A new paper in the journal Nature Sustainability analysed the potential for carbon sequestration in soils and found it could, if properly managed, contribute a quarter of absorbtion on land. The total potential for land-based sequestration is 23.8 gigatonnes of CO2-equivalent, so soil could in theory absorb 5.5 billion tonnes annually. Most of this potential, around 40%, can be achieved simply by leaving existing soil alone - that is, not continuing to expand agriculture and plantation growth across the globe.
Tropical forest ecosystems are an important part of the global carbon cycle as they take up and store large amounts of CO2. It is however uncertain how much these forests’ ability to take up and store carbon differ between forests with high versus low species richness. New IIASA research sheds light on this question aiming to enhance our ability to predict tropical ecosystems’ strength as global carbon sinks. Paper: Shedding light on how much carbon tropical forests can absorb(2020, IIASA)
Butterflies have taken the colour black to an entirely new level. The scales that shingle this insect's dark wings are nearly on par with the blackest of black coatings made by humans - except they're only a fifth of the thickness. At just a few microns wide, these natural nanostructures absorb 99.94 percent of the light that hits them, allowing only a tiny amount to be reflected.
To put that in perspective, Vantablack, which used to be the blackest material known to science, absorbs 99.96 percent of light. And the material that surpassed its blackness has vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (CNTs) that can absorb more than 99.995 percent. Examining 10 species from around the world, which were either ultra-black, regular black or dark brown, researchers at Duke University found these creatures were between 10 to 100 times darker than charcoal, fresh asphalt and velvet.
"Given that these structural changes increase the surface area for absorption," the authors write, "we conclude that butterflies operate under the same design principles as synthetic ultra-black materials - high surface roughness and a large area for absorption."
But because these scales are several times thinner than stacked carbon nanotubes, engineers and biologists alike are interested in learning how they can trap so much light without weighing themselves down. The answer could possibly help us design better solar panels and telescopes. It could maybe even camouflage an aircraft so it can't be detected at night or by radar. The possibilities are huge for such a nanoscopic mechanism.
A report authored by then Major Aquino and Colonel Paul E. Vallely, titled “From Psyop to Mindwar.” This report bears a “Top Secret” notation and was circulated to the US “Psyop Community and the US Army War College, amongst others. While the address list on the copy in the possession of this writer has been mostly redacted, it is possible to make out the words “Office of the Chief of Staff” which suggests that a copy was also sent to the Joint Chiefs. Arguing that the US lost the Vietnam War not because they were outfought but, rather, “out-Psyoped” “in the streets of American cities,” the report called for greater emphasis to be placed on “MindWar” directed through the US Media. The report added that “coercive” measures if they are to work effectively must remain undetected. Delivery mechanisms for making targets “receptive to ideas” would, the report argued, need to take full advantage of the ability of electromagnetic weapons such as Extremely Low Frequency Waves (ELF). In other words, Mind Control technologies then in development.
Aquino’s and Vallely’s study clearly hit the spot inside the Pentagon. Most of us are now aware that the military has for some years now, been able to manipulate news and “spin” the major media when it comes to reporting of US military involvement overseas. The lessons of being “Out-Psyoped” at home have been taken on board and are not to be repeated in the future. That the lesson was indeed learned was clearly demonstrated in the reporting of the 1991 Gulf War, when CNN stole the show due to the access it had to direct feeds from US military satellites.
