39 days to Mars!!

As someone who has long been excited and inspired by notions of exploring and even colonizing our solar system, I find the announcement of this "new" power source for spacecraft thrust thrilling.

http://www.bmw.com/com/en/insights/technology/efficient_dynamics/phase_2/bmwvision/introduction.html

from a posting I made at a cars forum I've belonged to for years

......In the last couple of years, some remarkable studies have confirmed the CENTRAL role of vitamin D to vibrant health, but with so many people working indoors, using deodorant soaps that kill the bacteria on the skin that make the ideal form of vitamin D, and northern folks getting even less sunlight in winter, severe vitamin D deficiency in the US is rampant. I am a few months away from being 57 and I think one reason no one believes my age (zero gray hair for one) is that I have been outdoors a LOT all my adult life, and I stopped using deodorant soaps in the 70s after learning they kill the vitamin D-making bacteria. While I DO drink a few cups of Cuban coffee each morning, I've been supplementing magnesium since college when I learned that the caffeine I relied on to go to school in the day time, and work late night jobs to pay the bills was draining my magnesium and making me grumpy and causing BAD insomnia. Starting 5-6 years ago I now put a sprinkle of Epsom Salts (magnesium sulfate) on my Cuban coffee grounds before brewing. For almost 20 years I've been eating a lot of what I grow raw mainly for pleasure, but raw foods are loaded with live enzymes plus vitamins and fiber. My goal is to match my grandpa's 94....vibrant health, no decline (he ate "weird hippie foods" all his life way back then), built a house himself on Big Pine Key in his eighties, then one morning at 94 dropped dead while shaving....nice gig. I want 94 BUT to die in my sleep during one of my delicious flying dreams I have frequently.

Mercedes Concept Car Hints at Next CLS?

I really like the swoopy, taut lines of this concept car that Mercedes is unveiling in Geneva. Since it is fully running and even has bumper seams front and back, I feel this is actually a very thinly disguised "sneak peek" at an upcoming production car, possibly the CLS. Very brave, creative design.

http://www.windingroad.com/photos/galleries/mercedes-benz-f800-style-research-vehicle/#2

"99" live

Great video of a beautiful song. John

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd06NPFhZRU&NR=1

99

I have loved this song ever since it came out, so I was delighted to find this well done video while I was altered tonight. That bearded piano player was a hunk! John

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xsw-uQ5C7zo

Broken Wings

Here I am closing in on 57 and I still love this song as much or more so than I did when it came out when I was in my thirties in Denver, Colorado. BIG difference now is that back then I had no idea of this very creative soulful video I love to enjoy when altered.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWyeVfuolT4&NR=1

Wonderful Live Performance by Yoko Ono

From a concert in England last year when she was 76....a remarkable performance....since 1969 I have admired and been inspired by her brave, cutting edge creativity ferocity that was her trademark long before she met John Lennon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkMWThr3TSs&feature=related

Possible Sneak Peek at the 7th Generation Corvette

GM made QUITE a fuss about this car originally as the Centennial Corvette. They made sure it appeared in the last 'Transformers' movie. While denying it is any indication of what the C7 will look like, they've taken the trouble recently to revise the headlights and continue to display it around the U.S. I feel it is IMPERATIVE the rear end get 4 circular tail lamps, perhaps on those blank flat areas inside the rear end fender vents.

I LOVE this concept car as it oozes the brave futuristic ballsiness that the 1963 Stingray did....that car simply floored people back then. After 20 years of Corvettes being stuck in a mild evolutionary loop, I feel it is time they do something REVOLUTIONARY, like this Stingray Concept as GM now calls it.

I like the aggressive, futuristic nose-within-a-nose front end, the mean profile, and the Star Wars rear end. I think the C7 comes out in 2012.....I sure hope it looks a LOT like this stunning concept car. Enjoy the pics. John

Bird Watching at Cypress Point, Tampa

This beautiful Tampa Bay beach is about 15 minutes from my house max, depending on traffic, and I've had some great times there enjoying the sights and scents and sounds with local friends, plus my friends Denny and Tim visiting from Salida, Colorado last year. I've also cast net some fish there for eating too. Amazing to have such a quiet haven within the city and so close to the airport. Enjoy the photos! John

It blows my mind that some Toyota executives will face more heat for misleading the public than will George Bush or Cheney....simply, freakin' incredible.

John

My Aerodynamic Federation Star Ship Models

I have always like the idea of an Enterprise with wings and an aerodynamic form that could enter a planet's atmosphere and maintain true flight like a jet over the surface and land vertically with retro rockets of some kind.

Here is one I especially like....several years ago I did the sketch late one night after a very rare and very severe case of insomnia.....I still have that sketch pinned to my bulletin board as it was a classic "moment of inspiration" with the shape appearing in my mind fully formed. It is based on a U.S.S. Voyager model, heavily modified with fins and wings I cut out of modeller's plastic sheeting plus bits from other model kits. I used a subdued blue-gray matte spray paint to hide the disparate colors of the various bits.

I designed it with the concept in mind of the saucer section being able to detach from the secondary hull like the Enterprise D could, and with each half being aerodynamically correct and being capable of full atmospheric flight.

