January 10, 2001

Subject: Miscellaneous Subjects #55: A way to comment on Bush's cabinet choices + Now That Bush Is President + A Feedback + Whales play a sea of music + Silver Dove Convergence 2001 + Petition for Peace + Flying gyroplanes with hydrino energy + New Technology May Run Fossil Fuels Into the Ground + More on the `cube' + What will those wacky radioactive recyclers think of next? + VOTE!! Battle resumes over drilling in Arctic refuge + THE RULES OF THE ROADLESS + The Ten Worst Corporations of the Year 2000 + CALENDAR OF CALAMITIES - 2000 + Words from Ralph Waldo Emerson

Hello everyone

Here is another very diversified compilation for your "enlightened" information. The new energy breakthroughs mentioned below (especially the "cube") are worth a look...

Jean Hudon
Earth Rainbow Network Coordinator
http://www.cybernaute.com/earthconcert2000


Date: Tue, 09 Jan 2001
From: "Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D." <jackie@deepteaching.com>
Subject: A way to comment on Bush's cabinet choices

Dear Friends,

George Bush has begun to turn back the clock for our nation's ecosystems, social programs, and species. His appointments to key cabinet posts send a clear message that our nation's life support systems are at risk from those who would put greed above all else.

The Act For Change website, a project of Working Assets, has set up an easy method for you to email your congresspeople to express your concern over Bush's appointments. Remember, Senate confirmation is required for his appointments, so we still do have a voice.

Click on the links below and you will be taken to the Act For Change site where you can voice your opinion on these appointments or on many other important issues.

Thanks for your time.

Jackie

FORWARDED MESSAGE FOLLOWS

From: "ActForChange" <takeaction@actforchange.com>

Happy New Year from ActForChange!

You are receiving this update because you previously sent an e-mail through ActForChange.com. Your continued engagement is needed to challenge two particularly controversial nominations to President-Elect Bush's cabinet, the nominations of Senator John Ashcroft to serve as Attorney General and Gale Norton to serve as Secretary of the Interior.

Throughout the 2000 election, candidate Bush promised to be a "uniter" for our country, not a "divider." When a partisan Supreme Court narrowly awarded the election to George W. Bush by a slim 5-4 decision, President-elect Bush pledged to bring the country together.

His nomination of Senator Ashcroft -- one of the right wing's leading lights -- to serve as Attorney General exposes Bush's obligation to the fundamentalist activists who propelled him to the Republican nomination.

His nomination of Gale Norton -- who the League of Conservation Voters calls a "throwback to the James Watt era -- one of the darkest periods of natural resource exploitation" -- exposes Bush's obligations to the mining, grazing, tree-cutting and drilling industries who seek unfettered access to public lands.

Please add your voice to this effort by joining us in our campaign to reject the Ashcroft and Norton nominations -- this year's first critical fights for justice and the environment.

Click here to urge your Senators to join the Block Ashcroft Campaign. http://www.workingforchange.com/activism/action.cfm?itemid=10494

Click here to urge your Senators to join the Block Norton Campaign. http://www.workingforchange.com/activism/action.cfm?itemid=10495

There is strength in numbers! So once you take action, please forward this e-mail to friends and associates so they can speak out too. Confirmation hearings are expected to be completed soon after the Inauguration on January 20, so time is of the essence.

The next few weeks are also our last opportunity to urge President Clinton to enact some critical new policies. Here are just a few of the Activism Alerts currently posted on ActForChange that we want President Clinton to complete in the weeks before he leaves office. He does respond to public pressure, and the thousands of messages sent to him via ActForChange already helped convince him to protect the Steller Sea Lion, clean up dirty diesel engines, and enact the roadless area protection plan.

