I'm not sure how or when our political arena became so infested with dubious "facts." However it happened, we ordinary citizens don't have time to separate the truth from the barrage of falsehoods. So I am grateful for public-interest research groups that watch the numbers for us.
One of the best is Citizens for Tax Justice. In the midst of confusing rhetoric about unfair taxes, flat taxes, tax surpluses, tax cuts, I turn to CTJ for tax facts.
They've just put out an interesting sheet about "tax freedom day." That's the symbolic date, we are told by those who foment about burdensome taxes, before which we all "work for Washington," after which we get to "keep our money for ourselves." They give the impression that that day occurs sometime in April, creeping toward May. Soon, they imply, we'll be vassals of the government for half the year.
One problem with that claim, of course, is that the government is not some alien force separate from us -- we do live in a democracy. Another problem is the implication that tax money goes down some rat hole, instead of paying for things we want and use, such as highways, national parks, toxic waste cleanups, disaster relief, Medicare, or that defense contract that creates jobs in our district.
(Okay, since we're on a truth-sorting mission here, let's admit that some tax money does go down rat holes, and that our democratic representatives don't listen to us nearly as much as they listen to folks who give big campaign donations. I always wonder why the anti-tax folks don't fix those faults in our democracy, instead of obsessing about tax cuts. But this column is going another direction: toward the skew they put into the statistics about "tax freedom day.")
If, starting January 1, you had to pay the government every penny you earn, until all your federal income tax was paid for that year, guess what day that would be.
CTJ shows that the answer depends on your income. If you earn less than $13,600, you're in the lowest fifth of income earners, and you're free on January 1. You pay no income tax. You do owe Social Security, Medicare, cigarette, gasoline, and other federal taxes, which you will pay off (on average $756, or 8.8 percent of your income) by February 1.
If you're in the next fifth up (income $13,600 to $24,400), your income tax freedom day is January 4. Your total federal taxes are paid by February 24. On average you are dunned $2,854, 15 percent of your income. Nearly all of that is for Social Security and Medicare.
If you're in the literal middle class, the middle fifth of taxpayers, you earn between $24,400 and $39,300 per year. Your income tax freedom day is January 21; your total federal tax freedom day is March 13. You pay on average $6,195 in federal taxes, about 20 percent of your pre-tax income. Just over half of it goes for Social Security and Medicare.
At this point we've covered 60 percent of tax payers, and income tax freedom day hasn't yet extended into February. It does so for the earners in the fourth fifth ($39,300-$64,900). They would pay their total income tax by February 3, their total federal tax by March 27. They pay on average $12,047, about one dollar out of every four they earn.
So for 80 percent of us, income tax freedom day comes no later than early February. Most of our federal tax goes to Social Security and Medicare, a category the virulent cutters never talk about cutting. Of course, the bottom 80 percent is not the group they worry about. They are focused on, they themselves are part of, and they are funded by, those who are in the top 20 percent.
CTJ splits this top one-fifth apart, because it covers such a wide range of incomes. For the next 15 percent up the ladder (incomes between $64,900 and $130,000), income tax freedom day comes on February 16; total fed freedom day on April 8.
It's only the top 1 percent (income over $319,000) that have an income tax freedom day as late as March 30; a total freedom day that reaches into May. These privileged households, average income $915,000, pay on average $339,000 in federal taxes. This top 1 percent earns 18 percent of all the income in the country, and pays 25 percent of all federal taxes.
What we have, in short, is slightly progressive taxation, somewhat higher for the rich than for the poor. It is based on the classic economic principle of diminishing marginal utility. You spend the first dollars you earn on items of highest utility -- necessities. Being rational, as you earn more, you spend down your priority list, most important things first, least important last. It makes sense and it maximizes national utility to finance public goods more from the low-utility dollars of the rich than from the high-utility dollars of the poor.
Maybe the loud tax-cutters honestly don't know the facts. Maybe they purposely distort the facts to keep us from noticing that every cut they advocate undermines progressivity. Whatever the case, 80 percent of us have no earthly reason to pay attention to them, and the remaining 20 percent, if they see how they benefit from living in a society with educated children, research and development, law and order, and other public necessities, shouldn't pay any attention to them either.
- - - - - - - - -
Donella Meadows died in February, 2001, leaving a legacy of publications and colleagues around the world. She taught at Dartmouth College and directed Sustainability Institute, which continues her work.
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The following supporters contributed at least $1,000 toward the Global Citizen Day Fund. Smaller donations, though greatly appreciated, are too numerous to mention here. All will be honored on Global Citizen Day, June 6, 2006 in Washington, DC.
.
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation
National Lawyers Guild
New York City Labor Against War
Dr. Hans Christof von Sponeck, former director of the UN Oil for Food Program
Ramsey Clark, former U.S. attorney general
Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr.
Rainbow Push Coalition
Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, Dem. Georgia
Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, Auxillary Bishop, Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit
Rev. Graylan Hagler, Senior Minister, Plymouth Congregational Church
Dorothy Day Catholic Worker
Veterans for Peace
Global Exchange
Muslim Student Association of the US/Canada
Partnership for Civil Justice - LDEF
IFCO/Pastors for Peace
Free Palestine Alliance
Mexico Solidarity Network
Nicaragua Network
Korea Truth Commission
International Action Center
Kensington Welfare Rights Union
Middle East Children's Alliance
Bayan USA-International
San Francisco Labor Council (AFL-CIO)
Howard Zinn, Peoples' Historian
Mumia Abu-Jamal
Student Liberation Action Movement (SLAM)
Kathy Kelly, Voices in the Wilderness*
Rev. G. Simon Harak S J, Voices in the Wilderness*
Black Voices for Peace
Fellowship of Reconciliation
1199/SEIU New York Health and Human Services Union, Delegates Assembly I-V
Not In Our Name/Pledge of Resistance
Ted Glick, National Coordinator, IPPN
Dr. Helen Caldicott, founder, Physicians for Social Responsibility
Jeremy Corbyn M.P., Member of Parliament (UK)
De Keyser Véronique, Member of the European Parliament, Brussels, Belgium
Los Alamos Study Group, Santa Fe, NM
Center for Constitutional Rights
Committee in Support of the Iraqi People
International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal
Network in Solidarity with the People of the Philippines (NISPOP)
Greens/Green Party USA
International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU), Local 10 Exec Board
Albany (NY) Central Federation of Labor
Letter Carriers Union #214
Sign Display Union #510
Oakland (CA) Education Association
United University Professions Delegate Assembly, State University of NY
Rochester (NY) & Vicinity Labor Council, AFL-CIO
Troy Area Labor Council (AFL-CIO)
Typographical Sector, Northern California Media Workers Union, CWA
Sacramento Valley Labor Comm. For Peace & Justice
Sudanese American Society
Nodutdol for Korean Community Development, Flushing, NY
United Veterans, Woodhaven, NY
Young Muslims of Jamaica, NY
National Coalition for the Homeless, Washington, DC
Haiti Support Network, Brooklyn, NY
Congress for Korean Reunification - U.S.A
Churches for Mideast Peace
Madison Area Peace Coalition, Madison WI
United Muslims Organization, New Brunswick, NJ
Campaign to End the Sanctions
The Network of Arab-American Alumni & Professionals, NY, FL
Chuck Turner, City Councilor, Boston, MA
Dr. Pol De Vos, President of the Anti-Imperialist League, Belgium
Jean McGuire, Executive Director, METCO*, Boston, MA
Herman Wallace, one of the “Angola 3,” in Angola, Louisiana State Penitentiary
Alfred Woodfax, of the “Angola 3,” in Angola, Louisiana State Penitentiary
Robert King Wilkenson, former political prisoner, released from Angola
Louisianna State Penetentiary
Michael Parenti, Author, Berkeley, CA
Margarita Papandreou, former first lady of Greece
Dr. Rosalee Bertell, winner, Sean McBride Peace Prize
M.E.Ch.A. - University of Utah Chapter
Islamic Society of The College of New Jersey
Nebraskans for Peace
National Disability Leadership Council
Thomas Merton Center
United Methodist Clergy
Arab Union Society at Penn State
Peter Phillips, Editor, Project Censored
College Voice, College of Staten Island, CUNY
Michigan State University Students for Economic Justice
Exploris Middle School United for Peace, NC
Tri-City Peace Action
Peace Action New Mexico
Washington Report on Middle East Affairs
The Military and Draft Counseling Project
ACT UP/New York
Alliance for Democracy
Students Allied for Freedom and Equality, University of Michigan
Students for Peace & Humanity - SUNY at Stony Brook
Muslim Foundation of America, Inc. NY
Filipino Workers Association (FWA)
SALAAM - South Asian League of Artists in America
University of Maryland Peace Forum
Sacramento-Yolo Peace Action, CA
Arab Student Organization of Montclair State University
Bay Area Iranians for Peace and Social Justice
Mid-City WILPF
Philadelphia WILPF
Central Vermont Coalition Against War
Students for Social Responsibility
Students for Peace & Humanity - SUNY at Stony Brook
8th Day Center for Justice
Palestine Aid Society
Univ. of New Hampshire Peace and Justice League
Arab Student Union- University of Michigan (Dearborn Campus)
Michigan State University Students for a Peaceful Response, East Lansing, MI
Coalition for Peace and Justice, Trinity University, San Antonio, TX
DC Anti-War Network (DAWN)
Pentagon Papers Peace Project
CLASP (Caribbean & Latin America Support Project)
Anti-War Committee (Minnesota)
Texans for Peace
El Dorado Peace & Justice Community
Iowans for Peace with Iraq
Greensboro Peace Coalition
Peace Coalition of Southern Illinois
Speak for Peace, Birmingham, AL
South Jersey Peace and Justice Coalition
Professor Hani Awadallah, President, Arab American Civic Organization
Organization of Iraqi Students, NYC
Northampton Committee to Lift the Sanctions and Stop the Bombing in Iraq, MA
Kawartha Ploughshares
Fayetteville Peace with Justice Committee
Burlington Antiwar Coalition
Peace & Justice Center, Burlington
UVM Students Against War
Pikes Peak Justice and Peace Commission
Al-Awda Chicago
Philippine Solidarity Committee Chicago
Nicaragua Solidarity Committee Chicago
Chicago Coalition Against War and Racism
Leoanrd Peltier Defense Committee, Lawrence, KS
Philippine Information Network Services (PINS)
First Quarter Storm Movement (FQSM), Fremont, CA
Rockford Peace and Justice, Rockford, IL
Tasmania Coalition for Peace
Michiana Chapter of War Resisters League
Chico Peace and Justice Center/Chico Peaceworks
Beloit College Womyn's Center
Asian Americans for Justice in Palestine
Gray Panthers Metro Washington
Citizen Soldier
Quest for Peace / Quixote Center
Michigan Emergency Committee Against War in Iraq
Committee to Protest War Against Iraq
Mid-Hudson National People's Campaign
The U.S. Greens Abroad
Social Justice Alliance, State University of New York, NY
South Asian American for Human Equality and Rights, GA
Bergen Action Network, NJ
Western North Carolina Peace Coalition in Asheville, NC
Labor Committee for Peace & Justice, Berkeley, CA
Gloria La Riva, President, Typographical Sector, No.Calif. Media Workers, CWA
Kenneth Lerch, President, Letter Carriers Union #3825 (Maryland)*
Sally Davies, President, AFSCME Council 92 (Maryland)*
Leslie Feinberg, activist and author, NWU/UAW Local 1981*
Douglas Foxvog, Austin Against War*, Austin, TX
Ann Stark, Austin Against War*, Austin, TX
Harlem Tenants Council
Workers World Party
National Organization for Women at University of Houston
Muslim Student Association at Syracuse University
The Toronto Coalition Against War & Racism
ADC Fresno, CA
United Muslims of America
International Socialist Organization
Students For Social Change, Silver Spring, MD
Bus Riders Union, Los Angeles, CA
San Francisco Bay Area Progressive Challenge
Pan-African News Wire, MI
Lawrence Coalition for Peace and Justice, KS
Conscience International, Atlanta, GA
Queers For Racial & Economic Justice
Indian Association of Lawyers, Bombay, India
collectif YA BASTA, St Ouen, France
Labor Committee for Peace and Justice (Bay Area)
I.L.W.U. Loc. 400, Vancouver, B.C.
NJ Independent Alliance
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (Brown Co., IN chapter)
Natick Peace Council, MA
Tallahassee Network for Justice and Peace, FL
National Committee for Radiation Victims
Brainerd Area Coalition for Peace, MN
Colorado Campaign for Middle East Peace
DC Asians for Peace and Justice, Washington, DC
Plowshare Peace and Justice Center, Roanoke, VA
Filipino Workers Action Center, Seattle, WA
Intercommunity Center for Justice and Peace, New York, NY
California Peace Action, Berkely, CA
Student Environmental Action Coalition of St. Mary's College
Students for Economic Justice, Morgantown, WV
Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice, Ann Arbor, MI
Bay Area Iranians for Peace and Social Justice, San Francisco, CA
Global Peace Act, Kyoto City, Kyoto, Japan
Social Action Committee, First United Church of Tampa, Tampa, FL
Cape Codders for Peace and Justice, Chatham, MA
Alternatives to War, Albany, NM
Stop War on Iraq, Terre Haute, IN
Coastal Convergence Society of Huntington Beach, California
Columbia Solidarity Committee, Chicago, IL
The United Peoples
Leftbooks.com
Turnwind, AZ
Vietnam Veterans Against The War Anti Imperialist National HQ
The Peace Coalition of Southern Illinois/Fellowship of Reconciliation
Maine Secessionist Movement Revolution in Focus, Richmond, VA
First Congregational Church, UCC
Tabra International, CA
WESPAC (Westchester People's Action Coalition)
U.S. Raelian Movement
IMPLEX, Los Angeles, CA
The Freechild Project, Olympia, WA
New World Revolutionary Socialists, OH
Organization of Iranian People Fadaee Gurrillas, VA
Citizens For Just Democracy, TX
Columbus Campiagn for Arms Control/For Mother Earth, OH
Kenetic Energy Technologies Inc., CA
Left Party, CA
Olympia Movement for Justice & Peace, WA
Habda, UK
School of Americas Watch-San Jose
People's Coalition Against War, Los Angeles, CA
Scoop Media New Zealand
Falmouth Anti-war (Cape Cod)
Strategic Pastoral Action Network (SPAN), MI
International Action Organization, CO
The March For Justice
The American League For Justice and Peace
Pillsbury for Congress, CT
Mayimba Music, Inc., NYC
Fruitarian Network, OH
The Armchair Activist, MD
Sonoran Activist Network News, AZ
Outrage, NJ
Whatcom Peace & Justice Center, Bellingham, WA
Paramedics for Peace, NC
Barefoot Theatre Group, WA
Bend-Condega Friendship Project, Bend, OR
Babylon Art and Culture Center, Minneapolis, MN
Practical Radical, Sun Valley, CA
Mothers Acting UP, Boulder, CO
The Agape Community, Ware, MA
Safe Earth Alliance, Largo, FL
Center for a Livable World, Darien, NY
Gay-Straight Alliance of the University of Wisconsin, Stevens, WI
June 1st Coalition, IN
Balance Productions, FL
Beautiful Things, NV
The Savage Rose, CA
The Charlotte Fellowship of Reconciliation
LayWatch, Toronto, ON
Willco, South Africa
TEA Society (Society for Teaching Educational Activism), MO
Virtual Design, Ink
Australian - Iraqi Friendship Association, Melbourne, Victoria
The New Wine Group, NJ
Grandmothers for a Just World, NC
Justice for Palestinians, CA
Vets Against War
Zimmer Organics, TX
"The Meria Heller Show", AZ
The First Church of Common Sense, Phoenicia, NY
Green Party of Chatham County
Instant Anti-war Action Group, VT
Earth Repair Foundation – Victoria, Australia
Canberra Programme for Peace, Australia
Rainbow Flags for Mumia
Hip Mama Parenting Zine
AWARE
Roaring Fork Peace Coalition
Peace Farm
Indian Association of Lawyers
Cape Cod Green Party
Safe Earth Alliance
Irish Republican Socialist Committees of North America
Women for Positive Change
Bend-Condega Friendship Project
Babylon Art and Culture Center
Mothers for Peace-International
International Council for Peace and Justice
Collier County Anti-War Coalition
Cuba Portal Collective
Socialist Workers Organization
High Country Citizens for Peace and Justice
Socialist Workers Party
CGIL University Union - Florence, Italy
JMBzine.com
The Restorative Justice Center of the Inland Empire
Seminary in New York
Musicians & Fine Artists for World Peace
Project Sheba
BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency & Refugee Rights
Communist Party of Slovakia
Delaware Pacem in Terris
El Dorado Peace & Justice Community
Ever Reviled Records
Marin Peace & Justice Coalition
Gray Panthers California
oublevision press
irregulartimes.com
Public Intellectuals for Social and Spare Change
Joliet Anti-Racist Action
Lovearth.net
Parents for Peace
www.RogerART.com
People Against Oppression and War
Autonomy Party
Working Films
Ocean Beach Grassroots Organization
Global Pastry Uprising/Rainbow Affinity Tribe
The Mountains Voice
feelthetruth.com
Voices of Palestine
flybynews.com
Carolina Peace Resource Center
Broward Anti-War Coalition (Fort Lauderdale, FL)
Long Prairie River Stewardship Project, MN
Rainbow Freedom Coalition International
Just Queer Network
People's Music Network
Marin Interfaith Task Force on Central America
Roaring Fork Peace Coalition
Arise for Social Justice
Ground Zero Players (street theater coalition)
Freedom Socialist Party
The Neville Chamberlain Society
Hilltown Nonviolence Study Group
Mad Grandparents for Peace, Truth and Justice
Proyecto Caribeño de Justicia y Paz
Bigot Busters
Macrocosm USA
The Fallout Shelter
Waking Planet
ProletarianNews
Grandmothers for Peace International
ZeusNYC.com - The Zine, Plainview, NY
Ecumenical Peace Institute, San Francisco, CA
Polish-American Public Relations Committee, Santa Monica, CA
National Committee for Radiation victims, NYC
TACENDA, Marshfield, MO
Sustainable Life, Santa Cruz, CA
Lee Harrison Chauser, United teachers of L.A.*, CA
Digital Media Strategy Group, San Francisco, CA
Safe Earth Alliance, Largo, Fl.