For those who continue to harbour doubts that mind control technologies form part of the US military arsenal, they need do no more than point their internet browser towards the US Navy’s Joint Programme Office – Special Technologies Countermeasures website and read about the Technical Information Exchange Group’s (TIEG) planned “special invitation only” conference hosted by the United Stated Special Operations Command at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida, scheduled for the Autumn 2002. The conference is designed to “facilitate the interaction and information exchange between the developers and users of special, nonkinetic technologies (my emphasis). [33] The category of “non-kinetic technologies listed for “operational planning” and discussion are as follows:
Electromagnetic Weapons
Acoustic Psycho-Correction
Chemical Attitude Adjustment
Visual Stimulation & Illusions
Material Degraders
Non-Penetrating Projectiles
Incapacitants
High Pressure Water Systems
Concealed Weapon Detection
Electronic Disablers
Acoustic Systems
Combustion Inhibition
Immobilizers
Olfactory Chemicals
Laser Systems
Number two on this list, “Acoustic Psycho-Correction” is the self same “Mind Control” technology that has the ability to “control minds and alter behaviour of civilians and soldiers” and which also “involves the transmission of specific commands via static or white noise bands into the human subconscious without upsetting other intellectual functions,” that is aimed at altering the “behaviour on willing and unwilling subjects,” reported in the Defence News article discussed earlier on page 3.
How much moral responsibility does the Catholic Church have to take on for the Holocaust? Why did the then Pope Pius XII say? nothing significant about the genocide of the Jews? Files that have been blocked so far should now provide information about this.
Thousands of Nazi criminals fled to South America over the so-called rat line during and after the Second World War - with the help of the Vatican. Now the archives of Pius XII. open. How much did the Pope know?
"An international directorship of strategic assault personnel that straddles the watershed between paramilitary operations carried out by troops in uniform & the political warfare which is conducted by civilian agents" - Otto Skorzeny
Die Spinne (German for "The Spider") was a post-World War II organisation thought to have helped certain Nazi war criminals escape justice. It was led in part by Otto Skorzeny, Hitler's commando chief, as well as Nazi intelligence officer Reinhard Gehlen. Die Spinne helped as many as 600 former SS men escape from Germany to Francoist Spain, Juan Peron's Argentina, Paraguay, Chile, Bolivia, the Middle East, and other countries. Die Spinne was established by Otto Skorzeny using aliases, and supported by either Nazi funds or Austrian Intelligence. Later, Skorzeny, Gehlen, and their network of collaborators had gained significant influence in parts of Europe and Latin America.
The "Fascist International"
According to Infield, the idea for the Spinne network began in 1944 as Hitler's chief intelligence officer Reinhard Gehlen foresaw a possible downfall of the Third Reich due to Nazi military failures in Russia. From 1945 to 1950, Die Spinne's leader Skorzeny facilitated the escape of Nazi war criminals. Certain US military authorities allegedly knew of the escape, but took no action.
A coordinating office for international Die Spinne operations was established in Madrid by Skorzeny under the control of Francisco Franco. When a Die Spinne Nazi delegation visited Madrid in 1959, Franco stated, "Please regard Spain as your second Fatherland." Skorzeny used Die Spinne's resources to allow notorious Nazi concentration camp doctor Joseph Mengele to escape to Argentina in 1949. The Madrid office built up what was referred to as a sort of Fascist International. The German leadership also included Dr Hans Globke, who had written the official commentary on the Nuremberg Laws. Globke held the important position of Director of the German Chancellery from 1953–63, serving as adviser to Konrad Adenauer.
Skorzeny requested assistance from German industrialist tycoon Alfried Krupp, whose company had controlled 138 private concentration camps under the Third Reich; the assistance was granted in 1951. Skorzeny became Krupp's representative in industrial business ventures in Argentina, a country which harboured a strong pro-Nazi political element throughout World War II and afterwards, regardless of a nominal declaration of loyalty to the Allies as World War II ended. By the early 1980s Die Spinne had become influential in Argentina, Chile and Paraguay.
War Crimes investigator Simon Wiesenthal claimed Joseph Mengele had stayed at the notorious Colonia Dignidad Nazi colony in Chile in 1979, and ultimately found harbour in Paraguay until his death. As of the early 1980s, Die Spinne's Mengele was reported by Infield[24] to have been advising Stroessner's ethnic German Paraguayan police on how to reduce native Paraguayan Indians in the Chaco Region to slave labour. A wealthy, powerful post–World War II underground Nazi political contingent held sway in Argentina as of the late 1960s.
