Now move back to an earlier file or next file for Lost Worlds - Year 2007 - Year 2006 - Year 2009

Interested in dates/events in history? Try Hyperhistory: http://www.hyperhistory.com/

Link to Lost Worlds at your leisure, if that is your pleasure. Warning: this page may be a slow download due to its graphics.

Contact via the convenient (and virus-free): e-mail form

Lost Worlds Year 2008

If you value the information posted here, and the projects of these websites in general, you may like to consider making a donation to help reduce our production costs? It would be greatly appreciated. Options include: paying via PayPal which this website uses - Ed

We live in days so far beyond satire: We live in days so far beyond satire: We live in days so far beyond satire: We live in days so far beyond satire: We live in days so far beyond satire: We live in days so far beyond satire: We live in days so far beyond satire:  

Lost Worlds - the editorial outlook - the new - a decade later, the problem of lost causes

It has to be confessed ... by November 2008 as Barack Obama became President-Elect of the USA. This website has changed its style as far as its original intentions were concerned (see above). We began with an idea of Lost Worlds, but as life has unfolded since 1997, the website has gradually been obliged to consider, for more modern times, not so much Lost Worlds, as Lost Causes. All we can say, is that we feel no personal sense of responsibility as the world has abandoned the disciplines of Civilisation (leading eg to the 2008 world financial crisis) - that is something we have tried, however vainly, to stave off, as we asked people to think/re-think.

We began in 1996-1997 with ideas of presenting helpful information on new archaeological discoveries; views on esoterica in world history, quaint items on little-known aspects of watersheds in history; items on the influence of considerations of the influence of theology in history.

But, but, Events since 9/11 have taken us over and it's been impossible to keep up. Now we have the amazing scenario where an Afro-American, albeit via Kenya, (which is real, eastern, not western, Africa), Mr. Obama, becomes the new President of the USA. This is an astonishing watershed in history! And so, this website will in future change tack a little in order to take account of this shift in what will amount to - world perceptions of matters of contemporary historical importance. Since we wholly approve of Obama, this ought to improve the website in the future. We hope so.
The Lost Causes you can take as you find them! - Ed

2008 Lost Worlds Annual Award for World Stupidity 2008

And The 2008 Lost Worlds Annual Award for World Stupidity goes to The Economy of the United States of America. That's right, folks, largely due to America's Kentucky Fried Finance Industry, Buddy, Can You Spare A Trillion? The year that Wall Street revealed it can't even manage its own street in New York, let alone "globalisation".

The year 2008 was the year that humanity, particularly the USA, and particularly Wall Street, thoroughly outsmarted itself and left the world gasping with disbelief. The vanities have all been burned on the bonfires, the US Greenback is now to be called The Blackback.
Except for the vanities of,
One, the wreath of ponzi tree laurels that goes to New York "investment manager" Bernie Madoff this year for Stamina In Long Term Sheer Unmitigated Chutzpa.
Except for two, the new-design motherboard for the random number generator used as a money supply in the USA after the LCD readout system for the US national debt ran out of digits and could no longer count the problem.
Except for three, the new-makeover Keynesian Socialism sections for The Regreening of the US Dollar, which are to be opened at both the US Treasury and the US Mint, which are to be filled floor-to-ceiling with decks of new-wave, recession-proofed high-res printer-scanners as the US Mint frantically prints more money, failing to remember Zimbabwe.
Except for four, the new afternburner casings, a wonderful future-proofing invention, to be used by the American automotive industry.
Except for five, the new Icarus Wings successfully transplanted on the Hope angel of The Land of Hope and Glory (a tune by British composer Edward Elgar that the Americans adopted as their own, much as they have appropriated Other People's Oil and Resources for so long). And except for six ...
Six: Lost Worlds in late 2008 also announces the creation of a new Awards section, The Serious Ignorance And Words Fail Us Citation, which this year goes to the soon-retiring President G. W. Bush, who once lamented that the French language had no word for entrepreneur. If the French (cheese-eating surrender monkeys) have no word for entrepreneur, what can be said of the folk of the USA, who still have no word for what we saw in 2008: the convulsions of the superpower consumer economy that digested its own stomach. And then fatally upsold itself when it ordered another plate of fries and another Coke with that! -Ed

Below at right: US Treasury in late 2008 tests prototypes of the new Icarus wings for the Hope Angel of The Land of Hope and Glory and its economy in 2009.

NB: The Lost Worlds World Stupidity Awards volunteer judges have also suggested that the following extra new categories be considered for 2008, or otherwise for possible actioning in 2009 if time has run out for 2008 (which it has). Other categories might be for:
(a) Unexpected/unintended consequences of seemingly good ideas, with surprise bonus points awarded if the problem was pointed out in advance (sub category - The It Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time Award);
(b) Actions taken just because a beaut technology exists to do it with (even if long-term, it's a dud), with bonus points if the problem was pointed out in advance (or, The Can-Do Intermittent Redundancy Award For Creative Regression And Devolutionism;
(c) Political and governmental proposals that contravene the laws of Science, Physics, Chemistry, etc, with bonus points if the problem was pointed out in advance but they still proceeded (or, The Bullshit Baffles Brains Award);
(d) Political Correctness never to be side-stepped, especially where discussion or intellectual freedom is made lop-sided, and/or if the problem was pointed out in advance (or, The Let's Not Use Plain English Award), and;
(e) The Retreat From The Discontents Of Civilization Award (or, Citations For Impressively Top-Speed Exponents Of Going To Hell In A Handbasket).

Lost Worlds' Christmas Message 2008 - Zimbabwe in Africa, what to do? Yes, this Christmas, why doesn't the world do Zimbabwe's people, and the world, a favour by removing President Mugabe from power? He is obviously quite mad. The cholera epidemic, hunger and current squalor of Zimbabwe are simply a reflection of the mad squalor of the minds of Mugabe and his henchmen. If this is obvious to an individual Australian, how much more so is it obvious to governments around the world, to the UN? Mugabe and his backers should be placed in padded cells and kept there, as of yesterday! Before being put on trial for crimes against humanity.
The mad Mugabe says of late, "Zimbabwe is mine." Who could put the problem more precisely? Who?

