|
\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/) the UP! //:-) 138 nov 19 2002 la - la - la - lap-toppling da system! (\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/)(\o/) IS SADDAM AS BAD AS HE’S BIN DEMONISED? p.2 WHY IS THE DINOSAUR WEARING NO CLOTHES? A SIMPLETON’S 5 QUESTIONS ON IRAQ humanity will never allow the worst case scenario! U.S. A MENACE TO WORLD: CHOMSKY THE CULTURAL CREATIVES / A NEW POLITICAL COMPASS p.12 The Miracle At Wisconsin High School BUY THE RAINFOREST!
U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U UP P P P P P P P
P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P
The UP!GRADEmag
(or just the "UP")
is a global edutainment round-up,
‘broadcast’ weekly to =[10,711]=
Alternative// Activist// Zippy// Trance// New Age folks
who’ve been recommended to the Parallel YOUniversity//Megatripolis
Dance Dept as "showing signs of
life". Since many recipients
choose to forward it to their own lists, we estimate 29,000+
recipients. Further, because
of its less 'specialist' content,
it's increasingly being posted on a variety of sites worldwide,
making a total weekly ‘readership’ of 275,000+U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U UP P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P
* * * * * * ASTRO ENERGY ANALYSIS FOR NOV
20-26 * * * * * *
UP! "Can
enough individuals personally awaken to a reverence for life, and through their
creative actions and interventions, redirect the tendency of society away from
self-destruction?" Alex GreyLOVE THE ONES YOU LOVE! As Venus turns direct, we can move right ahead attracting all the people and things we love. Taking the initiative pays off now. A great weekend for connecting travel and family. Enjoy! Check out Maya’s great website at www.daykeeperjournal.com * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * THIS IS PROBABLY THE LAST FULL UP! FOR A CUPPLA WEEKS AS I’M OFF FOR SOME well earned REST & RE-EDUTAINMENT (IN MALLORCA). THANKS FOR BEING SUCH A GREAT AUDIENCE, YOUR FEEDBACK, APPRECIATION AND SUPPORT, ESPECIALLY BY COVERING THE PLANET’S IDEAS AND DEVELOPMENTS SO THOROUGHLY THAT ALL I OFTEN HAVE TO DO IS TIDY & TART IT UP! AND SEND IT OUT AGAIN ON THE PLANET WAVES. :) ------------------------- AND NOW, IN THE WEEK WHEN A CHANNEL 4 POLL FOUND THAT 33% OF BRITS SAW GEORGE BUSH AS A BIGGER THREAT THAN SADDAM, WE ASK: IS SADDAM AS BAD AS HE’S BIN DEMONISED? 1. THE BRITS FIRST GASSED THE IRAQIS IN 1927 2. AN Army War College STUDY PROVED IT WAS THE IRANIANS WHO USED THE POISON GAS 3. KUWAIT WAS PART OF IRAN UNTIL ‘WE’ INTERFERED NOW READ ON... Sumeria-Chaldea-Mesapotamia-Iraq 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. REGIME CHANGE?! WE’LL GIVE U REGIME CHANGE!!! In 1913, Britain (with oil strategies in mind for the whole area) drew the lines in the sand which bound together incompatible tribes, and separated off tiny, oil rich Kuwait. REGIME CHANGE ONE. Wonder why! NOW!! In 1920, Britain used poison gas on the populace of Iraq to suppress a revolt, demoralising its populace long before Saddam (so we’re told) completed the process. In 1939 the monarch of Iraq, King Ghazi, who was much loved by his people, was eliminated by the Brits, in a secretive manner. REGIME CHANGE TWO. In 1963 Iraq's president Abdul Kassem was bumped off in a CIA coup. REGIME CHANGE THREE. Right, sort that lot out without resorting to a military dictatorship! Thus, what were probably the two most popular 20th-century rulers of Iraq were done in by the UK and US. No surprise, but one could take the view that a more caring attitude is called for from Britain, as having created this modern nation. This is my contribution to help our esteemed Editor from his near-despair, as the world draws nearer to an awful abyss. Nick K. / cambridge uk UP! Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterward. Chinese Proverb looking for the words in response to your piece... and your doubts are my doubts too my friend andi feel much the same. Crisis point, for us, the Earth... the end of History and time... and yet .. and yet... That objective pause, precisely there... so much resonates in it. Hope. And I loved the starshit bit, one up for the UP!, no bullshit shit James Hamilton / camden uk UP! "Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt." William Shakespeare A SIMPLETON’S 5 QUESTIONS ON IRAQ
WHY IS THE DINOSAUR
WEARING NO CLOTHES?