Click on these links to make your voice heard on these remaining issues:

Support International Treaty to Ban Land Mines http://www.workingforchange.com/activism/action.cfm?ItemId=1211

Protect Arctic Wildlife Refuge From Oil Drilling http://www.workingforchange.com/activism/action.cfm?ItemId=1244

Help Rape Survivors Get Needed Treatment http://www.workingforchange.com/activism/action.cfm?ItemId=10448

With appreciation,

Michael Kieschnick President, Working Assets




From: "Kerry Boytzun" <successmachine@home.com>
Subject: VOTE!! Battle resumes over drilling in Arctic refuge
Date: Sun, 7 Jan 2001

Please vote NO at this website.... Why we have to continue to fight for
these irreplaceable natural areas is beyond me...

http://www.msnbc.com/news/500606.asp?0nm=N22A




Date: Mon, 08 Jan 2001
From: Shamanes <shamanes@bigfoot.com>
Subject: Now That Bush Is President

Dear Jean:

I have never felt so stronly called to write a letter. Please share it,
if it feels appropriate.

Well, now that Bush is actually been certified by the Senate, we must
finally accept the fact that he is our President. There are many of us
that are horrified by this prospect because he seems to represent the
illuminati forces of control and domination. And there is a lot of fear
mongering going around about how these "powers that be" intend to put
into action their nefarious dreams.

In choosing to believe that I create my own reality, if I listen to and
react to these ideas, I am vibrating in harmony with these fears,
whether I agree with them or NOT.

How can I look at this situation in the most positive light? Well, I
have come to a few conclusions that I would like to share with you.

1. From what we have seen thus far, as he has been compared to Dan
Quail, it would seem that Bush Jr. is the one most likely to be the
primary opportunity for "that which needs to be revealed" to be revealed
on a spectacular scale (the Florida elections already being a case in
point)! We all know that this needs to happen in order for the changes
needed to occur in our government.

From this, many, including myself, are taking a more active role in
"stating their truth" and taking a more active role in these goings on.

a) Many citizens are writing their representatives to abolish the
outdated and redundant/ridiculous Electoral College. And I encourage
all of you to do the same.

b) The same goes for standardizing voting practices for Federal
Elections.

c) I don't know how many of you saw the news clip of the Housee
ratifying the Presidential election, but with Gore leading the
proceedings (in the highest integrity, I might add), a few of the black
Senators, including Maxine Waters, stood up to formally protest "the
frauduentl election practices in Florida!" Gore, as he should, held the
line of the rules of order and told them that the reason for their
objections was not appropriate to the proceeding, in which case (I think
it was Ms. Waters who said) I don't care!" Gore brought the meeting
back to order and finished the business at hand which ratified the
President and publicly requested that the country stand behind him - and
many (if not all) of the black senators walked out!

I thought it was an incredibly beautiful moment. The senators were
standing up speaking their truth, in order and in integrity. And the
Vice President was doing his job, holding the space, also in beauty and
integrity.

What a glorious and enlightened beginning! May it continue in the same
spirit!

The point of all this is that when I was meditating last night, I
received a strong vision of what an incredible opportunity this is for
all of us! Here is the perfect set-up and catalyst for the changes we
so clearly need.

From what I understand about the law of attraction, if we choose to buy
into the fears of what can happen that we don't want, we are lost. Yet,
like Y2K, all of this can be less than a blip on the radar screen, if
when we review these fears, we remember to put our strong attention, on
what we would prefer instead, we can experience some of the greatest
changes in our government that we have ever seen, since its inception.

Firstly, it is important to keep a reasonable perspective on what power
the President actually has (remember how Clinton tried to reform health
care and how far he got).

Secondly, remember that the power of the people is growing...remain
active, not only through group meditation, but also by stating your
views and desires to your elected officials - the Internet is a powerful
weapon in this. I encourage those of you who are programming minded to
create sites that facilitate clear, factual, multi-dimensional
information to the public on the issues, making available software that
makes it easy to send our messages to as many as need to hear them for
each particular issue - quick responses of the public to elected
officials and anyone else that is relevant. But remembering in our
communications, not to push against, but rather to offer win-win
solutions to the issues at hand.

I just heard that the person appending the HMO bill with the requirement
for herbal prescriptions has just pulled it due to the hailstorm of
Emails from his constituents! IT WORKS!