Children Of Mother Earth (COME), Australia
Australian Civil Liberties Union
AwarComp Awareness=through=Compassion, NYC
Harold Washington party 2000 international
United Campus Ministry at UIC, Chicago, IL
Mothers Acting Up, Lafayette, CO
IYOCOSea, Philippines
People's Progressive Network of Washtenaw County, Michigan
The Institute of Xenomorphosis, NYC
Cultivating Stewards, Boulder, CO
Elkcreek Cinema, Brooklyn, NY
US/Cuba Friendshipment, Redwood City, CA
Iliff School of Theology Social Action Committee, Denver, CO
Peace Movement Aotearoa, Wellington, NZ
Women in Black New Paltz, NY
Walker Center, Newton, MA
SS. Francis and Therese Catholic Worker, Worcester, MA
School of the Americas (SOA) Watch - Long Island
Fathers for Justice, Houston, TX
Indianapolis Peace and Justice Center
Committee for Peace and Human Rights, Boston, MA
Faringdon peace group/Equity, England
People Opposed to Oppressive Politicians, Rockville, MD
Baltimore Coalition to End War & Terrorism
National Lawyers Guild, Hastings Student Chapter
The Ecohumanist Organization, NYC
American Muslim Youth Association, Mechanicsburg, PA
Catholic Mothers for Peace, Yachats, OR
Bessant Studio, Museum Services, Washington, DC
Human Rights Coalition at Loyola Marymount University, Westchester, CA
Tunisian Canadian Society (TCS), Montreal, Canada
Conscious Movements Collective, Brooklyn, NY
Marietta College Coalition For Social Change, OH
Mad Anarchist Bakers League, Brady Lake, OH
Socialist Alternative, Seattle, WA
Organization of Iranian People Fedaee Gurrillas, Herndon, VA
Palestine Solidarity Group, Vancouver, Canada
Women In Black, Gulfcoast, Florida
Big Sky Recording, Ann Arbor, MI
Graceann Warn Studio, Ann Arbor, MI
CSB/ St Joseph University Student Coalition For Global Solidarity, MN
Libertarians for Peace, Washington, DC
September 11th Coalition for Justice and Peace, Washington University
in St. Louis
Alliance for Democracy, Waltham, MA
Perfect Pitch Communications
Heartland Review
Libertarians for Peace
Veterans Against Foriegn Wars
Global Coalition for Peace
SmartwithHeart.org
Old Women's Project
ILA/ All Peoples Congress
Erie Call To Action
St. Thomas More Parish, Peace & Justice Committee
Long Island Friends of WBAI and WBIX
Green Party of Kent County
AYWN Publications
Hatha Yoga Studio
War is Terrorism
Chicago Socialist Party (CSP)
Greenaction
Harvey Milk Lesbian/Gay/Bi/Transgender Democratic Club
PSSU/SEIU Local 668 Philadelphia
Citizens for Legitimate Government
Peace Resource Center of Bennington, VT
Center for Immigrant Families
Georgetown Campus Greens
VoterMarch
Radical Women
World Federalist Association
DePaul Students Against The War
Dogs For Democracy/Paws For Peace
Wester-Ross Branch of Scottish Coalition for Justice Not War
The Center For Community Renaissance
Ground Zero For Peace
Golden Flower Foundation
All In Harmony
Freedom Road Socialist Organization
The Vancouver Vigil Group
Korean Immigrant Workers Advocates
La Paix Herb Farm
Earth Repair Foundation - Victoria
Partners for Peace
Poppin Enterprises
South Jersey Campaign for Peace and Justice
Philadelphia Anti-War Forum
Suburban Greens
Philadelphia Lesbian and Gay Task Force
Delaware Valley Justice
Los Delicados:Poetas del Sol
Liberty Underground of Virginia
Presbyterian Peace Fellowship
Voice4Change
Metro DC Committee of Correspondence
SF Bay Area Progressive Challenge
25th Annual Athens Human Rights Festival
Star Base Alpha Farms Co-operative
Voices of Palestine
Kids Meeting Kids
Peace for Earth Organization
Socialist Party of Bangladesh
National Movement for Change
Muslim Student's Association (CRC Chapter)
Christian Scientists for Peace
Milkweed Foundation
Earthhope Action Network
True Left Television
Church Women United, Northern CA. & Oakland
Words, UnLtd.
World Mothers Acting for Peace (WorldMAP)
Council for the National Interest
Unitarian Church of Vancouver
Sisters of the Presentation, San Francisco
Revolutionary Communist Party, USA, SF Bay Area Branch
Passion For Peace
Columbus Free Press
Malu `Aina, Hawaii
The Benefit Network
Nation of TRIZLAM student organization
Coalition for Peace and Justice
Faces of Faith
Socialist Action
Fathers for Justice
On A Roll Screenprinting and Design
North Manchester Fellowship of Reconciliation
Students for Direct Democracy
New Jersey Solidarity
Friends of Sabeel--North America
Tuesday Night
Cyclic Peace and Natural Philosophy Cabal
World Peace 2000
Students For Justice/ EVC
Fare Dodgers Liberation Front!
Muslim Students Association University of Toronto
Youth and Children Development Program -Afghanistan
People's Coalition Against War
Tidewater Progressives
ConSafos.com
ChicagoPoetry.com
Foundation Stone (band), Floyd, VA
North American Women for Diversity (NAWforD), Edmonds, WA
Rose B Enterprises, Inc., Somerset, NJ
Triangle Buddhist Peace Fellowship, Carrboro, NC
SUSTAIN, Baltimore chapter, Baltimore, MD
FPNN, San Gabriel, CA
Original common ground, Brattleboro, VT
Netforest, Inc, Salem, OR
Stand Your Ground Coalition San Bernardino, San Bernardino, CA
Harold Washington Party 2000 International, Chicago, IL
San Francisco Green Party, San Francisco, CA
From The Wilderness, Sherman Oaks, CA
Al-Fatiha Foundation for LGBTQ Muslims & their Friends, Washington, DC
Liquid Todd, Radio Show, New York, NY
Young Communist League, Los Angeles, CA
Earth Rights Institute, Scotland, PA
Tyrian Network, Cleveland Heights, OH
Campus Shawnee Greens, SIU, Carbondale, IL
Integrity Works, Philadelphia, PA
Planet 10 Enterprises, Henderson, NC
New World Resource Center, Chicago, IL
Green Party of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Eartheal, Durham, NC
Union College Muslim Students' Association
Squaresville Records
Bill of Rights Defense Committee
Votermarch West
DR Web Designs
FiftyCrows Foundation
Pale Blue Dot
Pox Americana
University of Illinois at Springfield Campus Green Party
Just Peace Outreach Group
Food Not Bombs
Concienciaccion.org
Progressive Media Consulting, Chicago, IL
We the People, Delaware
Brattleboro Area Peace and Justice Group, VT
Bexar County Green Party, TX
Unitarian Universalist, Newport, RI
InformedProgressive.com, CA
Nativity of Mary Parish, Janesville, WI
Psalters, PA
Majlis Ash-Shura of New Jersey, Perth Amboy, NJ
First Unitarian Society of Exeter, NH
Seven Words That Can Change the World (Hampton Roads), FL
Jack Youngblood, Retired army air force exchange (PX)
S. Long, U.S. Army
Marcy Roberts, Former military nurse and Gulf War Veteran
Marion H. Kennedy, Armed Services Retired, San Diego, CA
Rick Rantz, Vietnam Peace Veteran, Houston, TX
Gordon Catlin, former US Navy Lieutenant
Mitchel Cohen, Editor, Green Politix, the national newspaper of the
Greens/Green Party USA
Ray Markey, President, Local 1930, NY Library Guild, DC-37, AFCME
Tony Russo, Pentagon Papers Trial Defendant
James Nicks, Vietnam Veteran
Enid Stern, Peace Action*
Richard Cherry, American Postal Workers Union*, TX
Professor Richard Levins, Harvard School of Public Health*
Professor Richard Lewontin, Harvard University*
Rosario Morales, Puerto Rican author
Christopher Lamb, IBEW*, Maine
Bonnie Simon, NCP*, Las Vegas, NV
Lawrence White, IATSE, Local No. One*, Bogota, NJ
Bet Power, Director, Sexual Minorities Archives, MA
Howard Wallace, Organizer, Health Care Workers #250, SEIU*
Hillel Cohen, Delegate, 1199 Health Care Workers Union, SEIU (NY)*
Craig Newman, Chief Steward, AFSCME #1072*
Michelle Quintes, Exec Bd, District 5 (United Air), Association of
Flight Attendants*
Mike Gimbel, Delegate, AFSCME #375 (NY)*
Steven Gillis, Exec Board, Steelworkers #8751*
Rachel Nasca, Harvard Union, Clerical/Technical Workers
(Cambridge, MA)*
Loni Ding, American Federation of Teachers (Univ. of Calif.)*
Henri Nereaux, Vice Pres., Masters, Mates & Pilots, ILA (ret.)*
Susan E. Davis, Co-Chair, National Writers Union New York Local,
UAW Local 1981*
Michael Ruscigno, Teamsters, Local 802 Bakery Drivers and Warehouse Workers*,
Bayonne, NJ
Patricia Hilliard, National Writers Union*, NJ
Athena DeRasmo, Graduate student, University of Haifa, Israel
Steve Krevisky, Congress of Connecticut Community Colleges-4C's/SEIU*
Patrick Lavilles, ACMICA*, Australia
Dr. Thomas Lee, St. Anselm College, NH
Janette Martinez, High School Student, CA
Patrick Switzer, SEIU Local 925*, WA
Jacinda Moore, High School Student, MD
Gayle H. King, Episcopal Priest, CO
Gerry Scoppettuolo, Co-Founder, Gay Men Fight AIDS, Portsmouth, NH
Ed Childs, Chief Shop Steward, Local 26, Hotel Employees and
Restaurant Employees*, Harvard University Cafeterias*
Christopher Voigt, The Graduate Center of the City University of New York*
Rene Heybach, Director of the Law Project of the Chicago Coalition
for the Homeless, CCH*, IL
Kate Gyllensvard, St Peter's Social Justice Ministry Team*, MA
David Sole, President UAW Local 2334*, Detroit, MI
Will Wilkin, Haddam-Killingworth HS History Teacher, CT
Patricia Sullivan, Nebraskans for Peace and Call to Action*
Margaret Pleasant, Covenant Counseling & Family Resource Center*, GA
Timothy J. Valle, High School Student, FPO, AE
Rev. Max B Surjadinata, United Church of Christ (UCC)*, NY
Michael R. Ott, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Grand Valley State
University*, MI
Cathryn Baillie, National Alliance for Retired Americans*
Allie Potts, Lesbian Avengers*, GA
Devorah Kalekin-Fishman, University of Haifa*
Chuck Anderson, Past President Tustin Municipal Employees Association*
Yukari Tamura, Nuchi du Takara (Life IS Precious) Network*, Japan
Prof. Edward A. Riedinger, Ohio State University
Michael Gramlich Chapter 74, SE MI of Veterans for Peace*
Wood E. Hunter, PhD, Fellowship of Reconciliation*, IN
Evangelos Kalambokidis, Veterans for Peace, Chapter 27
Erika Pine Weinman, Pine's Press
John Glansbeek, IBPAT local #300*
Dr. Bert De Belder, Coordinator of Medical Aid for the Third World, Belgium
Prof. Jean Pestieau, Professor of Physics, Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium
Bund Deutscher PfadfinderInnen LV Hessen, Frankfurt, Germany
Paul Galloway, Green Party USA-GA*
Dr. Howard R Olson, PhD, International Libertarian Network*, CA
Christa R. Gharbo, Progessive Peace Coalition*, OH
Prof. Nicholas Camerota, Professor of Philosophy & Political Theory, MA
Erik Roper, Progressive Activists Network of CSUSM, CA
David Agnew, Green Party*, MA
Terry Ruthrauff, Graduate student, Antioch New England Graduate School*
Dustin Sulak, Kaplan Test Prep., Inc.*, IN
Diana Marcus, AFT*, CA
Paul Kesler, Suburban Philadelphia Green Party*
David Klein, SEIU Local 535*, Altadena, CA
Dixie F. Madden, Attorney, Wichita, KS
Jerise Fogel, Marshall University*, WV
Stefan Schwarzmann, NBDNRE, Canada
Mario Santos, Secretary, Filipino Workers Assn
Andre Powell, Executive Board Member, AFSCME Council 92*
Sharon Ceci, United Food & Commercial Workers #27*
Michael Ruscigno, Teamsters #802 Bakery Drivers & Warehouse Workers (NJ)*
Alain Piche, Union Organizer, Public Service Alliance of Canada*
Robert M. Zannelli, Office & Professional Employees #2*
David Welsh, Delegate, San Francisco Labor Council
Nathaniel W MacDonald, Math Teacher, CA
Rev. Sala Nolan, United Church Of Christ/National Office, OH
Glen Boisseau Becker, VivaVegie Society*, New York
Patricia Eakins, Frigate: The Transverse Review*, NYC
Sister Laetitia Bordes, Society of Helpers, CA
David Buttricfk, Prof. Vanderbilt University*, TN
Robert Welsh Jordan, Associate Professor of Philosophy,
Colorado State University*
Heather Williams, Arizona Alliance for Peaceful Justice*
Ann Russo, Professor, Women's Studies, DePaul University*, IL
Paul Kinsella, Independent Workers Union (IWU)*, Ireland
Snezana Vitorovich, Voice of Women, Association of Serbian*, Canada
Peter Phillips, Director Project Censored*, CA
Stacey Fritz, No Nukes North*, AK
Tom Miller, Global Exchange*, CA
Global Importune, Schwenksville, PA
Daryl D. & Janice J. Heslop, Heslop Tile LLC--Local 15 BAC*, MO, KS
Teresa Maxwell Kelly, Editor, The Michigan Citizen newspaper*, MI
Sue Zerangue, Columbia Pacific Alliance for Social Justice*, OR
Tom Siblo, NOLSW*(retired), Saugerties, NY
Robert Riche, Natl. Writers Union UAW*, CT
Brent T. Barnes, AEA*, UT
Valerie Opielski, American Federation Teachers*, NY
Samuel W. Thomas, N'COBRA for Reparation*, PA
Deborah Wianecki, SEIU local 790*, CA
Scott Ainslie, American Federation of Musicians, 1000*
Fritz Boyle, student, CSU Hayward
Brian Tierney, student activist, Hackettstown, NJ
Dr. Lawrence Rich, Associate Professor, Northern Virginia Community College
Mark Cline Lucey, United Federation of Teachers*
Anya Bates, student, Boulder, CO
Charlie Collier, graduate student, Southern Pines, NC
Prof. Sylvester Johnson, Florida A&M University
Harland Harrison, Libertarian Party of San Mateo County CA*
George Ripley, Director, Americans for Social Justice*
Olga Winbush, Ph.D, AAUP
Anton Flores, Chair and Assistant Professor, Department of Human Services,
LaGrange College
Charlotte A. Stevens, retired, United Postal Workers union*
Keith Kennetz, graduate student, West Chicago, IL
Peggy Sower Knoepfle, Co-chair, Women's International League for Peace and
Freedom*, Springfield IL
Kevin Heaton, student, Westfield, MA
Norm Wallen, Flagstaff Justice and Peace Coalition*, former Flagstaff City Councilman
Karin Kroener, teacher, L.A.U.S.D.*
Maureen Petterson, student, San Francisco, CA
Tom F. Driver, Professor of Theology and Culture Emeritus, Union Theological
Sheila Sharp, C.I.S.P.E.S.*
Jeff Robson, Student, UFCW 206*, Guelph, ON
John McCutchen, student, San Francisco State University
Mona Mady, Student, New York, NY
MaryBeth Ventura, Teacher, Oakland Education Association*
Lawrence E. Bryan, SJSU*
Jeremiah Turner, Waldorf Education/Anthroposophical Society*
Jennifer Terry, Lawrence Coalition for Peace and Justice* Spring Hill KS
Pillsbury for Congress, Green Party candidate for Congress, CT
Mussie Estiphanos, student, San Diego, CA
Rev. Marguerite D. Lovett, Unitarian Universalist Church of Long Beach*
Juliana DelMonte, Student, UC Berkeley
Mustafa Yar-Khan, student, Chicago IL
Dr. Lawrence Mosqueda, Professor, The Evergreen State College*
Terri Freedman, student, Santa Rosa, CA
William Buehlman, UCSF,CUE*
Dawn Dunbar, student, Evergreen College
Joel Risser, student, Philadelphia PA
Nihal Mehta, urbangroove.com*
Krista Thomas, student, University City MO
Elizabeth A. Walker, Teamsters*
Fadel Zeidan, student, Charlotte, NC
Mike Cozens, student, London, ON
Cassandra Clark, UCSF*
Clair Hamilton, student, Richmond, IN
Helmut Burkhardt, Council on Global Issues*
Siena Klein, Humboldt Mediation Services*
C VanOchten, Student, Olympia, WA
Rockney Compton, Vets for Peace / VFW/ DAV*
Jann Reynolds, Central Coast Peace and Environmental Council, Women in Black*
Marilyn Uline, Adrian Dominican Sister*
Sally Fisher, INTERSECT-Worldwide*
Randall E Hartman, Transport Workers Union*
Yakira Teitel, Speak*, Columbia University
Deena Abulughod, NYC Department of Education*
Paul Edwards, CUPE Local 79*
Rachel Cowger, student, NYU
Chip Tolleson, Boston Rhythm Workers Union*
Jason Keiner, student, Northfield, NJ
Rice Crabtree, Boilermaker Union Local 454*
Phillip and Carol Bosserman, Fellowship of Reconciliation*
Ami Mitchell, student, Munster, IN
Robert Voelker-Morris, student, University of Oregon
Hank Sambach, NY Library Guild, DC-37 AFSCME*
William E. Claycomb, Save Our Bay, Inc*
Harriet M. Ludwig, Independent Journalism Co.*
Basla Andolsun, student, VCU
Katherine Sherrill, Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library*
J. Roy Cannon, Green Party DE*
Michael Hodgson, TCU*
George DeMott, Mankind*
Matthew Acosta Holmes, student, San Francisco, CA
Matthew Bear-Fowler, student, Gardiner, ME
Susan D. Wisner, SGI-USA*
Keyvan Gheissari, student, La Jolla CA
Mike Donahue, Vertex Innovation*
Steckley Lee, student, University of Florida
Dr. Glen T. Martin, International Philosophers for Peace*
Asmir Taletovic, student, Atlanta, GA
Carol L. Ries, snjm, Sisters of the Holy Names*, Pax Christi*, Quixote Center*
Frederick M. Rosen, Stelex The Validation Group, Inc.*
Jordan Vexler, student, Rice University
Marc Weinblatt, Mandala Center for Awareness, Transformation, & Action*
Susan E. Davis, National Writers Union, UAW Local 1981*
Liberty Smith, Student, UCSD
Rev. Scott Peterson, The Church of Spiritual Humanism*
Richard DeBona, Archdiocese of Washington*
Jean Grossholtz, Western Mass Global Action Coaliton*, Diverse Women
for Diversity*, Women for Life on Earth*
Carl G. Martin, student UAW*
Andrew Cengel, student, Chicago IL
Thomas A. Mulholland, United Federation of Teachers*
Amitadyuti Kumar, Association for Protection of Democratic Rights*
Karen Myer, SEIU Local 535*
Linnea Nelson, United Brotherhood of Carpenters*
Ahsanul Haq Khan, General Secretary, Rights Implementation for
Social Emancipation (RISE)*
John Joseph, Retired Professor, Franklin and Marshall College
Abbas Ali, Professor and Director, School of International Management, ECOB,
Indiana University of Pennsylvania*
Aaron Biterman, President, American University College Libertarians*
Hairriet Barrow, American Friends Service Committee*
David Nogas, People Against Bush's Nazi'ism*
S. Brandi Barnes, Journalist/Poet
Cecelia M. Lavan, Blauvelt Dominican Sisters*
Sara Rothenberger, Residence Director, The College of Saint Benedict
Najiya Shana'a, Executive Director, Neighbors' Consejo*
Martha Mundy, Senior Lecturer, Anthropology Department, London School
of Economics
John Davidson Milller, Editor, Green Man Ark
Robin Harrington, President/Talent Agent, Screen Actors Guild*
Steve Mitchell, Dekalb Interfaith Coalition For Peace and Social Justice*
Charles Metzger, Disabled Veteran
Prof. Gary Maveal, University of Detroit Mercy School of Law
Echo Steiner, co-chair, Palm Beach Treasure Coast Green Party*
Alain Piché, union organizer, Public Service Alliance of Canada*
Joan Hoff, professor, Montana State University*
Erica Ward, student, Warren Wilson College
Carla Berg, student, University Salzbug
Rev. Richard K. Heacock, Jr., Executive Director, Alaska IMPACT*
Malachy Kilbride, Free Socialist International*
Ian Thompson, Labor Attorney, Gilbert & Sackman*
Marilyn Hacker, City University of New York
Mike Shaw, Secretary-Treasurer, Rhode Island Pride at Work
(AFL-CIO LGBT Constituency Group)*
Sophia Knight, student, McGill University
Dr. Nanny L. Murrell, Associate Professor/Nurse-Midwife, University of Texas
Medical Branch*
Anne Flanagan, student, University of Illinois at Chicago
Carnell Johnson, Black Student Union*
Marc Montgomery, Worldview*
Lindsay Marisol Enyart, Regional Organizer, United Students Against Sweatshops*
David Ben-Ariel, Temple Mount Faithful*
Thomas Payne, Sustainability Project /Carpenter's Union
Cara Stewart, student, Berea College
Dr. Fred A. Wilcox, Associate Professor, Ithaca College
Hernán López-Garay, professor, Universidad ed Los Andes, Venezuela
Jack Senechal, student, University of North Carolina at Ashville
Alisha Ritt, Adj. Assis. Prof. of Music, Nassau Community College
Dr. G. Kellough, Professor, York University
Thomas J. Nagy, Assoc. Prof. of Expert Systems, George Washington University
Francie & Gary Moeller, President, Americans With Disabilities Act
(ADA) Compliance*
Mariana Luz, United Auto Workers*
Mary Claire Van der Horst, Florida Coalition for Peace and Justice*
Katherine Dillon, administrative assistant, Wesley Theological Seminary
William F. Quinlivan, Pax Christi*
Marco Zambon, graduate student, University of California - Berkeley
Terence Taylor, Nuclear Physicist, Senior Scientist (Retired), Government
of Canada
Samuel Taylor, The Core*
Elizabeth Cowan, student, Lewis and Clark College
Brian Hart, student, University of Notre Dame; Pax Christi USA*
Oliver Lee, professor, University of Hawaii
Anthony Alessandrini, Professor, Kent State University, Kent State
Anti-War Committee*
Burnis E. Tuck, AFGE (AFL-CIO) Local 3172*
Brigid Lenfest, IBEW, Springfield, MA
Andrew Cottonwood, Peace and Justice Alliance of central Washington*,
Ellensburg, WA
Kara Elder, Language Education Center*, Kwangju, Korea
Kathy and Phil Dahl-Bredine, Maryknoll lay Mission Association*, Oaxaca, Mexico
Stephen M. Reinfranck, International Society of Bassists*, Evanston, IL
Frank Bellocchio, Autonomy Projects*
Lorraine Quiroga, Esq., League of United Latin Americans*
Maggie Bagon, Human Rights Advocates of Coos County*
Chris Jasmin, student, University of Colorado
Will Cwik, student, University of Chicago
Jonathan A Wright, Libertarian Party*, Geolibertarian Society of TN*
Darrick Thomson, Northumberland Council of Canadians*
Will Leggett, Whale Watchers Organization*
Axis of Peace*
Rev. Joan I. Senyk, United Methodist Church*
Robert Merrill, Maisonneuve Press*
James Starowicz, Veterans For Peace*
Daniel Harlow, student, Columbia
Omar Ebeid, student, New York University
Dr. Priscilla R. Smith, The University of Akron*, American Friends Service
Committee*, Northeast Ohio Office/People for Peace*
Mike Alewitz, LaBOR aRT & MuRAL PRoJECT*
Steven Mosbeck, Harris Co.Green Party (Texas)*
Dr. Sapphire Mann Ahmed, M.D.,MPH, Patriot of the Earth/Human Race*
Layne Hudes, United Federation of Teachers*
Marilyn Michalak, APFA*
Catherine Kozak, student, American University
Natifa Mustafa and Aziza el-Shair, students, Georgia Southern University Black
Student Alliance*
Paul Beich, Tallahassee Network for Justice and Peace*
Albert Ruben, Writers Guild of America, East*
Ruben Gonzalez, Centro de Salud Familiar*
Adam November, student, George Washington University
John J. Carey, Professor Emeritus, Fl. State Univ.