I sold this model on E-Bay for $125. Enjoy! John

Undersea Fantasy Bathtub

My bathtub was very stained and deeply abrased when I bought the house.....I am told the old lady who lived here for 41 years was OBSESSIVELY clean and had literally scrubbed the tub to death. I looked into new tubs/tuber liners/tub coatings, but all were expensive and in some cases, not remotely robust and durable.

So a couple of years ago, with my tidy friend Michael Mowry soon coming from Denver for a visit to see his amazing 92 year old grandma Mary in Lakeland, and me, and my shower stall and tub gross enough to send most tidy folks into septic shock, I figured I had FINALLY better deal with it.

I had previously over the years considered MANY possible treatments of the shower stall walls to fit with the Undersea Fantasy Theme....mosaics of seashells, broken mirror fragments, glass marbles, and many more.....each and all struck me as having one or more shortcomings.....so my gross bathtub lingered on since I shower mostly outdoors. But one night when I was nicely altered after a few drinks and smoking some fine cannabis I realized that all along I had owned the solution...and it came from a dumpster years prior.

It was a gallon can of a very transparent blue "paint" I had scrounged ages before. The label indicated it was for use at salt water locations for infrastructure....so I assumed it was water and salt resistant.

So I INTENSELY cleaned the shower stalls walls and tubs (I now feel I should have intensely also sandpaper those surfaces too for even better adhesion of the acrylic "paint". Next I rinsed them well, dried them, rubbed them down with rubbing alcohol I had dumpster dived a lot of to remove all body and soap oils, then towel dried all surfaces again.

I had recently dumpster dived an entire box of latex gloves, so I donned them, took a big car washing sponged I had dived previously, wetted it, plunged it into the transparent blue paint, squeezed out the excess, then, nervously and cautiously, did a few timid dabs on the tub.....I LOVED IT immediately! Wonderfully rich blue and transparent, and VERY amenable to layering.

It took at most at twenty minutes to sponge paint the whole tub and shower stall. I opened the bathroom window to help it all dry and disperse the paint fumes. After a few days, I used a paint roller and a big sponge (for corners and other tight areas)to seal all the surfaces with a super shiny "wet look" acrylic floor polish I had previously scrounged. I repeated that a couple days later as two coats made sense to me.

So when Michael arrived from Denver, he could shower in a pristine, trippily blue tub and shower. Total monetary cost to me? Whatever that one paint roller I'd bought in a budget bag earlier had cost me.....$1?

I love showering outdoors, but on chilly days, (of which we've had many this winter) I indulge in the comfort of a very brief warm water shower in my Undersea Fantasy Bathtub. Most of the year, the shower is unused except for guests. Once in a while, the coating gets nicked from the plastic bucket I use to catch water until it gets hot and use thatI use to flush poop since I always pee outdoors to help the soil and plants.

But it is VERY easy to use a small sponge to dab the blue transparent paint to cover the exposed white tub....just let it dry a day or two.

One of the things I have enjoyed about dumpster diving since 1976 is that it creates options we'd not be too inclined to think of out of the blue. Discards from our work environment, dumpster and street curb treasures, and alley finds, can prove to be catalysts for super-frugal and joyfully creative solutions to a broad spectrum of problems.....like a way-gnarly bathtub.

John

John

It's About Time!

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/1000-architects--engineers-call-for-new-911-investigation-84768402.html

Seeds of Life from Space

Remarkable that more and more organic compounds are being found in space, even in the "vacuum" around distant stars! John


http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Aussie_Meteorite_May_Hold_Key_To_Life_On_Earth_999.html

'I Am The Walrus' is likely my favorite song, period, though I feel that their videos were pretty lame.

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

Very Cool Looking Opel Extended Range Electric Car Concept

Check out the text and great gallery of clickable pics! John

http://www.netcarshow.com/opel/2010-flextreme_gt-e_concept/

'Strawberry Fields Forever' by Cindy Lauper

I was very fortunate to have stumbled onto this wonderful tribute special to John Lennon while channel surfing deliciously, bittersweetly, magically altered in mid-September, 2001. I especially love Cindy Lauper's performance in Strawberry Fields in Central Park in New York that very soulful night.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rhp9XBmZF9A

Barter for Used TV

Bummer...my big beautiful TV I bought just a little over two years ago died last night when I turned it on...a loud snap followed by a bizzare, disturbing high-pitched whine from the innards. I watch little TV but I like having the option, plus enjoy playing my DVDs, especially when "altered".

If any local folks who follow my blogs are getting ready to upgrade their TV, I'd love to barter plants/eggs/landscape services for your old one. Thanks, John

Radical Concept Car Unveiled a Few Hours Ago

I like this....very trippy and futuristic. Click on the pics to enlarge them for better viewing. John

http://motorcrave.com/full-view-stile-bertones-alfa-romeo-concept/4819/

Great Review of Yoko's Recent Live Performance with Many Musicians, including Clapton and Midler

Yoko Ono ROCKS at 77 !!! John

http://www.cityscoopsny.com/?p=2592

Posting to CNN Ticker on Obama Ordering New Nuke Plants

Obama needs to insist that these new reactors run on thorium, which the U.S. has vast amounts of, generates very little radioactive waste, can't have a run away Chernobyl-style meltdown, plus does not produce materials that could be used to build nuclear weapons. India has VAST experience with thorium reactors....as our ally they could show us how. Even existing nuclear power plants can be retrofitted to run on thorium, a metal so barely radioactive you could walk around with a piece in your pocket! Mr. Obama....thorium for these new power plants.....PLEASE!!!

