Steve Klein Weekly Update

UPDATES ARCHIVE FOR JULY 2003

Update for Week of July 28, 2003

Ed. Note: The U.S. embarked on a war to free the people of Iraq from the tyranny of a ruthless dictator. Whatever your personal persuasion about that effort, freedom is certainly a worthy goal, if it's the real purpose. I find the U.S.'s "resolve" and "willingness" to do the same for countries that aren't important strategically or don't have natural resources, to be -- well -- appalling. The world stood by and watched as millions died in the Rwanda/Burundi conflict of the 1990's and did little to assist. Now the United Nations says that unless fighting in a civil war stops immediately, there is a humanitarian catastrophe in the making that will be one of the worst tragedies ever, in a country with ties to the U.S. dating back to its founding by former slaves in the mid 1800's. Liberia’s capital Monrovia is even named for our 5th President, James Monroe. Liberia: no oil; no strategic importance; no WMD's; ruled by a ruthless dictator. Yet again, the world sits and watches. Just observe the Iraq & Liberia situations and the different ways in which they are handled. Iraq got "shock & awe." Liberia's getting "an unspecified number of U.S. troops" parked off its coast. HUM! link here

1. Scientists at Indiana University's Cyclotron Facility announced they have detected a rare nuclear fusion which violates charge symmetry, a violation which is the reason hydrogen exists. According to the leader of the scientific team, "Scientists have searched for this rare fusion process since the 1950s." The IU announcement states that the rare process detected is "the fusion of two nuclei of heavy hydrogen to form a nucleus of helium and an uncharged pion. The pion is one of the subatomic particles responsible for the strong force that holds every nucleus together." Following is IU's press release. Click Here.

2. Follow-up: Recently mad cow disease was discovered in Canada, with a possible link to a U.S. source. Swiss researchers claim to have proven that misshapen prions, (microscopic protein particles similar to a virus but lacking nucleic acid) are connected to certain degenerative diseases of the nervous system, like mad cow disease and the human version, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD). They say that "warped prions clump in the brain, eventually destroying it." This discovery could lead to drug or artificial prion therapy for vCJD. Click Here.

3. Until this year, the oldest known salamander fossils were thought to have exited 65 million years ago. Now researchers have found thousands of examples in fossil beds in Mongolia and China, some dating back 165 million years. And they believe these salamanders are cousins of those found in North America and Asia, supporting their theory that: "About 200 million years ago, the world had one supercontinent, [Pangea]. Then the continents began to split apart - the big split being between a northern landmass called Laurasia and a southern landmass called Gondwana." Click Here.

4. The Russian news and analysis online publication Pravda [Ed. Note: the former mouthpiece for the "old" Soviet Union] has published reports that Russian scientists have defeated epilepsy. No matter the source, if it is true, this will indeed be welcome news for those persons with this disorder: Click Here.

5. The advertisement says: "You've heard of bomb dogs? Drug dogs? Arson Dogs? Now, Man's Best Friend is the latest weapon in the war on mold." Bill Whitstine runs the Florida Canine Academy, which trains dogs for police work, search and rescue, and other public safety functions. Now he is training dogs to find mold and has 16 that work from Oregon and California to Florida. These animals sniff out toxic mold in homes and offices faster and more accurately than current mold detection methods. Click Here.

6. Traditionally, expensive platinum or ruthenium catalysts are used to run fuel cells, which are being viewed as a potential alternative to petrol consuming power sources. Now scientists have developed an enzyme-catalyzed battery that uses ethanol, thanks to "a new polymer that protects the fragile enzymes used to break down the ethanol." One day these batteries could power cell phones and laptop computers. And the developer says, "We have actually run our cells off vodka and gin." Click Here.

7. In March 2003 a workshop was held at the European office of the World Health Organization in Barcelona, Spain. European Union (EU) health-care experts met to discuss what a press release described as "another piece of Europe in your pocket, ... electronic health cards for Europeans." These cards could hold a person's medical information and medications plus provide access to medical records. The reasoning is "that quick and easy retrieval of such information would speed up health care, reduce the risk of erroneous medication and treatment, reduce time, decrease costs and streamline services across Europe." In order to do this, however, "the health records of all European patients [would] need to be stored in electronic format, something that is not yet the case, and state-of-the-art security and data protection standards [would] need to be agreed upon, and put in place, throughout Europe." [Ed. Note: Fears of Big Brother on this side of the "pond" would keep this sidelined in the U.S. for years.]: Click Here.

