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None Survive Turkish Plane Crash

By SABRINA TAVERNISE
Published: December 1, 2007

ISTANBUL, Nov. 30 — A Turkish passenger jet crashed in the mountains of
western Turkey early Friday, killing all 57 people on board, including
several prominent nuclear physicists on their way to a conference,
Turkish authorities said.

The plane, a McDonnell Douglas MD-83 operated by Atlasjet, an airline
based in Istanbul, took off from Istanbul and disappeared from radar
shortly before it was due to land at the airport in Isparta. It crashed
about seven miles from the airport, near the town of Keciborlu, the
authorities said. The cause of the crash was unclear. The weather was
good, airline officials said.

The plane crashed in an area that was not on its scheduled route,
according to Semsettin Uzun, the governor of Isparta Province. “We don’t
understand how it landed there,” he said.

The Associated Press quoted Ali Ariduru, in charge of Turkey’s civil
aviation authority, as saying that there were no signs that either
terrorism or sabotage had caused the crash.

The plane’s wings and engines were torn off, and were found on top of
the highest peak in the area, which is about 6,000 feet high and has a
communications tower, said Ismail Macika, the mayor of Keciborlu. The
main fuselage came to rest 500 feet below on the mountainside.

Mr. Uzun, the provincial governor, said, “The body of the plane is there
as a whole and the wings don’t exist; I have never seen anything like this.”

Authorities said that at 1:36 a.m., the pilot told the tower he saw the
runway, and the tower told him to proceed, but that was the plane’s last
communication with the ground.

Fifty passengers and seven crew members were on board. The passengers
included nuclear physicists on their way to a conference and an infant,
according to Turkish television. Engin Arik, a prominent nuclear physics
professor from Bosporus University in Istanbul, was on board, The A.P.
reported.

Turkish television showed soldiers with guns standing around the crash site.

Mahmut Kaya contributed reporting.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/01/world/europe/01turkey.html?_r=4&hp&oref=slogin\
&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

Die reaksie van "na-vore-kom" is waarskynlik nuut vir die
Amerikaanse weermag omdat hulle glo dat demokrasie die oplossing is.
Net so is "demokrasie" die oplossing van die Suid Afrikaanse ideaal.

Die mense wat besef dat selfbeskerming slegs moontlik is indien
jy "buite jou demokratiese grense" opereer kom nou na vore en ek kan
waarskynlik 'n paar sulke pogings hier in SA noem.

As ons dan militias moet wees, dan is dit seker ook goed.

Dankie vir die artikel


--- In praag@yahoogroups.com, Karin Roodt <karin@...> wrote:
>
> Monday, 19 November 2007
>
> THE US EMBRACES OPEN SOURCE WARFARE?
> The US military is on the slow path to the realization that
> nation-building -- from reconstruction to other forms of
traditional
> COIN dogma that serve to return legitimacy to the government --
doesn't
> work. Politics and populations in our new global environment
fragment
> faster than they can be assembled into cohesive entities. What
does work
> to slow the spread of temporary autonomous zones and open source
> insurgencies are open source militias. While messy (and many times
as
> bad as what they replace), these militias do work:
>
>     * Colombia. The AUC blunted the spread of the FARC and other
> revolutionary groups.
>     * Sao Paulo, Brazil. Neighborhood militias have purged
neighborhoods
> of the PCC (a criminal drug gang).
>     * Iraq. Anbar awakening and other militias have radically
diminished
> al Qaeda's operational sphere.
>
> Open Source Militias
> In each case, militias developed organically based on local
loyalties
> that have nothing to do with the central government. Their
emergence is
> spontaneous and a surprise to the government or the foreign
military
> occupation. They develop according to a now familiar pattern:
>
>     * Expansion. Guerrillas or criminal gangs move into a new area
in
> which they have no organic support. They impose their own form of
> governance which is at odds with local needs.
>     * Reaction. These external guerrillas/gangs intimidate/kill
local
> leaders. A militia is formed to force the encroaching groups out.
>     * Domination. The local militia begins to run the
> neighborhoods/area. Soon, they tend to adopt many of the same
financial
> systems of the guerrillas/gangs (from drugs to extortion) and
> enforcement measures (assassination, torture, etc.). However, they
> remain less hostile to the government and commercial interests
than the
> guerrillas/gangs.
>
> An Expansible Strategy?
> The rapid emergence of these local militias in Anbar came as a
surprise
> to both the Iraqi government and the US military. Despite the lack
of
> loyalty these groups have to the Iraqi government (and the
previous
> involvement of many of these groups in killing US troops), the US
> military embraced them -- in that have been given a degree of
autonomy
> as well as arms and training. The result has been the return to a
slow
> burning war, a status quo of sorts, that will continue to operate
at
> levels of violence not seen since early 2006. The success of this
> approach, as opposed to the boondoggles we've experienced in
> conventional operations, has led the US Special Operations Command
to
> recommend in a new briefing (leaked to the press), that the US
replicate
> the "militia strategy" in Pakistan. Unfortunately, the report
makes the
> following errors:
>
>     * The wrong militia. The US, due to political restrictions,
wants to
> focus its efforts on the Frontier corps (which is actually more of
a
> paramilitary). This militia is too tightly connected to the
government
> and has a record of atrocity that makes it unlikely to generate
any
> meaningful form of local loyalty.
>     * Bad timing. This process works according to its own rules,
it
> cannot be forced. The guerrillas (a combination of different
flavors of
> Taliban, tribes, and al Qaeda) will eventually overreach. This
process
> is in motion, but the reaction that forms local militias will not
occur
> until much later (the government and the US are still considered
the
> primary enemy).
>     * Government opposition. The organic rise of local militias
will be
> an affront to the Pakistani government since it represents a near
> permanent loss of control over these regions. They will resist it
> (despite their preoccupation with oppressing Pakistani civil
society).
> Unlike the Iraqi government, they will not roll over on this.
>
> Final Note: The use of a plethora of militias to fight a global
open
> source insurgency from Nigeria to Mexico to Iraq to Pakistan is
> effective within a grand strategy of delay (it holds disorder at
bay
> while allowing globalization to work). Most beneficially, it
eliminates
> the need for nation-building, massive conventional troop
deployments,
> and other forms of excess. Some questions remain: can the US
manage
> something this complex or this messy? Will the rest of the US
> military/contractors sit idle (and as a result fall victim to
budget
> cuts) while light weight special operations forces (and their
allied
> private military corporations) take center stage?
>
> http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/
>

From The Times
December 1, 2007
MI5 alert on China’s cyberspace spy threat
Exclusive: director-general of MI5 sends letter to British companies
warning systems are under attack from China

The Government has openly accused China of carrying out state-sponsored
espionage against vital parts of Britain’s economy, including the
computer systems of big banks and financial services firms.