Bah Humbug for Christmas Eve from the Vatican: In Rome, the present Pope Benedict obviously needs to get a life. He takes Christmas Eve 2008 as an opportunity to warn the world against the evils of "gender politics", homosexuality, and the risks of blurring the distinction between male and female. Really? Perhaps this is a Pope who needs to learn that virtue, like charity, should begin at home? The Roman Catholic Church is in no condition, repeat, no condition, to lecture anyone at all on anything to do with human sexuality. Not while around the world the Catholic Church has had and has so many of its clergy, mostly male, accused of sexual malfeasance, mostly of a homosexual or paedophile nature. Internationally, legal suits brought against the Church for such problems have already cost it millions (if not a billion or two). This is not a Church which is in a position to say anything authoritative at all about homosexuality, one way or another, till it gets its own house in order. In the small rural city in which this webmaster lives, Armidale, NSW, Australia, home of a Catholic cathedral and headquarters of a Catholic diocese, an older priest just this month has had a number of charges against him increased for offences years ago, of a sexual nature. Increased. Not decreased, increased. It seems, that Pope Benedict would be wisely advised not to say things in public which make him look an ass. But if he wishes to make a complete fool of himself and his Church at Christmas time, who are any of us to remove him from the privilege of the vocational joy of (if you will pardon the pun) pontificating? He, after all, is The Pope. Apparently, by definition, able to speak infallibly on matters of faith and morals. Bah humbug, indeed! (World media reports various on 24-12-2008)

Zionism or not?: Lately (by 4 December 2008) on the Internet arises a very difficult matter to discuss, more so as anything historical that can be said is very likely to be hotly contested. The nature of Zionism as an ideology. In 2008 if not before, webpages have been mounted on these questions around the world, as a friend of this website has noticed. The main point of debate is whether or not before 1939, Zionists in Germany had dealings with senior members of the Nazi Party in the future of Jews in Germany. An allegation is that such Zionists had developed for Jews, a view about "blood, race and homeland" that was not unlike Nazi views on racial purity. The implication of course is that the Jewish race should have its own homeland - which became today's Israel. Historians here should be re-examining the maritime history of Jewish re-settlement in Palestine before 1939, to be able to reassess the evidence, and perhaps find the money trails used by pre-war Zionist activists. Some related issues are contained well enough in a review of a new book by an Israeli historian, which we will reproduce below.
But firstly, a preamble. It so happens that on 20 December 2006, The Australian newspaper on its Letters to Editor pages published three related extracts. One was from Holocaust survivor, Primo Levi, his Auschwitz Report (1946), only lately published in English for the first time. Primo here gave the standard view of Nazi gas chambers used for the mass slaughter of Jews. In February 1943, new-design gas chambers plus a crematorium oven were inaugurated at Birkenau. The capacity of ovens was about 2000 corpses per day. Once victims were in gas chambers, airtight doors would be locked and through valves in the ceiling would be dropped a coarse powder of blue-grey colour. Zyklon-B, which was manufactured in Hamburg, a preparation of cyanide which evaporated at room temperature. And the victims died within minutes, minutes turned into nothing by Holocaust deniers.

Then came remarks from former US President Jimmy Carter, in Los Angeles Times, writing about reactions to his new book, Palestine: Peace not Apartheid, which is concerned with matters in Palestine, not in Israel, matters in which he has been interested for 30 years. Carter lamented the lack of debate he sees in the US regarding Palestinian-Israeli relations. He sees reluctance to criticise policies of the Israeli government, due to the lobbying success of the American-Israel Political Action Committee. No American politician will speak up for a balanced position between Israel and Palestinians. To suggest that Israel comply with international laws about justice and human rights for Palestinians. The third item was a rebuttal in Washington Post from Michael Kinsley on "Carter's apartheid slur". Kinsley knows that apartheid has to be committed to a notion of racial superiority. Many individual Jews might be intolerant of Arabs, or Palestinians, but he insisted that the official philosophy of the Israeli government is the opposite, and that efforts are made in Israel to instill humanitarian and egalitarian attitudes in children. Whereas in Arab countries, hatred of Jews is part of curricula. So Kinsley says.

And lately, this website has developed a suspicion that the 2008 website offerings purporting to present a revised history-and-development of Zionism are being orchestrated, meaning they possibly come from a central propaganda hub, but we don't know the facts. We do know that one somewhat unforgettable pro-Palestinian website propagandist we read in 2008, uses the word "preposterous" about Zionist claims to possession of an ancient Jewish homeland. We also know that in the later Nineteenth Century, one of the noted leaders of London Synagogue, a Goldsmid, when asked about the rise of Zionist ideology, is still quoted as saying that he felt that Judaism is merely a religion. This website feels, that to be a Zionist, one has to be a Jew, but we don't see how it is necessary for a Jew to be a Zionist. And so we don't believe that any Jew critical of Zionism, of the State of Israel, is "a self-hating Jew". Rather, we think, that the Zionists, like Lady Macbeth, who with her husband, had gone far too far, protesteth too much. Far too much. And to quote singer Leonard Cohen, Hallelujah.

We now present a review of a new book -

Book refuting Jewish taboo on Israel’s bestseller list
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2008 by Jonathan Cook –

No one is more surprised than Israel's Professor Shlomo Sand that his latest academic work has spent 19 weeks on Israel’s bestseller list – and that success has come to the history professor despite his book challenging Israel’s biggest taboo.

Dr Sand argues that the idea of a Jewish nation – whose need for a safe haven was originally used to justify the founding of the state of Israel – is a myth invented little more than a century ago.

An expert on European history at Tel Aviv University, Dr Sand drew on extensive historical and archaeological research to support not only this claim but several more – all equally controversial.

In addition, he argues that the Jews were never exiled from the Holy Land, that most of today’s Jews have no historical connection to the land called Israel and that the only political solution to the country’s conflict with the Palestinians is to abolish the Jewish state.

The success of his book, When and How Was the Jewish People Invented? looks likely to be repeated around the world. A French edition, launched last month, is selling so fast that it has already had three print runs.

Translations are under way into a dozen languages, including Arabic and English. But he predicted a rough ride from the pro-Israel lobby when the book is launched by his English publisher, Verso, in the United States next year. In contrast, he said Israelis had been, if not exactly supportive, at least curious about his argument. Tom Segev, one of the country’s leading journalists, has called the book “fascinating and challenging”.

Surprisingly, Dr Sand said, most of his academic colleagues in Israel have shied away from tackling his arguments. One exception is Israel Bartal, a professor of Jewish history at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Writing in Haaretz, the Israeli daily newspaper, Dr Bartal made little effort to rebut Dr Sand’s claims. Paradoxically, he dedicated much of his article instead to defending his profession. He suggested that Israeli historians were not as ignorant about the invented nature of Jewish history as Dr Sand contends.

The idea for the book had come to him many years ago, Dr Sand said, but he waited until recently to start working on it. “I cannot claim to be particularly courageous in publishing the book now,” he said. “I waited until I was a full professor. There is a price to be paid in Israeli academia for expressing views of this sort.”