Camille Russell, Madera Unified Teachers Association
Lucille Bertuccio, Instructor at Indiana University
Jeff Surfus, Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice*
Djibril Oumarou, student, UDC
Andrea Cecconi, student, University of Rhode Island Graduate Assistants United*
Darla Anelli, SEIU Local 250*
Cameron Blaisdell, student, University of North Carolina at Asheville
Rebecca Witte, student, University of North Carolina
Julie Ann Parks, student, Western Illinois University
Emily Kearns, student, University of Michigan
Stefan H. Krieger, Professor, Hofstra University School of Law
Dr. Lowell Monke, professor, Wittenberg University
Gail Harrison, Lakeshore Ethnic Diversity Alliance*
Adrienne Hurley, student, Stanford University
Andrew Niese, student, University of Wisconsin Eau Claire
Thomas and Louraine Keene-Wall, IAM*
Jan Lentz, W. Pasco Democratic Club*
Lubna Haddad, instructor, Florida Atlantic University
Blair Doroshwalther, student, New York University
Mel Duncan, Nonviolent Peace Force
Andrea Mettam, student, Goucher College
Doris M. Martin, professor, James Madison University
The Rev. Dr. Mykel Johnson, First Parish Brewster, Unitarian Universalist*
Wonil Kim, professor, La Sierra University
Ingrid, Elisabet, Antonia, Feeney, the assassins for fire party*
Irene Suico Soriano, Cinekula F & S*
Jessica Jones, student, University of Florida
Pauline Mullins, student, University of Texas
Roger St. Pierre, British Guild of Travel Writers*
Al Moore, Vietnam War Veteran
Lynda Burstein, Tufts-New England Medical Center*
John Harding, student, Drew University
Harold Monkres, LOCAL 250,SEIU*
Dr. Mohamed Khodr, Physician, Muslim and Human Rights Activist
May Najib Khodr
Valerie Nelson, Counseling Faculty, Cabrillo College
Vernon Hartwell, Systems Administrator, Bayor Corporation
Ed Tant, Newspaper Columnist, Athens Banner Herald
Cerro Gordo, Mexico, CNOP*
Kathleen Hernandez, United Teachers of Los Angeles*
John P. Haines, St. Monica Church*
Wendy A. Jorgensen, faculty, Columbus State Community College
Debra F. Jones, Green Sangha*
Mark Rine, MTSU*
Barbara Gardner, Universalist Unitarian Association*
Lance Standridge, Granite Construction Company
Dr. Icarius Ching, House of Ching
Tom Boughan, Painter, IUPAT#456*
Herbert Vaughan, M.D., Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Alene Moris, Northwest Women's Institute*
Christopher Womack, American Federation of Teachers*
Kara Mills, Development Project Coordinator, Primavera Foundation*
Kaki Sjogren, HAIRpeace Project and Alternatives to Violence*
Phoebe Brow, Student, IWW*
Hugh Giblin, Council for Secular Humanism*
Margaret Lynd, First Unitarian Universalist Church of Columbus*
Barbara Shirtcliff, Student, Portland State University
Robert M Zannelli, OPEIU Local 2*
Mark A. Ehman, Professor, Springfield College
Jeff Zinn, Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater*
Prof. Gary Maveal, University of Detroit Mercy School of Law
Randy Richter, T-Netix, Inc*
Darla Anelli, SEIU Local 250*
Patricia A. Cline, DieHardDems*
Gwen Jean Jorgensen, Activist San Diego*
Doris Gelbmanv, Student, New England School of Law
Rey Carcana, CO, former US Army intelligence analyst
Brian O'Malley, Outer Cape Peace & Justice Circle*
Holly Harrington, Student, Frostburg State University
Mahmoud Mohamed, Mar Jac Poultry, Inc
James W. Wright, Senate candidate Texas, Reform Party
Lynne Elizabeth, Editor, New Village Journal
Jennifer O'Dell, International Brotherhood of Teamsters*
Mrs.G.I.Shah, Pakistan, Thinkers Forum*
Ryan Husak, Middle Tennessee Solidarity*
Rebecca Claire Glasscock, Lexington Community College
Emilio G. Abulhasan, CEO, I.T.C., Inc.
Carol Rice, American Psychological Association
Thomas Lee, Professor, St. Anselm College
Jennet Parker, Student, Tarrant County College, Azle, TX
James D. Cockcroft, Author
Signe Knee, L.A.U.G.H. Homeschooling Coop*
Judy Munro-Leighton, Professor, Jefferson Community College
Dor Ben-Amotz, Purdue University
Pat Spiva, Sonoma State University
Salwa Rashad, Madison Peace Coalition*
Rev. Dr. Ellen Johnson-Fay, All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church
Jong Park, MRC-DUNN
Frank Gubasta, UU Church of Fort Myers
Cynthia F. Pelak, Assistant Professor, University of Memphis
Robert Lobis, MD, Boston Children's Hospital
Paul Fitzgerald, Dep't Head Social Studies, Miramonte High School
Thomas Keene-Wall, IAMAW
Daryl D. Heslop, MOKAN Local 15
Peter A. Bender, The Pegasus Foundation*
Phillip B. Wagoner, Professor, Wesleyan University
Dr.Dorothy Blake Fardan, Sojourner Truth Farm School
Dr. Robert Denham, Roanoke College
Erik Aukland, Student, UW Madison
Jonathan Inskeep, Voter March*
Rev. Beverly Robinette, United Methodist Clergy
Steven Gillis, Steelworkers Local 8751*
Helen Queen, Unitarian Church
Kathy Schmitt, Appalachian Office of Justice and Peace
Rev. Eric A. Stone, The Wesley Foundation at CMU
Nico Haupt, Ground Zero Forum NYC*
Sue Ablao and Jackie Hudson, Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action*
Francis X. Baird, RHD*
Thomas Kim, First United Methodist Church/The Chicago Temple
Mary Zoeter, President, Action for Animals Network*
John L. Hochheimer, Associate Professor, Ithaca College, Ithaca, NY
James Patteson, Ph.D., Professor of Philosophy, Vero Beach, FL
Sara Alpay, Teacher, Prince William County Ed. Assn.*, Centreville, VA
Francine Hall, University President, Gettysburg, SD
Pete Anderson, Social Justice Activist, IWW*, Vancouver, WA
Tone Irene Brekke, graduate student, United Auto Workers 2865*, Oakland, CA
Donna Johnson, Consultant, DBJ&CO*, Cardiff, CA
Bea Bernhausen, Co-ordinator of Peace and Social Issues Committee,
Langara Student Union*, Vancouver, BC Canada
Margaretta Wa Gacheru, Professor, Truman College*, Evanston, IL
Frank Tripoli, Teacher (History) / Greenhints, Ware, MA
Steven L. Weems, Managing Director, Polaris Institute*, Brunswick, ME
Carol Brouillet, Co-Founder Who's Counting Project*, Palo Alto, CA
Jerise Fogel, Associate Professor, AFT*, AAUP*, MAPS*, Huntington, WV
Poncho Meisenheimer, Research Scientist, Promega Biosciences*,
San Luis Obispo, CA
Eric Mar, Member, CA Faculty Assn - SF State; SF Unified School District*,
San Francisco, CA
Philip Martin, Student, Tufts University, Medford, MA
Roger Geertz Gonzalez, Ph.D. Candidate-Higher and Comparative International
Education, Penn State University
Laura Neustaedter, Public Educator, UTLA*, Canoga Park, CA
Chris Chaplin, Immigration Spokesperson, The Australia Greens (Victoria)*,
Preston, Victoria, Australia
Edward A. Riedinger, Professor, / Library Head, Ohio State University,
Columbus, OH
Brian J. Piper, graduate student, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Brian Vargus, Professor, Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN
Susan Blankenship, Visiting assistant professor, Eastern Kentucky University,
Lexington, KY
Mike Malloy, Radio Talk Show Host, .E. America Radio Network (owned by the
United Auto Workers), Decatur, GA
James Reeb Unitarian-Universalist Congregation, Madison, WI
Wendy Strebe, Community Evolution LLC*, Las Vegas. NM
Chris Bartle, President, The Evergreen Group*, San Francisco, CA
Elissa Salas, Student, University of La Verne Peace Studies, La Verne, CA
David Stead, Psychiatrist, Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association*, Rego Park, NY
Takkeem Morgan, Vice President, Black Caucus*, University Park, PA
Terry Shtob, Associate Dean, Stanford University, San Francisco, CA
Mehdi Hosseini, President, Suf Building Contractors, Inc.*, Berkeley, CA
Robert Scagliotti, Musician/Teacher, AFM 34*, Overland Park, KS
Robert Giannotti, student, St. John's University, Floral Park, NY
Norma Armon, Producer, International Contact, Inc.*, Oakland, CA
Jennifer Lee Johnson, Student, Colorado College, Colorado Springs, CO
Stephen Von Sychowski, Communist Party of Canada*, Canada
Richard B.Ellis, Ph.D, Associate Professor, Chair/Human Services Dept,
Washburn University, Topeka, KS
Nancy Gebhart Breske, Department Secretary, Human Services Dept.,
Washburn University, Topeka, KS
David Riedel, Student, Carleton College, Northfield, MN
Bret Thiele, Human Rights Lawyer, Centre on Housing Rights
and Evictions (COHRE)*, Duluth, MN
Helen Fox, Professor, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Carl Burak, Adj. Instructor, Santa Monica College, Venice, CA
William Peterson, University Professor, California Faculty Assocation*,
Palm Springs, CA
Brian Jackson, Student, Plattsburgh State University, Plattsburgh, NY
Laura Koplik, Horace Mann School Peace Club*, Tenafly, NJ
Kate Daher, Pittsburgh Palestine Solidarity Committee*
Mark Branson, American Federation of Musicians*, Ann Arbor, MI
Susan Wright, Research Scientist, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Dr. Paul Connett, Professor of Chemistry, St. Lawrence University, Canton, NY
Valerie Morse, Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand*, Wellington, New Zealand
Rosemary Hardison, Vice President, NOW-NJ Essex County Chapter*,
East Orange, NJ
Neil Reichline, Editor-in-Chief, Neil's Newsletter, Sherman Oaks, CA
Ray Mireles, Professor Emeritus, American Federation of Teachers*, Whittier, CA
James C. Landis, Mariposa Peace Network*
Susan Tyler, student, Kishwaukee College
Britta Jensen, student, University of Oxford
Seth Adam Price, student, Bridgewater State College
Steven Ricard, student, Georgia State University
Kyle Brakensiek, Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission*
Charles Negendank, student, University of Tennessee
Charles H. Halsted, professor, University of California Davis
Sean-Patrick Burke, student, University Of Vermont
Barbara Jean Hope, CPUSA*
Martin Schreader, National Production Workers Union, Local 707*
Eric D'Angelo, People of Savannah, GA for Peace*
Karen Aaguirre, Tacoma-Pierce County Bar Association*
Eric Weiss, student, Socially Open-minded Students*, Pius XI High School
Pete Stupey, American Federation of Teachers*
J. Evan Marks, student, University of Oregon
Irene Hwang, student, Dartmouth College
Msgr. John I. Cervini, Catholic Priest, Provincia de San Juan de la Maguana,
Dominican Republic
Patrick Murfin, Inter-Faith Council for Social Justice, McHenry County, Illinois*
Susanne Kelly, Secretary Treasurer, OPEIU #334 (Richmond, VA)*
Schroeder Michel, Attac*, Geneva Switzerland Standing Together:
Communities for Human dignity and Respect*
Cindy Read, Teamsters Union*, CA
Joe Zefran, Marketplace Productions*, CA
Kelly McKerrow, University professor Southern Illinois University
at Carbondale*, IL
John Meeks, Catholic Church*, IL
Patricia Erickson, Dominican Sister of Adrian*, MI
Kelly Farrell, student, University of Massachusetts
David Dick, Rocklin Teachers Professional Association*, CA
Stephanie Wavle, student, Brown University, RI
Joan Supan, North Texas Coalition for a Just Peace*, TX
Blanca Chavez, One World for Peace*, TX
Scott Jodice, Not in Our Name, CA
Steve Trimm, Public Employees Federation*, NY
Jerry M. Landay, Journalism student, Univ. of Illinois* IL
Rebecca Prahl, student, Brown University, RI
Monika Fabian, student, Sarah Lawrence College
John Mclaughlin, AFGE Local 2004*, PA
David Mann, Spectrum / GLBTA Community @ The University of Toledo, OH
Nicholas Poss, student, Ohio State University, OH
- - -
Thank you for your support and letters. Let's make 2004 the year of T.H.R.U.S.T. as defined in the Mission Statement.
.
Due to the capture of Saddam Hussein, we feel it safe to release the following transcript.
Dr. Rita R. Colwell, Director or the National Science Foundation
Good morning to everyone, and thank you for the warm introduction. I'm delighted to be here. This is a high-tech, high-energy crowd, and the atmosphere is full of excitement!
I've titled my remarks, "Computing: Getting us on the Path to Wisdom." You may wonder what I mean by wisdom, a word that carries such gravitas. We may not be able to define it. We can look for signs of it, and we often recognize it when we see it.
One of my favorite yardsticks of wisdom comes from Ralph Waldo Emerson over a century ago. "The invariable mark of wisdom" he said, "is to see the miraculous in the common."
As scientists, engineers, and educators, we are privileged to have our lives infused with the miraculous. Discovery, learning and innovation are paths we travel daily.
Many of you will recognize the next image. It's the IBM 650. I used it for my own Ph.D. research to classify marine bacteria.
I wrote the program to handle what we thought was a large amount of data gathered on several hundred bacterial cultures.
This was the first American use of the computer to classify bacteria from the environment. In fact, the coding scheme we developed for bacteriological data remains in use today, and is widely employed in many hospitals across the country.
As for the IBM 650, it was installed in the attic of the chemistry building at the University of Washington, and we graduate students got to use it between the hours of two and four a.m.
Today, an IBM 650 is literally a museum piece. One is on display at the Smithsonian! And as this conference attests, a new age of supercomputing has dawned.
Many of us have seen our work transformed in unimagined ways by the power and breadth of the information and communications revolution that we are all a part of.
My own research on the environmental factors that converge to cause cholera has traveled many miles from the early days of the IBM 650 to the sequencing of the organism that causes cholera, to handling vast amounts of climate data gathered by satellites, to easy communication with colleagues around the world, particularly those working in countries where cholera is still a deadly scourge.
The changes born of the information age have helped to change the way infectious diseases are understood, and opened new prospects for ameliorating their deadly consequences.
Today, I intend to take us a step forward to the frontiers of knowledge. I'll describe the National Science Foundation's vision of cyberinfrastructure for the future, and then provide some examples to illustrate why the time is ripe for action.
The first wave
The first wave of the information and communications technology revolution has reshaped the once familiar landscape of the economy and has forced us to clear new paths in research, education, and business. It has swept across every field of research, and changed forever our scientific and educational horizons. New frontiers of knowledge, unimagined only a few years ago, are now open to us.
I believe we stand on the threshold of a new age of scientific exploration, one that will give us a deeper understanding of our planet and allow us to improve the quality of people's lives worldwide.
A great challenge today is to sustain the momentum of discovery and realize the progress that our new tools promise.
Science and technology have always been a powerful force for human progress. In the 21st century, more than ever before in history, we have the opportunity to advance global prosperity as we expand the frontiers of knowledge and make possible ever greater achievements. The conference title, "From Terabytes to Insights," points to this journey into new territory.
The National Science Foundation has partnered with the science and engineering community in our quest to advance discovery. We supported campus computing centers in the 1960s, and computational science in the 1970s.
The first supercomputer centers and networks linking researchers came on the scene in the 1980s. These were followed by the birth of Mosaic and the Partnerships for Advanced Computational Infrastructure in the 1990s, and the Terascale and Grid initiatives of this decade.
NSF has worked with the community to foster collaboration, to support frontier research in computing and network science, and to educate the next generation of scientists and engineers to carry discovery forward.
For decades, NSF has been steadily crystallizing the idea of a center that brings together diverse skills, tools, and perspectives to focus laser-like on scientific and technological problems.
From this come the original science and technology centers, the engineering research centers, and the supercomputing centers, which you know well. Centers in new and promising areas of research are burgeoning. It is a form and a formula that has served us well.
TeraGrid
Now we look toward a grander scale: the TeraGrid, a distributed facility that will let computational resources be shared among widely separated groups. This will be the most advanced computing facility available to scientists for all types of research in the United States exceptional not just in computing power but also as an integrated facility. It will offer access to researchers and students across the country, merged data resources, and visualization capability.
It is a step toward the vision of a cyberinfrastructure that will give a broad range of researchers access to high-performance computing, high-bandwidth networks, very large data stores, and sophisticated tools for knowledge discovery.
The demand for sophisticated cyberinfrastructure is exploding in every field of science and engineering. Teams of researchers working within and across disciplines are coming together to lay the foundations for a cyberinfrastructure revolution.
As many of you know, NSF is planning to launch a cyberinfrastructure effort to address these growing research and education needs.
NSF and cyberinfrastructure
We have chartered an Advisory Committee on Cyberinfrastructure the Atkins Committee to consult with the science and engineering community and to assess common needs. Their final report will recommend a course for the coming years. It is expected shortly.
We expect that NSF's current PACI partnerships and terascale facilities will play a pivotal and even expanded role in this initiative.
As you can see from the slide, cyberinfrastructure will move us from "Terabytes to Insights". We envision fundamental research in information technology and applications in all areas of research. We will need to expand our network capabilities and our large data repositories, and develop new computational, analytical and visualization tools.
Central to the vision of cyberinfrastructure are people. A great challenge in turning our vision into reality is assembling the talent. We will need renewed efforts in education across the board.
It's one thing to tell you that we need this expanded cyberinfrastructure, and quite another to show you. I'll focus the remainder of my remarks on the frontiers of discovery. The most eloquent demonstration of the need lies in the great possibilities for the creation and application of new knowledge found there.