In an unprecedented alert, the Director-General of MI5 sent a
confidential letter to 300 chief executives and security chiefs at
banks, accountants and legal firms this week warning them that they were
under attack from “Chinese state organisations”. It is believed to be
the first time that the Government has directly accused China of
involvement in web-based espionage. Such a blunt and explicit warning
from Jonathan Evans could have serious diplomatic consequences and cast
a shadow over Gordon Brown’s first official visit to China as Prime
Minister early in the new year.

A summary of the MI5 warning, a copy of which has been seen by The
Times, was posted on a secure government website. It says that Mr Evans
wrote to business leaders “warning them of the electronic espionage attack”.

The summary, on the website of the Centre for the Protection of the
National Infrastructure, says: “The contents of the letter highlight the
following: the Director-General’s concerns about the possible damage to
UK business resulting from electronic attack sponsored by Chinese state
organisations, and the fact that the attacks are designed to defeat
best-practice IT security systems.”

It adds: “The letter acknowledges the strong economic and commercial
reasons to do business with China, but the need to ensure management of
the risks involved.”

Access to the site is limited to groups that form part of the country’s
critical infrastructure, which include telecoms firms, banks and water
and electricity companies. The document gives warning that British
companies doing business in China are being targeted by the Chinese
Army, which is using the internet to steal confidential commercial
information. The Home Office refused to comment last night on what it
called leaked private correspondence. A spokesman for the Chinese
Embassy in London said he was unaware of the allegations and that the
embassy had not received any complaints from the British authorities.

Martin Jordan, a principal adviser at the accountants KPMG, who has seen
the contents of the letter, said: “If the Chinese know that a British
firm is trying to buy a company or other assets such as land in China
then they are using every means at their disposal to discover details
such as exactly how much money the British company is prepared to spend
for that asset.”

Firms known to have been compromised recently by Chinese attacks are one
of Europe’s largest engineering companies and a large oil company, The
Times has learnt. Another source familiar with the MI5 warning said,
however, that known attacks had not been limited to large firms based in
the City of London. Law firms and other businesses in the regions that
deal even with only small parts of Chinese-linked deals are being probed
as potential weak spots, he said.

A security expert who has also seen the letter said that among the
techniques used by Chinese groups were “custom Trojans”, software
designed to hack into the network of a particular firm and feed back
confidential data. The MI5 letter includes a list of known “signatures”
that can be used to identify Chinese Trojans and a list of internet
addresses known to have been used to launch attacks.

A big study gave warning this week that Government and military computer
systems in Britain are coming under sustained attack from China and
other countries. It followed a report presented to the US Congress last
month describing Chinese espionage in the US as so extensive that it
represented “the single greatest risk to the security of American
technologies”.

Ian Brown, of Oxford University, one of the report’s authors, said that
attacks traced back to China have been found attempting to crack
Whitehall passwords. The report identified China as the country most
active in internet-enabled spying operations and attacks but says that
120 other countries are using the same techniques.

The Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure, one of several
British bodies charged with protecting the country’s computer systems,
has described the threat posed by cyber attacks as enormous.

Defence departments across the globe are already rewriting manuals for a
future of digital warfare. The US has recorded 37,000 attempted breaches
of government and private systems this year and a new unit at the US Air
Force, staffed by 40,000 people, has been set up to prepare for cyber-war.

The Virtual Criminology Report found that attacks had progressed from
initial curiosity probes to well-funded and well-organised operations
for political, military, economic and technical espionage.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/technology/artic\
le2980250.ece

Revealed: Poisoned ex-Russian spy Litvinenko WAS a paid-up MI6 agent
EXCLUSIVE by STEPHEN WRIGHT and DAVID WILLIAMS - More by this author »
Last updated at 11:11am on 27th October 2007

The former Russian spy poisoned in a London hotel was an MI6 agent, the
Daily Mail can reveal.

Alexander Litvinenko was receiving a retainer of around £2,000 a month
from the British security services at the time he was murdered.

The disclosure, by diplomatic and intelligence sources, is the latest
twist in the Litvinenko affair, which has plunged relations between
London and Moscow to their lowest point since the Cold War.

On the day of the poisoning, November 1, former KGB agent Mr Litvinenko
met prime suspect Andrei Lugovoy at the Millennium Hotel in Grosvenor
Square, London.

Mr Lugovoy claims that Mr Litvinenko tried to recruit him to supply
information to MI6.

The businessman, another former KGB agent, also alleged that his
ex-colleague asked him to find candidates for political asylum here. He
left Britain for Russia soon after, and has never returned.

Mr Litvinenko had defected to Britain in 2000 and was granted political
asylum the following year with his wife Marina, 44, and son Anatoly, 12.

The fact that the 43-year-old ex-Russian spy was actually working for
Britain when he died could provide the key to his extraordinary killing.

After an exhaustive Scotland Yard investigation, the Crown Prosecution
Service announced earlier this year that there was sufficient evidence
to charge Mr Lugovoy with 'deliberate poisoning'.

Britain has called for his extradition so he can stand trial at the Old
Bailey, but the Kremlin refused the request in July.

In an echo of the Cold War era, Britain then expelled four Russian
diplomats from London.

Days later, Moscow responded with a tit-for-tat expulsion of four Britons.

Intelligence sources have told the Daily Mail that they do not expect a
trial will ever take place.

They also said there remains a 'perceived threat' against Mrs
Litvinenko, who lives with her son at a safe house in the Home Counties.