Otto Skorzeny was an Austrian-born SS-Obersturmbannführer (lieutenant colonel) in the Waffen-SS during World War II. During the war, he was involved in several operations, including the removal from power of Hungarian Regent Miklós Horthy and the rescue mission that freed Benito Mussolini from captivity. Skorzeny led Operation Greif, in which German soldiers infiltrated Allied lines by using their opponents' uniforms, equipment, language and customs. For this he was charged at the Dachau Military Tribunal with breaching the 1907 Hague Convention, but was acquitted after a former British SOE agent testified that he and his operatives had worn German uniforms behind enemy lines.
Other activities
In the 1960s, Skorzeny set up the Paladin Group, which he envisioned as "an international directorship of strategic assault personnel [that would] straddle the watershed between paramilitary operations carried out by troops in uniform and the political warfare which is conducted by civilian agents". Based near Alicante, Spain, the Paladin Group specialized in arming and training guerrillas. Some of its operatives were recruited by the Spanish Interior Ministry to wage a clandestine war against the terrorist group ETA. Skorzeny was a founder and an advisor to the leadership of the Spanish neo-Nazi group CEDADE, established in 1966.
“You cannot waste time on feinting and sidestepping. You must decide on your target and go in.” – Otto Skorzeny, Nazi Commando
The most feared nation in World War II was Nazi Germany. They had strategies incorporating new and refined tactics as well as a great arsenal of traditional, high-quality weapons to fight a new type of warfare they invented to conquer their neighbors. As the war started to end in 1945, some in Germany did not want to give up and instead, wanted to continue the war and sustain the Third Reich. One of the key people in developing a new type of warfare for Germany at the end of the war was Otto Skorzeny, a Nazi SS officer who did some very high-level work in leading commando-type raids as well as developing a new style of warfare.
Hans Globke was a German lawyer. During World War II, Globke, a Ministerialdirigent in the Office for Jewish Affairs in the Ministry of the Interior, wrote a legal annotation on the anti-semitic Nuremberg Race Laws that did not express any objection to the discrimination against Jews, and placed the Nazi Party on a firmer legal ground, setting the path to The Holocaust. Globke later had a controversial career as Secretary of State and Chief of Staff of the West German Chancellery. In this role he was responsible for running the Chancellery, recommending the people who were appointed to roles in the government, coordinating the government's work, and for the establishment and oversight of the West German intelligence service and for all matters of national security.
Globke became a powerful éminence grise of the West German government, and was widely regarded as one of most influential public officials in the government of Chancellor Konrad Adenauer. Globke had a major role in shaping the course and structure of the state and West Germany's alignment with the United States.
He was also instrumental in West Germany's anti-communist policies at the domestic and international level and in the western intelligence community, and was the German government's main liaison with NATO and other western intelligence services, especially the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). During his lifetime, his role in the Nazi state was only partially known.
Who controls Gilead Sciences, the US pharmaceutical producing a COVID-19 treatment which was rapidly approved by NIH and praised by the WHO? Donald Rumsfeld was chair of the board and remains a top shareholder.
With a coronavirus vaccine at least a year away, some scientists are investigating existing medicines and compounds that might work as effective treatments. A drug called Remdesivir is now in the spotlight.
The big biotech has a drug that struck out on one super-contagious disease but could be the best option on the scene for treating another. Chinese health officials scrambled to begin two clinical studies evaluating remdesivir in treating patients with COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. Gilead provided the drug at no charge for these studies and gave input on how the studies should be designed and conducted. In late February 2020, the National Institutes for Health (NIH) began the first U.S. clinical trials of remdesivir in treating COVID-19. Gilead also initiated two late-stage clinical studies of its own in Asian countries and other countries with high numbers of COVID-19 cases in early March. World Health Organization assistant director-general Bruce Aylward even said that remdesivir is the "one drug right now that we think may have efficacy."