George Hunsinger, Princeton Theological
SeminaryAs I’ve listened to it all, an ordinary citizen with no particular knowledge of foreign policy, the same disturbing questions keep rising to the surface for which I’m unable to find answers. As a sceptic, however, who remembers how the fabricated Gulf of Tonkin incident of 1964 was made the pretext for the horrific escalation of military action in Vietnam, I know they are worth posing. Q. 1: Did Saddam Hussein really gas the Kurds? He is regularly accused of doing so, but the story may not be true. An Army War College study, written by Stephen Pelletiere and Lieutenant Colonel Douglas Johnson, came to the conclusion that he did not. Throughout the Iran-Iraq war, Pelletiere served as the CIA's senior political analyst on Iraq, and Johnson has taught at the U.S. Military Academy. Their study investigated what happened at Halabja, where gas was used by both sides. Saddam, the authors concluded, did not use poison gas against his people. While hundreds of civilians died in the crossfire, what felled them was the kind of gas used by Iranians. The Iranians, however, insisted that the gas came from the Iraqis and, for some reason, their version prevailed in the U.S. Jeffrey Goldberg wrote damningly in the New Yorker about Iraq's role at Halabja, but, when asked by the Village Voice why he’d ignored the War College study, explained that he “trusted other sources”. Hmm. But why ignore significant evidence to the contrary? The New York Times has recently disclosed that the Reagan administration, which supported Iraq against Iran, acquiesced in the use of gas (August 17). According to retired Colonel Walter P. Lang, senior defence intelligence officer at the time, "Iraqi use of gas on the battlefield was not a matter of deep strategic concern." Dilip Hiro says that while Saddam may have gassed civilians, conclusive proof was lacking at the time. "That is where the matter rested for 14 years - until 'gassing his own people' became a catchy slogan to demonise Saddam in the popular American imagination" (Nation, August 28). And whether he did or didn’t, why is it so bad, so much worse than nuking Japan and all the kindsa insane bio-psycho-mass-gm destruction horrors seeping from the US military, and especially when IT WAS BRITAIN, IN 1921, WHO FIRST USED POISON GAS ON THE IRAQI POPULACE to suppress a revolt, thereby demoralising its populace and giving them a rather different attitude to gas than we westerners have, in our govt-engineered ignorance. Q 2: Why did the UN arms inspectors leave Iraq? From 1991-1998 UNSCOM arms inspectors worked throughout Iraq. Did they leave, as we’re constantly told, because they were kicked out by a ruthless tyrant who still, after 7 years!, had something left to hide!? The Washington Post reported that the "United Nations arms inspectors helped collect eavesdropping intelligence used in American efforts to undermine the Iraqi regime" (JAN 8, 1999). According to Swedish diplomat Rolf Ekeus, who ran the UNSCOM operation, the inspections were "manipulated." The U.S., he said, had spies posing as inspectors who were keen, for example, on tracking Saddam's movements - "of interest if one were planning to target him personally." >>> and helping to explain Saddam’s insistence on keeping SOME hiding places in his “many palaces”. The U.S. took punitive measures against alleged Iraqi arms violations. Illegal bombing forays in 1993 and 1996, a heavy four-day U.S. bombing campaign in 1998, unauthorized air strikes since early 1999 on an almost weekly basis. UNSCOM arms inspectors withdrew in 1998 to avoid being bombed by U.S. and British aircraft as much as anything else! "In terms of large-scale weapons of mass destruction programs, these had been fundamentally destroyed or dismantled by the weapons inspectors as early as 1996, so by 1998 we had the situation on the ground under control." Scott Ritter, former UNSCOM inspector. In briefing the incoming Bush administration, former Secretary of Defence William Cohen said: "Iraq poses no threat to its neighbours." Q. 3: Who’s responsible for the devastation wrought in Iraq by economic sanctions? "History's biggest concentration camp" is what Jim Jennings, president of Conscience International, a relief organization, has called Iraq under the sanctions. The sanctions regime, he pleads, is "punishing the people of Iraq in a way that I think most American people, if they could see and understand what is really going on there, would find totally unacceptable in a moral sense. It's cruel, inhumane, it's unconscionable." Whose fault is it that half a million children have died in Iraq since the economic blockade was imposed? Whose fault that the water is contaminated, the hospitals are desperate, the agriculture is ruined and the transportation a shambles? Could Saddam help his people, if he cared, instead