8. The Washington Post reported in April that, "Scientists have for the first time created a healthy clone of an endangered species, offering powerful evidence that cloning technology can play a role in preserving and even reconstituting threatened and endangered species." The cloned banteng, an Asian cattle-like animal, was a collaborative effort of the Zoological Society of San Diego (which had kept cells from a banteng that died in 1980), an Iowa high-tech cattle reproduction company, and AdvancedCell Technology of Worchester, Mass. Click Here.

9. Lithium batteries and a Xenon bulb are two of the components in the "lightest (4.4oz) and brightest personal flashlight ever built," according to the marketing tag, which also says you could put it away "for 10 years and switch it on and get 6,500 candlepower for one hour." Click Here.

10. Researchers at the University of Utah have found that increasing the levels of the neurochemical GABA in the aging brains of Rhesus monkeys sharpens focused thinking and vision. GABA is "a chemical that inhibits neuron signals in the brain" and "screens out the stray brain signals that may make thinking and seeing difficult in older brains." Its levels decline with age in humans and monkeys.
Click Here.

11. Follow-up: Earlier this year was a story of Gene Chapman, an Austin, TX man who went on a death-fast in an effort to get the IRS to respond to his question, "Where is MY liability in the law?" His 40-day fast started April 15th and ended on May 24th. He decided to end his fast, replenish his strength and re-apply his energy by taking his message "on the road." Nope, the IRS never did state the actual laws they say were passed by Congress to explain tax liability/responsibility. Click Here Mr. Chapman's new site highlighting his June, 2003 tax march on Washington, D. C. is: Click Here.

12. Follow-up: Irwin Schiff, one of the first Americans in recent memory to have his book banned by a federal court, has updated his website with a new statement. His book is entitled "The Federal Mafia: How the Government Illegally Imposes and Unlawfully Collects Income Taxes." Click Here.

** In Memoriam ** Cobberdave" David Boothe of Australia and Bettye Parsons of Urbana, Ohio. These are two beautiful RSE students who passed this plane in recent days. They are remembered and loved greatly. We wish them well on the next steps in their journey. The Masters Connection has posted photographs and information about them both: Dave Boothe: http://www.mastersconnection.com/dave.html Bettye Parsons: http://www.mastersconnection.com/bettye.html All archived Updates now at www.srklein.com After clicking "Weekly Updates," click on the month you desire. Send comments to srklein@ywave.com

Update for Week of July 21, 2003

1. Puget Sound's Boeing Company has announced its partners "for a project that aims to test fly a fuel cell-powered aircraft as early as next year." Calling this "a 'first step' toward someday incorporating environmentally friendly fuel cells in commercial jets," Boeing hopes to use fuel cell technology for auxiliary power production, like "electricity and air conditioning for jets while they are on the ground and backup power in flight." Click Here And: Click Here Boeing announced plans this week to layoff 5,000 additional workers that could see up to 40,000 nixed before a turnaround, because of the slump in its commercial airplane division since 9/11, delivering yet another blow to the Washington State economy: Click Here.

2. Follow-up: The sea blob that washed up on Chilean shores was determined to be the carcass of a sperm whale. Click Here.

3. Seattle oceanographer Curt Ebbesmeyer, a specialist in tracking ocean debris, has sounded alarms with his findings that our oceans are filled with a toxic soup of plastic particles and molecules that never break down, but instead "soak up pollutants like DDT and PCB's, becoming poison pills for any creatures who eat them, including ... human beings." Additionally, Charles Moore, founder of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation in Long Beach, California states that since petroleum based products are not biodegradable, any plastic entering the ocean remains there, continually breaking into ever-smaller pieces, becoming ingested by marine life or deposited on some distant shore. Ocean toxicity is so mainstream now even CBS News radio veteran Charles Osgood spoke of this issue last week on his nationally broadcast show, "The Osgood File." Scroll to "Plastic Pollution in the Oceans" on the following link. Click Here Information on the Algalita Research Foundation's video, produced in 2001 is at this site. Click Here Additionally, this is a fascinating story of rubber ducks, washed overboard from a container ship, which have been at sea since 1992. Click Here.

4. Follow-up: Last week I mentioned that American & Continental Airlines are easing restrictions on cell phone usage while aircraft are on the ground. Now, it's become known that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) spent $6.9 million USD to outfit the federal air marshal corps with voice-capable wireless hand held computers for in-flight use, then TSA subsequently banned using the voice capability because of a potential for interfering with cockpit functions. [Ed. Note: Any frequent flier knows by heart the electronic interference warning at the beginning of every flight. Checking with any one of them could have saved the American taxpayers $6.9 million worth of what has been termed "Thousand Dollar Game Boy(s)."] Click Here.