Astronomy, physics, and supercomputing
More than any other fields, astronomy and physics have already benefited from the supercomputing revolution. We travel into ever more distant reaches of the universe in search of its origins and nature.
Observation of astronomical phenomena reaches back in time to the earliest attempts to read in the stars a message about our own relationship to the cosmos. This star chart depicting Perseus is based on Tycho Brahe's observations. All told, he cataloged 700 objects.
Today, vast, ever-expanding datasets are collected with a variety of instruments.
This animation represents data on the distance of 130,000 galaxies collected by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Each "wing" is one observational swath at a point in time. Two of the "wings" are from a Northern quadrant, the third from a Southern. The edges of the wings extend approximately five billion light-years. The Sloan Survey will eventually map 100s of millions of astronomical objects.
The Sloan archive can be used by anyone on the Internet. Several hundred teachers here in Baltimore have been trained to use Sloan data in their classrooms. Tamas Szalay, a 15-year-old high school student, wrote the computer animation we see here!
LIGO, short for Laser Interferometry Gravity-Wave Observatory, is one of the newest arrows in our astronomical quiver. It is designed to search for gravity waves produced by colliding black holes or collapsing supernovae. LIGO will join with other gravity-wave observatories around the world to become more than the sum of its parts.
We will now see a simulation of the collision of two black holes. The spectacular rainbows of color are gravitational waves predicted by theory, but not yet observed experimentally.
The stunning visualization, produced by Ed Seidel, NCSA, required roughly a terabyte of data generated by simulations of Einstein's equations carried out by the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and NCSA. Let's view the clip.
Simulations like these will be crucial both in detecting and interpreting data from LIGO.
Virtual data grids
The Grid Physics Network, or GriPhoN, joins LIGO and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey with the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, the European accelerator laboratory. They form a computational and communications grid that ties together resources from the United States and Europe.
We expect that advances in developing petascale virtual data grids made in this project can be extended to other components of our nascent cyberinfrastructure.
Finally, we will see here how a networked system might bring data from all wavelengths and from ground and space-based telescopes to an international community of astronomers through a National Virtual Observatory.
Here we are watching the network at work the integration of data from different wavelengths and from different telescopes, both in space and on the ground.
The virtual observatory will ultimately change the way science is done. For example, it will bring together the "separate wavelength cultures" and it will bring science to desktops around the globe.
These examples demonstrate that the demand for resources to archive, manipulate, and extract knowledge from databases is expanding at an accelerating rate.
This projection from PACI gives us some idea of the increases in magnitude expected over the next four years.
It shows us something else as well. Databases in astronomy and physics are currently orders of magnitude larger than those in neuroscience, earthquake engineering, or ecology.
But not for long! Planned instruments and observational platforms will boost these figures sky-high in the years ahead.
Now let's move from the far reaches of the cosmos to our own dynamic planet and to life on earth
Earthquakes!
The Northridge earthquake of 1994 reminded us of our vulnerability, and spurred the pace of disaster research.
Here we see the first 19 seconds of the aftershock from the Northridge earthquake in 1994, with the San Fernando Valley in the background. The simulation was produced by Greg Foss of the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center Visualization Group.
A variety of tools will help us understand the forces causing earthquakes and their destructive consequences. Japan's Earth Simulator, for example, will be a valuable international resource in meeting this common goal.
The Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation NEES will also help.
It is a 21st century model of collaboration literally, a laboratory without walls or clocks. Researchers from across the United States will be able to operate equipment and observe experiments from anywhere on the net. They will study how building design, advanced materials and other measures can minimize earthquake damage and loss of life.
Just last week, researchers conducted the first test of the web-interface technology. A shake table vibrated a model bridge fitted with about 100 sensors that streamed video and data to watching engineers, who then analyzed the bridge's performance.
EarthScope and GEON
Another NSF-funded project, EarthScope, will generate basic scientific understanding of the structure and evolution of the North American continent and the physical processes controlling earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
This slide shows a uniform grid of 2000 sites that researchers will sample, over the next decade, using portable seismic stations. An observatory four kilometers deep will directly monitor processes in the active San Andreas Fault zone, while a distributed observatory will gather data on plate movements from Alaska to Mexico.
Combined with new satellite and GPS systems, the entire EarthScope array will provide a dynamic picture of the forces that continue to shape earth.
Understanding gained from EarthScope will feed directly into NEES projects.
Cyberinfrastructure will take the earth sciences to an entirely new plane of discovery. Both NEES and EarthScope are vital components.
So is GEON, a coalition of information technology and earth sciences researchers who are working together to create a modern cyberinfrastructure for the earth sciences. The goal is to build an integrated database spanning the atmosphere, the oceans, and the land to advance our understanding of the complex dynamics of earth systems.
GEON reminds us that People are at the heart of cyberinfrastructure.
Life sciences
From earth science, I turn to the life sciences. Our new information and communications tools, combined with advances in molecular biology, fueled the second great scientific revolution of the last century: genomics.
From the tiny genome of the first bacterium sequenced, Haemophilus influenzae, with 1.8 million base pairs, to the 3.12 billion that comprise the human genome was a leap of enormous magnitude. Researchers from Celera Genomics, who helped sequence the human genome, estimate that assembly of the 3.12 billion base pairs of DNA required 500 million trillion sequence comparisons.
Completing the human genome project might have taken years to decades to accomplish without the terascale power of our newest computers and a battery of sophisticated computation tools.
Now we have completed the sequencing of scores of organisms, from many of the microorganisms that cause human disease to the tiny little Arabidopsis thaliana that serves as a model for plant research.
Sequencing is underway on the parasite that causes malaria, on many of the world's major food crops, and on the mouse. The age of biotechnology lies before us.
A challenge now is to describe gene function, and to unravel the structure and function of proteins.
It can take from 20 milliseconds to several seconds for a nascent protein to fold into its functional conformation. Until recently, it took 40 months of computer time to simulate that folding. With new terascale computer systems operating at one trillion operations per second we have reduced that time to one day. That's 1000 times faster.
Even at today's speeds, understanding the function of each protein in the vast array that occur will require many of the best minds in the world and advanced cyberinfrastructure to empower them.
Here is an example of how simulation and visualization are able to reveal what experiment cannot. This is cutting-edge work by Klaus Schulten and colleagues of the Beckman Institute at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Here we see water molecules passing single-file through a channel of the membrane protein aquaporin.
This simulation, which includes over 100,000 molecules, shows that water molecules do a mid-channel flip, which we can see here.
This mechanism blocks damaging hydrogen ions (not shown here) from entering the cell, while allowing water to pass through at up to a billion molecules per second. When impaired, aquaporins play a role in cataracts and diabetes.
The combination of computing, communications and genomics has also transformed our understanding of the diversity of life on earth and its evolution. Cyberinfrastructure is needed here to plot the intricate relationships among organisms.
The simple fact is that we don't even know "what's out there." The total number of species may number between 10 and 100 million. Only about 1.7 million of these are known, and only about 50,000 have been described in any detail.
With our new tools, we can envision tracing the phylogenetic relationships among all organisms for the first time. The tree of life is the baseline against which we will measure how organisms including humans interact and respond to change.
In this context, NEON--the planned National Ecological Observation Network-- will be invaluable. Here is a video describing a NEON site.
The entire NEON system would track environmental change from the microbiological to global scales.
Ecological questions
Today, we simply do not have the capability to answer ecological questions on a regional to continental scale, whether involving invasive species that threaten agriculture, the spread of disease or agents of bioterrorism.
Eventually, such observatories must be extended to the oceans as well, perhaps with links to the ocean observatories now in the planning stages. This slide from John Delaney of the University of Washington shows one possible configuration from the Neptune project now underway.
As data from these observatories begins flowing in, new models and simulations can be constructed to describe the complex dynamics that link molecules to organisms to ecosystems, and relate these to environmental databases.
A better understanding of these relationships is critical for addressing issues of environmental health and sustainability. Climate change is a case in point.
Climate modeling and NCAR
This animation shows the circulation of water vapor around the earth. It is a product of the Community Climate Model at NCAR, the National Center for Atmospheric Research at the University of Colorado.
Climate models are extremely complex, and becoming more so as we integrate more information from the atmosphere, the oceans, and the land. Incorporating rich models from the life sciences will be a major step forward in understanding the consequences of climate change.
There has been a sea change in the way we investigate life at all levels. I use the term "biocomplexity" to describe the dynamic web of relationships that arise when living things, from molecules to genes to organisms to ecosystems, interact with their environment.
We will need the power of supercomputing, and the integration and insight that a comprehensive cyberinfrastructure provides to untangle these complex interactions. A robust cyberinfrastructure across the full spectrum of life sciences can speed us down the path of discovery.
Biocomplexity studies
To give you just a taste of the power of biocomplexity studies, I'll turn now to several brief examples.
Bacteriorhodopsin is protein that acts as a light-driven proton pump in the cell membrane. Researchers have been investigating its structure and dynamics for over thirty years. Only recently, Klaus Schulten and his group, whose work I mentioned before, resolved some of these complex details through simulation.
Bacteriorhodopsin was thought to occur only in a small number of species, namely the halobacteria, which thrive in environments ten times saltier than seawater. Despite the name, they are actually members of the Archaea, the third branch of life and among the oldest forms of life on earth.
Obed Beja and Edward DeLong of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute recently discovered that bacteria containing a close variant of this energy- generating, light-absorbing pigment are widespread in the world's oceans.
Genetic variants of the bacteria absorb light of different wavelengths, matching the quality of light available in different ocean habitats. This research points to a significant new source of energy for microorganisms in the ocean.
We begin to map biocomplexity by tracing the links from the function of a protein to the distribution and variation of bacterial populations to biogeochemical cycles.
On quite another scale, mathematics, biology and computer science intersect to bring surprising insights into the process of evolution.
Richard Lenski at Michigan State has joined forces with a computer scientist and a physicist to study how biological complexity evolves, using two kinds of organisms--bacterial and digital.
Lenski's E. coli cultures are the oldest of such laboratory experiments, spanning more than 20,000 generations. Here the two foreground graphs actually show the family tree of digital organisms--artificial life--evolving over time.
On the left, the digital organisms all compete for the same resource, so they do not diversify and the family tree does not branch out. On the right, the digital organisms compete for a number of different resources, and diversify.
In the background are round spots--actually laboratory populations of the bacterium E. coli, which also diversified over time when fed different resources. In vivo derives insight from in silico.
Cognitive neurobiology
My final example touches the field of cognitive neurobiology.
This slide shows the homely little worm, Caenorhabditis elegans. This year, the Nobel Prize was awarded to three scientists for pioneering work that established this unassuming creature as a model for neuroscience.
Today, our imaging techniques, such as fMRI and CAT, are producing a wealth of data on the human brain. Supercomputing projects, most notably BIRN, the Biomedical Information Research Network at UC San Diego, are breaking new paths and opening the frontiers for the complex study of cognitive and behavioral neurobiology.
Erich Jarvis, the 2002 NSF Waterman Award winner, is investigating the neurobiology of vocal communication in songbirds to determine how vocal learning and associated brain structures evolved.
Vocal learning is the ability to imitate sounds. It is present in only six groups of animals:
3 groups of birds parrots, hummingbirds, and songbirds and 3 groups of mammals bats, cetaceans, and humans.
Evidence suggests that vocal learning evolved independently in all 6 groups over 65-70 million years. On the left of this slide, you can trace the evolutionary distance among the three bird groups.
Perception and production of song in these groups are accompanied by anatomically distinct patterns of gene expression. These are shown on the right as red and yellow areas of the brain.
The red areas show very similar locations, while the yellow areas are widely distributed. Jarvis hopes to develop a model for how the brain generates, perceives, and learns behavior by unraveling this puzzle.
His work draws on a broad spectrum of fields that integrate behavioral, anatomical, electrophysiological, molecular biological and bioinformatics techniques.
His work could advance our knowledge of how humans learn language, of brain dysfunction, and of the evolution of intelligence.
I've strayed rather far afield, but there is a point to be made. These surprising connections from molecular structure to biogeochemical cycles, from in vivo to in silico, and from behavior to cognition to gene expression to neuroanatomy give us a taste of the extraordinary complexity and potential for insight that a biocomplexity perspective provides.
A robust, flexible, and comprehensive cyberinfrastructure will give us the foundation we need to make rapid progress in understanding even our human complexities.
Frontiers in science and engineering
I'll conclude by returning to my starting point, and treating you to a final taste of the "miraculous." Many of you have enjoyed this clip at the American Museum of Natural History's Hayden Planetarium. It is taken from the space show, "Search for Life: Are We Alone?"
The Museum, NSCA and PACI all collaborated, and David Nadeau [Nuh- doe'] of the San Diego Supercomputing Center led the visualization effort.
You will see the birth and evolution of an emissions nebula, a phenomenon that occurs just after the birth of a star. The clouds of color represent high temperature gases energized by ultraviolet light from the star.
Let's view the video.
I first saw this breathtaking simulation in May, when I was in New York to speak at a Tree of Life Conference held at the Museum. I was struck then by the possibilities for insight that integration across all frontiers in science and engineering holds.
That may be a goal for the future, but we will not achieve it unless we begin now to assemble the cyberinfrastructure that will make it possible.
New understandings and problems
Ultimately, gaining insights from terabytes will also speed the application of new and miraculous knowledge to domestic as well as global problems.
We need to be more alert and astute to anticipate some of the new problems. Just think how better prepared we could have been for the looming global fresh water crisis or the emergence of new infectious diseases that seem to have taken us by surprise.
Data, computing speed, and networks are steps on the path to wisdom they do not constitute wisdom.
We understand now that changes in global climate cannot be understood without taking into account the effect that humans have on the environment the way our individual and institutional actions interact with the atmosphere, the oceans and the land.
We now know that providing a secure homeland will increasingly depend on understanding other cultures their ideas and attitudes as well as advancing cyber security, and developing antidotes to combat biological and chemical threats.
The greatest question of our times may be how we can avoid the pitfalls, and still grasp the opportunities that science and technology hold.
The world of vast distances and differences is shrinking, and soon every part of the globe will seem as close as our own back yard.
We need to keep our eyes on that future and plan now for the time when we are all next-door neighbors. That will define science and engineering for a 21st century society.
Cyberinfrastructure will help take us there and beyond.
MANHASSET — The U.S. National Science Foundation, a consortium of Russian ministries and science organizations and the Chinese Academy of Sciences this week announced the start of operations for a dedicated Global computer network ring for joint scientific and educational projects. The Global Ring Network for Advanced Application Development (Gloriad) is a 155 Mb/s ring spanning research institutes in the three countries in the Northern Hemisphere.
"This new network serves as both a physical and symbolic reminder of our common goal of solving problems and building a world of peace and prosperity," said NSF Director Rita Colwell in a statement.
Gloriad will provide researchers a means to address scientific issues including joint responses to natural and man-made disasters, safeguards for nuclear materials, better understanding of the human genome, joint exploration of space, distributed monitoring of seismic events and environmental studies and simulations. The network will also enable cooperation on international fusion energy research and support the advanced requirements of high-energy physicists.
The network will also enable collaborations between universities and local schools, such as shared seminars, distance-learning programs and multi-national science fairs.
The Gloriad ring is routed via Chicago from the NSF-supported StarLight facility which is managed by the University of Illinois at Chicago and Northwestern University. The network crosses the Atlantic Ocean to the NetherLight facility in Amsterdam from which it continues to Moscow, then to Novosibirsk, across Siberia to the border at Zabajkal'sk. After crossing the border to Manzhouli, the network continues to Beijing, then Hong Kong and crosses the Pacific Ocean to complete the ring in Chicago.
"Gloriad will be an integral part of the cyber network for developing the China E-Science initiative scheduled to commence in 2006," said Yan Baoping, director of the Computer Network Information Center (CNIC), Chinese Academy of Sciences.
"Through its advanced network and grid services, it [Gloriad] will substantially improve the manner in which scientists, educators and students can work with and learn from each other on pressing issues of our day," said Evgeny Velikhov, president of the Russian Research Center's Kurchatov Institute.
A higher-speed optical network is being jointly developed for a mid-2004 start and will run at 10 Gb/s.
Gloriad is being funded in part by a $2.8 million NSF grant to the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Russian support is via a consortium of government ministries and science organizations coordinated by the Kurchatov Institute and the Russian Ministry of Industry, Science and Technology.
The Chinese Academy of Sciences and CNIC, which coordinates China-wide networking, recently signed an agreement with the University of Illinois and Tyco Telecommunications to use the U.S.-China and U.S.-Europe bandwidth links across its Tyco Global Network.
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If you listen to Monsanto, DuPont, and even the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), genetic engineering is merely an extension of traditional plant breeding. These companies and regulators say it is the same thing that farmers and plant breeders have been doing for generations, and thus FDA does not require any tests for these crops. But traditional plant breeders have never crossed wheat with chickens or rice with human genes.
Genetic engineering permits scientists to manipulate genetic materials in ways that were once inconceivable. But the technology relies on methods that result in haphazard insertion of genetic elements into a plant's genetic code. This in turn may lead to disruption of complex gene interactions and unintended, potentially catastrophic results. It is a technology that has the power to transform food and the food supply in ways not possible with traditional breeding. Genetic engineering is very different, very powerful, and worth a great deal of caution.
Currently, the process of introducing genes is done through a limited number of relatively crude methods resulting in haphazard placement that in no way can be described as precise. The imprecision of genetic engineering was dramatically revealed in May 2000, when Monsanto disclosed that its genetically engineered soybeans – the company’s best selling genetically engineered crop – contained gene fragments that scientists had not intentionally inserted. Neither Monsanto nor government regulators had any idea the supposedly inactive pieces of genetic material were inserted during the process of engineering the crop. After that embarrassment, one year later Monsanto again had to admit it did not fully understand the genetic makeup of the product it brought to market, as further research uncovered additional unexpected DNA.
The science of genetic engineering as applied to agriculture has other fundamental differences with traditional plant breeding. One is that scientists insert marker genes, frequently one that codes for antibiotic resistance, in addition to the gene with the desired trait. This process raises serious questions since these genes may exacerbate the problem of antibiotic resistance in the general population. Another difference is the use of powerful “promoters,” usually disabled plant viruses, to increase the expression of the gene in the new plant. These promoters may create problems of their own, such as turning on or off genes in the host plant, or they may become a major source of new viruses arising from recombination.
There also have been unexpected results in the field testing of genetically engineered plants. A field test of genetically engineered petunias designed to produce one color wound up having wildly fluctuating results in the field. An experiment on a plant in the mustard family found that a species that was normally self-pollinating and had very low rates of cross-pollination changed dramatically when it was genetically engineered. And after being commercialized, both genetically engineered cotton and soybeans have had unexpected problems, including massive crop failures.
Using genetic engineering, scientists can, for the first time, insert genes from different species, families, or even kingdoms, something inconceivable in traditional breeding. Despite all of the unknowns, proponents of genetic engineering continue to push forward with previously unheard of combinations. Previous research found that between 1987 and October 2000, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) authorized 14 field tests of crops engineered with animal or human genes.1 Between 2001 and mid-2003, USDA had authorized 29 additional field tests of crops engineered with animal or human genes, or more than double the total authorized during the first 13 years of USDA record-keeping.2 Some of these combinations that have been field tested in the U.S. include:
• Chicken genes in corn, wheat, and creeping bentgrass;
• Human genes in barley, corn, tobacco, rice, and sugarcane;
• Mouse genes in corn, along with human genes;
• Cow genes in tobacco;
• Carp genes in safflower;
• Pig genes in corn;
• Simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) and Hepatitis B genes in corn;
• Jellyfish genes in corn, rhododendrons, Bermuda grass, pink bollworms, and rice;
• Fruit fly genes in potatoes; and
• Rat genes in soybeans.
Genetic engineering is an imprecise and haphazard technology—something completely different from traditional plant breeding. Since the inception of the technology, biotechnology companies have clearly demonstrated that scientists cannot control where genes are inserted and cannot guarantee the resulting outcomes. Unexpected field results highlight the unpredictability of the science, yet combinations previously unimaginable are being field tested and used commercially.
To protect public health and the environment, genetically engineered food ingredients or crops should not be allowed on the market unless:
• Independent safety testing demonstrates they have no harmful effects on human health or the environment;
• They are labeled to ensure the consumer's right-to-know; and
• The biotechnology corporations that manufacture them are held responsible for any harm. In addition, scientists should not engineer food crops to produce pharmaceuticals or industrial chemicals and should not conduct such experiments in the open environment.