of using his money to buy weapons (if that’s what he’s doing)? The U.S. has blocked billions of dollars of imports needed for relief and rehabilitation. According to Denis Halliday and Hans Von Sponeck, both of whom resigned in protest from the UN humanitarian program in Iraq: "The death of 5,000 to 6,000 children a month is mostly due to contaminated water, lack of medicines and malnutrition. The U.S. and the UK governments' delayed clearance of equipment and materials is responsible for this tragedy, not Baghdad." While not easy to sort out the sanctions issue, it seems clear that Saddam alone is not to blame. As Princeton University's Richard Falk has stated: the U.S. and the UK "bear a particularly heavy political, legal, and moral responsibility for the harm inflicted on the people of Iraq." Q. 4: How important is oil as a motive for this war? It is one thing for the U.S. to target Iraq because Saddam supposedly harbours weapons of mass destruction (though according to just war principles and international law that is by no means sufficient). It is quite another if the goal is to seize control of Iraq's oil. At least one cautious administration supporter, Anthony H. Cordesman, senior analyst at Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies, is quite candid: "Regardless of whether we say so publicly," he admits, "we will go to war, because Saddam sits at the center of a region with more than 60% of all the world's oil reserves." Would Americans back this war if they believed it was really about oil? Would they agree that the appalling military, diplomatic and human costs are worth it? >>> what do we all think? would they be prepared to give up their SUVs and their dollar a gallons if they really understood? terence mckenna used to say: “If the truth could be spoken so as to be understood it WOULD be believed.” but you might have to convince them that 100 dead arab muslims does NOT equal one dead american christian and that might be much harder to put into words! For the oil industry, "regime change" in Baghdad will not be meaningful unless it is followed by political stability. To develop the oil reserves, according to one analyst, "you need 2-3 billion dollars, and you don't invest that kind of money without stability." Even if Saddam can be toppled easily (which is by no means certain), "stability" would almost certainly require a puppet military regime and a prolonged, costly armed occupation - not democracy for the Iraqi people as is being trailed. Again, is that really what Americans want? Q. 5: Why the outrage at Iraq now? Perhaps unwittingly, Deputy Secretary of Defence Paul Wolfowitz has recently conceded that any plausible threat from Iraq is perhaps a decade away. "It's too dangerous to wait ten years for them to hit us," he said. "September 11 was nothing compared to what an attack with chemical and biological weapons would be. We have a problem. We're not going to wait forever to solve it." But, without waiting forever, it might be better to solve other problems first. The "regime change" engineered in Afghanistan, for example, is already coming back to haunt us. As former Canadian diplomat Peter Dale Scott has pointed out, Afghan drugs, virtually eliminated under the Taliban, are not only back, but will be used to fund worldwide terrorism and spread misery around the globe. "Thanks to the U.S. intervention," he writes, "Afghanistan will again supply up to 70% of the world's heroin this year. . . . The 2002 crop will be about 85% of the record-breaking 4,500 metric tons harvested in 1999." >>> is george fighting too many wars on too many fronts? yes! dinosaurs think their size alone will see off everybody :) Wayne Morse (D., Ore.) was one of only two senators who voted against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. He saw what was coming when few did. Three years later he said: "We're going to become guilty, in my judgment, of being the greatest threat to the peace of the world. It's an ugly reality, and we Americans don't like to face up to it. I hate to think of the chapter of American history that's going to be written in the future in connection with our outlawry in Southeast Asia." >>> “outlawry” around the globe undoubtedly led to the Twin Terrors. every american reaction since then has filled the ranks of the arab freedom fighters. UP! Fraser, you wrote some very brave things..... Nihil illegitimi carborundum, et carpe diem. With all best wishes from your furious poet friend Rosemary Charlotte Appleton / Thailand UP! PLEASE TAKE ME OFF YOUR MAILING LIST - I'M NOT INTERESTED IN ANY OF YOUR LIBERAL/COMMUNIST IDEAS. PLEASE REFRAIN FROM SENDING ME ANY MORE OF THIS HOGWASH..... IT BORES THE TITS OFF ME Clair Hill UP!
//YOU FEEDBACK
humanity will never allow the worst case scenario!
Fraser - i agree, passionately,
with your opener for this weeks UP!