Dr Sand’s main argument is that until little more than a century ago, Jews thought of themselves as Jews only because they shared a common religion. At the turn of the 20th century, he said, Zionist Jews challenged this idea and started creating a national history by inventing the idea that Jews existed as a people separate from their religion.

Equally, the modern Zionist idea of Jews being obligated to return from exile to the Promised Land was entirely alien to Judaism, he added.

“Zionism changed the idea of Jerusalem. Before, the holy places were seen as places to long for, not to be lived in. For 2,000 years Jews stayed away from Jerusalem not because they could not return but because their religion forbade them from returning until the messiah came.”

The biggest surprise during his research came when he started looking at the archaeological evidence from the biblical era.

“I was not raised as a Zionist, but like all other Israelis I took it for granted that the Jews were a people living in Judea and that they were exiled by the Romans in 70AD.

Dr Sand’s main argument is that until little more than a century ago, Jews thought of themselves as Jews only because they shared a common religion. At the turn of the 20th century, he said, Zionist Jews challenged this idea and started creating a national history by inventing the idea that Jews existed as a people separate from their religion.

Equally, the modern Zionist idea of Jews being obligated to return from exile to the Promised Land was entirely alien to Judaism, he added.

“Zionism changed the idea of Jerusalem. Before, the holy places were seen as places to long for, not to be lived in. For 2,000 years Jews stayed away from Jerusalem not because they could not return but because their religion forbade them from returning until the messiah came.”

“But once I started looking at the evidence, I discovered that the kingdoms of David and Solomon were legends. “Similarly with the exile. In fact, you can’t explain Jewishness without exile. But when I started to look for history books describing the events of this exile, I couldn’t find any. Not one.

“That was because the Romans did not exile people. In fact, Jews in Palestine were overwhelmingly peasants and all the evidence suggests that they stayed on their lands.”

Instead, he believes that an alternative theory is more plausible: the exile was a myth promoted by early Christians to recruit Jews to the new faith. “Christians wanted later generations of Jews to believe that their ancestors had been exiled as a punishment from God,” he suggests.

So if there was no exile, how is it that so many Jews ended up scattered around the globe before the modern state of Israel began encouraging them to “return”?

Dr Sand said that, in the centuries immediately preceding and following the Christian era, Judaism was a proselytising religion, desperate for converts. “This is mentioned in the Roman literature of the time.”

Jews travelled to other regions seeking converts, particularly in Yemen and among the Berber tribes of North Africa. Centuries later, the people of the Khazar kingdom in what is today south Russia, would convert en masse to Judaism, becoming the genesis of the Ashkenazi Jews of central and eastern Europe.

Dr Sand pointed to the strange state of denial in which most Israelis live, noting that [academic] papers have offered extensive coverage recently on the discovery of the capital of the Khazar kingdom next to the Caspian Sea. Ynet, the website of Israel’s most popular newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, headlined the story: “Russian archaeologists find long-lost Jewish capital.” And yet none of the papers, he added, had considered the significance of this find [as it relates] to standard accounts of Jewish history.

One further question is prompted by Dr Sand’s account, as he himself notes: if most Jews never left the Holy Land, what became of them?

“It is not taught in Israeli schools but most of the early Zionist leaders, including David Ben Gurion [Israel’s first prime minister], believed that the Palestinians were the descendants of the area’s original Jews. They believed these Jews had later converted to Islam.”

Dr Sand attributed his colleagues’ reticence to engage with him to an implicit acknowledgement by many that the whole edifice of “Jewish history” taught at Israeli universities is built like a house of cards.

The problem with the teaching of history in Israel, Dr Sand said, dates to a decision in the 1930s to separate history into two disciplines: general history and Jewish history. Jewish history was assumed to need its own field of study because Jewish experience was considered unique.

“There’s no Jewish department of politics or sociology at the universities. Only history is taught in this way, and it has allowed specialists in Jewish history to live in a very insular and conservative world where they are not touched by modern developments in historical research.

“I’ve been criticised in Israel for writing about Jewish history when European history is my specialty. But a book like this needed a historian who is familiar with the standard concepts of historical inquiry used by academia in the rest of the world.”

www.thenational.ae/article/20081006/FOREIGN/279853798 POSTED BY CONCERNED HEART AT 6:07 AM

This website finds all this quite fascinating - and a hornet's nest. It is particularly interesting that a historian says that various Zionist claims should be subjected to standard methods of historical inquiry. For example, this website merely on its own initiative, which is non-Jewish, can find no historical basis at all for the story of The Exodus of Jews from Egypt in the time of Moses! None at all!

But we also think that Sand should tell us more about the Khazars, who apparently found themselves about 800AD being intimidated into converting to either Islam or Christianity, so they chose to become Jews. Who knows what such a mass conversion might have meant for world culture at the time? Sand could have discussed legends which have survived in Christian pop culture, that Joseph of Arimathea, who donated the tomb in which Jesus was laid, later went to Wales, if not to Glastonbury. Or the whole basis of what became the plot lines of Dan Brown's novel, The Da Vinci Code, apparently partly based on Leigh and Baigent's books, The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail. Proposing that Jesus had a child by Mary Magdalene and that his bloodline mingled with that of successive European nobilities. Or, the racist (or racialist) basis for pogroms mounted against Jewish people at various times in European history.
Sands is up against a great deal of pop culture, the results of people reading a great deal of popular history, as well as contemporary politics and history-in-the-making.
And on balance, all this website can think, is that debate will be hot. This website thinks, that the State of Israel will only survive if it becomes a somewhat unique, modern, democratic, multi-cultural state. Also, the Palestinian people ought to be allowed to develop their own state to points of viability and sustainability. And so we mention all this mostly because we'd like to maintain our reputation, as mere Australians, for trying to present controversial issues in a reasonable way. We imagine, Sand's book will have a hot career. - Certainly the issues are too important to be ignored. Ed