John Starnes Tampa Florida

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/12/ff_new_nukes/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+wired/index+(Wired:+Index+3+(Top+Stories+2))

U.S. Senator Defies Israel's Unconscionable Actions in Gaza

What was intended under questionable premises to be a safe homeland for Jewish people has instead angered non-Jews and Orthodox Jews alike by evolving into a theocracy with expansionist Zionist aspirations and defiance of the Geneva Conventions and the U.N. and NPT. Israel needs to stop stealing homes and farms and orchards from Arab natives, and killing vast numbers of civilian Arabs and Christians in Gaza, Lebanon and where ever else they seize land with the full backing of the U.S. government if they are to be on the right side of history. I was once a full supporter of Israel until I looked into the facts in the spring of 2001. Jewish rabbis around the world say that Israel routinely disregards the most fundamental core beliefs of Judaism, making clear that doubting this "rogue nation" is NOT synonymous with "anti-Semitism" as Israel has worked so hard to convince the world of as valid.

I applaud this senator for not fearing Israel's powerful lobby here, AIPAC. John

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1149892.html

Traveller's Guide to the Planets

HYPERION

I watch little TV despite having Direct TV satellite. But last night, as I enjoyed a yummy home made mixed seafood panang curry over rice, I channel surfed and found two wonderful shows on NatGeo. The first was a very well done hour special about how the moon could be colonized, mined, etc.

But the second blew me away....'Traveller's Guide to the Solar System", a three part/three night series that began with exploring Saturn, with astonishing photos of Saturn and its bizarre moons ( see pic of the ice encrusted Hyperion!!). The next hour show was an equally high quality visit to Jupiter and its moons that addressed future and possible future missions there, including one to drill through Europa's ice and send robotic cameras to explore what seem to be room temperature 60 mile deep salty oceans in hopes of spotting life forms. Again, the photos were breathtaking.

Tonight's installment begins at 9 and will go to Mars...I WILL be watching! I am guessing that last night's shows will be rerun first as the Moon one repeated just as I hit the sack last night. I hope you can watch/record these excellent shows if topics like this interest you anywhere as much as they do me.

John

Strawberry Fields Forever

I have always found this song to be wonderfully creative and trippy, years before I had consumed any psychedelics. But I think The Beatles made music MUCH better than their videos. Nonetheless, here is their video for 'Strawberry Fields Forever'. John

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7NoOhmVMac&feature=related

Using These Blogs

If I understand correctly, if anyone who enjoys my blogs clicks on "Follow" you get an e-mail letting you know I've posted a new entry. Thanks to those who've purchased the seeds....I appreciate that support and gladly accept contributions from folks who feel I've earned them by using the PayPal donate button at the bottom.

I am having fun exploring this new (to me) medium and hope to make all three blogs interesting and useful to all who check them out. Thanks! John

Health Benefits of Iodine Supplementation

Almost two years ago, my dog Sweety responded DRAMATICALLY to the addition of iodine- rich kombu seaweed to her daily stew...the vet had overlooked severe hypothyroidism despite a $200 bill for bloodwork and more. Within THREE days her skin began to heal, her hair began to grow back, her back legs were strong, her incontinence ceased...within 3 months she looked like new dog! So friends and I looked into iodine and learned that the U.S. RDA is 83-100 times lower than in other developed nations, and that coastal Japanese who eat the old style of seaweeds and seafood take in up to 37 mg. a day (our gov't says that is toxic) and have NO thyroid issues, breast or prostate cancer, or diabetes. After learning that the tincture for cuts IS safe to ingest (the skull and cross bones we grew up with on the bottle was the result of pharm bribing congressman almost 60 years ago as iodine (especially as the then-common 'Lugol's Solution') allowed the average person to PREVENT AND TREAT a very broad spectrum of health issues), we started with a few drops daily of the tincture in juice. Later, we bought either Iodoral tablets (pill form of Lugol's, 12.5 mg each) or potassium iodide tablets, plus cooking with tasty kombu seaweed (essential for authentic miso soup I learned!). As a result, women with breasts cysts saw FULL reversal, a friend with lifelong diabetes saw it reverse, energy levels went up, women with hypothyroidism or Hashimoto's Disease saw full reversal after years of futile efforts with standard drugs or herbs, weight loss plateaus were broken through, life long heart palpitations ceased, other dogs' health improved greatly. So I am a BIG believer and wish I'd learned this 30 years ago. Studies have now proven that the process called "apoptosis" that our bodies use to detect and kill pre-cancerous and cancerous cells REQUIRES available iodine. No wonder Big Pharm wants it considered "poison". Some doctors are now using 4,000 mg. DAILY for a few weeks to reverse severe atrial fib and congestive heart failure!!

The amount in iodized salt is BARELY sufficient to prevent goiter but is far below the optimum our bodies need. This link to the Linus Pauling Institute is the best overview I've seen, though I disagree with their statement that the U.S. RDA is sufficient. They are gov't funded and perhaps feel the need to "toe the line" and not disagree with the FDA, who hardly shows sound judgement in these matters, siding almost always with Big Pharm. Now that the Japanese are eating more and more like us, their gov't mandated that iodine be added to chicken feed to be sure people get it via eggs and meat since the old style diet is not "hip" with younger generations who want KFC and burgers and such.