5. "A ring of some sort formed in the sky Tuesday morning July 8th at about 10:30 during ... thunderstorms" above San Antonio, TX. San Antonio's NBC station carried the story, saying "Chuck Fehlis took the pictures of the phenomenon with a digital camera. He says he and his co-workers were stumped!" Click Here.

6. A fabulous op-ed piece, "Is Race Real" by columnist Nicholas D. Kristoff in The New York Times, identifies how every human on this planet is related. He quotes Bryan Sykes, the Oxford geneticist and author of "The Seven Daughters of Eve": "There's no genetic basis for any kind of rigid ethnic or racial classification at all." Sykes further states: "I'm always asked is there Greek DNA or an Italian gene, but, of course, there isn't.... We're very closely related." This op-ed details how modern genetics research is on the precipice of putting our ideas of race on the dung heap. [Ed Note: Science will finally prove the immature concepts of race will be outmoded!] Click Here "The Seven Daughters of Eve" is available in Yelm at RSE at The Outback or by mail order at: Click Here.

7. Follow-up: Mentioned here last year was Vice President Cheney's energy task force and its desire to move roughshod in pristine wilderness areas to drill for oil, amid calls of conflict of interest (especially with Cheney's background at energy giant Halliburton). A federal appeals court on July 8th rejected the Bush administration's bid to stop a lawsuit that seeks to delve into this. The Washington Post article about this reported: "In a 2-1 ruling, the court said administration officials must turn over some information about the task force or list specific documents that they intend to withhold from the proceedings." [Ed Note: Yea to the people of the U.S., where V.P. Cheney has been attempting to keep secret all of his documents and conversations on this very important public policy matter!]. Here's the Post's story. Click Here.

8. Follow-up: A story ran here some time ago regarding the American spy ship USS Liberty, which "might" have been accidentally sunk by the Israelis off the Gaza Coast during the Six-Day War in 1967. This past week America's National Security Agency released a previously classified "transcript of conversations held by two Israeli Air Force helicopter pilots who were hovering over the Liberty as it was sinking, and these tapes confirm Israel's claim that the sinking of the ship, which killed 34 American servicemen and wounded 171, was a tragic error." This supports Israel's version of a long-festering controversy between the two countries: that it had no idea the ship was American. But conspiracy theorists and anti-Israel propagandists still claim Israel knowingly sank the American ship. Click Here.

9. Ed. Note: One can only observe and say, "God Bless Richard Perle and his cronies," in the headlines again. (A) There was a story about how Perle has not been heard from since the start of Iraqi conflict -- interesting since he was been such an outspoken "hawk" on an Iraq invasion. Click Here (B) Perle is quoted in The Washington Post as saying the CIA skews interrogations of Iraqi captives to fit their own ideas. Then an unnamed CIA official says Perle sounds like he's got his own agenda, too. Click Here (C) The Washington Post military reporter Vernon Loeb was asked on an online talk July 9th about the above outrageous allegation and specifically "what did the CIA do to 'cheese off Perle?'" Loeb's response: "I'm sorry to say that I don't know the origins of Perle's animus toward the CIA, though, as you note from his comment in our piece today, it is clearly there. I personally don't believe that the agency has some agenda here in which it would ignore real evidence that a key hijacker had met with an Iraqi intelligence officer. Why on earth would the CIA want to downplay this possibility? Can't figure that one out." [See "Springfield, VA.: Vernon" on this link.] Click Here [Ed. Note: Maybe Perle is "piling on" the CIA to deflect attention away from his war ambitions since White House National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice has clearly stated that the intelligence flap over Iraqi nuclear material acquisition is a CIA issue. An article by Michael Isikoff and Tamara Lipper in this week’s NEWSWEEK says, “After weeks of ducking uncomfortable questions about the administrations mishandling of intelligence during the run-up to the Iraq war, did the president and his advisers hype the danger and mislead the country? Bush issued a terse response: it was the CIA’s fault HUMM!] Click Here.

10. NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has measured the mass of "a Jupiter-sized planet," which is the "farthest and oldest known planet" of a distant star cluster. With a mass 2.5 times our Jupiter, rednova.com says the planet's "very existence provides tantalizing evidence that the first planets were formed rapidly, within a billion years of the Big Bang, leading astronomers to conclude that planets may be very abundant in the universe." Click Here.