For each of you that sees the truth in this, I ask you to make this man,
our President, the object of your prayers every day, with all of your
passion! It is time for those of us who are awake and who vibrate in
harmony with this message to hold the frequencies of love and our
highest dreams, so that we are not swallowed by what only seems to be
fearful circumstances. They are always grand opportunities for change.

As I see it, here is a golden opportunity to really walk our talk and I
am feeling so powerfully called now to hold the LOVE vibrations as
strongly as we can in this time. However many of you can feel the
truth in this, please join me. We need NUMBERS standing in their light
and full divine power. This can be the most delicious, joyous challenge
of our lifetimes NOW.

SUPPORT OUR PRESIDENT THROUGH OUR VISION OF THE NEW DREAM...

Pray that he fulfills his potential for the golden illumination and
catalyst for the great changes we are dreaming of - in love, beauty,
ease and grace.

Pray that the light within him grows and illuminates his consciousness
so that these changes are ushered in through the highest love
frequencies with win-wins for all in beauty, ease and grace.

Let us pray for greater truth, greater personal power for the people,
and more true freedom, all around.

I look forward to this time with great anticipation. Please join me in
holding the light.

Love to you all,

Shama




From: CoetaMills@aol.com
Date: Mon, 8 Jan 2001
Subject: Re: Miscellaneous Subjects #54:

A thousand thank you's to Rev. Pat Mueller for telling it like it is for
poor women in the world. The only organization that I know working toward the
education of women in poverty is the U.N. and Planned Parenthood. Bless
Planned Parenthood for the work that they do -- and yes I give dontations to
P.P. The programs that give small loans to women to start businesses also
gives poor women better options.

Coeta Mills




Date: Mon, 08 Jan 2001
From: Mirage <mirage@PObox.com>
Subject: Sea Music

http://archives.theglobeandmail.com

Whales play a sea of music
Songs of humpbacks similar to ours
in rhythm and length, researchers say

ANNE McILROY

Saturday, January 6, 2001

The undersea songs of humpback whales are so similar to human songs that some U.S. researchers say the marine mammals are true composers that follow rules similar to those used by musicians. In a paper on biology and music published this week in the journal Science, Patricia Gray of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and her colleagues say singing humpback whales use rhythms similar to those humans use in music and use repeated refrains that form rhymes.

"This suggests that whales use rhyme in the same way we do: as a mnemonic device to help them remember complex material," the paper says. The researchers found that whale songs fall between the length of a modern ballad and a movement of a symphony. "Perhaps they have chosen the same length of performance as we have because, with their large cerebral cortex, they have a similar attention span to humans," the paper says.

Humpback whales are not the only animals with advanced musical capabilities. California researcher Luis Baptista, who died last year, drew parallels between bird songs and music, showing that birds often use the same rhythmic variations, pitch relationships and combinations of notes as composers.

The canyon wren's trill, for example, is very similar to Chopin's Revolutionary étude. The notes in a wood thrush's song accurately follow the musical scale. Some birds use instruments other than their voices. The palm cockatoo of Northern Australia and New Guineau breaks twigs from trees to use as drumsticks on hollow logs. The male bird drums as part of its courtship ritual.

All human cultures make music. The earliest evidence of instruments dates back between 4,000 and 53,000 years ago, when our Cro-Magnon and Neanderthal ancestors made flutes. Scientists recently reconstructed the instruments and found they sound like modern recorders.

"Remarkably, many different types of scales can be played on reconstructed prehistoric flutes and the sounds are pure and haunting," Ms. Gray's paper says. "Given the sophistication of these 50,000-year-old prehistoric instruments, it is quite possible that humans have been making music for several hundred thousand years."

Whales, birds and people learn music in similar ways, the researchers say, either from their parents or their peers. Songs by whales in different oceans are not at all alike, and the songs change over time. Scientists can identify a population of whales by their song. Some researchers presented with a collection of tapes can even identify the year the recording was made.

Recently, a few humpbacks from the Indian Ocean off the west coast of Australia migrated to the Pacific Ocean, an unusual event. Within three years, the Pacific whales had stopped singing their song in favour of the music introduced by the whales from the Indian Ocean.