The Bush regime made bulk iodine purchases illegal, including the traditional 16 oz. bottles of 'Lugol's Solution' sold for a century, with the bogus claim it can be used to make crystal meth. But did they ban the pseudoephedrine that comprises the BULK of crystal meth, and that makes VAST profits for Big Pharm despite it causing high blood pressure and other issues? Of course not! Instead, a CRUCIAL human nutrient got restricted. Google for yourself.....fascinating learning! John

http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/infocenter/minerals/iodine/

Chad Pinther

To me, Chad Pinther is a breathtakingly handsome, well-built man. Simply amazing to behold!

Movements of our atmosphere

This cold rain wave from the Pacific will, hopefully, today, bring Florida bands of rain. I think it is fun to notice the similarity of cloud movements of ours here and those on Jupiter.

http://weather.tbo.com/wx.php?config=&forecast=pass&region=NT&pass=tropsatellites&sattype=clir&anim=2

Music Concert in London, summer 2009

I feel that this live performance last summer at a London music festival, at the age of 77, of her 1995 composition 'Rising', is both moving in content, and stellar in execution.
John

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7tfQ3CE7Jw

The Police Do Care!

The Corpus Christi, Texas Police Department reports finding a man's body in
the Nueces River near Labonte Park . The dead man's name will not be
released until his family has been notified..

The victim apparently drowned due to excessive beer consumption.

He was wearing black fishnet stockings, a red garter belt, a pink G-string,
a strap-on dildo, purple lipstick, and a Sarah Palin for President in 2012
t-shirt.

He also had a cucumber in his rectum.

The police removed the Palin t-shirt to spare his family any unnecessary
embarrassment.

In spite of what we sometimes think, the Police do care.

Important Quote to Remember as the U.S. ramps up to attack Iran pre-emptively

"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that numbers of people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of the leaders of their government and have gone to war, and millions have been killed because of this obedience. Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves, and all the while the grand thieves are running and robbing the country. That's our problem.": Howard Zinn, from 'Failure to Quit'

Cadillacs need FINS!!

I've posting like a maniac at www.gminsidenews.com for years now that Cadillacs should again have fins, but this time as extensions of the tail lamp lenses vs. the metal of the rear quarter panels, in the vain hope a GM person lurks there and agrees. To me, the 1959 Cadillacs were breathtakingly brave, creative icons of sculptural automotive beauty. Enjoy! John

Nice Backwards Clips for altered folks...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPakEG0FjZM

Remembering Apollo 11

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/07/remembering_apollo_11.html

America is Addicted to War Debt

Wars Sending U.S. into Ruin By Eric Margolis February 08, 2010 "Toronto Sun"


Feb. 07, 2010 - U.S. President Barack Obama calls the $3.8-trillion US budget he just sent to Congress a major step in restoring America's economic health.In fact, it's another potent fix given to a sick patient deeply addicted to the dangerous drug - debt.More empires have fallen because of reckless finances than invasion. The latest example was the Soviet Union, which spent itself into ruin by buying tanks.

Washington's deficit (the difference between spending and income from taxes) will reach a vertiginous $1.6 trillion US this year. The huge sum will be borrowed, mostly from China and Japan, to which the U.S. already owes $1.5 trillion. Debt service will cost $250 billion.To spend $1 trillion, one would have had to start spending $1 million daily soon after Rome was founded and continue for 2,738 years until today.

Obama's total military budget is nearly $1 trillion. This includes Pentagon spending of $880 billion. Add secret black programs (about $70 billion); military aid to foreign nations like Egypt, Israel and Pakistan; 225,000 military "contractors" (mercenaries and workers); and veterans' costs. Add $75 billion (nearly four times Canada's total defence budget) for 16 intelligence agencies with 200,000 employees.The Afghanistan and Iraq wars ($1 trillion so far), will cost $200-250 billion more this year, including hidden and indirect expenses. Obama's Afghan "surge" of 30,000 new troops will cost an additional $33 billion - more than Germany's total defence budget.No wonder U.S. defence stocks rose after Peace Laureate Obama's "austerity" budget.

Military and intelligence spending relentlessly increase as unemployment heads over 10% and the economy bleeds red ink. America has become the Sick Man of the Western Hemisphere, an economic cripple like the defunct Ottoman Empire.The Pentagon now accounts for half of total world military spending. Add America's rich NATO allies and Japan, and the figure reaches 75%.China and Russia combined spend only a paltry 10% of what the U.S. spends on defence.There are 750 U.S. military bases in 50 nations and 255,000 service members stationed abroad, 116,000 in Europe, nearly 100,000 in Japan and South Korea.Military spending gobbles up 19% of federal spending and at least 44% of tax revenues.

During the Bush administration, the Iraq and Afghanistan wars - funded by borrowing - cost each American family more than $25,000.Like Bush, Obama is paying for America's wars through supplemental authorizations ­- putting them on the nation's already maxed-out credit card. Future generations will be stuck with the bill.