11. Ralph Nader spoke before reporters this week using the "I" word in talking about U.S. President George W. Bush, "I" meaning impeachment. Nader said "his own decision to run for President in 2004 will be determined later based on support for Democratic candidates former VT Governor Howard Dean and Ohio Representative Dennis J. Kucinich, two contenders whose politics closely resemble his own," according to a New York Times News Service article. Click Here Dennis Kucinich will be visiting the Great Northwest this weekend with a two day stop in Seattle: Click Here.

12. Daniel Imoedemhe of the Dr Erfan and Bagedo Hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia is the developer of a "simple preservation technique which could allow men awaiting in-vitro fertilization to store their semen in the fridge at home without damaging its DNA," after his research "reveals month-old, air-dried, re-hydrated sperm can fertilize eggs." This system "could be available in kit form within a year, he claims." Because the patient handles the sample, this reduces fears that specimens can be mixed up or be contaminated with viruses, such as hepatitis B and C from adjacent vials with current methods of storing sperm in frozen liquid nitrogen. Click Here.

13. For those of you Puget Sound drivers who endure some of this nation's most traffic-jammed freeways, there is now a handheld device from a Seattle company, TrafficGauge™, Inc., that maps Seattle & Bellevue traffic in real time with data from the Washington Department of Transportation (DOT) website. Click Here And, TrafficGauge's site: Click Here And, the Seattle/Bellevue WA DOT traffic speeds/cameras website: Click Here.

14. For those of you registered voters in Thurston County, WA (Yelm, Rainier, Tenino, Olympia, Lacey areas) be aware that under the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) passed by the federal government after the Florida debacle and the "election" of George W. Bush, all counties having punch-card ballots are required to replace those systems. The Thurston County Elections Division is currently researching alternatives to its punch-card ballot and wants input from voters. They offer of two choices: touch screen computers or paper ballots. Many people are suggesting paper ballots because of the concern over computer software tampering, where a paper ballot has a true "paper trail." You are asked to submit your comments. Click Here Additionally, there is a website that has been featured by several media outlets: "Black Box Voting--Ballot-Tampering in the 21st Century." This site lists how easily a computer glitch can allow votes to be changed when they move from computer to computer. [Ed. Note: Highly suggested reading before submitting your comments.] Click Here.

15. Correction: Last week’s Update had a story about Star Stuff, “Australia’s Super Food for the New Millennium,” a natural whole food consisting of Australian bush fruits and wildflowers, organic wheat grass sprouts, and Australian super bee pollen, based on the secret science of the Australian Aborigine. Omitted was the Star Stuff website link:
Click Here.

Quote of the Week: "Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety nine percent perspiration." Thomas A. Edison quote circa 1903, in Harper's Monthly Magazine September 1932. Cf 78:6 Send comments to srklein@ywave.com

Update for Week of July 14, 2003

Dear Readers: Most of us who live through Western Washington's bone-chilling rainy season appreciate our warm Polartec® jackets and capes. Polartec® is a fabric made by Maiden Mills in Massachusetts, where its family-owned management has received numerous recognitions for sticking with their employees and the town, while other textile manufacturers have moved business to Mexico for cheap labor. To quote CBS News 60 Minutes, "For years now, we've been hearing about corporate executives who made fortunes for themselves while driving their companies into bankruptcy, costing employees their jobs and sometimes their life savings. Not so at Malden Mills, the textile company in Lawrence, Mass., that invented the fabric Polartec®. . . . In fact, Malden Mills is known for going out of its way to help its employees, even when the company suffered a shattering setback." When greed, power, and over-indulgences are the standard of the day in government and corporations, this is a must-read story where honor, decency and truth reign supreme. Please see Number 6 below.

1. Follow-up: Several news items place the Bush Administration at odds with the facts: (A) Former Gov. Thomas Kean, Chairman of the 9-11 Commission that is investigating what was known and who knew it prior to the 9/11/01 attacks, was interviewed on NBC's "Today" Show this last week concerning his commission's difficulties obtaining documents from the Bush Administration. Click Here An Op-Ed piece in The New York Times wonders why the Bush people are impeding the 9-11 investigation. Click Here The 9-11 Commission website: Click Here (B) Facts have been released this week that forged information was cited in President Bush's State of the Union Address this year concerning Iraq's attempt to acquire nuclear materials from an African nation. Click Here Prime Minister Tony Blair of Great Britain is also under intense pressure about this story. Click Here And: Click Here (C) An article on MSNBC's Slate this week takes a hard look at Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's original plans for a quick resolution in the Iraq war: targeting Baghdad and rolling past resistance without dealing with it. While considered brilliant, it is now looking flawed since postwar necessities were gravely underestimated. Click Here (D) All of this plus the sluggish domestic U.S. economy is having a negative effect on Bush's ratings. Click Here (E) Another view on these issues is a very detailed story in The Washington Post that "Iraq's acquisition and use of chemical weapons were carried out in pursuit of two strategic goals, namely to halt Iran's possible expansion of its sphere of influence in the Persian Gulf region and to suppress internal opposition." The article concludes that taking out the explosive situation of WMD buildup in the region was the main intent of the U.S. & U.K: Click Here.