The researchers conclude their survey of music and biology by speculating on why so many people find meaning and emotion in music even though they can't explain their feelings." Such an impenetrable vagueness about this most basic of human creations seems to signal that the roots of music lie closer to our ancient lizard brain than to our more recent reasoning cortex, that music has a more ancient origin even than human language."

Copyright © 2001 Globe Interactive

http://www.globeinteractive.com/




HERE IS SOME INFO ON AN UPCOMING EVENT IN THAILAND. FOR MORE DETAILS PLEASE CONTACT DIRECTLY "Katharina Bless" <soma@loxinfo.co.th> WHO IS ORGANIZING IT.

Silver Dove Convergence 2001

SYNERGISTIC HEALING ATTUNEMENT

March 5th - 9th, near Chiang Mai, Thailand

After the success of the Silver Dove Congress 2000, the PAN Light Link Gathering and the Peace Pole Ceremony held in Chiang Mai from February 11th to 19th, 2000, the concept for the 2001 event has taken shape. We request the presence of the living Angels and Healers from all healing traditions and from all parts of the world to converge in Chiang Mai for a Synergistic Healing Attunement to heal the planet and support the energy shift.

There will be no talks, presentations, workshops or scheduled meetings, but just a continuous three-day healing session, unfolding spontaneously from its own inspiration, energy, and spiritual guidance. The participants will not come to get something, to give talks, teach, promote their healing techniques, do business or work, but only to give and share their healing energies for the benefit of the planet and all beings, and just be there in a space of love, peace, light, and joy.

The magic gift they will all personally receive, the gift that all participants of the 2000 event have received, is a great blessing and a deep healing. The participants of the 2001 Retreat will be the chosen Healers from all over the world sent here by their spiritual guidance to manifest the healing power in Asia. They will have the unique opportunity to meet each other, to create new links and friendship and weave together a strong inter-racial and inter-religious healing network.

The Synergistic Healing Attunement will take place in the sacred mountains above Chiang Mai, one of the major points of the planetary energy grid. The chosen location is situated in a remote valley not far from the Myanmar border, about 3 hours drive from Chiang Mai, where a Royal Project is dedicated to the organic culture of all kind of flowers, trees and vegetables. We will have our gatherings in the small Convention Center of the Royal Project or outside in the beautiful flower gardens. Close by is the comfortable and peaceful Doi Angkhan Resort that will be our host.

On the second day of our Retreat we will have a Ceremony to erect another Peace Pole, one more acupuncture needle for the healing of Mother Gaia.

After the Retreat, everyone is welcome to stay for the weekend to relax, deepen their new acquaintances and interrelationships, and enjoy the good life and beauties of Thailand.

Please ask your spiritual guidance if you are meant to come to Chiang Mai and reserve the date!

CLIP




From: "Edwin Zimmerli" <holo@active.ch>
Subject: Petition for Peace
Date: Mon, 8 Jan 2001

Dear Jean,

Please help to spread the information about the petition to make the birthday of John Lennon, a day of peace. From 2005 on all Radio TV and Online-Stations will play John Lennon's "Imagine" on Oct. 9th at noon.

To sign go to:

http://www.petitiononline.com/Imagine/petition.html

Thank you for your wonderful service.

Edwin Zimmerli
GaiaNET-Network for Global Meditations




Date: Sun, 7 Jan 2001
Subject: Flying gyroplanes with hydrino energy
From: art b Rosenblum <artr@juno.com>

(...)

It will eventually be possible to fly gyroplanes with hydrino energy, but it may, take a few years before that kind of flight is avialable. For "those who tuned in late" gyroplanes are a new type of autogyro far simpler to fly and more economical than helicopters, yet they land and take off vertically and are totally safe in event of engine failure.

By flying at all times in an autorotation mode, they simply descend slowly if power is lost, and can land anywhere. They will be coming out in early 2002. Presently five are already flying and you can watch on a video or computer CD ROM. A photo is at www.gyroplane.cjb.net
Contact Art at Aquarian for more info.