we should all express our
humanity more often, our concerns at
the state of the world etc - it’s a fundamental part of what makes us human,
brother! Our progress and development have been hijacked on to a course most sane people find unpalatable in the extreme. However, it is the case that humanity has an obligation to both itself and the planet we have been blessed with to redefine the meaning of these narratives - 'development' , 'freedom' 'emancipation' for it is these which have been distorted out of all recognition. Development now means the unfettered pursuit of wealth for a 'Vampire Elite' [there’s no better way to describe it] at the expense of people and planet who suffer from gross exploitation and destruction. Freedom has been hijacked to mean simply 'freedom to consume' [what we’re told and allowed to] while emancipation has been ejected completely from political discourse to be replaced by the assassination of those who were committed to it - i.e. those committed to liberty, freedom and[real] democracy. I’d like to take off specifically on your point about the Balance, the Tao, that presumes the 'swing back' for our current position. This is a problem, and it is this wot is the real 'test' for humanity. We need to determine the form of this re-balance in the 'right way'. For example, the 'War On Terrorism' has been designed - in my view - to create terrorists, to leave people with only a destructive desperation to 'fight back' in a literal sense, thus perpetuating the cynical and brutal justifications of the military-industrial complex, that now presides over the political administration of the most powerful 'democracy' on Earth. We must have faith in ourselves and each other that humanity will NEVER allow the 'worst case' scenario of perpetual conflict and suffering. And this is beyond the scope of demonstrations. We actually need to bring the monetary system - as it exists in its present form - to a grinding halt. Nothing more nothing less. Our politicians must be forced to realise that their authority rests with the people whom they deceive. If they can’t gettit and act - then they’ve no place, no mandate to govern and must leave their positions they’re the biggest disgrace to humanity. They’ve not just been complicit, most are guilty as hell. I feel really sorry for their offspring. Who needs that sort of legacy? And so the question is: what kind of situation we will find ourselves in should humanity succeed in ending the madness - i know for a fact that we can and will. But this question needs answered, as most people are also nervous about the kind of world in a post-vampirecapitalism era. It’s far from complicated actually. Rather, it’s so simple that we tend to overlook it as 'naive' or 'unrealistic' we’ve also been conditioned to believe this lie. The Soviets gave communism a bad name because they tried to force it as an ideology onto people, which never works - u could [and did] make the same comparison to Palestine, Chechnya and the Muslim world in general. Capitalism - especially the mutated, evil monster it’s devolved into over in the 20th century - is incompatible with humanity’s collective interest in maintaining a habitable environment and our freedom, including [ironically]our freedom of consumption. The freedom to have faith, to hold views counter to the vampire elite (i.e. that we do not needthis elite!) and the freedom to decide how we develop. This latter aspect also includes how we produce commodities,from the actual raw materials and technology used (GM?) to our labour in doing so. My first objection is that 'the market' has been wrongfully attributed to the 'capitalist system', like it couldn’t function without it - a fairly blatant lie. Humanity has always operated a market economy, from the very beginning ofour existence. We produce goods for our sustenance and trade any surplus for goods we desire but don’t produce. Since each party to a trade agreement sees an individual benefit it’s a non-exploitative system in which each derives individual benefit. YOU pointed this out in an UP! some time ago, the earliest city which was built on trading in fish for drugs on the Latin American continent. IT’S EASY IF YOU TRY Imagine a world where we still used currency to carry out transactions, still made technological innovation, still enjoyed the fruit of our intellectual development and existence on this beautiful earth, but were not dictated to by a Bank, International Monetary Fund or military-industrial complex on HOW to develop?!! Imagine we produced all our commodities from agriculture [technologically and logistically possible NOW], distributed globally and according to local needs, and traded with others where surplus and additional demand appeared, on fair terms mutually beneficial to both trading parties, where our environment could recover from the years of abuse inflicted upon it for the sake of a quick profit. As Lennon [John] said - 'it's easyif you try'! If we produced say fuel (ethanol) from agricultural waste and specific energy crops such as Cannabis - based on the current price of oil, the labourers required could be paida fair wage. Millions (even billions) would be removed from a cycle of poverty, while benefiting the global environment. And, if such a bio-geological engineering project was carried out globally, on a scale grand enough to completely reverse climate change, we’d actually need toburn some oil to maintain enough atmospheric Carbon to feed our plants!!!! It is all possible. We could even call it international democratic socialism. This is why the 'Dinosaurs' are hell bent on destroying the foundations of international law, undermining the United Nation’s legitimate authority, and negating the real political progress we’ve made over the last 150 years. International law’s an achievement to be proud of- humanity has developed enough to already have in place the political mechanisms required to secure universal human and environmental justice. Let’s rise and reclaim the narratives of ‘modernity’ - freedom (of expression, beliefs etc), emancipation, democracy and justice, they’re all there for the taking AND the sharing. The only question is: HOW MUCH DO WE WANT IT? Peace and love, marc UP! "Follow the path of the unsafe, independent thinker. Expose your ideas to the dangers of controversy. Speak your mind and fear less the label of 'crackpot' than the stigma of conformity. And on issues that seem important to you, stand up and be counted at any cost."Thomas J. Watson SAT NOV 30 uno wot to do... or not to do www.buynothingday.co.uk UP!
“I TREMBLE FOR THE SAFETY
OF MY COUNTRY”
"I see in the near future a
crisis
approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my
country. ... corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high
places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavour to
prolong it's reign by working upon the people’s prejudices until all wealth
is aggregated in a few hands and the
Republic is destroyed."