Mr Litvinenko died in hospital on November 23 after three agonising
weeks in which his hair fell out, his skin turned yellow and his organs
failed.

Investigators believe that a fatal dose of radioactive polonium 210 was
slipped into a teapot when the two men met at the hotel.

Significant traces of polonium were found on at least one aircraft
boarded by Mr Lugovoy around the time of the murder, as well as in some
of the hotel rooms where he stayed.

Mr Litvinenko was very critical of Vladimir Putin, and in the days
before he died he accused the Russian President - another former KGB
officer - of ordering his killing.

Moscow denies the claim.

Mrs Litvinenko flew to Portugal last Thursday, on the eve of the
EU-Russia summit, to call on European leaders to put pressure on Russia
to hand over Mr Lugovoy.

'President Putin is providing Mr Lugovoy with his personal endorsement
and backing in the eyes of the world,' she said.

'This indicates that Russia has something to hide and adds credence to
Alexander's deathbed statement naming Mr Putin as the instigator of his
murder.'

Associates of Mr Litvinenko have suggested his slow and painful death
was a deliberate 'message' from the Kremlin to those in exile - warning
them there could be no hiding place.

Moscow has accused Britain of harbouring some 16 Russian emigres
including billionaire Boris Berezovsky, a fierce critic of the current
Russian government.

He provided Mr Litvinenko with a home after his defection.

Mr Litvinenko fled to Britain after accusing the Russian security
service of involvement in the 1999 bombings of two apartment buildings,
in which 300 people died.

He had also been investigating the murder of Russian journalist Anna
Politkovskaya, who spoke out against the Putin government.

Mr Lugovoy has admitted meeting Mr Litvinenko, a former lieutenant
colonel in the FSB, the re-styled KGB, several times in the months
before his death.

But he claimed he was being made a scapegoat for the death.

He said that he believes MI6 was involved in the murder because agents
had been unhappy at the way Mr Litvinenko had boasted of his links to them.

Mrs Litvinenko has dismissed the claim as 'nonsense' and also denied
that her late husband was working for MI6.

A book about the murder, Death of a Dissident: The Poisoning of
Alexander Litvinenko and the Return of the KGB, written by Mrs
Litvinenko and a friend of her husband, Alex Goldfarb, was released this
week. A film version is planned.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=4900\
07&in_page_id=1770

Pionier am Skalpell
Vor 40 Jahren verpflanzte der Südafrikaner Christiaan Barnard das erste
Mal ein menschliches Herz. Seither haben Ärzte über 80 000 der Organe
transplantiert.

Am frühen Morgen des 3. Dezember 1967 setzt Christiaan Barnard sein
Skalpell an und öffnet den Brustkorb von Louis Washkansky. Innerhalb von
vier Stunden verpflanzt der Chirurg seinem Patienten das Herz einer
jungen Frau. Es ist weltweit der erste Eingriff dieser Art. Damit
unterschreibt Barnard zwar Washkanskys Todesurteil, doch schenkt er
gleichzeitig Tausenden Kranken die Hoffnung auf ein neues Leben.
Washkansky überlebt 18 Tage, dann hört das fremde Herz in seiner Brust
auf zu schlagen. Todesursache: Lungenentzündung.

Dem Ruf von Christiaan Barnard schadet der Tod seines Patienten nicht.
Als Medizinpionier wird der attraktive Mittvierziger über Nacht berühmt,
schreibt international Schlagzeilen, verkehrt mit Stars und wird selbst
einer. Barnards Medizinkollegen neiden ihm nicht nur seinen Ruhm. Sie
werfen ihm auch vor, im Wettlauf um den Erfolg übereilt und fahrlässig
gehandelt zu haben.

Kopf-an-Kopf-Rennen um ein Herz

Tatsächlich gab es damals in den USA Chirurgenteams, die sich schon
jahrelang auf die erste Herztransplantation vorbereiteten. In New York
übte beispielsweise der Chirurg Adrian Kantrowitz den Eingriff an
Tieren. 400 Hunden hatte er schon ein Herz verpflanzt, am Ende
überlebten neun von zehn die OP. Auch der New Yorker Arzt Norman Shumway
perfektionierte die Methoden der Transplantation, vor allem im Bereich
Gefäßchirurgie. Diese und einige andere Teams standen in den
Startlöchern für die erste Herzverpflanzung. Sie warteten nur noch auf
die Gelegenheit und auf ein Spenderherz.

Christiaan Barnard hatte jahrelange Erfahrung als Chirurg gesammelt und
bereits über 1000 Herz-OPs absolviert. Er operierte routiniert am
offenen Herzen und hatte von Kollegen die modernsten Arbeitsweisen
gelernt, sich beispielsweise von Shumway dessen innovative
Gefäßnahttechnik abgeschaut. Auch Barnard hatte an Hunden geübt.
Allerdings hatte keines der Tiere eine von ihm durchgeführte
Herztransplantation überlebt. Trotzdem ergriff der Südafrikaner als
Erster die Gelegenheit: Als Denise Darvall direkt vor seinem Krankenhaus
in Kapstadt überfahren wird und ihr Vater grünes Licht gibt, wagt
Barnard den Eingriff und verpflanzt das Herz der 25-jährigen hirntoten
Frau seinem Patienten Washkansky.

Erfolg trotz Scheiterns

Nicht nur Barnards erste Herztransplantation scheiterte. Innerhalb
weniger Wochen nach seiner Pioniertat folgten weitere Ärzte in den USA –
darunter auch Shumway -, sowie Chirurgen aus Frankreich und Kanada. Doch
endeten alle Organübertragungen der kommenden Jahre nach spätestens 20
Monaten mit dem Tod des Patienten. Unzureichende Operationstechniken
waren nicht der Grund des Versagens. Vielmehr nahmen die Körper der
Patienten das verpflanzte Organ nicht an. Das Immunsystem mobilisierte
die Abwehrtruppen gegen den Fremdkörper und versuchte, ihn abzustoßen.
Dagegen verabreichten die Ärzte zwar Immunsupressiva, die das
körperliche Abwehrsystem hemmen. Doch machten die Medikamente den
Organismus wehrlos gegenüber Krankheitserregern. Die meisten
Organempfänger starben deshalb an den Folgen von Infektionskrankheiten.