Peace and Love,

Art Rosenblum <artr@juno.com>

Note from Jean: Interesting flying machine indeed. To find out more about hydrino energy, pay a visit at www.blacklightpower.com - describing Dr. Randell Mills' invention about which Hal Fox, *the* expert reference with regard to new energy devices, wrote the following a couple days ago (to get a copy of the new energy journal he publishes, contact him directly at <halfox@slkc.uswest.net>:

"I can testify that Dr. Randell Mills has a working new-energy device that provides thermal energy. At least the several papers and data that I have had from Dr. Mills over the years (beginning
in 1989) lead me to believe that he is a man of principle. In my judgment, his company will make money both from the development and sales of new types of chemical compounds and also from the sale of thermal energy devices.

There are four other devices being commercialized. Three of them put out direct electrical energy and one puts out a reported 20 times as much thermal energy as input electrical energy."

AND IN ANOTHER RECENT EMAIL. HAL ALSO WROTE:

(...) There are new-energy devices that will be available commercially during 2001-2002 (my best
estimate) that will be considerably better than motor-generator sets fueled by gasoline or diesel. Also they will not have a polluting exhaust, not be noisy in operation and will be able to
be installed in homes, offices, and greenhouses.

For the latest developments in new-energy devices, subscribe to the Journal of New Energy.

Best personal regards,

Hal Fox,
Editor, J. New Energy

P.S. Here is some information on solar energy (also sent by Hal Fox):

On a cloudless day, the sun's energy is about one kilowatt per square meter (a little larger than a square yard) if the flat surface is perpendicular to the sun's rays. Up to the most recent developments in solar panels, the efficiency of converting sunlight to electricity is less than twenty percent. On cloudy days, or when the sun's rays are not perpendicular to the solar panels, the overall efficiency is less. As we progress and use more electrical energy in our homes and offices, it is evident that we will need new sources of energy. Fortunately, the vast amount of energy that is everywhere present in the universe can now be used as one of our energy sources. This energy is enormous but, until very recently, there has not been found a method for tapping this energy source. (This energy source is known by various names, vacuum energy, space energy, zero-point energy, ZPE, etc.) To get an idea of some scientist's estimates of the incredible amount of space energy: If you could transfer all of the space energy in one cubic foot of space into thermal energy, you could boil the Atlantic Ocean!




Date: Sun, 7 Jan 2001
From: Mark Graffis <ab758@virgin.vip.vi>
Subject: New Technology May Run Fossil Fuels Into the Ground

This showed up at ABC's site after i requested they post something on it, don't know but that they might have anyway. It was a feature segment yesterday on ABC World News.

http://www.abcnews.go.com/onair/WorldNewsSaturday/altpower010106.html

By Jim Goldman ABCNEWS.com

Jan. 6 - There's an excitement going on in the environmental movement over the development in solar energy- a development that some hope will eventually run rings around fossil fuels.

Technicians have developed a solar powered flying wing that will be able to stay aloft for six months at a time.

The airplane generates all of its own energy, and stores its own energy, which has been the problem for solar up until now, and can exist completely independently of outside energy sources.

Engineers say the technology that powers the aircraft could solve some of the energy industry's biggest challenges - generating and then storing solar energy and making it cost-effective.

A working prototype of a fuel cell coupled with this new, high-tech solar panel made from silicon or refined sand. The flat silicon solar panels are arranged in a cube - and that with the fuel cell ends up being about the size of a Rubik's cube. Just 10 of those cubes would be enough to generate enough electrical power for an entire house.

According to Dick Swanson, CEO of Sun Power, they're talking about the future of power being sunlight, which is free, and sand, which is probably the most prevalent material on the planet.

This is how it works: The sun's energy splits water into hydrogen and oxygen during the day. Then, a fuel cell then brings the two gases back together to make electricity at night. "This energy storage system is actually a fairly elegant, simple system, we think," says John Delfrate of NASA.

Simple and Effective - So Far The flying wing is one example which some day could be used to monitor the environment and relay telecommunications data.

Power plants will be next, using thousands of solar cell cubes. "We can produce this for less than $200 for 200 watts, making it the first approach that we believe can truly compete with fossil fuels," Swanson says of the cubes. In the future, far fewer cubes could be used for personal power plants.