2. Our local KIRO 710 radio talk show host Dave Ross, a national CBS Radio Network commentator, is dumbfounded by Rumsfeld's July 9th statement to Congress: "The coalition did not act in Iraq because we had discovered dramatic new evidence of Iraq's pursuit of weapons of mass murder. We acted because we saw the existing evidence in a new light through the prism of our experience on September 11th." Ross states on July 10th, then "there HAD to be new evidence because otherwise it would mean the reason we went to war . . . wasn't because of a new threat to national security; but because a few people in the defense department -- felt like it." [Ed. Note: Exactly my point several times in these Updates throughout 2003 when Rumsfeld's Defense Policy Board (DPB) members Richard Perle and Gerald Hillman were in the news aggressively pushing for war, along with U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz]. Here is Mr. Ross's Commentary; scroll to July 10th, RUMSFELD: Click Here Now news is out this week that the Pentagon is spending $4 billion a month in Iraq: Click Here And General Tommy Franks declared the U.S. could still be in Iraq 4 years from now. [Ed. Note: This supports what I said here on several occasions, that the Pentagon lacks an Iraq exit strategy.]: Click Here Yet this article says housing and permanent facilities will be needed for U.S. troops because of a possible ten-year stay. Click Here.

3. Concerning Bush Administration policies, here are 2 very interesting sites: (A) An educational campaign was advertised in The New York Times and the San Francisco Chronicle, called VoteToImpeach. The organization was begun by former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark who "has drafted articles of impeachment setting forth high crimes and misdemeanors by President Bush and other civil officers of his administration." Click Here (B) Here's the website for the Center for Responsive Politics. Under "Your Guide to the Money in U.S. Elections" click on "Iraq Contracts" for a full listing of what veteran reporter Molly Ivins calls "the Great Iraqi Gold Rush." Click Here.

4. Speaking of government mistrust, how about corporation mistrust as well? CBS News commentator Andy Rooney replayed on 60 Minutes this week his "roast" of coffee sellers, which found only one company selling a one-pound can of coffee with actually one pound in it. The rest all sell less than 16 ounces in a can. Of course he noted that 60 Minutes is actually a 42 minute show, the rest of the time being advertisements. Here is his transcript. Click Here.

5. Malden Mills, the inventors/makers of our cape fabric Polartec®, has received many accolades over the years for its impeccable management. Later this year it is expected to emerge from bankruptcy, resulting from rebuilding the plant in Lawrence, MA after a 1995 fire destroyed it. For the 60 days after the fire, owner Aaron Feuerstein paid all his employees their full salaries. "I think it was a wise business decision, but that isn't why I did it. I did it because it was the right thing to do," Feuerstein is quoted as saying. Although "some might have said the proper business decision was to take the $300 million in insurance and retire," he decided to rebuild. “I got a lot of publicity, he says, "And I don't think that speaks well for our times. . . . At the time in America of the greatest prosperity, the god of money has taken over to an extreme." [Ed. Note: We love our Polartec® in the Great Northwest!] Click Here.

6. Related to corporate responsibility, Office Depot, claiming to be the world's largest seller of recycled paper products, has a program offering customers a free ream of its EnviroCopy 35% recycled printer paper when they return used ink and toner cartridges for recycling. This program is set to continue at participating stores through September, 2003. [Ed. Note: This writer discovered this on a recent visit and now saves all used ink cartridges] Click Here.

7. Canadian investigators now suspect the U.S. was the origin of Canada's single case of mad cow disease. Bottom line, know your beef sources. Click Here.

8. December 17 this year marks the 100th anniversary of the Wright Brothers' historic flight. A series of extravagant events are planned around the nation, and their hometown Dayton, Ohio, kicked off the U.S. Centennial of Flight festivities last week. Click Here The Dayton Centennial site: Click Here The U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission site: Click Here.

9. The longest unprotected border in the world is between the U.S. and Canada. It will get more U.S. Border Patrol Agents to beef up security. Click Here.