Abraham LincolnUP! ROBOT PREDATORS, TERRORISTS, & MORALS The Hellfire-C missile fired from a Predator RQ-1A UAV which liquidised the car carrying 6 Islamic terrorists (or so we’re told and how could we ever check it?) raised ethical questions about robots remotely controlled by humans. Talk about limiting jury trials!!! But what sort of reaction will we see when FULLY AUTONOMOUS ROBOT X-45 UCAV starts hitting your neighbour’s car next door?! http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=1380&m=5435 UP! REVOLUTION WITH A CAPITAL “R” feel better, fraser, we all have days where we feel like a Funky Monkey. I felt nearly suicidal after the recent 30% voter turnout elections here.) We all know they killed Senator Wellstone so they can push the Homeland Security agenda through the new Republican Senate next week... Do you still have Civil Liberties in your country? I think if they push us too far, there is going to be a Revolution. Worldwide. With a Capital "R". feel better, we all have days where we feel like a Funky Monkey. (I felt nearly suicidal after the recent 30% voter turnout elections here. We all know they killed Senator Wellstone so they can push the Homeland Security agenda through the new Republican Senate next week... Do you still have Civil Liberties in your country? I think if they push us too far, there is going to be a Revolution. Worldwide. With a Capital "R". Phoenix / Los Angeles UP! "Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important.." Ambrose Redmoon fraser. great issue...maya UP! toronto U.S. A MENACE TO WORLD: CHOMSKY The real axis of evil is the United States, Israel and Turkey, not North Korea, Iraq and Iran, Noam Chomsky proclaimed last night. "Israel is a small country, but it's a military offshoot of the U.S.," the famed political dissident and professor told a crowd of more than 1,000 cramming the pews of Bloor Street United Church in Toronto. "Without U.S. authorization and support, Israel can do virtually nothing and it's not the only case. Turkey is another." While Bush's "Axis Of Evil" allegedly threatens the world with chemical and nuclear weapons, Chomsky's "Axis Of Evil" may be plotting control of the Middle East. Iraq is only the first step, he said. "It is possible plans are under way to dismember Iran and reorganize the whole Middle East," he told the crowd, referring to discussion papers drafted for former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and other reports including in last week’s UP!. "They were discussing plans to reorganize the whole region, expanding the Jordan kingdom to Iraq and Saudi Arabia a kind of Ottomanization of the region with the central power in Jerusalem, and the U.S. running the show with regional authority given to parts." That, he said, had even American hawks frightened. "The U.S. is becoming a menace to its own population and the world, and much of the world is rightly frightened." UP! oxford, uk SAT NOV 23 Undercurrents Alternative News, 16b Cherwell St, Oxford OX4 1BG http://www.undercurrents.org/beyondtv.htm UP! RETURN OF THE CAPTAIN CAPTAIN BEEFHEART's legendary MAGIC BAND has reunited after 20 years and will record a new album this winter. The group, without Beefheart, real name DONALD VAN VLIET, will play the ALL TOMORROW'S PARTIES festival in Britain in April www.antibalas.com UP! Hi Eff.... While I’m sure the movement will develop into a more egalitarian direction in time, time is the commodity we’re most short on. The Right Wing have a fast response/spin cycle which allows them to shape & shade the debate while committees of progressive volunteers are still trying to set meetings up .... One of the simple reasons is money - the forces of darkness, unable to win these debates on clear merit, use the power of money & materialism to get accordance for the big lies (I’ve worked in the Washington DC media scene, so I know about a LOT of dirty compromises that happen there). Battlefronts are being drawn in the US along economic lines, it’s important that progressives resist the schism among like minded individuals otherwise our chances for success will be sharply reduced... This of course has been going on for years - when Rock Bands became the voice of the community, they were quickly neutralised by fame & fortune, moving from Haight Ashbury & Notting Hill to isolated mansions & estates ... Far from their less economically fortunate peers... >>> the benefits of Rave Culture are clear. NOT primarily based in america and hence less easy to control. no real enormous stars or even very fixed ones. But this is not a time for being casual.... Tens of thousands of people who are alive today will be facing horrific painful death & dismemberment within weeks. And to many here in the US this is an indictment of the Old Guard Peace movement and its lack of influence - Making the journey to a peaceful world even harder.... Serious biz! Stefan / San Francisco UP! NEW VIEW OF OUR UNIVERSE IS ONLY ONE OF MANY Some cosmologists imagine universes sprouting from one another in an endless geometric progression. Others imagine island universes floating and even colliding in a fifth dimension. Some cosmologists say the observable universe could be only a small patch in a much vaster ensemble... http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=1351&m=5435 UP! THE CULTURAL CREATIVES / THE NEW POLITICAL COMPASS Most zippy types have already heard of the values change that is so important to American life and that has given rise to the 50 million Cultural Creatives (26% of adults in the US). Fewer know that this change has grown out of the convergence of all the new social and consciousness movements over the past 40 years. It has created an enormous new constituency that is neither left nor right, but in front. Important research findings show a new paradigm for our politics that empowers citizen action. The Political Compass doesn't just give us a new image for politics beyond left vs. right, it completely