Jahrelang galt die Organverpflanzung daher als zu riskant. Erst als
Ärzte 1978 erstmals den Wirkstoff Cyclosporin einsetzten, erlebte die
Transplantationsmedizin einen erneuten Aufschwung. Der durch Zufall
entdeckte Wirkstoff verhindert, dass der Organismus Spenderorgane
abstößt, ohne das Immunsystem komplett lahmzulegen. Cyclosporin
blockiert nur den Teil der Abwehr, der für die Abstoßung des fremden
Organs zuständig ist.

Heute ist der Eingriff Routine: Allein in Deutschland erhielten im Jahr
2006 nach Angaben der Deutschen Stiftung Organspende 412 Menschen ein
neues Herz. Es wären noch viel mehr, stünden mehr Spenderherzen zur
Verfügung. Derzeit warten in Deutschland fast 12 000 Patienten auf eine
Niere, eine Leber oder ein Herz.


Eine spektakuläre Karriere

Über 400 Herztransplantationen führte Christiaan Barnard durch. Außerdem
machte er mit weiteren Operationen von sich reden: 1971 übertrug er
einem Patienten gleichzeitig ein Herz und beide Lungenflügel. 1974
verpflanzte er ein Spenderherz, ohne das eigene Organ des Patienten zu
entfernen. Mit dieser „Huckepack“-Technik sollte das neue Herz die
Arbeit des alten unterstützen. In den 80er-Jahren musste Barnard die
Chirurgie aufgeben, weil er an Arthritis litt. Er widmete sich danach
wohltätigen Aufgaben, gründete zum Beispiel eine Stiftung für herzkranke
Kinder und schrieb noch einige Bücher. Christiaan Barnard starb im Jahr
2001 auf der Insel Kos.

Gerüchte besagen, der 78-Jährige hätte während der Lektüre seines
eigenen Ratgebers „50 Wege zu einem gesunden Herzen“ einen tödlichen
Herzinfarkt erlitten. Das stimmt aber nicht: Der weltberühmte Chirurg
erstickte an einem Asthmaanfall.

http://www.focus.de/gesundheit/ratgeber/herz/news/christiaan-barnard_aid_228125.\
html

Poësie lewensnoodsaaklik vir Eybers

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2356776777

Afrikaans Is A Dying Language...So KILL IT

Hallo Karin,

Wat ’n wonderlike gebeurtenis! Ek was toe in st 7 en het daai vakansie my
eerste vakansiewerk by ’n houtwerkfirma gedoen @ R1.50 per dag. Het daarna
die tegnologiese wonders 1 vir 1 meegemaak, soos wat dit bekend geword het.
Maanlandings, uraanverreiking, blitstreine in Frankryk en Japan, ruimtetuie
wat soos vliegtuie weer op aarde land, die koms van die persoonlike rekenaar
en alle ontwikkelings wat daarmee gepaard gegaan het (Wie onhou nog die
,,ERROR"s van DOS 1.2?), selfoontegnologie, om maar slegs ’n paar goed te
noem. Die afgelope 40 jaar was sekerlik in menseheugenis die mees
aangrypende in terme van ontwikkeling!

Andries

----- Original Message -----
From: "Karin Roodt" <karin@...>
To: praag@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Monday, December 03, 2007 7:07 PM
Subject: [praag] Vandag, veertig jaar gelede...