This presidential and congressional jiggery-pokery is the height of public dishonesty.America's wars ought to be paid for through taxes, not bookkeeping fraud.If U.S. taxpayers actually had to pay for the Afghan and Iraq wars, these conflicts would end in short order.

America needs a fair, honest war tax.The U.S. clearly has reached the point of imperial overreach. Military spending and debt-servicing are cannibalizing the U.S. economy, the real basis of its world power. Besides the late U.S.S.R., the U.S. also increasingly resembles the dying British Empire in 1945, crushed by immense debts incurred to wage the Second World War, unable to continue financing or defending the imperium, yet still imbued with imperial pretensions.

It is increasingly clear the president is not in control of America's runaway military juggernaut. Sixty years ago, the great President Dwight Eisenhower, whose portrait I keep by my desk, warned Americans to beware of the military-industrial complex. Six decades later, partisans of permanent war and world domination have joined Wall Street's money lenders to put America into thrall.Increasing numbers of Americans are rightly outraged and fearful of runaway deficits.

Most do not understand their political leaders are also spending their nation into ruin through unnecessary foreign wars and a vainglorious attempt to control much of the globe - what neocons call "full spectrum dominance."If Obama really were serious about restoring America's economic health, he would demand military spending be slashed, quickly end the Iraq and Afghan wars and break up the nation's giant Frankenbanks.

Copyright © 2010 Toronto Sun

Life on Earth

When I was a kid in Michigan in 1963 I had a beautifully illustrated, wonderful science book that showed the earliest evidence of life as single celled organisms, and I wondered then if and how those cells merged to become complex organisms. Once again it seems that the mitochondria in our cells and those of most life on the planet are actually prehistoric bacteria assimilated a very long time ago.

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/An_Answer_To_Another_Of_Life_Big_Questions_999.html

My Living Room Ceiling Kaleidoscope pattern

A combination of cut up holographic card board snowflakes I got from Target after Christmas some years back, strips of mirror I dumpster dived, CDs and DVDs that my friend Theresa saved for me, plus silver plastic balls from a Big Lots Christmas clearance, has allowed me to create a nice trippy "Lucy in the Sky" kaleidoscope ceiling in my 'Gay Trailer Trash on Acid' livingroom. Here are several views. Enjoy! John

I stumbled on this old video tonight, and was reminded just how much I liked this song then and now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdQY7BusJNU&NR=1

Best Model Helicopter Flying Ever

I belong to a forum for car nuts called GMInsidenews.com, and one of the regulars who posts remarkable photo shop images of cars he creates with his vivid imagination and very admirable skills shared today this TOTALLY UNRELATED incredible video of a MASTER radio control model helicopter pilot. Prepare to be blown away!

The screen name of this gifted automotive designer/artist at GMInsidenews.com is: MonarroSS if you wish to join to see his remarkable work. Free and easy to join GMInsidenews. Fun forum to belong to if you are mental about cars.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gi7G-VzU2r4

Speech by King Hussein: I wish every American since then would have read this. If so, we'd not be hog tied by AIPAC

"As the Arabs see the Jews"His Majesty King Abdullah,The American MagazineNovember, 1947

Summary:
This fascinating essay, written by King Hussein’s grandfather King Abdullah, appeared in the United States six months before the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. In the article, King Abdullah disputes the mistaken view that Arab opposition to Zionism (and later the state of Israel) is because of longstanding religious or ethnic hatred. He notes that Jews and Muslims enjoyed a long history of peaceful coexistence in the Middle East, and that Jews have historically suffered far more at the hands of Christian Europe. Pointing to the tragedy of the holocaust that Jews suffered during World War II, the monarch asks why America and Europe are refusing to accept more than a token handful of Jewish immigrants and refugees. It is unfair, he argues, to make Palestine, which is innocent of anti-Semitism, pay for the crimes of Europe. King Abdullah also asks how Jews can claim a historic right to Palestine, when Arabs have been the overwhelming majority there for nearly 1300 uninterrupted years? The essay ends on an ominous note, warning of dire consequences if a peaceful solution cannot be found to protect the rights of the indigenous Arabs of Palestine.

"As the Arabs see the Jews"His Majesty King Abdullah,The American MagazineNovember, 1947
I am especially delighted to address an American audience, for the tragic problem of Palestine will never be solved without American understanding, American sympathy, American support.
So many billions of words have been written about Palestine—perhaps more than on any other subject in history—that I hesitate to add to them. Yet I am compelled to do so, for I am reluctantly convinced that the world in general, and America in particular, knows almost nothing of the true case for the Arabs.

We Arabs follow, perhaps far more than you think, the press of America. We are frankly disturbed to find that for every word printed on the Arab side, a thousand are printed on the Zionist side.

There are many reasons for this. You have many millions of Jewish citizens interested in this question. They are highly vocal and wise in the ways of publicity. There are few Arab citizens in America, and we are as yet unskilled in the technique of modern propaganda.

The results have been alarming for us. In your press we see a horrible caricature and are told it is our true portrait. In all justice, we cannot let this pass by default.

Our case is quite simple: For nearly 2,000 years Palestine has been almost 100 per cent Arab. It is still preponderantly Arab today, in spite of enormous Jewish immigration. But if this immigration continues we shall soon be outnumbered—a minority in our home. Palestine is a small and very poor country, about the size of your state of Vermont. Its Arab population is only about 1,200,000. Already we have had forced on us, against our will, some 600,000 Zionist Jews. We are threatened with many hundreds of thousands more.