breaks open what we thought had to be true of our politics, and is much more hopeful in its implications than most of us would have dared believe. Basically it says "the mushy middle" doesn't exist. There's a second dimension at right angles to left-right: people who want politicians to deal with the most important issues confronting our children's future and the future of the planet, versus those who represent big business interests and globalisation. This compass heading says where we need to go in Western life, and shows whom we need to mobilize. Paul H. Ray, who gave us the Cultural Creatives and is a leading voice for creating new cultural alternatives, and the social, political and economic realities that are implied. His leading edge research has shown the extent of change in Western culture and politics, with major constituencies for change over 50 million persons. The New Political Compass reports research demonstrating a new paradigm for politics going beyond left and right. Major transformational (i.e., structural change) possibilities exist, leading to opportunities for coordinated citizen action, especially related to the convergence of all the new social movements as a mega-movement for change, including cleaning up (particularly) American politics and bringing new values into public life. GOALS AND OBJECTIVES:
· · UP! The Miracle At Wisconsin High School A revolution has occurred in Appleton, Wisconsin. In the Central Alternative High School the kids now behave. The hallways aren't frantic. Even the teachers are happy. No, actually. In 1997, a private group called Natural Ovens began installing a healthy lunch program. Huh? Yes, fast-food burgers, fries, and burritos gave way to fresh salads, meats "prepared with old-fashioned recipes," and whole grain bread. Fresh fruits were added to the menu. Good drinking water arrived. Vending machines were removed. As reported in a newsletter called Pure Facts: "Grades are up, truancy is no longer a problem, arguments are rare, and teachers are able to spend their time teaching." Principal LuAnn Coenen, who files annual reports with the state of Wisconsin, has turned in some staggering figures since 1997. Drop-outs? Students expelled? Students discovered to be using drugs? Carrying weapons? Committing suicide? Every category has come up ZERO. Every year since 1997. Mary Bruyette, a teacher, states, "I don't have to deal with daily discipline issues I don't have disruptions in class or the difficulties with student behaviour I experienced before we started the food program." A student asserted, "Now that I can concentrate I think it's easier to get along with people" What a concept - eating healthier food increases concentration. Principal Coenen sums it up: "I can't buy the argument that it's too costly for schools to provide good nutrition for their students. I found that one cost will reduce another. I don't have the vandalism. I don't have the litter. I don't have the need for high security." Now the new food program is catching on at a nearby middle school. A teacher there, Dennis Abram, reports, "I've taught here almost 30 years. I see the kids this year as calmer, easier to talk to. They just seem more rational. I had thought about retiring this year and basically I've decided to teach another year---I'm having too much fun!" If what happened in Appleton takes hold in many other communities across America and the West, the ravenous corporations who invade school space with their vending machines and junk food will be tossed out on their behinds. It could happen. And perhaps ADHD will become a dinosaur. A non-disease that was once attributed to errant brain chemistry. And perhaps Ritalin will be seen as just another toxic chemical that was added to the bodies of kids in a crazed attempt to put a lid on behaviour that, in part, was the result of a subversion of the food supply. Have faith! The Solutions might be much simpler than we think! Maybe it’s not about Bringing In The New, but much more to do with simply Throwing Out The Old. UP! "It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a person stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centres of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance." Robert Kennedy UP! The importance of being constant John Barrow steadfastly investigates the numbers that run the universe in his new book The Constants of Nature ”Variety is the spice of Life?” forget it!!! After reading Barrow's book, it seems nothing could be further from the truth. Small changes in the way the fundamental physics of the universe is set up would have disastrous consequences for the possibility of life. The story begins with the seemingly mundane question of what we mean by a metre or a kilogram. The French Revolution facilitated the first moves towards an egalitarian standard of weights & measurements; a bar of platinum was housed in the archives of the French Republic against which a metre could be measured. As the bar was handled, it began to shrink over time so scientists were soon on the look-out for a better method. Today it’s our belief in the unchanging nature of the fundamental particles of nature, like electrons and protons, which is used for standardisation. But is an electron really the same today as it was in the past? Barrow uses this simple problem as the springboard for a journey which ultimately leads us to the quest to understand the very fabric of the universe. The numerical value of an electron’s weight will vary according to the units used. If, however, you ask how much heavier is a proton when compared to the weight of an electron, you get a number that is independent of units. This number, approximately 1836, is an example of one of the "constants of nature". It’s devoid of any cultural bias and can be compared across the universe. Scientists have called them constants because for many years we believed them to be just that - unchanging numbers. The question at the heart