10. Most of us have heard that the soul actually occupies space in an area of our chest cavity and has a weight of 13 ounces. Here's an article about a doctor who attempted to prove the soul has weight, back in 1907. Click Here.

11. Cell phone use is not allowed on domestic U.S. aircraft from the time the cabin door is closed before departure until the seat belt sign is released on arrival, providing a respite away from those incessant rings and conversations. Now, American Airlines & Continental Airlines have announced that a flight attendant will announce when cell phones may be used immediately after landing while taxiing. That means the cacophony of beeps and conversations will begin before those flights hit the gate. Yikes! Click Here For American Airline's press release on their policy change, click on July 7 at the link below. Click Here.

12. The next generation of the "world wide web" is due to be announced this month when 10 laboratories around the world will be able to talk to each other instantly through their computers via a connection called a "grid." Developed to help scientific research into particle physics at CERN [the European particle physics laboratory, near Geneva], it will be a few years before the technology is available to everyday users. According to this story from Australia: "Under the grid, the power of your machine -all those gigabytes, RAM and gigahertz - will become irrelevant. No matter how primitive and cheap your computer, you will have access to more power than now exists in the Pentagon." Click Here.

13. Friday the 13th in June this year was indeed a very fortunate day for an Arkansas family. Their 39 year old son, who was in a coma for 19 years, answered his nurse when she asked who his visitor was: "Mom." His mother took him home to visit for a few of days, and he added the word "Pepsi," then "Dad" the day before Father's Day. This story has now been all over the media and in case you missed it, here is a print version. Click Here And speaking of healings, here is a story from The Globe and Mail's Vancouver, B.C. bureau about Adam, a 16 year old boy who offers "distance healing," or remote healings, using his mind. He claims over 300 healings. Click Here Adam's website for his book "DreamHealer" states: "The academic theories of quantum physics come to life with his first hand accounts of this interconnectedness we all share. Adam has this ability to perceive this connectivity and influence it over any distance instantaneously, or distant healing. The scientific basis of this is explained in its most simplistic form in terms of 'quantum physics' and 'quantum holograms.'" DreamHealer's website: Click Here.

14. Follow-up: Star Stuff, "Australia's Super Food for the New Millennium" is a natural whole food consisting of Australian bush fruits and wildflowers, organic wheat grass sprouts, and Australian super bee pollen, based on the secret science of the Australian Aborigine. It has recently been assayed with some very amazing discoveries. The Star Stuff Assay of June 21, 2003 for ORMUS element content shows this substance naturally contains extraordinarily high amounts of Monatomic Gold (469 parts per million), M-Iridium (2,2029ppm), and M-Rhodium (2,308ppm). One jar will last 2 months using the recommended one teaspoon per day. A special price for 3 bottles is now offered at the bottom of the following web-page. Click Here Star Stuff's website is: Click Here.

Quote of the Week: "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-- I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference." Poem "The Road Less Traveled" by Robert Frost All archived Updates now at www.srklein.com After clicking "Weekly Updates," click on the month you desire. Send comments to srklein@ywave.com

Update for Week of July 7, 2003

1. Follow-up: Mentioned here several times during the past 1 1/2 years, has been the dismal record of the food giants in this country, huge companies from Kraft to McDonalds, who dominate the processed foods industry. In recent years, health conscious Americans targeted them as contributors to increased obesity in children. The issue has been described as the next "Big Tobacco" for trial lawyers. Now, these firms are doing something about their food formulas, ingredients, packaging and marketing. USA Today reports on changes in the works by several of these large corporations. Click Here The best nutrition sources are whole, unprocessed foods; however, sometimes they are not available when we are away from home. Kraft is listening by shrinking sugar, fat & calories in addition to serving sizes in many of its products. McDonald's is switching to fruit as a choice instead of fries in its Happy Meals; Kellogg's recent purchase of Kashi cereals now has it with a no-sugar or preservatives product line, and Frito-Lay makes an all-natural potato chip qualifying it for the health food shelves. Click Here And where would all of this have been without the efforts of the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), an independent, non-profit consumer health group that advocates education, honest food labeling and advertising, and safer and more nutritious processed foods. Click Here.

2. A new study released this past week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences notes that stress for caregivers can prematurely age their immune systems. Click Here.