"It takes about 10 of these to power one house," Swanson says. For now, solar power still costs three times as much as oil and gas. Analysts say that is the final challenge the industry needs to overcome before it comes a realistic energy alternative.




Date: Tue, 9 Jan 2001
From: Mark Graffis <ab758@virgin.vip.vi>
Subject: More on the `cube'

The company is real:
http://www.sunpowercorp.com/

And appears to have done the flight stunt before:

http://www.cnnsf.com/newsvault/output/solarflyer.html
http://www.cnn.com/2000/NATURE/10/31/solar.fuel.cell/

--___ __o
-- _ \<,_
-- (_)/ (_)
Mark Graffis




Date: Thu, 04 Jan 2001
From: lorraine lapp <satori@pubnix.net>
Subject: What will those wacky radioactive recyclers think of next?

Here is a collection of links for the dubious ...
http://www.citizen.org/cmep/radmetal/radioactive_recyclingindex.htm

Making the connections
http://www.gasp-pgh.org/hotline/win98_3.html
August 11, 1999: One Hundred Eighty-Seven Organizations Call on Vice President Gore to Stop Radioactive Recycling into Consumer Products (use above link to visit site)

http://www.cbsnews.com/now/story/0,1597,146650-412,00.shtml

http://mims.inel.gov/faq/
Questions about low level waste

A collection of links http://google.yahoo.com/bin/query?p=Radioactive+Waste+recycled+into+Consumer+products&hc=0&hs=0




DAILY GRIST
05 Jan 2001
Environmental news from GRIST MAGAZINE
http://www.gristmagazine.com

1.
THE RULES OF THE ROADLESS
Pres. Clinton today moved to put almost a third of the country's
national forestland forever off-limits to road-building and
commercial logging. The rule to protect 58.5 million acres of land
will effectively prohibit oil and gas drilling as well, and could go
a long way toward limiting off-road vehicle access. The
road-building ban covers big pieces of the Tongass National Forest in
Alaska that were exempted in a draft proposal of the rule. "This is
a great moment in history," said Ken Rait, who as director of the
Heritage Forests Campaign helped lead the enviro effort to get the
rule enacted. But Alaska Republican Sens. Ted Stevens and Frank
Murkowski said they would fight the rule, and Idaho Gov. Dirk
Kempthorne (R) vowed to sue over the issue. Proponents of the rule
said that the incoming Bush administration would have to conduct
extensive public hearings and find a strong reason to reverse the
rule before it could do so.

Washington Post, Eric Pianin, 05 Jan 2001
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20395-2001Jan4.html

Portland Oregonian, Michael Milstein, 05 Jan 2001
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf?/news/oregonian/01/01/lc_62r
oads05.frame


New York Times, Douglas Jehl, 05 Jan 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/05/politics/05ROAD.html

Denver Post, Theo Stein, 05 Jan 2001
http://www.denverpost.com/news/news0105i.htm




From: "Kiki Paquet" <cuette@hotmail.com>
Subject: Happy New Year
Date: Tue, 09 Jan 2001

Hello dearest friends!

I'm wishing all of you a wonderful Year 2001. Please receive my warmest Happiness and Health wishes.

It's the first year of the 21st century, will it be spiritual or will it not be at all? (French minister and philosopher Andre Malraux wrote "the 21st century will be spiritual or will not be at all"). That is for us to choose.

To start very concretely, I'm sending you the message below, with a boycotting call against those corporations and their branches.

I've been quite absent from the net lately, but I think of you all, you are in my heart.

Love, hugs and kisses

Kiki

----Original Message Follows----
From: Joe Fleury <bidoche@bluewin.ch>
Subject: Fwd: The 10 Worst Corporations
Date: Tue, 02 Jan 2001

The Ten Worst Corporations of the Year appears in the December 2000 issue of the "Multinational Monitor," founded by consumer advocate and two time Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader. The companies appearing on this year's list earned their spot for the following reasons:

1/ Aventis: Contaminating the food supply with genetically engineered crops not approved for human consumption.