4 November: This website found itself quite diverted by a TV news item a few days ago in Australia that certain parties in the US had fingered the genealogy of the much-lampooned Republican Vice-Presidential candidate, Sarah Palin. We figured, we knew of at least one of the genealogists who would be responsible, and we were right - it was William Addams Reitwiesner (see www.wargs.com/). So we went straight to his website. And here we found some genealogical reasons for the astonishing over-confidence of Ms Palin (nee Heath). She is descended from USA colonial aristocracy, no less; the pilgrims of the Mayflower. We presume she knows this. If she doesn't know it, here is additional information derived from this website's inimitable information resources.
But there is a proviso, as obviously, across some centuries, any individual alive today will have multiple and maybe confusing genealogical progenitors to look back on. Ms Palin's interesting progenitor here is Mayflower pilgrim John Howland (1599-1673-74), plus his wife Elizabeth Tilley (d. 1687). We find that amongst John Howland's descendants (considered as perhaps an unreasonably large extended family) were: (a Howland descendant married back into England, hence the English aristocratic connections listed):
Calverts the Lords Baltimore of Maryland before the American Revolution. Whaling captain Eber Bunker captain of a ship of Third Fleet to Australia and "early father" of Sydney suburb, Liverpool. US writer Ralph Waldo Emerson. US poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. UK Philosopher Bertrand Russell. US President F. D. Roosevelt. A name from the US-ultra-wealthy, Vanderbilt. A governor of West Australia and of Tasmania. Another governor of WA. A daughter of a premier of NSW. A son of Richard Henry Dana, author of Two Years Before The Mast. US governor-general of Philippines, William Cameron Forbes. A son of UK PM Primrose. A governor of Queensland. Some Barings of that UK banker family. A Campbell a Duke Argyll. The wife of UK historian Arnold Toynbee. UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill. British PM Harold Macmillan. A governor of NSW. UK Historian Lady Antonia Fraser. A governor-general of New Zealand. Members of present royal family of Britain including Lady Diana, mother of the present UK royal princes. A son of US president, J. F. Kennedy (or his wife). G. W Bush (President of USA in 2008) and Sarah Heath/Palin, who married a man who is part-Inuit. (Inuit being the "Eskimo" of Canada for those who still don't know where Africa is, or what an atlas is.) What is amazing is that the USA has just elected as president a man who has little to do with the gene-pool suggested by the background of any of the aforementioned names. This seems likely to form a future trend for US politics, meaning, the demise of the political influence of the descendants of the Mayflower. C'est la vie and joi de vivre!

New planets found, about 25 million light years away: Two teams of astronomers at University of Berkeley, California, are flabbergasted after discovering planets around a star they've named "Fomalhaut b". A first working team used the Hubble space telescope to image a giant planet orbiting Fomalhaut, a relatively young star, 25 million light years away. Another team used the giant Keck and Gemini telescopes of Hawaii to image three planets orbiting star HR8799, 130 light years away. (Reported 15 November 2008 from a recent issue of journal Science)

22 October 2008: This website was so outraged with the October news of the onset of the world financial crisis emanating from the US, we mounted the following polemic on our main page till Barack Obama was elected (4 November)

Economists of the world, unite! You have nothing ethical to lose but the chains in which the recent state of the US economy has kept you. Tell us (less-than-affluent as we may be) in time for the date of the US election, which money men in the US have been telling the most lies. Tell us now: is there is or is there ain't a depression in the US? Is any of this real? Is the US heading for real bankruptcy, or are things nothing more serious than complete moral bankruptcy? Where does the US money supply come from but from a peculiarly-dedicated computer which generates large-but-random numbers? And US$700 billion bailouts for naughty capitalists? Is this just Socialism for the rich? And business-as-usual, predatory, hard-line capitalism for the poor? We want to know. We need to know. All this from the folks who wanted to bring us globalisation; when they can't even successfully run a single street in New York! Now, let's see Wall Street pull itself up by its own bootstraps. It's said that the fundamentals of the US economy are strong. But can anyone actually name a single fundamental of the US economy which is strong? Does the US need some good old fashioned, Keynesian, trickle-up economics? (Remember, in the long run, we are all dead.) And, when Jesus returns, what will Jesus say? What would Jesus do? Turn over the money-changers' tables, again? Hmm? Bring in the FBI, we the people say here in Australia!

Finding of original site of founding of Rome? In the legend, a wolf suckled twin foundings, Romulus and Remus. Now, archaeologists have discovered "an underground cavity" 16 metres underground, decorated with seashells, mosaics and pumice stones near the ruins of a palace once occupied by first Roman emperor, Augustus, died 14AD, on the Palatine Hill, which overlooked the Forum of Rome. At the centre of the cavity is an image of a white eagle, (although some parts of the cavity have collapsed). Perhaps, the site is both old and sacred, the site of the worship of The Lupercale? Where the wolf suckled the twins? One spokesman for the find was archaeologist, Prof. Giogio Coric. (Reported later 2008 in world news)

The below material re DNA testing of Israelis was received by this website on 16 September 2008 from an e-mailer friend who tracks interesting issues. We have posted it immediately, as it's important in the interests of rationality- Ed

A Clinical Resolution of the Israeli/Palestinian Conflict

For the past few years, a number of peace activists have proposed a novel way to resolve the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. The beauty of their proposal is in its simplicity. Exploiting recent advances in science, they suggest that a little clinical analysis would straighten out the warped minds of many a delusional Zionist and create a psychologically positive environment for a rational resolution to the conflict between the natives of the Holy Land and their European tormentors.

DNA studies can conclusively prove that the Palestinians are the indigenous people of Palestine and that the Israelis are mostly of Eastern European Yiddish ancestry or descendants of assorted non-Palestinian Middle Eastern and North African Jews. In fact, a comprehensive DNA study would retire the entire body of Zionist mythology to the scrap heap of history. The conclusions of such a probe would certainly be a great stride in the direction of a permanent peace and a just resolution of this conflict.

Such a scientific endeavor would immediately provide a few simple answers to some very basic questions. Are Israelis just Palestinian wannabes? Do they covet Palestinian ancestry as well as Palestinian real estate? How intellectually warped do you have to be to even consider the preposterous theology of the Zionist cult? The answers provided by a comprehensive DNA study will certainly focus the minds of delirious Israelis who strut about proclaiming themselves of Holy Land pedigree.

Zionism is an ideological relic of the late nineteenth century that has been resurrected by the loonies who subscribe to the Evangelical Judaeo-Christian Identity movement. At its core, this European political movement was all about manifest destiny, chosen white people, and by extension, disposable Middle Eastern natives. It is the white supremacy movement of old - adorned in a new garb laced with a veneer of values and heritage.

One can only imagine what the Holy Land would be like had its fate not fallen into the hands of Lord Balfour and the other racist social engineers of the British Empire who thought nothing of eradicating a whole non-European nation. Had it not been for the advent of the Zionist movement, the Palestinians would probably be the most honored people on the planet - if only for passing on their monotheistic traditions and Abrahamic values to their brothers and sisters around the globe.

Being a Palestinian must be a mind-warping experience. Consider a very short version of their tragic story: Their ancestors - the ancient wise men of the Holy Land - inspired by the most credible creation mythology, took the risk of exporting their illuminating spiritual experience to the rest of the world. For going to the trouble of sharing their creed, their descendants now pay the stiff price of losing their ancestral lands. Out of the blue, thousands of years later, a deranged messianic fool like Tom Delay emerges from some back alley in Texas with an eviction notice and George Bush shows up with a posse to help Sharon enforce it. The Palestinians ask the messianic nuts why they do what they do and they respond that they were inspired by something one of your ancestors might have said a few thousand years ago.