> Pionier am Skalpell
> Vor 40 Jahren verpflanzte der Südafrikaner Christiaan Barnard das erste
> Mal ein menschliches Herz. Seither haben Ärzte über 80 000 der Organe
> transplantiert.
>
> Am frühen Morgen des 3. Dezember 1967 setzt Christiaan Barnard sein
> Skalpell an und öffnet den Brustkorb von Louis Washkansky. Innerhalb von
> vier Stunden verpflanzt der Chirurg seinem Patienten das Herz einer
> jungen Frau. Es ist weltweit der erste Eingriff dieser Art. Damit
> unterschreibt Barnard zwar Washkanskys Todesurteil, doch schenkt er
> gleichzeitig Tausenden Kranken die Hoffnung auf ein neues Leben.
> Washkansky überlebt 18 Tage, dann hört das fremde Herz in seiner Brust
> auf zu schlagen. Todesursache: Lungenentzündung.
>
> Dem Ruf von Christiaan Barnard schadet der Tod seines Patienten nicht.
> Als Medizinpionier wird der attraktive Mittvierziger über Nacht berühmt,
> schreibt international Schlagzeilen, verkehrt mit Stars und wird selbst
> einer. Barnards Medizinkollegen neiden ihm nicht nur seinen Ruhm. Sie
> werfen ihm auch vor, im Wettlauf um den Erfolg übereilt und fahrlässig
> gehandelt zu haben.
>
> Kopf-an-Kopf-Rennen um ein Herz
>
> Tatsächlich gab es damals in den USA Chirurgenteams, die sich schon
> jahrelang auf die erste Herztransplantation vorbereiteten. In New York
> übte beispielsweise der Chirurg Adrian Kantrowitz den Eingriff an
> Tieren. 400 Hunden hatte er schon ein Herz verpflanzt, am Ende
> überlebten neun von zehn die OP. Auch der New Yorker Arzt Norman Shumway
> perfektionierte die Methoden der Transplantation, vor allem im Bereich
> Gefäßchirurgie. Diese und einige andere Teams standen in den
> Startlöchern für die erste Herzverpflanzung. Sie warteten nur noch auf
> die Gelegenheit und auf ein Spenderherz.
>
> Christiaan Barnard hatte jahrelange Erfahrung als Chirurg gesammelt und
> bereits über 1000 Herz-OPs absolviert. Er operierte routiniert am
> offenen Herzen und hatte von Kollegen die modernsten Arbeitsweisen
> gelernt, sich beispielsweise von Shumway dessen innovative
> Gefäßnahttechnik abgeschaut. Auch Barnard hatte an Hunden geübt.
> Allerdings hatte keines der Tiere eine von ihm durchgeführte
> Herztransplantation überlebt. Trotzdem ergriff der Südafrikaner als
> Erster die Gelegenheit: Als Denise Darvall direkt vor seinem Krankenhaus
> in Kapstadt überfahren wird und ihr Vater grünes Licht gibt, wagt
> Barnard den Eingriff und verpflanzt das Herz der 25-jährigen hirntoten
> Frau seinem Patienten Washkansky.
>
> Erfolg trotz Scheiterns
>
> Nicht nur Barnards erste Herztransplantation scheiterte. Innerhalb
> weniger Wochen nach seiner Pioniertat folgten weitere Ärzte in den USA –
> darunter auch Shumway -, sowie Chirurgen aus Frankreich und Kanada. Doch
> endeten alle Organübertragungen der kommenden Jahre nach spätestens 20
> Monaten mit dem Tod des Patienten. Unzureichende Operationstechniken
> waren nicht der Grund des Versagens. Vielmehr nahmen die Körper der
> Patienten das verpflanzte Organ nicht an. Das Immunsystem mobilisierte
> die Abwehrtruppen gegen den Fremdkörper und versuchte, ihn abzustoßen.
> Dagegen verabreichten die Ärzte zwar Immunsupressiva, die das
> körperliche Abwehrsystem hemmen. Doch machten die Medikamente den
> Organismus wehrlos gegenüber Krankheitserregern. Die meisten
> Organempfänger starben deshalb an den Folgen von Infektionskrankheiten.
>
> Jahrelang galt die Organverpflanzung daher als zu riskant. Erst als
> Ärzte 1978 erstmals den Wirkstoff Cyclosporin einsetzten, erlebte die
> Transplantationsmedizin einen erneuten Aufschwung. Der durch Zufall
> entdeckte Wirkstoff verhindert, dass der Organismus Spenderorgane
> abstößt, ohne das Immunsystem komplett lahmzulegen. Cyclosporin
> blockiert nur den Teil der Abwehr, der für die Abstoßung des fremden
> Organs zuständig ist.
>
> Heute ist der Eingriff Routine: Allein in Deutschland erhielten im Jahr
> 2006 nach Angaben der Deutschen Stiftung Organspende 412 Menschen ein
> neues Herz. Es wären noch viel mehr, stünden mehr Spenderherzen zur
> Verfügung. Derzeit warten in Deutschland fast 12 000 Patienten auf eine
> Niere, eine Leber oder ein Herz.
>
>
> Eine spektakuläre Karriere
>
> Über 400 Herztransplantationen führte Christiaan Barnard durch. Außerdem
> machte er mit weiteren Operationen von sich reden: 1971 übertrug er
> einem Patienten gleichzeitig ein Herz und beide Lungenflügel. 1974
> verpflanzte er ein Spenderherz, ohne das eigene Organ des Patienten zu
> entfernen. Mit dieser „Huckepack“-Technik sollte das neue Herz die
> Arbeit des alten unterstützen. In den 80er-Jahren musste Barnard die
> Chirurgie aufgeben, weil er an Arthritis litt. Er widmete sich danach
> wohltätigen Aufgaben, gründete zum Beispiel eine Stiftung für herzkranke
> Kinder und schrieb noch einige Bücher. Christiaan Barnard starb im Jahr
> 2001 auf der Insel Kos.
>
> Gerüchte besagen, der 78-Jährige hätte während der Lektüre seines
> eigenen Ratgebers „50 Wege zu einem gesunden Herzen“ einen tödlichen
> Herzinfarkt erlitten. Das stimmt aber nicht: Der weltberühmte Chirurg
> erstickte an einem Asthmaanfall.

Hier is die Council on Foreign Relations se verslag oor n post Mugabe
Zimbabwe
http://www.cfr.org/content/publications/attachments/Zimbabwe_CSR31.pdf
As die skakel gebreek is gaan na
http://www.cfr.org/thinktank/
en kyk op die regte kant van die bladsy omtrent in die middel vir die
verslag of http://www.cfr.org/publication/14579/

Amptelike VS regering studie oor Iran se moontlike kern wapen program
http://www.dni.gov/press_releases/20071203_release.pdf
National Intelligence Estimate
Iran: Nuclear Intentions and Capabilities

Dit word geskryf deur die VS se National Intelligence Council
http://www.dni.gov/nic/NIC_home.html

Blog wat Iran se kern programme bestudeer
http://irannuclearwatch.blogspot.com/2007/12/long-awaited-national-intelligence.\
html

Dit is noodsaaklik dat ons toekoms beplanning op n professionele
manier gedoen word.
Een manier hoe om te beplan is deur middel van scenarios.
Hier is Clem Sunter en Chantell Ilbury se webwerf, die twee wat die
High Road/Low Road scenarios geskryf het.
http://www.mindofafox.co.za

n Enorme aanlyn, gratis en uiters waardevolle bron van inligting oor
alle aspekte van bestuur en veral beplanning
http://www.valuebasedmanagement.net/index.html

n Goeie voorbeeld van hoe verskeie scenarios uitgewerk word is die VS
se National Intelligence Council se 2004 MAPPING  THE GLOBAL FUTURE:
REPORT OF THE NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE COUNCIL'S 2020 PROJECT wat gratis
aanlyn is, of wat afgelaai kan word - ongeveer 7.5 mb
http://www.dni.gov/nic/NIC_globaltrend2020.html

Hulle en die VN gebruik sekere sagteware om sulke beplanning uit te werk.
Dit is gratis beskikbaar en kan maklik en vinnig aanlyn gebruik word,
of afgelaai word.
As die program afgelaai word, dit is baie groot - 392mb.

Daar is drie dinge wat of aanlyn of met die afgelaaide program gedoen
kan word:
http://www.ifs.du.edu/frm_MainMenu.aspx
Welcome to the Main Menu of International Futures (IFs).