of Barrow's book is whether these pure numbers of nature are as unchanging as we once thought. It’s when Barrow starts to explore what would happen if you varied these numbers that things become quite frightening. In fact he does for physics what Robert Harris's novel Fatherland did for history. But the effects of changing physics turn out to be far more dramatic than changing the outcome of the second world war. A small change in the relative weights of the electron and proton would result in atoms flying apart. There would be no possibility of gluing these fundamental particles together to make atoms and ultimately life. Barrow catalogues the extraordinarily fortuitous coincidences that make life possible. The constants of nature appear remarkably bio-friendly. This might lead you to believe that a creator must have set up the universe so sympathetically as to admit the possibility of life, but Barrow reveals how bio-centric such an argument is: there would be no witnesses when the constants didn’t align to allow carbon-based life in the universe. The book fluctuates between profoundly life-affirming and deeply depressing moments, with sentences such as: "If the constants of nature are slowly changing then we are on a one-way slide to extinction." If the constants are changing nothing in the universe will survive. Even if they aren't changing, the constants of nature will determine whether the universe will expand indefinitely or contract in a Big Crunch. I always thought this was the worst-case scenario, but Barrow explains that if the universe is expanding, at some point there is no longer any possibility of life at least the Big Crunch offers the chance of a New Beginning. Barrow’s a fantastic storyteller. The book’s full of wonderful moments, vignettes that you will want to remember. Did you know, for example, that without the Earth's natural magnetic field, our atmosphere would be stripped away by solar winds? Like poor Mars which has no magnetic field. The book also has a very compelling philosophical narrative, which asks how our place in the universe affects the way we try to understand its structure. Barrow fights the natural scientific urge to state his conclusions at the outset. Instead you read the story like a thriller. The tension mounted throughout the book as I read on, desperate to reach the final denouement: are these numbers changing or not? The author’s very much part of the narrative in the concluding sections. By analysing stars in the distant reaches of the universe, Barrow's team can look back in time and test if the constants were different 10bn years ago. They have gathered the best evidence yet for what the answer is. Book reviews can often spoil the story by giving away who-dunnit. Rather, I recommend giving yourself up to Barrow's tale to find out what the universe has in store for the future of mankind. Professor Marcus du Sautoy. The Constants of Nature by John Barrow [367pp, Jonathan Cape, £17.99] UP! SCIENTISTS SAY QUEST FOR CLEAN ENERGY MUST BEGIN NOW Meeting the world's rising energy needs without increasing global warming will require a research effort as ambitious as the Apollo project to put a man on the moon, a diverse group of scientists and engineers said in Science magazine last week. http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=1357&m=5435 UP! Invitation to Sloth Hold it gentlemen relax for a while Why are we in this maddening rat race Straining our hearts for what Instead let’s develop double chins And sit back and relax for a while Whoever wants to stand or stalk let him But let’s squat right here on the ground First let’s open our mouths wide Then stretch and relax our shoulders And even roll over our eyes Gentlemen let’s yawn for a while Who cares if we make a couple of bucks Instead let’s contemplate our navel Turn a cold shoulder to work and thought Or else no one would sympathize with us While there’s still time kids and grown-ups Let’s doze off let’s live in sloth Gentlemen let’s snore for a while Salah Birsel. UP! The most optimistic thought came to me today when I heard Karl Rove on CNN bitching about Rumsfeld and Cheney. I remembered the great fantastic kingdoms of King Arthur, or Siegfried and the Nibelungen, which always started out great winning wars, uniting the kingdom, etc. Then, in Part Two, all the mystic heroes would start to hit on each other and the great empires ended in a bloody mess. I can tell you with sincerity that most of the world looks at America like the Roman Empire, and they’re waiting for its inevitable downfall. On the other hand I’ve been in Rome, and 2000 years after their demise they are pretty much alive there! Aside from a bunch of ruins, and the fact that the Romans don’t stop for traffic lights, everything seemed quite pleasant. Brummbaer / sunny Culver City / usa UP! BUY THE RAINFOREST! A nonprofits group of Peruvian and U. S. naturalists and scientists are working together on a unique concept - the most effective way of saving the Rainforest before it is gone. Their concept involves buying and protecting the Rainforest, and concurrently establishing a Medical Research Centre as the main economical alternative for the inhabitants of the forests involved. For the strategy for this concept to effectively work, these steps cannot be separated; they go together, money will be prorated to start up. BUY THE RAINFOREST’S OBJECTIVES To buy the land which encompasses the Cloud & Rain forests in the Amazon region of Peru, establishing it as an eternal preserve. To hold the land in a private trust for use by the Medical Research Centre and other legal research entities. The purchased land must be secure and patrolled to prevent further clearing and development. To allow for existing infrastructures on purchased lands to remain, but no further encroachments into the rainforests to be constructed. To open the “Medical Research Centre” in the Peruvian Rainforest, with the following objectives:
· · ·