Folks like Tom Delay believe that decimating the Palestinians paves the road to Armageddon. I am certain [that] if the scriptures said the road to Armageddon went through Crawford, Delay would show up at Dubya's ranch riding a Caterpillar bulldozer.

Every Zionist - whether Jewish or Evangelical - believes that Palestinians Christians and Muslims deserve to be evicted from their native lands because they consistently fail a medieval test of faith in the Jewish creed. No matter, that the Palestinians are the only verifiable progeny of the very same ancients who wrote both the Old and the New Testament. In the warped mind of Tom Delay, the legacy of inspirational Palestinian liturgy - a gift to the world from their Holy Land ancestors - is reason enough for the collective punishment of modern-day Palestinians and the wholesale confiscation of their patrimony. The Palestinians are not burdened with the sins of their fathers - but with the spiritual gifts of their ancestors.

Today, ten million people live in the land of Palestine (Israel and the occupied territories). About 55% of them are Israeli Jews and the rest are descendants of the indigenous native people who are aptly called Palestinians. It should be noted that another six million Palestinians continue to live in exile as refugees, making up the single largest refugee population in the world. So, about eleven million Palestinians all over the planet can claim descent from the ancient people of the Holy Land.

All told, we have a conflict that involves about sixteen million people - eleven million native Palestinians and five million uninvited invaders of the Jewish faith. One might also consider adding in the nine million or so Jews who live outside Israel - although I suspect a vast majority of them might not be aware they have a conflict with the Palestinians.

A comprehensive DNA study would not just benefit the collective mental health of delusional Israelis who fancy themselves of Semitic origin. Many Palestinians are also in denial as to their Jewish heritage and their blood relations to the ancient Hebrew tribes. Before they became Christians, they were Jewish or Hellenic. Before many of them converted to Islam, they were Christian. When people speak of Masada, it is the Palestinians who should gloat with pride at the heroism of their ancient warriors. When the conversation turns to the legacy of Jesus of Nazareth, it is the Palestinians who should claim him as the greatest son of Palestine.

The Palestinians were the first nation to profess Judaism and the first to rally around Jesus - forming the nucleus of what eventually became a universal religion. They were also the first people, outside of Arabia, to convert to Islam. Their imprint on the three major branches of the Abrahamic traditions is unmistakable.

What we have here is mass confusion about collective identity. The European Zionists believe themselves of ancient Palestinian pedigree and the natives of the Holy Land have some kind of collective mental block that prevents them from taking pride in the scriptural feats of their Hebrew ancestors.

Unlike the Palestinians, the Arabic-speaking natives of Lebanon embrace their Phoenician heritage. Egyptian Copts and Muslims no longer worship Pharonic deities. But the native people of the Nile Valley continue to cherish their inheritance from the glorious ancient civilization built by their ancestors. Jordanians lay claim to the legacy of the Nabateans and the natives of Damascus boast that their city is the oldest continuously-inhabited metropolis on the planet. The fact that their tongues now communicate in Arabic has not diminished their zeal in honoring the pre-Arab cultures of their ancestors.

The Palestinians should follow the example of their neighbors and make exclusive claim to the heritage of the ancient people of the Holy Land. Let the Yiddish intruders carry the burden of discovering their authentic roots and redesigning their family tree.

This is not to suggest that the Yiddish folk who now lord over Palestine should be ashamed of their central European past. Most people of European heritage eventually manage to adjust to their ancestors' legacy. If the Zionists need therapy to cross the identity bridge to [recognition of] their true heritage, the Palestinians should be gracious enough to pay for the couch. Give the Israelis a little space to reacquaint themselves with their real parents before obliging them to abandon the mythological lineage they have adopted.

At its core, the Israeli/Palestinian conflict comes down to extraordinary popular delusions and the madness of crowds. Those who are committed to resolving this murderous genocidal conflict should work to infuse a little rational DNA tonic into the volatile mix.

Israelis are always boasting about how modern and advanced they are. Maybe a sampling of the of the wonders of DNA science will help them discover that they shouldn't confiscate other people's land and try to cover up their crimes with collective identity theft.

Remarks on Beijing Olympics

Re: Opening of Beijing Olympics while China stomps Tibet: Wonderful appearances by idealistic children (one playing piano with Lang Lang!). Wonderful reminders of some of the greatest inventions of China, eg, paper. Image of Dove of Peace. Tai Chi segment, yes, very poetic. But great sense of regimentation (in the cultural interests of harmony?) of performers. Great sense of China both ancient and modern. The entire world of today should wonder at the capacity of China's population for being regimented (for which purposes?). As an Olympics opening TV show, probably not quite as engrossing as opening of the Barcelona or Sydney Olympics. Upshot: too technological to be entirely theatrically convincing - too theatrical to be entirely technologically convincing. Contradictions of Modern China, then?
As for the closing ceremony? It seemed to be an amazingly, an accurate, highly-choreographed, and an elaborately artistic demonstration of how the very soul of China would strive to defend itself if ever threatened by anyone, for whatever reasons.
As such, it was probably the most artistically-inspired military statement ever issued by any country in the world, ever. It was a highly modernistic, throbbingly lively depiction of the ancient Chinese notion of The Throne of Heaven, entirely unperturbed by anything happening on the fringes. Meantime, this website's sympathies are with the two little old grandmothers now being harrassed by their government, by their Forbidden City, for daring to wish to protest. We feel, Big Men were not put on this earth to harrass little old grandmothers. More so if the so-called Big Men sit on The Throne of Heaven. It seems, the Chinese government sits nowhere else, but on top of two little old grandmothers. Plus Tibet. Each of them might be sentenced to a year's "re-education hard labour". We suppose, putting rocks into retaining walls in Tibet! Sure to kill the grandmothers, and to annoy the Tibetans as well. All of which is, symbolically, how and why The Great Wall of China was originally built; visible from space as it's said to be.