Our position is so simple and natural that we are amazed it should even be questioned. It is exactly the same position you in America take in regard to the unhappy European Jews. You are sorry for them, but you do not want them in your country. We do not want them in ours, either. Not because they are Jews, but because they are foreigners. We would not want hundreds of thousands of foreigners in our country, be they Englishmen or Norwegians or Brazilians or whatever.

Think for a moment: In the last 25 years we have had one third of our entire population forced upon us. In America that would be the equivalent of 45,000,000 complete strangers admitted to your country, over your violent protest, since 1921. How would you have reacted to that?
Because of our perfectly natural dislike of being overwhelmed in our own homeland, we are called blind nationalists and heartless anti-Semites. This charge would be ludicrous were it not so dangerous.

No people on earth have been less "anti-Semitic" than the Arabs. The persecution of the Jews has been confined almost entirely to the Christian nations of the West. Jews, themselves, will admit that never since the Great Dispersion did Jews develop so freely and reach such importance as in Spain when it was an Arab possession. With very minor exceptions, Jews have lived for many centuries in the Middle East, in complete peace and friendliness with their Arab neighbours.

Damascus, Baghdad, Beirut and other Arab centres have always contained large and prosperous Jewish colonies. Until the Zionist invasion of Palestine began, these Jews received the most generous treatment—far, far better than in Christian Europe. Now, unhappily, for the first time in history, these Jews are beginning to feel the effects of Arab resistance to the Zionist assault. Most of them are as anxious as Arabs to stop it. Most of these Jews who have found happy homes among us resent, as we do, the coming of these strangers.

I was puzzled for a long time about the odd belief which apparently persists in America that Palestine has somehow "always been a Jewish land." Recently an American I talked to cleared up this mystery. He pointed out that the only things most Americans know about Palestine are what they read in the Bible. It was a Jewish land in those days, they reason, and they assume it has always remained so.

Nothing could be farther from the truth. It is absurd to reach so far back into the mists of history to argue about who should have Palestine today, and I apologise for it. Yet the Jews do this, and I must reply to their "historic claim." I wonder if the world has ever seen a stranger sight than a group of people seriously pretending to claim a land because their ancestors lived there some 2,000 years ago!

If you suggest that I am biased, I invite you to read any sound history of the period and verify the facts. Such fragmentary records as we have indicate that the Jews were wandering nomads from Iraq who moved to southern Turkey, came south to Palestine, stayed there a short time, and then passed to Egypt, where they remained about 400 years. About 1300 BC (according to your calendar) they left Egypt and gradually conquered most—but not all—of the inhabitants of Palestine.

It is significant that the Philistines—not the Jews—gave their name to the country: "Palestine" is merely the Greek form of "Philistia."

Only once, during the empire of David and Solomon, did the Jews ever control nearly—but not all—the land which is today Palestine. This empire lasted only 70 years, ending in 926 BC. Only 250 years later the Kingdom of Judah had shrunk to a small province around Jerusalem, barely a quarter of modern Palestine.

In 63 BC the Jews were conquered by Roman Pompey, and never again had even the vestige of independence. The Roman Emperor Hadrian finally wiped them out about 135 AD. He utterly destroyed Jerusalem, rebuilt under another name, and for hundreds of years no Jew was permitted to enter it. A handful of Jews remained in Palestine but the vast majority were killed or scattered to other countries, in the Diaspora, or the Great Dispersion. From that time Palestine ceased to be a Jewish country, in any conceivable sense.

This was 1,815 years ago, and yet the Jews solemnly pretend they still own Palestine! If such fantasy were allowed, how the map of the world would dance about! Italians might claim England, which the Romans held so long. England might claim France, "homeland" of the conquering Normans. And the French Normans might claim Norway, where their ancestors originated. And incidentally, we Arabs might claim Spain, which we held for 700 years. Many Mexicans might claim Spain, "homeland" of their forefathers. They might even claim Texas, which was Mexican until 100 years ago. And suppose the American Indians claimed the "homeland" of which they were the sole, native, and ancient occupants until only some 450 years ago!

I am not being facetious. All these claims are just as valid—or just as fantastic—as the Jewish "historic connection" with Palestine. Most are more valid. In any event, the great Moslem expansion about 650 AD finally settled things. It dominated Palestine completely. From that day on, Palestine was solidly Arabic in population, language, and religion. When British armies entered the country during the last war, they found 500,000 Arabs and only 65,000 Jews.
If solid, uninterrupted Arab occupation for nearly 1,300 years does not make a country "Arab", what does?

The Jews say, and rightly, that Palestine is the home of their religion. It is likewise the birthplace of Christianity, but would any Christian nation claim it on that account? In passing, let me say that the Christian Arabs—and there are many hundreds of thousands of them in the Arab World—are in absolute agreement with all other Arabs in opposing the Zionist invasion of Palestine.

May I also point out that Jerusalem is, after Mecca and Medina, the holiest place in Islam. In fact, in the early days of our religion, Moslems prayed toward Jerusalem instead of Mecca.
The Jewish "religious claim" to Palestine is as absurd as the "historic claim." The Holy Places, sacred to three great religions, must be open to all, the monopoly of none. Let us not confuse religion and politics.