3. Anti-pornography filtering software on the Yakima Valley Regional Library System computers has now gone too far. It blocks sites with the name of nearby Toppenish, WA, because the word "penis" is spelled internally in Toppenish. [Ed. Note: Oh, brother! I mean Big Brother from Orwell's "1984." Can't even mention a body part without the "thought police" closing in because of "doublespeak!"] The name Toppenish has been rejected as porn according to this USA Today story: Click Here.

4. Follow-up: Richard Perle and Gerald Hillman have made the print media, again! This time, respected political columnist Molly Ivins of the Fort-Worth (TX) Star-Telegram has weighed in on their activities calling their actions and other Bush administration awarded contracts, "the Great Iraqi Gold Rush." Even though she quotes previous stories from The New Yorker & the Los Angeles Times, Ms. Ivins has always been known not to mince words. Now she tells her truth about all of this and correlates these activities and others of late: Click Here.

5. Follow-up: The yellow/orange Terror Alert system instituted by the Federal Homeland Security Dept. is just not effective, according to many cities’ officials. And it is extremely expensive, forcing many mayors to no longer "jump" every time Washington, D.C. ups the threat level. According to USA Today last week, Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske says "his department is struggling with ''a perfect storm'' of conflicting economic and security needs." This is the situation in many cities and some are designing their own regional warning systems that kick into gear only when there is a specific threat to their area. Click Here And, speaking of security, on July 3rd a man boarded a Horizon Airlines flight in Missoula, MT, with a bag of powerful fireworks. He connected in Seattle to sister carrier Alaska Airline's new nonstop to Orlando, FL and after the plane was aloft showed his bounty to children sitting next to him, including a 13 year old boy. This astute young man summoned the flight attendants and in the next moment, the aircraft made an emergency landing in Tulsa, OK where this guy was taken into federal custody, facing a possible 10 year prison term. Federal officials are investigating how this bag made its way through security in Missoula: Click Here You just gotta hear KIRO-710 radio show host Dave Ross's ballad of today's airport security issues sung to the tune, "I'm leavin' on a jet plane" for a belly laugh on this subject. [Note: It takes some moments for the mp3 music file to download, depending on the speed of your computer. But it's worth the wait.] Click Here.

6. TIME Magazine's June 30, 2003 issue quotes a draft of a new report from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as saying, "climate change has global consequences for human health and environment." TIME reports "the White House removed this sentence along with other references to global warming risks and replaced these with more innocuous language." [Ed. Note: This is the same White House that: abandoned the Kyoto Accords; desires oil drilling in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge (ANWAR); and promised in a campaign swing through Nevada it would not dump radioactive waste under a mountain north of Las Vegas, then did just that once elected, etc. etc., etc.).See TIME's June 30 Notebook section, page 13. If you want to see the dismal environmental record of the Bush Administration, check out the NRDC website: Click Here In addition, here's a shocking report from the World Meteorological Org. (WMO) that the world weather is "going haywire." Click Here And, the WMO website: Click Here.

7. Dave Ross, local talk-show radio host on Seattle's CBS affiliate KIRO-710, had a guest on his July 4th program from Unbrand America, who described how this country is closely resembling a fascist state with corporations intertwining with government and how Americans are being programmed with consumption as their religion. It has taken out full page ads in The New York Times describing its "Black Spot" campaign to educate the country of this situation. [Ed. Note: To hear this frankness on a mainstream radio show was very refreshing.] The Unbrand site: Click Here The New York Times ad: Click Here The Dave Ross Show's site: Click Here.

8. Chilean scientists were "baffled" this week "by a giant, gelatinous sea creature" that washed up on its south Pacific shores. Chilean authorities have contacted international organizations requesting help in identifying this mysterious mass. HUM!: Click Here.

9. The promise of stem cell research has gigantic implications in medicine because stem cells have the ability to differentiate into many different cell types that could provide doctors with a tool to regenerate permanently lost cells in a patient. In stem cell news this week: (A) According to a report by Ricki Lewis in THE SCIENTIST, "the discovery of neural stem cells (NSCs) in the human adult central nervous system (CNS) has raised the possibility of reawakening neurogenesis in the adult to treat neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson, Alzheimer, and Huntington diseases, and spinal cord injuries." Many questions must be answered before basic neurobiology can have an effect on rehabilitative medicine, however this is the beginning of much hope & promise: Click Here B) And Space Daily reports that "a group of researchers from The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) and the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation (GNF) have identified a small chemical molecule that controls the fate of embryonic stem cells." It quotes one professor: "'This is an important step in our efforts to understand how to modulate stem cell proliferation and fate,' says Peter Schultz, Ph.D., TSRI professor of chemistry and Scripps Family Chair of TSRI's Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology." Click Here.