Russian cult gives in: "The final members of a Russian doomsday cult yesterday quit the cave where they had been waiting six months for the end of the world after the stench of rotting corpses threatened them with intoxication. Nine survivors emerged from their muddy bunker." (Sydney Morning Herald, 17 May 2008)

Australian holocaust denier continues his work: "Holocaust denier Frederick Toben has aggravated his standing charges of criminal contempt of court by attacking federal judges and the judicial process, a court has heard." Dr. Toben, a former school teacher, was given orders in 2002 by a federal court to remove certain offensive material from his website, which suggested that The Holocaust did not happen and doubted the existence of gas chambers at Auschwitz concentration camp. The current hearing continues. Toben has spent seven months in a German prison in 1999 for inciting racism. (The Australian, 6-8-2008)

China in Tibet: Zen Buddhism question: what is the sound of China in Tibet? It is the sound of one hand slapping. Question for Dear Chinese Government. How can face be saved when face has much egg on it, and what will be mostly be saved, the face or the bits of egg?  Problem is lack of historical understanding. Chinese Government fails to understand the peace-treaty background of the tradition of Olympic Games in Ancient Greece. While Olympics are being held, all hostilities are called off. Has implications re China in Tibet now. Chinese art of war, study the enemy, very wise. Chinese art of hosting Olympic Games? Slap Tibet around a bit, very unwise. Dear Chinese Government, welcome to modern world. Egg problem on face is simple. It's Tibet. Have a nice Games. Be athletically wise. Nothing wrong with a little Zen Buddhism. Enjoy. (-Ed 11-4-2008)

This website feels vindicated: This website today feels vindicated as to its long-term editorial policy on the Iraq War (which is probably called in Iraq, The American War, though no one in the West seems to ask). We have just seen on TV a former US Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, giving her considered opinion, about which she is gravely troubled - the Iraq War is the greatest disaster in the history of American foreign policy. This is correct, we feel. (Australia, Evening TV news, 26 March 2008)

Health notice nails Easter "rituals": Philippine health officials have warned people taking part in Easter crucifixion and self-flagellation rituals to get a tetanus shot first and to sterilise the nails to avoid infections. Every Good Friday, dozens of men re-enact the crucifixion of Jesus by having themselves nailed to wooden crosses. Hundreds whip themselves as a way of atoning for their sins of the past year. (Sydney Morning Herald, 20 March 2008)

Iraq surge a definite victory says Bush: "The US President George Bush has marked the fifth anniversary of the [outbreak of] the Iraq War with his most optimistic assessment yet of the unpopular war's progress, declaring the troop surge had "opened the doors to a major strategic victory in the broader war on terror. ... In Iraq, we are witnessing the first large-scale Arab uprising against Osama bin-Laden, his grim ideology and his terror network - and the significance of this development cannot be overstated." Shades of Lawrence of Arabia!  (George of Arabia?) And, ya da ya ya da ya da. Meantime a recent CBS poll indicates that 29 per cent of Americans thought the loss of life was worth it in Iraq, 64 per cent said not worth it, 7 per cent undecided. (Or as a critic recently noted, the Bush administration's capacity for self-delusion seems quite unassaugable. Meantime, what can one say about Osama bin-Laden's capacities for self-delusion, these two men seem to need each other! Well, what of the US, with since Nixon's day its also-failed war against drugs. Well, what of Afghanistan? It seems from recent TV reports in Australia that new supplies of Afghanistan's recently produced opium-heroin are now reaching Sydney - the Americans in Afghanistan have never heard about napalm? They can't napalm those opium crops and then pay-off the affected farmers for their problems - so defusing the Taliban plan to benefit from dope sales? The US certainly used a lot of napalm and Agent Orange in Vietnam, with no compunction, to what effect, to what end? Is there a reason the opium crops of Afghanistan are not being regularly napalmed? Who is asking? Nobody! Which measure would cost less re the war in Afghanistan? Remember, both US military and commercial satellites both have the photographic capacity to pick up a match-box on the White House Lawn, but they can't identify where Osama bin-Laden is and they can't identify newly-growing opium crops in Afghanistan - is there a huge disconnect here? Is bin-Laden still needing regular medical attention via dialysis as was reported years ago? Ed) (Sydney Morning Herald, 20 March 2008)

Tibet: Those who know Tibet, know it is now a better place: It is sad for those of us who love Tibet and the Buddhist philosophy of life to watch the nonsense being promoted about that country. Most of the "Tibetans" protesting in Australia, Europe and the United States have never set foot in Tibet. The flag they drape themselves in is a fake. It has never been the flag of Tibet. Those of us who do visit Tibet experience a different place from the Hollywood version. The Dalai Lama abandoned Tibet because the CIA had promised him and his supporters that their corrupt, cruel and autocratic government would be reinstalled when they had defeated the Communists. He left behind a country with 37 per cent of children dying at birth or within days and women dying in childbirth at rates not seen in Europe since the 16th Century. There was one school (for the ruling class), and the population was intimidated into sacrificing at least one son or daughter to the monasteries. If you visit Tibet today you will find infant mortality down to Western best practice and modern hospitals that are mini St- Vincent's [A famous Sydney Hospital - Ed]. There are more than 1000 schools, with widespread attendance, and modern roads, cars, tractors, railways and airports. The road from Lhasa looks like Parramatta Road. Perhaps the people of Tibet would welcome the return of the Dalai Lama. They definitely would not accept the return of the old system. (Bob Clayton, Elizabeth Bay, Sydney: Letters-to-Editor, Sydney Morning Herald, 20 March 2008)

Islam pronounces at last on the terrorism problem: It has taken this long (since, say, 9/11), but at last, an authoritative conclave of Muslim clerics, meeting in North Africa, we understand, has issued a statement, which we hope is binding for all Muslims, to the effect that radical/violent jihad, the ultra-radical, politically and physically violent forms of Islamist vehemence, are not in keeping with proper Islamic faith. The statement seems intended to put violent Islamists and eg, suicide bombers, firmly in their place. This website has long wondered when Muslim clerics will bite this bullet, is immensely glad they have now bitten it, and will follow-up this news as soon as possible. Where is the place of an intending suicide bomber? This website thinks, in a padded cell in a very secure mental hospital, heavily sedated for as long as need be. (Weekend radio news, Australia, 16 March 2008 and we later found, this item has remained little reported in mainstream media, not followed-up at all, which is obviously disgraceful - Ed)

Timetables for departing Afghanistan: Australian troops could be in Afghanistan for another five years, Australia's Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon has suggested, rather signalling support for the US timetable for conduct of that war.  No precise exit date has been set. Part of the US plan for Afghanistan is to see peaceful elections held there, a trained army of 70,000 and a police force of 82,000. Inside a month, the US will ask NATO countries to provide more troops to operate in Afghanistan. (In Afghanistan, a saying is, that The Taliban begin where the paved road ends.) (Sydney Morning Herald, 15-16 March 2008)