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Global Citizen supports genetic engineering and deems it unfortunate that key groups are using terms such as, "weird science" to raise public fears.
Such irresponsible reporting may impede VeriChip progress and should be countered directly and via public pressure.
Enemies of the United States are enemies of Globalism. These are now being rounded up and imprisoned. Their destructive websites are now being shut down at an increasingly rapid rate.
Soon, there will be no opposition to the Global Citizen.
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Keywords now will identify friend and foe in the rhetorical wars of the near future. BUSH SUPPORT FOR THE GLOBAL CITIZEN is shown in his use of keywords "governance" and "global" and citing of Spinoza, though indirectly.
POINT: When addressing the masses, veil secondary messages in accepted terminologies.
The ability to excite and inspire opposite idealogies simultaneously is the ultimate skill of the empire builder.
This dialect is currently being taught at Rensselaer, Harvard, Yale, Oxford and BYU.
Subj: [BREAKING] Glasgow University joins Global Citizen
Date: 12/28/03 8:10:05 AM Eastern Standard Time
From: Jalmond2000@cs.com
To: controlcover@juno.com
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Global Citizenship Seminar Series 2003-04
Seminar by Professor Alan Smith
Sunday 28 December 2003
Global Citizenship
A Really Big Day
Sunday 28 December 2003
Professor Michael Peters' thought-provoking keynote address was one of the highlights in a day devoted to global citizenship issues in the Faculty of Education. His paper investigated links between the US military-industrial complex, the free market, and world order within the context of the war against Iraq.
What challenges do the impact of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the emergence of the United States as the single global superpower pose to the idea of global citizenship? This was the question discussed by Dr Tom Steele, DACE. This, he said, has presented democratic movements with an unprecedented situation. Some argue that the US policy of pre-emptive or preventive action against perceived threats and potential rivals means that national sovereignty and therefore national citizenship is no longer axiomatic.
A similar context was also considered by Dr Mark Olssen, University of Surrey, who discussed the challenges for education in building democratic citizenship post 9/11. He said: "What confronts us now, more than at any time since the 17th century, is the prospect of a new political settlement that involves a radical revision and restriction of traditional rights and liberties given to individuals."
These rather gloomy global perspectives were tempered by a more positive local one in what was probably the most thrilling and innovative event of all. Six four year olds - Jordan, Bethany, Dean, Kirsty, Elliot and Kieran - from Hillview Nursery in Ferguslie Park told an admiring audience how they picked up litter and planted potatoes and strawberries. Activities such as this had won the Paisley nursery school a Green Eco School Flag, an award of which they were extremely proud. Similarly, pupils from Aitkenbar Primary and Dumbarton Academy described ways anti-bullying initiatives were being implemented by pupils. Young people from Stonelaw High explained their ideas of a democratic classroom and gave examples where they had a genuine say in determining what and how they learn. The school theme was developed by Mary Young, Oxfam. She explained what Global Citizenship is and how it fits into a whole school ethos and, importantly, what each of us can do to make a difference.
There were sessions on asylum seekers and refugees, girls' education, gypsy travellers, sectarianism in the classroom, inter-faith relations, the ethics of ecumenism and fifty more. Other contributors in the research 'spine' included Keith Hammond and Liam Kane, both from DACE. The latter, examined the Landless People's Movement in Brazil (the MST) and the relationships between its struggle for a fairer society and its programme of teacher-training. He wondered whether the experience there holds any lessons for teacher education in Scotland.
One student, Vicki McLaughlin, praised the session given by Dr Ken Gibb, Department of Urban Studies. She said: "This was a very clear overview of the Glasgow council housing stock transfer, its causes, consequences and wider implications for housing in Glasgow. I found it really interesting." Patrick Harvie MSP represented the Green Party and received plaudits when he discussed green politics and the global dimension. For a second year in a row, Tommy Sheridan MSP ensured a very lively debate in a packed (and overheated!) lecture theatre. It was rumoured that nearly all of the three hundred and fifty students who took part in the day were in attendance!
An interactive theatrical experience led by the B.Ed.4 Specialist Study Drama group received rave reviews: one young critic, Chris Davis, said: "I thoroughly enjoyed being able to ask the actors questions about equal rights for Blacks in the USA in the 1960s. Had some people in the USA never read what is inscribed on the Statue of Liberty?"
There was entertainment too. At lunchtime, there was a memorable performance by the Frank O'Hagan Band, accompanied by the much sought-after harmonica player, Fraser Speirs and, on the "moothie", by Jack McLean. Ben Young, from the Civic Forum, demonstrated that he can play a mean guitar.
Broadcasting was also well-represented. Anne Fleck detailed ways in which Channel 4 was helping to raise awareness of global citizenship issues. However, the day was brought to an inspirational conclusion by Lesley Riddoch, BBC Scotland, who asked whether or not the media were helping to create or destroy global citizens and, in a parallel session, the Reverend Norman Shanks discussed the Churches' role in the search for global peace.
Dr Hirek Kwiatowski, Dean Of Faculty, thanked IDEAS (International Development Education Association of Scotland) and their member organisations, Amnesty International, UNICEF, Save the Children, SCIAF, One World, Christian Aid and Jubilee Scotland for continuing to support the work of the Faculty. He said: "This was a great example of students and staff from all parts of the Faculty joining up with partner organisations to provide an inspirational event that focused on global issues."
'Global Citizenship - The Big Day' is part of a project developed in the Faculty of Education in partnership with IDEAS, funded by the Department for International Development, to establish a model for embedding the principles of global citizenship in Initial Teacher Education.
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* Suspicious person or persons, includes men women and or teens.
* Suspicious Containers (Jars, bottles, packages alone or where they should not be)
* Suspicious Packages or lone suitcases
* Cars, Vans or Trucks operating in a suspicious manor
* Anything out of the ordinary - nervous behavior is one clue something may not be right.
* Eccentric beliefs, hobbies, rituals or meetings
Global Citizens quietly report unacceptable behavior anonymously.
REMEMBER: Anyone may be antisocial, regardless of position, background, reputation or appearance. It is no longer prudent to trust anyone, regardless of how well you think you may know them.
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PHOTO: Arson suspect, Joshua Thomas Connole, is seen in a booking mug taken Friday by the West Covina, California, Police Department.
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- FBI agents seeking a self-proclaimed arsonist searched computers at the California Institute of Technology for clues into fires set at four Southern California car dealerships.
The agents were hoping to uncover the identity of man claiming to be a member of the eco-terrorist group Earth Liberation Front, who told the Los Angeles Times he was involved in the attacks.
The man contacted the newspaper this week by telephone as well as through e-mails, which appeared to have come from computers at Caltech or Pasadena City College.
FBI spokeswoman Cheryl Mimura confirmed that agents visited the Caltech campus Friday but would not provide details, citing bureau policy not to comment on ongoing investigations.
A source close to the investigation told the Times that FBI agents recovered hard-drive data from computers at the school's Fairchild Library.
"The FBI is conducting an investigation and they have been at Caltech, and we're cooperating with them completely," Caltech spokeswoman Jill Perry said Saturday.
Perry said she believed Caltech was "very much on the periphery of this investigation" but would not comment further on the case.
Calls by The Associated Press to the city college Saturday were not immediately returned.
City college officials said Friday that agents visited the campus Thursday night to look for the computers used to send the messages. Campus officials said e-mails could have been sent from the library or the school's career center, which are both open to the public.
Caltech students said individuals must have an account issued by campus officials to log onto their school's computer network.
Earlier in the week, a man provided details to the Times about the $1 million arson and vandalism attack that authorities said would be known only to investigators and those involved in the incident. The man said he wanted to draw attention to pollution created by SUVs.
He also said he contacted the paper to ensure that an anti-war protester arrested last week in the case, and released Monday, would not be charged in the attacks.
Authorities said Josh Connole of Pomona remains a suspect. Connole, 25, has denied any involvement in the attacks and has denounced the ELF actions since his release.
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Finite Supply
How Much Dead Stuff Does It Take to Fuel Your Tank? Tons.
By Lee Dye
From ABCNEWS.com Dec 28 — Jeff Dukes was driving his lab's huge SUV through the red hills of southern Utah when he asked his wife a question that seemed simple at the time, but led to an astonishing answer.
"We're burning a lot of gas," noted Dukes, then a postdoctoral researcher in ecology at the University of Utah. "Where does all that gas come from?" he asked his wife, also an ecologist. Months later, after extensive research, Dukes has found his answer. And it casts a new light on the precarious hole that modern humans have dug for themselves.
It turns out that it took tons and tons of tiny plants and animals, buried at the bottom of the seas, lakes or river deltas, to produce every gallon of gasoline that poured through the big engine of that SUV.
It took 98 tons, to be exact, or 196,000 pounds. For every gallon.
Lot of Dead Matter
"That's a shocking number," says Dukes, who is now en route to a new post at the University of Massachusetts in Boston.
And of course nobody burns just one gallon of gasoline. That probably barely got the engine started in Dukes' SUV. We burn millions of gallons every day, and we rely on fossil fuel for a wide range of other energy needs. So how much prehistoric plant and animal material do we need to get through a single year?
Dukes zeroed in on the year 1997, and relying on reports from various agencies, including the United Nations, he came up with statistics that are really astonishing.
He found that the total amount of fossil fuel burned that year amounted to 97 million billion pounds of carbon. That's equivalent to more than 400 times the plant material produced by the entire world during a single year.
So every day, the amount of prehistoric biological material needed to produce the fossil fuels that we burn that day is more than the entire world's production over an entire year.
Phew.
At that rate, it would seem that we should have run out a long time ago, but "fortunately for us, there were huge reserves to begin with,'' Dukes says, thus paving the way for the Industrial Revolution and ultimately, his university's SUV. But his research shows in more graphic terms than most that there are limits to this finite source, and time may well be running out.
The End Matter
Dukes is not your basic alarmist. He didn't set out to scare the daylights out of us. He just wanted to answer a simple question that very few others have tried to answer.
"I decided to try to find out just what goes into a gallon of gas," says Dukes, who first thought that would be a simple task. "I figured I could just do a Web search and find out. That didn't work."
But as a trained scientist with access to all sorts of research, he figured he would just have to dig a little deeper to find a professional paper that answered his basic question.
"I have access to all kinds of great information and searching tools, and I still couldn't find a paper with the answer," he says. "Not even a ballpark estimate."
But he kept digging and soon found himself surrounded by bits and pieces of information. Scientists from various disciplines had looked at different parts of the issue, determining for example how much organic material is lost at each step of the multimillion-year process that turns green organisms into fossil fuel.
There are losses all along the way as the organic material is trapped in a geological formation where it will remain for millions of years while it decays into fossil fuels. The amount of loss at each step in the process is known fairly well because of the extensive research needed to find and develop fuel deposits.
By adding up all the factors, Dukes determined how much organic material was required to produce the oil, coal and gas deposits that are available to us today. Or perhaps more to the point, how much of what was originally there was lost due to erosion or other natural forces and never joined the fossil fuel pool.
And that led to another astonishing figure.
Dwindling Supply
Only one-eleventh of the carbon in plants deposited in peat bogs ends up as coal, according to his calculations. But that's amazingly efficient compared to the process that turns biological material that was deposited in ancient marine environments into oil and natural gas.
And here's the shocker. Only one atom out of every 10,750 carbon atoms ended up as oil or natural gas. The rest washed off, blew away, or was somehow returned to the earth's carbon bank.
It's amazing that the process worked at all because only a tiny percentage of organic material "grew in a place where it could eventually become stored and turned into a fossil fuel that we could reach today," Dukes says.
"And so you would think that we would have run out a long time ago, but fortunately there were millions and millions of years during which this fossil fuel was accumulating in all its various forms."
Nowadays, "we are clearly running through it quite fast," he says. That's why he titled a report on his research, published in the November issue of the journal Climatic Change, "Burning Buried Sunshine: Human Consumption of Ancient Solar Energy."
Many experts believe the world's production of fossil fuels has already peaked. After this, if they are right, it's all downhill.
It will take a while to get there, of course. But along the way the world's political power will shift increasingly toward countries that have it, and away from countries that have already spent it.
The societies that survive will be those that figured out other ways to produce the fuel they needed to power their homes, factories, and transportation devices. It's hard not to wonder why that isn't the No. 1 priority in the world today.
Lee Dye’s column appears weekly on ABCNEWS.com. A former science writer for the Los Angeles Times, he now lives in Juneau, Alaska.
The Self-Healing Minefield is an antitank landmine system that does not rely on antipersonnel landmines for dismounted breach protection. Instead the Self-Healing Minefield employs a novel breach response mechanism that can determine both mounted and dismounted enemy assaults on the minefield and respond to maintain obstacle integrity. Contrary to the current mixed minefield systems (Volcano, RAAM/ADAM, and Gator) which require antipersonnel landmines co-located with an antitank minefield to complicate dismounted breaching of the antitank minefield, the Self-Healing Minefield employs intelligent, mobile antitank mines alone to defeat all enemy breaching.
Concept
The Self-Healing Minefield system is designed to achieve an increased resistance to dismounted and mounted breaching by adding a novel dimension to the minefield. Instead of a static complex obstacle, the Self-Healing Minefield is an intelligent, dynamic obstacle that responds to an enemy breaching attempt by physically reorganizing. The Self-Healing Minefield consists of surface scattered antitank mines that can detect an enemy attack of the minefield and respond autonomously, by having a fraction of the mines move to heal the breach. Since the minefield is no longer a static obstacle, an open breach cannot be maintained. The Self-Healing Minefield forces the enemy to attack the minefield and deplete the antitank mines surrounding the breaching lane by either repeated assaults or a wide area breach/clearance. In either case the enemy has increased their exposure to covering fires when compared to the current mixed system minefield. An ongoing modeling effort indicates that a self-healing minefield will provide greatly increased military effectiveness of the obstacle.
Prototype System Performance
In order to achieve the level of robustness necessary to defeat or substantially complicate an enemy breach attempt, the mines within the prototype Self-Healing Minefield will be designed to:
* Autonomously identify and respond to an enemy attack within 10 seconds of a breach attempt or vulnerability in the minefield.
* Resist multiple breach attempts.
* Be mobile in all environmental conditions and terrain where enemy tanks can operate.
* Rapidly assemble a scalable communication network and self-geolocate in 5-15 minutes.
* Have a robust mine-to-mine communication resistant to enemy countermeasures.
* Provide a compact multi-hopping system.
* Be of two sided mobility or single sided mobility with self-righting.
* Provide directional control and repeatability.
* Have a Non-GPS based geolocation with 1 meter location accuracy.
* Maintain or reduce overall volume as compared to currently fielded scatterable antivehicle mines.
Technology Focuses
To achieve this level of performance, DARPA is focusing the development of the Self-Healing Minefield on the following enabling subsystems: individual impulse-based mine mobility concepts; low power mine-to-mine communication methods that can determine each mine location; healing algorithms/ behaviors that are robust against a variety of enemy breaching tactics; and a compact warhead that maintains minefield effectiveness given the reduced volume available. This development will culminate in the demonstration of Self-Healing Minefield concepts, in tactical scenarios, including urban terrain and a large scale minefield with at least 50 concept mines operating in a one-half hectare test area.
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We commend DARPA on their latest accomplishment. It will render impervious any assault upon High Value Target Areas and will save the lives of those necessary to carry out Global Citizen projects and other planned civic outcomes.
Two Bellevue Wal-Mart clerks caught on videotape being naughty instead of nice were arrested and fired on Christmas Eve.
Potentially hundreds of last-minute shoppers witnessed the two store clerks intentionally ramming shopping carts into a police cruiser, Bellevue police said.
At 1:06 p.m., the surveillance tape shows the first Wal-Mart employee steering the carts into the rear of the cruiser's driver's side, said Deputy Police Chief John Stacey Jr.
The police said the tape shows that wasn't the end of it.
The clerk came back, looked at it and kicked the dented spot.
About 20 minutes later, another worker with about eight carts "zeroes in on the same spot" and hit the cruiser.
"People were all over the place," Stacey said. It was one of the busiest days of the year at what Stacey jokingly called "the third-largest city in Sarpy County."
Some of those witnesses went to Wal-Mart security and Bellevue police officers, who were working off-duty at the store.
The officers checked the security tape and arrested the men, ages 18 and 21, on suspicion of criminal mischief. One also was booked on suspicion of disorderly conduct, Stacey said.
Sharon Weber, a spokeswoman for Wal-Mart, said the company does not tolerate such behavior.
In her eight years with Wal-Mart, Weber said she had heard of no similar incidents.
Contact the Omaha World-Herald newsroom
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The above article proves once again that cameras are needed in all areas, public and private. We urge you to support the EYE 2005 Initiative that will be introduced in April. If successful, it will fund 8,600,000 new digital lens placements in 1,640 Counties.
Connected to the DARPA database, the work will ensure safety for schools, churches, daycare centers, strategic industries and governmental facilities.
Many right wingers who cry wolf are reeling at the Verichip, but will soon embrace it, or they will perish.
My four-year-old daughter spent the afternoon at a local science museum the other day, exploring an exhibit on biodiversity. She returned home full of determination, found pencil and paper, and composed a letter. Now she distributes copies to friends and strangers alike. The letter begins:
From Jenna to the world.
Please stop making all this pollution. It's making all the animals sick and die. The fish can't live if the coral can't live and the polar bears can't live if the fish can't live...
Approaching the problems of polar bears and coral reefs by writing a letter to the world makes sense if you think like a four-year-old. Surely, people would not knowingly live in ways that threaten polar bears or coral reefs. If people understood, things would change.
My grown-up mind wishes my daughter's theory of world-changing worked. But I've tried it enough times myself to know that, while asking people to act for the good of the future is essential, it is unlikely on its own to change the world.
So I've been trying to prepare my little girl for the possibility that her letter won't save the polar bears. We've begun to talk about the fact that people can know the polar bears are in danger and nevertheless feel unable to change course. "Sometimes people don't do what would be best for something far away or for the future because they feel trapped by something else more immediate, more close by."
This is a simple idea, but four-year olds aren't the only ones who suggest that the best way out of our environmental and social messes is for people to be more responsible to the future. Listen to these words, from speech President Bush delivered in early March
"The whole design of free-market capitalism depends upon free people acting responsibly. Business people must answer not just to the demands of the market or self-interest, but to the demands of conscience. The bottom line of the balance sheet defines a business's goal, but not the sum of responsibilities of its leaders. Management should respect workers. A firm should be loyal to the community, mindful of the environment."
The President calls on people to be better -- more mindful of the environment, more respectful of workers. He is right, of course. We won't get anywhere if we don't expand the boundaries of what we feel responsible for. But, important as it is, a sense of social and environmental responsibility is not sufficient if economic decision-makers, from consumers to CEOs, don't have enough information to make choices informed by that sense of responsibility. And all the responsible feelings in the world aren't going to slow the climate change that threatens polar bears and coral reefs unless the economic actors who make choices out of a sense of what is best for the long term are able to thrive economically in the short term.
Consumers who don't know the social and environmental costs of the products they buy cannot act responsibly, no matter how much they might want to. Businesses struggling to survive in an age of consolidation have no choice but to put short-term profit ahead of long term environmental and social concerns. Survival in our current economic system is measured by a bottom line that takes no account of impacts on polar bears or coral reefs. As long as that is true, the most responsible CEOs in the world will be forced to make choices that place next quarter's profits ahead of the fifty year future of the polar bears. Doing otherwise risks going out of business or being replaced by a more profit oriented executive.
If we want a world that is livable for polar bears and coral reefs (and thus for people) we must re-design our economic policy so that polar bears, coral reefs, and everything else that we care about is brought into economic decision making. This will require incorporating the true cost of things into their prices. It will require paying people for the value added in the careful stewardship of natural resources. It will require getting the taxes, incentives, and rules adjusted so that our market system delivers the kind of return on investment people really want - strong communities, beauty, vibrant ecosystems, healthy children.
These ideas are not all that complicated. We could explain them to four-year-olds. "To keep the polar bears really safe, we need to make sure that people know enough about the things we sell and buy. We need to make sure that prices include all costs so that the choice that is best for individual people in the short term is the same choice that is best for the polar bears in the long term. We don't yet know exactly how to do all of this. But we have some good ideas about where to start."