In remarks at the daily Coronavirus Task Force press briefing, FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn pointed out that the drug, remdesivir, is available under compassionate use in addition to the ongoing clinical trials being run by Gilead Sciences and the NIH.
The coronavirus’ grip on the market continues. Since the beginning of February, the S&P 500 has shed 8.5% of its value, a reflection of the effect the outbreak is having on the global economy. Amidst the bloodbath, one specific group of stocks is holding up. These are the drug companies those infected, the public at large and investors are hoping can halt the virus from spreading any further. Gilead Sciences (GILD) is among those leading the search for a treatment and is currently being rewarded by the market. In contrast to the broader market, GILD stock is up 23% year-to-date.
Gilead Sciences Inc said on Sunday it was temporarily putting new emergency access to its experimental coronavirus drug remdesivir on hold due to overwhelming demand and that it wanted most people receiving the drug to participate in a clinical trial to prove if it is safe and effective.
Gilead Sciences Inc. (Nasdaq: GILD) today announced that board member Donald H. Rumsfeld will assume the position of Chairman, effective immediately. Mr. Rumsfeld succeeds Michael L. Riordan, M.D., who founded Gilead in 1987 and has served as Chairman since 1993. Dr. Riordan will continue to serve as a director on the board.
The company Gilead Sciences has deliberately carried on with testing Sovaldi (Sofosbuvir), its drug against Hepatitis C, in violation of international laws and without first obtaining its patients’ consent.
"Rummy was Chair of the Board of Directors at Gilead Sciences until named to the Bush cabinet and, like [Vice President Dick] Cheney, still has ties that bind to the 'old company.' Now isn't it an 'amazing coincidence' that the drug Tamiflu patented by Gilead Sciences is being pushed by the National Institutes of Allergies and Infectious Diseases as the NUMBER ONE choice for flu, which, wonder of wonders, is sweeping through in one epidemic after another," Free Market News related October 21, 2005, from a January 2004 web posting.
Donald Rumsfeld has made a killing out of bird flu. The US Defence Secretary has made more than $5m (£2.9m) in capital gains from selling shares in the biotechnology firm that discovered and developed Tamiflu, the drug being bought in massive amounts by Governments to treat a possible human pandemic of the disease.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has recused himself from government decisions concerning medications to prevent or treat avian flu, rather than sell his stock holdings in the company that patented the antiviral agent Tamiflu, according to a Pentagon memorandum issued Thursday. The memorandum, to Mr. Rumsfeld's staff from the Pentagon general counsel, said the defense secretary would not take part in decisions that may affect his financial interests in Gilead Sciences Inc. Before becoming defense secretary in January 2001, Mr. Rumsfeld was chairman of Gilead. On each of his annual financial disclosure statements, he has listed continued stock holdings in the company. Gilead holds the patent on Tamiflu, but contracts for it are signed with an American subsidiary of F. Hoffman-LaRoche Ltd., which holds marketing and manufacturing rights. Mr. Rumsfeld will remain involved in matters related to the Pentagon response to an outbreak, so long as none affect Gilead.
SNAP-10A (Systems for Nuclear, Auxiliary Power, aka Snapshot for Space Nuclear Auxiliary Power Shot, also known as OPS 4682, COSPAR 1965-027A) was a US experimental nuclear powered satellite launched into space in 1965 as part of the SNAPSHOT program. The test marked the world's first operation of a nuclear reactor in orbit, and also the first operation of an ion thruster system in orbit. It is the only fission reactor power system launched into space by the United States. The reactor stopped working after just 43 days due to a non-nuclear electrical component failure. The Systems Nuclear Auxiliary Power Program (SNAP) reactor was specifically developed for satellite use in the 1950s and early 1960s under the supervision of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. As of 2010, more than 30 small fission power system nuclear reactors have been sent into space in Soviet RORSAT satellites.