10. Here is NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for July 4th. WOW! Click Here.

11. Check out the latest crop circles in Great Britain. Click Here.

12. Many famous & notable people are leaving this plane, all within a very short time of each other, calling for a big "HUM". These are from the obituary pages from June & July, 2003: Richard Cusack [77] June 3, 2003. Screenwriter & actor, father of Joan and John Cusack. Donald Regan [84] June 10, 2003. President Ronald Reagan's former Treasury Secretary & Chief of Staff. David Brinkley [82] June 11, 2003. Former groundbreaking NBC Nightly News anchor and ABC News commentator. Gregory Peck [87] June 12, 2003. Legendary actor who roles highlighted impeccability, honesty, and great, moral aspects of humanity. Dr. Robert A. Good [81] June 13, 2003. Pioneered human bone marrow transplants in 1968; founder of modern immunology. Tony Roma [78] June 13, 2003. Former Miami restaurateur that made barbeque ribs world famous. Hume Cronyn [91] June 15, 2003. Legendary actor who worked with wife Jessica Tandy for nearly half a century. Larry Doby [79] June 18, 2003. American Baseball League player who broke the "color barrier" in 1947 . Leon Uris [78] June 21, 2003. Novelist & screenwriter who wrote landmark books about European Jewish life such as Exodus and Mila 18. Maynard Jackson [65] June 23, 2003. Atlanta, GA's first African-American Mayor who guided city to extraordinary growth. Lester Maddox [87] June 25, 2003. Former Georgia Governor noted for his opposition to integration. Strom Thurmond [100] June 26, 2003. Longest ever serving US Senator; led segregationist South. Katharine Hepburn [96] June 29, 2003. Most Oscar winning actress/actor ever, through roles highlighting the power of a woman. Buddy Hackett [78] June 30, 2003. Film & TV Actor, comedian; Las Vegas show-stopper. Made America laugh for over 60 years. Najeeb Halaby [87] July 2, 2003. Former FAA & Pan Am Airways chief; father of Queen Noor, widow of Jordan’s King Hussein. Barry White [58] July 4, 2003. Velvet-voiced baritone renowned for lush, seductive soundtracks; ushered in the 70's disco era Buddy Ebson [95] July 6, 2003. Broadway dancer selected for the Tin Man role in The Wizard of OZ but was allergic to the makeup; television's immortal Jed Clampett on The Beverly Hillbillies. Click Here.

13. Matt Lauer of NBC's TODAY Show interviewed Don Hardman on July 4, 2003. Hardman is a traveling evangelist who was giving a sermon during an electrical storm in Forest, Ohio the evening of Tuesday, July 1st. After "thunder rolled and lightning flashed," Hardman said, "Yes, God, what is it?" to his audience. A very few minutes later, a lightning bolt struck the church and the preacher holding a microphone, starting a fire in the church. The 30-40 parishioners were evacuated safely, however, all were stunned by the events. Mr. Hardman was uninjured. Click Here [Ed note: I just had to laugh and remember Ramtha's truth about religion on this plane as outlined in the "Rockumentary" video, "Where Angels Fear to Tread."]. If you are unfamiliar with this groundbreaking work, here is that link: Click Here And, an introductory video on the Rockumentary, where you will see my meaning: Click Here.

14. "Time Flies" as the saying goes and certainly it's the case for some computer savvy entity who came up with an ingenious program you will not want to miss: Click Here.

15. To RSE students: The recently established Santa Mac Christmas Fund was unveiled to the RSE student body by Santa Mac himself during the RSE July 4th Celebration. This Fund has been created as a vehicle to keep the RSE Christmas Celebration for our RSE children in focus throughout the year. The Christmas Celebration season starts here every September 1st. Chocolate Santa Macs will be given to each person who donates at least $25 to the Fund, while supplies last. Your cash donations are welcome and info can be found at Santa Mac's website: Click Here.

Quote of the Week: "We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable; that all men are created equal and independent, that from that equal creation they derive rights inherent and inalienable, among which are the preservation of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." 'Rough Draft' of the American Declaration of Independence in J. P. Boyd et al, PAPERS OF THOMAS JEFFERSON, Vol. 1 (1950), P. 423, Cf 11:12. Happy Birthday America! Here is a terrific fireworks show for those of you unable to have been to one this week: http://www.maylin.net/Fireworks.html And, here's an interesting 4th of July e-card: http://www.jacquielawson.com/viewcard.asp?code=1475311132 send any comments to: srkelin@ywave.com