More than anything, I wish that I could tell one particular four-year-old that we are ready to begin.
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THOUGHTS FOR DECEMBER 28
The VeriChip is mandatory due to the fact that human beings are unwilling to govern themselves appropriately.
There are too many fools on earth and this is unfair to the animals.
The human population must be stopped.
The only way to stop it is to curtail new births, take out the existing trash and then model a certifiable world through absolute computational monitoring.
Only when every individual is willing to be completely accountable to a perfect construct will there be a perfect world.
Rensselaer has begun to establish such a construct.
Microsoft, The Hewlett Foundation and the federal government will see that the construct is adhered to.
The public must be "danced with" only until Global Citizen becomes a reality in every nation.
The schools will prepare the minds which will survive.
Ignore the parents. Why? Because they made the mess.
Every person is equal. All persons must conform to this fact. Diversity ends where perfection begins.
This is the New Credo of the enlightened.
Pass the Chips: Embrace the New World...or perish.
.
If you do not understand nanotechnology, and what is now being planned for you, you cannot grasp why the Christians will resist, and from whence comes their faith that CHRIST WILL RETURN SUDDENLY in order to save them.
United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Office of Public Affairs
Washington, DC 20555
Phone 301-415-8200 Fax 301-415-2234
Internet:opa@nrc.gov
No. S-98-31
Challenges as Opportunities:
Regulatory Activities in the Face of Industrial Change
by
Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, Chairman
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
American Nuclear Society 1998 Winter Meeting
Washington, D.C.
November 16, 1998
Good morning. I am pleased to participate in this plenary session of the
ANS 1998 winter meeting. While the theme of this session is "Challenges
and Opportunities for Nuclear Science and Technology," I find it helpful
to think of challenges as opportunities. The recent focus on the
mitigation of global warming, culminating in the Kyoto Protocol, has given
renewed emphasis to the need for emissions-free electrical generation.
This naturally leads to a consideration of the role of nuclear power,
since it is an emissions-free electrical generation source. In fact,
there has been a push to provide nuclear generation with a "level playing
field," as various emissions trading schemes emerge, both nationally and
internationally.
These considerations would appear to portend a brighter future for nuclear
power and the use of nuclear technology worldwide. This suggests a need
and an opportunity for the optimization and continued use of existing
nuclear generating facilities, and the construction and use of new reactor
technology. However, all of this is occurring against the backdrop of
several continuing challenges: the economic deregulation of electric
utilities, the continued non-resolution of the disposition of spent fuel
and high-level waste, and public perception of the safety of nuclear
technology, including nuclear power which may be improving here, but which
is rooted in less positive governmental attitudes toward it in some
countries abroad.
Economic Deregulation of Electric Utilities
The Energy Policy Act of 1992 included provisions that enabled wholesale
competition in electricity generation. In 1996, the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued two rules promoting wholesale
competition through open access transmission. The final rules are known
as FERC Orders 888 and 889. Rule 888 requires that a public utility will
provide transmission services to its wholesale competitors on the same
terms as it provides those services to itself. Rule 889 supports
wholesale competition by requiring that the availability and cost of
transmission be public, current, and posted on the Internet via a common
database.
This movement transitioned quickly from the wholesale to the retail
environment. At the Federal level, several bills were introduced in the
104th and 105th Congresses. Although no proposed Federal legislation has
yet become law, many States already have moved to deregulate the retail
electricity generation market. The States of California, New Hampshire,
Pennsylvania and Rhode Island have been leaders in enacting rate
deregulation and restructuring legislation. Most recently, Connecticut,
Illinois, Massachusetts and Virginia have enacted such legislation. In the
most recent election (November 4, 1998), voters in California and
Massachusetts defeated ballot propositions aimed at repealing state laws
on electricity deregulation.
This evolving environment presents several challenges from a nuclear
regulatory perspective. They are:
The need for a continued, more sophisticated focus on safety in
nuclear operations in a
manner which allows nuclear generators to operate successfully in a
more competitive market. This requires the consistent use of
maturing risk assessment methodologies, including probabilistic risk
assessment (PRA).
Electrical grid reliability
The need to respond to new business/ownership arrangements
I now will speak to each of these challenges in turn.
The Use of Risk Assessment in Nuclear Operations and Nuclear Regulatory
Activities
The use of risk assessment in a nuclear activity is a systematic method
for addressing these questions: What can go wrong? How likely is it?
What are the consequences? A typical probabilistic risk assessment (PRA)
at a commercial nuclear power plant considers the probability and effects
of individual component failures, and of human performance, on the ability
of that facility to avoid damage to the reactor core in the event of an
accident. The results of such analyses provide useful insights into
individual plant vulnerabilities, and can define the importance of one
system relative to another. One output of such an analysis is what we
refer to as "core damage frequency," (that is, the probability of an
initiating event followed by a series of safety system failures which
would lead to core damage on a per reactor-year basis). The analysis
becomes very useful in assessing the effects of proposed changes to the
facility; that is, changes in core damage frequency due to a proposed
change provide an indication of the risk significance of the proposed
change.
This form of analysis allows the NRC to focus greater attention on the
issues of greatest safety significance, while reducing unnecessary
regulatory burden for our licensees. Insights into risks presented by
proposed changes to licenses of operating facilities have allowed us to
approve extensions to allowed outage times for safety-related equipment.
These extensions allow for more effective maintenance planning, reduced
outage scopes, and fewer unnecessary plant transients necessitated by the
inoperability of equipment that is of low overall risk significance. At
pilot facilities, risk information has been used to make fundamental
changes in the way the plants are operated and maintained. For instance,
at the South Texas Project, a graded system of Quality Assurance has
redirected licensee attention toward components and activities that
present the greatest risk. At Surry, Arkansas Nuclear One, and Vermont
Yankee, the NRC has nearly completed risk-informed in-service inspection
program reviews, which will allow these facilities to conserve effort and
realize reductions in radiation exposure in their inspections of
safety-related systems and components.
The NRC also has turned its attention to the application of risk
information to overall performance assessment, inspection, and enforcement
at commercial nuclear power facilities. In a recent and ongoing effort,
the NRC, with the active cooperation of its stakeholders, is developing a
new plant assessment process. The new process is built on "cornerstones
of safety." Which represent central elements of reactor safety, such as
minimizing transients, preventing accidents, ensuring the capability to
mitigate accidents, ensuring an adequate level of radiological protection
to both nuclear workers and the public, and ensuring that adequate
radiological safeguards are in place. Risk information can then be used
in determining what is important to inspect in a nuclear plant, and what
can be monitored through the use of performance indicators.
Based both on objective performance data and specific inspection findings,
the new performance assessment will be more objective, and more focused,
than our existing assessment processes. It will produce more predictable
regulatory responses to observed performance weaknesses. I am encouraged
by the level of support these efforts have received from the nuclear power
industry, and from public interest groups.
For completeness, I will note that when the subject of risk-informed
regulation shifts from the power reactor area to fuel fabrication, waste
disposal, and other non-reactor fields, implementation becomes more
difficult. In the power reactor arena, there are a relatively small
number of licensees (less than one hundred); and fundamentally, 2 types of
power reactor technology boiling water reactors and pressurized water
reactors supported, in the US, by 4 major vendors. Non-reactor materials
users number approximately 20,000 NRC and NRC Agreement State licensees
and comprise approximately 40 different activities, devices and systems
ranging from devices which employ low-activity sealed sources to large
fuel-cycle facilities or a geologic repository for high level waste
disposal. The power reactor industry has one basic product electricity
and is supported and organized by owners' groups and industry
organizations, such as NEI. Nuclear materials licensees provide
everything from radiography services to fuel assemblies for power
reactors, which limits the potential for overall unification. This level
of diversity complicates considerably the NRC effort to risk-inform
nuclear materials regulation.
Nonetheless, the Commission directed the NRC Office of Nuclear Material
Safety and Safeguards (NMSS) to examine the extent to which risk-informed
and less prescriptive regulation can be applied to non-reactor nuclear
activities in a manner similar to that employed with the power reactor
industry. relating the sophistication of the analytical method for
determining risk to the risk presented by specific nuclear materials
activities will be important in establishing a more risk-informed
regulatory process. a broader range of licensee and regulator
circumstances, such as the impact of NRC actions on its Agreement States,
will have to be considered.
There have been some examples of the successful application and use of
risk information outside the power reactor arena. For example, the NRC has
encouraged the use of Integrated Safety Analyses (ISAs) in fuel cycle
facilities. Such analyses involve the identification of safety hazards at
a given facility, analysis of the how those hazards may result in
accidents, and classification of the components relied upon to prevent or
mitigate the accidents. While much more qualitative than the PRAs
performed for operating reactors, these methodologies represent structured
and worthwhile tools in the effort to identify and address risk.
Electrical Grid Reliability
In recent years, NRC probabilistic risk assessments have made it clear
that a "Station Blackout" at a nuclear power station is a major
contributor to core damage frequency. The term "Station Blackout" is
used, in the nuclear power industry, to refer to an event in which a loss
of offsite power is coupled with the inability of the onsite emergency
diesel generators to provide vital power to plant safety equipment. While
the estimated frequency of these events is very low, because of the
potential consequences, the possibility of a Station Blackout is an area
of NRC focus.
The analysis of power reactor experience in this area shows that nuclear
generating stations are robust in design and operational standards,
allowing them to help stabilize the electrical grid. However, analysis
also makes clear that nuclear generating stations are vulnerable to grid
disturbances, and especially to loss-of-offsite-power events. Grid
reliability governance must take account of these factors. Standards of
performance, operational criteria, and training of personnel all must be
addressed, especially as Independent System Operators (ISOs) are
established in response to deregulation. The NRC has established a grid
reliability action plan to address concerns regarding the impact of
utility deregulation on the reliability of the electrical grid in
supplying offsite power to nuclear power plants. As part of the plan,
the NRC has been working with other agencies with jurisdiction over grid
reliability to address our concerns.
The DOE has created a working advisory committee on the reliability of the
U.S. electric system. Just last month, this task force submitted a final
report to the Secretary of Energy. The report recommended that Federal
legislation be considered to clarify the authority and responsibility for
setting reliability standards, and that the FERC should review the policy,
standards, governance, and organization of reliability entities. The
report also identified the need to take planning and operating actions
that support the unique power requirements of critical facilities such as
nuclear power plants. The task force has issued two position papers one
related to technical transmission issues, and the other addressing [the
roles and responsibilities of] Independent System Operators. Grid
reliability was discussed at a recent Senate Energy Committee hearing on
electricity pricing abnormalities. The NRC will continue its coordination
with the DOE and other agencies, and will continue to monitor closely the
impact of electric utility restructuring and evolving legislative
initiatives on grid reliability.
Responding to New Business and Ownership Arrangements
On August 19, 1997, the Commission issued a final policy statement on
electric utility restructuring and deregulation. The policy statement
indicates that the NRC will continue to conduct its financial
qualifications, decommissioning funding, and antitrust reviews; will
identify all direct and indirect owners of nuclear power plants; will
establish and maintain working relationships with rate regulators
(including the FERC and the State PUCs); and will reevaluate the adequacy
of our regulations in this area. NRC staff guidance has been developed for
antitrust reviews, licensee financial qualification reviews, and
decommissioning plan reviews.
License Transfers
We also have seen an increase in license transfer applications,
primarily as a result of corporate restructuring actions in
anticipation of electric utility industry deregulation. To
ensure that license transfers are
conducted effectively and promptly,
the NRC has issued a proposed rule
(which will become final in December
1998) that would provide uniform
rules of practice for handling
hearing requests associated with
license transfer applications. The
adjudicatory process will be
streamlined by allowing more informal
hearings for license transfers.
Corresponding guidance documents have been developed for NRC staff
review of license transfer applications, including the establishment
of technical and financial qualifications of purchasers, and the
evaluations of foreign ownership and control limitations.
Decommissioning Funding Assurance
Under the Atomic Energy Act, the NRC has general authority to
regulate the decommissioning of the nuclear facilities and materials
that it licenses. NRC decommissioning regulations have required
power reactor licensees either to set aside funds periodically in
external trust fund accounts or to provide third-party guarantees for
estimated decommissioning costs.
As such, by the time a licensee permanently ceases operations at the
end of its licensed term, the total amount of funds estimated as
needed to complete decommissioning is expected to be available. In
the emerging environment of electric utility restructuring, the NRC
has had to reevaluate certain aspects of these provisions for
decommissioning funding assurance, including the NRC definition of
"electric utility," the potential impact of new ownership
arrangements, and the problem of above-market or "stranded" costs.
On September 22, 1998, the NRC amended its regulations on
decommissioning funding for nuclear power plants to reflect the
conditions expected from rate deregulation. The amended rule, which
will take effect later this month, modifies the NRC decommissioning
regulations in four areas.
It identifies which licensees may use the external sinking fund
method of financial assurance for decommissioning exclusively,
and identifies additional financial assurance mechanisms that
may be used for decommissioning.
It permits nuclear power plant licensees to take credit on
earnings for prepaid decommissioning trust funds.
To keep the NRC informed of licensees' decommissioning fund
status, it requires licensees to report periodically to the NRC
on the status of their decommissioning funds and on any changes
to their external trust agreements. It adds a definition of
"Federal Licensee" to further clarify the issue of which
licensees may use statements of intent.
License Renewal
Some nuclear power companies have decided that, in addition to
optimizing the operation of existing plants, extending the license
terms of these plants from 40 years by an additional 20 years makes
good business sense. The NRC currently is reviewing license renewal
applications from Baltimore Gas Electric Company and Duke Energy
for their Calvert Cliffs and Oconee nuclear plants, respectively. We
expect more. The Commission has issued a policy statement laying out
its expectations for a focused review of these and other license
renewal applications, built upon our license renewal regulations: 10
CFR Part 54 (for technical issues) and 10 CFR Part 51 (for
environmental reviews). Case-specific orders for both of the
existing applications have been issued by the Commission-laying out
an adjudicatory schedule aimed at completing the license renewal
process in 30-36 months.
Spent Fuel and High-Level Waste
The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 and the Nuclear Waste Policy
Amendments Act of 1987 specify a detailed national program for deep
disposal of spent fuel and HLW in a geologic repository. Under these
statutes, the Department of Energy (DOE) was given responsibility for
characterizing a repository site, developing a design, and for
constructing, operating, and eventually sealing, a repository. The
Amendments Act directed the DOE to investigate only one potential location
for this repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada.
In 1992, the Energy Policy Act directed the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) to develop environmental standards specifically for the
proposed repository at Yucca Mountain, that are to be based on, and
consistent with, recommendations of the National Academy of Sciences.
Under existing law, the NRC is obligated to implement the environmental
standards for Yucca Mountain, to consult with the DOE prior to licensing,
to comment on the adequacy of the DOE site characterization activities,
and, if warranted, to issue a license to the DOE to construct and operate
the repository.
To implement the site-specific health and safety standards mandated by the
Congress, the NRC is developing its own implementing regulations, which
will specify the licensing criteria for the proposed repository at Yucca
Mountain. The primary responsibility for safety and demonstration of
compliance with environmental standards rests with the DOE. The NRC task,
prior to issuing a license, will be to determine that reasonable assurance
exists for compliance with applicable standards and regulations.
The DOE has completed a 5-mile exploratory tunnel into Yucca Mountain.
DOE scientists now are using the exploratory studies facility to assess
the viability of the site as a permanent repository. We understand that
the DOE viability assessment is to be submitted to the President and the
Congress later this year.
As a part of its pre-licensing role, and to prepare for the evaluation of
the repository license application, the NRC intends to review the
technical basis of the DOE viability assessment. The focus of this
review, as well as of the NRC HLW regulatory program as a whole, is the
NRC attempt to understand (and, eventually, to resolve) those key
technical issues most important to performance of a high-level waste
repository. As we work toward this objective, the NRC will continue to
provide early feedback to the DOE on potentially significant site, design,
or assessment issues as they are identified during site characterization.
In addition, we will complete the development of regulations for geologic
disposal at Yucca Mountain, and continue to maintain our capability for
regulating the transportation and storage of spent nuclear fuel.
The Future
Looking to the future, in May 1997, the NRC certified the General Electric
Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (ABWR) design and the ABB-Combustion
Engineering System 80+ design. Both the ABWR (a 1,350-megawatt boiling
water reactor) and System 80+ (a 1,400-megawatt pressurized water reactor)
are evolutionary designs that incorporate features to prevent and mitigate
the effects of severe accidents. These certifications marked the final
step in a 10-year effort that encompassed the development and promulgation
of 10 CFR Part 52 (a regulation forming the basis for a streamlined
licensing process for new reactors), the implementation of the design
certification process, and, overall, the most rigorous technical and
safety reviews ever performed for a nuclear plant design. The goals of
this process included standardization, enhanced safety and reliability
features, and a more stable and predictable licensing process.
In September of this year, the Final Design Approval (FDA) for the AP600
design (a 600-megawatt pressurized water reactor) was presented to
Westinghouse Electric Company. The issuance of this FDA marks the
completion of a 9-year technical review phase, and signifies the NRC
readiness for initiation of the design certification rulemaking phase.
This safety review was particularly challenging for the NRC staff because
the AP600 uses many design features that are not found in current
operating reactor designs. It is one of the first designs submitted for
NRC review to rely primarily on passive systems, using basic forces such
as gravity, natural circulation, and stored energy for plant safety and
accident mitigation. Even given the advantages of these next-generation
designs, the timing and likelihood of renewed demand for nuclear
construction in the U.S. remains unclear. The design certification
process, however, has been effective in providing enhancements to safety
in design, drawing from experience in a manner that will increase the
efficiency of the licensing process, and has positioned the NRC for
change.
Conclusion
As the twenty-first century rapidly approaches, the nuclear industry,
especially the nuclear power industry, faces a complex spectrum of
challenges and opportunities. The ability to address these challenges
will determine the likelihood of the challenges being or becoming
opportunities. This also undergirds the continuation of public confidence
in the safe use of these technologies.
Thank you for your attention, and please accept my best wishes for a
productive meeting.
The words "first black woman" have been used to describe Shirley Ann Jackson for so long that her name seems incomplete without them. She was the first black woman to earn a Ph.D. from MIT, the first black woman in the country to earn a physics doctorate, and she was both the first African American and the first woman to chair the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Now, she is the first black woman to head any national science and engineering research university, let alone one of the nation's oldest, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
The three simple words that today convey such honor upon Jackson at first followed her like a curse. Arriving on MIT's campus with an eager young mind in the fall of 1964, Jackson immediately suffered vicious treatment from those not interested in seeing someone of her race and gender be the first to achieve anything. Ostracized by students who would not even sit next to her in class, Jackson was forced to do all the work in isolation that everyone else did in supportive study groups. One faculty member told her to go "learn a trade." And while simply trying to walk down the street, Jackson was shouted at and spat upon. Once, in downtown Boston, someone even shot at her.
Turnaround Artist
The suffering Jackson endured would have caused many others to retreat into an angry obscurity, but in a typically thoughtful manner, she made a key decision that has served her well, echoing through the rest of her life. She realized that since she was going to stand out so much, and her actions would be well remembered, she could turn the scrutiny to her advantage and make an indelible impression of excellence. Relying on a strong internal compass from that moment on, Jackson held herself to the highest standards of both intellect and decency, and soon the world took notice. Before long, the same students who had shunned Jackson were seeking her out for help and mentoring, and she obliged.
When Jackson gained her Ph.D. in theoretical elementary particle physics in 1973, she was quickly scooped up for prestigious high-level research posts. She focused on the properties of atomic particles, with particular emphasis on semiconductor-related matters, at the Fermi National Accelerator Lab, the Stanford Linear Accelerator Lab, the Aspen Center for Physics, and the European Organization for Nuclear Research in Switzerland. In 1976, she joined Bell Labs in New Jersey, where she met her husband, fellow physicist Morris Washington.
In 1991, Jackson joined the Rutgers University faculty, and by 1995, she had gained such a reputation as a stellar scientist, manager, and educator that President Clinton appointed her to take the helm of the NRC. Then, last year, Jackson was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, NY, to be honored for her work as a distinguished scientist, effective teacher, and driver of important public policies. Her name rests alongside such enormous figures as Susan B. Anthony and Sojourner Truth.