Queen Elizabeth cancels garden parties and escapes London’s Buckingham Palace for Windsor Castle. Prince Charles in isolation after meeting with Prince Albert of Monaco, who tested positive.
64% rise in rental properties across Dublin in midst of Covid_19 crisis according to property website @daftmedia as landlords start withdrawing their rentals from short-term listing sites like AirBnB and are offering them into the market instead.
BlueDot's solutions track, contextualize, and anticipate infectious disease risks. Infectious diseases pose a growing global threat in our interconnected world. More frequent and severe in the last 20 years than at any other time in history, infectious diseases are flourishing within a new reality of global travel, urbanization, and climate change. But while diseases spread fast, knowledge can spread even faster. (found via darkcyber)
"Conspiracy theory" is a pejorative applied to ideas which challenge an official narrative; people interested in them are termed "conspiracy theorists". This usage stems from the US deep state's efforts to promote the "lone nut" theory of the JFK assassination. The concept was later developed into a general purpose enemy image used to try to prevent the connection of deep events that the commercially-controlled media presented as isolated incidents. Post 9/11, it is the subject of pseudo-scientific study to limit freedom of speech by promoting the idea that the holders of such opinions are inclined to violence and deserve to have their civil liberties removed, in particular by subjecting them to internet censorship.
Abstract: Powerful institutions of Western capital, notably the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, viewed the African Ebola outbreak of 2014–2015 as an opportunity to advance an ambitious global agenda. Building on recent public health literature proposing “global health governance” (GHG) as the preferred model for international healthcare, Bill Gates publicly called for the creation of a worldwide, militarized, supranational authority capable of responding decisively to outbreaks of infectious disease—an authority governed by Western powers and targeting the underdeveloped world. This article examines the media‐generated panic surrounding Ebola alongside the response and underlying motives of foundations, governments, and other institutions. It describes the evolution and goals of GHG, in particular its opposition to traditional notions of Westphalian sovereignty. It proposes a different concept—“global health imperialism”—as a more useful framework for understanding the current conditions and likely future of international healthcare.
Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton said: “We need to act collectively with urgency, solidarity, and audacity. I am encouraging manufacturers to increase and diversify production, building on positive examples such as textile and shoe manufacturers starting to produce masks and gowns. I will do everything possible to support their efforts. I am pleased to announce that following contacts with the Commission, CEN/CENELEC has agreed to make freely available the standards needed for such companies to be able to produce masks and other protective equipment.” The standards are available for free download from the websites of CEN national members.
A senior Russian official says an upcoming digital assets bill will ban the issuing and selling of cryptocurrencies. Forbes reports: "We believe there are big risks of legalizing the operations with the cryptocurrencies, from the standpoint of financial stability, money laundering prevention and consumer protection," Russia's central bank head of legal, Alexey Guznov, told Russia news agency Interfax this week in comments translated to English via Google. "We are opposed to the fact that there are institutions that organize the release of cryptocurrency and facilitate its circulation," Guznov said, adding the coming bill "directly formulates a ban on the issue, as well as on the organization of circulation of cryptocurrency, and introduces liability for violation of this ban...."
. However, Guznov admitted that Russia would not be able to completely ban bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. "Nobody is going to ban owning cryptocurrencies," Guznov said, adding people will not be punished for owning crypto "if they made their deal in a jurisdiction that does not prohibit that."
Government launches TraceTogether mobile app that taps Bluetooth signals to capture data of other participating devices in close proximity, enabling the encrypted information to be extracted to facilitate contact tracing should users contract the coronavirus. The app is able to estimate the distance between TraceTogether smartphones as well as the duration of such interactions. The data then is captured, encrypted, and stored locally on the user's phone for 21 days, which spans the incubation period of the virus.
Operation Bernhard was an exercise by Nazi Germany to forge British bank notes. The initial plan was to drop the notes over Britain to bring about a collapse of the British economy during the Second World War.