The typical modes of use of the IFs modeling system are:

1. Investigate alternative States of the World
(select DISPLAY to explore full, already-run scenarios)

2. Undertake scenario analysis to create Alternative Futures
(select SCENARIO ANALYSIS to generate your own scenarios)

3. Explore extensive historic data to see trends and relationships
(select COUNTRY DATA ANALYSIS)


Een van die voorste scenario beplanning groepe is die Global Business
Network
http://www.gbn.com
wat vir die Pentagon die verslag geskryf het wat n wereldwye krisis
aandui teen 2020 as gevolg van die veranderinge in die klimaat.

An Abrupt Climate Change Scenario and Its Implications for United
States National Security

Om hulle verslag op hulle webwerf te lees moet n mens inteken wat
onsin is.Hulle mag baie slim wees, maar hulle het blykbaar baie om te
leer oor die web. Hier is hulle verslag op n ander webwerf

http://www.mindfully.org/Air/2003/Pentagon-Climate-Change1oct03.htm

Facebook Admits Ad Service Tracks Logged-Off Users

Facebook has confirmed findings of a CA security researcher that the
social-networking site's Beacon ad service is more intrusive and
stealthy than previously acknowledged, an admission that contradicts
statements made previously by Facebook executives and representatives.

Facebook's controversial Beacon ad system tracks users' off-Facebook
activities even if those users are logged off from the social-networking
site and have previously declined having their activities on specific
external sites broadcast to their Facebook friends, a company spokesman
said via e-mail over the weekend.

Although according to the spokesman Facebook does nothing with the data
transmitted back to its servers in these cases and deletes it, the
admission will probably fan the flames of the controversy engulfing
Beacon, which has been criticized by privacy advocates.

The Facebook spokesman did not initially reply to a request for further
explanation on how the Beacon action gets triggered if a user is logged
off from Facebook, when the social-networking site's ability to track
its users' activities should be inactive.

It's also unclear whether Facebook plans to modify Beacon so it doesn't
track and report on the off-Facebook activities of logged-off users.

Beacon is a major part of the Facebook Ads platform that Facebook
introduced with much fanfare several weeks ago. Beacon tracks certain
activities of Facebook users on more than 40 participating Web sites,
including those of Blockbuster and Fandango, and reports those
activities to the users' set of Facebook friends, unless told not to do so.

Off-Facebook activities that can be broadcast to one's Facebook friends
include purchasing a product, signing up for a service and including an
item on a wish list.

The program has been blasted by groups such as MoveOn.org and by
individual users who have unwittingly broadcast information about recent
purchases and other Web activities to their Facebook friends. This has
led to some embarrassing situations, such as blowing the surprise of
holiday presents.

On Thursday night, Facebook tweaked Beacon to make its workings more
explicit to Facebook users and to make it easier to nix broadcast
messages and opt out of having activities tracked on specific Web sites.
Facebook didn't go all the way to providing a general opt-out option for
the entire Beacon program, as some had hoped.

Then on Friday, just hours after Facebook had scored some points with
its modifications to Beacon, Stefan Berteau, senior research engineer at
CA's Threat Research Group, wrote in a note about Beacon's until-then
unknown ability to monitor logged-off users' activities and send the
data back to Facebook.

Users aren't informed that data on their activities at these sites is
flowing back to Facebook, nor given the option to block that information
from being transmitted, according to Berteau.

If users have ever checked the option for Facebook to "remember me"--
which saves users from having to log on to the site upon every return to
it-- Facebook can tie their activities on third-party Beacon sites
directly to them, even if they're logged off and have opted out of the
broadcast. If they have never chosen this option, the information still
flows back to Facebook, although without it being tied to their Facebook
ID, according to Berteau.

Facebook's admission over the weekend contradicts previous statements
from the company regarding this issue. For example, in e-mail
correspondence with Facebook's privacy department, Berteau was told,
among other things, that "as long as you are logged out of Facebook, no
actions you have taken on other websites can be sent to Facebook."

A similar statement was made by a high-ranking Facebook official in an
interview with The New York Times published Thursday.

"If I buy tickets on Fandango, and decline to publish the purchase to my
friends on Facebook, does Facebook still receive the information about
my purchase?," a Times reporter asked Chamath Palihapitiya, Facebook's
vice president of product marketing and operations at Facebook

"Absolutely not. One of the things we are still trying to do is dispel a
lot of misinformation that is being propagated unnecessarily,"
Palihapitiya replied.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/140225

Europeans see murkier case for sanctions
By Elaine Sciolino
Published: December 4, 2007

PARIS: The Bush administration's new intelligence assessment that Iran
halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 is likely to complicate
efforts to impose new sanctions on Iran at the United Nations Security
Council, European officials said Monday.

The officials, who declined to be identified under normal diplomatic
rules, stressed that their governments were formally studying the new
assessment of Iran's nuclear intentions and capabilities by the
administration's intelligence agencies.

But they added that they were struggling to understand why the United
States chose to issue the report just two days after the six powers
involved in negotiating with Iran — the United States, Russia, China,
France, Britain and Germany — had decided to press ahead with a new
Security Council resolution.

"Officially, we will study the document carefully; unofficially, our
efforts to build up momentum for another resolution are gone," said one
European official involved in the diplomacy.

Another senior European official called the conclusions of the
assessment "unfathomable."

Russia and China have resisted the passage of more punitive sanctions,
and Vitaly Churkin, the Russian ambassador to the United Nations,
praised the report as vindication of Russia's position.

"We have always been saying there is no proof they are pursuing nuclear
weapons," Churkin told reporters. He added, however, that he did not
know what impact the report would have on the new initiative for more
sanctions.

In Vienna, the American intelligence finding was embraced by the
International Atomic Energy Agency as proof that its conclusions about
Iran's nuclear program were correct.

Mohamed ElBaradei, the director general of the Vienna-based nuclear
watchdog agency, is seeking to resolve questions about Iran's suspicious
activities in the past, but has been criticized for not pressing Iran
hard enough on curbing its current nuclear program and for conducting
diplomacy that seemed at odds with Security Council strategy.

"Despite repeated smear campaigns, the IAEA has stood its ground and
concluded time and again that since 2002 there was no evidence of an
undeclared nuclear weapons program in Iran," a senior agency official
said. "It also validates the assessment of the director general that
what the IAEA inspectors have seen in Iran represented no imminent danger."