World outrage over death of kidnapped bishop: In Iraq, al-Qa-ida militants have apparently by last Thursday killed Chaldean Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho, whose body has been found in a shallow grave near Mosul in Northern Iraq. The Archbishop, aged 65, was kidnapped in a shoot-out situation last February 29, but it is also thought he may have died from natural causes, under stress, as he had reportedly become ill. (Most of Iraq's Christians, who are a mere three per cent of the population, are Chaldeans. The Archbishop's home has been bombed in July 2004. Six other clerics of the Chaldean Catholics have been harrassed in recent times. (Weekend Australian, 15-16 March 2008)

Saddam had "no link" to al-Qa'ida: A new Pentagon study confirms that there was no direct link between the now-executed Iraqi leader and the al-Qa'ida network, contradicting the long-held views of President Bush, Vice-President Cheney and top aides.  The study considered 600,000 official Iraqi documents and evidence from thousands of hours of interrogations. Records indicate however that Saddam's regime did cultivate links with other terror groups, including Palestinian militants, and giving financial support to the families of suicide bombers of Gaza and the West Bank. The US government has apparently refrained from posting the study's results on the Internet. (Weekend Australian, 15-16 March 2008)

More controversy about The Hobbit: Observant readers of this website will have noted that the website failed to get excited about the recent "discovery" of a "new species" of humanity, The Hobbit, Homo floriensis. The reason for our caution here is that this website lives in a university town which is home to one if not more of the noted academics associated with original work on The Hobbit. It is also home to several academics who know their science of human genetics and who remain somewhat sceptical about claims made about The Hobbit. So we record the following. "The row over Homo floriensis fossils found on the Indonesian island of Flores had taken another twist, the BBC reported. According to the latest theory, published in the scientific journal, Proceedings of the Royal Society, H. floriensis, was a true human but did not grow to normal size because of environmental factors. A team led by Peter Obendorf, from the School of Applied Science at Melbourne's RMIT University, wrote that they [floriensis] developed a dwarfism condition because of nutritional deficiencies. Peter Brown of the University of New England, one of the researchers who discovered the [floriensis] remains, said the conclusions were "not supported by the facts". (From The Weekend Australian, 8-9 March, 2008)

Film uproar: Netherlands has raised its terrorism alert level from limited to "substantial" due to the planned release of an anti-Islam film (titled Fitna) by a far-Right politician Geert Wilders, the Netherlands Justice Ministry has said. Wilder's film views the Koran as "a fascist book" and has been subject of media attention internationally. Iran,  Egypt and Pakistan have voiced concern about the film, protests about it have been held in Afghanistan. The Dutch government has twice failed to urge Wilders to not screen the film. (The Weekend Australian, 8-9 March 2008)

Grand Canyon now ages rapidly: Estimates of the age of the Grand Canyon, or parts of it, have been tripled after new research findings from University of New Mexico have been lodged. Now, it seems that its western portion was formed by rushing water from about 17 million years ago, the eastern portion was not carved out till about six million years ago (the earlier-estimated all round age), when the entire canyon was thought to be eroded. The Grand Canyon is 445km long, up to 29km wide and up to 1760km deep. (From an issue of journal Science recent by March 2008)

Biofuel backlash: The rush to use of biofuels is threatening world food production and maybe the lives of billions of people, a scientistic adviser to the British government, John Beddington, has warned. Beddington simply cannot see how humanity can produce enough food to feed itself, as well as crops to be used as renewable energy. UN World Food Program director Josette Sheeran on this theme has told the European parliament that the shift to biofuels has moved land-use out of the human food chain. Beddington in particular cites the destruction of rainforest to clear land for growing biofuels as an "insane" use of a renewable energy option. (The Weekend Australian, 8-9 March 2008)

Another book on The Prophet: It's almost as though it's impossible that any remark about Islam will not be controversial. Muslim author Tariq Ramadan, regarded by some as the most dangerous Islamist in the West, had produced a new biography ("an intimate portrait") of the prophet Mohammed, The Messenger. A Swiss Muslim, writer Ramadan is a Senior Research Fellow at St Antony's College, Oxford who has been accused of using a forked tongue, speaking softy to Westerners, but being more hardline when speaking to Muslims. Ramadan also objects to events which might happen to celebrate the founding of the state of Israel, for example. Ramadan, a leader of opinion on relations between Islam and The West, is unpopular with The Left in Europe, who regard him as reactionary and fundamentalist in outlook. Ramadan happens to be a grandson of the founder of Hassan al-Banna, the founder of a radical group of Egypt, Muslim Brotherhood and has been accused of being an unthinking echo-box for his grandfather's views. Ramadan is a Salafist, one of those who believe that Islam was at its best in the lifetime of Mohammed and during the next two generations or so, so that those times should be admired if not emulated. Ramadan has also written Western Muslims and the Future of Islam. (Weekend Australian, 1-2 March 2008, See www.tariqramadan.com/)

Advertisement

Muslims and meaning: What does it mean to be a Muslim in the West in 2008 or so? This question has now been worked on by Pakistani-born Professor Riaz Hassan at Australia's Flinders University. Hassan has produced several books on the topic, Inside Muslim Minds (2008) and Faithlines: Muslim Conceptions of Islam and Society (2002), after researching internationally in seven countries since 1997. He has found, and it is hardly surprising, that older and better educated Muslims, and women in general, are less sympathetic to Islamic extremists. Hassan tends to feel that as political, social and economic conditions change, and partly due to the role of education, attitudes that help bind-up interest in Salafism will tend to be undermined, and that trends to Islamisation are relatively recent. Across a century or so, he regards Islamic fundamentalism as a challenge or reaction to modernity. Or, to the indeterminacy of the Western World. Muslims may also react to abstractions such as colonialism, post-colonialism, modernity-globalisation, and failures of national development in Islamic countries. Hassan has also looked into the political motives and attitudes of jihadists and finds them somewhat similar in an Onwards Christian Soldiers sort of way to the radical Puritan Christians of Europe's Reformation periods, say, with the time of the Cromwellian Protectorate in England, with the persecuted Huguenots of France, or with the disgruntled Puritans who settled the New England area of North America, especially Massachusetts, for the purpose of living in a rightly-ordered society. Which is to say, that any Westerner curious about jihadists have simply to look in more detail at the careers of the most radical Protestant Christians appearing since the time of Martin Luther, and reactions to those radicals, to begin to understand the mindset of young Islamist suicide bombers. To this website, none of Hassan's findings or conclusions seem especially remarkable, at all, so it only depends on whether his data and findings are relatively valid. See Hassan's Inside Muslim Minds. (Melbourne University Press, 2008, $45) (The Islamic world makes for 16 per cent of world population.) (Weekend Australian, 1-2 March 2008)