We are told that we are inhumane and heartless because do not accept with open arms the perhaps 200,000 Jews in Europe who suffered so frightfully under Nazi cruelty, and who even now—almost three years after war’s end—still languish in cold, depressing camps. Let me underline several facts. The unimaginable persecution of the Jews was not done by the Arabs: it was done by a Christian nation in the West. The war which ruined Europe and made it almost impossible for these Jews to rehabilitate themselves was fought by the Christian nations of the West. The rich and empty portions of the earth belong, not to the Arabs, but to the Christian nations of the West.

And yet, to ease their consciences, these Christian nations of the West are asking Palestine—a poor and tiny Moslem country of the East—to accept the entire burden. "We have hurt these people terribly," cries the West to the East. "Won’t you please take care of them for us?"
We find neither logic nor justice in this. Are we therefore "cruel and heartless nationalists"?
We are a generous people: we are proud that "Arab hospitality" is a phrase famous throughout the world. We are a humane people: no one was shocked more than we by the Hitlerite terror. No one pities the present plight of the desperate European Jews more than we.
But we say that Palestine has already sheltered 600,000 refugees. We believe that is enough to expect of us—even too much. We believe it is now the turn of the rest of the world to accept some of them.

I will be entirely frank with you. There is one thing the Arab world simply cannot understand. Of all the nations of the earth, America is most insistent that something be done for these suffering Jews of Europe. This feeling does credit to the humanity for which America is famous, and to that glorious inscription on your Statue of Liberty.

And yet this same America—the richest, greatest, most powerful nation the world has ever known—refuses to accept more than a token handful of these same Jews herself! I hope you will not think I am being bitter about this. I have tried hard to understand that mysterious paradox, and I confess I cannot. Nor can any other Arab.

Perhaps you have been informed that "the Jews in Europe want to go to no other place except Palestine." This myth is one of the greatest propaganda triumphs of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, the organisation which promotes with fanatic zeal the emigration to Palestine. It is a subtle half-truth, thus doubly dangerous. The astounding truth is that nobody on earth really knows where these unfortunate Jews really want to go!

You would think that in so grave a problem, the American, British, and other authorities responsible for the European Jews would have made a very careful survey, probably by vote, to find out where each Jew actually wants to go. Amazingly enough this has never been done! The Jewish Agency has prevented it.

Some time ago the American Military Governor in Germany was asked at a press conference how he was so certain that all Jews there wanted to go to Palestine. His answer was simple: "My Jewish advisors tell me so." He admitted no poll had ever been made. Preparations were indeed begun for one, but the Jewish Agency stepped in to stop it.

The truth is that the Jews in German camps are now subjected to a Zionist pressure campaign which learned much from the Nazi terror. It is dangerous for a Jew to say that he would rather go to some other country, not Palestine. Such dissenters have been severely beaten, and worse.
Not long ago, in Palestine, nearly 1,000 Austrian Jews informed the international refugee organisation that they would like to go back to Austria, and plans were made to repatriate them.
The Jewish Agency heard of this, and exerted enough political pressure to stop it. It would be bad propaganda for Zionism if Jews began leaving Palestine. The nearly 1,000 Austrian Jews are still there, against their will.

The fact is that most of the European Jews are Western in culture and outlook, entirely urban in experience and habits. They cannot really have their hearts set on becoming pioneers in the barren, arid, cramped land which is Palestine.

One thing, however, is undoubtedly true. As matters stand now, most refugee Jews in Europe would, indeed, vote for Palestine, simply because they know no other country will have them.
If you or I were given a choice between a near-prison camp for the rest of our lives—or Palestine—we would both choose Palestine, too.

But open up any other alternative to them—give them any other choice, and see what happens!
No poll, however, will be worth anything unless the nations of the earth are willing to open their doors—just a little—to the Jews. In other words, if in such a poll a Jew says he wants to go to Sweden, Sweden must be willing to accept him. If he votes for America, you must let him come in.

Any other kind of poll would be a farce. For the desperate Jew, this is no idle testing of opinion: this is a grave matter of life or death. Unless he is absolutely sure that his vote means something, he will always vote for Palestine, so as not to risk his bird in the hand for one in the bush.
In any event, Palestine can accept no more. The 65,000 Jews in Palestine in 1918 have jumped to 600,000 today. We Arabs have increased, too, but not by immigration. The Jews were then a mere 11 per cent of our population. Today they are one third of it. The rate of increase has been terrifying. In a few more years—unless stopped now—it will overwhelm us, and we shall be an important minority in our own home.

Surely the rest of the wide world is rich enough and generous enough to find a place for 200,000 Jews—about one third the number that tiny, poor Palestine has already sheltered. For the rest of the world, it is hardly a drop in the bucket. For us it means national suicide.

We are sometimes told that since the Jews came to Palestine, the Arab standard of living has improved. This is a most complicated question. But let us even assume, for the argument, that it is true. We would rather be a bit poorer, and masters of our own home. Is this unnatural? The sorry story of the so-called "Balfour Declaration," which started Zionist immigration into Palestine, is too complicated to repeat here in detail. It is grounded in broken promises to the Arabs—promises made in cold print which admit no denying.