As the report was being released in Washington, the American mission to
the International Atomic Energy Agency sent nuclear experts to the
agency to brief officials on it.

Gregory Schulte, the American envoy to the agency, telephoned ElBaradei,
who was traveling in Uruguay, and told him that the American assessment
is "close to what you've been saying," the agency official said.

Another official close to the agency said it was striking that the
American assessment stated with certainty that Iran had a nuclear
weapons program in the past, a conclusion the agency has never formally
reached.

Of the three Western European governments involved in diplomacy with
Iran — France, Britain and Germany — Germany seemed to cast the American
assessment in the most positive light. The finding "contains a number of
interesting details," a spokesman for the foreign minister, Frank-Walter
Steinmeier, said. The minister believes that the dual-track approach "to
give incentives on the one hand and impose punitive measures at the
Security Council was the right approach," the spokesman added.

The British government was more cautious. "We will discuss the report
with U.S. analysts in more detail in the coming days," said a statement
from the British Foreign Office. "But the report's conclusions justify
the action already taken by the international community to get to the
bottom of the Iran nuclear program and to increase pressure on the
regime to stop enrichment and reprocessing activities."

The French Foreign Ministry said there would be no comment until Tuesday.

In Tehran, Foreign Ministry officials reached for reaction by telephone
declined to comment, but raised the possibility that the government
would issue a response on Tuesday.

In Israel, officials said there would be no official response on Monday.

But a senior Israeli official said that "the Israeli government is
familiar with the report," and that Iran was a major topic of Prime
Minister Ehud Olmert's meeting with President George W. Bush last
Wednesday, after the Annapolis meeting.

The official, who declined to be identified because he was not
authorized to speak publicly on the subject, said Israel remained
extremely concerned. "We think there is enough information in the report
to give a strong factual basis to our very real concerns about the
Iranian nuclear program," the official said.

Steven Erlanger contributed reporting from Jerusalem, and Nazila Fathi
from Tehran.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/12/04/europe/04react.php#end_main

One-child policy cited as China youth crime soars

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's criminals are getting younger, more
innovative and more plentiful, state media said on Wednesday, citing
experts who blamed increasing Internet access and the effects of the
country's "one-child policy".

The number of juvenile criminals increased from 33,000 in 1998 to 80,000
this year, while two-thirds of the 4 million criminal cases handled
annually by Chinese courts involved minors, the China Daily said.
Advert for The Scotsman Digital Archive

"Crimes committed by youngsters have been causing a growing amount of
severe social damage," the paper quoted Liu Guiming, deputy
secretary-general of the Chinese Society of Juvenile Delinquency
Research, as saying.

"Offenders' average ages have become younger and they are committing new
types of crime and forming larger gangs. They even commit crimes without
specific motives, often without forethought," Liu said.

Liu blamed "the influence of broken families, the depletion of school
education and incomplete social management," for the rise, pointing to
the growing number of children left at home by parents working in other
cities.

China has a mobile population of about 150 million migrant workers who
travel from poor rural regions to work in China's more affluent eastern
cities, often leaving their children in the care of relatives or friends.

Liu also said "the growing number of youths infatuated with unhealthy
Web sites and campus violence" had become urgent social problems.

China's police have said the majority of juvenile crime stems from the
Internet, ranging from children stealing to finance online gaming
addictions, to complex scams involving the theft of virtual property.

Authorities had added 150 new types of crimes last year to the law
books, a rise of 22 percent, to cover new forms of online fraud and
"gang-related Internet crimes", the paper said.

China's child-bearing restrictions were also blamed for creating a
generation of single children forced to cope with the burden of family
expectations alone amidst wrenching social change.

China has enforced rules to restrict family size since the 1970s, in the
face of scarce land, water and energy resources. Rules vary but usually
limit families to one child, or two in the countryside.

"With major social transformations under way, children nowadays, who are
usually single children, endure more pressure and pain, even though they
are called 'emperors' and 'empresses' of the families, compared with
when there were several children in each family in the past," the paper
quoted Shang Xiuyun, a Beijing judge specialising in juvenile crime, as
saying.

http://news.scotsman.com/latest_international.cfm?id=1898022007

JS du Plessis

Posbus  196

Hoopstraat 91

Jacobsdal

8710

Tel 053 591 0158

082 479 3420

Risk of global food riots to surge within two years, expert says

The risks of food riots and malnutrition will surge in the next two years as the global supply of grain comes under more pressure than at any time in 50 years, one of the world's leading agricultural researchers said.

Recent pasta protests in Italy, tortilla rallies in Mexico and onion demonstrations in India are just the start of the social instability to come unless there is a fundamental shift to boost production of staple foods, Joachim von Braun, the head of the International Food Policy Research Institute, warned in an interview with the Guardian.

The growing appetite of China and other fast-developing nations has combined with the expansion of biofuel programs in the US and Europe to transform the global food situation.

After decades of expanding crop yields and falling food prices, the past year has seen a sharp rise in the cost of wheat, rice, corn, soya and dairy products.

"Demand is running away. The world has been consuming more than it produces for five years now. Stocks of grain and of rice, wheat and maize are down at levels not seen since the early 80s," said von Braun, whose organization is the world's largest alliance of agricultural researchers, economists and policy experts.

So far, crises have been averted because states have eaten into national stocks, but this could be set to change because China, in particular, has run down its supplies.

"Over the next 12 to 24 months we are in a fairly risky situation. Large consuming nations, particularly China, will feel pressed to enter international markets to bid up prices to unusual levels," von Braun warned ahead of a speech on Tuesday to the institute's annual general meeting in Beijing.

Thanks to its manufacturing prowess, China has huge foreign exchange reserves and could buy the global food crop several times over. But its consumers are already feeling the cost of food inflation. Three shoppers died last month in a stampede at a supermarket in Chongqing that was offering cheap rapeseed oil. The threat of instability has prompted Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) to make the fight against food price rises one of his government's priorities. So far it seems a losing battle.