Advertisement

"Terrorists" produce courtroom humour in Australia: There's an old saying in Australia, to the effect that if you're really determined to get into trouble, you may as well be hung for stealing a sheep, not just a lamb. We're reminded of this by a report on 12 Muslims with over-active imaginations now up on terrorism charges in Melbourne. Even their defense lawyers are having fun at their expense. They may be silly young men, even clowns, but they are not terrorists. They formed a religious discussion group, not a terrorism cell. They bullshitted each other about "jihad", talked big and fantasised about becoming heroes in their own lunchtimes." One defence lawyer said that alleged terrorist leader Abdul Nacer Benbrika "couldn't lead ants to sugar ... couldn't organize a booze-up in a brewery ..." Another defence lawyer said, "In Australia, we have the right to say stupid things, provocative things and downright wrong things. The saying of these things does not make you a terrorist." So far, though, it's not reported that prosecution lawyers have said anything remotely funny. (Sydney Morning Herald, 1-2 March, 2008)

Advertisement

Scattering your cremains is ok by The Vatican: "Cremains" is a new word used in some parts of Australia  for the remains of persons cremated. (And a good many people evidently find this new word tasteless, to say the least.) But moving along, cremation has at times seemed controversial with Catholics. But now, The Vatican has ruled that it is permissible for believers to have their ashes scattered after cremation, if they wish this to happen. The ruling has been given after complaints were made that a parish priest in the Italian Alps had refused to hold a funeral service for a man who wanted to have his ashes scattered in the mountains. The priest, at St Etienne Parish in Aosta, told a widow that cremation was against the Church's dogma on the resurrection of the body, and informed her that ashes-scattering would be "a pantheistic communion with nature in death, which is not part of our religion".  But Bishop Luciano Pacomio, head of doctrine at Italian Bishops Conference, said this reflected an out-of-date mentality. The catholic Church, apparently, prefers the rites of burial but permits cremation in certain situations. Specific prayers have now been produced for use at cremations. The Church's Second Vatican Council lifted an earlier ban on cremation in the 1960s, provided the body was present at the funeral service, and cremated later. Various rules have been modified since. and in Italy, cremations are more common due to overcrowding of cemeteries. Till 2001, the Italian state permitted cremation but prohibited the scattering of ashes. Cremation was not utilised in Italy till Napoleon arrived, and recommended its use "for hygienic reasons". In some Italian circles, a preference for cremation can be interpreted as a sign of anti-clericalism, or secular revolt. (Reported, Weekend Australian 12-13 January 2008)

Advertisement

UN gravy train festers further: The disgrace continues: "UN corruption" staggers auditors: New York: "The UN's internal auditing bureau has investigated 250 corruption cases over the past three months, including alleged sexual abuse and financial irregularities. More mismanagement and fraud had been uncovered than was expected, and two-thirds of the cases investigated had been with peace-keeping missions. Of about AUD$16 billion which had been involved for peacekeeping contracts, some $600 million had been entangled with fraud "at some level". (Weekend Australian, 12-13 January 2008)

Advertisement

Animal culls controversies: 

There's an animal lover's disconnect here somewhere: By mid-March, 2008, an international controversy has arisen about government-type plans to cull kangaroos hopping about Australian Capital Territory (the area surrounding Canberra, Australia's capital city). Former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney is just one international voice protesting the planned kangaroo cull. Yet, yet, elephants in Zimbabwe, up to 500 of them, were reportedly culled by government employees to be turned into biltong, a popular local dried-and-flavoured meat snack often eaten at sports venues and great with a beer, though it is usually made from beef. Zimbabwe, where shooting elephants for ivory is illegal, but shooting them for meat is not illegal (go figure), has about 100,000 elephants, and fears in Zimbabwe, which is hardly a well-run country, were that up to 6000 could be slaughtered for biltong. (Elephants, reported 12-13 January 2008, Weekend Australian).

Abu Ghraib officer cleared

The US Army has overturned a conviction against Steven Jordan, the only officer to be court-martialled over the Abu Ghraib scandal. This now means no US officer or civilian leaders will be held criminally liable for the abuse of Iraqi prisoners in that jail outside Baghdad. (Sydney Morning Herald, 12-13 January 2008)

Scientology getting authoritative on an impossible mission: Actor Tom Cruise surprised no one, certainly not this website, when as Scientologist he has lately been found (on a certain well-known social networking website) to be starring in a kind of home-made video recommending Scientology. Speaking to converts to Scientology, Cruise, who is a Senior (an Elder?) of the cult, and speaking along with FX of music/sound from a Mission Impossible movie, claimed amongst other things that Scientologists can become "authorities on the mind". He said he personally was dedicated to [improving] other people's lives. Scientologists, he said, were the authorities on getting people off drugs, were authorities in the mind, on improving conditions. 

Was it an accident that release of the video to the public happened to coincide with the US release date of an unauthorised biography of Tom Cruise? We don't think so. This website will meantime keep a look-out to notice the latest research findings from Scientology on finding a cure for Alzheimer's Disease. (But do not hold your breath. Sydney Morning Herald, 19-20 January, 2008)

This website humbly apologises ... for being late this year with beginning the update file for 2008: Time pressures have been problematical for work on this website. Work on this file for 2008 did not start till mid-March, though we had taken care to file material for inclusion. Unbearably bad behaviour. Rest assured, the webmaster admonished himself severely.

We also failed at the end of 2007, as well, to make the usual renowned annual Lost Worlds Award for World Stupidity, but we can now reveal that it went to the madman of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe.  We might even get around to making the 2007 Lost Worlds Stupidity Award in the usual proper way, if we can find a suitably photoshopped image of Mugabe. But we'd really prefer (by April 2008) he was quietly taken away by the men in white coats, and suitably medicated, so that life in Zimbabwe can return to normal.

:::::::::::::Ends ::::::::::

[Top of Page]

Stop Press: For late entries

Scientific American has lately (by 10-10-2008) been wondering again about The Big Bang. The loop quantum gravity theory - which marries quantum theory with general relativity - predicted the existence of "space-time atoms". Which would have implications for the origins of the universe. Among them, an implication that The Big Bang was a bounce-back from a pre-existing universe. It's endless isn't it; how did that pre-existent universe begin? In a similar way to the one before it? Maybe the Ancient Hindus were right about the universe, it's turtles all the way down!

July 2008: Things in modern life: Before the opening of the Beijing Olympics, this website was strolling inner-city Brisbane, and encountered a demonstration from followers of Falun Gong in China, people insisting that "Communist China must stop the persecution of Falun Gong before the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing." They are also against the harvesting of live human organs in China. See website: http://helpstoporganharvesting.org.au/

View these domain stats begun 18 December 2005