Despite the enormous complexity and diversity of Jackson's endeavors, she says that in some ways she has merely continued with the same basic path she began as a child. Growing up in the Sputnik-inspired years of the late 1950's and early 1960's, when the race for space was in full force, a young Jackson came to see the world around her as "full of secrets"— and scientific experimentation as the key to unlocking those secrets. For years, she collected bees and kept them under her family's back porch, making painstaking records of their behaviors as she adjusted variables like heat, light, and diet. "It was like reading a great mystery novel," she recalls.
Her father, a postal supervisor, and her mother, a social worker, encouraged Jackson to pursue her passions ("You have to aim for the stars to reach the treetops," her father would quip), and her siblings, two sisters and a brother, all recognized her natural talents for leadership. But it was the assistant principal for boys at Washington D.C.'s Roosevelt High School who steered the valedictorian toward MIT. Today, even at such lofty posts as heading the NRC, Jackson says she is essentially doing the same thing she did way back when with the bees: studying interactions in the environment around her, making keen observations, and taking constructive action based on what she learned.
But Jackson is as proud of her public service contributions as she is of any scientific achievement. A strong sense of obligation to others has always been part of her internal makeup. Amidst her own struggles for fair treatment at MIT, Jackson founded the Black Student Union, and devoted herself to increasing the number of black students who applied and were accepted to the school. She has long served on MIT's Board of Trustees, and during her two decades in New Jersey, Jackson held key roles in state task forces aimed at promoting science and technology, and at improving science education.
Problem Solver Extraordinaire
Her intelligence makes her compassion all the more effective. MIT faculty members present during Jackson's student days remember that she never lost her temper, always arguing elegantly and calmly for the merits of changing racist policies. And Jackson's evenhanded treatment of explosive nuclear regulatory issues has earned her respect from public safety watchdogs and members of the nuclear industry alike; she is credited with wisely resolving some of the toughest dilemmas the NRC has ever faced.
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is banking on Jackson's problem-solving ability to take the 175-year-old university to a new level of prominence. The school has enjoyed a long tradition of excellence, but recently has been plagued by troubles, such as the resignation of former president Byron Pipes after a vote of no confidence from the faculty senate, and several key positions sitting vacant in the wake of financial problems.
School officials have searched since last spring for the right person to put the school back on track. After considering hundreds of candidates, the 34-member panel unanimously chose Shirley Jackson, partly because she has recent practice in turning the fate of large institutions around. Jackson entered the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission at one of the lowest points in its history, with a wary public distrustful that the agency charged with overseeing the safe use of nuclear materials might be too cozy with the industry. Almost single-handedly, say colleagues, Jackson restored faith in the NRC's integrity, toughening safety standards and ridding the agency of commissioners who were too lenient.
Jackson's acceptance of the presidency has invigorated the RPI campus, nestled on a hill above the Hudson River and the small city of Troy, New York. Faculty members say that she is bringing more visibility to the school than it has had in decades just by stepping foot onto campus, and officials hope that Jackson's fame and worldwide connections can help make the letters RPI as recognizable around the globe as the letters MIT. It's a mammoth endeavor, but Jackson relishes the opportunity. "I tend not to look back, but to be focused on new challenges," she says.
Taking RPI Global
To make RPI a truly Global university, Jackson has decided she will need to make fundraising a top priority. Right now, RPI's $500 million endowment seems tiny next to those of MIT and Stanford, both several billion dollars strong. She is hiring a vice president for research, naming an engineering dean, and working through her Rolodex to form partnerships with institutions around the planet. And because Jackson believes that global recognition starts with strong local ties, she has already put heads together with Troy's mayor, Mark Pattison, about ways the university and the city can work together. To symbolically emphasize the links between campus and community, Jackson kicked off the school year with a parade of students and faculty down the hill and through Troy's streets.
Of course, along with promoting RPI, Jackson is keenly aware of the need to promote women and minorities in the sciences. In the years since Jackson broke barriers, too few have followed. In recent years, only between 2 and 3 percent of all science and engineering doctoral degrees have been awarded to African Americans, according to the National Science Foundation. And on Jackson's new campus, just one quarter of students are women, only 4 percent are black, and there are just 4 black faculty members.
If Jackson succeeds in promoting women and minorities in the sciences, it will be one of her most enduring legacies. She plans to start with outreach efforts to elementary schools. "You can't even begin to talk about theoretical physics until you are comfortable with calculus," she points out. "And you can't begin to think about calculus unless before that you've mastered algebra, and before that multiplication, and before that adding and subtracting." And Jackson strongly believes that women need their own "good old boys" network. Women must be "true friends" to one another, she says, taking time to assist and encourage one another in their efforts.
Friends say that Jackson has been a living embodiment of this principle from her youngest days, tutoring fellow women and minority students in their studies even during the busiest times of preparing her doctoral dissertation. That's because, says Jackson, being a trailblazer is only a good thing if one does not allow "high weeds" to grow back because no one was inspired to follow. Jackson won't be satisfied to go down in history as the "first black woman" of anything, she says, unless the familiar phrase is followed by two more words: "of many."
Joannie M. Schrof is a senior editor at U.S. News & World Report.
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The most brilliant black woman on earth now serves on the Board of Directors of the New York Stock Exchange.
More highly respected than any living group of men on earth, she has only just begun.
Her agenda is Global. Her vehicle is nanotechnology. Her foes include individual autonomy, property rights and national boundaries.
Delano is a member of the first class at The SEED School, the class of 2004. He came to SEED from West Elementary, hoping for a more rigorous academic program. In his five years at the school, he has not only enjoyed the high academic standards set by his teachers, but also the flexibility of the program, which fits the diverse needs of SEED's students.
Delano shared his home with his mother, grandmother, two cousins, and eight siblings, so he hoped to strike his own path at SEED. He has indeed done this, taking unique classes like debate and philosophy, and participating in the City-Tech after-school activity, where students use technology to solve various problems.
Only in the eleventh grade, Delano already has a firm picture of his future. He wants to attend a historically black university, such the District of Columbia's Howard University, but admits that he might make an exception for Harvard, "only because it has such a good business school." He then wants to open his own urban boarding schools for "children who need the support that only boarding schools can provide." He spent the summer before his eleventh grade year helping computer teacher Mr. Mcgee update the SEED School website. He also interned for One Economy, an organization that brings technology to low-income areas.
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Rensselaer To Receive Federal Support For New Center For Quantitative and Computational Bioscience
TROY, N.Y. — Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute will receive $750,000 in federal funding to support the development of a new Center for Quantitative and Computational Bioscience, which will be part of the Institute’s Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies.
Federal support for the new Center was included in the Energy and Water Appropriations bill signed into law Dec.1, 2003.
“The expansion of Rensselaer’s scientific and technical capabilities in these areas can be a catalyst for the growth of the biotechnology industry in the region. The basic research underway at Rensselaer can attract new companies to the area, which can be supported by our incubator center and technology park,” said Larry Snavley, vice president for government and community relations. “This new Center has the potential to spur economic growth in the region, and we are grateful to the members of New York’s Congressional delegation who supported this important project.”
"The field of quantitative and computational bioscience is fundamental to the growth of emerging applications of bioinformatics, the understanding of the genetic code used to predict disease processes and therapies, of systems biology, the understanding of metabolic processes and genetic transcription to describe medical treatments and discover new drugs, and the integration of medical data to provide a more comprehensive view of medical testing and diagnosis,” said Rensselaer’s Vice President for Research Arthur C. Sanderson, “These developments will form an integral part of our research in biotechnology and also will complement Rensselaer’s important Center for Bioengineering and Medicine supported under the New York State Gen*NY*sis program."
Rensselaer’s Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies is scheduled to open in September 2004.
New York�s Explosive Judicial Scandal � Part Deux! by Ginger Berlin
by eHezi
--- Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigues of supporting it. - Thomas Paine
I normally don�t write about the same topic two times in a row, but the current situation occurring excessively within New York�s county, town, and village court systems and lack of action by some County Clerks, compels me to do so. I believe you have the right to know exactly what is occurring. The investigation into how many judges are in non-compliance in not filing their Oath of Office and/or obtaining their surety bond [a New York State law] has grown since last week�s column: Court Is Dismissed -it�s now up to 25.81 percent of all counties. When it comes time to pay those taxes just think a portion is going to a judge, [or DA] who has no legal right to compensation, let alone tell you what to do or not do. Imagine receiving a high profile, high paying job, losing it 30 day�s later because you�re brainless or arrogant. Then to top it off, demanding payment and benefits -and worse- creating a liability for the company. Would you be allowed to do that? You wouldn�t! But it�s ok for these judges et al to do exactly that!
Some counties are defiantly ignoring or outright breaking yet another law: the Freedom of Information Law. [FOIL] One such county is Orange County. This leaves me to question and suspect that corruption is so widespread it is a terminal cancer within our government. Is it me, or do the people of New York not deserve to hold our government entities responsible when they arrogantly ignore and break the law, which results in literally stealing our money and then attempting to hide the facts? Have we really become the sheep that they believe we are?
June Maxam is an investigative journalist, and the editor/publisher of The North Country Gazette. She is also the ever diligent protagonist in exposing this judicial scandal at her own financial expense. Orange County Clerk, Ms. Benson informed Maxam each FOIL request cost $2.50. Maxam needs 2 FOILS per judge in order to find out which judge is an imposter -dispensing justice while not legally in office, collecting an illegal salary, and who posses a huge liability by not securing their surety bond. How odd! Here�s what the law states: �An agency may charge up to 25 cents per photocopy not in excess of 9 by 14 inches . . . An agency cannot charge for search or clerical time.� This excessive, [illegal] fee Orange County has requested leaves me perplexed. The FOIL is clear in defining the timeframe for the government to respond to the initial request [5 days] and time to supply the request, [ 30 day�s] [see �88 (c) and 89(3) of the Freedom of Information Law]. June Maxam�s initial request to Orange County�s Clerk was on June 25th. July 17th Ms. Benson finally got around to responding with an undated letter to Maxam. Let�s see, that�s 11 business days late Ms. Benson. Does the Clerk think she can stonewall long enough to cover her tracks and finally notify all those in non-compliance not to vacate their office as law dictates but to, �Hurry-up! Get that Oath of Office filed! Oh yea Judge, obtain or file that surety bond ASAP!� Does she believe all will be copasetic then? It won�t! Even if they did get around to compliance, it�s too late! [This also includes Ms. Benson if she too has not filed her oath or surety bond! Have you Ms. Benson?]
It gets better folks! Schenectady County waited approximately five weeks, [not 30 days!] to communicate in regards to supplying Maxam�s FOIL request! Ron Loeber [Jail4Judges] had to initiate that communication! As of yet, no FOIL[s] have been received. When County Clerk John J. Woodward finally got around �albeit way later than the law mandates, he informed Maxam he was still in the process of, �accumulating records.� This is strange, since Schenectady County�s Assistant Attorney Paul Cocker stated in person to Ron Loeber that the records requested did not exists in Clerk Woodward�s office. How can Woodward accumulate records in his office if they are not there? By the way, the records are by law supposed to be in the Clerk�s office. In addition, Assistant Attorney Cocker informed Loeber the Clerk Woodward would send a letter to Maxam certifying that the records were not in the Clerk�s office- no such certification was received. Gee is Schenectady County attempting to hide something. Has Mr. Woodward filed his oath or bond? Inquiring minds have the right to know!
Why is this important to you!
Suppose the following happens: Judge Suzy Q never obtained her surety bond or file her oath. She made a monumental judicial error that violated one�s civil rights resulting in the victim suing the county. The victim seeks a $1.5 million damage claim against the county. A US District Court holds the county responsible, and the victim wins the suit. Guess what? There was no surety bond obtained by Judge Suzy Q and so the county becomes liable- that means you Mr. And Ms. Taxpayer must pay for Suzy Q�s arrogance and negligence! There would be an uproar and everyone would be asking, how did this happen! I hope now you see why this is important to you.
The NY Tyranny Response Team has posted vital information regarding Maxam�s investigation into this corruption. You can see which county is in non-compliance or deviance. I urge you to check it out for yourself, but I warn you, it will upset you, especially if you see the judge who just ordered you to pay restitution who lacked the authority to do so!
I believe we all acknowledge that in any governmental body there will be some sort of corruption. However, repeated and extensive corruption in New York State is so common it has become justified, accepted, or tolerated. In our courts �it�s now evident it�s even rewarded! Maybe the reason is we choose to live blindly, is because we insist it will never change, so why do anything. I suppose that�s the correct reason, but is it right to be that way? We only complain and they continue to rape the public. Maybe it�s time to stop this insanity. If we are to move from whining and stop our government�s blatant subjugation, we must all act. We can no longer afford to be complacent and under the false impression that since it doesn�t affect me �who cares.
Please be compelled to contact Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and demand that he end this illegal scam in our courts. It�s easy to do; you can phone him at 1. 518. 474.7330 or tell him via the New York Attorney General Web page.
Note: Ginger Berlin lives in New York with her husband and three sons. In 2002 she served as Press Secretary for Louis Wein, the Republican gubernatorial challenger to George Pataki.
Her weekly column on political/social issues is carried by numerous online and print media outlets. In addition to her writing, Ginger Berlin is available for public speaking engagements that encompass commentary not often heard in today's politically correct genres.
Ginger's outspoken commentary on Hillary Clinton was cited in Barbara Olson's book, The Final Days.
The Center for Subsurface Sensing and Imaging Systems (CenSSIS) at Rensselaer, in conjunction with the Junior Museum in Troy, has launched a new educational outreach initiative geared toward students in grades
K-8.
At the museum, curious young children can try their hands at the initiative's first interactive exhibit, "Finding Hidden Things With Science." Using a compass, an infrared light probe, or a metal detector to detect what's inside brightly painted wooden doll-size houses, they discover everything from crayons and magnets, to buttons and coins.
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Using a compass, an infrared light probe, or a metal detector to detect what's inside brightly painted wooden doll-size houses, they discover everything from crayons and magnets, to buttons and coins.
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One new subsurface sensing or imaging-based exhibit is expected to be built and added each year to the museum, according to Badri Roysam, professor of electrical, computer, and systems engineering and CenSSIS associate director.
The initiative also is part of the 2002 CenSSIS Scholars Program geared toward undergraduates that begins next spring. The scholarship offers a $1,000 bookstore voucher, a CenSSIS subsurface imaging course, and a chance to help build a children's exhibit for the museum based on subsurface imaging engineering principles.
"The exhibits all will emphasize interaction and discovery. The idea of finding mysterious and hidden things is extremely appealing to children, and therefore has the potential to help attract children toward science and engineering at an early age," Roysam said. "It's also a way to get undergraduates involved in designing, building, and teaching others how to incorporate engineering concepts."
In 2000, Rensselaer joined four other universities to form CenSSIS under a major NSF grant that combines interdisciplinary expertise to create new subsurface sensing system prototypes.
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It is comforting to note that such tools in the hands of duly elected representative governmental entities are wonderful.
Imagine if Hitler or Stalin had such devices.
Fortunately, the US Government has an historic track record of respecting individual rights, and thus, would not use their new "vision" to acquire any private information.
Experts examine the barriers to public acceptance of nanotechnologies
A lack of definition, specific aims and containment were all pinpointed as reasons for public mistrust of nanotechnology by speakers at the EuroNanoForum in Trieste, Italy, on 10 December.
Lobby groups critical of nanotechnology have already formed, and horror stories in the media about nano-robots getting inside human beings and taking over the world have not helped nanotechnology enthusiasts to argue their case.
'The average person is still trying to keep up with their role as measurer of all things and guardian of the world,' said Alfred Nordmann, from the University of South Carolina in the US. He added that nanotechnology has been talked up by scientists and non-scientists alike, who are unable to say what will be possible in the future.
Unlike other technologies, 'nanotechnology is not geared towards well-defined social goals. It also seems to promise everything, but nothing in particular,' said Professor Nordmann. Promises include an end to all pain and suffering, and computer-like access to information through a chip implanted in the brain.
The lack of specificity can be explained by the fact that nanotechnology can be applied to many scientific fields, from biotechnology to materials science and information technology. Any single explanation of the potential of nanotechnology therefore becomes problematic.
For this reason, one should begin to talk about nanotechnologies, and not nanotechnology, agreed a number of speakers. And because there is more than one nanotechnology, there is more than one ethical implication, said Göran Hermeren, Professor of medical ethics at Sweden's Lund University. Accepting that the impacts of each nanotechnology will be different can help the public to assess the likely risks, he added, as could orienting discussions on nanotechnology towards political and social issues.
While ignorance is seen by many as the reason for public concern, Bryan Wynne from Lancaster University in the UK rejected this argument: 'Public ignorance is not the cause of mistrust and scepticism, this has been proved by Eurobarometer surveys. The cause is what as seen as a denial by scientists of scientific ignorance.' The novel nature of nanotechnology means that there are many knowledge gaps, and the 'well-meaning but mistaken behaviour of institutions involved in nanotechnology' leads to doubts, elaborated Professor Wynne.
Trust can also be lost when the results of risk evaluation assessments are not consistent. This is a danger, as different countries and sections of society evaluate risk differently. When conclusions vary, the 'illusion of objective risk assessment is lost,' said Professor Hermeren.
While it is not unusual to hear of transparency being the key to societal understanding and acceptance of scientific research, Professor Hermeren stopped short of calling for this, saying that the passing on of all information to the public would lead to a situation where making a decision became impossible. 'The public should be told enough so that additional information would make no difference to their decisions. The idea is saturation,' he said.
The session on 'societal aspects and communication' was concluded by Mihail Roco, coordinator of the US national nanotechnology initiative. He regretted the often polarised debate, particularly in the media, which is dominated by those with little knowledge. He therefore called for those with the knowledge to make their voices heard, and to encourage others to speak out.
For further information, please consult the following web address:
http://www.cordis.lu/nanotechnology/
The Earth Systems Project
Making Global Models Accessible
Global models such as World3, IFs, and Globus are used in many nations' planning and policy making. They discuss, for example, transition to a sustainable demographic and economic future, energy and materials supply, national strategy, and the stability of international political relations. By explicitly incorporating interrelationships known and under investigation by scientists, they provide a quantitative backing for qualitative work by demographers, economists, environmentalists, political scientists, and others. They allow scientists to investigate possible complex interrelationships that would not be evident to those working within a single discipline, since systems of global development and change concern many academic disciplines.
Traditionally global models have been difficult to find and to use. The Earth Systems Project is an attempt to create accessible, understandable versions of important global models. The project was begun in 1989 and continues to a limited degree today. Information and programs are available for two models. The information is accessible through this Web site. The programs are available for Macintosh computers. For information on other global models, see Peter Brecke's global models web site, Gottfried Mayer-Kress's global models site, and Barry Hughes' IFs web site.
Beyond the Limits
The Beyond the Limits program uses the "World3" computer model of the book Beyond the Limits. The model and the book investigate possible ways in which world population and industry might approach their carrying capacities, and the likely impacts of possible global policies. The program lets you use the model, change the model, and see the consequences of your changes. The model can help you think about possible world futures, and help you investigate possible effects of global policies. Background information in the program describes how to use the model, diagrams of the model, criticisms of the model, how to get information about it and other global models, and how to learn with it.
Go to Beyond the Limits.
The Gaia Hypothesis & Daisyworld
The Gaia Hypothesis and Daisyworld program lets you use the "Daisyworld" model, which illustrates the Gaia hypothesis that life on Earth affects Earth's global environment. The program includes an introduction; detailed information about the Gaia hypothesis, the model, and criticisms of the model; a simple animated version of the model; and a more detailed version of the model. You can change the model and see the consequences of your changes. Classroom exercises are included.
If you have a Macintosh computer with HyperCard (or the HyperCard Player) 2.1 or newer, you can download The Gaia Hypothesis and Daisyworld (406K) along with its accompanying information. The file you download is in bin-hexed form, so once it is on your computer, you may need to "decode binhex" in a program such as CompactPro or StuffIt. You will be left with a file whose name ends in ".SEA". Just double-click on the file and the program will be ready to use. You may have trouble receiving the file with some web-browsers; if so, you can request a copy by email at the address below.
References for The Gaia Hypothesis & Daisyworld:
Watson, Andrew J. and J. E. Lovelock. "Biological homeostasis of Daisyworld," Tellus 35B, 1983, pp. 284-289.
Lovelock, James E. The Ages of Gaia: A Biography of Our Living Earth. Norton, 1988.