We utterly deny its validity. We utterly deny the right of Great Britain to give away Arab land for a "national home" for an entirely foreign people. Even the League of Nations sanction does not alter this. At the time, not a single Arab state was a member of the League. We were not allowed to say a word in our own defense.

I must point out, again in friendly frankness, that America was nearly as responsible as Britain for this Balfour Declaration. President Wilson approved it before it was issued, and the American Congress adopted it word for word in a joint resolution on 30th June, 1922.

In the 1920s, Arabs were annoyed and insulted by Zionist immigration, but not alarmed by it. It was steady, but fairly small, as even the Zionist founders thought it would remain. Indeed for some years, more Jews left Palestine than entered it—in 1927 almost twice as many. But two new factors, entirely unforeseen by Britain or the League or America or the most fervent Zionist, arose in the early thirties to raise the immigration to undreamed heights. One was the World Depression; the second the rise of Hitler.

In 1932, the year before Hitler came to power, only 9,500 Jews came to Palestine. We did not welcome them, but we were not afraid that, at that rate, our solid Arab majority would ever be in danger. But the next year—the year of Hitler—it jumped to 30,000! In 1934 it was 42,000! In 1935 it reached 61,000!

It was no longer the orderly arrival of idealist Zionists. Rather, all Europe was pouring its frightened Jews upon us. Then, at last, we, too, became frightened. We knew that unless this enormous influx stopped, we were, as Arabs, doomed in our Palestine homeland. And we have not changed our minds.

I have the impression that many Americans believe the trouble in Palestine is very remote from them, that America had little to do with it, and that your only interest now is that of a humane bystander.

I believe that you do not realise how directly you are, as a nation, responsible in general for the whole Zionist move and specifically for the present terrorism. I call this to your attention because I am certain that if you realise your responsibility you will act fairly to admit it and assume it.

Quite aside from official American support for the "National Home" of the Balfour Declaration, the Zionist settlements in Palestine would have been almost impossible, on anything like the current scale, without American money. This was contributed by American Jewry in an idealistic effort to help their fellows.

The motive was worthy: the result were disastrous. The contributions were by private individuals, but they were almost entirely Americans, and, as a nation, only America can answer for it.

The present catastrophe may be laid almost entirely at your door. Your government, almost alone in the world, is insisting on the immediate admission of 100,000 more Jews into Palestine—to be followed by countless additional ones. This will have the most frightful consequences in bloody chaos beyond anything ever hinted at in Palestine before.

It is your press and political leadership, almost alone in the world, who press this demand. It is almost entirely American money which hires or buys the "refugee ships" that steam illegally toward Palestine: American money which pays their crews. The illegal immigration from Europe is arranged by the Jewish Agency, supported almost entirely by American funds. It is American dollars which support the terrorists, which buy the bullets and pistols that kill British soldiers—your allies—and Arab citizens—your friends.

We in the Arab world were stunned to hear that you permit open advertisements in newspapers asking for money to finance these terrorists, to arm them openly and deliberately for murder. We could not believe this could really happen in the modern world. Now we must believe it: we have seen the advertisements with our own eyes.

I point out these things because nothing less than complete frankness will be of use. The crisis is too stark for mere polite vagueness which means nothing.

I have the most complete confidence in the fair-mindedness and generosity of the American public. We Arabs ask no favours. We ask only that you know the full truth, not half of it. We ask only that when you judge the Palestine question, you put yourselves in our place.

What would your answer be if some outside agency told you that you must accept in America many millions of utter strangers in your midst—enough to dominate your country—merely because they insisted on going to America, and because their forefathers had once lived there some 2,000 years ago?

Our answer is the same.

And what would be your action if, in spite of your refusal, this outside agency began forcing them on you?

Ours will be the same.

My Victorian Workout and Reading Room

While this room is largely "done" as regards the furniture, changing the arrangement plus using different house plants helps to keep it fresh and vital. I love the fact that this room is completely dissimilar to the Undersea Fantasy Bathroom and my Gay Trailer Trash on Acid livingroom!

Breakthrough in Electricity from Motion

I can just imagine how LARGE sheets could be used....flutter in the wind in the backyard to charge your electric car? Sail boats? Jackets? Very cool.

http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/24428/?a=f

The Roots of Violence:

Wealth without work,
Pleasure without conscience,
Knowledge without character,
Commerce without morality,
Science without humanity,
Worship without sacrifice,
Politics without principles.

Mohandas K. Gandhi:

Robot Developed By GM and NASA , plus Honda's ASIMO

I feel that this robot, plus Honda's ASIMO, are remarkable! Enjoy, John

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=308767967494&ref=mf

http://dreams.honda.com/robotics-mobility/?ef_id=1097:3:s_212ce43c9e0aeb96835c0bbbb8f58d61_3597080428:S2riakNIYWYAAESWJJMAAAJA:20100204150618

"To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places -- and there are so many -- where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction." Howard Zinn

Astonishing Photos!

Martin Waugh uses a VERY high speed camera to freeze the movements of various drops and liquids and splashes....brace yourself as you click on each thumbnail! Enjoy, John

http://www.liquidsculpture.com/fine_art/image.htm?title=Legs1

Photographs

Sometimes when I get "altered" I like to take close up photos of various objects in my trippy livingroom, which can result in some pleasing abstract compositions. Here are several. Enjoy, John