being."

Operation Often was soon deep into demonology. In April 1972, an approach was made to the monsignor in charge of exorcisms for the Catholic archdiocese of New York. He flatly refused to cooperate.

Buckley, still a devout Catholic, found himself surrounded by a "mysterious and magical vortex in an agency that was supposed to deal in facts and predictions based upon them, that corner of the CIA which Gottlieb had set aside for his work with the Devil was an inner black hole from which came the constant cries 'There is no God! The cosmic deity is all!'

(via Covert History)

Similar to Maria Agreda's recruitment by King Philip and John Dee by Queen Elizabeth, Robert Monroe's astral navigations were weaponized by the Pentagon, which schooled itself in his Virginia institute for bilocation. In Journeys Out of the Body, he writes of "raising himself out of the physical" and whoring about on the astral plane, eventually having "sex" - a "giddy electrical-type shock" - with with a female friend who, the next week, volunteered the information that she had had an erotic dream about Monroe the same night, in which he had given her "a detailed physical examination." In 16th Century Spain Monroe would have been called an incubus, and he would have been burned alive.

(via Rigorous Intuition)

ce399 notes:

Perhaps the weaponization of demonolotry is arrived at through some form of holographic or virtual reality (a technology long-suppressed by the Pentagon) 'cage', in which the target is enclosed in a three-dimensional 'grid' or prison capable of remote manipulations of psychical and/or physical and mental functions. In this way, the subject is deceived into believing s/he has come into contact with demonic entities.

Similarly, it is not far fetched to imagine a type of electro-magnetic 'gulag' or 'grid' surrounding an entire nation state in prison camp-like fashion: with sonic projection, psychotronic, brain scanning technologies, psycho-acoustic correction, active-denial, synthetic telepathy and other remote electronic harassment systems serving a function similar to prison security search lights, guard towers, prison dogs and security personnel.

News items in corporate media communications can also trigger an accompanying message in a method similar to a midi sample in computer generated music in order to 'blanket' a target geographic area with  spectral or psionic transmissions conveying Pentagon PSYOP deception and misinformation - this further strengthens the effect (a 'force multiplier') of the word-image communication broadcasts by 'traditional' media.

Satellite based super computer systems connected to telecommunications equipment can also be used (with or without the intervention of  'live' human operators) in order to arrive at certain 'magickal' calculations: spells, rituals, ceremonies or other 'left hand path' rites utilized in predatory spiritualism or Luciferian witchcraft.

The 'Nova Mechanism' is a global conflict exploitation artificial intelligence program (a joint American Psychological Association and Pentagon venture) which, in part, 'piggy-backs' on electro-magnetic 'pollution' and web 2.0 technologies.

Pharmaceuticals Found in U.S. Water Supply

A vast array of pharmaceuticals - including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones - have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans, an investigation has found.

To be sure, the concentrations of these pharmaceuticals are tiny, measured in quantities of parts per billion or trillion, far below the levels of a medical dose. Also, utilities insist their water is safe.

But the presence of so many prescription drugs - and over-the-counter medicines like acetaminophen and ibuprofen - in so much of our drinking water is heightening worries among scientists of long-term consequences to human health.

In the course of a five-month inquiry, the AP discovered that drugs have been detected in the drinking-water supplies of 24 metropolitan areas - from Southern California to northern New Jersey, from Detroit to Louisville, Ky.

Water providers rarely disclose results of pharmaceutical screenings, unless pressed, the investigation found. For example, the head of a group representing major California suppliers said the public "doesn't know how to interpret the information" and might be unduly alarmed.

How do the drugs get into the water?    

People take pills. Their bodies absorb some of the medication, but the rest of it passes through and is flushed down the toilet. The wastewater is treated before it is discharged into reservoirs, rivers or lakes. Then, some of the water is cleansed again at water-treatment plants and piped to consumers. But most treatments do not remove all drug residue.

And while researchers do not yet understand the exact risks from decades of persistent exposure to random combinations of low levels of pharmaceuticals, recent studies - which have gone virtually unnoticed by the general public - have found alarming effects on human cells and wildlife.

"We recognize it is a growing concern, and we're taking it very seriously," said Benjamin H. Grumbles, assistant administrator for water at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Findings widespread    

The AP reviewed hundreds of scientific reports, analyzed federal drinking-water databases, visited environmental study sites and treatment plants and interviewed more than 230 officials, academics and scientists. It also surveyed the nation's 50 largest cities and a dozen other major water providers, as well as smaller community water providers in all 50 states.