2/ BAT: Promoting and facilitating cigarette smuggling on a global scale.

3/ BP/Amoco: Multiple fines for environmental violations and failure to pay royalties to the federal government.

4/ Doubleclick: Rubbing against the edge of Internet privacy protections.

5/ Ford/Firestone: Placing the lethal combination of Ford Explorers and Firestone tires on the road.

6/ Glaxo Wellcome: Blocking efforts to distribute cheap, generic AIDS drugs in poor African countries.

7/ Lockheed Martin: Testing a toxic component of rocket fuel on humans.

8/ Philipps Petroleum: Multiple fatal accidents at a petrochemical facility in Houston.

9/ Smithfield Foods: Consolidating the meat packing business to the detriment of family farms, and spreading factory farms that are polluting rural America.

10/ Titan International: Ongoing strikebreaking attempt against about 1,000 members of the United Steelworkers of America

"The Ten Worst Corporations of the Year" is posted at:
http://www.essential.org/monitor/mm2000/00december/enemies.html.




Note from Jean: If you are interested to read about a Calendar of GMO Calamities compiled by the Rural Advancement Foundation International for the year 2000, check it at http://www.rafi.org

HERE IS AN EXCERPT TO GIVE YOU AN IDEA OF WHAT IT IS...

CALENDAR OF CALAMITIES - 2000

Biotech's "Generation One" - Travails of a Misspent Youth

The RAFI Revue ("tongue-in-cheek") of the scientific, political and media disasters that struck the Agbiotech industry since the BioSafety Protocol was adopted in January.

January, 2000

- Soiled reputation: As delegations readied for the Montreal biosafety meeting, US and Venezuelan researchers confirmed that the Bt toxin in transgenic maize could (contrary to industry expectations) escape into the soil killing larvae up to 25 days after the break-out.(1)

February, 2000

- Hard to resist: Canadian scientists acknowledged that Monsanto's Roundup, Cyanamid's Pursuit, and Aventis's Liberty herbicides lost their effectiveness against weeds only 2 to 3 years after an Alberta farmer planted the companies' GM canola seeds. (2)

March, 2000

- Vowel language: A long-suppressed U.S. Government memo dating to 1993 revealed an experiment in which 4 of 20 female rodents fed the FlavrSavr (a GM tomato now owned by Monsanto) suffered gross stomach lesions.(3)

- "Play possum" plot: New Zealand scientists proposed to develop GM carrots engineered to sterilize possums when eaten. Possums are threatening the country's crops.(4) Scientists pooh-poohed concern that the carrots might have the same effect on people, and insisted the carrots could be kept separate from the human food chain if necessary.

- The "Which Blair Project": Tony Blair reversed his position of a year earlier ("the Prime Minister is very strongly minded that these [GM] products are safe.") and told readers of The Independent that "there is no doubt that there is potential for harm from GM food."(5) Further flip flops are widely predicted.

April, 2000

- Weevil wars: It was found that GM cotton that "volunteered" in GM soybean fields may be bringing the dreaded cotton boll weevil back into the USA as a major pest.(6)

- A-maize-ing pace:, American maize growers were shunning GM seeds because their 1998/99 exports to Europe had dropped to 137,000 tonnes from 2 million tonnes one year earlier.(7) The announcement came on the heels of media reports that major potato processors and fast-food chains were warning growers to avoid GM potatoes.

May, 2000

- "Safe" wherever they are? GM seeds were routinely - though accidentally - shipped to Europe by U.S. and Canadian seed companies who couldn't seem to keep their conventional seeds separate from their GM lines.(8) In the following days, the sloppy inventory management problem spread throughout Western Europe as country after country found their fields contaminated with illegal and unwanted GM crops. (New Zealanders were assured that such stock management problems could never occur with carrots.)

CLIP




From: "Harmonia" <harmonia@curinfo.com>

"To laugh often and much,
to win the respect of intelligent people
and the affection of children,
to earn the appreciation of honest critics
and endure the betrayal of false friends,
to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others,
to leave the world a bit better,
whether by a healthy child,
a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition;
to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded!"

- Ralph Waldo Emerson







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