Credits
The Earth Systems Project is spearheaded by Kenneth L. Simons and Peter J. Poole. Assisting with software development were Michelle Bell, Jennifer Newbury, Kevin Rathbun, Erik Trimble, and Aaron Young. Many people deserve a lot of thanks for their help with the project, involving all aspects including administration, encouragement, feedback, ideas, and testing. Thanks to Hayward Alker, Gerald Barney, Ann Bostrum, Vincent Cate, Sallie Chisholm, Nazli Choucri, Pål Davidson, Joseph Ferreira, Tom Fiddeman, Baruch Fischhoff, Jay Forrester, Allan Heydon, David Kreutzer, Dennis Meadows, John Miller, Marvin Miller, Edward Moriarty, Earll Murman, George Rathjens, Diana Shannon, Jane Sherwin, John Sterman, Ryo Tatsukawa, David White, and David Wood. More information on these people's role is available in the software. Financial supporters included Dennis Meadows and MIT's Departments of Civil Engineering, Political Science, and Urban Studies and Planning; School of Engineering; Center for Global Change Science; and Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program. Computers were provided by MIT's Department of Urban Studies and Planning and the MIT System Dynamics Group. For work by K. Simons: This material is based upon work supported under a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. Any errors or omissions are the responsibility of K. Simons.
A Japanese-language an old version of the Daisyworld program has been developed, and interest has been expressed in creating Japanese and French versions of both programs, but I unfortunately do not have information as to whether these projects have gotten anywhere. If you have more recent information, please contact Ken Simons.
The Office of the First Year Experience has extended its deadline for rising sophmores, juniors, seniors, or graduate students in the Fall of 2004 to become Community Advocates for the Preparing the Global Citizen Program.
The Community Advocates program looks to cultivate a deeper appreciation for diversity, unity, and pluralism on the RPI campus.
Advocates will take part in intensive training to guide and encourage first-year students, lead activities designed to facilitate the development of global citizens, serve as mentors and advisors on issues of diversity and inclusiveness, and conduct at least one program per month such as leading discussions on what it means to be a global citizen.
INMATE PASSPORTS will be issued, but it will become increasingly difficult for the insane to fly.
Remember, travel breeds perspective and perspective generates contemplation.
Too much thinking is what created the mess, and thinking of any sort must be prohibited.
A free flowing of alcohol, easy sex acquisition and the flourishing of casinos will keep the inmates entertained when they tire of the trash on television and in the arts.
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Rensselaer will produce on stage the future methodologies and tools which will be used to completely harvest the products of the fools.
There is absolutely no reason an educated person need work or contribute anything of value after 2006, for the dream of Hitler will by then be fully realized.
The Police State of America will be permanently set, and any resistance will be met with overwhelming force.
Remember, do not laugh at the human cattle. Insanity is a serious malady and mass-insanity the moreso.
They are your next meal, your delicacies and your servants.
These details are not to be shared to any but the best and brightest.
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America was once a stable, proud and free people. Today, she is led by a dazed simpleton who spent $82 Billion dollars to pull a bearded slacker out of a small dusty hole.
This caused a welling up of national pride.
THE PROBLEM
Unfortunately there are no insane asylums that can hold 285,000,000 people, and it will take years to construct them.
The only solution is to create an insane asylum without walls.
The patients will be numbered and tagged, so that none of them can escape.
Mexico doesn't want them and Canada is much too cold.
The inmates will not be told that they are not free anymore.
They will still be allowed to file and pay their taxes, and elections will appear to be valid. Police will continue to create bogus reasons to exploit funds for the localities and the usual appearances of normalcy shall be maintained by all, including judges.
Laughter must be kept in check, lest the truth become commonly perceived.
Nothing is more dangerous than a charade exposed, and America cannot afford its actual bondage to be recognized.
Wars will still be used to amuse, detract and provide fictional dramatic relief. Heroes will be allowed, but only if they wave the flag and speak well of the Fatherland.
The media will play reruns of news stories, but names will be changed, so that the fresh crimes, scams and tragedies appear credible.
Pastors will be allowed to preach and collect cash, but new sensors in the plates will provide previously untapped sources of revenue to the state.
American parents have allowed the sexualization of their pre-pubescent girls and the partying disgraces of their young boys.
This has become a scourge on the earth and an embarrassment to all people of culture:
Following is the list of the 191 Member States of the United Nations with dates on which they formally called upon America to apologize for being a poor example, and to provide reparations for the insults posed by her leaders, tourists and servicemen.
Country-- (Date of Formal Demand)
Afghanistan -- (19 Nov. 1946)
Albania -- (14 Dec. 1955)
Algeria -- (8 Oct. 1962)
Andorra -- (28 July 1993)
Angola -- (1 Dec. 1976)
Antigua and Barbuda -- (11 Nov. 1981)
Argentina -- (24 Oct. 1945)
Armenia -- (2 Mar. 1992)
Australia -- (1 Nov. 1945)
Austria-- (14 Dec. 1955)
Azerbaijan -- (2 Mar. 1992)
Bahamas -- (18 Sep. 1973)
Bahrain -- (21 Sep. 1971)
Bangladesh -- (17 Sep. 1974)
Barbados -- (9 Dec. 1966)
Belarus -- (24 Oct. 1945) On 19 September 1991, Byelorussia informed the United Nations that it had changed its name to Belarus after losing 52 pounds.
Belgium -- (27 Dec. 1945)
Belize -- (25 Sep. 1981)
Benin -- (20 Sep. 1960)
Bhutan -- (21 Sep. 1971)
Bolivia -- (14 Nov. 1945)
Bosnia and Herzegovina -- (22 May 1992) The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was an original Member of the United Nations, the Charter having been signed on its behalf on 26 June 1945 and ratified 19 October 1945, until its dissolution following the establishment and subsequent admission as new members of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Republic of Croatia, the Republic of Slovenia, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina was admitted as a Member of the United Nations by General Assembly resolution A/RES/46/237 of 22 May 1992.
Botswana -- (17 Oct. 1966)
Brazil -- (24 Oct. 1945)
Brunei Darussalam -- (21 Sep. 1984)
Bulgaria -- (14 Dec. 1955)
Burkina Faso -- (20 Sep. 1960)
Burundi -- (18 Sep. 1962)
Cambodia -- (14 Dec. 1955)
Cameroon -- (20 Sep. 1960)
Canada -- (9 Nov. 1945)
Cape Verde -- (16 Sep. 1975)
Central African Republic -- (20 Sep. 1960)
Chad -- (20 Sep. 1960)
Chile -- (24 Oct. 1945)
China -- (24 Oct. 1945)
Colombia -- (5 Nov. 1945)
Comoros -- (12 Nov. 1975)
Congo -- (20 Sep. 1960)
Costa Rica -- (2 Nov. 1945)
Côte d'Ivoire -- (20 Sep. 1960)
Croatia -- (22 May 1992) The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was an original Member of the United Nations, the Charter having been signed on its behalf on 26 June 1945 and ratified 19 October 1945, until its dissolution following the establishment and subsequent admission as new members of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Republic of Croatia, the Republic of Slovenia, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.The Republic of Croatia was admitted as a Member of the United Nations by General Assembly resolution A/RES/46/238 of 22 May 1992.
Czechoslovakia was an original Member of the United Nations from 24 October 1945. In a letter dated 10 December 1992, its Permanent Representative informed the Secretary-General that the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic would cease to exist on 31 December 1992 and that the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic, as successor States, would apply for membership in the United Nations. Following the receipt of its application, the Security Council, on 8 January 1993, recommended to the General Assembly that the Czech Republic be admitted to United Nations membership. The Czech Republic was thus admitted on 19 January of that year as a Member State.
Democratic People's Republic of Korea -- (17 Sep. 1991)
Democratic Republic of the Congo -- (20 Sep. 1960)
Denmark -- (24 Oct. 1945)
Djibouti -- (20 Sep. 1977)
Dominica -- (18 Dec. 1978)
Dominican Republic -- (24 Oct. 1945)
Ecuador -- (21 Dec. 1945)
Egypt -- (24 Oct. 1945)
Egypt and Syria were original Members of the United Nations from 24 October 1945. Following a plebiscite on 21 February 1958, the United Arab Republic was established by a union of Egypt and Syria and continued as a single Member. On 13 October 1961, Syria, having resumed its status as an independent State, resumed its separate membership in the United Nations. On 2 September 1971, the United Arab Republic changed its name to the Arab Republic of Egypt.
El Salvador -- (24 Oct. 1945)
Equatorial Guinea -- (12 Nov. 1968)
Eritrea -- (28 May 1993)
Estonia -- (17 Sep. 1991)
Ethiopia -- (13 Nov. 1945)
Fiji -- (13 Oct. 1970)
Finland -- (14 Dec. 1955)
France-- (24 Oct. 1945)
Gabon -- (20 Sep. 1960)
Gambia -- (21 Sep. 1965)
Georgia -- (31 July 1992)
Germany -- (18 Sep. 1973)
The Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic were admitted to membership in the United Nations on 18 September 1973. Through the accession of the German Democratic Republic to the Federal Republic of Germany, effective from 3 October 1990, the two German States have united to form one sovereign State.
Ghana -- (8 Mar. 1957)
Greece -- (25 Oct. 1945)
Grenada -- (17 Sep. 1974)
Guatemala -- (21 Nov. 1945)
Guinea -- (12 Dec. 1958)
Guinea-Bissau -- (17 Sep. 1974)
Guyana -- (20 Sep. 1966)
Haiti -- (24 Oct. 1945)
Honduras -- (17 Dec. 1945)
Hungary -- (14 Dec. 1955)
Iceland -- (19 Nov. 1946)
India -- (30 Oct. 1945)
Indonesia -- (28 Sep. 1950)
By letter of 20 January 1965, Indonesia announced its decision to withdraw from the United Nations "at this stage and under the present circumstances". By telegram of 19 September 1966, it announced its decision "to resume full cooperation with the United Nations and to resume participation in its activities". On 28 September 1966, the General Assembly took note of this decision and the President invited representatives of Indonesia to take seats in the Assembly.
Iran (Islamic Republic of) -- (24 Oct. 1945)
Iraq -- (21 Dec. 1945)
Ireland -- (14 Dec. 1955)
Israel -- (11 May 1949)
Italy -- (14 Dec. 1955)
Jamaica -- (18 Sep. 1962)
Japan -- (18 Dec. 1956)
Jordan -- (14 Dec. 1955)
Kazakhstan -- (2 Mar. 1992)
Kenya -- (16 Dec. 1963)
Kiribati -- (14 Sept. 1999)
Kuwait -- (14 May 1963)
Kyrgyzstan -- (2 Mar. 1992)
Lao People's Democratic Republic -- (14 Dec. 1955)
Latvia -- (17 Sep. 1991)
Lebanon -- (24 Oct. 1945)
Lesotho -- (17 Oct. 1966)
Liberia -- (2 Nov. 1945)
Libyan Arab Jamahiriya -- (14 Dec. 1955)
Liechtenstein-- (18 Sep. 1990)
Lithuania -- (17 Sep. 1991)
Luxembourg-- (24 Oct. 1945)
Madagascar -- (20 Sep. 1960)
Malawi -- (1 Dec. 1964)
Malaysia-- (17 Sep. 1957)
The Federation of Malaya joined the United Nations on 17 September 1957. On 16 September 1963, its name was changed to Malaysia, following the admission to the new federation of Singapore, Sabah (North Borneo) and Sarawak. Singapore became an independent State on 9 August 1965 and a Member of the United Nations on 21 September 1965.
Maldives-- (21 Sep. 1965)
Mali -- (28 Sep. 1960)
Malta -- (1 Dec. 1964)
Marshall Islands -- (17 Sep. 1991)
Mauritania -- (27 Oct. 1961)
Mauritius -- (24 Apr. 1968)
Mexico -- (7 Nov. 1945)
Micronesia (Federated States of) -- (17 Sep. 1991)
Monaco -- (28 May 1993)
Mongolia -- (27 Oct. 1961)
Morocco -- (12 Nov. 1956)
Mozambique -- (16 Sep. 1975)
Myanmar -- (19 Apr. 1948)
Namibia -- (23 Apr. 1990)
Nauru -- (14 Sept. 1999)
Nepal -- (14 Dec. 1955)
Netherlands -- (10 Dec. 1945)
New Zealand -- (24 Oct. 1945)
Nicaragua -- (24 Oct. 1945)
Niger -- (20 Sep. 1960)
Nigeria -- (7 Oct. 1960)
Norway -- (27 Nov. 1945)
Oman -- (7 Oct. 1971)
Pakistan -- (30 Sep. 1947)
Palau -- (15 Dec. 1994)
Panama -- (13 Nov. 1945)
Papua New Guinea -- (10 Oct. 1975)
Paraguay -- (24 Oct. 1945)
Peru -- (31 Oct. 1945)
Philippines -- (24 Oct. 1945)
Poland -- (24 Oct. 1945)
Portugal -- (14 Dec. 1955)
Qatar -- (21 Sep. 1971)
Republic of Korea -- (17 Sep. 1991)
Republic of Moldova -- (2 Mar. 1992)
Romania -- (14 Dec. 1955)
Russian Federation -- (24 Oct. 1945)
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was an original Member of the United Nations from 24 October 1945. In a letter dated 24 December 1991, Boris Yeltsin, the President of the Russian Federation, informed the Secretary-General that the membership of the Soviet Union in the Security Council and all other United Nations organs was being continued by the Russian Federation with the support of the 11 member countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States.
Rwanda -- (18 Sep. 1962)
Saint Kitts and Nevis -- (23 Sep. 1983)
Saint Lucia -- (18 Sep. 1979)
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines -- (16 Sep. 1980)
Samoa -- (15 Dec. 1976)
San Marino -- (2 Mar. 1992)
Sao Tome and Principe -- (16 Sep. 1975)
Saudi Arabia -- (24 Oct. 1945)
Senegal -- (28 Sep. 1960)
Serbia and Montenegro -- (1 Nov. 2000)
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was an original Member of the United Nations, the Charter having been signed on its behalf on 26 June 1945 and ratified 19 October 1945, until its dissolution following the establishment and subsequent admission as new members of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Republic of Croatia, the Republic of Slovenia, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was admitted as a Member of the United Nations by General Assembly resolution A/RES/55/12 of 1 November 2000.
Following the adoption and the promulgation of the Constitutional Charter of Serbia and Montenegro by the Assembly of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia on 4 February 2003, the name of the State of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was changed to Serbia and Montenegro.
Seychelles -- (21 Sep. 1976)
Sierra Leone -- (27 Sep. 1961)
Singapore -- (21 Sep. 1965)
Slovakia -- (19 Jan. 1993)
Czechoslovakia was an original Member of the United Nations from 24 October 1945. In a letter dated 10 December 1992, its Permanent Representative informed the Secretary-General that the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic would cease to exist on 31 December 1992 and that the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic, as successor States, would apply for membership in the United Nations. Following the receipt of its application, the Security Council, on 8 January 1993, recommended to the General Assembly that the Slovak Republic be admitted to United Nations membership. The Slovak Republic was thus admitted on 19 January of that year as a Member State.
Slovenia -- (22 May 1992)
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was an original Member of the United Nations, the Charter having been signed on its behalf on 26 June 1945 and ratified 19 October 1945, until its dissolution following the establishment and subsequent admission as new members of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Republic of Croatia, the Republic of Slovenia, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
The Republic of Slovenia was admitted as a Member of the United Nations by General Assembly resolution A/RES/46/236 of 22 May 1992.
Solomon Islands -- (19 Sep. 1978)
Somalia -- (20 Sep. 1960)
South Africa -- (7 Nov. 1945)
Spain -- (14 Dec. 1955)
Sri Lanka -- (14 Dec. 1955)
Sudan -- (12 Nov. 1956)
Suriname -- (4 Dec. 1975)
Swaziland -- (24 Sep. 1968)
Sweden -- (19 Nov. 1946)
Switzerland -- (10 Sep. 2002)
Syrian Arab Republic -- (24 Oct. 1945)
Egypt and Syria were original Members of the United Nations from 24 October 1945. Following a plebiscite on 21 February 1958, the United Arab Republic was established by a union of Egypt and Syria and continued as a single Member. On 13 October 1961, Syria, having resumed its status as an independent State, resumed its separate membership in the United Nations.
Tajikistan -- (2 Mar. 1992)
Thailand -- (16 Dec. 1946)
The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia -- (8 Apr. 1993)
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was an original Member of the United Nations, the Charter having been signed on its behalf on 26 June 1945 and ratified 19 October 1945, until its dissolution following the establishment and subsequent admission as new members of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Republic of Croatia, the Republic of Slovenia, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
By resolution A/RES/47/225 of 8 April 1993, the General Assembly decided to admit as a Member of the United Nations the State being provisionally referred to for all purposes within the United Nations as "The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" pending settlement of the difference that had arisen over its name.
Timor-Leste -- (27 Sep. 2002)
Togo -- (20 Sep. 1960)
Tonga -- (14 Sep. 1999)
Trinidad and Tobago -- (18 Sep. 1962)
Tunisia -- (12 Nov. 1956)
Turkey -- (24 Oct. 1945)
Turkmenistan -- (2 Mar. 1992)
Tuvalu -- (5 Sept. 2000)
Uganda -- (25 Oct. 1962)
Ukraine-- (24 Oct. 1945)
United Arab Emirates -- (9 Dec. 1971)
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland-- (24 Oct. 1945)
United Republic of Tanzania -- (14 Dec. 1961)
Tanganyika was a Member of the United Nations from 14 December 1961 and Zanzibar was a Member from 16 December 1963. Following the ratification on 26 April 1964 of Articles of Union between Tanganyika and Zanzibar, the United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar continued as a single Member, changing its name to the United Republic of Tanzania on 1 November 1964.
United States of America -- (24 Oct. 1945)
Uruguay -- (18 Dec. 1945)
Uzbekistan -- (2 Mar. 1992)
Vanuatu -- (15 Sep. 1981)
Venezuela -- (15 Nov. 1945)
Viet Nam -- (20 Sep. 1977)
Yemen -- (30 Sep. 1947)
Yemen was admitted to membership in the United Nations on 30 September 1947 and Democratic Yemen on 14 December 1967. On 22 May 1990, the two countries merged and have since been represented as one Member with the name "Yemen".
Zambia -- (1 Dec. 1964)
Zimbabwe -- (25 Aug. 1980)
Source: UN Press Release ORG/1317 (26 September 2000)
Updated 27 December 2003
As Americans, you have failed to control your base appetites. This is readily proven with a glance at your television programming, poor leisure habits and the silly lies you share with one another as sacred traditions.
.
Blessings will flow as more and more people become Global Citizens.
What is a Global Citizen?
A Global Citizen is one who has seen the Light:
That only through living righteously, with strict accountability...can there be World Peace.
Modern technology now offers The Solution to all of the evils of society.
THE VERICHIP SOLUTION
A simple, quick injected chip, (the size of a grain of rice) placed discreetly into the wrist of each volunteer will enable a real-time monitoring of activity, travel and communication.
Once the Verichip is implanted, the desire to choose wrong will vanish, and service will become the new natural habit.
This will be the choice of the Global Citizenry.
Children will be safe.
Homes will be secure.
Commerce will be absolutely controlled.
Governance will be centralized.
Borders will become obsolete.
War will fade into a distant memory.
There will be no need for weapons, armies or nations.
This is the New World Order, prayed for since the dawn of time.
You are privileged to become a part of it.
Tell your family about the Solution.
The VeriChip will erase all fears of humanity.
As a Global Citizen, you will abandon ownership and embrace grace.
You will become the person you were meant to be.
Material things do not bring happiness. Only brotherhood does.
Members, welcome to the Global Citizen blog. Now is the time for all people to become as One. The days of sorrow are past. It is time to rejoice. Oneness will exalt the planet, the natural world, the animals and every Global Citizen.
As you know by now, a Global Citizen shall be defined after June 6, 2006 as any person who has been implanted with a VeriChip.
This blog is for the private use of members only. If you have discovered it by chance, it would be well for you to forget anything you read here.
Please respect the privacy of researchers who have volunteered freely their time, talents and ideas.
The world is about to be transformed by the introduction of nanotechnological mainsprings of fathomless import.
Messages coded. Use Manual 26-T until further notice.