Here are some of the key test results:    

Anti-epileptic and anti-anxiety medications were detected in a portion of the treated drinking water for 18.5 million people in Southern California.

A sex hormone was detected in San Francisco's drinking water.    

Officials in Philadelphia said testing there discovered 56 pharmaceuticals or byproducts in treated drinking water, including medicines for pain, infection, high cholesterol, asthma, epilepsy, mental illness and heart problems. Sixty-three pharmaceuticals or byproducts were found in the city's watersheds.

Researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey analyzed a Passaic Valley Water Commission drinking-water-treatment plant, which serves 850,000 people in northern New Jersey, and found a metabolized angina medicine and the mood-stabilizing carbamazepine in drinking water.

The drinking water for Washington, D.C., and surrounding areas tested positive for six pharmaceuticals.    

The federal government doesn't require any testing and hasn't set safety limits for drugs in water. Of the 62 major water providers contacted, the drinking water for only 28 was tested. Among the 34 that haven't: Houston, Chicago, Miami, Baltimore, Phoenix, Boston and New York City's Department of Environmental Protection, which delivers water to 9 million people.

Some providers screen only for one or two pharmaceuticals, leaving open the possibility that others are present.    

Watersheds affected    

The investigation also indicates that watersheds, the natural sources of most of the nation's water supply, also are contaminated. Tests were conducted in the watersheds of 35 of the 62 major providers surveyed, and pharmaceuticals were detected in 28.

Yet officials in six of those 28 metropolitan areas said they did not go on to test their drinking water - Fairfax, Va.; Montgomery County in Maryland; Omaha, Neb.; Oklahoma City; Santa Clara, and New York City.

The New York state health department and the USGS tested the source of the city's water, upstate. They found trace concentrations of heart medicine, infection fighters, estrogen, anti-convulsants, a mood stabilizer and a tranquilizer.

In several cases, officials at municipal or regional water providers said pharmaceuticals had not been detected, but test results from independent researchers showed otherwise.

Of the 28 major metropolitan areas where tests were performed on drinking water supplies, only Albuquerque; Austin, Texas; and Virginia Beach, Va.; said tests were negative. The drinking water in Dallas has been tested, but officials are awaiting results. Arlington, Texas, acknowledged that traces of a pharmaceutical were detected in its drinking water but cited post-9/11 security concerns in refusing to identify the drug.

A spreading problem    

Contamination is not confined to the United States. More than 100 different pharmaceuticals have been detected in lakes, rivers, reservoirs and streams throughout the world. Studies have detected pharmaceuticals in waters throughout Asia, Australia, Canada and Europe - even in Swiss lakes and the North Sea.

In the United States, the problem isn't confined to surface waters. Pharmaceuticals also permeate aquifers deep underground, source of 40 percent of the nation's water supply. Federal scientists who drew water in 24 states from aquifers near contaminant sources such as landfills and animal feed lots found minuscule levels of hormones, antibiotics and other drugs.

Perhaps it's because Americans have been taking drugs - and flushing them unmetabolized or unused - in growing amounts. Over the past five years, the number of U.S. prescriptions rose 12 percent to a record 3.7 billion, while nonprescription drug purchases held steady around 3.3 billion, according to IMS Health and The Nielsen Co.

"People think that if they take a medication, their body absorbs it and it disappears, but of course that's not the case," said EPA scientist Christian Daughton, one of the first to draw attention to the issue of pharmaceuticals in water in the United States.

The cellular level    

Some drugs, including widely used cholesterol fighters, tranquilizers and anti-epileptic medications, resist modern drinking water and wastewater treatment processes. Plus, the EPA says there are no sewage treatment systems specifically engineered to remove pharmaceuticals.

Veterinary drugs also play a role. Pets are now treated for a wide range of ailments- sometimes with the same drugs as humans. The inflation-adjusted value of veterinary drugs rose by 8 percent, to $5.2 billion, over the past five years, according to an analysis of data from the Animal Health Institute.

Jeff Donn, Martha Mendoza and Justin Pritchard
The Associated Press
Mar10.2008
http://www.dailybulletin.com/ci_8514600?source=rss