Economic growth -- estimated at 11.5 percent in the first nine months of the year -- has made Chinese consumers wealthier, while urbanization and globalization has changed their diet. In October the government announced pork prices were up more than 50 percent, vegetables 30 percent and cooking oil 34 percent compared with the year before.

The knock-on is felt across the world. In rich nations it means a few more cents for breakfast cereal in the short term and a slightly higher cost for toys, clothes and other China-made goods. But for the world's poorest communities the rises will have a potentially devastating effect.

Bangladesh has had to ask for half a million tonnes of food aid -- a severe blow to the pride of a country that had been trying to wean itself off international assistance. Bangladeshi officials say the price of cooking oil, of which it imports 1.2 million tonnes a year, has almost tripled in the past two years because it is now valued as an alternative to diesel oil. More worryingly, their main staple of rice is hard to buy at any price because India, Vietnam and Ukraine have cut exports.

Added to this is pressure from global warming, which has been blamed for droughts that damaged crops in Australia this year.

The social tensions caused by rising food prices are already evident, von Braun said.

"The first sign was the tortilla riot in Mexico city, where 70,000 took to the streets. I think that was only the beginning -- there will be more," von Braun said. "For a year or two countries can stabilize with stocks. But the risk comes in the next 12 to 24 months. The countries that cannot afford to buy will be the losers, while those with huge foreign exchange reserves will bid up the world market."

Von Braun called on Europe to reconsider biofuel policies, provide more aid to poor nations, keep markets open and boost production.
This story has been viewed 104 times.

IBM modulator could eliminate need for copper wires

International Business Machines Corp (IBM), whose chips run such devices as Sony Corp's PlayStation 3 machine, is developing technology that uses light to let semiconductors send data hundreds of times faster.

IBM researchers have converted electrical signals into pulses of light inside a modulator that's about the width of a human hair, according to a paper published in the journal Optics Express. The modulator may eliminate the need for the tiny copper wires that transmit information between chip cores, the brains of semiconductors.

Chipmakers see these metal wires as a future bottleneck for communication between components, a problem that limits the performance gains of computers. Finding a way to have chips talk to each other using pulses of light is one way of speeding things up. It may be more than 10 years before the technology is used commercially, IBM said.

"What we're trying to do is take the capabilities of more than one thousand personal computers and put them on a single microchip," Will Green, the lead scientist on the project, said in an interview.

By speeding communication, the technology may let chipmakers put more cores onto one piece of silicon. That would make chips more powerful without using as much energy. The equivalent of a supercomputer could run on the electricity it takes to power a light bulb, IBM said.

IBM isn't alone in developing the technology.

Intel Corp and other semiconductor companies also are seeking alternatives to copper wires.

The new modulator, developed at IBM's Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York, is several hundred microns in length and at least 100 times smaller than earlier models, the company said today in a statement. A micron is one-millionth of a meter.

The use of modulators could allow for the placement of hundreds or thousands of cores on a chip, Green said. IBM's most advanced semiconductor, used in the PlayStation 3, has nine cores on a single piece of silicon.

"This kind of computer capacity can create extremely powerful laptop instruments that may be used in everything from mobile biological laboratories to video games that render virtual worlds in three dimensions for a fully immersive experience," Green said.

In other news, IBM has filed a trade complaint in the US against Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦), claiming violations of patents in certain computer products.

Asustek, the world's largest motherboard maker, was named on Wednesday in the complaint to the US International Trade Commission in Washington, according to the agency's Web site.

Asustek said it had commissioned US lawyers to deal with the issue and it would be cooperative in future investigation, according to a filing with Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday.

The company reiterated that it had not infringed on IBM's patents, the filing said.
This story has been viewed 108 times.

----- Original Message -----

From: Carel De Lange

To: PRAAG

Sent: Friday, December 07, 2007 2:28 AM

Subject: [praag] IBM modulator could eliminate need for copper wires

IBM modulator could eliminate need for copper wires

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2007/12/07/2003391532

STAFF WRITER, WITH BLOOMBERG
Friday, Dec 07, 2007, Page 11

International Business Machines Corp (IBM), whose chips run such devices as Sony Corp's PlayStation 3 machine, is developing technology that uses light to let semiconductors send data hundreds of times faster.

IBM researchers have converted electrical signals into pulses of light inside a modulator that's about the width of a human hair, according to a paper published in the journal Optics Express. The modulator may eliminate the need for the tiny copper wires that transmit information between chip cores, the brains of semiconductors.

Chipmakers see these metal wires as a future bottleneck for communication between components, a problem that limits the performance gains of computers. Finding a way to have chips talk to each other using pulses of light is one way of speeding things up. It may be more than 10 years before the technology is used commercially, IBM said.

"What we're trying to do is take the capabilities of more than one thousand personal computers and put them on a single microchip," Will Green, the lead scientist on the project, said in an interview.

By speeding communication, the technology may let chipmakers put more cores onto one piece of silicon. That would make chips more powerful without using as much energy. The equivalent of a supercomputer could run on the electricity it takes to power a light bulb, IBM said.

IBM isn't alone in developing the technology.

Intel Corp and other semiconductor companies also are seeking alternatives to copper wires.

The new modulator, developed at IBM's Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York, is several hundred microns in length and at least 100 times smaller than earlier models, the company said today in a statement. A micron is one-millionth of a meter.

The use of modulators could allow for the placement of hundreds or thousands of cores on a chip, Green said. IBM's most advanced semiconductor, used in the PlayStation 3, has nine cores on a single piece of silicon.

"This kind of computer capacity can create extremely powerful laptop instruments that may be used in everything from mobile biological laboratories to video games that render virtual worlds in three dimensions for a fully immersive experience," Green said.

In other news, IBM has filed a trade complaint in the US against Asustek Computer Inc (�碩電腦), claiming violations of patents in certain computer products.

Asustek, the world's largest motherboard maker, was named on Wednesday in the complaint to the US International Trade Commission in Washington, according to the agency's Web site.

Asustek said it had commissioned US lawyers to deal with the issue and it would be cooperative in future investigation, according to a filing with Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday.

The company reiterated that it had not infringed on IBM's patents, the filing said.