· · THESE STEPS ARE SOMEWHAT CONCURRENT. STEP 1: Form a team in Peru to arrange for large land purchases of any parcels legally for sale and available for private purchase. (Buying the land at the perimeter of the rainforests first before purchasing interior lands is recommended). 16-24 months STEP 2: Hire, train, and maintain an uncorrupted security patrol to prevent all burning, clearing, and development of the privatised acreage. Monitoring larger interior areas by satellite is an option to be explored. 12 month set up. Step 3: Disseminate information to local populations, foster good will and education on preservation of the Rainforest. The goal is to develop sustainable management projects as economical alternatives for native populations already living in the forests. Native populations will not be relocated from any privatised rainforest land. Concurrent with step 1. 16-24 months Step 4: To implement and staff the Medical Research Centre. The Centre, the first one of this kind in Peru, will research for cures of common diseases, will be the “gateway” for international researchers to access the Rainforest's botany and will also document Shaman medicine and catalogue the rainforest foliage. 24 month set up For more information on the BUY THE RAINFOREST PROJECT - http://www.buytherainforest.net/ UP! “Good Morning, Dave... Chess?” The Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is accepting research proposals to develop a "cognitive system" that would reason, learn from experience / adapt to surprises, be aware of its behaviour and explain itself, anticipate different scenarios, and predict and plan for novel situations etc. http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=1376&m=5435 Feng-Hsiung Hsu, who worked for almost two decades to build IBM's Deep Blue chess computer, demonstrates in "Behind Deep Blue" that the computer's victory was not a matter of machine defeating man, but rather the advancement of a powerful tool assembled by humans. http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=1383&m=5435 UP! SOOPER DOOPER TROOPER SPY The Pentagon's new Information Awareness Office is designing a global computer-surveillance system to give U.S. counter terrorism officials access to personal information in government and commercial databases around the world. http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=1377&m=5435 UP! MICHAEL MOORE TITANIC?! just thought I’d mention this: Michael Moore, during the last two weeks, has had a media coverage in Switzerland, that is second to none. I’ve actually never seen a film been reviewed so often since Titanic! It has become some sort of sport for every paper and mag to have a Moore feature and even the most conservative papers are very positive about the film and his book that has now been translated toGerman. This pretty much sums up the hate against the US’s actions that is currently going through our country. It is nice to see that Michael Moore finally gets coverage here, it has taken a while but now everybody knows him trust me! marc . tirmik records / basle >>>i reckon media people are rebelling against the D-Notices and national security- warnings coming down from above and are jumping at the chance to report anything resisting the pressures. i mean they can’t maybe question government propaganda nor factually report the other side, but they CAN massively cover any westerner whose books REALLY ARE SELLING WELL! is capitalism’s achilles heel the fact that when the ideas sell well they can’t bear to prevent it? UP! I had a really nice time at the Human Be-in, it was amazing to see those veteran campaigners from California, especially Alan Cohen; his missus was telling me about how they used to do the artwork and the printing for the SF Oracle. I spent a lot of time in the Shamanic Poets Corner. I thought what Niall McDivitt and the other people were doing was amazing, they were on the go for about eight hours! The UP! has been really good lately, the piece about the predicted assassination of a senator was quite spooky. steve pank norwich UP! THURS NOV 21 Apologiesto all who tried to turn on and tune into CJLY Canada last week tocatch the"Dope Vs Oil Wars" interview/discussion - the interviewerwas ill and the show cancelled last minute. It will now be on Thurs 21 from 11-12pm PST (GMT minus 8 hours) - Cannabis really is the fyouture. We smoke it, we grow it, Mother Earth loves it!! -petrochemical, timber, GM companies and the politicians whorepresent these vested interests don't - too bad. . . what are we waiting for? Irreversible climate change?! www.kootenaycoopradio.com U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U UP P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P the UP! //:-) la - la - la - lap-toppling da system! TEXT JOCKEY // TJ PHRASER (fraser clark) cyberslut // TJ PHRASER & THE MEDIA EVOLUTION MIXING THE TRACTS LIVE ON THE KEYBOARD @ A MEDIA-MEME RATE OF 160 IPP * * Ideas Per Paragraph U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U UP P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P FEATURING exclusive rewrites re-takes & re-productions of da freshest deepest hacks ancient and modern, SAMPLES from media & mentalities all over, & bubbling up from da public DNA herself! U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U UP P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P YOUR PLANET NEEDS //YOU! this HipList grows by recommendation. RECOMMEND SOMEONE 2DAY!!!!!!!!!! * TO DEBATE ANYTHING in the UP!, visit the GroupMind Debating Board on www.parallel-youniversity.com * YES, YES, SEND US EDUTAINING NEWS’N VIEWS no need to ask! :-) * FOR MORE ON RAVE CULTURE & THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT VISIT http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/fraserclark/ * TO BE REMOVED, contact removes@parallel-youniversity.com U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U U UP P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P |